Cruise ship breakdown adventure idea

[Garyius2003]

Given the recent huge cruise ship breakdowns...

A J2 or J3 large liner, 2-3k passengers. Maybe a route stop outside the major Marches worlds, but in between. A breakdown with the PP (?) on the way out to the jump point results in the ship wandering towards the outer system.

The system and local factor decides to charter (impress?) the PC's ship and several others to run food, life support and repair bots and parts out to the ship in a constant round robin.

Repairs are expected to take several weeks.

Passengers scheming or playing politics to be taken off on the run back. Disorder on the ship. Reporters trying to tagalong to go out to the ship. Robbery. Murder(?) A risky attempt to remove a section of the hull to rush the repair goes wrong, requiring rescues of rescue balls against time in an entire section.

So I need a deck plan source for a very large liner. High Lightning minus 3/4ths of the total decks, and the remaining gun decks converted to multi-use convertible lounge, theater, dining, pool, zero G, and sports areas?

Crib from the various 1001 character type pubs for major pax and crew and co workers, and use the Dark Conspiracy playing card system to set personality types?

Kill the captain and chief engineer and some other senior staff in the initial failure or the hull screw-up to cause more disorder?

Who has ideas or suggestions or sources for me?

 

[Dragoner]

The King Richard, FASA DPM-1, has everything you need, even a shipwreck scenario.

 

[Garyius2003]

I own a copy of Action Aboard. Way too small, a few free traders could take off all the pax.

 

[flykiller]

I have a deckplan for a 4000dton liner. j1, m2, 1500 passenger capacity. anyone think they can use it?

 

[savage]

Richard!

Yes King Richard is a good way to go I was looking at it yesterday. There are a few big liners (4kdt +) on the net.
Also you could do a AHL conversion since several we're sold to the private sector. It might be slightly humorous to have an AHL liner. That could lead to some serious humor.

 

[Dagrill]

The King Richard, FASA DPM-1, has everything you need, even a shipwreck scenario.

King Richard is only 5 ktons and 300 passengers, I think some variant of Azhanti High Lightning would be needed for 3,000 passengers.

With regard to casualties a power plant explosion could take out the chief engineer and a chunk of the engineering staff. I would think taking out the bridge as well would be a little harsh.

Kind Regards

David

 

[rancke]

I have a deckplan for a 4000dton liner. j1, m2, 1500 passenger capacity. anyone think they can use it?

A jump-1 liner would work for going back and forth between two worlds lying one parsec away. It could also work for a route where each world on the route can supply new passengers. It can't possibly compete with jump-2 and jump-3 liners across two- and three-parsec gaps[*].

[*] 'Gaps' in this particular case include routes where there are worlds in between the origin and the destination worlds but those worlds don't support enough passengers arriving and departing).​

Hans

 

[whartung]

Your ship is dispatched to bring urgently needed supplies and parts to bring the ship back on line. Life support is failing, etc.

Coincidently your ship was registered to provide this service before hand and you were in port. Not just any one can perform this task.

Also coincidently, there's a high ranking official on the cruise ship.

Unfortunately, a 3rd party seems to have managed all of these coincidences to the point where your real task is to simply "not make it on time", allowing life support to fail and in effect assassinating the high ranking official (along with everyone else).

Turns out, this was the plan all along. Now you need to get out of Dodge before you mis-deeds are discovered.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

I would think taking out the bridge as well would be a little harsh.

But, any resultant power surge would cause all the bridge stations to explode with great force throwing the crew from their seats! C'mon, man, have you not watched enough Trek?

[*] 'Gaps' in this particular case include routes where there are worlds in between the origin and the destination worlds but those worlds don't support enough passengers arriving and departing).​

Not entirely true. Most pleasure cruises today stop in various places so the people on board can get off and see the sights. So, that J1 liner could conceivably have a 3-parsec route where the two intermediate stops are for recreational purposes.

Now, if you mean in terms of revenue that you can't beat the j2 and j3 ships, you're probably right. You can certainly charge more for a pleasure cruise experience than you can for simple passage, though.

Just thinking outside the box.

 

[rancke]

Not entirely true. Most pleasure cruises today stop in various places so the people on board can get off and see the sights. So, that J1 liner could conceivably have a 3-parsec route where the two intermediate stops are for recreational purposes.

You're right and I was wrong. I was thinking about commercial liners rather than cruise ships. Yes, assuming there are enough customers who will pay for an interstellar holiday cruise then a jump-1 ship could well work out.


Hans

 

[flykiller]

so, not needed. ok, I'll stop updating it.

 

[Enoki]

So, something insane like the cruise ship from The Fifth Element hum?

 

[Ran Targas]

I would think that if there was a consistent and serious security risk, the cruise ship line would have appropriate assets available to address it; that said there is still an opportunity for the unexpected.

Some of the plots I have actually used in games:

- assassination (attempted or successful) of a traveling aristocrat or high ranking bureaucrat
- smuggling gone wrong resulting in a hostage situation or attempt to take control of the ship
- a botched exchange of information between two spies, exposed at the wrong moment with very embarrassing results for the governments involved
- stowaway fugitives not willing to surrender to ship security
- blackmail of an important passenger who won't expose the plot to authorities due to its potential for personal damage
- shipboard emergencies (of course)

Some of these directly involved, or were even initiated by, the players while others were occurring in the background as a subplot.

 

[epicenter00]

Who has ideas or suggestions or sources for me?

Ensure that the cruise ship is a J-1 ship that never leaves a particular solar system. Given slow travel times in Traveller, even within a solar system, it's often faster to jump from the Life Zone of a solar system to the outer system.

It might be a cruise liner in a single, pretty well-settled solar system (the type with a Class A starport) that is known for its spectacularly colored gas giants with interesting ring systems, perhaps with floating life in the atmosphere of one of the gas giants.

All of this is necessary for the ridiculousness of the latest cruise ship breakdowns - people are like, "How the heck is that ship in such dire straits in the XXX system? Does that system have billions of people, a class A starport? Isn't the system swarming with ships? Don't they have a rescue service? What about ..."

But of course, the realities of Jump travel in the Traveller universe means that a ship can get stuck out in the outer system, still a week away from aid, even in some highly "civilized" system with a mainworld population in the billions...

 

[aramis]

After jump entry, most breakdowns will be fatal.

PP, and you freeze or suffocate.
JD, and you never exit, or exit in tiny chunks.
Hull, and you suffocate and/or exit in tiny chunks.
LS, you suffocate or freeze.

MD, well, no biggie.
Computer, well, you don't know how long you have left in jump... and might not be able to aim for the target world on jump exit.

 

[Carlobrand]

so, not needed. ok, I'll stop updating it.

Bad assumption. 260 views, 14 respondents to date: we have lurkers and passers-by who might find your contribution helpful but who don't post a response for one reason or another, especially since the site's being more careful about new posters.

After jump entry, most breakdowns will be fatal.

PP, and you freeze or suffocate.
JD, and you never exit, or exit in tiny chunks.
Hull, and you suffocate and/or exit in tiny chunks.
LS, you suffocate or freeze.

MD, well, no biggie.
Computer, well, you don't know how long you have left in jump... and might not be able to aim for the target world on jump exit.

You're thinking big. Think smaller. Life support includes a variety of functions and is subject to partial failure. Failure of the water recycling system could result in draconian water rationing and a near-revolt by passengers. Failure of the food delivery system - some idiot signs for receipt of 16 crates of mixed foodstuffs and belatedly discovers the crates are all toilet paper, now the passengers are on an enforced 500 calorie diet. Power delivery systems could suffer partial failures as well, resulting in passengers being crowded into the remaining powered parts of the ship or enduring brief and irritating blackouts.

As regards the OP, occurs to me that if the result he wants is a ship drifting outsystem and needing a constant stream of supplies, then a hijacking's a better bet than a breakdown. Ine Givar takes control of the ship, makes threats, long period of negotiations resulting in the need to resupply in space to keep hostage passengers fed, resupply further complicated by Ine Givar demands intended to keep someone from getting a boarding party aboard.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Life support includes a variety of functions and is subject to partial failure. Failure of the water recycling system could result in draconian water rationing and a near-revolt by passengers. Failure of the food delivery system - some idiot signs for receipt of 16 crates of mixed foodstuffs and belatedly discovers the crates are all toilet paper, now the passengers are on an enforced 500 calorie diet. Power delivery systems could suffer partial failures as well, resulting in passengers being crowded into the remaining powered parts of the ship or enduring brief and irritating blackouts.

Ooooh. Very good nastiness. Errr.... good ideas for plot points. And this is especially nasty if they are on a "cruise" instead of a one-way trip. Now they have to go through another week in jump to get somewhere they can be happy/safe. Oh yes, they could get off at Cookylahooney X and wait for help, but now they would have to eat the local foodstuffs, or there aren't enough local foodstuffs because they aren't supposed to feed X,000 people for two-three weeks.

then a hijacking's a better bet than a breakdown.

I wouldn't say *better*, but it is definitely another option to a breakdown, with a slightly different thread running off from it. (Another possibility is to add that the Ine Givar bad guys are going to sneak their people off a few at a time - or just one - through the resupply efforts, or in the guise of releasing hostages. Hmmmm.... Do the players shoot Mr Fishyguy who they think is a bad guy trying to slip away? Or is he really a poor terrified hostage and someone is going to be terribly upset when they pop out of jump with him at room temperature?)

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Actually, you could do the Weber/Ringo March To The... series gambit, too. Bad guys blow up the ship drive, making it inevitable that it will crash. They have to grab what they can and get planetside - somewhere that is inherently hostile to life/comfort. Yes, a different scenario in many ways, but it could have many of the same elements.

 

[BlackBat242]

Ahhhh...

The "Gilligan's Island" scenario!



Going back to the "Cruise Ship" scenario for a moment... who says that the system they are stranded in has to have a habitable planet or even an established protected settlement (dome/etc)?

They could have come out of J-space simply to refuel... or so the tourists could see the unique sights offered by the unusual system formation/whatever, and there never was anyone in the system to call for help?

So they are stuck until, 3 days (or whatever you wish) after the J-drive failure that strands them, the PCs' 200dt free trader jumps in-system to refuel/sight-see and finds the stranded leviathan.

Now the fun begins... the closest system that can directly send a repair vessel is several jumps away for the PCs' ship... but the liners' supplies/life-support system won't last that long, so the PCs have to start shuttling between the stranded ship and the nearest place to get food/etc... a TL5 world a J-2 away. As this system is somewhat frequently visited by other traders (average of 2-3 times a month, but sometimes there is a ~2-month gap between ships), the PCs can pass on a message to that higher-tech world to send a repair vessel and/or a second liner to take off the passengers), but the PCs will have to spend quite a while bringing supplies to the liner before that help arrives.

Some people on the liner will want off... even if it is to that backwards planet.
Are they criminals attempting to escape?
Military personnel who might commandeer the PCs' ship and abandon the liner's passengers & crew to their fate due to a vital need to get somewhere quickly?
Hyper-rich (or Nobles) who attempt to bribe and/or threaten the PCs?
How many of these VIPs can the PCs transport safely each trip, and will there be an attempt to hijack them by someone who wants to flee... like the terrorists who sabotaged the liner in the first place?

 

[whartung]

Ahhhh...

The "Gilligan's Island" scenario!

Ah, just mis-jump the ship. Perhaps in to a primitive system the PCs (in their Mustered out Scout) are surveying. Or the PCs can encounter a ship that misjumped and made land fall several years before.