I need some disasters

[DaveChase]

Well, if you had a good PSI that could predict such emergencies.

Maybe a new and highly visiable, completely in the test stage by the Imperium to mediated, lessen or arrive just in time to help out after the disasters.

(of course, this could lead to many rotten fruits and other objects thrown at the characters while they work with and try to protect the PSI individual(s ). )

(Or it could just be a well planned ruse by the Imperium to look like the good guys because all the disasters are created that need the help of this new task force.)

Dave Chase

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Read the OP again. He's looking for adventures about disasters. Not a one-off and not "We just happened to in the system...", but multiple events that will involve the PCs in disaster relief.

He's setting it in M:0 so he's most likely looking at a series of adventures centered around a "hearts & minds" campaign conducted by the young Third Imperium to highlight the Benefits of Membershiptm.

Good point.

 

[oldgamergeek]

Here is what I have so far. the small world of Tivela is on the core ward border of the Imperium. They players are from noble families and are part of a show the flag operation involving the Imperial Navy and the Scout service. The Imperium would like this world to join them because they would make a great strategic defense outpost. This would mean a lot to the people of Tivela economically as it would bring at least one base to their system. As the players meet with Rulers and Company Representatives is when disaster strikes. There will be those who blame the Imperium, The companies and the planets government for the disaster.There are those who for their own reasons don't like the Imperium. Our heroes must help with relief and discover the truth.
This just a rough outline I have so far.

 

[Whipsnade]

Here is what I have so far.

Hmmm... the exact opposite of what I thought when reading your OP and it's references to adventures and disasters.

All the ideas posted in this thread will work nicely for your purposes.

 

[shadowcat20]

Hmmm...

Toxic spill into a natural watershed from a mining operation being run by a off planet supercorp without the permission of the government.

A very serious forest fire threating some backwater towns and the PC's have a ship capable of getting to the rough areas for supply drops and evac of casulties.

The system has just had a run in with a rockswarm and though planet bound life is OK someone has to check out the rock belt prospecters and make sure everyone is OK.

A dangerous quick breeding pair of nasty life forms just escaped from another ship and the crew has to hunt them down QUICKLY before they breed or kill off too many locals.

Some form of disease is killing off the herds of food animals in the outback and the crew has to inspect, quarintine, and discover the source of the virus.

A nuke reactor goes down and the crew has to do damage control and map the damaged areas while looking for survivors.

 

[Dragoner]

A large spaceship falls from orbit crashing on planet, maybe main city disaster (maybe hinderburg for example).

 

[DangerousThing]

You have some backwater world that is primorial in nature but inhabitable by a very diverse set of life....All of it vicious and wanting to eat you.... There is a team of (fill in the blank) on this world in a "secure" base that isn't and they need to get the .... out before being eaten / killed / etc.

Or how about something that wasn't predictable before, but is now.

For example: a new colony with 10,000+ people have lived there for two years, but only now (when the twin stars align or some such) and a nasty predator which previous had only been found in small groups awakens from their mass hibernation and their predicted pathway goes right through the new colony.

Or something that periodically causes massive tornado seasons every 1,000 years or so, and they're just starting up now, but in six months will be ripping right through the colony.

SF is full of disasters that could not have been predicted when a colony was placed but when the conditions change, they have months of warning before things get *really* serious.

 

[Greylond]

Sensors detect a Large ship is on course for a planet with a high population but a low tech, 7 or less. A Scout or other small ship detected it and determines that it is an Ancient Slower Than Light Ship, probable Generation Ship, and it has obvious engine damage and does respond to any communication attempts. The ship is on a collision course with said planet but at its slow speed will take a couple of weeks before it crashes...

The ship is large enough that it will take a bigger ship than the small scout to push it far enough off course to avoid the crash...

Character's ship is the first one that comes out of Jump after the scout detected the Large Ship while the group is on a routine mission, possibly a regular Contact Mission or a mission to take needed supplies to target planet.

 

[Piper]

As the players meet with Rulers and Company Representatives is when disaster strikes. There will be those who blame the Imperium, The companies and the planets government for the disaster.There are those who for their own reasons don't like the Imperium. Our heroes must help with relief and discover the truth..

Try twisting this knife when you stick it in
Give the players some advance warning (ideally, with some degree of uncertainty) that the disaster might be coming. They then have to convince the locals that the danger is real and imminent.

The Cassandra option: Unfortunately, the locals don't believe them.
The Chicken Little option: The disaster doesn't occur on schedule.

 

[LiamKerrington]

Hello everyone,

there are plenty of really interesting ideas about disasters. Would you mind me giving this topic a slightly 'new' twist.

I did some research, because I had some trouble understanding "milieu 0". According to the Traveller-Wikipedia "milieu 0" is the time of the early first steps of the Third imperium, right?

I would like to know, what else besides the political, social, and economical situation 'back then' makes it different from the CT era of the Third Imperium? Like, for example, different levels in technology or certain astronomical events/ incidents/ anomalies?

Also I would like to re-address the question to the OP. When you ask for ideas covering "disasters", do you have something 'special' on your mind? Would you be more interested in space-bound disasters, or disasters on planets/ in asteroids; more man-made, or natural occurances?

------------------------

Nevertheless I would like to emphasize this scenario:

Imagine an industrial complex in an asteroid belt. It is part of a huge company, which does not do business with the Imperium, but it is tightly connected with independent powers in the universe.
The facilities in the asteroid belt are loosely connected with a quite huge star-port; huge factory ships and other space-ships that provide accomodation for work-forces etc. fly between the space-port and the industrial facilities at/ in the asteroid belt. Also huge fleets of supply-boats fly between those hulks and the spaceport - supplies like food, water, medical care, police-forces, administrational stuff etc.
The asteroid belt is very close to the young border with the Imperium. And currently the situation between the Imperium and the independent powers is quite tense - actually as tense as it nearly asks for marking the system with the belt as a "type red" system - at least from the point of view of the Imperium.
While the heroes/ adventurers/ Travellers (aka Gamers) are doin' their own business in the vicinity of this asteroid-belt (yes, they already are in system, because they do whatever Travellers are meant to do - piracy, reconnaissance, black-market activities, transport service for ambassadors, family-visits, whatever ...). Different events might occur:
- And suddenly they receive a distress call from one of the huge factory- or accommodation-ships, which collided for whatever reason ... Thousands of people might die, if help does not appear soon enough.
- Another scenario could be something horribly gone wrong on the starport itself.
- Or maybe intense solar flares disrupting vital parts of electronic systems on many ships in space.
- And what about terrorists (all time favorites these days) which captured such a ship and threaten to crush into either factory facilities or even the starport or (!) an ambassador's ship with the mission to negotiate anew peace treaty, while no fighting force is near it to stop it from crashing into it; or the/certain people aboard the hijacked ship and/ or assets on the ship need to be rescued?

All the best!
Liam

 

[Fritz_Brown]

SF is full of disasters that could not have been predicted when a colony was placed but when the conditions change, they have months of warning before things get *really* serious.

One of the main themes of Science Fiction is the hubris of man when going out into the great unknown: "Don't worry, we've done this before - lots of times. We have checked out the 437 items we are supposed to check according to our official Pre-Colonization Safety Guide, and we've taken care of them all. You're just being paranoid. Relax. We know exactly what we're doing." :frankie:

//Big SNIP of good stuff//

You stole that from somewhere.... :rofl:

 

[Greylond]

You stole that from somewhere.... :rofl:

Yea, it's got elements from at least 2 scifi stories, maybe 3...

So, what? the classics are always good to steal from...

 

[MCEvans]

Or how about something that wasn't predictable before, but is now.

For example: a new colony with 10,000+ people have lived there for two years, but only now (when the twin stars align or some such) and a nasty predator which previous had only been found in small groups awakens from their mass hibernation and their predicted pathway goes right through the new colony.

Or something that periodically causes massive tornado seasons every 1,000 years or so, and they're just starting up now, but in six months will be ripping right through the colony.

SF is full of disasters that could not have been predicted when a colony was placed but when the conditions change, they have months of warning before things get *really* serious.

SJ games for GT has a free PDF called "Flare Star" not so much a disaster but an opportunity. :devil:

 

[Leitz]

Sorry, when looking at the thread title the initial response is "My first marriage."

 

[Enoki]

Low tech planet (6 to 8) is heavily dependent on fission reactors that were built by "the lowest bidder" sort of thing. You have a "Chernoybol or three" that occurs when these cheap @$$ed plants start falling apart soon after the shyster / fraudlent contractor departs the planet with his mass of cash....

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Sorry, when looking at the thread title the initial response is "My first marriage."

And the PCs could have helped? o: I am so not going there!

 

[shadowcat20]

Take a planet about our tech or a level lower.

Major sun flare knocks out ALL comm, military, and commercial sats in one go.

Now the PC's are hired to use their little ship to put sats back in orbit quickly before too much economic and political damage is done due to their very slow launch schedule to replace damaged sats.

Think of all the communication, weather, transfer of data, and other things we take for granted today and then take them away overnight.

Now you have to rush the sats to the ship,

Monkey around to get them in the proper orbits

Deal with a few faulty ones that can not be replaced so you need to fix them in place.

Deal with corps trying to outbid each other to get theirs up first,

Deal with governments wanting their spy sats up quickly or their bugs on the other guys sats

All sorts of fun things can happen.

 

[aramis]

And the PCs could have helped? o: I am so not going there!

That nearly killed my keyboard there...
It did make me snort sake...

But it does bring to mind an adventure seed...

Nobleman approaches party in starport bar. Explains the following to the party: "My wife is starting to think she's immune to way too much. I need her deniably but safely removed from the world. Otherwise, there will be local prosecutions. And she must not know I'm involved. Here's a quarter million earnest money, and another three-quarters upon her safe arrival."

Situation...
1. Exactly as described. She's a white collar criminal married to the local baron.
2. Exactly as described. She's a violent criminal married to the local baron.
3. Almost as described. He's the criminal, she's the patsy.
4. He's going to "Rescue" her from them in the neighboring system. He'll make those arrangements in the next system.
5. He wants her dead. He'll have them implicated and shot by the local system defense at one end or the other.
6. He wants her absent. He'll leave a note to take her some 7 jumps away where they'll get paid.

Complications
1. She wants to escape. She will refuse to go to the pay-off.
2.-3. None of note
4. She's set him up to take the fall - he'll be absent as IMoJ picks him up once they leave.
5. She's armed and resisting.
6. She'll counter offer once they have her off world... to have him taken and dumped.

 

[Blue Ghost]

I am planning some adventures around the PC's helping in disaster relief but what disasters call for interplanetary aid is stumping me. These will take place in milieu 0.

Famine. Classic example is Somalia, where the ecosystem suffered droughts, and, unlike Ethiopia where people just fell into starvation, the population started to prey off one another; i.e. Mogadishu.

 

[Enoki]

That nearly killed my keyboard there...
It did make me snort sake...

But it does bring to mind an adventure seed...

Nobleman approaches party in starport bar. Explains the following to the party: "My wife is starting to think she's immune to way too much. I need her deniably but safely removed from the world. Otherwise, there will be local prosecutions. And she must not know I'm involved. Here's a quarter million earnest money, and another three-quarters upon her safe arrival."

Situation...
1. Exactly as described. She's a white collar criminal married to the local baron.
2. Exactly as described. She's a violent criminal married to the local baron.
3. Almost as described. He's the criminal, she's the patsy.
4. He's going to "Rescue" her from them in the neighboring system. He'll make those arrangements in the next system.
5. He wants her dead. He'll have them implicated and shot by the local system defense at one end or the other.
6. He wants her absent. He'll leave a note to take her some 7 jumps away where they'll get paid.

Complications
1. She wants to escape. She will refuse to go to the pay-off.
2.-3. None of note
4. She's set him up to take the fall - he'll be absent as IMoJ picks him up once they leave.
5. She's armed and resisting.
6. She'll counter offer once they have her off world... to have him taken and dumped.

Or, they are both in on it. Her being taken off world is a ruse and the money the PC's got is stolen, marked, and worthless. Anywhere they try to use it will almost instantly get the authorities attention. She will claim kidnapping and the PC's will be implicated as the theives / kidnappers so that the two nobles can deflect suspicion off them for the millions they have stolen / looted.