SciFi encounter ideas

[M.T. Black]

Hi folks, I'm hoping the remarkably creative EnWorld community can help me again.

I'm putting together a short scifi adventure, and I'm stuck for an encounter idea. The location is a ship that is "dead" in orbit, running on emergency power only. The specific room is the cockpit - I'm after something interesting for the PCs to do or learn there.

If you can throw a couple of ideas my way, I'd be most appreciative!

 

[ArchfiendBobbie]

Have them find a person wearing clothes of primitive leather and leaves, with a helmet made out of a hard-shelled fruit (like a coconut).

Nothing like a member of a cargo cult accidentally wandering upon and launching a real ship. And it can take hours of investigation before they finally figure it out.

 

[was]

..Maybe the PCs find empty uniforms at every station, as if the crew was suddenly vaporized. Tracking the ship's previous wandering course, they discover that it traveled through a strange nebula.

..Unbeknownst to anybody, the nebula is actually a sentient, but naive life form. It actually felt sorry for the crew being trapped inside their physical bodies and transformed them into creatures of pure energy. It will try to do the same to the PCs when encountered.

 

[Sunseeker]

A small ooze that will attempt to possess the player who touches it, and then spread to other players and NPCs.

 

[Mad_Jack]

How big is the ship?

- A single figure dead at the helm of a small ship... How did they die? What message did they leave behind on the comm system? (Is there something that happens when the message is played?) Is someone on their way to come get them? And how will they react to the players being there when they show up?

- A ship with a large crew... Perhaps the empty bridge isn't so empty. The crew is still present, but out of phase with the material world, still going about their duties or trying to somehow make contact with the players, possibly to warn them...

 

[M.T. Black]

Jack - about 10 rooms. Nice ideas!

I've ended up going with an environmental hazard - broken pipe, scalding steam. PCs need to avoid the steam and fix the pipe.

But if folk have further ideas, keep 'em coming. I'm sure they won't go to waste!

 

[ArchfiendBobbie]

The abandoned ship is actually a giant space mimic that eats people. And now, the players need to figure out a way to escape its stomach...

 

[MarkB]

How about a plot hook? Either in the depths of the fried navicomputer, or scratched into the back of a fried datapad, there is a partially-complete interstellar treasure map.

 

[Sithikurro]

It's quite an old GM trick, but maybe you don't know it: A screen that starts counting down from 10 when they come within 1m of it. If they do anything to stop the countdown (touch the console, tinker with it) etc. and fail your DC, an electrical impulse burns them. The secret is to actually allow the counter to go down to 0.

 

[Razjah]

If the PCs have suits that allow them to survive in space, the cockpit being blasted open and having some enemy engage them in the cockpit/bridge and out on the ship itself. Maybe a faction of raiders and scavengers stumbles onto the ship shortly after the PCS enter. When they reach the cockpit and open it, the raiders show up and a panicked shot rips through the cockpit/viewer/whatever and opens the ship to space.

The PCs find a garbled transmission that details a lush world nearby (just one jump, even lifeboats can make it). The ship evacuated after and emergency and headed there. The lush world is much like prehistoric earth, complete with dinosaurs. Now you have the find the crew and fight off dinosaurs. Good thing they have sci-fi level gear.