Turning Point 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 an 18 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 there are some unsolved mysteries in the Sonora sector – the adventure is set in the Frontiers of Space – and one related to a statue of a humanoid head and a metal wheel. The characters are hired to help an archaeologist solve the mystery.
Patron has details on the employer.
Dadobka has some details on the planet, which has been recently annexed by a sector polity.
Complications has things that are not known, problems or which can go wrong. The last one explains that when the characters dial a combination into the metal wheel, the statue will announce it is a guardian of time and that the characters can step through to the past to make a change.
The Ancient Alien Relic says that after the adventure the relic might be used again, or taken possession of by authorities.
Time Travel is on the theory of it.
Changing Time looks at what might happen if it’s changed, with a 2d6 table of various possible changes.
Solving the Puzzle explains that though one could be used for the players to solve, the patron already believes they can.
The Turning Point Scenario has the characters travelling back in time to another planet about two centuries ago where they may choose to kill a dictator, along with a d6 table of potential negative consequences from killing him and another for killing anyone else.
Game Master Note has some other potential time travel missions, most for Earth but one for the original Star Trek (though not stated, this adventure bears some definite similarities to the TOS episode “The City on the Edge of Forever”) and one for Star Wars.
Game Master Note Two explains that there is a lot for the GM to develop, as only important NPCs are included in the scenario, and there are no maps other than one of the world.
Mission Completion explains that the patron will be happy with one trip through time and one change done. He isn’t bothered by the consequences but others may be and may come seeking those who changed things. How they would know things have been changed isn’t explained.
The final page of content has a map of the scenario planet.
Turning Point 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 map and covers, there are no illustrations. Presentation is okay.
This is a very bare bones adventure, with even the included time travel scenario requiring quite a bit of extra work to flesh out. In addition, changing the past could, as mentioned, have major knock-on effects; the GM might prefer to ignore these unless they want to do some major changes to their setting. Time travel as a whole is a difficult thing to integrate into a non-time travel campaign if it can really change the past, making this adventure somewhat difficult to use. Turning Point can be found by clicking here.
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