Gorilla uprising on Venus - A FATE red planet adventure

For GMs, an introductory adventure.

Assumption:  At least one player is playing a Venusian Uplifted Gorilla (ideally Gelina Yurkova)

Scene 1:  On Mars

(The Ordinary World)

After an awards ceremony at _Ascraeus Mons Base_, Players are in a mess hall toasting each other taking turns to brag about their achievements for the Union.

After a few vodkas random drinking comrade 'Christov Polovtsev' yells "Coin Check".

Everyone responds by pulling out a coin and tapping it on the table.

  

  Renown test at medioce Difficulty

If a player fails the test they do not have their coin on them.  They have to 'buy' a drink for everyone in the mess hall.  In a post scarcity society that means next time the base or mess hall needs a unpleasant job that needs to get done, they are the ones who are 'volunteered' to do it.  

Conversation turns to stories of how the coins were earned. Challenge coins are a reward for service.

The number of shifts on the renown test represents the importance of the job done to earn the coin.  More important tasks, mean a rarer coin. The number of shifts determine the rarity of the coin and importance of the coin giver. 

 

Flashback : Around the table, each player (except Galina) introduces their character with an anecdote on how they got their coin.

 Clever players will tell a self-deprecating story where do something dumb (compelled an aspect) that got into trouble but comrades looked after them and the group succeeded in the end.

(The Call to Adventure)

Upflifted Venusian Gorilla Galina isn't quite getting into the festivities.  She's recently received bad news from her son, _Hamzo Mondo_, back home on Venus.

Back on Venus corrupt feudal barons, high tithes and the search for opportunity have driven _Venusian Peasants_ to leave the agricultural rice growing lowlands and encroach on the jungle home of the _Venusian Gorillas_.

Some peasants are destroying the jungle using slash and burn farming.

Some peasants are entering the jungle to collect _Rubium_, a valuable plant sap, far more frequently.

Some peasants are running away from their masters to set up bandit encampments in the jungle.

Frog people incursions and habitat destruction threaten _Hamza Mondo's_ jungle home.  His troop have attempted to fight back but its a losing battle and they need help.

Galina implores there are __"So Many Primates Yet to Be Freed"__.

META:  This is an Exposition scene - an opportunity for Galina's player to declare story details, and compel her "True Believer—Just Ask Me" aspect to create an tale of woe involving oppressed peasants, brutal sap collection quotas, unique forests wrecked and valiant but doomed ape counter attacks.

Scene Outcome

 Players are inspired to head to Venus to help Hanzo, to volunteer as an 'International Brigade' to fight the good fight on Venus.

Scene 2:  Mission Briefing with Yevdokia Bershanskaya and Abram Pushkin

Any rapport or renown checks to gain access to star ship, will eventually end up talking to Ascraeus Mons Base Commander Yevdokia Bershanskaya and _Abram Pushkin_ an the __"Silver-Tongued Missionary of Progressive Materialism"__ recently returned from _Nikolay_, the Union cantonment on _Venus_.

News of increased _Rubium_ harvesting raises security concerns for Yevdokia.  Yevdokia notes this news suggests the _Venusian Peasants_ are collecting more than would be used by a feudal society with a guild based craft economy.   The scale of sap collection suggests they collecting it as a trade goods.  This is a sure sign of external meddling from either the _USA_ or the _USSR_.  Rubium sap has many military applications.

_Yevdokia Bershanskaya_  discourages an 'International Brigade' style intervention without more information about the extent of foreign military intervention.    Instead she suggests a squad level reconnaissance mission (i.e a group of PCs) to advise local rebel groups while they determine levels of interplanetary interference in frog society.

_Abram_ notes that _Nikolay_ is monitored by Frog people who are looking for a reason to eject the foreigners. The cantonment is supported by a fortnightly supply transport.  The transport flight path passes over mountains far away from frog settlements.  

_Yevdokia_ recommends a reconnaissance squad deployed into the mountains by 'High Altitude, Low Opening' parachute drop, with the squad making their way to a pick up point at _Nikolay_ as the most effective way to assess conditions on Venus without arousing suspicion among either the Venusian Nobility, the Americans at _Mariner_ or the Soviets at _Venera_. 

_Yevdokia_ defines mission objectives.  Find out what's going on,  make contact with local resistance (if there is one), assist them if you can, but do not jeopardise the Union's long term efforts to create a progressive materialist uprising among Venusian peasants by getting caught meddling in Venusian affairs.

(Get in quiet. Raise hell. Get out. Don't get caught)

Tool up montage (as the transport is loaded and characters go through HiLo parachute drill)

There's a disgusting job (eg cleaning the head) required to get the ship ready for anyone who failed the coin check.

Use renown rolls (or fate points) to specify equipment to be included in the drop.