A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Escape From Usranob Station

Escape From Usranob Station 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 36 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 pass through the wrong star port in the Sonora sector – though not stated, the adventure is set in the Frontiers of Space – are arrested on trumped up charges and sentenced to ten years in a notorious prison. One that is currently experiencing problems.

Patron explains that there isn’t one.

Complications are the things that are not known or could go wrong.

GM Note explains the adventure could be used when the characters are arrested for a genuine crime.

Usranob Prison Station has encounters, rumours and details of the various locations.

Prison Gangs details the three gangs in charge of the place.

Prisoner Roster is a 6d6 table of prisoners who could be encountered.

Roster of Remaining Guards and Administration People is a d6 table of those still on the station.

Isolated Prisoners (Still Locked in Isolation Cells) has several locked-up prisoners.

Location of Security Cards lists the various key cards needed to gain access to various areas and where they can be found.

Improvised Weapons has several weapons that can be improvised.

Special Weapons Aboard the Ship has a new item.

Repairing the Shuttle on the Hangar Deck has some details on how to do this.

Usranob gives some brief details on the planet.

Possible Ways to Escape the Station has a list of provided methods, which doesn’t exclude any not thought of.

The remaining ten pages of content have maps of the station.

Escape From Usranob Station in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. The text maintains a single column format and some minor errors were noticed. Bar the colour maps and covers, there are no illustrations. Presentation is adequate.

There’s a definite impression that part of this adventure was missed out. The characters are sentenced, then are on a space station in a decaying orbit with the prisoners in revolt and most of the staff fled. It gives the impression that, for some odd reason, the characters have just been dropped off at a station in that state. Which makes no sense. There should probably have been a bit included talking about their arrival, incarceration and the rise of the current issues; it would have made the adventure seem more seamless. Other than that, the characters have to survive the current situation and collect the needed tokens. Escape From Usranob Station is an okay adventure and it can be found by clicking here.