148: Gravity Bridge
- I'm intrigued by the juxtaposition of mismatched tech, as something that has access to exotic matter but still uses fuel rods is rather schizoid. I'm going to be a little nit-picky in regards to your astronomical terminology; the Bridge is in geosynchronous orbit. I also wouldn't qualify its gravity rating and the vague threat against basketball players as a 'mechanic'. Definitely a nice hook.
- An excuse to have slimes, whose primary source of income seems to be selling blueprints for baby slimes. The biggest issue is that they don't bring more to the table than being weird & fragile punching bags. Their bodies are so fragile that they can be severely harmed by sitting down. Combined with their lack of thumbs, or other meat-space utility, it's hard to see them used as more than slightly eccentric hackers. And as we know, interacting with the hacking minigame in Eclipse Phase is listed under torture by the Geneva Conventions.
- A serial killer who started as an anorexic otaku. It certainly hits the sympathy buttons considering its inherent topic, but I'm not sufficiently educated to tell if it could be seen as offensive to real-life victims of body dysmorphia. The mysterious benefactor to permit something like this to persist long enough to have a plurality of victims is good thinking to keep this from being a semi-random.
- It's difficult to have the mental image of this thing not be a gremlin because of the use of Mogwai in the company title, but that's probably just showing my age. I really like the first and second seed as they contain both robust morality considerations, inherently inferred antagonists and resolutions, and a downright cute (but no less real) threat. The third seed is more of a "remember my otaku succubus?," than a mood lizard seed, though I suppose the hint that we now have a psychic Ianthe Complex thanks to the pet lizard makes up for it.
- As people who have been adults long enough to travel the Inner Sphere for a decade are being afflicted with identical mDNA, I don't think it's just the kids that "aren't alright." I'm not sure why it's assumed that Haal is assumed to be the criminal as opposed to a victim who was trying to investigate why he and others have the same mDNA, as the evidence suggests either scenario. Otherwise, it's a one page motivation for why the Johnson wants the party to break into a genebank, and it's not a good motivation, nor does it have any real stakes. Why can't the M2.0 Victims Network just buy a sample for analysis, since they're obviously wealthy enough to hire the PCs? Wouldn't a genebank implicitly scan any submitted material and keep a copy with it, which would make the cost of retrieval even easier?
- A block of stats for space-Javert, who seems to be underequipped for handling anyone with ties to the TITANs, so I predominantly see him as either a premade PC or a good contact within Firewall for the party.
- I like the fact that data has been balkanized and pock-marked, and Mars has been colonized long enough for a legitimate ecosystem of misfiled critters to roam about. And I can totally see the bigfoot hunter culture forming around it, so props on the useful world-building. The Aram Snail-Tortoise is downright cute as a generic exploration Maguffin, and the Borget Sunflower is a mini-hook on its own. I'm not sure why the Marsman is considered highly improbable by scientists, in a setting where morphs can be flying whales on Sol.
- This thing is nifty, as I see it's potential for turning into a mad-scientist convention, or at the very least an exceedingly valuable trove of MaGuffin data. It's certainly got a big heist feel about it.
- I totally appreciate the attempt to create something to interact with on Sol. I may disagree with corona-diving space whales in what is ostensibly a hard sci-fi setting, but it's not like I haven't run D&D adventures on the surface of a star before, and you certainly didn't invent them. The alien waypoint, sun cults, and mysterious gate coordinates are all great nice hooks to mess around with.
- For use in a campaign, it's a poignant touch of backstory for an NPC, so high marks for literary value. The stats seems kind of unnecessary given the purpose of the character in an adventure, and it could stand to have more meat on the hook.
- As acknowledged in Day 340, there aren't really mechanics for torture/interrogation, and for a legit reason. So having a 'drug' specifically interacting with the mechanics of interrogation is at odds. Flavour-wise, it's both amusing and a good delaying tactic.