Hazards in SPAAAAACCEEEE!!!

[Supplement Four]

I do enjoy old movies, and I was checking out Charlton Heston in the Wreck of the Mary Deare last night, thinking that the plot of the film would make a good Traveller scenario: The PCs, on a standard adventure class vessel, encounter a much larger vessel--derelict--floating in space. Radiation is detected aboard (it was smoke and fire in the movie), but a PC is sent aboard to investigate.

A lone survivor is found on the ship. Therefore, the PCs will not benefit from salvage, and the survivor demands that the boarders return to their own vessel. In the film, the weather is stormy, and Heston has a heck of a time getting back on his own boat. He can't do it. The wind and waves are smashing him up against the side of the hull of the Mary Deare.

I was trying to think of how I'd translate that to Traveller. I've got a PC or two, space walking back to their own vessel, yet there's a problem/reason why the PCs cannot make it.

Why can that be?

What's the in-game reason?

I was thinking that may the Mary Deare is too close to a star or a Gas Giant, and the radiation levels in space is just too high to withstand for very long?
Violent sunspots would wash over the vessels, become the scifi version of the wind and waves from the movie.

Or, maybe the Mary Deare is in a rapid spin--which is why the PC's vessel's umbilical was not used--no ship to ship docking possible unless the PC's vessel matches the spin of the derelict, which would be a feat (Very Hard Piloting check, with a long time in between checks). Then, in Gravity style, there's a debris field headed towards the Mary Deare (for this to work, the Mary Deare needs to be stuck in orbit, not adrift).

What other hazards in space can you think of?







An earlier film on TCM was one of the best films ever made. The original Poseidon Adventure. If you recall, that ship is hit by a rogue wave--a wall of water taller than the ship--at the beginning of the film. That's how the ship gets capsized.

It reminded me of the shock wave shown in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. I'm not sure how realistic that wave would be, but I sure thought it was cool in the film.

Can that happen? Is there some sort of "rogue wave" that could travel through space, devastating any vessel it reaches?

I supposed a debris field, moving at high velocity, could be realistic--debris from a ship that exploded?

Maybe got a little sci-fi and think of a gravity wave--a ripple in space-time that goes rogue, invisible to most sensors, slamming into vessels, decimating them.

Thoughts?

 

[Blue Ghost]

Star Fleet Battles has a thing called "local conditions" as an optional rule, where the players might have to contend with various anomalies. Regrettably many of those are scaled to Trek-tech-levels, above and beyond high-Imperial TL. As such things like a spining white dwarf which would only scratch an SFB ship's shields, would probably overload a white or black globe generator, and otherwise kill a Traveller Adventure class ship and crew.

Even so there might be some ideas to be mined from there and other games to be incorporated into space encounters.

*EDIT*
Some SFB examples of "Local Conditions"
Heat Zone
Ion Storm
Pulsar
Monster; there about 8 to 10 (or more) monsters

Again, unless you're in a navy vessel, or a high TL ship, your players are toast. Of course the Ref could tweak the conditions to suit an adventure class vessel. Same with monsters. They're designed for TL21 ships or higher, but a good ref could scale them appropriately.

 

[Patron Zero]

The Lost Continent (1968) Hammer Films

This has always been a favorite film of mine, The Lost Continent (1968 Hammer Films), do admit to 'adapting' such to an adventure ran in my Traveller campaign back in the 1980s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Continent_(1968_film)

 

[BlackBat242]

I prefer:

And yes - completely unrelated to the Hammer movie mentioned earlier.

 

[Timerover51]

You can download the E. R. Burrough's The Lost Continent on Project Gutenberg.

Personally, I have always liked James Schmitz "Vatches" from The Witches of Karres, and also the short story, A Nice Day for Screaming. which would work very nicely for hazards in Jump Space.

The you have the "Ixtl" and the "Anabis" from A. E. Van Vogt's classic, Voyage of the Space Beagle. Those would also be interesting to encounter jumping into a new system.

 

[Travellerspud]

Book 3 gives us;

Meteor Shower pg.31 (chance to hole vacc suits or vehicles)


Supplement 2 gives us;

Stellar Flare (2 versions)

High radiation danger, inflicting 1d hits after 5 days

and

Communication impossible without touching helmets

 

[Supplement Four]

Book 3 gives us;

Meteor Shower pg.31 (chance to hole vacc suits or vehicles)


Supplement 2 gives us;

Stellar Flare (2 versions)

High radiation danger, inflicting 1d hits after 5 days

and

Communication impossible without touching helmets

Excellent post!

 

[Patron Zero]

Nice reference, Travellerspud !

 

[salochin999]

Maybe got a little sci-fi and think of a gravity wave--a ripple in space-time that goes rogue, invisible to most sensors, slamming into vessels, decimating them.

Thoughts?

I use that, gravity anomalies that operate like whirlpools, tides or becalm (nullify gravity engines) - basically treat gravity as a sea - with auxiliary non-gravitic engines for emergencies.

So for example the trashed ship goes into one of these anomalies shutting down their gravitic engines so they're stuck on their original vector heading towards some danger or other but their emergency non-gravitic engine doesn't work because it wasn't maintained properly.

The player's ship has to come into the anomaly on a vector that will take them close to the stricken ship and out again with some players jumping across to the other ship as they pass to try and repair the emergency engine.

There'd need to be a reason why the player's emergency engine couldn't be used to take them right next to the stricken ship - maybe it's a solar sail or something which works but is slow so it's faster to accelerate into the anomaly using the gravitic engines and then coast past the other ship.

edit: how that would play in your scenario i guess could be the player(s) that jumped would have to wait for their own ship to coast out of the anomaly, decelerate and then turn round again to pick them up.

alternately if the player had standard thrusters as their emergency non-gravitic engine and could reach the other ship using those but couldn't get too close due to some erratic spinning

 

[Spinward Scout]

Then, in Gravity style, there's a debris field headed towards the Mary Deare (for this to work, the Mary Deare needs to be stuck in orbit, not adrift).

Of course, you'll need some Space Wreckage to be the debris.

 

[Supplement Four]

Of course, you'll need some Space Wreckage to be the debris.

Nice.