Beta testing 'The Sunken Statue' Scenario for Artifacts & Adventure

Artifacts & Adventure is my modern-day Uncharted/Tomb Raider/National Treasure game, based on the Tricube Tales system. Before I officially unleash it upon the world, I plan to write at least 2-3 short adventure scenarios, which I’ll soon release as stand-alone PDFs so you can try them out and (hopefully) provide feedback.

I’m a firm believer that every TTRPG should ship with an introductory scenario or two in the back of the book. Scenarios don’t just teach how a game works, but how a session is meant to be prepared and run at the table.*

* (For highly improvisational games where per-wrtitten scenarios don’t work, an extended Actual Play report does the same.)

The Sunken Statue will be my most traditional Tomb Raider-style treasure hunt. You’ve got the lush jungle setting, you’ve got a subterranean area to explore, you’ve got… well, let’s just say it hits all the tropes. For this reason I’m trying to make it a perfect beginner scenario. The default answer to questions like, “What’s the best scenario for introducing new players to Artifacts & Adventure?”

I’ve run The Sunken Statue twice now, for two completely different groups. Each time it was a success, though most of the credit goes to the players. I don’t normally reuse scenarios for different groups (it feels like cheating), but in this case, I made an exception, and it was a lot of fun to see how different players react to the content. Coincidentally, both games involved someone falling in love with inanimate objects. I hadn’t anticipated this happening once, let alone twice. But hey, that’s why you beta test.