[HOE] Biodome author replies

[VCVet@aol.com]

First off. let me say that with the Epitaph size really does matter, and 
unfortunately shorter is better.  The Biodome was lifted from an adventure 
called "How Does Your Garden Grow", and although I haven't yet seen a copy of 
the Epitaph and don't know how badly mangled it was, the Biodome was the 
final destination of the posse and there was a very clear reason for the 
posse to find out what was going on/get inside.  Taken completely out of 
context, as a stand-alone setting, I agree that there is no reason for the 
posse to go there or "win" the scenario.  I'll talk to PEG, and if anyone is 
interested contact me privately and I'll send you the full adventure, or 
maybe even put it up at Gimme Shelter after a suitable amount of time for 
ya'll to buy the Epitaph.  It had been playtested 3 times (Once at a con here 
in San Antonio), and everyone had a good time, so I'm sorry to hear that the 
presentation was less than adequate in the mag.

Jay Kyle

In a message dated 07/19/2000 11:32:19 AM Central Daylight Time, 
darrin@neobright.net writes:

<< Biodome looked like an interesting adventure, but despite a strong
 premise and some wonderful ideas, I wasn't very happy with the
 execution. To get *to* the Biodome, the PCs have to wade through
 literally an army of walkin' dead, and there is no attempt to make this
 endeavor worthwhile, the PCs can break off and hightail it away, and in
 fact would be seriously advised to do so if they had any common sense.
 There's just no compelling reason given to the PCs to wade through that
 many zombies. 
 
 Once inside the Biodome, the set-up is kind of interesting with the
 different ecologies, but nothing interesting was done with them, and
 there's no reason the PCs have to explore them at all, really. All the
 important stuff is in the Secret Basement Lab. Any PC who has ever
 played any horror RPG already *knows* all the cool stuff is in the
 basement and will probably rush there at the first opportunity. My main
 concern would be an experienced party "guessing" how the adventure is
 set up beforehand and taking shortcuts that could frustrate a GM that
 isn't on his toes. Drugging the PCs and giving them long odds on the
 saving throw is a big part of the plot, but fortunately railroading the
 PCs this way isn't exactly required, and the adventure does address what
 happens if most of the PCs manage to stay awake. The rest of the
 adventure is a poor excluse for an insane amount of combat with walkin'
 dead, which I guess is to expected in a HOE game, but the adventure
 seemed designed as unnecessarily hard for no good reason, especially
 since the rewards/payoff for the adventure is lame to nonexistant.
 
 And this bothered me... there's no real way to "win" this adventure for
 the PCs, other than to just survive. There's no real point to go to this
 biodome, and it's almost *IMPOSSIBLE* to get anything worthwhile out of
 this adventure.  >>