
Notes from a playtest session to inspire missions.

Key Players

Smithson Family Products: “serving the human family with sustainable nutritious products for over 200 years;” a foodstuff/processor targeting colonies and long-distance spacecraft; Smithson spent a tremendous amount of money investing in the development of Perses Alpha Four, home to the CACPD Research Division 617.

Cheese Alternative Compound Production Division (CACPD): creates and invents new edible products to be marketed to the populace; Smithson desires products to be borderline addictive, hoping cheese alternative infiltrates all intergalactic markets; research budget in the trillions; popular maker of Chez Snacks Ultimate; famous spokesman is an RX Team type, a war hero.
The Mission

Contact was lost with Perses Alpha Four immediately on the day of the Great Blackout. In the 3 years since, Global Com has received a handful of emergency signals, indecipherable except for one word:
enrichment.

The RX team’s contact is Arthur Phule, a lifer within the Smithson corporation. He has an allergy to cheese, which is why he works in this particular division. He only lets the heroes know that CACPD research department on Alpha Four was working on a new cheese alternative that was thought to be completely safe. Arthur believes that it was corporate sabotage from Smithson’s rival, Razor Foods. Arthur is going to tag along on the mission—there is no way to avoid this.

Razor Foods: see the information in the main rulebook. Razor’s reputation makes it likely to be involved.
What is Really Happening?

The Great Blackout was caused by the merging of alternate universes. The chaos that happened was a result of these two universes smashing together—thus, anything literally become possible. However, the universes are being merged by a complicated process begun by a sinister scientific organization known as the Theorists. They have developed devices to send members from one universe to the next—they have been scoping out the
Foreign Element universe and are making their entrance, introducing chaotic bubbles of terror wherever they go. Each planet might have a member hiding somewhere, perhaps in disguise.
Perses Alpha Four

It is a barren world, fairly small with bubble terraforms that provide living quarters and research facilities for Smithson Family staff. It is a boring life. Some extensive tunnels have been built to connect the living areas—5 total pods.
Landing

Orbit is likely uneventful. The heroes will meet “Cargo,” a facilities manager, covered head to toe in orange dust with a sort of cheesy flavor. On further investigation, the cheese has welded to his skin permanently. He fills them in on the situation. On the day of the event, the barren world of Alpha Four suffered a blackout. Light from the nearby sun extinguished, not even like an eclipse. Meteor storms from all directions. Power failures. Pod 4 reported seeing living creatures in its subterranean levels. The planet had no signs of life before this event. Satellites also must have been destroyed in the storm, cutting off communications from company mainframes.

One of the cheese alternative product production units went offline and then began spewing output into the ventilation systems, covering everyone with cheese dust. Throughout the pods, there are many dead, layered in cheesy destruction. Since then, remaining residents have been fighting against each other in chaos for supplies. Some have become addicted to the cheese product, while others have gone missing while traversing the tunnels below.

To restore order, the RX team will have to shut down the cheese product dispenser unit. It is protected by the most loyal, hardened “cheese-addicted” mutants, a horde of large size and relentless fury. The unit might be producing a product that is perfect to market to the masses. Maybe Arthur demands a sample and orders them not to do it, even though people will die.

More bad news is that creatures from an alternate universe, subterranean inhabitants of primitive intelligence (seven legged cave ponies), have taken over the caves and find the cheese product highly allergic, sending them into fits of uncontrollable rage. They seek to trample opponents, but otherwise, tend to be quite docile. Could the heroes play the two hordes against each other? Could the heroes manage to befriend the strange alien creatures and use the tunnels to get to the cheese dispenser? Or do they try to blow it all up?
Arthur the Trickster

It also turns out that Arthur is not who he says he is. He is actually a highly-trained agent for Razor Foods. During the chaos, he may attempt to gain access to the secret formula for Smithson’s prized research. Do the heroes protect him or stop him?
The Theorist

The theorist is hiding out, having donned the robes of a technician. He may seek out the RX team for protection. He may also clash with Arthur, who figures something is strange about this survivor. Meanwhile, the Theorist equips a small robot to infiltrate the RX team’s ship, hoping to use its engines to open a follow-up cosmic tunnel to allow a Theorist strike team to arrive on the planet and claim it for its own. If they succeed, the heroes may have to battle the Theorist and his strike team.
Alternate Resolution

The heroes might want to overload the cheese dispenser, which promptly explodes with the heroes hopefully riding the cheese wave into space, turning the whole planet into nothing more than a giant ball of cheeselike beauty.