SciFi encounter ideas

[Capn Charlie]

Once the party makes it to engineering, they coax the once mighty and now silent engines back to life, hoping to restore light, warmth, and hopefully gravity to the ship... and are horrified to be granted their wish! As the engines roar to life, they begin erratically firing, main engines, maneuvering thrusters, retro-thrusters... this ship is bucking like an angry bronco!

Every other time increment (round, phase, etc) roll dice and determine which way "down" is at this time, and mark it on the map accordingly. Suddenly hallways become elevator shafts, cargo bays become death traps filled with tumbling containers, workshops have dangerous equipment flying about. Falls could be short, long, or irrelevant, depending on the player's actions, and reactions. Sly players will tether themselves to walls, are there tie down rails? Did the characters bring their safety tethers? Is all of the equipment they carry on tethers?

Solutions: Skilled engineers or computer users might find shorted out relays causing the malfunctions, and have to climb, dash, and fall through the ship to find and repair these systems. Perhaps a malevolent program is running in the command area (bridge, CIC, Pilot's Pit) and the characters must work their way there to diffuse it. Now that there is power, automated defense drones on magnetic treads patrol the corridors, mostly unphased by the shifts...

 

[M.T. Black]

Some great, great encounter ideas here - many thanks!

 

[Eltab]

One passenger's room has a crate that is spray-painted DO NOT OPEN. If they open it anyways, the PCs release a gas that makes them sick now and eventually kills them - preferably in small dollops, so the Scientist PC can figure out the cure. The crate had a sample of off-planet atmosphere in it, loaded with alien germs or viruses. The passenger's laptop computer / whatever has a few files describing what is in the crate, and the nature of the danger it poses. Plus a bunch of other personal files that have no bearing on the problem whatsoever - maybe he writes amateur song lyrics in his spare time.

The Star of Zimbabwe - a lost-under-mysterious-circumstances huge precious stone jewel - is in one passenger's luggage. How did THAT get in there?

The ship's comm system is sending out a directed beam calling for help. That help arrives while the PCs are distracted with other problems. The 'help' might be the police, or a business partner, or smugglers, or a particular band of pirates, or ...

A 'ghost ship' is detected on sensors while the PCs are investigating this very real ship. The 'ghost' is an ancient derelict or ship from legend (2001's USS Discovery?). If the PCs get back aboard their own ship to investigate the newcomer, BOTH ships fade off their scanners. If they stay aboard the abandoned ship, THEIR ship disappears. Now they have to get the abandoned ship up and running enough to limp to a port.

The Police arrive and decide the PCs must be who attacked the drifting derelict. Or The Navy is using the derelict for boarding party practice, but didn't tell everybody else to stay away.

A salvage/repair crew, plus the original ship's crew, show up to take care of the breakdown. They are NOT happy to see the PCs on their ship.

The ship's navicomputer has secret military data (hidden asteroid base's orbit, say) in it. WHY?

A secret society living in the far reaches of the system has rented this freighter to deliver some supplies. There is enough information that the PCs and their ship could make the rendezvous, if they wanted. The secret society is known only to like their privacy and not appreciate visitors.

 

[Random Axe]

When one or two party members enter the cockpit, the door locks them in and the cockpit ejects as an escape pod (all the other escape pods on the ship have already been ejected/used). Since the ship is in orbit around a planet, the cockpit pod immediately begins its descent. However, the trapped characters quickly discover the heat shielding or energy shielding on the cockpit pod is faulty and will not protect the pod's descent through the atmosphere, and as an escape pod there are no controls to keep it in orbit (or the energy cells are badly depleted, preventing sophisticated control of the pod). Therefore the rest of the party must hustle back to their own ship to race to intercept the falling pod and tractor or capture it before it disintegrates in the lower atmosphere.

You can even go further that, when the party's own ship hurriedly detaches from the abandoned ship, the orbit is disrupted and the abandoned ship itself is sent on a falling trajectory, and may be destroyed itself if other PC's don't take the time to correct it, or need to rush to pick up valuable items/clues on their way out to rescue their trapped comrades in the falling cockpit pod.