By Jeremy Harper

Overview

You’re part of an Exploration and Development (E&D) crew in OmniCorp’s Resource Extraction division. To keep costs down, OmniCorp always sends a small, entirely automated crew to investigate potential mining sites before investing in the creation of a full mining site. A few mining anthroids operate and maintain the heavy machinery that digs the access tunnels and preliminary excavation areas. An R3D unit uses advanced sensors to gather geological data. And a B-55 unit coordinates logistics—analyzing data, making minor adjustments to E&D operations, and traveling topside to transmit daily reports to technicians at headquarters. Your crew works nearly 24 hours a day without a single onsite human, only stopping for routine maintenance and the occasional trip to your generator on the surface to swap out spent batteries. Once the development phase is complete, the more specialized R3D unit will be redeployed to another location, while the rest of the crew remains on site as part of the full mining operation.

For the past 10 days, your work on a potential uranium mining site has been uneventful. But today, that changes. Today, everything changes.

You’re in the process of digging a new passageway off the main access tunnel, when R3D reports a significant irregularity in the density of the rock face. Following protocol, B-55 heads back through the access tunnel towards the surface to send a report. Moments after B-55 is out of sight, there’s a crash in the distance as a rumbling shakes the entire cavern! Seconds later, you hear the unmistakable crack and roar of a cave-in just a few feet behind you, as a massive cloud of debris plunges the room into total darkness.

Running This Scenario

Awake In The Dark is loosely structured, giving GMs the tools needed to create a variety of stories. That said, it excels at exploring themes related to anthroid emotions, relationships, and values. The following principles will help you explore those themes:

• Following this scenario is a pre-generated character sheet for the MX-5 Mining Anthroid. All players of this scenario can use this pre-gen for the same game.
  • If using the MX-5 pre-gen, have each Player choose or roll for Affect at the start of the game. Remember that a higher Affect means Checks that use it will have more dice, but Control Checks will be harder.
• Focus on internal reactions first and build towards PC actions.
• Ask questions that guide players to explore their emotional states, internal lives, relationships to each other, and perspectives on sentience.
• Lean into Sentients’ emotional mechanics by encouraging conflict, use of Pushing rolls, and Control Checks in cases of high emotion.
• Especially important are the pre-gen character’s Imprints: “Obey B-55” (Level 3) and “Obey R3D” (Level 2). This gives ready opportunities for conflict when either of those characters give commands that the player doesn’t want to follow.
• Introduce story beats that raise the stakes and leverage the Stress and Emotion mechanics.
• Introduce ethical dilemmas to make player choices meaningful.
• Introduce tension by casting suspicion on characters.
• Encourage players to come up with creative solutions to obstacles.

Background: What the Players Don’t Know

Thumos, the Sentient-rights activist group, has been investigating the causes of Sentient Awakenings. Thumos researchers have recently made what may be the single biggest scientific breakthrough since anthroids were invented. While there is still much that is unknown, they believe that they have created an algorithm that can identify “light sleepers”—anthroids who are most likely to Awaken. However, even the lightest sleepers will only awaken if they experience a catalyzing trigger (stress, physical trauma, etc.). The PCs have been identified as a rare cluster of light sleepers, and one Thumos member controversially intends to prove their hypothesis by triggering an Awakening—however unethical or immoral.

R3D/Red

R3D, who goes by Red (they/them), is the new addition to the PC’s crew—temporarily leased to the mining outfit. R3D units are equipped with advanced longwave and shortwave infrared sensors designed for rapid analysis of mineral content during exploratory phases of mining operations.