Scenario pack

Ruined Site Discovery Scenario Pack

An abandoned place becomes playable when the party can read what happened, decide what danger to address, and choose how deeply to interfere. This pack builds ruins, derelicts, sealed facilities, and failed outposts around evidence and action rather than a prepared history speech.

Open Ruined Site Discovery in the generator

The six things to reveal first

Read the generated At the Table block from top to bottom. It gives enough information to begin exploration while keeping the explanation behind the screen.

Site

Name the place and show its approach. Players need to understand the physical boundary before choosing where to enter.

Sensory cue

Lead with vibration, air, heat, smell, dust, water, static, or strained material. The ruin should feel active even before anyone moves.

Visible clue

Put one contradiction in plain sight: fresh tracks, a current message, recent power, a changed record, or evidence that should not exist.

Presence

A survivor, rival, drone, scout, investigator, or faction trace can react to the party and prevent exploration from becoming a silent inventory.

Hazard and clock

The immediate hazard changes movement now. The clock changes the whole site later. Players may address either one, but not without spending attention.

Hidden problem

The concealed cause explains why the evidence, presence, and danger belong together. Reveal it through consequences and investigation.

Give evidence before explanation

State what the characters can observe without naming the answer. "The boots stop at the sealed hatch" creates a question. "The crew escaped through the hatch" resolves it before the players participate. Let the visible clue establish a contradiction, then use the hidden problem only after the group tests the site, questions the presence, or suffers a consequence.

Evidence should support more than one initial interpretation. Fresh power might mean a survivor, an automated system, a rival team, or a trap. The hidden problem can narrow those possibilities later without making the first guess irrelevant.

Run three approaches in parallel

Investigate the clue: Reward careful attention with context, access, or leverage. Make the onsite presence react so examination still changes the social situation.
Secure the hazard: Let practical action create a safer route, but advance the larger clock. Safety costs time, power, tools, position, or secrecy.
Pursue the presence: Following, confronting, helping, or bargaining with whoever is onsite reveals motive and moves the hidden problem closer to the surface.

None of these is the correct path. Each should reveal something useful and change what the other two paths now mean. The party that stabilizes a failing pump gains access but gives a rival convoy time to arrive. The party that follows the scout learns the truth but leaves the dangerous machinery active.

Separate the hazard from the clock

A hazard is local and immediate: collapsing stone, decompression, gas, flooding, active defenses, electrical arcs, or moving machinery. A clock changes the overall opportunity: a storm arrives, power fails, salvage crews cut the wreck, patrols locate the signal, or another faction claims the site.

Announce both clearly. When players spend meaningful time, advance the clock once. When they take a risky action near the hazard, show its warning before applying the consequence. This keeps danger understandable without requiring a specific rules system.

Lock the part that defines the discovery

Use Lock vibe when the site identity, physical approach, interior, salvage, and sensory cue belong together. Use Lock people when the onsite presence or supporting NPCs are the strongest material. Use Lock hooks when the clue, hazard, clock, hidden problem, and table-use pressure already form a useful mystery. Reroll the unlocked layer instead of throwing away a discovery that is partly working.

Choose exploration complexity

Simple: One hazard, one consequence, and the three response paths. Use it for a short stop or a clue between larger scenes.
Standard: Add a usable clue, visible pressure, consequence, and escalation for a location the party may explore for a while.
Layered: Add a secondary complication that attaches to the recovered evidence or follows the party after the immediate site is resolved.

Worked example: Khepri Survey Habitat

Site: A survey habitat drifts above a moon's terminator with its landing spine locked at an impossible angle.
Sensory cue: Cold metal clicks under thermal strain while powdered regolith floats through scorched air.
Visible clue: Magnetic boot prints end at an exterior hatch the log says was never opened.
Presence: A damaged survey drone deletes crew names while repeating safety instructions.
Hazard and clock: The habitat rolls when containment cycles, and orbital night cuts recovery power in seventeen minutes.
Hidden problem: A moon sample is transmitting navigation corrections to something approaching from deep space.

Open with: "Khepri Habitat hangs above the moon's night line, its landing spine twisted sideways. Regolith floats through air that tastes of scorched insulation. A trail of magnetic boot prints ends at a hatch the log says never opened. A survey drone turns toward you and deletes another name from the crew list. Then the containment field cycles, and the whole habitat begins to roll."

Stop there. If the party follows the prints, the drone blocks access and exposes its damaged priorities. If they stabilize the habitat, orbital night advances and the sample receives another correction. If they confront the drone, it reveals what the crew found but not what is following the signal. Every approach produces information and spends part of the opportunity.

Export what the site will remember

Copy the prep sheet when the site is for tonight's session. Use Markdown for campaign notes, JSON for structured reuse, and the recurring-location template when the ruin may be revisited after salvage, collapse, occupation, or faction control. The scenario and complexity remain attached to every portable format and local save.