Designing some Universal Flux Rules

For a while now I've been incorporating fluxes into the games I run. They are very simple and thematic ways to run labyrinthine dungeons, unexplored caverns, and the like. Fluxes were originally thought up by Nick LS Whelan in a 2018 blog post, which was followed up in 2023 with a more concrete version in a post simply called Flux Space. Even in the 2023 post, Nick's presentation was still pretty focused for, Errant (link takes you to a store page. I am not affiliated in any way but that's how he links it on his blog). Since then it seems many OSR/NSR folks are familiar with or use fluxes, but I can't find anywhere that anyone has created a system agnostic or codified version of flux space rules outside of a few odd systems that incorporate fluxes into a part of their base procedures.

Hence why I've decided to do it myself.

I am trying to keep these rules extremely system agnostic. They currently fit the criteria for MOSAIC strict which has really helped my keep this thing from ballooning outside of what I want. Ideally this set of rules will be perfectly balanced between clear rules and open mechanics so that other creators find it helpful rather than restricting. In my mind, if it at least works for the myriad game things between Traveller and Cairn then its good enough.

The following are the current version of my Universal Flux Rules (UFR). I have grand plans to release the final version of these rules as CC-BY-4.0 along with a simultaneously released Flux Design Guide and 3–6 example fluxes. From there I intend to publish one or two fluxes each month for a few bucks each. Build up a catalogue. Put together bundles. Host a Flux Jam. Get famous. Compile a book of fluxes. Get rich. Move to the suburbs. And on and on and on.

So yeah: Here are the (currently MOSAIC strict but that could change who knows) rules.

Universal Flux Rules

What is a Flux?

A flux is a procedural tool for TTRPGs used to represent places that are vast, non-linear, and homogenous. It is best employed when the space between points of interest have mechanical importance but lack narrative substance. Fluxes fill the gap between handwaved travel montages and room-by-room dungeon crawling. The Universal Flux Rules (UFR) are system agnostic and seek to preserve the impact of player decisions, add interest to the process of navigation, and skip the tediousness of direct step-by-step travel.

Flux Procedure

While in a flux, flux turns are used to track the characters’ progress. Flux turns should be tracked as 4-6 hour increments of time which include all actions, encounters, and explorations during. Flux turns can be used as a standard unit for tracking resources such as light and for measuring ongoing effects. 

Each flux turn includes the following three steps:

Declare Action   →   Resolve Event Die   →   Discover Location

There are four basic actions that players can declare at the start of a flux turn: Chart, Seek, Make Camp, and Peregrinate. The action the players choose determines the characters’ goal for that turn. Once an action has been declared, one player should roll the d6 event die. Events can be encounters with NPCs or monsters, environmental hazards, random incidents, and more. Events happen “along the way” to the discovered location. The final part of each flux turn is the discovery of a location. Locations are broken up into randomly selected shallow locations and ordered deep locations.

Actions

Chart

Charting is the primary action characters will use to navigate a flux. The Chart action represents the party travelling through the flux and carefully tracking their movement. Charting in some fluxes might require a specific resource be expended for each flux turn, such as expending chalk in a maze flux or rope in a flux with extreme elevation changes.

When the Chart action is taken, the characters discover a random new location this turn.

Seek

The Seek action is similar to the Chart action, but is used when seeking a specific location known to exist in the flux. The characters can only use the Seek action if they have a specific tool or advantage—such as a map or a guide—which would direct them to the desired location. Maps which provide unmistakable direction to a location defeat the purpose of the flux procedure and should not be made available.

When the location roll is made, roll one (or more, depending on the quality of the information) additional dice. If any show the desired result, the characters find their intended destination. Otherwise use the first dice result.

Make Camp

The Make Camp action is used when the players want to spend a flux turn allowing the characters to rest. The Resolve Event Die step still happens, but results that do not make sense in the fiction may be treated as a Quiet result instead. If no character is keeping watch, treat Omen results as Encounter results.

When the characters Make Camp, there is no Discover Location step for this flux turn.

Peregrinate

The Peregrinate action allows characters to return to any previously visited location, including the flux entrance, in a single flux turn. This is made possible by the characters’ careful charting in previous turns.

Events

Event tables are always d6 tables. They have five possible unique results, Encounter, Omen, Hazard, Incident, and Quiet. The sixth result is called the Focus. The Focus result is used as a repeat of one of the other options, depending on what potential challenge is most prevalent in a particular flux. In a peaceful forest, the Focus might trigger a Quiet result, while on a volcanic cavern the Focus might mean a Hazard. The Focus result is always result number 6, (rather than expanding the indicated event type and shifting successive results down), in order to ensure all fluxes share the same uniform table.

D6	Event Table
1	Encounter
2	Omen
3	Hazard
4	Incident
5	Quiet
6	Focus

Encounter

Encounters are events where the party comes in contact with other characters or with monsters. When the event is an encounter, roll on the encounter table for the flux.

The encounter table is a always d6 table, unless Encounter or Omen events are the Focus of the dungeon. In that case, the encounter table is a d8.

Omens

Omens represent signs of or clues about Encounters nearby. When the event is an omen, roll on the encounter table to determine what Encounter the Omen is about. The next time an Encounter or Omen result is rolled on the event die, do not roll on the encounter table; the characters encounter the subject of this Omen instead.

Hazard

Hazards are environmental challenges the characters face while traversing the flux. Things such as poison mold, fires, cave-ins, traps, chasms, and sudden temperature drops are all examples of potential Hazards.

The hazard table is always a d4 table, unless the Hazard result is the Focus of the dungeon. In that case, the hazard table is a d6.

Incident

Incidents, roughly speaking, are any events which do not fit in the previous categories and which might require problem solving or change the party’s situation. Example Incidents include an item being lost or broken, a meaningful change in the environment, or getting lost and needing to rediscover a previous location before Peregrination is possible.

The incident table is always a d4 table, unless the Incident result is the Focus of the dungeon. In that case, the incident table is a d6. 

Quiet

A Quiet event result means that no new challenge presents itself during the flux turn. These results can be used as opportunities for roleplaying character activities and conversations.

Locations

The third and final step in each flux turn is the Discover Location step. For this step, roll on the shallow location table. If this is the first time that result has occurred, that is the location found by the party at the end of this action. If the result has already been encountered, they find a deep location instead. Rather than being rolled for, deep locations happen in a specific sequential order. This structure means that the party won’t reach the deep locations without experiencing one or more shallow locations. Additionally, the predetermined order of deep locations means they can be used to create an environmental or narrative progression.

Shallow Locations

Shallow locations are specific spots in a flux that present unique challenges or add specific interest to a flux. Shallow locations are typically a single defined room or zone. They often center on an encounter, hazard, puzzle, trap, or a combination of these. 

The shallow location table is typically a d6 table, but the size of the shallow location table can be increased or decreased for fluxes that represent especially large or small places. 

Deep Locations

Deep locations are places within a flux that are central to its theme and possibly its story. Deep locations can be singular rooms like shallow locations, but can also be multiple connected rooms or even entire keyed dungeons. Deep locations can also be entranced into other connected flux spaces, such as a deep location in a haunted mine connecting to a dark caverns flux.

Fluxes typically use exactly three deep locations, with the final location being the “central” point of interest within the space.

Brief thoughts on the power of Daggerheart's hope & fear dice system.

Me: You have successfully snuck into the cellar said to house a passage into a labyrinth; unfortunately you can clearly see where a part of the wall has recently been bricked up. Presumably by the grouchy fellow who seemed so adamant about keeping delvers out of his cellar.

Guardian: Can I break through with my sword? I don't want to try my Tonal Mace and wake the owner up again.

Me: I don't think so. Swords don't make very good demolition tools.

Druid: I'll shift into bull form and try to knock the wall down. (Rolls a failure, but with hope)

Me: On a failure you're not able to knock down the wall, but since its a roll with hope I'd say you hit it so slow that you didn't hit it hard enough for it to shake the people upstairs awake. I think maybe the cellar is just too cramped for a bull to get enough momentum.

Wizard: I want to cast a portal, with the entrance being at the brick wall, and the exit being the wall opposite. Can she try again, this time getting double the runway?

Me: Definitely, that's genius. I think advantage is in order given the change in situation.

Druid: (rolls a success with fear)

Me: Nice! Your horns poke two holes right through the wall and your head blasts it open betweeen them. With fear though, you immediately hear shouting from the room above. You get the sense you'll have to find a different exit out the dungeon unless you intend to treat with the city guard. He isn't going to forgive or forget this time.

I've been running a lot of Daggerheart, mostly a weekly Ptolus game which is about 25 sessions in and still at level 2. I've decided I love Daggerheart. I'd planned not to. I am not much of a Critical Roll fan and honestly haven't found the Daggerheart community particularly inviting.

But this game is good. 

There are better places online where you can find reviews, but I want to share this scenario because I think it highlights how strong the hope vs fear dice mechanic is. It is really empowering. It gives the GM and players permission to interact with the narrative and add good or bad things without feeling like a schmuck who doesn't go hard enough or feeling like a jerk who just can't let the players get a win. Its perfect. Having every roll happen with Hope—something lucky—or Fear—something unlucky—bakes in a natural, fair system for the random stuff that can often feel a little too convenient or a little too obnoxious in other systems. If it had been just a success on the second attempt, not a success with fear, I would have still described the neighbor waking up. Its sort of obvious that was gonna happen. But a roll with fear means some additional unlucky thing happens. Its that extra part that writes "unexpected" outcomes into the social contract between a GM and their players.

Even beyond the "permission" this mechanic gives (yes I know I don't literally need permission blah blah blah), this system also prompts me to add to the story beyond what was already stated. The and part of "yes and" is in the mechanics. I would not have thought to describe the failure with hope as being quiet enough not to wake the homeowner if it had just been a plain failure.

Needless to say, I am really enjoying this game. Again, no need for me to cover everything, but I wanted to share this and now I have.

Opera has been released!

I've released Opera, my rules-lite hard science TTRPG based on the Cairn foundation.

You can find it as a free download on Itch at https://troy-r.itch.io/opera or as a print book on Lulu.

I am pretty proud of myself. Ultimately, I decided to create this book because I really liked playing Monolith, but wanted a version that didn't include magic and psionics and other fantasy elements. Traveller sounds fun, and I like the worldbuilding, but I just could see myself or my group getting invested in that heavy of a ruleset. Thus, Opera has been created to fill the gap.

It's based on the rules in Cairn and Monolith, but I had a few of my own genius ideas.

1. Life path chargen for an Odd-like. I'm sure its been done before, but I haven't seen it. This system takes a bit of time at the table (I added a quick character creation page for those not running campaigns) but my players always seem to enjoy it just as much as the game itself.
2. Streamlined starship combat. Opera starship combat is simpler and more streamlined than Monolith. Space battles are represented in a line rather than grid or hex map. I also tried to make sure that even starship combat stays focused on the characters themselves. Characters make all the saves and every department has interesting and strategic choices to make.
3. Hacking. I include some straightforward but powerful hacking rules. My intention is that the "EXEs" are narrow enough but clear enough that players can use them easily without creating a huge burden on the GM to make fair calls or prep like crazy.

I'd appreciate any and all feedback either here or on the Itch page. I have half an adventure written for it, but right now I am more interested in Reckoning, my WIP wild west (hexcrawl?) game.

Space Rock, Starships, and 1D Starship Combat

An illustration for the upcoming Hack by the talented Attila Nagy.

My last post mentioned that I was working on a lifepath character creation method for Monolith. . .

Things have gotten out of hand. 

I started off with just a more hard science life-path chargen for Monolith but quickly realized I was so heavily modifying that system that I might as well make my own hack. As a publishing designer by day, getting the whole thing into InDesign isn't such as huge hassle for me. I've hired an artist for a handful of illustrations and am nearly done with the first version. Just lots of play examples left.

I've decided to call the hack Space Rock, as a cheeky allusion to the fact that this is simply a less fantastic version of Monolith and Meteor—both Cairn hacks named after rocks (with Cairn also being a stack of rocks—there's a lot of mileage in this rock name thing.) I've certainly not reinvented the wheel or anything. If you want psionics and space magic in your game—please please please check out and use Adam Hensley's Monolith. There is nothing wrong with it. I am simply throwing this hack up for those who want a more grounded sci-fi experience.

When I release the PDF on Itch.io (probably 2–3 months from now) I will also have it up on Lulu for sale at cost. The PDF will be pay-what-you-want and the whole system will have a CC-BY-SA license.

All that said, I do want to share my starship combat system. This is probably the most drastic rules departure Space Rock includes, and I feel it makes the ship combat simpler as it is all played in a single band (like chases in SWADE) rather than the hex grid Monolith utilizes.

Let me know what you think of this. I am going to include an example of play in the pdf along with turn by turn battlespace illustrations to help explain this. I've run it a few times and it seems to work well.

Starships

• Hull (HUL). A starship’s structural integrity.
• Engines (ENG). A starship’s engines and power.
• Systems (SYS). A starship’s computer systems.

All starships start with a 10 in each score. Certain modules can increase these scores.

Saves

If a starship must make a HUL, SYS, or ENG save roll 1d20. If the result is equal to or lower than the ship’s current score, it succeeds.

Holds

Holds represent the amount of space a starship has. Each fuel rod (used for by jump drives), each trade good, and each module occupies one hold. Modules that are listed as bulky take up two holds.

Default Elements

All starships have a cockpit and engine room (fighters simply have an engine). These do not occupy holds.

Modules

Modules are upgrades to a ship. They can increase scores, add armor, add weapons, or perform other functions. Effects of modules can stack.

Movement & Inertia

A ship’s movement score represents its travel speed. In combat, it describes the number of bands forward a ship can move in a single turn (see Ship Combat). Inertia represents how much movement is required to turn the ship 180º.

Crew Requirements

The Starship Size table lists the minimum number of crew required to man a starship as well as its maximum occupancy. A ship suffers critical damage each day it is manned with fewer than the minimum required crew. The GM is free to determine how few is too few to crew a ship.

Crew Mates

Additional competent crew mates can be hired for 50c per week. Treat all of their stats as 10, if needed. 

Ship Size

Ship size is determined by its number of holds. Use the chart below to determine the stats of different ship sizes.

Battlespaces

Space Rock uses a one-dimensional representation of space for starship combat. Rather than being played on a hex or grid map, starship combat is represented in a linear battlespace made up of spaces, called bands. Most battlespaces might start out as being only 8 bands wide, but more bands can be added as starships move farther from the origin of the battle.

Any number of ships can occupy the same band, and starships can travel through bands occupied by other ships or structures. However, some bands contain hazards of varying effect.

Rounds & Departments

Like ground combat, starship combat is played in rounds broken into a crew turn and an enemy turn. Rounds in starship combat last roughly 1 narrative minute.

All ships have five departments: piloting, engineering, systems, weapons, and command. All departments get to perform a department action on their side’s turn provided that at least one character is operating that department. Characters can only operate one department at a time. Department actions can happen in any order and all take place simultaneously on that turn.

It takes 1 round for a character to switch departments, unless they are in a fighter.

Start of Combat

At the start of a combat, the crew’s pilot makes a DEX save on behalf of themselves and their crew. If they succeed, their ship and all its departments get to act in the first round.

Attack Modifiers

Size

Attacks against ships two sizes larger than the attacking ship are impaired, and attacks versus ships three or more sizes larger are typically ignored.

Attacks against ships two sizes smaller than the attacking ship are enhanced, and attacks versus ships three or more sizes smaller ignore shields and always cause critical damage.

Facing

All ships in the battlespace should face either left or right. Weapons can shoot in either direction regardless of the direction the ship faces. 

Attacks shooting a ship from behind go up one dice size, up to d12. This is called a facing bonus. This bonus does not supersede an effect which impairs an attack.

Piloting Action

The pilot can move a number of spaces equal to the ship’s movement and perform a maneuver. Flipping a ship to face the other direction costs movement equal to your ship’s inertia. Flipping a ship does not cause it to change bands.

Some maneuvers cost movement. If the pilot has access to a weapon or other module, such as a Flak Cannon, activating it counts as a maneuver.

Boost. Double your movement this round, all your ship’s  weapon actions this round are impaired.

Evade. Spend half your movement (round down) to perform tricky moves and rolls. Make a DEX save. On success, impair all damage taken this round.

Ramming. Collide with a ship in the same band. This ends your movement immediately. Both ships take 1d8 hull damage (roll damage separately for each ship). If the ships are more than one size class apart, the damage to the larger ship is impaired and the damage to the smaller ship is enhanced.

Jump. Engage the jump drive to immediately initiate beyond lightspeed travel to another system. This action requires the system’s department to take the astrogation action this turn.

This action cannot be taken if any hazard or non-fleet ship occupies this band or any band forward of your starship.

Engineering Action

The ship’s engineer can use their action to boost other departments. Engineering actions cost energy from the ship’s energy reserves. If the ship has no remaining energy reserves, this action will reduce the ENG score by 1 and the ship must then make an ENG Save vs critical damage. Failure causes the engines to fail, and no further engineering actions can be made until they are repaired. Repairs take 1D6 hours for each point.

Boost Piloting Station. Pilot may take a second action.

Boost Shields. Restore 1D4 shields.

Boost Weapons. One weapon module rolls twice, taking better result.

Boost Systems. Activate one extra system modules in one turn without needing to make a WIL Save.

Systems Action

Systems are operated by one character at a time. Each action per turn beyond the first requires a WIL save or no systems are activated and operator takes a fatigue.

Astrogation. Plot an emergency jump to another system. The jump must be made by the pilot this round. If this ship is part of a fleet, all ship pilots in the fleet can also jump.

Module. Activate one systems module. No module can be activated more than once per round.

Weapons Action

A character operating the ship’s weapons may choose a weapon module to operate and make an attack each turn.

Attacks deal damage to a target’s shields (SHI), then HUL, unless otherwise specified. This works similarly to the way character damage hits HP before STR.

Targeted Attacks

Unless the attack would already be impaired, a character may choose to impair their next attack in order to target a specific module on the target ship. If the enemy ship takes critical damage, the targeted module is damaged.

Switching Weapons

Switching to a different weapon takes one turn. A character may attempt to change weapons and attack in the same turn by making a DEX Save. Failure results in losing 1d2 turns.

Multiple Weapons

Multiple PCs can operate different weapons if your ship has more than one. When multiple weapons are being used to attack the same target, only apply the highest result. This does not apply to multiple weapons against the same target made from different ships.

Command Action

Encourage another department for 1 fatigue. This allows one individual to attempt any single roll a second time and keep the result if it’s better.

Fleets

When multiple starships are allied with each other, they form a fleet. Ships in a fleet operate independently on the same turn. Fleets share a single command department action which can be used to benefit any fleet ship. Ships in the same fleet also share the benefits of any astrogation action.

Critical Damage

When a starship takes damage to its HUL, ENG, or SYS, the ship needs to make the related save vs critical damage. On failure, a random module is damaged. If the module was already damaged, it is destroyed.

Starship Score Loss

If a ship’s HUL is reduced to 0, it is destroyed. Vac-suits and escape pods on the ship may prevent anyone onboard from dying in space.

If a ship’s ENG is reduced to 0, it is junked. Engines are totally destroyed. The ship will require replacement.

If a ship’s SYS are reduced to 0, it is fried. All modules are inoperable. The ship’s entire systems must be replaced, (typically half-the cost of the ship itself.)

Repairing Damage

PCs may attempt to repair damage to Starship Scores. During combat, one attempt per Score may be made each round. If PCs have the appropriate tools (hull, engine, or systems repair kit) and skill/training, they will repair 1D4 damage each round. If a PC only has tools or skill, but not both, they must pass a WIL Save to figure it out.

If multiple players attempt the same repair, only the highest result applies.

Hazards

Asteroids, debris, clouds, large structures, planets, and black holes represent hazards in a space battle. 

Asteroid & debris fields

Asteroid and other debris fields can provide cover in a dogfight, but flying through them is risky. They can span multiple bands and are rated as level 1, 2, or 3 based on their density. A ship inside or beyond an asteroid or debris field benefits from additional armor equal to the level of the field, but can never benefit from more than 3 total armor.

Each time a ship enters or starts its turn in a debris field the pilot must succeed on an Evade action or the ship takes HUL damage equal to the level of the asteroid or debris field.

Dust clouds

Attacks against ships in or behind a dust cloud are treated as impaired, as well as attacks originating from within a dust cloud. If more than one ship are in a dust cloud at the end of the crew turn, roll 1d6. On a 1, the ships collide inside the cloud. See ramming.

Large structures

Large and giant spacecraft, enormous satellites, and spaceports can represent hazards in a space battle. Moving safely into a band occupied by a large structure requires an amount of movement equal to your ship’s inertia, otherwise you collide. See ramming.

Planets

Planets represent impassable obstacles at one end of a battlespace. Ships cannot move into or beyond a band occupied by a planet. If the planet has an atmosphere, the space adjacent to the planet requires a ship’s entire movement to enter safely, otherwise the pilot must make a successful DEX save to avoid the ship taking critical damage.

Black hole

Black holes can be a terrifying opponent in their own right. At the end of each round, the black hole will pull all ships towards itself a number of bands equal to each ship’s inertia. If a ship starts its turn in the same band as a black hole, the pilot must use their action to make a STR save to boost away from the black hole. If they fail the ship and all crew are immediately destroyed. 

Project Antlion | One-shot for Monolith

I just ran this one-shot in the Monolith system (free on itch.io). It is a sci-fi hack for cairn and is such a pleasure to play. New and old players alike can pick in up in a few moments without needing to read through any rules.

I used my own hack for the character creation to give it a more hard science vibe (since I set my one-shot in the Traveller universe, but the default one would work just as well.

I am currently working on a more Traveller style life-path chargen system to use in an upcoming Monolith campaign, borrowing the party debt concept from Electric Bastionland. I will be sure to post it here once its reasonably presentable.

Hook

Andresis Clark, of Kelex Technologies,  has contacted the party to undertake a search and destroy mission for them. Kelex Technology is a shell company (of a shell company of a shell company) owned by Cannis Weapons Lab, a manufacturer of pseudobiological, expert, and war robots.
Andresis hires the party to infiltrate a company blacksite, Observation Lab 119B and destroy any research materials and data on the research that was being done there. He claims that Kelex Tech bought another company, not knowing that they owned this illegal blacksite, and were planning on shutting it down discreetly until the site went dark 7 days ago. Andresis maintains that Kelex Technologies has no clue what research the lab was undertaking—only that the code name was Project Antlion.
Andresis gives them a keycard to gain entry into the lab and pays them half of the agreed upon 6,500 credits up front. He says he can send the other half remotely—just to send him confirmation that the job is done as soon as they leave orbit.

Elidos-119B

The lab is located on Elidos-119B, a moon orbiting a gas dwarf in the Yorbund system of the Regina Subsector—part of the spinward marches.

It has slightly reduced gravity and a toxic atmosphere. Outdoors require a vac-suit.

The Approach

The party will see a glistening white shuttle crash-site a few miles south of the lab. It was shot down by the AA emplacement programmed to ensure nothing escapes the blacksite during a red alert. If they investigate the crash site, they find two bodies. They have a few encrypted data files (research). The black box will inform the party that their own lab shot them down. They cursed Kellex Technologies as they died. 

As the party gets closer to the lab, they will see the radio gun spin towards them and start to fire blue pulses of light. The AA emplacement (4 SHI) deals 1d6 damage to SHI and then SYS.

Gaining Entry

The only portion of the lab not underground is a bunker-like entrance and a retractable shuttle awning. There is no ship here currently. The key that Andresis gave them does not work due to the external power being knocked out. If power were rerouted, the key would work. They might also gain entry through brute force. Behind the bunker door is an airlock.

The Antlion

The “Antlion” is a psionic beast captured and studied by Cannis Weapons Labs for possible pseudobiologic robot applications. It has precognitive senses and its mind emits a telepathic data noise field—which makes it functionally  invisible to robot targeting software. It has no psionic “weapons,” but does have claws.

It escaped its restraints while in the testing lab, killed two researchers, and sent the lab into lockdown.

---

HP-8, STR-16, DEX-12, WIL-10

Claws (d6 + d6, rolling 6 destroys vac-suits)

Intelligence: as monkey.

Precognition: Players announce their turns, but antlion takes its turn before their actions happen. Foresees and avoids highest three damage rolls per round when attacked. Can be fooled through misdirection (WIL save).

Noise Field: invisible to computer vision.

---

Observation Lab 119B

This underground lab is decorated in a utilitarian manner, with unpleasant yellow walls. It has the stench of a pet store.

No lights except for spinning yellow warning lights above all doorways. Doors are unlocked.

1. Airlock. Standard airlock. There are manual door locks for both doors inside.

2. Break Room. Couches and a small kitchen. Partially torched. Door to storage is barricaded, this side.

3. Gym. Small gym with weights, a few machines. Partially torched.

4. Hall. There is a blood trail from the observation room to the med bay.

5. Med Bay. Body of a researcher. Guts torn up (was shot by a drone) and stitched together. Autonomous med bot stitched them up post-mortem. It didn’t clean up the mess. Lab coat has a Kelex Technologies logo on it.

6. Security Room. Cameras for airlock, break room, gym, hall, observation room, and storage.
   Robots can be shut down from here.

7. Observation Room. Window into the containment chamber.

8. Research Lab. Tables, computer library, lab mice, encrypted data books (the research). There is a fridge with 6 frozen antlion eggs. There is an emergency decontamination switch for the testing lab and antlion containment chamber. (torches everything in those rooms, killing anything in there.)

9. Testing Lab. No random encounters. Two bodies, torn apart and mostly eaten. Broken restraints.

10. Antlion Containment Chamber. No random encounter. Empty yellow room with a water dish.

11. Storage. Cluttered with boxes of rations, extra research materials, leftover construction materials, a forklift. Boxes have the Cannis Weapons Lab logo on them.
    3/6 chance antlion is here if the party unbarricades the door from the break room. Else, antlion is here. It lurks, deciding if it should fight or flee.

12. Quarters. Three rooms. Two have double bunks, but each is only home to a single researcher. A researcher's personal journal can be found here, revealing that “the subject” has precognitive and localized data field psionic abilities.

D4	Random Encounters
1	Security drone (3 HP 2 armor) attempts to torch intruders with a futile ignition sound, but the flamethrower has no gas remaining. If they get near it it will attack with its arms (d6).
2	Two security drones (3 HP, 2 armor) attack the party. One has a machine gun (d6) and the other a flamethrower (d6 blast). Bots are of CWL design, but unbranded.
3	The antlion is startled, and attempts to flee—attacking if its escape is blocked.
4	The antlion pounces offensively. It targets whoever lags behind.

Leaving Orbit

As the party leaves the moon and notifies Andresis that the job is done, their radar will identify two small ships closing on them. These are mercenary fighters hired by Cannis Weapons Lab to eliminate the party. Morale rolls should be made when each ship’s shield is broken and when the first ship is destroyed.

---

Merc Fighter

SHI-4, HUL-10, ENG-10 (reserve 2), SYS-12

MOVE-5, MOB-3, Armor-1

Ship 1: Flak Cannon (d4, front facing only)

Ship 2: Auto gun (d6), Auto smart shield (Activate once to impair next attack)

---

 

Shortcut Powers and Why They Suck

[DISCLAIMER!!! I THINK RPGS SHOULD FOCUS MORE ON ROLEPLAYING THAN CHARACTER SHEETS. IF YOU DISAGREE THIS POST IS NONSENSE. INFER ABOUT ME WHAT YOU WISH.]

Knock, Remove Curse, Water Walk, Mind Link, Mending. These are abilities I hate as a GM. These are character abilities which skip fun game elements for too little cost. I call them shortcut powers—abilities that characters 1) attain easily and 2) which bypass challenges without creative effort. 

I have restricted these and a few other minor powers from the setting I am currently fleshing out for my players. It's not because I hate my players or want things to be "realistic" or "difficult" or any other cursed rpg topics. Its because they are only useful to skip challenges that the GM thought would be interesting. Nobody is using Knock to open the simple lock on the wooden door, they are using it to skip a puzzle or open a vault. This is not the players' faults. They should be solving problems in the simplest and most effective manner.

Sometimes, the shortcut is so powerful, that GMs create a somewhat arbitrary reason the power doesn't even work. I've done it before. This is lame. 

In my current long running 5e game, there was one extended plot-line revolving around a princess with a wasting disease. It was super sucky that the one time the paladin encounters a character with a disease, his Lay on Hands feature just didn't work. Sure, I explain that this is a powerful magic disease afflicting her, but then when they attempt the Remove Curse spell, that is not effective either. I'm in a hard spot, either the party can spend some low level, infinity renewable resources like spell slots to resolve a major plot-line immediately or I can overrule their character sheets to preserve the challenge of the story. I can give a dozen examples of how various shortcut powers create this problem. 

None of this is an issue so long as you make these abilities are either not easily attainable—such as not being gained automatically through reaching level 3—or if using the ability presents a challenge or decision of its own.

Resource expenditure ≠ Fun

One argument against my position is that so long as they are expending resources it is okay. 

UMMMM, NO??? 

I see it all the time. 5e games especially, create this feeling because it the system is balanced around an adventuring day where characters are expected to have 101 encounters before they reach a big final battle in the evening. In 5e, a 10th level cleric and 10th level wizard have 30+ daily spell slots between them. A level 2 Water Walk spell to cross the underdark's ice-cold Lake of Shadows is essentially free. 

In my extremely humble and non-dogmatic opinion, this puts WAY too much responsibility on the GM to create challenges that are solved through player skill rather than character sheets. I personally believe that 60% of the "high level D&D is broken" and "casters outstrip martials" arguments are due to these simple shortcut powers completely skipping the challenges which martial characters would normally excel at.

When to use shortcut powers

Use them when they make the game more fun. Its that easy. If you don't intend to worry about how many rations the party has on hand, don't ban Create Food and Water. If you are running a witch-hunting game, probably ban or modify low level powers which would unilaterally remove curses. 

How to make shortcut powers interesting

Remember my definition for shortcut powers are powers that 1) characters attain easily and 2) which bypass challenges without creative effort. There are tons of ways to remove the shortcut aspect of these powers.

Make them limited use, or give them a drawback. Incorporate into the power a decision point. 

Is this stone door really worth one of two uses of the Knocking magic item? Or should they give the rogue time to work on it while they defend against the few crumby wolves.

Is it worth using Remove Curse if the failing the spell's casting check would make the curse much worse? 

I get when people are hesitant to ban or restrict powers from the agreed upon system. But ultimately, the goal of playing ttrpgs is to have fun. If your group likes resource management, restrict shortcut powers which nullify that aspect of the game. If you as the GM want getting to and from the island to be party of the environmental challenge, consider restricting Water Walking powers. 

I know when I was a new GM, I felt a lot of pressure not to restrict anything that appeared in the system's 1 million pages of content, but I think that first campaign could have been more interesting if I had removed just a few of the shortcut powers I've listed here.

Yell at me in the comments. (I've yet to receive a comment on my fresh, hip blog and I can see from the analytics 85% of my views are bot crawlers lol.)

Deep Country: The Avian Mountain Jungle and Rowley Manor

Ten good words: barking, snatch, howl, bare, dodge, shout, grip, melee, echo, skitter.

I’d never played Electric Bastionland before and prepped this region for a weekend game, however, I am on a trip for work at the moment and ended up running this for some colleagues. I had five players; none had any experience whatsoever with TTRPGs… and it went GREAT. I loved that the rules were so simple for them to understand without previous familiarity with typical explanations of dice or saves or skills or attacks. I think this region specifically lent itself well to new players as a more traditional jungle is more approachable than the more absurd feeling of Bastion-proper. All in all it was a resounding success and I am excited to run more things in the future.

The Region

The Avian Mountain Jungle is a portion of forest connected (distantly) to Bastion by the 100 Rail (technically it is connected to the Graybow rail, connected to the Fish rail, which has a station in Bastion.)

The eruption of a volcano of roiling underground lakes has led to the sudden introduction of a steaming river—which separated the southern majority of the Avian Mountain Jungle from the rail.

Rowley Manor

Rowley Manor was constructed only about a decade ago by the Rowley family as a retreat from Bastion. It is built on the jungle cliffs above the raucous nests of a thousand paradise birds. 

By time its construction was completed, the Rowleys had lost interest. (The Rowleys are extremely wealthy avian cybernetics insurers) The jungle claimed it quickly. No member of the family has ever even seen the manor. . . but rumor has it they did have it stocked with niceties to be enjoyed for their forsaken vacations.

Many of the rooms have windows, and even the second floor windows are relatively easy access via the wide roof, but you should make a random encounter check per each window examined from the outside.

1. Foyer. Vines and hole in wall near ceiling.
2. Bird Hall. All cages are empty, many smashed. A few cybernetics-enhanced birds remain in the hall, on elevated vines. Balcony (9) above is visibly covered with sleeping baboons. The remaining birds could wake the baboons if antagonized.
3. Dry Conservatory. Yucca and cacti. Cold metal atmosphere. Mummy rehydrator (he will come back to life in about another 200 years, once his soul is rehydrated. This could be sped up dramatically through submersion, but it will get all ugly.)
4. Kitchen/Laboratory. Destroyed. Hidden dumbwaiter to Alcohol Room (12). 
5. Wet (flooded) Conservatory. Treasure. Giant shed snake skin. 50% chance the giant snake is here.
6. Sketch Library. "x-ray" sketches of mountains with giant crab monsters in them. Vines in here will reactively entangle creatures which touch them.
7. Fermentation Collection. There are two colonies of mundane ants at war over the valuable resources in this room. They will ineffectively attack characters who disturb the fermented items here. Some fermenting jars might be useful as poisons, as nasty remedies, or for pranks.
8. Courtyard. Covered walkway. Turtle ponds. Bucket of water and turtle egg-shells. No baby turtles.
9. Balcony. Covered in sleeping baboons. If waked, they will be violent unless shouted down.
10. Bedroom. Baboons have barricaded the door from the outside. Inside is a skeleton parrot animated solely by its cybernetics.
11. Alcohol room. Two drunk baboons. Obvious dumbwaiter to Kitchen/Laboratory.
12. The bee room. Previously a study. The honey causes mild allergic reactions.
13. Phonograph room. Lots of chairs for an audience. Shattered glass dome; large curved shards of rose-colored glass covers the floor. The phonograph is extremely valuable, but weighs 600 lbs. The 8 giant records are each worth 10% of the phonograph's value, but are 8' across.
14. The baboon matriarch uses this room to nurse all the baby baboons (she has taken over motherhood for the other females.)

D6 Wandering Encounters

1. A cute infant baboon will want to be picked up and carried. Its mother, in the next room, will be irate if the party enters carrying her son.
2. A young baboon distracts the party while his sister tries to steal something from them. If successful it disappears our the window to the other floor.
3. The rotting wooden floor below gives way, dropping a character onto the floor below or underneath the manor.
4. The rotting wooden floor above gives way, dropping two angry baboons onto the party's heads. The baboons are just as angry with each other as with the party, and choose targets randomly.
5. Three baboons try to intimidate the party. They each fight until injured unless the party leaves the room the way they came.
6. Giant snake swallowing a sleeping or unconscious baboon. Can regurgitate the ape with crazy power to launch it like a projectile.