First Target

The party has informed me their first order of business planetside will be infiltrating a TerraSec facility to try to recover more information about their plot hooks. This requires me to build a TerraSec station, and a major one this time. My 26x26 square battle mat may not be up to the task, but I do not have a good surface for my 46x96 MondoMat (that's pretty much a convention toy.) All those issues, however, are secondary; first I need to think about the purpose of this adventure.

I've asked my players to CC me on their emails regarding their plans for the next session, so that I could meet their expectations. I know their primary goal is to find more information on the Word of Blake bioweapons program in Montana. Simon has a personal goal to find out what happened to Alexei, if TerraSec knows anything. Shin wants to find and relay information that will be useful for the ComGuard's next attempt to retake the planet. Finally, Alex wants to get more information on any of the intercepts they got, as well as raid any weapons and equipment they might have access to.

So I need to provide at least the following elements in the TerraSec building:

1. More information on the plot hooks.
2. Considerably more information on the bioweapons program, or at least where to find it.
3. A dossier on Alexei (perhaps an opportunity to grow his character more)
4. Information on the fate of the 394th, 166th, and other ComGuard units that made planetfall.
5. A new gun or other toy for the party.

I looked at a few pictures of existing Police Headquarters (I've spend very little time in them myself), and etched out an office space. Mostly desks, a few cells, an armory, a computer room, a break room, a locker room. Ingress and egress -- two doors, one to the lobby and a locked back entrance. Overall the building gives the impression of the bureaucratic center of a police organization, more than a functioning precinct. For the purposes of this adventure, that's what I want. It is very easy to get caught up in one aspect of planning, such as map-making, so it is important to not spend too much time on one part.

A big part of this adventure is going to be recovering documents of different types. I need to enumerate which documents need to be written. Again, we need one for each plot hook, and the Bioweapons hook needs to be lengthier and contain more information if possible, but I want them to have an idea of where to go for any of the hooks. The documents on the 394th are pretty easy -- they get mashed by the 9th Division, possibly with Manei Domini support. A dossier on Alexei should be interesting... I may have to come up with something remarkable, but I can't imagine what right now. I'll meditate on that one.

Finally, selecting a toy; something that rewards the party for their efforts. Right now the party's main danger is taking damage, so I think the first reward they'll get is some body armor, and incidentally a few service pistols if they want to take them. The heavier stuff will be locked away elsewhere, but a bit of armor should get them on their way.