Consequences Phoenix scenarios have the reputation (not necessarily justified) of Pandora’s Box. While there is Hope somewhere inside, the perception is that evils will be visited on anyone opening it. Consequently, the game is littered with unfinished scenarios often terminated after a handful of investigations the final one warning of the dangers of going further. The scenarios, cunningly crafted from an amalgam of decades of influential sci-fi books, films, roleplaying and an occasional ale, end up getting dumped like a rather good ‘cowboys in space’ box set. So why warn players? The difference between GM’ing and writing a novel is that the protagonists in a book don’t get a say in what happens and what’s more, they can’t stop just because it isn’t hoots and giggles the entire time (with the exception of Thrud the Barbarian who ended one of his cartoon strips by ripping the arm off the narrating artist). If the GM does not warn a player of the possible consequences of their continued activity, they run the risk of a revolt. Being accused of being a bastard is one thing, actually being one is quite another. It smacks of favouritism and bias which is no way to run any game.

We’re very careful to plant information though sometimes obscure, that will advise players of potential pitfalls as well as hint at bounties. Sometimes these are ignored or more often than not there is a change in playerbase ‘[a]nd some things that should not have been forgotten were lost’. This can lead to the new players only being aware of the benefits and ploughing ahead, tapping the resource for all its worth.

Here’s an extract from an investigation that relates to this issue’s short story: The blueprint indicates that it is no accident that the mind is housed in the torus of the fusion generator as the spike energy bleeds off into subspace which masks the subspace output from the stasis chamber generated when subjected to stimuli. Even when the stimuli are augmented through the use of celesium, the prodigious subspace output is still partially masked. This may explain why the ARC are aware of the mind even if they have not been able to fully determine where it is. I wonder if the player discovering this grain of sand in the pearl passed it on to those commissioning the upgrade of the Nation’s entire naval and merchant fleet – all boosted by the use of celesium? Too subtle? The system is called End Game and the world Beacon… Anyway, the players are now looking forward to a rather spiffing diplomatic fallout.