MOTHERSHIP - Brackish After Action Report (part 2/2)
Back with part 2 to my after action report for Brackish by Norgad; you can find Part 1 here. The quick summary is the PCs were well into their investigation and just had their first encounter with the monster before ending the session. I’ll discuss overall thoughts above the spoiler line for anyone considering Brackish without ruining it.
Overall Thoughts
Brackish is excellent fun in a two session story. The objective is easy for the players to understand (even if the next step isn’t immediately clear) and each room adds to the themes and story they are discovering through play. The environmental complication was a fun wrinkle to watch the PCs navigate (although cumbersome at the table) and the monster was not only memorable but easy to run as the Warden. The players also enjoyed the “camera recordings” they had to physically draw and the artifact we created together.
We needed about a session and a half to get through the bulk of the module which left plenty of time for the in-game debrief (and payout!). We also had extra time for a player debrief to discuss their thoughts on the module. I think you would be hard-pressed to fit this into a single session without cutting some rooms and personnel that need to be accounted for. Going beyond two sessions is likewise a stretch because there’s still only 14 rooms to explore.
Overall, Brackish was fun to run as a first-time Warden and I will likely run it again for a different group of players from our community, especially now that my initial prep is already done.
SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT
To quickly summarize the PCs actions, they spent time investigating the flooding and draining cycles and made a push down to the lower levels where the marine become isolated and was killed by Flotsam. That player took over the only survivor (Cedric Branch) and rejoined the party. They continued their quest of getting the reactor running again but through that process was able to locate and (almost) identify everybody, so in the end it wasn’t really necessary. They escaped and received a reduced payout, failing to identify Wilmer Rocha, whose body had been obliterated with a laser cutter, and failed to provide convincing evidence of the two personnel that escaped (“It’s not what you know, it’s what you can prove!”).
During Prep
- I only needed about 10 minutes of prep for session 2 which is a statement on the module’s ease of use at the table.
During Play
- Flotsam being able to stalk the PCs via reflections was excellent for controlling pacing and tension, particularly the ocean-facing observation windows where Flotsam could taunt them without being shot at. Emphasis on reflections can also be subverted when the players are in a “safe room” and don’t realize Flotsam can appear next door and just start opening the door.
- I changed the facility’s flood/drain heartbeat to a 30min timer to be easier to use during play by marking each level with both times that water level reaches them (i.e. the water level is at the top of Lower Observation at :10 and :50). It was a simple solution that quickly answered “how flooded is this room” without having to track 20min cycles.
- Letting a player take over the sole survivor simplified the scenario. He was able to ID many of the bodies, but we still had the fun confusion of Nick Larson dying his hair (I ruled that Cedric didn’t know he wasn’t naturally blonde). I’m not sure I can recommend this for every group but was the right move for us with regards to the story and pacing at the time.
- The decision to shift missing coolant to missing fuel for the reactor created a fun problem solving exercise after they located it. It was too heavy to just be carried up a ladder so they had to get up to the gantry crane as the water level was rising. The environmental threat created great tension and they actually had to go up an additional level to get ahead of the water.
- On the flip side, the decision to shift coolant to fuel probably took to long to achieve and by the time they moved the fuel to Engineering, they had already ID’d everyone and gave a half-hearted attempt to install it before just bailing.
- I asked the players afterwards about the fairness of the debrief and payout, especially since they knew what happened but couldn’t prove it. They felt it was fair and didn’t feel like a “gotcha”. One player brought up the fact that the camera wasn’t with the PC making some of the discoveries which created the dilemma of going back or just saying good enough.
- Minor quibble: if the PCs use the ventilation access in Engineering to get to Equipment Storage, it doesn’t call out how it is blocked by a body and dive locker until the end of the room descriptions, after I have already described everything else in the room. A simple note in Engineering’s description fixes that though.