Airlocks

[NickP]

The party is in a situation where their ship will soon be boarded by Vargr Corsairs (the party is in an old nail of an A2 Far Trader; the Vargr are in a Veng).

Currently the strategy they are discussing is waiting in vacc suits outside the ship and then trying to enter the Vargr ship through the airlock which the Vargr are not using.

How hard would it be for them to gain entry to an airlock? Would it be possible to open it manually from the outside? Would there be a computer controlled PIN Code Access or something similar? Could they burn their way through with a torch? Would it set off all sorts of alarms so the Vargr would be waiting for them by the time they got in?

The whole plan sounds rather optimistic to me, but I would like to get some third-party input rather than unilaterally deciding that the idea is a complete non-starter.

Many thanks for all your help with this.

 

[kafka47]

MT has the different densities and burn points. I would allow for a rule of 200 "shots" of energy weapon to burn access to the wires. So, pin works, if you want to simulate it. Roll 3D6 and give the players 6 chances to duplicate those numbers, if they fail then the ship's automatic defence systems kick in...unless they have disabled the powerplant. Another fun way, is if you have Simon or access to a computer which can do Simon. Let them defeat Simon at high level and thus gain entry. A torch would allow them access to the wires that activate the door lock, now being Vargr, why are all the wires Red...

If you are strictly playing a dice game, then I would set the difficulty rating as Electronics, Difficult. But dice games are not as fun as role playing it out.

 

[NickP]

Thanks for the ideas - those look like they should be some fun to play through.

Sorry for being a dork, but what is Simon?

Normally I would Google it but I know that if I did a search for 'traveller simon' I would just end up with a bunch of blogs by blokes called Simon whittering on about where they went on their gap years!

 

[HG_B]

Sorry for being a dork, but what is Simon?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_(game)

 

[D. Foxx]

Sorry for being a dork, but what is Simon?

Simon is an old electronic game that would flash a sequense of four colors that the player would have to repeat. At higher levels the sequence would come faster and be longer. It was a memory game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_(game)

 

[NickP]

Aha! That Simon!

That is going back a long way - the existence of that thing had completely escaped my memory.

The game is online and so it would be difficult to make it work, but it is a very clever idea for playing breaking a PIN Code.

 

[kafka47]

Aha! That Simon!

That is going back a long way - the existence of that thing had completely escaped my memory.

The game is online and so it would be difficult to make it work, but it is a very clever idea for playing breaking a PIN Code.

Again, it boils down to trust...I did it for the online game here. There is plenty of Simon clones online...conversely there is all sorts of mix and match games. Give the players a deadline say 30sec to solve the puzzle or damage starts acquiring substance rather than just form.

 

[far-trader]

For what it's worth you could always ask the players. As in what works for them will also work for the enemy. If they think it should be easy for them to break into a secure starship then they should realize that their own starship is as (or more) vulnerable, and as the ref you will use that at some point against them. They may suddenly decide that starships are actually pretty hard to break into

It is of course a game, and the goal is to have some fun. So it depends on how much reality your group finds fun.

Personally I think the Corsair would be much tougher to crack than the Trader. And unless the Vargr have taken serious casualties there will be some aboard on watch to prevent such counter boarding, which could be a rude surprise for the players...

Ref: "Surprisingly your plan works amazingly well. There is no security on the airlock control pad and you only needed to press the big button and it opened. You step inside and the door closes behind you automatically. The airlock begins to pressurize. That's odd? Your suits are reading the atmosphere is insidiously corrosive and your vacc suit seals will fail in less than 2 minutes. As you ponder this you notice the inner airlock monitor is flashing a message 'Surrender or die.' What do you do?"

And if the Vargr have taken so many casualties that they can't leave anyone aboard to secure the ship while a small boarding party attempts entry and take-over of the Trader... well if it was me the players would still find it exceedingly easy to gain entry. Once aboard they hear a voice over the ship wide intercom. In Vargr. If anyone can translate it seems to be counting down to something...

At the very least, yes, any attempt to gain entry would take time, possibly a long time, and set off alarms. The Vargr aboard would be waiting to 'welcome' the players aboard. And the ones making their way over to board would probably be coming up behind the players at the same time.

Optimistic and a complete non-starter sounds about right to me. Allowing them a chance at it in the interest of fun might be the better way to go. Not a good chance of course, and fraught with consequences if (when) they fail. Like capture of them and their ship, so you can have them sold into slavery for a whole new set of 'fun' adventures as they try to escape and reclaim their ship.

 

[snapshotbygdw]

Splinter's solution

Nick even as they plan, the party hear Splinter crashing around in the galley, he punctuates his activity with woofs and barks. After a particually loud metallic crash all goes silent. Moments later he appears in the doorway (still dressed only in a pair of socks) and throws a small metal object into the room. He then leaves once more barking and woofing. At his departure all eyes turn to the object he tossed into the room....a can opener!

 

[Matt123]

Never know, it might not be locked...

No Corsair expects to be boarded. & if the Vargr have just left...

Personally, I'd blow an explosive on the door to mess it up a little with scorch marks, wait for the Vargr to realise no one was home on my ship & take them out using the cover of the Vargr ship, as they try & get back to 'reclaim' their ship. Zero-g weapons would help tho' & some companions with zero-g training.

But thats a bit desperate too & relying a little on the Vargr pack mentality that when a-raiding, no one wants to stay behind on their own ship. It'd be fun tho'.

 

[NickP]

@ far-trader - Yes, I have already pointed this out to them. Next time they park up a ship and wander off, I think that they would be a little annoyed if I told them that some random thief walked by, hit the emergency open airlock button and then just flew off with it!

I think in Traveller, GMs always need to walk a fine line between a the party members taking cinematic/heroic actions that get them out of tight spots versus The Bad Guys always doing incredibly stupid things that make it too easy for the party members.

I like kafka's idea of making it possible for the party to gain entry by taking off the faceplate and hot-wiring the entry mechanism. With the only party member with any electronics skill going through a mental breakdown at the moment (see snapshotbygdw's posting above!) this will be enough of a challenge for them already!

 

[Dragoner]

Explosive decompression is a b!tch though.

 

[Icosahedron]

If the Vargr can board your ship, you can board theirs. If they can leave traps, so can you. The old claymore-in-the-airlock is a good one if you're about to be boarded.

It all depends on fun and the GM plan. Where do you want the game to go? Do you want them to succeed or not? If they don't succeed, how do they get their fun next? Constantly fighting a losing battle with the GM isn't fun. I've been in a couple of those games and left again pretty soon.
But likewise succeeding at everything loses its shine, too.

 

[NickP]

Explosive decompression is a b!tch though.

Actually this is another debate that I am having with them that I wouldn't mind people's opinions on.

I would have thought that experienced pirates would decompress their ships before boarding because the risks of decompression are so high and so catastrophic.

But one of the players says that it is written somewhere in MongTrav that ships would not be decompressed.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

@ Icosahedron: My intention originally was that they would end up in control of the Veng and use this as their new ship as I realize that I've been to mean to them recently.

However, they were supposed to be in an Alliance with a group of five Sword Worlder pirates who they ended up doublecrossing. With the pirates on their side, this should have been a relatively simple exercise, but without them it is going to be a lot more of a challenge.

I can't say anything more about it as I know several of the players will be reading this!

 

[shield]

Okay 2 answers

The airlock doors probably have a manual openning facility, located behind a marked but locked panel for emergency use. The panel should be alarmed. Use of the handwind will also trigger bridge alarms as will openning the airlock door.

Given this is a handwind, it will take several minutes to open the door and allow access, then you have to get in the airlock, handcrank the outer door shut and then handcrank the inner door open. The vargr crew will probably be waiting for you (what with all those alarms going off). If you are handwinding, they should not be able to electrically move the airlock door.

As for decompression. The LBBs said air pressure would be lowered to reduce loss of atmosphere if the ship takes damage. I imagine that atmosphere is maintained as it is easer for the crew to operate. The crew should be in vacc suits with gloves off and helmets open. They can seal up pretty rapidly on a decompression alarm, + all the iris valves will close around the breach.

Cheers
Richard

 

[shield]

PS. if the vargr have anti-hijack running the bridge controls will be locked out unless you have the passcode

 

[atpollard]

A Vargr corsair might be more vulnerable to hijacking than the average ship ... Vargr in general (and the crew of a corsair in particular) strike me as being more offensively focused than defensive in nature. Sure they will be prepared to defend against a missile attack, but how many pirates post heavy night watches to ward off hijackers? [Wolf pack vs sheep herd mentality.]

The 'it works both ways' principle discussed with respect to NPC vs Crew ships, also applies to just the NPC ship - either it is a long, slow, tedious process to enter and leave the Corsair, or it is a fast, simple process. Either way affects both the ability of the Vargr to deploy a boarding party and the ability of the crew to enter the Corsair.

Personally, I like to leave such open possibilities, like enemy offenseive vs defensive posture, to chance ... roll 1D6, 1= defensive measures bordering on paranoia, 6 = "Lock, what's a lock? Hand me another 1000 rounds for my LAG." Then the Ref fleshes out the details based on the roll.

 

[HG_B]

If there are any crew on the bridge and or engineering, they will see the notification that an airlock is being opened/attacked/damaged, etc. All hatches will have status indicated and monitored by the environmental system computer, at the very least.