Module Review: The Vault (Part 1)

Just like the core book for Triangle Agency, The Vault is a hefty tome. It's also, at the time of writing, the only official reference point for the intended structure of Triangle Agency's missions. Is it worth the shelf space it demands? Let's take a look and find out.

The Presentation

It's safe to say the book is beautiful. Each mission has a different author-artist pair, with its own style and tone. The benefit here is demonstrating the different forms a Triangle Agency mission can take, and exploring different tones to find what suits your table best.

The iconography is unified, using the same symbols to denote how information can be gathered. Each mission has an Anomaly Power and Agency Requisition described at the end, as a reward for the agents. There are also mission-specific Chaos abilities, so the only prep left for the GM is to read and internalize.

Mission #1: Springs Eternal

Here we have what is ostensibly the "simplest" mission in The Vault, by virtue of being the most linear. A beauty spa has been built on top of an ancient Fountain of Youth Anomaly, and everyone using their products begins to look younger... and more similar to each other. This was my group's first session in Triangle Agency, so it was a bit messy.

While our difficulties were partially due to us learning the ropes, this mission doesn't do much to help new General Managers through the mystery. For example, one of the first things the agents will see is a woman falling into a puddle (a Minor Anomaly). But there's no guidance on how Agents might approach this, or how Minor Anomalies interact with interference. If they shoot it with a Ripple Gun, what happens to the woman inside? My players ended up jumping in after her, but how are they supposed to get out? We stumbled through it somehow, but I felt woefully ill-equipped to respond to my players' actions.

The Anomaly's Focus was also too amorphous for a first mission. It's a riff on the classic Fountain of Youth, but it achieves this by making everyone look like someone else, which I found confusing to navigate. The history of the Anomaly stretches back for centuries, with no clear way to communicate that to players. It feels like a confusing blend of two concepts: "nostalgia" and "youthful attractiveness". My recommendation would be focusing on the "youthful attractiveness" aspect, rename the Focus to align with that, and remove the clues that don't match (for example, everyone in the coffee shop besides the selfie group). The Anomaly's method of making everyone youthful by using Selena as a blueprint is suitably creepy and conspicuous on its own, the nostalgia and desire to return to bygone days just muddies the water (but would be a great starting point for a different Anomaly).

I thought there were too many NPCs to juggle, with tenuous reasons for them to be there in the first place. I count a dozen named NPCs, plus a coffee shop and health spa's worth of unnamed NPCs. I think you could comfortably cut half these characters (ditch Maya, Indigo, Gregory, and Kira, and bundle the doctors Hadley, Lennox, and Aladejana into one).

Mission #2: Dead Quiet

This mission starts dipping into the horror of Anomalies, starring a Slenderman-esque monstrosity that kills anyone who disrupts the quiet. It also opens up into a sandbox experience, with a handful of locations that Agents have immediate access to. I much prefer this style of mission to the linearity of Mission #1, although it can require more juggling on the GM's part.

Fortunately, there aren't any dependencies between the locations, except a note that can be found in each mentioning the address of the Anomaly's Domain. Speaking of notes, there are a handful of papers and visual clues scattered about which I turned into handouts for my players. This is totally optional, but it's easier for some players to glean information from written notes rather than having me read them from the book.

The NPCs are easy to manage, with just one or two in each location to work with. They each have their own tidbits of useful info to share with the agents, while still expendable enough to spend some Chaos to mess with them. I wouldn't describe any of the NPCs as "interesting", though. If your players enjoy getting to know NPCs and interacting with them beyond just interrogating for clues, you might want to add a bit of your own flair to each of them.

If you want to turn up the spookiness here, you can have night fall as the agents gather information. After 10pm is when the Anomaly starts hunting its victims, which can set up more horrific situations for the agents to stumble into. I would recommend progressing time for each location the agents visit, with night falling as they leave their third investigation scene. Just make sure the Anomaly can make an escape back to its Domain in the condo building, possibly by spending some Chaos.

I would really recommend this as the first mission a General Manager runs. The Anomaly's Focus is simple and straightforward, and the threat of civilian deaths is immediately actionable for both the Agents and the GM. The experience at my table was a clear step up from Mission #1.

Closing Thoughts

I'm still finding my way through the Triangle Agency system, so I'll keep my thoughts on it to myself for now. The jury is still out on whether The Vault as a collection is a worthy module, but so far I'm optimistic. Stay tuned for the next pair of missions!