Is a Prime Base adventure needed?

[tsofian]

The Prime Base module takes a lot of heat. There is a basic question, does it need to be an adventure or a source book?

In Classic MP I'm going to come down firmly on there needs to be an adventure around Prime Base side. Everything in the game revolves around Prime Base being offline. If the field teams have any hope of reuniting the Project and fulfilling their mission they have to either get Prime up and running, do the same for alternate PB or somehow duplicate a lot of the functions, such as waking up the rest of the Project.

There has been a lot of discussion here about the actions of Prime Base after the war ended, how it was knocked out and what was done to try and correct the issues about Project recall and survival.

There is no one solution that will please everyone. Plus everyone here is really invested so everyone here speaks from their heart.

I get the Prime Base as a source book. But there still has to be a STORY behind finding, access and reactivating the Base.

[ArmySGT.]

No.

I have never played a campaign where the players went more than 20 miles from their bolt hole. They get invested in a village and group and work to make things better.

Prime Base is for decades later when Damocles and MorrowSat are helping wake up teams and getting the Project going. Alternate Prime or Regional Bases will get it going without Prime.

It is better as a source book than a frustrating and really irrelevant module.

[ArmySGT.]

If it is going to be an adventure. Then it needs to be it's own not a spin off of Desert Search.

A dedicated MARS team from Alternate Prime or the Regional base nearest is sent there to open it and investigate. I would further be satisfied if it had undergone full "wild fire" and was dead.

[cosmicfish]

It could easily just be a sourcebook. It is unlikely a team would ever get there in the first place, it represents a tonal shift in the game that many will not ever want, and the myriad paths that could lead there make it almost impossible to write a module that isn't problematic for most.

That having been said, if it is going to be a module definitely make it standalone, but include "mini-modules" that can be incorporated into or between other modules that lay the foundation. No one should ever be like "well, we're out of other modules, so... let's do Prime Base!" The director should make the decision well in advance and lay the groundwork so that when they are ready, they have the clues and supplies and motivation to do so.

For example, the team needs to know where it is, and one way or the other that shouldn't be opening one base and a guy saying "let me show you on the map". They also need the resources to get there, and a motivation for crossing the country to do so, and some assurance that their "home" area is sufficiently stable and secure to do without them. So include some prep modules so that can be interspersed in to regular game play so that Prime Base happens organically.

[dragoon500ly]

Setting back last night and debated Prime Base with my better half. Her argument is that for Morrow Project to work, Prime Base had to fall. The entire canon is built around that idea. The very thought of finding and restarting Prime cuts across this idea. Better to leave Prime Base and seek out the secondary command base.

IMO, Prime Base should be a sourcebooks that could be used either as an attempt to locate and determine what happened to Prime or as an adventure to locate and activate the secondary base. Giving players multiple choices in fitting the base into their campaign.

[tsofian]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

Setting back last night and debated Prime Base with my better half. Her argument is that for Morrow Project to work, Prime Base had to fall. The entire canon is built around that idea. The very thought of finding and restarting Prime cuts across this idea. Better to leave Prime Base and seek out the secondary command base.

IMO, Prime Base should be a sourcebooks that could be used either as an attempt to locate and determine what happened to Prime or as an adventure to locate and activate the secondary base. Giving players multiple choices in fitting the base into their campaign.

For Morrow Project to work as a game? Yes I can see that. However even if the player characters, or someone else locates Prime it will be years before it can be used, if ever. I also agree that Prime has to be able to be fitted in any campaign, not just from Desert Search.

Someone mentioned that for a team of players to seek Prime they have to have a secure region in which they (the PC Morrow Team) is not the lynch pin of civilization. I agree with this as well. As I've said before I use Lonestar as my start. I also made CT-13 to be part of a bigger Combined Group Houston. Some of their adventures are finding other teams and getting them woken up (one of these included a team with a bolt hole that has been submerged by changes in the landscape). CG-Houston is able to support the MP mission in The State of Lesser Texas. CT-13 becomes elite trouble shooters for CG-H and ends up getting sent all over the place to recon, or perform diplomacy or recover other MP resources.

I've never run or played in a campaign were the team stayed in a small location.

[tsofian]

Originally Posted by ArmySGT.

No.

I have never played a campaign where the players went more than 20 miles from their bolt hole. They get invested in a village and group and work to make things better.

Prime Base is for decades later when Damocles and MorrowSat are helping wake up teams and getting the Project going. Alternate Prime or Regional Bases will get it going without Prime.

It is better as a source book than a frustrating and really irrelevant module.

This just shows there are a lot of ways to play Morrow Project. I've never played or run a campaign like this at all. It is certainly a very interesting campaign concept, but to paraphrase what I've heard on this list several times, "my players wouldn't want to play in that campaign". :-)