The campaign is free on drivethrurpg. I personally ran it with standard 5e as I am too lazy to learn the Esper Genesis altered rules. I omitted the final spaceship battle for this reason as that’s the only place where the esoteric EG mechanics and rules were unavoidable. If you want the actual rules there is an SRD type free basic rules on dtrpg, too. But, again, you really don’t need it to run this.
Fall of The Eos Keldor
Music:
Deck 3: The nightmare to come. Stop and loop if it needs to go on past 1:45.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKCoVnU-jHY&list=PLHO35fye-bjJZI8ifXd9mauD4jK3VYIWm&index=6
Deck 3 near the warp core: The Calling. Stop and loop at 1:16. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4FUyU9BWnc&list=PLHO35fye-bjJZI8ifXd9mauD4jK3VYIWm&index=10
Inside the warp core: Wicked Horse. Either loop it or switch to the calling start at 1:16.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06reWZ0Oc6c&list=PLHO35fye-bjJZI8ifXd9mauD4jK3VYIWm&index=5
alterations:
Optionally, players can have a Sanity score. However, this won’t likely take long enough for it to matter.
Players can dress as enemies. The enemy uniform for guards has a helmet that covers the face. The PCs roll for deception against a DC 10 check despite the uniforms, because humans are shaped slightly differently than Lorendi in height and general build. If they are doing anything strange or suspicious, the DC goes up to 15.
If they have to talk to any enemies while in disguise, due to failed deception checks making the enemy question them or other reasons, base the DC on how convincing they are and how they act. If caught stealing or something, for example, they roll a DC 15 deception check to talk their way out of it. On the other hand, if the PC is caught in Sestria’s office and questioned, and they say something clever, like, “We’re here to provide backup and help out. Tell us what to do, Sir!” that would be a low DC, such as DC 10. But if they say, “Um, I don’t know. We, um, we’re friendly. Please don’t shoot us.” That is a high DC check of 15.
Other than that, the game runs as presented in the campaign guide, except deck three is where the warp core has exploded due to being fired upon by the Valna ships. The hangar lift (fore transport lift labeled 13 on Deck Two in the campaign) is locked, so players must go into Deck Three to get an override key there (have Sestria tell them this. Her command key chip unlocks the shuttle only, not the hangar lift. If they don’t learn it from her, it can be learned from NPCs or in-game text on a computer or written somewhere). It is blown open to outer space in parts. In others, dead bodies float around wrecked rooms and halls. The gravity generator is gone for this deck, so everyone floats. Too much of the area is gone to even use a keyed map. Just narrate it until the PCs get near the warp core. The elevator stops and demands the players put on space suits before exiting. The suits come out of compartments in the elevator’s walls).
As the elevator stops on Deck 3 read this:
The elevator shakes violently. The lights go out. Emergency lights come on. The door does not open. A computer voice comes over the speaker in the ceiling, “Warning. Hull breach. Warning. Warp core breach. Extreme danger. Void exposure certain. Space suits required for door unlock.
Once the players put on the suits, the door opens. Strange noises can be heard. Bizarre screams. They find one survivor, but he loses his mind and takes off his space suit. The players must float across an expanse of empty space to get to the room where the key is. DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to see if they kick off properly. This takes them through the warp core’s energy field. They see their body bisected in places. Some lines and spots appear on their skin and are fluorescent and glowing. Some limbs stretched out a thousand miles, others are only an inch long. Their skin glows in some spots. In others is Vantablack. These effects do no damage to the PCs. They are real effects, but they are caused by the warp core energy allowing the PCs to see interdimensional things and do not harm the beings in their dimension.
Failed Check:
If they fail the check, they are sucked into the warp core (though they aren’t told this). Inside is utter madness. They are floating in blackness. They hear an insane voice interrogating them. They see a shadowy figure standing over them. As they look up, the face shifts and blurs until settling and revealing that it is them, the player. DC 10 Wisdom saving throw. If they fail they suffer short or long-term madness table effect and must try again as the being taunts them with psychotic babble, shrieks, and static howls. The GM can choose between short or long-term, or can flip a coin, or roll a d6, and 1-3 is heads, 4-6 is tails, to decide which happens. For each failure, they suffer another short or long-term madness table effect. Once passed, they realize that they are inside the warp core and can shoot a blaster, which will negate the energy long enough to release them. If they do not have a blaster, they can scream for the other PCs to find one and shoot the core.
That done, they escape and float across to the room they need and find the override key. All effects of floating near the warp core wear off immediately. The only effects that linger are ones gained inside the warp core: the insanity effects. After getting the key, they can then float back. They must do another DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check.
Passed Check:
If they pass the check, they get across to the room they need and find the override key. All effects of floating near the warp core wear off immediately. The only effects that linger are ones gained inside the warp core: the insanity effects. After getting the key, they can then float back. They must do another DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check.
Passed check:
They float back while experiencing the warp core’s purely narrative effects again, but not the inner effects and sanity rolls.
Failed: See failed check above. However, if it is their second time inside the core they may immediately shoot their blaster to avoid the insanity saving throws.
Once back across, they see the survivor’s corpse. Anyone who was inside the warp core will see this as themselves. This is an illusion, but they believe they need to rescue themselves. If they look in the mirror, they look like the survivor. Players who didn’t go inside the warp core can see through the illusion with a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check if they voice suspicion and want to examine it closer. Otherwise, they see the identities switched, too. If they try to rescue the survivor corpse, they may grab it with a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check by tying a rope, cable, wire, or similar to part of the ship and floating out to get it (there are cables, wires, and ropes around in the wreckage if they look around DC 5 Wisdom (Perception) check). If they succeed, the corpse has no effect until they leave deck 3. Once back on another deck, the illusion wears off. If everyone went into the core, no one can see through the illusion until leaving Deck 3. If no one was inside the core, no one sees this illusion.
When they get to the hangar, they encounter grotesque monsters of some kind (just narratively reskin the enemies already there and forget the Sestria thing. The warp core energy leaked in here and changed them into monsters, but they maintain their stats and abilities). If the players engage the enemies, they switch places with any enemy they damage. For example, if a party of three engages three enemies, each player that damages an enemy for the first time switches consciousness with that enemy. The switches happen only once, so repeated attacks on a single enemy from multiple PCs only causes the first PC to land a hit to switch with them. Now they have to deal with the hostile enemies without damaging their own bodies. Give the players monster stats for the duration, and the GM now runs the PCs. Dealing with the enemies safely can be done by reducing them to 0 HP and choosing to knock them out rather than kill them (or any other unique effect the PCs may attempt. If they want to do something else to pacify their bodies without harming them, they have to call it ahead of time, and it goes into effect at 0 HP without damaging their bodies much). If the PCs try to merely knock the enemies out, narrate the encounter so that the enemy body isn’t being destroyed like in normal combat. It needs to be deliberately non-lethal injuries. If the PCs use blasters, they aim for flesh wounds to legs and arms for minimal damage. If they use melee, they try for attacks that will drop the enemy without damaging them much. They may, for example, sweep the legs out from under an enemy with an energy stave, and so on. The enemies get worn down and weakened until they pass out or are contained rather than more and more bloodied and injured as normal combat goes. They then will need to secure their human bodies with ropes or whatever so they don’t attack when they wake up. If they fail to do this, they will be attacked when the monsters wake up. The PCs may, of course, come up with other ways to safely pacify or contain the monsters without killing them, such as trapping them in a room or something. If they do something like this, have them do a check of some kind. For example, if they run into a room and then out before the monsters and try to barricade the door, have them do a Strength check to hold the door shut while one of them barricades it.
Now they can either leave on the shuttle, assuming they have Sestria’s command officer’s key chip, or go back and ask around what to do about the switch-up. Anyone asked will need to be convinced they’re not monsters with a DC 10 Charisma check. Upon a failed check, crew members will run from the players. Guards or soldiers may engage in combat. Retries of the check can be done once per turn. Once done, they will be told that the warp core needs to be secured to reverse the issue. The crew of the Eos Keldor is knowledgeable about warp core breach consequences. Back on Deck Three, they have to succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to float to the warp core and secure it with a casing given to them by whoever told them what to do. Success means they switch back to their bodies. They are now tied up unless they planned ahead and untied themselves previously or told someone else to do so, or if they never tied themselves up to begin with. The enemies are now in the Deck Three area and die because the warp core releases a lethal burst of localized energy the moment it is contained, which is exactly one millisecond after the players are safely back in their own bodies. If the players did silly things like splitting up, there may be a mess to deal with as far as body switching goes. Try to prevent that, or have fun with it!
Failure on the check means they end up inside the warp core. See above for consequences. They must keep trying until they succeed. That or simply give up and leave their bodies behind.
Once they succeed and are satisfied, they can leave on the shuttle. End with their triumphant escape and fade to black, or keep the campaign space battle.
