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Edge of Terminator
by Sam Joice

Scenario Summary Scenario Timeline Crew Objectives

Mobile automated harvester/factories dot Intended as a 3-hour one-shot, you are free to Your goal is to get Cypress VI fully operational.
Mercury’s terminator - the twilight zone between either use a diegetic ticking clock or a real-life But three systems are essential:
scorching day and pitch-black night. ticking clock. 1.Solar Collectors - this provides power.
If using a real-life clock, swap T+days for 2.Satellite Dish - this lets Hermes control
They’re far from perfect. A powerful coronal T+hours. Cypress VI
mass ejection from the sun fried many of them, 3.Locomotion - make sure it can still move and
leaving them dead on the dark side of Mercury. T-86 Earth days: Coronal Mass Ejection nothing’s blocking its path.
incapacitates Cypress VI and other mobile The remaining systems can be fixed
Understaffed, Hermes technician teams are factories. (expensively) as long as Cypress VI can drive
slowly repairing them as the world slowly turns itself back to base in the north pole.
to daylight. T-70 Earth days: Hermes sends the crew out to
repair the various factories.
Cypress VI, the final factory, nears the morning Starting Gear
Terminator.The repair crew only has two days T-0 days: the crew arrives at The Job Site and Being in the field for a long time with no breaks,
before the scorching daylight rises over the edge at Cypress VI. Play starts. supplies are low in the rover. This is all that’s left
of the terminator and cooks Cypress VI and on the crew’s pressurized rover:
anyone still nearby. T+1.5 days: At the terminator. Cypress VI’s ○ 6 normal vacc suits (with comms, flashlights,
solar panels, if turned around, see the sun.. 6 hours of power, Armor 4, 21kg each),
This is an adventure for Orbital 2100 and any ○ 3 laptops (1kg each),
other near-future or 2D6 sci-fi RPG with a T+2 days: Cypress VI is in broad daylight. ○ 1 TL 9 Engineering Toolkit (12kg),
Mercury-like world. Anyone in direct sunlight not in an HEV suit ○ 1 TL 9 Medical Kit (10kg),
takes 4D6 damage every 6 seconds (dead in 18 ○ 2 TL 9 Mechanical Toolkits (12kg each),
seconds on-average). ○ 1 TL 9 Microelectronics Toolkit (12kg),
○ 1 TL 11 Repair Bot (100kg)
T+3 days: Cypress VI is actively cooking. ○ A 3D printer to make small TL 9
Anyone stuck inside is cooked to death. components/equipment in 6 hours,
○ 50m spools of steel cable and nylon rope.
For a graphical representation of the timeline, ○ Barely enough food to get back to the north
see the map on the back. pole base

Orbital 2100 is © 2016 Zozer Games

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
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The Crew
Distribute these pregens to players, and use any spares as NPCs.
Each character has a Secret Objective only known to that player after they’ve picked their character.
If you don’t want player competition, only give NPCs secret objectives.

Charlotte Brown Kobayashi Miho Usha Mahajan

Mercury-born colonist Former Specialist, Earth Spaceforce Retired syndicate enforcer
Fashionable. Lanky. Tired. Dad-bod. Devout. Sarcastic. Coltish. Kind. Macho.
STR 6, DEX 9, END 4, INT 6, EDU 10, SOC 7 STR 7, DEX 10, END 6, INT 9, EDU 7, SOC 3 STR 10, DEX 9, END 6, INT 7, EDU 4, SOC 6
Skills: Carousing 2, Computer 1, Electronics 2, Skills: Admin 1, Computer 1, Electronics 1, Skills: Bribery 1, Forgery 1, Electronics 1,
Ground Vehicle 1, Mechanics 1, Survival 1, Vacc Engineering 2, Ground Vehicle 1, Gunnery 1, Ground Vehicle 0, Mechanics 1, Melee 1,
Suit 0 Medical 1, Vacc Suit 0 Recon/Stealth 2, Streetwise 1, Vacc Suit 0
Signature Item: Backup battery to power any Signature Item: Super-stims: +1 to all actions, Signature Item: Bracelet made of diamond
unpowered system for six hours. but take 1D6 damage each use. wire, can saw anything with enough time.
Secret Objective: Modify the bootloader of the Secret Objective: Promotions are coming up. Secret Objective: The Hermes company is
main computer in 8: Assembly. Earth wants Be the best performer. looking for traitors. Get them to confess.
Mercury to share the sunshine.

Julio Vera Damilola Soyinka Olie Taylor

Retired Colonel, Luna Marines Former Martian wildcatter Interplanetary trader in-between jobs
Boastful. Delicate. Paranoid. Pessimistic. Slouchy. Terse. Helpful. Shaky. Temperamental.
STR 9, DEX 7, END 7, INT 3, EDU 6, SOC 10 STR 4, DEX 6, END 9, INT 10, EDU 7, SOC 6 STR 6, DEX 4, END 9, INT 8, EDU 6, SOC 9
Skills: Demolitions 1, Engineering 0, Ground Skills: Admin 1, Ground Vehicle 1, Mechanics 2, Skills: Admin 2, Bribery 1, Carousing 1,
Vehicle 0, Guns 1, Leader 1, Mechanics 0, Navigation 1, Pilot 0, Recon/Stealth 1, Survival Computer 1, Electronics 1, Ground Vehicle 0,
Medical 2, Melee 1, Vacc Suit 2 1, Vacc Suit 2 Navigation 1, Pilot 1, Vacc Suit 0
Signature Item: Remote-detonated penetration Signature Item: HEV suit. Can withstand Signature Item: Palm-sized spider drone.
charges. Mercury’s day. Requires Vacc Suit 2 skill. Secret Objective:. The Snakeheads syndicate
Secret Objective: Collect technical data from Secret Objective: Fuck Hermes, you’re done. need you to put a tap on 9: Antenna Mount.
each system for whistleblowers. You’re not the Steal expensive things from Cypress, toss them
most technically-minded, so ask others when in the rover’s trailer, and sell them after you get
safe. home and quit.
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Cypress VI 7: Battery Banks

● Series of mostly discharged batteries.
Parked in the Caloris basin, Cypress VI faces ● Broken thermal protection system:
west-southwest. The sun is rising from ○ Will overheat and catch fire once
east-southeast. powered.
Provide the adjacent schematic to the ○ Electronics 8+ roll to avoid puncturing a
players.The crew knows where each system is, battery and burning yourself during
but will need to manually inspect them to figure repair (2D6 damage).
out what is wrong (if anything). ● Hatch down to 8: Assembly.
Unless specified otherwise, it takes 1 minute to 3: Ore Processing 8: Assembly
move to adjacent systems. Each repair attempt ● Two stacked centrifuges separate mined ● Where BOVA, the offline workerbee AI
takes 6 hours in-game. materials. assembles the parts from 4: Wafers, 5:
0: Undercarriage ○ Respectively lead to 4: Wafers, 5: Emitters, and 6: Frame Fabs into a final
● Blown transaxle with damaged gears. Emitters, and 6: Frame Fabs. satellite and launches it in 10: Launch
○ Mechanics 8+ roll to fix without pinching ○ Top centrifuge is off-axis. Mechanics or Centrifuge.
your fingers (1D6 damage to Dex). Engineering 10+ roll to fix it without it ○ If asked nicely,tells the crew all the
● Buried satellite dish from 9: Antenna Mount. falling on the bottom centrifuge. current issues.
○ Strength 8+ roll to dig it up without 4: Wafer Fab ○ Admin or Computers 8+ roll to hack
damaging the dish. ● Conveyor from 3: Ore Processing carries BOVA without tripping the alarm and
● Maintenance hatch into 8: Assembly, baked silicon wafers. turning the factory off again.
ladders up to 2: Solar Collectors and 9: ● Machines and chemicals to turn silicon ● Cables into an open hatch to 7: Battery
Antenna Mount. wafers into solar cells. Banks.
1: Regolith Vacuum ○ Pressurized tanks with expensive 9: Antenna Mount
● Tills and vacuums up the regolith into 3: Ore chemicals. ● Currently detached dish, which is under 0:
Processing. ● Conveyor to 8: Assembly. Undercarriage.
● Maw and teeth jammed with satellite scraps. 5: Microwave Emitter Fab ○ Electronics 8+ roll to avoid incorrectly
○ Mechanics 10+ roll to clear it without ● Metal from 3: Ore Processing is forged into rewiring it, giving Cypress VI bad
puncturing your suit. microwave emitters and sent to 8: commands.
2: Solar Collectors Assembly. 10: Launch Centrifuge
● Rotating solar panels nominally provide 6: Frame Fab ● Spins satellites to orbital speeds and flings
power. ● Metal from 3: Ore Processing stamped and them out of the chimney.
● Cooked power distributor. cut into the chassis, sent to 8: Assembly. ○ Expensive maglev system underneath
○ Spend 24 hours replacing them or roll ● Expensive laser array that’ll cut into adjacent the bulkhead.
Engineering 10+ to avoid incorrectly systems once power is restored.. ○ Dented, will destroy itself when spun.
rerouting all power to one random ○ Computer, Electronics, or Mechanics 10+ Engineering or Mechanics 8+ to fix it
system. roll to make the laser safe without getting without knocking your teeth out (3D6
a virus or damaging the laser. damage).
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Resolution Map of the Site

If the crew fails to get Cypress VI mobile by day 3, they’ll need to quickly
retreat or die from the heat.

If the crew only fixes the transaxle in 0: Undercarriage, fixes the power
distributor in 2: Solar Collectors, and reattaches the satellite antenna onto
9: Antenna Mount, Hermes will remotely pilot Cypress VI back to base for
further repairs. Any loyal crewmembers will be paid Cr 1,500. The
best-performing crewmember will get a Cr 500 bonus and be promoted.

If all systems are repaired, Cypress VI will begin the trek back to the sunset
terminator on the other side of the planet. Any loyal crewmembers will be
paid Cr 2,000. The best-performing crewmember will get a Cr 1,000 bonus
and a promotion.

Any crewmembers discovered to be traitors will be imprisoned without trial

and placed into a “work rehabilitation program” (slave labor) for Hermes.

Thanks
Special thanks to BlckKnght, DoubloonSeven, and Whirl Bill for playtesting
this.
Thanks to Inumo for hosting the Indie NASA TTRPG Jam.
Thanks to Timothy Collinson for letting me use the “Edge of” name.
Thanks to NASA, Johns Hoppkins, and Carnegie for the Messenger
spacecraft.
Finally, thank you for reading this.