Date: Wed, 1 Feb 1995 14:53:15 -0500 (EST) From: Mark Clark Subject: Adventure Seed 2 PLAYER INFORMATION -Classic Traveller- The player group is hired by an ex-Imperial Navy Captain for an expedition. He will tell the players that his father was an itinerant asteroid miner who was lost in a misjump when the Captain was young. His father's ship was recently discovered, and the Captain has the records from the last jump. His father and the crew came out in empty space, only to find a large asteroid-like body. His father and several of the crew went to explore the asteroid, but never came back. The one remaining crew member set the ship on course for the nearest system, but his low berth failed before the ship was found. The Captain wants to travel to the asteroid and find out what happened to his father. -MegaTraveller- Set up will be much the same, but the father's ship was attacked when it returned to the system in the middle of a battle of the Rebellion, which killed the remaining crewmember (not the failure of the low berth). -New Era_ The Classic Traveller set-up can be used in the Regency. For the RC or a Pocket Empire, the Captain is looking for his grandfather rather than his father. 1) The situation is exactly as it seems. The asteroid is plain rock. The Captain's father and his fellow crew were killed by faulty equipment. 2) As 1, but the asteroid has rich deposits of ore that can be worked. 3) As 1, but the Captain's father was abandoned on the asteroid on purpose by the crewmember. The father left a message explaining what happened. 4) As 3, but the "Captain" is actually the crewmember who left the father for dead, and has returned out of guilt. The players should be given a series of clues to this respect. The asteroid contains nothing valuable. 5) As 4, but the crewmember has returned for valuables hidden on the asteroid. 6) The introduction is all a cover story. The Captain is an active member of a secret service appropriate to the setting and time of the campaign. The asteroid is a secret cache of fuel, parts and weapons maintained by an enemy of the local political entity that the Captain learned about during his service. He plans to use the players to discover this and use the cover story to prevent the enemy from learning their codes have been compromised. 7) As 6, but the Captain has gone rogue and plans to kill the players and steal as much as he can from the facility for sale on the black market. 8) The Asteroid is a generation ship and the father is alive aboard. He was abandoned by the crew member on the ship, who panicked when the father didn't return promptly. The people on the asteroid are friendly and interrested in getting to civilization and in trade. 9) As 8, but the asteroid's inhabitants just want to be left alone. They are not interested in trade, but they will return the Captain's father. 10) As 8, but the asteroid's inhabitants are violently xenophobic, and will fight to destroy the player's group. They are technologically less sophisticated than players, however, so the Captain's father can be rescued if things are done right. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Feb 95 11:43:46 PST From: Eric Nolan Subject: re: Adventure seeds Mark, thanks for the adventure seeds and keep them coming, I like them at least. With regards to the second seed, an 11th explanation struck me immediately. Anybody played or seen a CD game for the PC called Creature Shock? The basic plot is vaguely similar. A survey ship complete with prototype fighter/weapon has gone missing in the asteroids and you have to find out what happened to it exactly. The ships distress beacon contains footage of the disaster. What actually happened is that when the ship passed close to the asteroid, tentacular pseudopods lashed out and arrested it's forward motion. This caused an explosion in the drive section and supposedly the death of the crew. The ship is now resting partially embedded in the asteroid. The asteroid is vaguely alive and is under the control of a superior alien type. It also contains samples of various dangerous life forms that have been collected including a polymorph which can duplicate the captain of the missing ship. Integration of this idea into Mark's adventure seed could run along the following lines. 11) The asteroid mining ship came out of jump near the asteroid. After a routine densiometer scan the crew noted the presence of heavy metals, unknown compounds and deep caverns in the rock. All the crew bar one went over in vacc suits to investigate the possibility of this being an ancient artifact (or an abandoned military rock throwing project). The interior had an atmosphere (lo-pressure, tainted). They encountered hostile life forms, seemingly degenerated technological beings, which the crew dealt with. After a period of exploration the crew came under attack by a large creature of some sort and were quickly killed. The remaining crew member on the ship engaged the jump drive and left. After a period of six months, during which he prepared his story and gathered some cash, he contacted the PC's with his bogus story. If you get a chance have a look at Creature Shock, it's very impressive visually, but you need to see section 2 and on to get a feel for this asteroid.