Snake Oil 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 talk about a new product in the Sonora sector – the adventure is set in the Frontiers of Space – a drug that is said to cure just about anything, and which a number of planets have recently put on their forbidden list, meaning that, thanks to the demand, there is now money to be made from shipping it to those worlds, and the characters are employed to do just that.
Patron has details on the employer.
Crerudat has details on the destination world.
Complications are things that are not known or can go wrong; given the characters are smuggling a drug that doesn’t do what it is claimed to do to a world where it’s illegal, there are plenty of potential problems.
Encounters in the Crerudat System has a 2d6 encounter table and various ships to encounter.
Starport has details on Crerudat’s starport.
Landing Somewhere Else on the Planet looks at other places the characters could land.
The Workers on Crerudat looks at these and the chances of them starting a riot.
Random Workers Table is a 2d6 table of these.
The Representative is the patron’s representative that the characters are meeting and the chances of the meeting being raided.
Crerudat Law Enforcement is a 2d6 table of cops.
Opportunities has suggestions of other ways the characters could benefit.
Mission Completion explains that this is delivering the shipment and getting paid for it.
Snake Oil 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 a comparatively simple though potentially dangerous adventure for characters with at least some flexibility in their morality, given what they are doing. If everything goes to plan and there are no complications, the adventure will be straightforward enough, though there are quite a few things that can go wrong. Snake Oil can be found by clicking here.
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