This is the fourth in a series of posts that provide ideas – bare-bones outlines – for Degenesis campaigns. They’re meant to serve as inspiration so you can use one of them as-is, grab bits from each and add them to your own ideas, or riff off them and come up with something completely new.
Before we get started, don’t forget that Chapter 11 in Katharsys is filled with useful campaign-planning info. Also, Group Alignments are found in Artifacts , and I’ve settled on a group size of four mostly because for me as a GM the sweet spot is three to four players.
Let’s get to it!
Combing the Ruins
The great cities of the continent’s Bygone past lie in ruin. Most have been picked clean, and the big Scrapper teams have moved on to the vast scraplands of Europe. But there are still secrets to be uncovered here, artifacts to be gathered, and power to be gleaned.
These treasure hunters want more than what fate has already provided. They are bound by the alignment of Ambition.
- Anubian – Some say that the sterile world of the Bygones can teach us nothing. But you sense that much of what your cult passes on through tradition was born long ago, before Eschaton. You can wait your turn for access to that knowledge, or you can find it yourself.
- Clanner – You’ll never be given the respect you deserve. Your brothers are all smarter and stronger than you. But you are driven and determined, and you know the area like the back of your hand. You will never give up. Your time will come.
- Scourger – Here’s the truth of it: you don’t want to visit the land of the Crow. Why help Neolybians make coin across the sea when Africa’s own past can deliver riches to its own people? Supporting this effort is a noble calling indeed.
- Scrapper – It’s been generations since the Scrappers around here went digging. They became mere tinkerers, sedentary and soulless, happy to melt steel and keep Koms running. Where is the poetry in that, the adventure?
Assessing the Threat
Far away in the harsh, barren land of the Crows, the Ambassador Wakili makes his deals. He gives the shaved freaks use of his freighter. On their arrival here in Qabis, he gives them use of not one, but two Surge Tanks. Whatever Wakili’s motivations might be, this is an affront. Honorary Africans or no, the Spitalians are a threat.
They must be watched. Their true motivations must be ascertained. Why are they really here, and how is it possible that Wakili’s wishes on this matter prevailed? Respect for the powerful must bow to protecting the people.
There is no cause as righteous as defending one’s homeland. These zealous guardians are bound by the alignment of Dogma.
- Anubian – As a show of fellowship, you have been assigned to share knowledge with these interloping Crows. Their ways for our ways, the saying goes. What better way to gauge their capabilities and their true intentions?
- Apocalyptic – Whether in their suits or out of them, the Spitalians are customers, just like anyone else. They talk, just like anyone else. And like everyone else, they underestimate you at their own peril.
- Clanner – Generations upon generations of your clan have called Qabis home. You grew up here. You know it inside and out, brick and bone. The Crows may call it their headquarters, but it’s your home.
- Scourger – You’ve heard tales of Spitalian formations taking on Psychonauts. It’s hard to believe by looking at them in their ridiculous outfits. They are disciplined, you’ll give them that. Which is all the more reason to keep an eye on them. Even weaklings can win if they work together.
Stealing from Thieves
The Mediterranean is a conduit for wealth. Neolibyan wealth. It’s also the domain of Apocalyptic pirates who want their share of it. But the Neolibyans aren’t stupid. They secure their ships, run decoy operations, and send Scourgers to find and destroy the pirates.
Despite all this, Ghita of Anaba’s concession in southern Purgare is losing too much profit to the flocks. Piracy, it seems, is quite lucrative. So why not engage in some privacy of her own and recover some of that lost profit? She has cleverly recruited those who already hate the Apocalyptics — if they strike fear into the hearts of the pirates, so much the better.
While it is Ghita who brought them together, these angry souls are aflame with the alignment of Revenge.
- African Clanner – Hypocrites! The flocks talk of how overbearing and controlling the Neolibyans are, then they swoop in and destroy fishing villages like yours when clans won’t pay tribute. What can you do but fight back?
- Purgan Clanner – When Ghita’s ships came, the townspeople were afraid. But the Raider’s agriculture and mining operations have brought prosperity. The pirates have killed fishermen and threatened that prosperity, the scum.
- Scrapper – You were part of a smart, efficient crew, combing long-lost ruins for Bygone treasures. Then pirates took your hard-won Franka haul, your boat, and the lives of your crewmates, leaving you nothing to lose and every reason to hate them.
- Scourger – The flocks of the Mediterranean have killed your comrades. They evade capture. They are an affront to civilization with their greed. They must be punished.
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