Futuristic Dungeons

[Tinker Gnome]

For anyone who has run a futuristic dungeon, how did it go? When i say futuristic, i mean like a crashed alien spaceship. Did you let your players get their hands on an Anti-Matter Rifle? Or did the whole ship blow up when they pressed the wrong button?

Oh, and does anyone have any ideas for some really good futuristic monsters. I know there are aliens and robots. But is there anything else?

 

[Alzrius]

This idea isn't anthing new. I'm sure lots of old-time gamers have run through The Barrier Peaks (boy I wish Return to the Barrier Peaks hadn't died on the operating table).

If you want some sort of futuristic monsters, try mutants, or weird aliens.

 

[pogre]

There is an old Gamma World adventure set in a manufacturing plant that would be pretty cool. I vote mutants for monsters as well!

 

[Tinker Gnome]

There is an old Gamma World adventure set in a manufacturing plant that would be pretty cool. I vote mutants for monsters as well!

Yeah, i have two ideas now. Although i can not do them until the PCs reach ta least mid level. One is having something like in the Predator movie, where they are being hunted by an alien creature. Another is having a small meteor hit near where they are. And having a mutant creature with crazy regenerative powers emerge. We do play in the Forgotten Realms. And if a players tells me some advanced technology would not work because of all the magic, i will tell him to shove the weave up his ***. Well, i might not do that, depends on my mood. Good thing my players do not know at all about SpellJammer, cause that would make it hard to introduce alien creatures from the deep reaches of space.

EDIT: I am also considering giving the mutant some Psychometabolism powers. But i am not sure.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

I also like to portray my creatures from space as alien as possible. H.P. Lovecraft's writings definitely influenced me in this.

Well, i am going to bed now, i will see how this thread is when i wake up sometime tomorrow afternoon.

 

[Argent Silvermage]

One of the "coolest" things I have seen is where the DM didn't allow Psionics for PC's but the main opponents all were psi's. made for an interesting series of adventures.
Have a ship crash and the radiation effect a tribe of orcs in the area. they all start to mutate and become much more than just orcs.

 

[Tonguez]

Oozes and Abberations with Tentacles make good alien monsters. As do intelligent Umber Hulks and Ettercaps and puting a 'Humanoid' template onto a Vermin-Monster (like say an Ankheg)

In a Futuristic city I once used I allowed the PCs to take and keep a set of power armour that granted +4 Str, +4 Con, +4 Dex, Spd 40, Breathing filters and a arm mounted laser (no recharges). They had use of a Golem Suit (Mecha-Robot) which was left behind when they escaped. The laser blasters were psionic and controlled by giving them only a few charges and no way to recharge (they required crystals which were not (currently) available in the known world)

When I was in my teens we use to explore abandoned factories and even get into the maintenance tunnels beneath the city - which provided great ideas on what features of future dungeons might be.
So use lots of pipe, bolted metal support beams

 

[Silver Moon]

For our group's 20th Year Anniversary Game we ran a round-robin, where everybody took ALL of their characters (each player had between 4 and 9), divided them into seven teams, and were simultaneously sent to seven different times and places to retrieve the individual pieces of the Rod of the Seven Parts, each scenario having a different DM.

I had around 20 Battletech/Sci-Fi figures that had been part of large miniatures lots bought on EBay so put together a sci-fi game for my piece. They were on a huge space station that had once been a prison, the male prisoners had revolted and taken charge a half-century earlier. Their mission was to get the rod piece, held by one of the prisoner gang factions. To add to it, a Ming-the-Merciless type with a female assistant had recently boarded, so there was a risk that a new generation of prisoners could have been born. The party's secondary mission was to rescue her, or if necessary, kill her.

The game went well. Yes, they found space armor and laser rifles, which I let them bring back to their own world at the end but I made sure that each has a limited number of charges and cannot be recharged. They also brought back the female assistant, who I expected somebody would pick up as a PC given her unique background, but nobody has yet.

 

[doghead]

This idea isn't anthing new. I'm sure lots of old-time gamers have run through The Barrier Peaks (boy I wish Return to the Barrier Peaks hadn't died on the operating table).

Heheheh. You should have seen how long the players spent on the toaster. They still remember it fondly.

 

[Silver Moon]

You should have seen how long the players spent on the toaster.

On the subject of toast, my group has also played a few modules where they have traveled to 20th century worlds. The great part is that most of have shown little interest there in things like modern weapons, instead being awed by things like Pop Tarts and beer in sealed cans. Other than lots of those two food items, the only other modern things they've bought back to use are sneakers, wristwatches and sunglasses.