A Star is Born by Joseph Mohr is a role playing game supplement published by Old School Role Playing for use with Cepheus Engine. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.
The supplement is available as an 18 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. Two pages are the front and rear covers, three the front matter and three the Open Game License.
The opening paragraphs explain that the Sonoran Nebula – the adventure is set in the Frontiers of Space – has been slowly coalescing for millions of years and the characters are hired to accompany a scientist on a mission to study the nebula.
Patron has details on the employer.
Complications are things that can go wrong or are not known; for one, the employer is lying.
Key to the Intrepid covers the locations on the patron’s ship.
Other Crew Members has stats for these.
Encounters in the Area of the Sonoran Nebula is a 2d6 table of random encounters.
Ion Storms in the Vicinity covers these.
Pirates and Bandits in the Area of the Nebula has stats for the pirates and their ship.
Other Interested Parties has details on others interested in the patron’s doings.
Olonsean Boarding Party has stats for these.
When Things Go Sideways are possible results of the “experiment.”
The Sonoran Interstellar Police are what happens if the experiment is done and the police get involved.
Mission Completion is what happens after it’s done, and looks at whether or not the characters get paid.
The final page of content has a map of the Intrepid.
A Star is Born in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and has enough different sections that these would have been useful. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a single column format and some minor errors were noticed. Apart from the map and covers, there are no illustrations. Presentation is adequate.
There are a few too many NPC stats, especially for the pirates and boarders. The outcome of the patron’s experiment seems rather unlikely, to say the least. There is a 2d6 table of outcomes, all but one of which are basically out of the Tech Level of the region; well out of it. Many of them are, one way or another, very dangerous. Especially if the tech used proves to be copyable. Other than that, this is an adventure where the characters are almost certainly going to end up in trouble and maybe won’t get paid either. A Star is Born can be found by clicking here.
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