Rooms at an outpost?

[Spinward Scout]

Say you're investigating an outpost from a long forgotten civilization. It doesn't have to be Ancient, but just some race that isn't around anymore. Maybe a communications or observation outpost.

What kind of rooms would you find in an outpost like this?

Main Entrance?
Comm Room?
Sensor Room?
Power Room?
Quarters?

Other?

What do you think?

 

[Timerover51]

Some form of commons area, a meeting room or two, kitchen area with food storage, some equipment storage areas, possibly a vehicle or two. If it is an outpost, probably some repair parts storage, along with back-up power supply. Likely some weapons as well, primarily personal ones, nothing very heavy.

 

[Patron Zero]

Pretty broad question, one which could be narrowed if one is posing the the now-defunct civilization was humanoid-bipedal in 'origin'.

Given similar physical characteristics, two arms-two legs and a common size to man, then likely the features and layouts of such an outpost would mimic something familiar to 'ours' per-say.

Mind one 'subtle' difference, say such creatures were aquatic dependent on a fluidic 'atmosphere for respiration and locomotion, then there may still be a likeness to interior arrangements with given adjustments for the wet environment present.

Another variable to consider would be if the 'aliens' were zero-gravity dwellers, then what we recognize as 'up' or 'down' would be irrelevant to said race and such reflected in their perhaps Escher-esque jumble of multi-plane oriented doors, floors and corridors.

 

[rancke]

"In all, the base featured:


Living quarters, a kitchen and mess hall, latrines and showers, a recreation hall and theater, a library and hobby shops, a dispensary, operating room and a ten bed infirmary, a laundry facility, a post exchange, scientific labs, a cold storage warehouse, storage tanks, a communications center, equipment and maintenance shops, supply rooms and storage areas, a nuclear power plant, a standby diesel-electric power plant, administrative buildings, utility buildings, a chapel and a barbershop."​

Hans

 

[Reban]

For atmosphere to get the players to perceive it as "alien" you could have rooms that seem to have religious or devotional functions. Perfectly familar rooms like common rooms could have odd shapes sizes or additions that would be out of place in a human room: "why are there toilets at each doorway?" or "is that a pool in the center of the dining hall?".

Have a look at a complex like the Palace of Knossos, it has weird symmetry, fewer corridors than we're used to, the storage areas are much more significant than simple utility rooms, and many rooms although they appear familiar, like the throne room, we can't quite be certain of their actual use. Lots of real life ancient sites have ideas you could mine for an outpost to make it both feel ancient and alien for your players.

What i often do is pick a National Geographic off the shelf for location information. They often have great articles on more recent "outposts" like Corrigador or Arctic research stations.

 

[shadowcat20]

Really depends on what type of out poast.

Communications/LP....all sorts of radio gear and encrypt equipment

Science...Labs, containment areas, collections, and the like

Military...weapons stores, defensive works, barracks and training areas

mining.....mining equipment, storage, holding areas, loading dock and landing strip, maybe smelter/refinery

That is just reasons for it being there, then there is what type of critters lived there. Bird types, perches, higher nooks, ect. Hive types, clusters of rooms, common areas ect. Amphibians, soaking pools, damp enviroment, ect.

Need more info on race, purpose, and duration of stay to make a real guess.

 

[flykiller]

a sun room, or other artificial weather generator to remind the inhabitants of home.

a nursery.

a slave/captive/guest room.

four or five different kinds of bathrooms, one for each ... whatever, who knows.

a psi convergence amplifier.

a drug recreation room.

a combat trainer.

a zoo with variable environmental cages.

medical theater with autodoc (calibrated for aliens, of course)

the hive mother's room.

 

[BillDowns]

And at least 2 or 3 rooms that the PCs will wonder "What is this for ?"

 

[Enoki]

If it is abandoned, I'd expect it to be filled with junk, dirt, and garbage with little of value and nothing still working.

Other than that it really depends on the race, the planet's nature, and the purpose of the outpost.

A military one would likely be Spartan in accommodations and such.

A mining or resource exploitation one would be minimal and focused on determining if the needed resource is present. A couple of small labs dedicated specifically to that task, maybe and office or two and living quarters.

Communications would be a room or two with the equipment, a substantial power plant, the transmission grid / antennas, etc., nearby and quarters for a very small number of "people."

Something used by smugglers, as temporary shelter, exploratory on a very short basis, or the like is likely to be ramshackle made from whatever was available and cheap.

Something high tech or financed by a big corporation might be more elaborate depending on the purpose.

Now, architectural design and building materials would provide plenty of weird too. Maybe the rooms don't have any standard dimensions or regular shapes. Color choices could be disturbing. The height of ceilings could be low or extremely high (a low height alien doesn't need head room while one that is avian might like the space to flit around in). Everything could be out of plumb, non-Euclidian. What they considered comfortable you find torture. Hot, cold, spikey things on the walls that they scratched on tear you up...
Lack of windows or excess of same (an all "glass" enclosure). Nothing like living in an all glass house...
The entry point might be elaborately structured for some reason.
Maybe the rooms are half full of water and something like pond scum with more yuck on the walls and ceiling because that's what "they" liked.
Strange or disturbing, even sickening odors...
How about lighting that makes an annoying buzz or noise that's driving everyone insane...

 

[salochin999]

start with basic needs maybe:

power
utilities (heat, light, water etc)
sleeping
food hall
kitchen
stores
medical
entertainment


then purpose:

comms
sensors
command
meeting
labs
workshops
armory
vehicles

then exotic:

something weird
something else weird
any of the above could be weird e.g. vertical sleep pods but if not those something designed specifically to be weird

 

[Spinward Scout]

Awesome ideas! Thanks!

 

[Easterner9504]

Outpost has different meanings. A small bunker or trench to watch enemy movements.

A small fort.

A small town, often walled.

As above different functions: Settler, science, military, trade.

Shadows was an outpost,

Octagon building on Fulacin had an Ancients outpost.

Research Station Gamma was an outpost.

Old West forts are outposts as are Foreign Legion forts.

 

[flykiller]

If it is abandoned, I'd expect it to be filled with junk, dirt, and garbage with little of value and nothing still working.

nonsense. it's maintained by alien robots dispensing squirts of alien pre-programmed nanite repair goo. of course when this goo contacts humans it will attempt to "repair" them ....

 

[FourthWarden]

Maybe the lighting also serves a secondary purpose. Say, for example, you have the old arc lights, which ionize the air (necessary for the atmospheric needs of the lifeforms, having evolved on a world high in ozone) while providing flickering light.

Abandoned musical instruments, possibly with more or less finger placements, or that play in weird or high/low frequencies compared to our music.

A single, central sleeping chamber with tiered bed arrangement. Or other funky sleeping arrangements.

Strange life support structures, cold or hot set HVAC settings, etc.

 

[WistfulD]

Two questions that determine the answer significantly are 1) what is the outpost for, and 2) how significantly difficult was it for them to live there?

The first explains all the functional rooms. An outpost that is a stallite or moonbase for scientific research of a gas giant's atmosphere would be mostly sensors and vehicle bays. An outpost that is an army personnel housing unit would be mostly crew quarters and deployment space.

The second explains how much "living" space there is. A lower starfaring TL space station will be almost completely dedicated to keeping the crew alive, with everything amazingly efficient and uncomfortable. A WWII-era frontier outpost to house X soldiers in the hinterlands of Bla-ditty-bla county in case the enemy comes across the boarder here will have lots of wide open space, with entertainment rooms, chapels, barber shops, and random, hard to explain to another culture rooms (what would a culture with no concept of Christmas/Birthday gift make of a supply closet on an army base full of wrapping paper?).

 

[Patron Zero]

One other bit that may be a factor in said facilities configuration would be the 'mindset' of it's former dwellers, whether that architecture used would be based upon rational thought or spiritual-religious doctrine.

Best example to give regarding a 'local' outpost, well residential structure, would be the Sarah Winchester house in San Jose, CA.

http://winchestermysteryhouse.com/index.cfm

 

[Timerover51]

If it is abandoned, I'd expect it to be filled with junk, dirt, and garbage with little of value and nothing still working.

The huts in the Arctic used by Scott and Shackelton would clearly qualify as abandoned but where left in excellent shape for possible use later. When the US left the Solomons and other islands in the Pacific, we pulled the people out and basically left every else except usable weapons. It was too costly in terms of shipping to get everything out. When the Japanese surrendered on Bougainville and at Rabaul, the people left, every else stayed. There are still large number of caves stuffed with Japanese equipment in the Northern Solomon Islands and at Rabaul on New Britain.

It would depend entirely on how the outpost was abandoned. Were the personnel suddenly pulled out for some reason, or left suddenly when ordered? Did the civilization breakdown and the personnel slowly die off? Did a supply ship fail to get through and the personnel starve to death or suffer loss of life support? Did the outpost personnel suddenly die of a virulent disease contracted from the planet, which is not deadly to humans? Was all but one or two of the persons operating the outpost killed in a sudden disaster, and the remaining ones suicide? There are a lot of possible reasons for an outpost to be in quite good condition.

 

[Spinward Scout]

I'm making it a 2 person outpost. Almost 10,000 years old. The occupants are dead, of course. One died outside and the other died inside. Both from an animal attack. Nothing 'should' be alive inside, I'd think.

 

[Timerover51]

I'm making it a 2 person outpost. Almost 10,000 years old. The occupants are dead, of course. One died outside and the other died inside. Both from an animal attack. Nothing 'should' be alive inside, I'd think.

That is the problem with any form of small outposts. There is a pretty good likelihood of something taking out one or two personnel at the same time.

 

[WistfulD]

I'm making it a 2 person outpost. Almost 10,000 years old. The occupants are dead, of course. One died outside and the other died inside. Both from an animal attack. Nothing 'should' be alive inside, I'd think.

Okay, so there wasn't a catastrophic disruption to the base, but the base was in operations when active support ended, so no mothballing. The food in the freezer started spoiling when generator ground to a halt, but the canned veggies in the pantry are still intact (if 10,000 years old). Animals in the base means likely open doors and it's on a planet with atmosphere/native life. Nature will break in over the next 10,000 years, so you'll have the equivalent of squirrels nests and spiderwebs.

Two person, huh? I'm guessing one bunk room, a galley with pantry and maybe a walk-in fridge. One large main room where their primary task was accomplished (we're they guarding the area, manning an infrastructure device, operating some communications or sensor equipment, etc?) with all the maintenance and such happening in that one room. Probably a vehicle bay...

I guess some things (like light bulbs, if they haven't been broken) would likely still work. The generator (pretend for a moment that it is a diesel) would need a complete disassemble to sand off corrosion, clean out dust, replace rubber gasgets, etc. Any medicine or similar (complex molecules suspended in solution) will have decayed, but likley could still be identified by a lab.