Cold Passage 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 a 17 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 boss of the Yamaguchi Cartel – the adventure is set in the Frontiers of Space – has recently died on a penal world and the Sonoran Interstellar Police contact the characters to quietly ship the body in cryostasis to where it will be picked up.
Patron has details on the employer.
Complications has things that can go wrong or which aren’t known; naturally, this is not a corpse transport but a prison break and the characters are unwitting accomplices.
The Prison Colony at Xenex III has some details on the world.
The Body is Brought Aboard has the body arriving.
Cause of Death explains that the boss supposedly died from an extremely dangerous disease, one that merits the cryostasis pod remaining sealed.
Jack Nakamura has details on the supposedly dead boss and how he will be woken up.
Paid Off Guards and Doctors on Xenex III has brief details on these.
The Cryo-Stasis Tube explains when it’s programmed to thaw out.
The Undisclosed Location is where the body is to be taken.
Interception has details on the cartel’s ship and crew that is after the characters.
Other Interested Parties has details on the ship of a rival cartel.
Interception by Other Parties looks at the chance others might encounter the characters.
SIPOL Interception has details on the police ship that will be after the characters once it’s found out what’s going on.
Leaving No Witnesses explains that the cartel will attempt to board and kill everyone, the rivals will just attempt to destroy the ship and SIPOL will demand the characters stop and give up the tube, only firing if the characters are, frankly, stupid enough to refuse.
Making a Deal looks at the chances of making a deal with either cartel.
Mission Completion explains that delivering the tube to its destination, or giving it up to the police interception team, will be a success.
Cold Passage in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a single column format and some minor errors were noticed. Bar the covers, there are no illustrations. Presentation is okay.
As is common, the NPCs are gone into more detail than is really needed; the interception teams could get away with just 2-3 stat blocks. This isn’t really a complex adventure, though there are many dangers to it. Getting the supposed body off world for quiet disposal instead of just quietly disposing of it on the penal world does seem a bit odd, though. Cold Passage can be found by clicking here.
Leave a Reply