Hail Shield Wall and fellow lumpy heads! I’m about to start running Warp Shell for my online 5e group as single session one-shots. In my universe, characters are members of an available pool of operatives that are hand picked for each mission by the Integrated Consciousness Mainframe (referred to as “The Mother” stationed on “The Mothership”).
To teach each player the mechanics of ICRPG and Warp Shell, I’m planing on running a solo rite of passage initiation ritual which will be like a tutorial for game mechanics. At the beginning of the ritual, the characters start with nothing. Then, as they make their way through the test overcoming obstacles with checks and attempts, they earn starting gear. The final room will be a maze where they put it all together to overcome a class based challenge.
I have some ideas for things to include in the ritual, but I thought I’d ask the Shield Wall to flesh these out a bit and maybe add some more. Hopefully others will find the ideas helpful too.
For the first part of the test, I was thinking of running a simplified version of the Rat Room with gaps in the main central path and loot crates strategically placed to lure the characters through the obstacles.
My class challenge will be a maze where the characters have to escort a vulnerable being called a porgling through a maze and keep it alive.
Here are my ideas so far:
Tank: Protect the porgling and keep it alive through a maze of damage emitters.
Ronin: Use tech tools to overcome obstacles and neutralize threats on the way through the maze. (What kind of obstacles would be good? Distance, height, networks/hackable locks?)
Ghost: Use stealth to clear a safe path through the maze by avoiding and neutralizing damage emitters and unlocking doors/traps.
Gunner: Target practice - shoot as many targets as possible while getting through the maze before time runs out. Maybe different targets require different guns. Maybe find and fix a cool gun. Reward for higher score?
Zurin: Use Wis magic to buff/heal the porgling and overcome obstacles though the maze (combat spells vs enemies)
Blip: Find the safest path for the porgling to get through the maze. (Maybe even throw switches only accessible by blips)
Fragment: Use Int magic to overcome an obstacle (unlock a door/trap? Neutralize an enemy?) and clear a path for the porgling to get through the maze.
Titan: Clear a path through a few different combat situations to get the porgling safely through the maze. (Good tactical scenarios: ambush, two groups, etc)
Outsider: no ideas really.
Anyway - if you made it this far - thanks for reading through my mind dump. Looking forward to the mind-share results.
Be well and play hard.
-Olorindil AKA The Sethsquatch