“The Fraud, Retaliation, Abuse, and Waste Division (FRAWD) needs hardworking terrans like you to inspect facilities and gather evidence. Satisfy your service obligation and earn steady pay with FRAWD today!”
— Dominion recruiting pamphlet, 2503
Jump to Arcs | Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3
Setup
This game is set in Blizzard’s StarCraft universe at the beginning of Starcraft II. The characters are Dominion investigators within the chronically underfunded, under-equipped, understaffed, and possibly underhanded FRAWD. Their first assignment together is to gather evidence of an allegedly illegal jorium crystal mining operation nestled between zerg hive clusters on the remote planet Brontes IV in the Koprulu Sector.
StarCraft: FRAWD Investigators is played using the Fantasy Flight Games Genesys roleplaying system. Note: This has nothing to do with the StarCraft board game published by FFG.
Background
If you know nothing about StarCraft, that’s fine! Neither did the players prior to starting this game. But if you do know StarCraft, don’t worry; our GM is quite familiar with the universe from playing the video games. This campaign began as a beta test of a module for the 2019 RinCon Gaming Convention, an adaptation of Leovaunt’s module The Raid on Installation Delta Rose using Genesys rules.
The players did a trial run of the module using two pre-generated characters, and the GM included a third as an NPC to round out the skill set of the party. That made the party Lilly, a resocialized soldier (a resoc); Imogen, a latent psionic from the Umojan Protectorate; and Ted, a zerg-infested researcher. Enough fun was had by all that we decided to continue with the characters. Following a few tweaks to the PCs to make them our own, we began regular play. That is where the podcast series begins.
The release of each episode’s audio will be accompanied by a serialized write-up of the adventure. If you are interested in the unrecorded “pilot” for our StarCraft series, check out its write-up. But do be warned: spoilers abound for The Raid on Installation Delta Rose.
Arcs
Season 1
Pilot (no audio) – Lilly, Imogen, and Ted investigate an illegal jorium mine on Brontes IV while each trying to accomplish their own private agenda.
Mayhem on Mar Sara – Lilly and Imogen investigate reduced vespene delivery from Mar Sara and find more than they bargained for.
Rendezvous on Redstone – Lilly and Imogen recover some of the corpse of a cerebrate amid the lava flows of Redstone III, making more enemies than allies along the way.
Old Red and Saffron – Lilly and Imogen return to the Mar Sara wastelands to investigate an old Cerberus vessel that may shed light on both Lilly’s and Snowball’s pasts, but they discover it is not as abandoned as they had thought.
One Quiet Night – Having left Mar Sara aboard Hyperion, Lilly and Imogen investigate mysterious beings prowling the ship at night.
DORF Star – Under the cover of their FRAWD employment, Lilly and Imogen work with the exiled tal’darim Malorn and the friendly mercenary Durian to steal a protoss weapon from the Dominion Optics Research Facility (DORF) on Korhal. While in Augustgrad, they also follow up on some leads related to their first job together, Rose Corporation’s illegal mine on Brontes IV.
Antiga Antics – Lilly and Imogen explore the ruins of Antiga Prime in search of resources to fix up their science vessel Saffron and the implant in their zerg larva Snowball. Among the wreckage of the planet, they meet damaged survivors, opening the doors to some new opportunities.
Bad Behavior on Browder – Lilly and Imogen get into trouble at a protoss colony overseen by Selendis while returning the templar they rescued from Antiga to his people.
Changes – In the lead-up to their investigation of the Cerberus facility on Chau Sara, Lilly and Imogen resign from FRAWD, and Snowball gets promoted.
Challenge on Chau Sara – In the season 1 finale, Lilly and Imogen confront the UED ghost Neiman to liberate his captives at an abandoned Cerberus Corps facility on Chau Sara. Along the way, they make an unlikely ally, disrupt a research experiment, and test the resilience of some relationships.
Season 2
Homecoming – Having left their jobs with the Dominion’s Fraud, Retaliation, Abuse, and Waste Division (FRAWD), Imogen Owendoher and Lilly Washington are now independent agents. Their worries, however, exceed more than just making ends meet and caring for their zerg changling, Snowball. Responding to a summons from Imogen’s Uncle Leo, the two head to the Umojan Protectorate, where they learn that the Owendoher family is in serious trouble. The fraud they need to investigate this time is that of Imogen’s own brother, Aiden.
Aiding Aiden – Taking advantage of Lilly’s shady past, Imogen, Lilly, and Lief try to rescue Imogen’s brother Aiden from pirates on the zerg-infested world of Jarban Minor.
Owendoher’s Revenge – Imogen and Lilly must bring down Jackson’s Revenge permanently to end the threat to the Owendoher family. The scant resources on Jarban Minor prove insufficient to the task, requiring Imogen to make a deal with an old acquaintance. Tensions rise as the motley collection of allies makes their move on the pirates.
Lost & Found – With no obligations to employers or to family, Lilly and Imogen start working for themselves in earnest, performing jobs and networking with clients. But things cannot remain quiet for long in the Koprulu Sector, not while the zerg still control the former Confederate capital-world, Tarsonis.
A Very Special Mission – During the Liberation of Tarsonis, Lilly and Imogen battle their way through bureaucracy, propaganda, and friendly fire in order to free Durian from his forced reenlistment in the Dominion military.
(Re)Socializing – Each wrapped up in her own problems, Imogen and Lilly spend another couple days aboard the Dominion platform Imperative. There they tap all their contacts to prepare a return to Tarsonis for one more job… just not the same one.
Adjutant Acquisition – In the season 2 finale, Lilly, Imogen, Durian, and Frank risk a return to Tarsonis to recover two adjutants, one that can shed light on Lilly’s past and another that could bring down the empire of Arcturus Mengsk.
Season 3
Liberation Day – Following the Dominion’s retreat from Tarsonis, Imogen and Lilly travel the sector to take care of follow-up business, delivering the resocialized soldier Frank to a new life and sharing the damning recording of Mengsk with three concerned parties: journalist Kate Lockwell, revolutionary leader Jim Raynor, and Queen of Blades Sarah Kerrigan.
Intrigue at Iceberg Station – Lilly and Imogen head to Iceberg Station to complete two jobs: recover stolen protoss dragoon materials to return to Selendis and steal a warp blade from the tal’darim Lendasha to embarrass her for Malorn. Complications arise from Malorn’s true motives.
Moving Forward – After the events on Iceberg Station, Imogen and Lilly help Malorn get back on his feet, literally and figuratively. Along the way, they are all forced to engage in some serious self-examination.
Ten Tines the Trouble – Imogen and Lilly embark upon a reconnaissance mission that is definitely not a jailbreak.
Fallout – Between jailbreak and heartbreak, Imogen and Lilly have their hands full following the events at Ten Tines Prison. But once the job for Jim Raynor is all wrapped up, the UED ghost Neiman haunts Imogen’s thoughts as much as Durian does Lilly’s.
The Ambush – Imogen and Lilly set a trap for the UED ghost Neiman, balancing multiple goals as usual: getting the kidnapped scientist Narud safely away from him, stealing his technology for communicating with Earth, and—what they were hired for—leaving him behind for the Queen of Blades to crush. For once, things mostly go according to plan!
Coda – In the series finale, Imogen and Lilly encounter an unlikely ally and an unexpected adversary in their quest to transmit messages that can secure a better future for the Koprulu Sector.