A play report from a recent run in MARATHON.
***
I've accepted a contract from CYAC in return for gear, but importantly, an introduction to TRAXUS, another corp trying to claw a return back from their investment in the failed Tau Ceti colony.
IN ONE RUN [DIRE MARSH]:
[_] Hack the terminal at Intersection, Complex, or Bio-Research
[_] Acquire the Shipping Manifest from UESC Commander
[_] Scan the nearby stacked shipping container before it is picked up
***
I drop [ASSASSIN shell] in around MAINTENANCE with a TRAXUS-sponsored pack. Killed twice before with gear. Now I'm running the absolute minimum: gun, ammo, shield pack, and patch kit. Left with 6 open slots in my backpack.
I make a wide loop east around AI UPLINK, then north to COMPLEX, and specifically CMPLX-3 managing heat. Along the way I am grabbing mainly extra shields/health and any blue/purple items of value. My cloaking ability helps me get past most forces. I pick up a V11 PUNCH along the way.
At CMPLX-3, I realize the terminal is on a second story (good), outside walkway (bad). I'll be exposed to UESC robots as well as runners. Cloaking I complete the easy part- hacking the terminal.
An alarm goes off (very bad) and the UESC security drops (bad but the second objective).
I pick off the 3 "recruit" robots (lots of noise) and take a few potshots at the commander. I realize if I don't get aggressive, other runners will get in the area and pop me.
I heal up and drop down among the shipping containers, then throw out my smokes disks blanketing the area around the commander. It has an icon above its head, so I can unload slightly below it, and it can't really get a bead on me. A series of icon flutter overhead, shields crack, dozens of hit markers, V11 ammo gone, and finally an 8-bit skull icon- commander dead. I grab the shipping manifest card.
I want to loot the slag heap of UESC force, but I'm almost dead, and I made so much noise. Plus I have 3:00 minutes to find and scan the shipping container. Tucking myself in a small corner, I begin to heal but freeze when I hear the tell-tale rapid put*put*put*put of runner's feet.
$%&^(*! Just when I was done with this damn contract.
Fortunately, my cloak is ready, so pulling it on, I slowly creep to my right and catch a VANDAL shell coming up a ramp. I am a second earlier and unload my AR, shields break, and I hear an "ahhhgg!" on the proximity mic. Finish them off with a knife.
That was yet more noise! More potential runners.
I scramble to loot any health and ammo. No better shields- damn. But a better backpack +8 slots. Clean up the scap in the UESC pile. Worried about time, I scramble to the shipping containers. Again, I have to climb up and be exposed with no cloak, no smoke, and little health. SCAN COMPLETE.
$%&^(*! ME! I scamper down and take a blissfully easy EXFIL out covered by smoke that had recharged on my tense run to the EXFIL.
Total IRL time [minutes]: 10:00
***
Perhaps I don't want my D&D games to feel exactly like MARATHON. They are short, tense affairs. But I do find the choice-making in extration shooters and dungeon crawls to be strikingly similar. And I've felt this way ever since I played my first extraction shooter.
This new type of FPS really does capture the essence of slot-based encumbrance with backpack and loadout evaluated against items you find by looking: loot, weapons, ammo, and health.
You are dropped off in a large, open location that becomes familiar over many live-die-repeat cycles. You have to avoid traps, random encounters (computer NPCs), and other adventuring parties (live players). Time, noise, and resources all have to be managed. Also, how much risk are you willing to take?
What you grab and extract with helps you level up with factions and afford better gear which allows better chance of success next run. Now MARATHON had a few nice ways of bestowing some gear and completing quests (contracts) without requiring 100% exfil success every time. This is nice.
There have been digital dungeon crawls before extraction shooters- DOOM is the big one. But extraction shooters seem to really bring it all together, including the town-dungeon-town loop! I wonder if there are lessons to be learned from these games, which took so much from D&D, that could be brought back to fantasy adventure games? What are the key elements?
I'll leave that question open instead of further lengthening this post with attempted mechanics. I'm not even sure I know what I even want to add. I claim not the intensity and instead the importance of the choice- what to grab, how long to linger, loot vs objective.
But don't we already have those in RPGs? What are they missing? Or how do we make those elements more exciting?
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