Mixed feelings on this one. Not particularly good for a solo play through, but not completely a waste there either.

All of these Traveller modules seem a bit short, but then again I'm looking at the price and the price is right. I think I'd rather pay twice as much and get twice as much adventure. Heck, a Big Mac pretty much costs more than this module these days! Wish I were joking but I can't get out of McDonalds for anything less than twice the price of this module just to feed myself one meal.

Like most of the Mongoose adventures I've played through so far, the characters are trapped in the adventure and can't leave without solving it and are disarmed and have their armor taken from them. This is starting to get a bit old. I get that it's hard to properly challenge players when they have gear that turns them into super heros, but I'm sure players are eventually going to get a bit miffed about not being able to use any of that cool gear they earned. It's one think to be denied it occasionally, but none of these adventures allow them to use their ships or most of their weapons or armour and throw creatures at them capable of doing enough damage to kill them with a single hit. It's getting old. Especially when they expect YOU to decide the encounter difficulty.

Encounters are left intentionally vauge presumably so that a story teller can dial up or down the encounter. For example, I don't think I've seen a Mongoose adventure yet that actually tells you how many opponents the group is up against EVER except when it's a single opponent. So, that kind of defeats the argument of taking all their gear away to keep them from being over powered when they don't define the power level of the encounter anyway.

And there isn't a lot of variety in the encounter opponents in Mongoose modules that I've seen so far. You're lucky if you see more than 1 "monster" given per module. Usually it's one monster, often thrown at the players over and over and over again, a group of human opponents, and a few skill rolls. This is the formula.

But all in all it was a decent adventure/story even if all these modules are starting to get a bit formulaic. As long as you're willing to flesh out the encounters and situations a bit yourself with general guidelines from the module, there's some pretty good stuff here to throw at players. I loved the underwater theme, but other than that this was certainly not my favorite even within the Reach series which I haven't been overly impressed with.

4 stars for being somewhat enjoyable and very reasonably priced. After running through it solo, I think I could make a fun evening out of it for a group of players.

A very nicely written, arranged, and illustrated Traveller adventure. I ran this one over the course of two gaming sessions and the players really enjoyed it. Not only did they get caught up in the drama of the story and the typical array of existential threats that any adventuring group must face, they really liked the fact that the adventure made them feel as if they were making a difference. Here is Chalchiutlicue, a world struggling to deal with a particular issue, and the adventure puts the travellers into a position with which they may directly improve things for the planet and its citizens. We've moved on to other adventures in the Trojan Reach and the players keep talking about their experiences in this adventure and how they hope to go back and help the people of Chalchiutlicue to achieve the lofty heights of the civilization that once dwelled on (and below) its oceanic surface.

This adventure is set on Chalchiutlicue in the Sindal subsector, but could work fine on any planet with substantual amounts of ocean. Basically a visit to the underwater city of Calixcuel does not go quite to plan, the party gets caught up in a series of deadly events and have the opportunity to save the day. Whilst they might be there in the first place for reasons of their own, a good one is supplied to get them there. It's a fairly open adventure with a lot left to the Referee to develop either in advance or as the adventure proceeds, depending on your style of play.

As background, there's a fair bit of information about living and working underwater, Traveller-style. This includes a discussion of pressure at depth - I'm a SCUBA diver so it's pretty straightforward, but if you aren't familiar with the concepts the explanation is clear enough for gaming purposes. Suffice to say that spaceships and vac suits are designed to keep standard atmospheres IN, not the vastly increased pressure of deep water OUT. There's also background on the Sindal subsector and Chalchiutlicue in particular. It's a water world, and not a very rich one. Most people are more interested in survival than much else, and the world is seriously overcrowded.

The adventure begins with the party in the planet's Downport (a plan for which is provided). Here, they are invited to meet with a government official who has a job proposition - they need someone good with starship powerplants to sort out a second-hand starship reactor that they've acquired and want to use to power an undersea city. From there, they travel to Calixcuel on a submarine to do the job, a trip that takes about eight days. Why they are even on Chalchiutlicue at all is left to you, however.

Once they reach Calixcuel they are greeted with a reception and a guided tour. An overall diagram, but no detailed plans, of the underwater city are provided. It's basically a tall spike resting on the ocean floor. Scarcely have they settled into their quarters, however, than disaster strikes. As 'visiting experts' their assistance will be welcome, of course... and from here on in it is very much up to the party to decide what, if anything, they can do. There are suggestions and descriptions of various parts of the city to help you respond to their choices - read them thoroughly in advance and be ready to go with the flow.

All is very open-ended, the party may choose to attempt to escape or there is a chance that, with the right choices, they'll be able to save the entire city. It makes for a 'disaster movie' sort of adventure and ought to be played that way. It's an episode that will be remembered for a long time to come...

Feedback on running the adventure.

Overall the players enjoyed the adventure. They liked the water world and the submarine captain/trip. The comparisions of space to sub ships was not lost on them.

As a referee, I liked the character information and planetary background. The info for the different marine suits and vehicles was great and overal i liked the pacing. Definitely a good purchase in my mind.