Compensation by Jospeh 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 16 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 characters are approached by the representative of a minor corporation of the Sonora sector – though not stated, the adventure is set in the Frontiers of Space – who wants to hire a group to go and sabotage – as in, blow up – a competitor’s factory.
Game Master Note states this adventure is well-suited to characters who lack their own spaceship. In truth, it’s almost totally unsuited to those who have one.
Patron gives their stats.
Complications are things that are not known or which can go wrong. In this case, the complications are the actual adventure. The characters are travelling in low berth on a tramp freighter which hits a rogue asteroid, gets badly damaged and they get woken up having to deal with a whole bunch of problems.
Collision Damage explains what happened.
Computer Malfunctions covers the ship’s computer problems.
Smoke Inhalation is the dangers of this.
Radiation is the problem caused by damage to the power plant.
Putting out Fires is how to deal with these.
Life Support explains this is mostly warning klaxons.
The Maneuver Drive is the damage to this.
The Power Plant is the damage to this system.
The Jump Drive is how this is damaged.
Orbital Decay explains the ship is in orbit, but not for long.
The Planet Below is the planet the ship is currently orbiting and what happened to the crew who landed there.
The Issue of Time in this Adventure has how to handle what is essentially a time-limited adventure.
Ship Statistics has details on the trader.
Cargo Remaining is what cargo was left.
Fixing the Ship Damage Once it is In Port is how to repair the ship.
Reaping the Rewards explain that the ship can be legally claimed as salvage, as can its cargo.
Completing the Original Mission is what to do if the characters want to go ahead with that; no details on the supposedly true mission have been provided.
Compensation in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with 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. Bar the covers, there are no illustrations. Presentation is adequate.
This is an adventure where the adventure is totally different from the one the characters thought they were doing. Instead of going and blowing up a factory, they have to make a badly damaged spaceship functional before it crashes. It really can’t be run if the characters have a ship of their own without an awful lot of railroading. There’s also the chance that the GM will end up having to make what was supposed to be the original adventure. Compensation is an okay adventure and it can be found by clicking here.
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