Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[Jackhalfaprayer]

So I want to run a location based encounter.

I'm fascinated by the concept of an abandoned derelict space ship. I love the cold silence, the threat of hard vacuum, and the evidence that something is lurking just out of sight.

But I’ve never run a location based encounter before. I’ve always run story driven encounters; I create a series of events, characters, and places. The players move from one to the other, triggering the next event in the sequence. When players don’t do something I’ve planned for I improvise. They often pose solutions to the challenges that I never foresaw.

Usually I run horror and this is okay. Combat isn’t as important as gathering clues, coming prepared, and lateral thinking.

But I’d like to offer them something more. I’d like to offer them a rich environment ripe for exploration.

Sadly I don’t know how to do it…

A dead space ship adrift among the stars shares quite a lot in common with a dungeon in fantasy. I’ve never run such an adventure and I’m struggling to understand how it would work.

In essence, how do I create an environment that is more than just a bunch of empty rooms populated by traps and monsters?

Any help would be appreciated.
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When Jack was here we had half a prayer.
-Spiral Jacobs

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/712056

[Poor Wandering One]

Well it depends on context.

What is the party doing in space? Passangers on a high-end space liner will approach a derelict ship with a different attitude than a millitary group going where noone has gone before.

Then think about the derelict. Is it a ship from a known culture or something alien? How big is it, Red Dwarf or more Major Tom?

Then think of why it is derelict. Is there a war on? Sickness? System failure? Piracy? Zombies? Is it a trap set by pirates hiding their ships behind a nearby moon?

Thematically why is the ship in your game? This is about adding something new. Discovering something. So what doyou want to add? A new alien culture? Some secret that the folks who scuttled the ship thought lost to the void foreever. A twist to a charactors backstory?

I hope this is useful. More questions than answers I'm afraid.
~will

[77IM]

1. Make recognizable rooms. "A rectangle full of drooling alien monstrosities" is not as cool as "This used to be the rec room. Dart boards and pool balls float in the zero-gravity, along with a severed human hand. You catch movement behind the vending machines..." This helps players think about the situation in realistic terms.

2. Give hints about what is in the rooms before the players get to them. "Do you want to turn left or right?" is not an interesting decision. Instead try, "Do you want to go down the hatch to the engine room, or follow the trail of slime down the corridor?"

3. Provide motivation to explore various rooms. For example, maybe the bridge is sealed by a blast door, and in order to get in the PCs will need to turn on the auxiliary power in engineering and get the door access code from the dead body of the first officer (which could be anywhere). On the bridge is presumably something cool that they want.

4. Don't ever let them feel "safe and secure." Impose a time limit or have some wandering monsters. Staying put is boring so it should be discouraged.

5. Players like exploring and solving mysteries. They like to put 2+2 together. But often they miss clues, so it's good to overdo it. Spread clues throughout the ship. A really good clue answers one question while posing another.

-- 77IM

[Jackhalfaprayer]

This is going to be a "one night stand" so I won't be placing it in the scope of a larger campaign. My hope is to create a pre-generated adventure I could whip out when my turn to run comes around with my budding game group.

I think I can hack things like describing the room in more detail than "you're attacked by D6 slavering monsters" (this is not sarcasm. I'm only partially sure of my ability to do this).

Perhaps a more specific question is in order.

A combat can be exciting. In horror it can be over done, but I think I can keep myself under control.

But what else can you fill a room with.

Say we do a rec room, floating billiard balls and all, if the players don't get attacked by a monster what can they do in such a room? find clues, right? I'm trained on Call of Cthulhu. Perhaps they find a log I can print out. It obliquely mentions an event that happened on the other side of the ship. As the players move there I don't want the only thing they encounter to be monsters.

This may seem odd but environmental hazards (traps) sorta confuse me. In a video game they're based on dexterity. In a RPG... you roll a dice? Say the players are thrown into hard vacuum and need to maneuver zero g before their limited air supply runs out. In a video game this would be handled through the player’s ability to examine their surroundings and react under pressure. Player skill drives the action. If they fail it's because they didn't have the reaction time/failed to analyze the situation properly. In a tabletop it's because their dice came up 1's

Does that...work? I've never been in a "trap" in an RPG before. Most of the game's I've played have been character and story driven affairs.

If you're faced with a door, and it's locked, you roll lock picking (or hacking, or pry it open, or whatever)... But if you fail or succeed... how do you make that... meaningful for the players.

hmmm... that wasn't more specific at all...
_________________
When Jack was here we had half a prayer.
-Spiral Jacobs

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/712056

[Tavis]

You can treat some traps a little like a chase.

So, you need to get back inside before your air runs out - put the characters 'in the lead' by a certain amount - give a 'losing air' die for, um, losing air (rather than agility, or driving, or whatever you might use) and let the characters use other skills (as appropriate) to 'keep away' from it.

If the 'air loss' catches up with them - they take a level of fatigue ... and then the air loss 'backs off' again ...

If they become incapacitated that's not good!

Of course, characters can work together, perhaps with assisted rolls to get each other inside.

Alternatively you could have a variant on the 'rolling boulder'

The boulder/collapsing corridor/Force field activation/internal defence system draws initiative for a round just like an extra, and 'moves' either a fixed or random pace each round. The characters must get past/around/whatever - If one character is lame, or has pace reduced another way, this can be pretty tense. Throw in a chasm to leap, or a door to pick the lock on and get through, or whatever and the multi-action penalty with running can make things tricky for the characters too.
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SWD: 50 Fathoms (GM)

[Virgobrown72]

You could do lots of environmental things. Essentially, a space craft is a sealed environ. Have things like power outages in certain rooms/ corridors, sections of zero-g in certain places, Exposed wiring, and the threat of explosive depressurization even!!! You could do all kinds cool $#!t with this!!! (Starts writing furiously...)

[Dylan S]

I just have to cut in and give cudos to 77IM's guidelines, which are some of the best general dungeon-creation tips I've seen.

[Thasmodious]

My advice would be not to overthink it. Set the location well, have a deckplan for the ship, notes on its condition, look, atmosphere, trappings, whatever notes you need concerning their (likely) plot driven reason for being there and then let the players drive the action. Maybe they have someone handi-capable and want to head for the engine room and try to power up some of the ships systems (like artificial gravity or life support). What is between them and that goal? Maybe they are after something in the cargo hold. In this regard, it's much like a story driven encounter, except the obstacles in the way are set by the location. They may encounter them from different directions and with different goals, depending on what they are doing.

With hazards/obstacles, I don't favor the pass/fail approach, one that comes down to a single die. "Well, I failed to unlock that door, I guess we just go home." A hazard can simply exist and the PCs will reason a way around it, let them. Roll a few dice, call for some checks, let them work together, treat failures as ratcheting up the dramatic tension, instead of ending the encounter.

Think about 'Objects in Space' from the perspective of Jubal. He, as a PC, had researched the location, learned about it, before he arrived. Finding/tracking it was an obstacle as was gaining access. Subduing the crew so he could move about the ship to locate his prize was an obstacle. The tight quarters and convoluted layout of the ship was a challenge to navigate and while, ultimately, the encounter was character driven, it was still a location based encounter.

Why are the PCs at this derelict? Did they stumble across it randomly or learn about it's whereabouts akin to the fantasy based treasure laden dungeon in a far off land. How much could they learn beforehand? What graphic theme do you wish to convey as they explore the ship - is it mysterious alien technology, mystery based horror (what happened here?), a clinically clean military ship, a rundown smugglers vessel, etc.

I'm not sure how much any of that helps, but then the questions haven't been very specific, so I hope some of that rambling is useful Basically, my point is to just design the location and let the players take care of the action. They know why they are there and might have some better ideas than you think of ahead of time, so roll with it.
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There's more than seventy earths spinning 'bout the galaxy and the meek have inherited not a one.

[Vinzent]

If the derelict was just caused by an infestation of LGMs, then the action will be pretty much a dungeon crawl.

However, you could have the derelict be a mystery that gets unraveled over time. Who was the crew? What happened to the crew? Where were they from? How long has this thing been adrift in space? Why do I keep getting the feeling I'm being watched? My god, what happened to their bodies? Hello? Jacob, was that you? Can anyone here me? Oh, dear god... What is THAT?!.....static........

[UmbraLux]

[Aramus Daimorgul]

*Coolant leak has filled the lower deck
*Power outage in the botanical bay
*Bridge has ventilated
*External loading/docking arms are in use
*Computer virus, doors will open and close at random times
*Internal com system is down
*Plunging uncontrolled toward some unknown part of space
*Strange alien substance coats the wall in several locations
*The key locks on the gravitational reactor is failing
*No bodies found only occasional pieces
*Small arms fire is found in the cafeteria
*A deep other worldly hum appears after hours of investigation with no known cause
*All portable computers are destroyed, except one...
*Surveillance footage is found, however...
*One sleep chamber is active with a woman in it...
*Scrawled notes on napkins are in the brig along with a mostly decomposed man...
*The captain's wall safe is exposed but not opened...
*The science bay has work ups of something in a hidden portable computer...
*Engineering is only accessible through the lower flooded deck...
*Strange noises are heard on the outside surface of the ship...
*Metal is twisting...
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Some men see things as they are and say, "Why?" I dream of things that never were and say, "Why not?"
- Bernard Shaw

[SlasherEpoch]

Gravity support has gone out. As soon as someone steps in, they roll Strength; that's how many inches they float in before they are stuck floating. Players will have to figure out a way to move their characters in space.

And next time, add monsters! The monsters are stuck too.
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Evil Wig Enterprises Minion #15 - "The
Machete"

[Sadric]

Tripple Ace Games have in their Space-lane series a adventure with a derelict ship-and its not only filled with monsters- there are even survivors of some sort. But I think it needs more then one session.

All Daring Tales Series are good example for encounter-based story. Some people didnt like the "you couldnt fail-safeguards" build into the pulp rules and adventure, but I think they are fun to play-even if its more like a roller coaster. Fun but many rails:-)

They have a other pdf with a lot of site-based dangers. I really like this pdf-perilous places& Serious Situations. Maybe its usefull for you, too.

[kaltorak]

Yes, the adventure Sadric is speaking of is "The Last Journey of the Exodus", that I wrote for TAG.

It is a single adventure that you can play in 4-8 hours (the playtest groups finished it in an average of 6 hours: we usually play 3 hours sessions).

Note that the scenario is story-driven (even because the starship is HUGE) but there are some hints in the end credits to use it as a basis for a series of other scenarios, even a minicampaign.

Hope it helps!

[manifold]

Tabletop adventures has a product that's just descriptions of rooms in derelict starships. And it's on sale for a few days, yet.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=derelict&quicksearch=1&search_filter=&filters=&search_free=&search_in_description=1&search_in_author=1&search_in_artist=1

third one down. Good luck!
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[Preatori0us]

Well, you could always have them get through somewhat easy, navigating a few of the things mentioned above. Once they get the power back on they realize that a self-destruct was interrupted and rebooted when they started something. Give them a time limit to get the heck off, that's always tense!
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When the stars themselves burn out three things will continue kicking a**: Faith, Hope and Love.
The greatest of these is Love, but Faith WILL jack you up mano y mano.

[Atomic Scotsman]

Loads of great suggestions in the thread so far.

Maybe I can offer one on concept? Try thinking of the ship as you normally would the world that you run. It's not a floating dungeon in space -it's an environment that is too huge to ever see each nook and cranny.

Only map out locations that will be important (like you would in a Earth-based game) and leave the rest up to imagination and GM description. That might help make it easier to run big chases since you can't run off the map, so to speak.

Someone mentioned force fields or running out of air -things like that are great for non-combat excitement. Maybe a "Chase" down a massive engine shaft, with the PC's trying to climb to safety on a deck below as a huge piece of engine "falls" towards them slowly as it gets caught in cables/pipes/catwalks above them, falling in fits and starts.

I think the vaguer you keep the deckplans the more opportunity for imaginative fun you'll have.
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[Poor Wandering One]

As space travellers the party is absolutely dependent on technology to survive. Inside the teck bubble there is light and air and warmth, outside is a burning/freezing airless black void that will kill you inside of thirty seconds.
In front of the party is an example of what happens when the bubble popps. There but for the grace of regular maintainence.....

One thing you may want to consider is removing their saftey net. If you can find a good way to remove their ability to simply move back to their ship and saftey you can ratchet up the tention nicely.

This idea is dependant on the tech used but....Say the party has to use a docking tube to get from their ship to the derelict. Once most of the party is on board and trying to get systems restored, have say an oxygen compressor explode or an airlock blow. This does not do to much bamage but it puts the ship into a slow spin. This destroyes the docking tube. How do you get home now? Suddenly getting manuver control restored in order to cancel the spin becomes very important and could lead to the party clambering all through the ship trying to bypas the destroyed/locked down by an anti-hijack program systems preferably before the air tanks on their suits run out.

It is also important to bring on some time pressure. Say the drives have cracked and there is enough radition in the ship to nicely roast a chicken in about 15minutes. The players space suits will, mainly, protect them from the glow but you don't want to stay here too long. Oh and taking off the suit would be a bad idea. Did I already mention the suits limited air supply?

Doom is a common theme when derelict ships are involved. Imagine the looks on the players faces as they look out the main view port as their ship drifts off into the distance after they accidently cause one of the "not quite as dead as you thought they were engines to fire.
GM: "You are now accelerating at just over 5meters persecond persecond roughly twords the galactic core. At this rate you should reach it in about twenty thousand years. Whay are you doing now?"

Oh I second the blobs of liquid blood floting around idea. It's a good visual, it sets up that there may be a threat later, and can really squick the players if used properly. I would make a point of mentioning the floating blood when the party enters the ship. In all probablity the party members will mention trying to avoid walking into the blobs. Later once ther are being chased throught the ship by Reavers/Amway sales force they released from the hold you can squick then again when you mention the blood blobs splatting on their suits and visors as they run for the airlock.

So what tech level are we talking here? Star Trek, transporters and replicators? Firefly, fake gravity and FTL communication? 2001, you and a crazy computer alone in the dark?

How big is the ship? Rama? Red Dwarf? Star Destroyer? Discovery? Type S Scout?

[Jackhalfaprayer]

Thanks everybody. Really. I can't express enough appreciation for your willingness to pierce through my own ramblings.

Point 1: having never run an adventure like this I guess my first concern is that I don’t know if I trust complex descriptions enough to make them the only thing I populate a room with. Perhaps on some level I’m just seeking confirmation that, even though I don’t populate every room with game mechanics or scenes, a description of the contents will be enough. A room can be “empty” from the stand point that it doesn’t have a pre-planned “encounter” but still be full of scenery. Which leads to…

Point 2: Given enough scenery, and a rough skeleton of events/encounters, the players will make it a compelling adventure through their desire to… uh… do just that I guess. I don’t need to map out every can of soda and disembodied limb. I can trust the players to tell the story as much, or more so, than I do. Right?

Point 3: For events that I do plan there need to be story events as well. That much I had understood. I’m working from the framework that the players were sent on a cargo ship to bring supplies to a deep space mining vessel. There will be survivors. There will be more energy spent on figuring out what happened than fighting off whatever is lurking in the shadows.

It was UbmraLux who put into words my concern about “traps.” The concept of a “health tax” is exactly what I want to avoid! I don’t want to have events just be “you don’t have the skills necessary/you were unlucky = take damage.”

Two people mentioned the concept of using either chase rules or mass battle rules to make event more than roll dice = pass/fail & pay/don’t pay health tax. I really like this idea as I hope it will make an event in question more involved for the players.

[Poor Wandering One]

The pit.
If you want them to die they die. Take a look at the Dr. Who eposide with the Titanic. A man fell in the pit and he died. This later inspired the man's widow to leap to her doom taking a baddie with her. This was a highly emotional scene and an acting high point for the episode. If you want that kind of emotional oomph then death has to be in the cards.

However, there are other ways to deal with the pit. Say instead of leading to the reactor core the bit leads to open space. The ship is spinning so there is some fake gravity to push players out the hole and into a new carreer as debris. There is a threat of death so the fear is real. Say someone blows the roll and falls. Well it might take a bit to reach the opening in the hull. Maybe they can grapple on to some wreckage as they 'fall'. Maybe there is a nifty-space-tool solution. "Hey, I have magnetic boots." Or if they do fall outside the ship then perhaps their own ship could rescue them. Assuming they can match speed and vector before the suits air runs out.

In short the pit is exactly as dangerous as you want it to be.

Ah! We are looking at Silent Running then. Big but not city ship, at least one green house, low crew count. Am I right?
Next question. What is the most important thing about the derelict starship? What was it before it was a wreck?