Tal's Spacebar

A tutorial is an important part of many games, not least because it is often one of the first points of contact new players have with it.

Ideally it should not only explain the mechanics of the game, but also convey an image of the greater world of the setting. As well as the general feeling of a game.

REKT is probably not going to be an expection to it. And so far pretty much all major content came from the brain of our own resident wordsmith, Tal. (For which I am very grateful because he just has a knack for storytelling...).

Though I also feel like a tutorial for a project like REKT is not going to be aimed at new players, but also aspiring Story Masters.

And while I certainly do not really have the experience to work something out well and proper I cannot stop my brain from going through the paces on its own...So for the moment I would like to present an idea, as well as the thoughts I hopefully had behind it.
Admittedly, it is not the most creative idea, but perhaps it can spur the brains of more capable peoples.

The scene starts with the players leaving a transport ship docked to a modified Tartarus ship, refitted as a training center.
SCAMPS has informed you that the higher ups intend to use the location to train more promising inmates to increase general effectiveness of squads in identifying and retrieving interesting tech, and as such it has been kept under wraps.

The players can then be confronted with different scenarios, depending on the SM and or the skills and abilities of the Player Characters.
Things like a gauntlet to avoid turrets until a hacker reaches a panel to disable it, a small battle against drones or a combination.

My own scenario would probably be a fight against a number of weak drones, perhaps in one or two waves, or with a stronger drone. If the squad has a dedicated hacker said boss could be given a debuff via the mechanic, for example. The arena also features some terrain players can use for cover or parcours. It might also feature a chasm that would be great for dropping enemies into, if it wasn't conveniently barred .
A lucky or attentive hacker might notice that the ship's systems are strange. Some things, even unrelated to the simulated challenges, seem to be too easy to hack, though SCAMPS stops the players from doing to. Heck, with a good enough roll the players might also find that while things like sensors, comms, or such can be hacked surprisingly easily, they can also be discretely re-activated deeper within the background systems.
If hacking does not work out, players can also overhear dialogue between other characters on the ship. An unfortunately placed vent might allow players to overhear REKT veterans, who speculate about their presence on the ship, and how it makes little sense why they should be on a training ship.

Ultimately the training ship is attacked by a MIMIR force, who somehow found out about Tartarus' "center for future top operatives", and they can't have that, can they? Naturally they have managed to hack the vulnerable ship systems, to try and keep Tartarus in the dark.

So now we have more dynamic combat against smarter enemies in more varied environments. Damaged arenas, a mess hall, a hangar, whatever. Players may encounter or see other NPC's moving around as well, intercepting raiders, perhaps even aiding the players during short scenes. Perhaps a medic might just randomly drop by after a fight, who knows?
SCAMPS informs the players via suit comms that the MIMIR raid has been split up and engaged by Tartarus forces. The player squad is now tasked with getting aboard a docked command vessel and either hack it directly, or give SCAMPS a link to do the hacking themselves, to get information on how MIMIR found out.

Ultimately the scenario is that the whole training ship is just a ploy to find a mole within Tartarus' ranks and that information was controlled in ways to cut down on the number of potential culprits.

Why do I think it could serve as either an introduction or a one-shot?

• The scenario is not too exotic, players as well as SM's can be eased into the game with things that are typically more familiar with people.
• The scenario is already basically featured within an artificial environment. So the SM can more easily change scenes either by themselves or using potential challenges given in the book. A lot can be done under this consideration without it feeling unnatural to participants.
• The background of the scenario can be foreshadowed in a lot of ways. People can be allowed to find clues easier or harder, or be kept in the dark as long as the SM wants to.
• Given the training ship as a stage, it is also easier for the SM to guide players around a bit. Naturally unneccessary railroading is bad, but I think there's enough space for the SM to put their own spin in, as well as enough constraints to give newcomers safety wheels.

So those are my rough thoughts for today. Writing things is not my forte, but perhaps something interesting can come from this.

So if more people have more ideas or suggestions, we could perhaps find a way to ease people into the game who are not as intimately familiar with the world and storybuilding.

That scenario indeed seems like a fun introduction mission!

So, thinking about how to do this response... You put a lot of time into it (obviously) and I want to give it the attention it deserves.

Obviously there needs to be an intro scenario. This is something I've thought about for a long time. It's not optional and I even mentioned it in the intro chapter to the corebook (preemptively):

At the end of the book, in the Appendix, you'll find printouts for character sheets (a blank one for photocopying and six starter inmates), as well as a fleshed out, 90-minute "Starter Mini-mission" that you can use to help ease everyone into REKT - regardless of whether they've played a tabletop RPG before. The blank sheets are ready to hand out to players after they understand the rules so they can make their very own inmates.

There is a lot riding on this one tutorial. It needs to be a masterpiece - a mastercrafted example of REKT play condensed into an hour and a half of REKT, and it needs to grab players so hard that it leaves them begging for more. Every pregen character must be designed so well that you would not be at all unhappy if you kept playing them for the rest of the campaign BUT not so well that you aren't tempted to craft your own.

All of this means that there's a huge list of requirements (in no particular order):

• It must feel exclusively REKT. You must be able to look at any part of the tutorial and say "Oh yeah. This is REKT and not <other sci-fi setting>"

• It has to reflect REKT's core values - desperate, gritty, shot through with a streak of hope.

• It needs to be tense, personal, full of consequence right from the first dice roll - that's what REKT is, after all. It's set in a huge galaxy, but the focus is the characters.

• We don't want to follow tropes. The setting must be something new and unique, but the mission must be, too. Remember, we're aiming to leave a lasting impression and we only have an hour and a half to do it.

• It can't feel so alien that we need to infodump at any point - we don't have time for that. It must be uniquely REKT, but also familiar.

• It needs to be fun and engaging.

• It needs to have a story focus, because really, the real focus in REKT is the story.

• Needs to get the players comfortable with roleplaying and social rolls.

• It must be usable as an intro to a campaign proper if the players decide they want to

• It needs to be possible to complete in an hour and a half by new players

• It needs to touch on different types of combat.

• It must be very much on rails/have all outcomes planned. You cannot trust a first-time Storymaster to make the correct decisions in a game they aren't familiar with.

• It cannot handhold. At all. Players don't get their hands held in regular REKT, so we can't train them to believe they'll have that in regular REKT.

• It needs to showcase player agency. This is at odds with "be on rails" but... we gotta do it. One of the big selling points of REKT is that your choices matter, so we have to have choices even in a 90-minute demo.

• No plot armor. Allow failures - we're not going to kill anyone in the first 90 minutes, but even if things go horribly wrong, we want a good conclusion to the story.

• Every pregen character must have a chance to shine.

• It must be okay to not include pregen characters - we don't know if we're going to have a group of six or a group of three.

• We need a moment of big, cinematic awe. That's like a core component of REKT - those massive pulpy backdrops that make you go "holy shit" - like watching a megaturret collapse, or losing gravity during a fight, or watching spacetime shatter because you punched a hole somewhere you weren't supposed to.

• The players really ought to walk away with a sense of mystery. We want them to want to know more about the universe, even if they never read a word of the corebook yet.

• Replay value: If you can't play this mission multiple times for different outcomes, it's not a good plan. Returning groups ought to feel they can find something new if they want to take a different path.

• End with a hook. We want it to feel like the party's only just starting.

• And more! There are other things I know I'm not thinking of right now.

So... all of this leads into... is this (what you've suggested) a good introduction mission?

Ultimately... I don't really believe so. The core idea is sound, but the layout leaves a lot to be desired. For starters, "The training mission goes off the rails" has been done before pretty regularly. here's a link to the TVTropes page. Tropes are Not Bad, but we don't want to lean on them for something so core. A genre-savvy player will look at "training mission" and immediately say "Yeah something's going to go wrong." Then when it actually does, that's not a positive feeling.

So instead of waiting for it to happen, we should probably make it happen right from the start. I would throw the inmates partway into their first mission - or, alternatively, have an intro where they aren't even officially part of REKT yet - though that makes it a bit shakier to continue as a campaign. My initial thoughts would be to set it on a mining colony near the rim right as shit hits the fan - an alien attack, or spacetime going a little wonky. We want twists - something like "actually it's not aliens - someone's trying to start a war" or something like that. We want desperation and tension and consequence.

To put that last bit another way: The players are not heroes here. They are survivors. They are not powering their way through the 90-minute session - we want to give them the appearance of struggling through it, without the risk of actually dying. They need to feel alone, so we don't want anyone dropping by to patch them up. This means they'll need combat suits, so we'll introduce those very early on. We'll include an NPC with them - a civilian without said combat suit - so they understand the difference between having a combat suit and not. We want them to respect their combat suit and the power it gives them. (Spoiler: we're going to at least injure the NPC a little bit and the storymaster is going to show the difference of having a combat suit and not having one. A single shotgun round to a combat suit does 2/3/4, but without? a double-barrel shot does 8/12/16 damage.)

Planning out the whole thing is going to take a LOT of thought. That's why I've put it off. I can easily throw any sort of oneshot together, but this one has to be a masterpiece.

Also... we don't want it to feel like a tutorial, and yours feels a bit like a videogame tutorial. That risks making the players think of REKT more as a videogame and less as a storytelling medium. My absolute ideal would be to have them get attached to at least one character and have them watch in horror as something happens to it. Maybe that civilian I mentioned earlier.

I have nothing set in stone yet. Just vague ideas. But... this should give you a better idea of what I'm looking for. This one mission is a dreadful balancing act. Feels like walking a tightrope.

( And I am always looking for ideas to help this tightrope-walk go a little more smoothly. )

Wall of Text begets wall of text begets...well, we'll see...

Starting out, I do not want to sound negative or dismissive.

Talvieno wrote: Sat Jul 05, 2025 4:33 pm

There is a lot riding on this one tutorial.
[...]
So... all of this leads into... is this (what you've suggested) a good introduction mission?

I agree with what you detailed about what the be-all-end-all intro should entail.
I also never claimed that the scenario would, or could serve as this kind of tutorial. But instead as
a) a potential starting point for discussion, perhaps finding good points, marking bad points and seeing if perhaps something could be used or done with it. If the question from the start was "What should we use for the best RPG intro that ever was" I would have waited for descriptions and suggestions from those who have more experience with it.
b) a possible tutorial mission, because REKT lends itself for many things. Not every session or campaign has to be dangerous and gritty.
c) a scenario that could work for people who are absolutely new to TTRPG's in general. My own experiences are, in terms of time, nearly exclusively REKT under your wings. And I still consider myself as a novice in the art in general.

Talvieno wrote: Sat Jul 05, 2025 4:33 pm

A genre-savvy player will look at "training mission" and immediately say "Yeah something's going to go wrong." Then when it actually does, that's not a positive feeling.

Fair point. Though not neccessarily worthless, imo.

Talvieno wrote: Sat Jul 05, 2025 4:33 pm

So instead of waiting for it to happen, we should probably make it happen right from the start
[...]

As mentioned, I probably cannot compare to your vision. It also sounds like an interesting scenario for a one-shot

Talvieno wrote: Sat Jul 05, 2025 4:33 pm

we want to give them the appearance of struggling through it, without the risk of actually dying. They need to feel alone, so we don't want anyone dropping by to patch them up.

Not to be overly negative here...but reading through the points you made about the ideal contents and the small ideas you wrote down...do you really expect someone new to SMing to hit the rather delicate balances you describe?

Talvieno wrote: Sat Jul 05, 2025 4:33 pm

Also... we don't want it to feel like a tutorial, and yours feels a bit like a videogame tutorial. That risks making the players think of REKT more as a videogame and less as a storytelling medium.

Something, to be frank, I was aware of when writing the scenario, again under the consideration of dealing with people unfamiliar with either playing or SMing a TTRPG.
My original idea was mostly about supplying something that would not throw them into the deep water right from the start, but offers at least a certain level of familiarity.

Talvieno wrote: Sat Jul 05, 2025 4:33 pm

I have nothing set in stone yet. Just vague ideas. But... this should give you a better idea of what I'm looking for. This one mission is a dreadful balancing act. Feels like walking a tightrope.

Indeed, it's a tightrope kind of dance that is required. And that is very much the problem.

I probably should have clarified it more clearly, that the described idea was more based on the assumption that we were dealing with newcomers to the scene. As rich as your worldbuilding is, it is also easily overwhelming, which should be kept in mind.

As a sidenote, I am aware that you are limited in terms of what can be reasonably added to the corebook.

I expected criticism, and I do agree with most points you have made.
Admittedly I also had hoped for insights and ideas from other people, because a start has to be made at some point.

I will also think / rethink further points when it is not getting late and my thoughts are getting bit jumbled...so leaving this standing for now.