I think the arrival of the Android universe source book Shadow of the Beanstalk for the Genesys RPG system is imminent.

I’ve read online that one or two people who pre-ordered directly from FFG have notification that their order is on the way.

Which I’m hoping means that the copies stores will be sending out won’t be too far behind.

In the last few days a post has dropped looking at the source book from the point of view of the GM.

The original information announcing the Shadow of the Beanstalk only mentioned that there would be a chapter to help GM’s creature adventures.

Finally in the last post we are given a bit more meat to chew over before getting our grubby mitts on the book.

“The final chapter in Shadow of the Beanstalk describes how to bring these characters and situations to life as the Game Master. Through unique social encounters and an adventure builder included in the sourcebook, you can bring the conspiracies and intrigue of the Android universe to your tabletop.”

From the description below that FFG are giving us a system that works a bit like chose one from column a, one from column b, and one from column c, and that’s your unique adventure.

“Through selecting a variety of hooks, escalations, and climaxes provided in the book, Game Masters can create modular adventure frameworks, complete with twists, turns, and moral quandaries for the party to face. These modular adventure acts can be rejiggered and combined in new and interesting ways. A hook can be replayed several times with a completely different escalation and climax, resulting in a wildly different adventure. With enough change in set dressing, even the same old hook can feel completely different!”

From what I can tell we are still getting the three act structure (which will be covered in a bit more depth in an imminent post). Except they are calling them something different. The hook is Act 1, the escalation Act 2, and finally Act 3 is the climax.

In the post FFG give us a bit more info about each of the acts.

“No matter where your adventure is headed, it starts with the hook—a starting concept to get your players moving into a broader adventure. Each hook consists of three major parts; the primary goal, the challenges, and the twist. The primary goal is what your PCs are trying to accomplish, the challenges are what stand in the character’s way, the twist is an unexpected complication that take characters by surprise. These hooks can range from an airplane heist job to tracking down a rogue experimental clone, and they simply form the basis for an adventure.

An escalation is a rise, either in the stakes or in the difficulty of the adventure, and it’s usually the point where the waters of morality beomce muddy. There is often a plot twist of some kind that shows the players that the milk run they signed up for isn’t as cut and dried as advertised. Perhaps a third party gets involved in the job—whether it’s a rival corporation or an orgcrime faction, this complicates things for your players and creates new challenges.”

Finally, the climax generally represents how the most powerful organization involved wants to attempt to resolve the issue. This organization is probably a powerful corporation or orgcrime faction, but it could also be a religious group or a government. It could be that a higher-up just discovered the actions of their underlings, and orders a radically different course of action. Perhaps the organization decides to cut their losses, silencing everyone involved in the operation, or maybe they decide to place their bets in court, calling in the NAPD to cause trouble for everyone involved. While the climax represents how the most powerful organization wants events to unfold, the players still have the agency to determine how their adventure will end.

With a full data vault of hooks, escalations, and climaxes to choose from and improvise with, Shadow of the Beanstalk is the perfect starting point to your own cyberpunk adventure in the Android universe or beyond!”

It’s interesting that there wasn’t this equivalent chapter in the Terrinoth source book. Maybe FFG assume that with the wealth of fantasy based content out there that there was less of a need.

But this final chapter does sound like an interesting and welcome addition to the tools that a GM can use for creating their adventures in the Android universe. I particularly like the improvise they mention. Being able to quickly make up an adventure on the fly in response to players decisions will be a great tool to have if needed. I can see it being handy for generating one off adventures for the “gaps” between story arcs of an ongoing campaign.

While I’ve been writing these posts on creating a campaign and adventures I’ve been giving more thought to my plans for my first time as a GM and my first steps in the Android universe.

At about the same time as the source book drops, I’m expecting that the taster adventure will also go up on their website. My guess is that this will be the two part adventure they took to GenCon and Pax Unplugged.

So before I go full knees deep in, I want to see what this taster adventure is like. The plan is to run this first.

Where the taster adventure finishes, and the feelings of the group will dictate the further planning.

For me there are some nice events and themes within the Android universe that I’d like to explore or act as a back drop to a campaign/adventure. I’ll probably talk about those in another post also. FFG have such a rich setting in the Android universe, I can’t wait to share it with others.