The Breakdown Shakedown
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| "The Breakdown Shakedown" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Renegade Game Studios | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Michael Jacobson | ||||||||||||
"The Breakdown Shakedown" is an adventure scenario for the Transformers Roleplaying Game, released as part of Renegade Game Studios exclusive "Play Renegade" line. A group of 4-6 1st level Autobot player characters are sent to investigate an Energon cache being moved around Florida by a group of humans.
Contents
[edit]Part 1: Strange Readings
[edit]At Autobot Headquarters, Kup briefs the players on the situation: there's a cache of Energon being moved around Florida by a group of humans who are unaffiliated with the US Government and it needs to be retrieved without gaining negative human attention. Prowl accompanies the players, he also supplies them with equipment and reiterates that they should keep a low profile on this mission.
The players (and Prowl) arrive in Florida, where they are greeted over radio by local Autobot ally, William Fowler. Fowler fills in some information about the group of humans—the Heath Group—as the players track the Energon to... the Heath Group's gathering!
Part 2: Start Your Engines
[edit]The Energon the Heath Group had gathered as "evidence" of alien life has been stolen by thugs in pickup trucks. Prowl puts his energy into clearing the road of civilians, while the players must chase down the stolen Energon, as the Heath Group chases them with cameras.
Partway into the chase, Insecticon Drones show up to try and eat the Energon on half the trucks. The ensuing fight gives the Heath Group the chance to catch up with the players and their leader (Jason Heath) starts aggressively peppering them with questions.
When the Insecticons are defeated, Prowl tells the players to go after the rest of the Energon. As they set off, the players receive a taunting message from Knock Out.
Part 3: Bridge to Paradise
[edit]The players catch up to the Energon trucks and Knock Out, and fight it out in a construction zone. The Heath Group run into trouble during the fight and the players must decide whether to help them or finish the fight. Afterwards Jason Heath will ask questions of the players, this time being much less aggressive, as he's figured out that they're the good guys.
As the part wraps up, the players will be surprised to overhear an accidental broadcast from Breakdown to Knock Out (who most likely escaped in the fight), giving them the Decepticons' location.
Part 4: Finish Line
[edit]The players find the Decepticons at a dock, loading stolen Energon and an unconscious Prowl onto a barge (Prowl was overwhelmed and captured by Decepticons when the players left him behind at the end of part 2). It's an all out fight!
Part 5: Desperately Seeking Energon
[edit]One of Breakdown's bombs goes off by accident and sinks the barge, foiling the Decepticons' escape. It's up to the players to retrieve any remaining Energon before the seawater causes it to explode (and possibly also rescue Prowl if he's still on the barge).
The adventure wraps up with Kup showing up to commend (or reprimand) the players and deciding where the Heath Group now stands with the Autobots.
Featured characters
[edit](Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Notes
[edit]- The title is likely a reference to the Bob Seger song "Shakedown" from Beverly Hills Cop II; the chorus starts with "Shakedown, breakdown, takedown".
Continuity notes
[edit]- The optional pregenerated character sheets reuse the profiles of the Bee Team—Breakout, Downforce, Oversteer, Scattershield, Shakedown, and Skidplate—rookie Autobots who'd previously appeared in the "Winner's Cup" and "From Yesterday to Today" adventures.
- Knock Out is based on his Transformers Prime model throughout. However, Breakdown appears as his G1 alt-mode on the cover and his Prime model in robot-mode in an internal illustration.
