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Barreling Forward

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Excitement and action abound in this pulp-noir train heist set in Eberron.

A dangerous artifact from the Mournlands bound for nefarious purposes is on board and it's the party's job to get in, grab the artifact, and get out. No one knows for sure what it is but they're not the only ones after it.

Barreling Forward is a 4 to 6 hour long Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition adventure for a party of 4th- to 6th-level adventurers. Pulling together elements of classic westerns and modern heist movies sprinkled with the pulp noir morality typical to Eberron where no one’s really on the right side, it can be played as a one-shot episode or adapted for a longer running campaign. For inspiration, it draws from Firefly’s “The Train Job,” the train heist scene from the Star Wars movie Solo, the Ocean’s movies, and near-future stories like Cowboy Bebop.

Includes player and DM aids for play including...

Lightning rail schematics for the players to discover and plan with.

A schematic of a lightning rail on folded parchment paper

Train journey sketch for players to plan with.

A hand drawn sketch of a mountain range and a train track through it

Individual gridded and ungridded images of lightning rail cars for VTT.

A gridded image of a lightning rail train car

Content Warning:

Includes an optional scene that alludes to suicide.

Credits

Designer: Carl Nelson

Editing: Ashley Michaela “Navigator” Lawson

Art Direction and Layout: Carl Nelson

Cover Art: Aaron Radney

Playtesters: Morgan Day, Michael Gamble, Justin Hill, Carissa Koo, Doug Noel, PJ Ryan, Nirav Sanghani, Irena Smilenova, Jenni Studt, and Nathan Unterreiner.

Special Thanks: Joshua Blake, Nirav Sanghani, and Jay Tallsquall.


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Reviews (3)
Discussions (5)
Customer avatar
Ulysses L July 29, 2023 2:10 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Since the final stage of the heist is supposed to take place over an hour in game how would you suggest keeping up with how much time they have in universe?
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Customer avatar
Carl N October 16, 2023 6:49 pm UTC
CREATOR
Usually I keep an eye on the narrative and the general actions the party wants to take and eyeball how much time they'd reasonably take. Sometimes it makes sense to say, "sounds like you want to do a lot of things. You've got 5 minutes till the train gets to Wrogar's Ridge for example. Which one do you want to do before you get there?"
Customer avatar
Jerald S April 27, 2022 12:09 pm UTC
I'm looking for some good npc artwork depicting interior scenes and orien lightning rail staff for a homebrew adventure. And I love the cover art on this module. Is there more artwork in the module?
Customer avatar
Chad L May 08, 2021 7:48 pm UTC
Hi there! Any thoughts about adding this to fantasy grounds vtt? Think this would be a great addition and would love to talk with you about it! feel free to join the grim press discord at https://discord.gg/gyTK9g8QHJ if you have any questions, my name is Engorgio on there.

Thank you
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Customer avatar
Carl N July 12, 2021 7:52 pm UTC
CREATOR
I've not had any experience developing or using Fantasy Grounds but would be interested to explore this option.
Customer avatar
Rebecca F February 27, 2021 7:08 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hello! This adventure looks awesome, I was looking for something similar to "The Train Job" so this is perfect. I'm a new DM, so I might've just missed it, but is there a recommended player level for this?
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Customer avatar
Rebecca F February 28, 2021 1:53 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Ah, found the level rec, right on the cover page, my bad!
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Customer avatar
Carl N March 29, 2021 1:22 am UTC
CREATOR
Glad ya found it! Let me know how it goes.
Customer avatar
Joshua F November 21, 2020 3:48 pm UTC
PURCHASER
So, I have two slight concerns before I run this adventure. The first is that there are no included rewards or guidelines for such a thing; why are they taking this job and if they complete it what can they look forward to earning?

Similarly, I find that there is little or no support for wrapping up the end of the adventure. If they complete the job, where does the dropoff take place? Maybe that's not as important as asking if the players decide *not* to complete the job and wish to keep the package safely away from all interested parties... how might they go about doing that? Is the only safe/good thing to do to have it destroyed? I feel that the most archetypal answer to this scenario is the players realizing that the people who currently have it should not have it, but also that their employer should not have it, and other interested parties who are trying to steal is ALSO should not have it... this leads to a very dramatic 'no good choices' moment, but at the end of the adventure there should...See more
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Customer avatar
Carl N December 14, 2020 7:45 pm UTC
CREATOR
Hi Joshua!

These are great questions and really appreciate them.

I left the rewards unspoken as a one-shot it's often been more about playing through the experience at a table than character reward though I agree building in character rewards makes a ton of sense. Here I would lean into heist tropes: more money than they can reasonably refuse, clearing a debt by performing the heist, one last job, etc. These could be used to help frame characters motivations at the beginning of the heist and help them make decisions about what to do when the twist hits.

In terms of resolution, I've often ended the adventure when the party completed the core goal, getting the item off the train or similar, with an end of movie credit roll kind of sequence at the table that is less focused on the hand-off (or lack thereof.) In a future revision this feels like a great place to add in some resolution hooks for potential follow up stories based on the possible outcomes: the people who have it...See more
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File Last Updated:
October 29, 2020
This title was added to our catalog on October 28, 2020.