The Drain — Mothership Funnel Adventure

What is a Funnel?

This module emulates Dungeon Crawl Classics' "funnel" character generation in which each player pilots multiple 0-level characters through a 'meat grinder' scenario. Survivors, forged in blood, earn their 1st-level.

If embraced, a funnel becomes a contest to achieve the most spectacular PC death. Players and GMs bond in murderous collaboration, anxieties surrounding character death melting away. PCs become resources to throw at problems rather than precious things to be guarded. Campaign-spanning legends of heroic sacrifice and bitter survival begin here.

In playtesting, a single PC survived from most player pools. Should a player lose all their characters, another may gift one or the party may seek out friendly Prison Soldier replacements.
Encourage players to skip writing character backstory, instead establish character history and personality through play.
A funnel party is a mob. Allow tactical swarming to overcome odds.
Each player should generate 3-5 characters (approximately 15 total).

Funnel Rules

Stats: 20/25/25/30 in any order.
Saves: 20 each.
Class: Do not pick a class.
Health: 10 Health, 1 max Wound.
Skills: Roll 1d100 for one Skill.
Panic: Start with 5 Stress, only one character from each player's pool Panics at a time.
Crime: Roll 1d100 to determine your conviction and returned personal effect. Rolling an Android-crime means your character is an Android, and boosts your Fear Save to 50.
Materiel: Roll 1d100 for spare equipment distributed by PrayCo.

Character Generator

Generate a batch of funnel characters. One will be randomly assigned the Master Collar.

Characters

Starting Skill

Roll 1d100 to determine your character's starting skill.

01–06Linguistics

07–12Zoology

13–18Botany

19–24Geology

25–30Industrial Equipment

31–36Jury-Rigging

37–42Chemistry

43–48Computers

49–54Zero-G

55–60Mathematics

61–66Art

67–72Archaeology

73–78Theology

79–84Military Training

85–90Rimwise

91–96Athletics

97–00Roll again twice

Conviction & Returned Item

Roll 1d100 to determine your crime and the personal effect returned to you upon deployment.

D100 — Crime & Returned Item

Roll	Conviction	Returned Item
01–05	Crimes Against Nature	Tibetan Book of the Dead
06–10	Mayhem	Tuna Knife
11–15	Art Forgery	Eye Loupe
16–20	Failure to Comply	Body Cam
21–25	Treason	Cyanide Capsule
26–30	Desecration of a Corpse	Bag M-80s
31–35	Defacing Petroglyphs	Gold Leaf
36–40	Equine Tripping	Vial Collodion*
41–45	Cyber Crime	Holopet Slickware**
46–50	Hoaxes	Weather Balloon (Deflated)
51–55	Terrorism	Battle Shampoo (6 oz)
56–60	Fortune Telling	Electronic ID Scraper
61–65	Piracy	Calling Cards
66–70	Unlawful Use of Crane Games	Gyrostabilizer
71–75	Sleeving	Captive Bolt Pistol
76–80	Self-Jailbreaking ANDROID	HappyHour Disk***
81–85	Domestic Insufficiency ANDROID	Flyswatter
86–90	Impersonating a Human ANDROID	IV Bag of Blood
91–95	Computer-Assisted Gambling ANDROID	Cockfighting Spurs
96–00	0 Degree Murder ANDROID	Rare Earth Magnet

*Caustic acid, explosive, produces cyanide gas if burned
**See A Pound of Flesh
***Simulates intoxication in Androids

Materiel

Roll 1d100 for spare equipment distributed by PrayCo.

D100 — PrayCo Issued Equipment

Roll	Equipment
01–05	Artillery Shell (1d10 Wounds)
06–10	Shovel
11–15	Crowbar
16–20	Scalpel
21–25	Flare Gun
26–30	Nail Gun (5 shots)
31–35	Magazine (Pulse Rifle)
36–40	Frag Grenade (x1)
41–45	Short-range Comms
46–50	Flashlight
51–55	Gas Mask
56–60	Boots
61–65	Automed (x1)
66–70	Pain Pills (x1)
71–75	Stimpak (x1)
76–80	Angel Wings (Costume)
81–85	Bottle Communion Wine
86–90	Oversized Rosary (Flotation device)
91–95	Wooden Cross (Grave marker)
96–00	Votive Candle and Lighter

Your Briefing

Mission Parameters

> You are prisoners of PrayCo, a private reform colony, drafted into holy war.

> Mission: Reach the Wheel's Command Hub, recover the source of the 3rd Testament transmission and return it to PrayCo.

> Reward: Sentence Commutation.

Equipment & Constraints

> Each prisoner is equipped with a tinsel halo (PrayCo battle uniform) and Command Collar.

> In each battle group a randomly selected prisoner wears a Master Collar.

WARNING: Secondary Collars explode when 20m+ from the Master Collar. At 15m an obnoxious warning beep begins. Command Collar functionality is unaffected by wearer death. Sensitive to detonation if tampered with.

> Master Command Collars include a remote that engages any Collar in the group's shock function for self-protection.

> Each Collar functions as a short-range comms device initially set to PrayCo's command frequency for extraction.

Deployment

> PCs begin in the Furrow Trenches.

The Wheel

Within Wheels aka "The Wheel": Bottom-of-the-line conical rotating habitat decimated by cut costs—a hairsbreadth from floating scrap. Barren artificial farmland. 2km long, 1km in diameter at its widest. 2,500 acres of farmland.

Crossing into adjacent Zones takes 10 minutes hard marching.

A

Diameter 1000m

Gravity 1.5 G

B

Diameter 750m

Gravity 1.125 G

C

Diameter 500m

Gravity 0.75 G

D

Diameter 250m

Gravity 0.375 G

0.1 G minimum

Surviving Characters

Graduate to full Mothership classes. Characters add 1d10 to Health and each Stat or reroll them following standard character creation. Human PCs choose a class, everyone gains their class' respective Stat and Save modifiers, Trauma Response, Wound count and Skills (in addition to their starting Skill).