Castaway by Charles M. Ryan is a role playing game supplement published by Monte Cook Games for use with the Cypher System. This is an adventure recommended for convention play.
The supplement is available as a 36-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $4.99 but was purchased at a reduced price in a special bundle. One page is the front cover.
The Overview explains that this was designed for convention play and that, as a result, it is fairly linear, information is provided in bullet points, timing guidance is provided, as it is intended to be a four-hour game, handouts provide information and, as it can be considered dark at times, there are also guidelines to make the tone lighter.
Adventure Background gives some brief details on the universe the adventure is set in; following attacks by aliens called shriekers, government has become more warlike and oppressive, which isn’t to everyone’s desire. The action takes place on a strange – very strange, as it turns out – world called Pearl which was evacuated by government scientists following the alien problems.
The characters land on Pearl having no memory of who they are. They are people who have had their memories erased to turn them into governmental troops; events can jolt memories to the surface. They must make their way across a dangerous world to an abandoned base, though there are other encounters on the way.
Four pages are handouts, one page has maps and the final twelve pages are six pre-generated characters.
Castaway in Review
The PDF is well bookmarked with major and minor sections linked. Navigation is good. The text follows a two columns with sidebar format, with sidebar used for guidelines, references and stats, and appeared to be free of errors. There are a couple of colour illustrations, together with the black and white maps. Presentation is decent.
This adventure is not very suitable for integrating into a campaign, as it means characters lose much of their previous progress. However, it could be used as a campaign starter or as an alternative to permanent death should things go very badly wrong for a group and the only other alternative be a TPK. It’s still best suited as a one-shot, though, especially as it would need integrating with a setting in order to use it in a campaign. That isn’t impossible, but it is more work.
Though it’s stated that this is a dark adventure, it is not as dark as it could be. There are some less pleasant elements, but it doesn’t really delve into any real horror realms. In fact, it could probably be made much darker, into true technohorror, with a bit of work. Castaway is a decent little adventure and it can be found by clicking here.
Leave a Reply