A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Duplication

Duplication 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 23 page Pay What You Want PDF on 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 a scientist’s representative who wants them to come to said scientist’s home base to discuss the matter. If they do, they are offered a sum of money to kidnap a member of a notable family in the Sonora sector – though not stated, the adventure is set in the Frontiers of Space – and brought to the base. There will be more similar work if they are successful.

Patron gives some details on the patron.

Casurlar gives details on the world where the patron’s base is located.

Key to the Swamp Base describes the actual base.

Guards and Encounters at the Swamp Base has random encounters and NPC stats.

Mechanics and Engineers has more NPC stats.

Landing and Takeoff Control Personnel has more NPC stats.

Key to the Inn of Happiness has the location where the characters are supposed to do the abduction.

Encounters at the Inn of Happiness has an encounter table.

Johann Jorum and His Bodyguards has stats for the target and his guards.

Other Targets of Andrew Wagner has stats for other people the characters may be asked to abduct.

Sooner or Later explains that at some point the characters will outlive their usefulness.

Creatures that Live in the Swamp has an encounter table and stats for creatures.

Prisoners of Andrew Wagner has stats for more captives.

What Becomes of Prisoners Who are No Longer Useful is a brief explanation; they are killed.

Mission Completion Objectives is what the characters need to succeed.

Final GM Notes explains that this adventure is more complicated and will need more work if the characters continue working for Wagner.

The final two pages of content are maps of the base and inn.

Duplication in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that they would have been useful. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a single column format and appeared to be mostly free of error. Bar the covers and maps, there are no illustrations. Presentation is adequate.

This adventure has one common layout problem; reams of NPC stats for NPCs who could have been summed up with one or two stat blocks. The targets and captives are individuals, and need treating as such; practically no-one else does. Expanding the adventure will also require quite a bit of work and there’s also the common outcome of “you have outlived your usefulness.” Then there’s the whole moral thing; the characters are being paid to kidnap people. Not only is this dangerous, but it’s easy to see it as utterly unethical. More principled groups will quickly decline the job and make the adventure a lot shorter. Duplication can be found by clicking here.