Contact! 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 from DriveThruRPG as a 21 page Pay What You Want PDF. Two pages are the front and rear covers, three pages are the front matter and three the Open Game License.
The opening paragraphs explain that a particular system in the Sonara Sector – though not stated, the adventure is set in the Frontiers of Space – is owned by the Rysnian Confederation of Worlds. The characters are hired to investigate a recently-discovered black hole in the system, as there have been odd events and sightings of strange spacecraft.
Game Master Notes explains that the Confederation believes the aliens are hostile, not that they tell the characters that. The black hole is actually a wormhole, and probes have been sent through but not heard from since. A highly-advanced alien race is exploring the wormhole, with the intent of moving their race out of a war zone. They are peaceful but will defend themselves if provoked, and are a bit overly cautious at defining aggression.
The Thenuserilge System has a couple of paragraphs on the system.
Other Encounters in the System has various things that could be encountered. These are detailed and given stats as required.
Going Through the Wormhole has a list of the systems in the sub-sector on the other side, and a map.
The Dhelvin are the alien race exploring the wormhole from the other side and are given a brief overview.
The Dhelvin Sub-Sector gives brief details on the various systems in the sub-sector.
The Dhelvin Star Ship has stats and details of the ship.
Communication with the Dhelvin explains how the characters could open communications.
Misunderstandings with the Dhelvin essentially states that the Dhelvin could easily misconstrue some actions as being overt aggression.
Conditions for Success explains the various things the characters need to accomplish.
Finally, there is a labelled map of the Dhelvin ship.
Contact! in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that they would have been useful. Navigation is poor. The text maintains a single column format and appeared to be mostly free of errors. Apart from the colour cover images and the maps, there is a single colour illustration. Presentation is okay, but a player friendly map of the starship would have been appreciated.
Though the adventure is set in the Frontiers of Space, changing it to another setting is easy enough; all that’s needed is a system in which to place the wormhole and an organisation interested in it.
This might look like a fairly simple adventure, but it is more dangerous than it looks. The aliens are extremely touchy, and what characters might think to be simple caution they will interpret as a threat and pre-emptively defend themselves. Plus, on the other side of the wormhole, there is an aggressive and expansionistic power who, if they discover the wormhole, will attack through it. Making the consequences of failure rather more significant than might be thought. Contact! is therefore a significantly more important adventure than it might appear at first glance and it can be found by clicking here.
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