Trying out Genesys

For our first session I'm having our 6 PCs on a plane that lands in the ocean and they have to try to get as many of the 250ish survivors safely to shore as possible. They are in the middle of nowhere so no professional emergency response personnel available.

Any ideas to help make this easier for me as the GM and fun / challenging for the players?

Edit: How can I adapt mass combat rules here? Is that a bad idea?

I would think the Leadership skill would play a significant role in this challenge.

2 hours ago, kaosoe said:

I would think the Leadership skill would play a significant role in this challenge.

I agree, so far only 3 characters are ready for step 2: Archetype

1. Ex-soldier/survivalist/MMA fighter (BRAWN & cunning)
2. Teen gumshoe (Agility & Cunning)
3. Academic/Romance novelist (Intellect)

The first two aren't interested in the leadership skill at all. The other 4 might be though.

I was thinking that drowning is the primary threat in this challenge, and possibly sharks could be enemies (yum yum yellow).

The rest of the campaign will be a low-fantasy setting (no magic or monsters).

This is my first big GMing experience.

Any logistical advice about running this challenge is welcome.

Ok, lots of NPCs. Please help if you have any ideas.

• The plane is slowly sinking
• The plane has 8 emergency rafts (Stats ???), No healed-shoes or heavy luggage allowed
• Each raft has 30 Minion NPCs (passengers) with average human stats (all 2s) and no skills. Overcome with fear and confused by language barriers, each equipped with life vests
• Each raft is controlled by a crew member minion NPC (1 group of 2, and 2 groups of 3) with average human stats (all 2s) with collective skills: Operating 1, Leadership 1
• 2 rafts have a Rival NPC (Pilots) with stats closer to the PCs
• The PCs will be separated on the 6 remaining rafts

Objective: get your raft and it's passangers safely to shore

• Rough sea water terrain (difficulty & setback ???)
• Enemy Sharks (Stats ???)

You've got a lot of opportunities, but the problem you'll be facing is that sitting in a raft is an inherently slow activity.

You can use leadership checks to fight passenger panic, Survival or Perception checks to help with navigation, Survival checks to maximize resources (food), Resilience checks to deal with exposure, lack of food, dehydration, etc. You can apply setbacks for these conditions too and use skill checks to remove them (so maybe a Resilience check lets you remove the setbacks for starvation and exhaustion so you can make the leadership check to fight the passengers panic).

But I think your most dramatic element is the passengers. Introduce something unexpected by giving some of the passengers agendas that conflict with safely reaching shore. Here are some quick examples just off the top of my head:

• Mistrust- some rival npc(s) decides he doesn't trust the PCs or the plane crews judgment and tries to take over or take his raft in the wrong direction.
• Smuggling- one or more of the passengers has something dangerous that they're smuggling that becomes a threat.
• Criminal- one or more of the passengers was fleeing the law and fears being arrested if he makes landfall with the others.
• Medical Challenge- one of the passengers has a seizure or goes into cardiac arrest.
• Panic- some of the passengers panic and begin behaving dangerously (like believing if they throw someone to the sharks they'll be satisfied and go away).

Sounds like an interesting scenario. Good luck!

On 3/2/2018 at 12:45 PM, FinarinPanjoro said:

• Smuggling- one or more of the passengers has something dangerous that they're smuggling that becomes a threat.
• Panic- some of the passengers panic and begin behaving dangerously

I was thinking people are very likely to disobey the no-luggage rule and inadvertently puncture the raft.

Thank you!!!! Very good ideas

Don't forget storms and pirates. You didn't specify why the plane landed in the water. Maybe it got shot down?

6 hours ago, Edgookin said:

Don't forget storms and pirates. You didn't specify why the plane landed in the water. Maybe it got shot down?

That would be my big spoiler hook that I'll keep teasing them with clues about at the end of each session. The why & how is a bit Twilight Zone-esque.

There will be pirates in a later session (the swashbuckling kind). But for Session One I want them to feel LOST if you know what I mean...

Sounds pretty awesome, TBH

Quote

Shark (Minion)

Brawn-3 Agility-2 Intellect-1 Cunning-2 Willpower-1 Presence-1

Skills (group only): Brawl, Survival, Vigilance

Abilities:

• Aquatic Only creature
• Blood Sense (may take aim against character or creature with the highest wound count as an out of turn incidental)
• Feeding Frenzy (if engaged with 4 or more enemies or another large food supply, must target engaged character or creature with least wounds for next attack, or else suffer 1 wound)

Equipment: Jaws (Brawl; Damage 6; Critical 2; Range [Engaged]; Special: Pierce, Vicious)

I'm open to as many suggestions as I can get, I'm new at this GM thing.

Would love to see your GM notes when you’re done. If i can ever convince my pals to try Genesys then this would be a great adventure to run.

12 hours ago, Bojanglez said:

Would love to see your GM notes when you’re done. If i can ever convince my pals to try Genesys then this would be a great adventure to run.

Sure!

I have been constructing this fusion-genre setting for years, and it seems like Genesys was designed specifically for it.

Hey FFG, if you're listening, I'm open to signing a book deal if you're interested in buying!

Lol, just throwing it out there.

Any other stats or mechanics or tools that would be helpful for running the crunch in this scenario?

On 3/2/2018 at 8:48 AM, Mychal'el said:

Ok, lots of NPCs. Please help if you have any ideas.

• The plane is slowly sinking
• The plane has 8 emergency rafts (Stats ???), No healed-shoes or heavy luggage allowed
• Each raft has 30 Minion NPCs (passengers) with average human stats (all 2s) and no skills. Overcome with fear and confused by language barriers, each equipped with life vests
• Each raft is controlled by a crew member minion NPC (1 group of 2, and 2 groups of 3) with average human stats (all 2s) with collective skills: Operating 1, Leadership 1
• 2 rafts have a Rival NPC (Pilots) with stats closer to the PCs
• The PCs will be separated on the 6 remaining rafts

Objective: get your raft and it's passangers safely to shore

• Rough sea water terrain (difficulty & setback ???)
• Enemy Sharks (Stats ???)

Ok, please let me know if I should change my plan:

1. Aircraft makes an emergency water landing
2. Each PC can react to the aircraft landing in the water in character. They can make Cool skill checks (other check suggestions?). Their rolls will effect the mass check later.
3. The captain gives orders to put on and inflate thier life preservers, and follow the crew on to thier designated rafts. No luggage or high heels allowed. Backpacks and purses are allowed.
4. Each PC is on a separate raft along with 30 passangers and 1 crew member. Each player will then make a base mass check pool of 1 purple vs 1 green for every 5 passangers on thier raft. The mass check will be modified according to each PCs previous check results .
5. The next phase will be a combat incounter with sharks.
6. another mass check made by each player. The base pool will again be purple/green for every 5 surviving passangers on each raft. Plus a setback for every 5 NPCs in the water (dead or alive)
7. The results will determine how many passengers survived the trip to shore.

No matter what happens, I need the captain to be mortally wounded and tell the PCs before he dies that they were flying blind and off course for thousands of miles so rescue teams will be searching in the wrong place.