S.O.S. 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 21 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 interstellar law requires ship captains to respond to distress calls and the potential hazards of doing such, which is why many delete them on receipt. The characters get a distress call from a system on the edge of the Sonora sector – the adventure is set in the Frontiers of Space – which they may choose to investigate.
Patron explains that there isn’t one.
Complications are the various things which can go wrong or which aren’t known.
Omarus V has some details on the planet.
The Crash Site of the Sea Dragon covers the wreckage of the ship that sent the distress call.
World Map Key covers several important areas on the planet.
Random Encounters on Omarus V has a 2d6 table of random encounters.
The Caves details the caves where the survivors are hiding out.
Survival on this World briefly cover this.
The Survivors has stats for the handful of survivors.
Slavers Space Craft has details on the ship being used by slavers.
The Slavers Roster has stats for these.
Prisoners has the stats for those currently captured by the slavers.
Strange Creatures and Plants of Omarus V has stats for animals and details of plants.
Hazards of Omarus V has details on the dangers, which is basically sandstorms.
The final two pages of content have maps of the world and of the caves.
S.O.S. in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a single column format and some minor errors were noticed. Bar the maps and covers, there are no illustrations. Presentation is okay.
The essential goal of this adventure is for the characters to rescue the crash survivors and deal with the slavers in some way, possibly by avoiding them, possibly by killing them and freeing their prisoners. The only real reward is if the slaver ship is captured. There is also the chance that players may simply decide to ignore the distress call and delete it from their logs; the GM would perhaps be advised to come up with some incentive in the call to get the characters invested. S.O.S. can be found by clicking here.
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