I'm not sure how to phrase this since it could easily go wrong or end up in a discourse on hard statistics instead of ideas on running this in a game.
So lets say we have a Traveller version of When Worlds Collide and we have the world slowly becoming aware something is seriously wrong and a conglomerate of business and world leaders attempting to build a number of multi-generational spacecraft to carry a few thousand or more survivors before the end happens.
Now we have the usual bad guys determined to be the ones who succeed and dictate who survives.
My idea for a game involves a smaller ship that's based on an otherwise out dated design that's been upgraded with a working jump drive and the resources to make a trip to a various number of potential new homes but needs to be accomplished as a soon as possible so they can help as many of the inhabitants escape off world.
It would make sense to use Interstellar's idea of multiple missions for this very purpose but the background is that the jump drive is only a recent innovation that currently has only been used to speed up insystem travel so it can make jumps from Earth to Mars orbit and then to the asteroid bely before moving into the outer system requiring it reach about the orbit of Pluto before making the jump out of the solar system.
This ship has an alternate means of speeding that up, but its still very experimental so it will be functioning as a test bed for new designs that if proven will help speed up the evacuation enormously but as I said there are bad guys who'd look upon this as a threat to their plans and if this new technology works they will take whatever steps they can to acquire it.
Magnify that to all the countries on the planet with the capacity for space travel and you have a large number with reasons to secure this ship rather than allow it to leave once they realise it works.
1) The idea for the game is that the players having been passed over as crew for the generation ship have been approached with the job of helping test the new ship's spaceworthiness.
This will eventually involve spaceflight and the revelation that the ship has a working jump drive capable of reducing the time needed to reach another star system enough that more people could be saved.
BUT those involved in the generation ship and eventual colonisation effort will see this ship as both a threat to their long range plans and something they need to secure and reverse engineer as soon as possible since being the only jump capable ship it would give whatever nation or corporation a massive advantage.
2) So my idea is that currently unaware of the true significance of the ship's capabilities there are people intent on kidnapping the inventor which the players will realise and have to take action against when it becomes clear they need to protect both the ship and the inventor to prevent either being killed or destroyed and thereby dooming both them and anyone else they want to save.
How would you see the nations reaction since I'm assuming they'll only become interested once the ship's capabilities are realised?
3) I haven't decided on the source of the threat, I was thinking a wave of force hitting the oort clouds on the edge of the solar system was detected given a potential threat and maybe a time limit on how long they have to escape the solar system.
I am assuming the wave effect is initially blocked by the outer planets but it will eventually pass through the inner planets with say a repeat of that scene from Meteor where an American research ship near the asteroid belt witnesses the leading edge of the wave and is destroyed making it clear there is a danger and the entire world is threatened.
How would you picture this?
4) Should I let the players full rein on designing their characters or just ask them to watch the movie first?
Will think more on this but thanks in advance for your replies!
So lets say we have a Traveller version of When Worlds Collide and we have the world slowly becoming aware something is seriously wrong and a conglomerate of business and world leaders attempting to build a number of multi-generational spacecraft to carry a few thousand or more survivors before the end happens.
Now we have the usual bad guys determined to be the ones who succeed and dictate who survives.
My idea for a game involves a smaller ship that's based on an otherwise out dated design that's been upgraded with a working jump drive and the resources to make a trip to a various number of potential new homes but needs to be accomplished as a soon as possible so they can help as many of the inhabitants escape off world.
It would make sense to use Interstellar's idea of multiple missions for this very purpose but the background is that the jump drive is only a recent innovation that currently has only been used to speed up insystem travel so it can make jumps from Earth to Mars orbit and then to the asteroid bely before moving into the outer system requiring it reach about the orbit of Pluto before making the jump out of the solar system.
This ship has an alternate means of speeding that up, but its still very experimental so it will be functioning as a test bed for new designs that if proven will help speed up the evacuation enormously but as I said there are bad guys who'd look upon this as a threat to their plans and if this new technology works they will take whatever steps they can to acquire it.
Magnify that to all the countries on the planet with the capacity for space travel and you have a large number with reasons to secure this ship rather than allow it to leave once they realise it works.
1) The idea for the game is that the players having been passed over as crew for the generation ship have been approached with the job of helping test the new ship's spaceworthiness.
This will eventually involve spaceflight and the revelation that the ship has a working jump drive capable of reducing the time needed to reach another star system enough that more people could be saved.
BUT those involved in the generation ship and eventual colonisation effort will see this ship as both a threat to their long range plans and something they need to secure and reverse engineer as soon as possible since being the only jump capable ship it would give whatever nation or corporation a massive advantage.
2) So my idea is that currently unaware of the true significance of the ship's capabilities there are people intent on kidnapping the inventor which the players will realise and have to take action against when it becomes clear they need to protect both the ship and the inventor to prevent either being killed or destroyed and thereby dooming both them and anyone else they want to save.
How would you see the nations reaction since I'm assuming they'll only become interested once the ship's capabilities are realised?
3) I haven't decided on the source of the threat, I was thinking a wave of force hitting the oort clouds on the edge of the solar system was detected given a potential threat and maybe a time limit on how long they have to escape the solar system.
I am assuming the wave effect is initially blocked by the outer planets but it will eventually pass through the inner planets with say a repeat of that scene from Meteor where an American research ship near the asteroid belt witnesses the leading edge of the wave and is destroyed making it clear there is a danger and the entire world is threatened.
How would you picture this?
4) Should I let the players full rein on designing their characters or just ask them to watch the movie first?
Will think more on this but thanks in advance for your replies!