Salvage!

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

There's a great article in the latest issue of Wired about a company that specializes in rescuing seaborne vessels in extreme distress, and while reading it I couldn't help but think of Traveller.

Here's a link to the article:

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/16-03/ff_seacowboys

And the salvage company in question has a website here:

http://www.titansalvage.com/

With some more pictures of the operation in question:

http://www.titansalvage.com/aboutus/gallery/gallery79.html

One of the interesting little details about the operation was that the vessel's fire-suppression system had gone haywire and was periodically shooting clouds of freezing-cold carbon dioxide gas around the decks. And of course, the individual team members made a rogues' gallery of instant characters: reading about them I found myself thinking, "Merchant. Scout. Navy. Other. Other. Other ..."

There was also a television program a few years back, on Discovery Channel I think, about a group of folks who were given the thankless job of figuring out how to yank some huge vessel off a beach in Alaska, and again I thought, "This could make a great Traveller scenario ..."

It seems like there could be two totally different kinds of starship salvage operations, some in space (or gravity well) and some "dirtside". An example of the former might be the "Platform 44" scenario on Freelance Traveller:

http://www.freelancetraveller.com/features/science/gasgiants.html

An example of the latter might be a downed and lost pinnace carrying important personnel/cargo. So I'm wondering, has anyone run any salvage/rescue scenarios (or campaigns) and if so, how did they go? What was the premise, and what sorts of twists were involved?

 

[Foxroe]

Unfortunately, when I think rescue/salvage in space, I think of the Firefly episode "Out of Gas"...

-Fox

 

[Gadrin]

Not for Traveller but I did write up a scenario for a bounty hunter who recovers a skipped ship and the contract from the Insurance company specifies penalties for not recovering the entireship, meaning lifeboats etc. The idea was that the ship would be tracked to a planetary system and the "skipper" would run for it by dropping a lifeboat down to the surface of a moon (I used CT's exotic atmospheres supplement) to hide. Life support is minimal, so he lowers the threshold and takes FAST drug in the lifeboat's medkit, then would use FTL radio to call for help after say 30 days or so, figuring the bounty hunter would probably give up if he wasn't found.

I also did a Salvage Company (Triple-R Salvage) but again it's not based on Traveller, as the setting is a much more unusual one. They do business like
sending probes through a supernova remnant to find navigable pockets for merchant ships; probes into an area of space racked by a massive temporal anomaly; that kind of Trek-weirdness. They're also opposed by a group of
hackers who intercept their communiques, equipment, etc to sell to the competition.

All in all the "wrecked starship" scenario is a very useful one in general and can be used in any number of ways.

If you want we can explore some "for instances with Traveller".

Oh, that reminds me, I did do a couple of basic Traveller scenarios for Salvage...

One was a basic "Zhodani find a battered starship" and the other one was

Crewman in Jeopardy
http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=14102&page=2

Which didn't deal very deeply with the salvage angle. The idea is that the "plunderer" has found an old Vilani wreck, and is marketing the items he's gotten so far. Agents from the Vilani AAB have tracked him down and want it and the starship captain and crew find themselves in the middle.

 

[Gadrin]

Boy, you're really stirrin' my memory, I almost forgot I did a quasi-salvage adventure writeup for GURPS JTAS years back.

The idea was that the Spinward Point to Point Race was held and that one of the entries was a Naasirka ship (or other competitor) crewed entirely by robots (not necessarily all anthropomorphic ones) as a way to showcase their technology.

Originally the ship was designed without life support (robots right?) but the plans were changed that in order to get better publicity since the chance of winning the race wasn't a great one, that if the ship disregarded it's race programming and went and "rescued a ship in distress" Naasirka could use this to their advantage.

The actual salvage was that the players find a wrecked craft with the original Bilstein plans and that suddenly a 3rd party shows up offering a premium price for what's found (plans hidden on board someplace) and of course the players wondering why and they can eventually get caught in
the middle...

 

[sfchbryan]

Back in the MT days, my group ran a no-questions-asked salvage company.

After running Dead Ship from Supplement 5, we went back & lifted the Haunting Thunder out of the gas giant at Querion.

We nearly started the 6th Frontier War with that part of the escapade. We jumped to Arden & spent all of our cash & favors repairing it to sell to the Arden Government. Unfortunately, when the Arden Reps came on board to purchase, the Imps tried to seize it. We had a running 3 way battle between Imperial Marines, Arden Army personnel & our ship security personnel. Our group made it to a boat bay & departed (with our payment for the ship). Then we blew it up to cover our escape.

Our group went into long-term low berths. At first it was to hide out, but the GM used it to move us along to the TNE era.

Pity the TNE era was such a piece of crap tho....

 

[Gadrin]

Let's see the premise for a Zhodani adventure, would be set back in the Far Frontiers back when the Z's were building their influence in the sector. One team is a "wanderer" doing business and errands for the Regional Consulate HQ. They spend time on a planet that isn't adverse tothe Z's and there's a restaurant that somewhat caters to Zhodani clientele.

While there that night the manager badgers the Zho team leader about a certain new dish to try, while he's in the Men's Room. The leader says no, I just want dessert. After many minutes of small talk the dessert still hasn't arrived and the leader gets permission to use his Clairvoyance to see what's up in the kitchen.

There a group of men are holding the employees hostage, trying to clean out the safe. Each has a t-shirt and a tattoo of an Imperial sunburst.
The zho's get to diffuse the situation.

Turns out they're ship troops of an Imperial Type-T that misjumped into the
system. The ship was damaged in an attempt to wilderness refuel and these guys are the only ones who escaped, crashlandng on the main world
after ____ amount of time making it for civilization. They're attempting to get money to get back to ________.

The Zho's now get to perform at least a preliminary inspection of the vessel once they figure out where it is (by the navigation logs on the abandoned escape pod or 20 ton shuttle). (Say an expert system did the flying).

Then more detailed inspection or a salvage op can be called for as required by the GM.

 

[Knightsky]

The following mught prove useful for those who want to determine what is (and isn't) acceptable practice, salvage-wise, in their respective Traveller universes:

http://www.jus.uio.no/lm/imo.salvage.convention.1989/doc.html

 

[Darkhstarr]

A good site to peruse is one I found years ago & visit often: www.cargolaw.com. The home of the Law Firm of Countryman & McDaniel, a transport law firm. They have a daily vessel loss & pirate attack database. Some of the transport accidents are hard to believe. They have an incredible photogallery. They also have links to the International Marine Bureau(IMB).

 

[far-trader]

And if you're looking for a (CT B2) ship to run a little salvage game with I might have just the number...

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=3833