Diaspora Strain - Preparation SPOILERS INCLUDED

[Wildschweinmama]

Hey,

gearing up on running this short adventure path at work.

I want to get them into the story right from the way (starting out with a new group and new characters) so I am considering building a simple website that might work as the app. Will be trying to give them as much info as possible to play around with around New Elysium.

What kind of pop culture inspiration did you use to describe and flesh out the different locations in the resort? Obviously thinking Fifth Element, Elysium and others, but I am sure there is more inspiration out there!
If I want to build that app, I need to get quite a detailed idea of lodgings, amenities... so any inspiration is welcome!

Thanks :) Excited to get this started!

[Davidblackbook]

Little update!

So we started the game, we play after work in little 1 1/2 hour sessions so doesn't move a long super quick but it is quite fun!

In terms of the prep I did, I really managed to make the "app" and it was GREAT! They absolutely loved it. Initially I was a bit worried they might think it is too much gadget for them but they were really impressed and loved it.

What I did:

I made a simply HTML website with different folders for each of the players. When they arrived at the Elysium, I handed out QR Codes they could scan and that would lead them to their part of the website (a little face recognition gif and it worked perfectly xD). In the app the would find their room description and they would all have like a voucher or another personal info and an ad for something.
In the navbar they could see a list of guests they know, access the Keys personal assistant and I made a map of the station with a list of all the locations.

Yeah, so big success on there! Obviously this is for personal use only so I used images from Google and won't be able to share what I've done, but if anyone is interested to see more, let me know!

I also made a showreel video with different ad clips for the amenities on site and I entered one for Pandora in there as well. I have it run in the background while playing so it kind of sticks in the heads of players for later on.

All of that went really well and so far it has been going well, even though they start to lack combat and explosions. In the last session they have finally encountered the first two Phantasms (Love interest and Monster sighting), so they are getting some action now ;)
They do want to kill Kane Zahphol though because he made a nasty comment to them during the opening gala. Did that happend with any of your players and if so, how did you handle it?

Also, how did you get them to accept the changes to their starship? I have a pilot technomancer in my group and he built a lot of the ship himself so he was like "Nah, won't take any upgrades from you guys" xD Not a big deal anyway, but just figuring, it does seem "too good to be true" comme offer...

Anyway, great adventure so far, lots of potential!

[Noven]

Hey can you share? I am running this next month and your app thing sounds cool af.

[Rorik]

Wow, that sounds fantastic. I wish I had thought of something like that for when I was running in Elysium. Any chance of showing a sample of what you did, maybe a video or some screenshots.

My players didn't like Kane at all for the same reason. Not sure why they didn't act on it.

For the starship upgrades, you can offer to let the technomancer supervise the install or even do it, just give them the parts. I had the upgrade happen in the first couple of days, and I had it take 8 hours total for the install. They were running back and forth to their ship the first couple of days, so they were able to keep an eye on the people upgrading the ship.

[Robofallgames]

The app stuff sounds amazing. I'm playing this game via roll20 so I might just do a bunch of journal tabs and stuff for it. Would love to see the map and showreel video you used. I'm prepping this campaign now and really want to give the place a great vibe to it.