Dawn Adventures 1: The Subterranean Oceans of Argos Prime
From: Gypsy Knights Games
Reviewed by: Ron McClung

Dawn Adventures 1: The Subterranean Oceans of Argos Prime is a new RPG Adventure from Gypsy Knights Games .

The Dawn Subsector is the frontier of the frontier; the fringe of the Clement Sector which has had only a few hundred years to develop.  There is a lot of mystery that surrounds what lies in the Tranquility Sector and any adventure based in it needs to have that feel.  Dawn Adventures 1, as the name implies, is the first adventure based in the new subsector from Gypsy Knights Games.  If adventuring in the politically charged worlds of the Clement Sector is not enough, this is where players go to escape all that and find new ways to adventure.

The adventure starts out with a general overview of the Dawn Subsector and the planet Argos Prime.  Much of this is reprinted from the Dawn Subsector book, containing a lot of scientific data as well as general notes on the culture and politics of the planet.  The more I read into these types of books, the more I wonder how much of it is meaningful to a GM and a role-playing group.  I would imagine that one of the things that turns people off from Traveller in general is the level of detail put into the science of a planet.  Gypsy Knights Games is no different in this.  I can understand why it’s done, but I can also see ways to improve on it.  I would prefer a little about what this data means to me as a GM and how it affects they way I portray the world to the characters.  With a little research, a GM can find out the values of Earth to compare and I highly recommend that.  Comparing those numbers does help, but I think it would also help if more meaning was put into those numbers in the given material.

Argos Prime is an interesting world.  It’s very cold on the surface but has an interesting lower surface beneath the ice in places that humans have exploited and colonized.  These ice “windows” have a very epic feel and gives you an alien sense. There is one city and various small settlements, and a handful of mining corporations that are competing for the resources of Argos Prime.  The players are sent by the Cascadia Colonization Authority (CCA) to help with a new colony survey.  There is a saucer-shaped ship supplied in the material, nicely mapped and stat’ed out.  There are also a good number of pregenerated characters with connections and background at the end of the adventure, perfect for a convention game.

From the website:
“On the fringes of colonized space, settlers struggle on recently discovered worlds for land to call their own.  One such planet is Argos Prime, where the dangers of a new world are in contrast to the world’s unique natural beauty.”

The players set out on behalf of CCA’s ally, L-Limited, to survey several sites on the planet.  A variety of random encounters can happen and these are laid out nicely in encounters tables.  However, these encounters are nothing compared to the epic one that is at the heart of the adventure.  How it is presented is very interesting, making this adventure very re-playable.

The GM has to decide a couple of things before running this adventure.  First off, the epic event is a disaster and without giving too much away, the GM basically has to decide how bad of a disaster is going to happen. A calamity of events occur that causes serious problems on the surface and it is up to the GM to decide how bad things are.  However, many believe this was no accident and the players are hired to investigate.

From the website:
“The crew of CCA-336 have been asked by their superiors in the Cascadia Colonization Authority to go to Argos Prime to survey the world for a possible expansion of the colony.  Can they survive the natural dangers, angry locals, and maneuver through local politics as well?”

Many suspects are available for the players to choose from and there is no single path that the GM has to railroad the players down.  Motivations and alibis are given, but it is up to the GM to formulate what exactly happened.  The GM has a lot of creative motives to choose from and it can make for a very interesting adventure in so many different ways.

In conclusion, this is one of the more well-written adventures Gypsy Knights Games has put out and I admire the innovativeness.  It does have that frontier feel to it that I was hoping for and it also has a certain level of epic-ness that is sometimes lacking in Traveller adventures.

For more details on Gypsy Knights Games and their new RPG Adventure “Dawn Adventures 1: The Subterranean Oceans of Argos Prime” check them out at their website http://www.gypsyknightsgames.com/

Codex Rating: 16

Product Summary

Dawn Adventures 1: The Subterranean Oceans of Argos Prime
From: Gypsy Knights Games
Type of Game: RPG Adventure
Written by: George Ebersole
Editted by: Curtis Rickman
Art by: Ian Stead, John Watts
Number of Pages: 53
Game Components Included: One PDF
Game Components Not Included: Core Traveller book, Core Clement Sector setting books
Retail Price: $5.99 (US)
Website: http://www.gypsyknightsgames.com/

Reviewed by: Ron McClung

Gypsy Knights GamesScience FictionTraveller

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About the author

Ron McClung (Ron McClung)

Gaming Coordinator for all MACE events. Former writer for GamingReport.com and Scrye Magazine.