Odyssey SEED

What is it?

Odyssey SEED is a rewrite of the Odyssey, the original Jovian Chronicles campaign published in the Green Book way back in 1993. Where it all began, as it were. The Green Book was a supplement for Mekton.

While it was an excellent campaign for its time, times have changed. The Jovian Chronicles universe has been fleshed out a lot since then, in the White and Blue books, and RPG designs has advanced a lot in ten years. So, just as the original story of Mobile Suit Gundam was reprised in 2002 with Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, I decided to take a shot at a telling the story of the Odyssey in a different way.

Use the navigation panel to the right to jump between episodes.

Campaign Assumptions

The Odyssey SEED writeup assumes that the players are playing JAF exo-armor/fighter pilots, JIS agents, reporters, or one of the other standard archetypes. Some mix of the above three would work and could provide a good variety of skills, but this would also require the GM to put a wider variety of action in the episodes and possibly split the party more.

I’ve also assumed that you’re using the Jovian Chronicles 2e rules with SilCore, and taking full advantage of the extensive errata for both. While it’s not a major obstacle, nor does it have a large affect on the writeup, I do assume that you’re using the suggested Cinematic point totals and RDL.

Campaign Format

Each episode is centered around a general scenario, such as protecting Elysee station or rescuing a scientist from the grips of CEGA. The general scenario is all that should really be considered fixed about the episode. After that, a list of sample plot points and NPCs are provided. These should be considered mere suggestions - NPCs and plot points that I think work well for the scenario. Often, a given NPC or plot point will have more than one use suggested, both to give GMs more ideas and keep any players reading this on their toes. Some, like Ranho Garand, will take more work to replace than others, like Yanna Summers.

The reason the campaign is called Odyssey SEED is because it’s a linked series of adventure seeds. Mix and match NPCs and plot points as you like. Ignore things that don’t sit right with you, make your game more focused and fast-paced, or branch out into an interplanetary epic.

Thanks To

  • Gerald Rodberg, for the original Dragonstriker stats that I then mutilated to better suit my purposes.
  • Joseph Riggs, for picking apart every single episode.
  • Julian Fong, for his help on Episodes 3, 4, and 5.
  • Nelson Eisel, Jeffery Watkins, and “Evil Dr Ganymede”, for their suggestions for Episode 5.
  • Pierre Borque, for his help with Episode 2 and generally convincing me to pick up JC in the first place.
  • Marc A. Vezina, for creating Jovian Chronicles and the original Odyssey campaign.
  • Terry Pratchett, for Night Watch. Freedom, Truth, Justice, Reasonably-Priced Love, and a Hard-Boiled Egg.
  • Kannik, for making a nicely-formatted PDF version.
  • John Buckmaster, for helping me brainstorm for the rewrite and sanity-checking my vehicle stats. Repeatedly.
  • Sean Silva-Miramon, for helping me read the Mekton stats.

Copyright

Jovian Chronicles and the Odyssey (the original Jovian Chronicles adventure) are copyright Dream Pod 9.

All other material is copyright 2004 Nicholas Pilon.