Generation Ships

[Werner]

Imagine you are running a universe without FTL or artificial gravity, other than spin and linear acceleration. The player characters are on a Starship that has been cruising through space for 400 years, traveling at an average velocity of around 1% of the speed of light 3,000 km/sec. The ship is an O'Neill cylinder 24 miles long and 4 miles wide (subtracting the hemispheric endcaps it would be 20 miles long by 4 miles wide) where the three large windows would be are instead three rectangular bodies of water measuring 20 miles long and 4*pi/6 miles wide. (2.09 miles wide. Running down the center axis is a plasma tube providing artificial light for the 400 year long journey, this is powered by the Ship's fusion reactor/engine.

The Starship accelerates continuously throughout the journey reaching a bit over 2% of the speed of light an midpoint. Waste heat from the reactor is what powers the lighting and life support system. The acceleration is slow and steady. Upon arrival, the three rectangular ponds drain out to reveal glass windows underneath inforced with transparent aluminum. The water is drained to preserve tanks beneath the inhabited valleys of the cylinder, and the three large mirrors unfold to 30 degrees to reflect in sunlight. Since O'Neill cylinders operate in pairs, there is another Starship accompanying the first one, this one contains two fresh water and one salt water biome dotted with scattered islands in place of the land, the replaces the water ponds that were drained to let in sunlight through the windows when the mirrors underneath open up.

I would suggest varied realistic technologies accompany these starships, fusion power, laser weapons etc, maybe some artificial intelligence as well. The destination is Alpha Centauri.

Now the next thing it needs is for some plot point to turn this into an interesting adventure. Any ideas?

 

[whartung]

A simple start is that they arrive, but they lost contact with the other ship 50 years ago. Things were just peachy, and then it went dark, but with the long, slow, burn of decel, they had to wait until they actually arrived in orbit before an expedition could be mounted to discern what happened.

Apparently the automated guidance systems and such were in good enough shape for both ships to arrive safely, but one seems to be unresponsive.

 

[Timerover51]

I would do something like Metamorphosis Alpha to the second ship, and watch the fun begin.

 

[Enoki]

You could pull the old, common sci-fi version here. The players are among a few aboard the ship that have remembered some--not nearly all but some--of this being a ship and its mission. The vast majority aboard after 400 years haven't got a clue what's going on as the ship transitions. The leadership who is backed by the majority of clueless passengers claims what's happening is supernatural or an event of religious significance.

The players are not among that group and are tasked with trying to safely bring the ship into orbit, then offload the passengers, along with other stuff like technology stored in sealed cargo bays. They have to do this by accessing parts of the ship that were sealed off for the trip and are considered by the majority forbidden, evil, etc., places. The majority aboard will actively try to stop them thinking they will bring additional catastrophe on their lives.

The players have to find each other (they shouldn't start together and each holds part of the puzzle to be solved), then complete the ship's mission before they are crucified, burned at the stake, or some other horrible thing because the second the majority aboard find out what they're trying to do that's what's going to happen.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

You have two avenues to do adventures.

If most everyone is hibernating, except for the current rotation of 5/10/20 year maintenance crew:
Most people are asleep to conserve resources. Adventures revolve on dangers to the ship and mission. Each crewman is expertly trained. If you need a weird skill you may be allowed to thaw a "guest star"/deus ex machina to.

If everyone is awake during the journey:
Now you have a full ensemble cast! Play it like Loveboat or Avenue 5 ! Guests of the week even. A living city!
The first adventures deal with the launch and adjusting to long term canned life. Number of passengers and luxuries determines if there is a market/black market/crime. Crew vs. passenger stories. The main issue is the villain cannot get away unless they hide away in the maintenance level (which generates other stories).

then "THE DISASTER":smirk:

If you get bored change it up! Whip out your episodes of The Starlost or a copy of Metamorphosis Alpha

 

[Werner]

If artificial intelligence is available, then you could have a population of young adults raised by AI parents, and then something unanticipated occurs the AI parents shut down and you have 14 to 18 year olds left to fend for themselves on an enormous Starship. School is out, classes are dismissed, all the kids possess the necessary skills sets to run the ship and conduct landing party operations. These children were raised from frozen fertilized egg cells, their actual biological parents are long dead. The ship lost contact with the Earth shortly after departing, the latest news these kids have is from 2092 AD, and 400 years has passed since.

"Lord of the flies" in space, or perhaps not?

One possibility, a Luddite terrorist group planted a virus in the Ship's computer that is triggered by the Ship's chronometer, when a certain amount of time has passed, the virus is triggered and it shuts down all AI systems onboard the Starship, the automatic non-AI systems continue to function, and the ship settles into orbit around the planet. A bit of terraforming has been done by AIs onboard the precursor Starship, unlike the generation ship, the precursor traveled at 10% of the speed of light instead of at 1%, and it took 40 years to get there instead of 400, so it had 360 years to terraform the planet prior to the main ship's arrival. Mostly this consisted of seeding the planet's oceans with life.

 

[Timerover51]

If artificial intelligence is available, then you could have a population of young adults raised by AI parents, and then something unanticipated occurs the AI parents shut down and you have 14 to 18 year olds left to fend for themselves on an enormous Starship. School is out, classes are dismissed, all the kids possess the necessary skills sets to run the ship and conduct landing party operations. These children were raised from frozen fertilized egg cells, their actual biological parents are long dead. The ship lost contact with the Earth shortly after departing, the latest news these kids have is from 2092 AD, and 400 years has passed since.

"Lord of the flies" in space, or perhaps not?

One possibility, a Luddite terrorist group planted a virus in the Ship's computer that is triggered by the Ship's chronometer, when a certain amount of time has passed, the virus is triggered and it shuts down all AI systems onboard the Starship, the automatic non-AI systems continue to function, and the ship settles into orbit around the planet. A bit of terraforming has been done by AIs onboard the precursor Starship, unlike the generation ship, the precursor traveled at 10% of the speed of light instead of at 1%, and it took 40 years to get there instead of 400, so it had 360 years to terraform the planet prior to the main ship's arrival. Mostly this consisted of seeding the planet's oceans with life.

Then what you have is not a Generation Ship, but something entirely different.

 

[Werner]

Then what you have is not a Generation Ship, but something entirely different.

It could still be an Ark Ship though.

The ship could have been constructed to escape an AI apocalypse, ironically the ship needs AI to work, but it was not the Foundation's own AI that they were afraid of, there was a Cold War going on in the 2090s, and the lead nation was pulling ahead of its rival, so the fear was the rival nation might try to take out the lead nation with nuclear weapons before the lead nation could develop an AI with superhuman intelligence. Of course both nations had space industrial capabilities and low level AI robots that were suitable for constructing O'Neill cylinders and starships in orbit in the decades leading up to the AI singularity. The nation that was behind might try to destroy the nation that was ahead in the AI race, otherwise they would lose their chance to stop them once the superhuman AI is unleashed on the World.

The Arkship uses a Daedalus drive, a kind of fusion drive that implodes pellets containing helium-3 and deuterium to produce low neutron fusion reactions to maximize thrust. A four-stage Daedalus probe was sent ahead to the Alpha Centauri system to terraform Alpha Centauri Prime - basically give it a suitable oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere breathable to humans. Prime is a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri A within the habitable zone.