So in our latest adventure, the PCs started out very carefully and meticulously trying to explore the freaking-huge Ancient Superstarship. At first. After a short while, of exploring crazy super-machines that they stood no chance of comprehending, that were at the very limits of their most theoretical science and logic, these prime examples of some of the greatest spacefarers and scientists and archeologists of the Third Imperium were basically acting like these guys:
I swear to christ, by about halfway through the session they were literally throwing rocks at some of these alien objects to see if anything happened!
Speaking of rocks, at one point they found a machine making apparently-useless cubes, and for no apparent reason decided to take one with them:
(so basically this, but without the love)
Finally they managed to figure out the internal teleportation system enough to get around, the professor found a universal translation rock in an alien coffin, and they got to what passes for the bridge, only to find out that the ship's computer is basically this guy:
They managed to get the ship out into space at long last, only to find that the Imperium's version of Inspector Javert was waiting for them with a capital ship. Even so, he was willing to forgive all and shower them with every reward the Imperial House can offer in exchange for the only functioning Ancient's starship ever found (hell, the only Ancient find ever that wasn't basically just garbage and ruins); and it looks like the PCs will finally be coming out winners. Then, suddenly, it's all snatched away from them as that same small space-column that had previously appeared to save their asses the last time the Imperium had caught them appears again, and promptly disintegrates the entire capital ship (thus erasing a guy who was in a lot of the PC's list of official enemies).
The PCs are ambivalent about this: on the one hand, they went in about 2.5 seconds from being the most wanted criminals in the subsector, to being Heroes of the Empire, to being the most wanted criminals in the Empire period. On the other, "Javert" was dead. Also, the guy piloting the other Ancient vessel claims to be the supposedly dead Uncle Roman. But now he wants the PCs to hand the Ancient starship over to him; and what's worse, he's apparently working for the Traveller universe's version of this guy:
He promises them power unlimited, naturally, and all their wildest dreams, but before half the party can agree, the other half tells their mentally-defective ship's computer to do an emergency jump.
The computer obeys, they get away, for now, and end up in some kind of starship-sized teleporter platform in the middle of nowhere, that takes them... somewhere...
RPGPundit
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You've referenced some of my favorite scifi: 2001, Red Dwarf, and vintage Doctor Who!
ReplyDeleteSome of my favorite too!
DeleteMaybe you're leaving out important bits but this reads like it doesn't matter what the PCs do, they get shunted off to the next set piece regardless.
ReplyDeleteNo, they have choices. I mean, for starters, the could have chosen to serve "the master". They theoretically could have died in the ship, or failed to even survive reaching it.
DeleteAre any of the events random encounters? For instance, the inspector suddenly showing up? I'm curious to know if you roll on a table or what.
DeleteThe "inspector" showing up was not a random encounter, because I was having him go where he would go as he was chasing them.
DeleteBut I have had random encounters in the game, yes.