Idea for a traveller scenario, can't seem to get past initial concept.

[The Thing]

OK, here's an idea for a traveller scenario that I can't seem to develop and that I can't seem to get out of my head, like an obscure old tune that won't go away.

Maybe if I pass it on to someone else, they'll have it and I'll be free....:devil:

Anyway, the idea goes that a free/far trader comes out of jump into a system with a planet that has a fairly large, long established settlement on it. After exiting jump, they receive no communications from the starport beyond the automatic beacons. All hails go unanswered.

Having no choice, the trader lands, all the while getting no replies.

The settlement is deserted, but undamaged, as if the whole populace simply disappeared like popping soap bubbles...




That's as far as I've gotten, I was trying to come up with ideas to work this out and really haven't gotten anything original or playable.

There was the "god gid it!" bit that joe haldeman used in "Forever free" that was really unsatisfying, as most "deus ex machina" endings are, I won't touch that one.

Weird alien disease turns populace into some kind of vampire/zombie thingies? Maybe afraid of sunlight, and the planet has a very long day/night cycle. Yuk, sounds like one of those awful movies on the scifi channel.

Unknown alien creatures attack and devour populace without warning? See above...

Zhoads testing some sort of weird psionic weapon? Hmm, most promising idea so far....

Any ideas?

 

[flykiller]

slavers have raided the planet and transported everyone to another dimension, like in the tall man.

standard sci-fi genetic mutation alters the population, only they don't go underground, instead they have to live in the oceans.

spontaneous combustion.

infectious psionic epidemic of teleport or temporal displacement.

somebody's jump 7 experiment succeeded, with side effects.

leftover weapon from the ancient wars was found and activated, vaporizing all flesh it sees. it's still running around looking for targets.

monstrously huge and ancient colony ship came by and press-ganged the entire population (using high tech psychological controls, of course), then continued on its way.

big but normal infectious epidemic, with the government rounding up anyone who might be infected (they eventually round up everyone) and sending them to some isolation camp. the adventurers are now infected (with something, maybe) and must find a cure.

as above, but it was robots that decided to protect humans by rounding them up into a secure location.

etc.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Yuk, sounds like one of those awful movies on the scifi channel.

But, those awful movies on SciFi can be really fun to play.... :devil:

Really, what do you mean by a "large" settlement? Lots of scenarios would work with, say, a populace of 1,000 or so. Once you start getting above a few thousand, something like slavers is going to leave a lot of marks on the landscape. Even zombies. :smirk:

How about a mass religious experience (mass because it is psionic in nature - of course). They are still there, but they're up in the hills awaiting their messiah (ala Dune). And, if one of the PCs just happens to be thought of as their "anti-Christ".... :devil:

I like the robot thing, too, though. Mainly because it could start as something that seems benign to everyone, so they go along willingly.

Right out of ST:TOS, you can do the Miri episode. (Don't use Omega Glory, because if the players figure it out, they will just have to wait out the immunization period. )

If you don't mind a small bit of damage, use neutron bombs. For younger folks, they might not recognize what they're seeing. (You had to have been around during the Carter years to remember all that. So, no grognards allowed.)

 

[Supplement Four]

Any ideas?

There's a damn cool old FASA Star Trek module that had this plot. Players ship comes upon a station. Everybody's gone. Where'd they go?

Of course, the crew, upon investigation, find that transporter research was being conducted at the station, and a massive wave transporter accident sucked everybody up. At the end, the crew saves the station crew by re-materializing them from limbo.

As to your idea, why don't you set it in the Regina system (or some such system) and have the disappearance be related to Ancient technology?

Or...there's an ancient site on the planet, recently discovered (The movie "Aliens"-style), and that led to whatever happened.



Or, if you're tired of the whole "Ancients" thing (maybe it's "too easy"), why not do something with biotech?

A microbe has been introduced to the planet. The players start finding little particles of dust, upon closer examination of the world. The microbe eats all organic tissue.

This idea can be turned into something "big" real quick. Quarrantine. Super weapons. Various factions trying to be the only ones with this "secret".

A merchant ship from outside Imperial space lands on the world, went through decontamination...and this microbe lived anyway...

The world is being "tested" with the microbe...either by the Imperials or by the Zho's...maybe the Darrians?

The microbe acts like an enzyme, eating away all organic material it comes into contact with.

One of the crew catches it, and their arm starts to deteriorate...how do we save him!?

The "save" to the microbe turns out to be something very easy, very common...Like water kills it...and, the world is in a drought...so there was no rain for a while...


I'm just brainstorming here.

 

[PFVA63]

My thinking is kind of along the lines of ...

Hi,

My thinking was kind of along the lines of some of the stuff already posted.

The first idea was that someone at the settlement had discovered some ancient artifact that when powered up transported everyone to an abandoned ancient outpost (either another dimension or maybe a location deep underground). Although the ancients are long gone alot of there tech remains.

Once the adventurers discover the artifact, they too are transported to this location where they find most of the settlers dead. As it turns out, upon arriving at this location some of the settlers realized it for what it was and started trying to loot the place triggering the automated defense systems.

Your adventurers would now be in the situation where they need to find the way out while helping any survivors they find while fighting of the defenses as well as the urge to try and loot what they can. Ultimately they may also end up having to find a way to destroy the outpost entirely if it appears the defensive systems/robots are capable of following them back to the original settlement.

I suppose there is alot of potential for variations on that theme as well.

Alternatively, you could do a "Forbidden Planet" type set up as well, where the settlers found an ancient device but it had the ability to make there deepest dreams and night mares come true, leading to the settlers' deep seated fears and mistrust of one another ultimately destroying each other with only the most powerful personality was the only one left, who the adventurers finally locate somewhere.

Anyway, just some thoughts.

Regards

PF

 

[PFVA63]

Wait a minute, it just dawned on me...

Hi,

It just dawned on me. Have the adventurers explore around for awhile, before they finally happen upon a giant set of strange looking dice and a booklet entitled "Mongoose Traveller - Characters & Combat". Have each adventurer roll against his Intelligence to see if he puts it all together, and if so explain to him that all the settlers have disappeared because they had been generated in an older out of date Traveller character generation system not compatible with the new character generation system you are now going to be using and thus are no longer usable, but all the buildings and stuff have remained because they are generic enough to be usable across gaming systems.

Just a thought.

Regards

PF

 

[Gadrin]

Yours sound more like the Twilight Zone, but that's fine, if your players like it.

I had envisioned something similar during the Fifth Frontier War where the Zhodani assigned to take out Garda-Vilis brought along a bio-toxin that will kill everyone at the port within a certain time-frame before oxidizing (after X hours it goes inert). While I think "true" soldiers would find this cowardly the officer in charge has to make sure he takes the port and realizes this is plausible (if distasteful). He's more interested in helping the Zho was machine get a solid hold in the region. The rest follow orders.

The players come out of jump and get the auto-signal from the planet. Everything else seems normal, except no other ships in orbit, just satellites and so forth. The auto-signal continues (think a Trek computer type-answer) instead of normal voices. This should arouse suspicions and get them to use their ship's optics (if they've got some) from orbit. They'll notice scores of people laying about, dead. Otherwise when they drop down they can spot it visually during an overflight.

Or the Zho have already come back and have hidden the bodies out in the open, and the annex is a charnel house.

The Zhodani know the oxidation time for the virus and have decided to wait a few extra hours. They want the crew of the deep meson site to investigate (assuming they keep in regular contact with the surface) and hopefully anyone returning to the meson site will infect others. Then the Zhodani can take the site/port and the scout base via a single ship.

Naturally the odd survivor or two is around, say a group in vacc-suit training or a vacc simulator over at the scout base ; a robot with just enough intelligence to explain that everyone's sleeping or has been moving sick people into the hangars on the west side; etc, etc, can add in some help. And the Zhodani coming back can be defeated possibly if one of the survivors knows an automating sequence for the meson site, or some other type of emergency backup plan the site has. Or something to keep them at bay while a jump ship is sent out.

Might make for an interesting week or two: hiding while a small contingent of Zhodani commandos run around.

 

[Droyne668]

Or you could do the mind f**k thing...

PCs investigate the settlement and can't find any trace of the citizenry. Food's rotting on tables, lights weren't turned off, water's still running in the shower, etc. Maybe one PC with a higher Psy rating thinks he/she can hear voices calling for help...

That's when the next ship shows up, a patrol ship stopping in with supplies. Maybe the PC ship is mistaken for a pirate. Maybe in true PC form they're helping themselves to some spare parts that are just laying around when the IISS or Navy shows up and wonders what the PCs did with the inhabitants.

Now you have fun. One or more PCs are going nuts from voices in their heads. Everyone is running for their lives after someone hits their ship from orbit with a nasty weapon. Maybe the folks hearing things start to manifest psionic powers like telekinesis or teleportation or "phasing" or whatnot.

It could turn into a mini-campaign. Might not ever be able to find out what happened on the planet.

I'd vote for a jump drive accident that displaced biologicals into a holding tank someone on planet but out of phase with everything else. "Ghosts" if you will. It's compatible with some of the T4 stuff. Could be a malicious effect, could be an accident. Maybe something Man Was Not Meant to Know.

Heck, maybe it's the Cloverfield Monster.

Best,
Will

 

[Ishmael]

players are unwitting victims of a misjump that causes them to fade out of this 'space' ( people vanish like soap bubbles )...the players are the ones vanishing like soap bubbles from population's viewpoint.....kind of like if they were somehow involved in a "philadelphia experiment" type of thing.
any people left over would be psi " mediums" who can communicate with the players ( and have unshaken belief that the players are dead and speaking from the great beyond )

" I see dead people. "

because of temporal disturbances, the players are still actually in jump during this and it all ends once the week is up and the misjump finally is noticed by players. And they pop out of j-space near this world. By that time, the players would be disappearing like a soap bubble from each other's standpoint

Somehow...they spent portion of j-time at their destination already...hope they didn't commit any crimes.

flashbacks and dream sequences and premonitions might even cause player's sanity to be called into question. Ref could feed any psi members of crew a story about what is happening....no guarantee that the story will be correct.

boy!..wouldn't the 'powers-that-be' love to get the ship and crew so they can "de-brief" and "test" them if 'powers-that-be' found out


okay..I'm all muddled up now....maybe some of my babbling might be useful


just an idea

 

[Ishmael]

a massive bombardment of neutron bombs?

 

[BlackBat242]

Gadrin... sure you haven't read some Murray Leinster Sci-Fi from the '50s & '60s?

That is nearly identical to the plot of The Mutant Weapon published in 1957.

 

[Whipsnade]

PF,

Whatever the cause, your choice is going to depend on how large the initial population was.

Dozens? A serial killer could have knocked them all off and is now hiding and/or waiting and/or stalking your PCs.

Hundreds? Disease maybe, although even a bio-weapon isn't going to be 100% effective and there will be people, while not immune, who survive for more 'boring' epidemeolgy(sp) issues.

Thousands? You'll have to rope in one of the many DeM suggestions to 'disappear' that many folks.


Have fun,
Bill

 

[GypsyComet]

The "wierd virus turns them all into 'Vampires'" plot has also already been done for Traveller. "Day of the Glow", back in the digest-sized Journal, IIRC.

I like the "no, *you're* the ones out of phase" Jump Anomaly suggested above. If they spend the week on the ground getting into trouble, you'll need to decide if the phase shift ends on its own, needs someone to tinker with the jump drive in a particular way, or requires that they fly back to their emergence point. Determining if the folks on the planet are aware of the PCs and/or the ship is also a variable ripe for Referee amusement.

 

[PFVA63]

Hmmm, too Twilight Zone-ish...

Hi,

OK, here's a thought for something that may be a little less Twilight Zone-ish. But first a couple observations. As others have pointed out, alot is going to depend on the size of the settlement you are talking about, and I would suspect that whatever happened probably happened fairly recently, as after several days or maybe a week or so, eventually the neighboring star systems will realize that there is no traffic coming from this planet. As such it would probably seem to work best if you're somewhere along the frontier and off the beaten path with out a lot of normal traffic.

The idea here would be that a few days earlier a ship was found in system, completely abandoned. Upon retrieving it and bringing it planet side, a check of the records seem to suggest that it had suffered a very rare mis-jump that may have taken it beyond Jump-6 space. Unbeknown to the crew of that ship, along the way it had picked up some form of previously unknown life-form that, as it turns out is extremely ravenous but which also is semi-invisible in normal space.

As such these creatures eventually hunted down and devoured the crew, before going dormant due to lack of any additional food. Once the ship was salvaged though the creatures woke up and began feasting on the local population.

I'd suggest that the creatures be somewhat intelligent and maybe about man size, looking something like the moth-men out of that old movie Beastmaster (when viewed in there own dimension). However, because they are almost invisible in our dimension when they attack and envelope their prey, it might look almost like the prey is fading away to nothing (or maybe being wrapped in some sort of cloak of invisibility).

The set up would be that the creatures had rapidly attacked the settlement and perhaps within a matter of hours (or a day or two at most) had captured a large enough number of people that widespread panic ensued and records stopped being kept (ie if the players go to the police station or a hospital there would be no record of anything that had happened over the last day or two).

One issue with the creatures might be that since they aren't from our dimension they can't see well in the dark, and as such normally hunt during the day. You could have the adventurers arrive mid-day or so and not initially encounter them because the creatures might be dormant again, or more likely they may be busy building a nest including storing up all the extra people and animals they have captured but have not yet eaten. This would give the GM time to let the adventurers explore around and pick up clues (like visiting the police station, starport offices and hospital). Right around dusk though, you can have the adventurers accidently scare a dog or cat or some other animal out of its hiding place and as it runs away the adventurers can witness an attack by the creatures themselves.

Anyway, once it turns completely dark maybe the adventurers can run into some other survivors somewhere who can help fill them in on some of what has been going on.

After that it would be up to the adventurers to try and find a way to survive and get away.

Anyway just some other ideas.

Regards

PF

 

[far-trader]

So, basically the Alien saga PFVA63 That's not a bad one to run, long as the players don't twig to it too fast. Kind of requires a low pop to be quick though. Every idea sounds familiar. I see old ST:TOS, old TZ, a few Golden Age sci-fi novels and others. Even my own first thought, which is close to some mentioned, is a retread But at least it can work with any size population and any level of system traffic...

Did ya ever see the (made for TV) miniseries "The Langoliers"?

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0112040/

Odds are your players may have missed it or given it a pass as it is not space sci-fi and written by Stephen King, more noted as horror novelist. It's not a bad movie in ways. Acting wasn't top notch that I recall but the plot would fit to tee I think. You might be able to find it for cheap rental at a video store.

 

[Gadrin]

Gadrin... sure you haven't read some Murray Leinster Sci-Fi from the '50s & '60s?

That is nearly identical to the plot of The Mutant Weapon published in 1957.

that idea is from the Satan Bug by Alistair MacLean circa 1970's or so (that's when I read it). When I bought Adv 7 Broadsword, I came up with the basic idea, circa 1980+ or so.

I read a book by ML about 8 or 9 years ago, involving a first contact between a human and some alien, just on a whim and it was pretty good. I just grabbed it off the shelf one day at the library and was surprised how good it was.

There's some flaws in mine though, as it seems likely that other parts of the planet might be in contact with the starport and know about the problem or can warn any incoming ships as it's likely a starport would have a backup plan in case of catastrophe. They could probably field a hazmat team to investigate, then setup a beacon to comm with spaceships. Our own world must have a backup plan or two when a mission control center has to comm with spaceships, just in case it goes down. You could say they've investigated, found out and are just forced to stand-off when the players land...

I think Garda-Vilis only has a couple of ships in the Broadsword writep, so the Zhodani can take care of those.

Could the Zhodani jam a planet ? Seems like a pretty tall order.

GURPS Ultra Tech offers a thing called a Dream Net where a person falling into a beam, becomes frozen/paralyzed but their mind enters the Dream Net and experiences an very real virtual reality. You'd have to tweak their rules a bit, but the player's ship could be sabotaged such that while they're in jump they get caught in the field and THINK they exited jumpspace as normal and landed on an empty world and go through all that. Then the simulation ends 4 days later and they find themselves in the destination system and everything normal... (the idea is to delay them). That's a pretty big/weird idea to pull off. I think there was a CT scenario like that: Memory Alpha ??? But in reverse.

 

[Jame]

If you've ever played any of the Metroid series, you can likely find inspiration there.

 

[ChalkLine]

Some freak weather has occured, and the players see subtle hints in the settlement (hats or gloves for sale in the wrong weather conditions etc). Either cold or hot weather has triggered a breeding explosion in the population of a rare and normally secretive psionic siren in the outback. So many of these creatures at once has created a psychic resonance that has amplified their usually weak lures into a powerful suggestion. The civilians dropped what they were doing and walked out of the settlement.

Of cource, all that nutrition has triggered another breeding explosion, and as soon as the weather changes the call will go out again . . .

 

[PFVA63]

Giant Mushrooms

Hi,

Okay, here's a thought, though I'm not fully sure how to spin it out into a full blown adventure. Anyway, several years ago I remember reading about a giant mushroom that was found in the Pacific Northwest. Apparently its thousands of years old and at least 3.5 miles across, and man has been living above it for over a century without taking any real notice of it (see http://www.infoplease.com/spot/fungus1.html.

For sake of argument, let's say that this settlement was built ontop of similar type living organism, with the population for all intents and purposes unaware of its existence. However, let's say that recently there has been excess sunspot activity or something, and that this has triggered a reaction in the organism causing it to generate some spore-like objects with an enzyme that basically dissolves animal like flesh into a puddle of nutrients that gets absorbed into the ground and consumed by the fungus. In this way the people may have just melted away like soap bubbles, as decribed in the initial post.

Let's then say that when the adventurers first arrive they are ignored by the fungus since it has had its fill of settlers and animals. This will give the adventurers some time to explore and try to figure out what happened, but eventually the fungus will take notice of them and release its spores. If there is some sort of "red-shirt" NPC in the ship's crew the adventurer's might witness him falling victim to the spores, and if they are quick enough acting (and especially if they have managed to pick up some clues as to what might be going on, from the investigating they have been doing) they might be able to make it to a relatively safe haven of an isolated room somewhere (though they would have to be quick enough acting to ensure that they have the air conditioning turned off etc to prevent the spores from getting in).

The rest of the adventure could then revolve around them trying to find a way to either try and wait things out, if possible, or perhaps make their way back to their ship, or perhaps find someway to nuetralize the spores and/or enzyme before they run out of air and water, etc.

Anyway, just another random thought.

Regards

PF

 

[The Thing]

There's some decent ideas here, glad I chose this place to cast my net.

I've had a germ of an idea pop up too, before I logged back in to check the latest ones here. It may not be completely canon, but the universe if a helluva a big place, after all.

Now this idea is an offshoot of an idea I developed for a star trek game, in which the tholians (if you're familiar with them) were becoming very aggressive and attacking outside their borders, which is anonolous behavior for that rater isolationistic race.

Turns out that orions have been raiding tholian territory, capturing tholians, murdering them, cutting up their crystalline corpses and selling the bits as exotic jewelry.

The tholians take an understandably dim view of this form of capitalism...

The players have to find out why the tholians are so pissed, hunt down the orions, convince the tholians that all organics aren't behind it and make peace before the tholians go to all out war.


OK, now in the traveller universe, it goes in a somewhat similar way. A greedy, amoral bastard discovers some incredibly beautiful and exotic crystals on an uninhabitable planet, and they are in fact sentient creatures, quite intelligent even if motionless. They're like crystal computers, but aware and intelligent.

Greedy amoral bastard harvests a load, and plans to make $$$ selling them thruout the imperium.

The crystal entities take exceptional offense to this practice.

Somehow, they learn to control human minds, at least of people they're in contact with. Now, greedy amoral bastard has been using this planet as a test market, finding that nearly everyone on it was willing to pay to own these new, exotic and stunningly beautiful pieces of jewelry. (They make diamonds look like rat droppings in comparison.)

The crystals took over the populace that were wearing them, and have set up a remote environment to their liking while the "hive mind" decides on what action to take. They care not one iota for the lives of the "animated filth" that has kidnapped them.

The trader is due back soon with another shipment, the players must capture him when he lands, prove their good faith to the crystals, somehow, and negotiate a solution, possibly by offering to take the crystals back home if they spare the lives of the settlement's populace.

That's the germ I have, tho some of the ones I've seen here are great too. I may be brainstorming for a while....