Starship Idiosyncracies

[whtknght]

I had this idea:

the players are hired to transport a hiver to a system where he/she/it knows there is a hiver vessel/medical center/whatever. The hiver has, essentially, the 'flu. It's not cross-contagious, so the crew are not in danger.

However, part-way through jump, the hiver spikes a high fever and accidentally gives birth (a survival trait, when close to death hivers spawn to prevent the loss of their genetic material).

I like it. A good one to pull on a group of gun toting tough guys.

A whole campaign can be spawned from this.

I am going to have to read up on the Hiver to find all the twists that this can create.

 

[fireyphoenix22]

OMG, THE SHIP HAS SPACE HERPES!

 

[saundby]

Every so often, for reasons unknown, food storage freezes everything to cryo temperatures. Half an hour with a laser might get enough hamburger defrosted for a couple of half-precooked, half burnt patties. Blow superheated steam on your soup concentrates and you just get a block of ice.

Each time, the engineer finds something and fixes it. Then a few weeks later it happens again, out of the blue and in a matter of a few hours.

When the crew has established food stashes, introduce insects and vermin. And maybe even space herpes...

 

[Ishmael]

3 men and a hiver

I like it
a baby hiver imprinted on the gun-toting tough guys following them around like a baby duck.

just another tricky manipulation psyche experiment
those crazy starfishes

 

[Ishmael]

I always thought the Slimers came in three states:

+ A relatively braindead larva considered a pest even by the adults

+ Adults of various sizes

+ Good Hivers (I.e after being in front of a heavy weapon being fired)

So a "baby Hiver" does either not exist or is an animal

There's quite a number of kids around my town and a few of my daughters' schoolmates that I consider to be relatively braindead and pests!

and even if a "baby hiver" really doesn't exist except as a brainless slug, the PC's don't necessarily know that! The idea of an alien kid following a bunch of gung-ho PC's into a firefight while yelling "da da...dada...DA DA!" and the PC's going crazy trying to fight AND keep the kid safe is too good to discard because of some write-up from years ago.

its been a precedent that published materials might not be the whole truth.... in fact they might be prejudicial and slanted for political/ignorant reasons.

a sluggy kid might even like disassembling things for fun...clocks, toys, jump drives....

 

[BP]

What's that? Cookee says we're hav'n fried larva soup again?!

 

[Dave Chase]

What's that? Cookee says we're hav'n fried larva soup again?!

No, no, its Hiveriocia pudding tonight.

Dave Chase

 

[BP]

Good - I hate having the same thing over and over!

Hiveriocia? Now where was that pronunciation thread? I think I'm crossing the streams again...

 

[ShadowDragon8685]

This thread is so good, I wish my pal would pull some of these on me.


Also, one has to wonder, about the food freezer that occasionally flash-cryos... Maybe that was some gadgeteer genius' attempt to cross a medical emergency cryo-booth with a low berth? Maybe there's some more... Sinister reason? Or maybe it was intentionally done as an emergency way of keeping something contained... That might become uncontained if the players find and fix the problem?

 

[Jame Rowe]

In my current campaign, the Referee had the former engineer (who has passed away, in an accident making him the first Traveller casualty in all of my group's history - and we've had two more since!), who was some sort of noble in hiding 'cause he was on the run from workers who wanted him dead, install a secret secondary bridge next to engineering.

 

[kafka]

What if when the characters were doing routine repair work after a Starship battle to the computer, they found that the computer had a augmented sophont brain attached to it kept alive through some sort of chemical soup...unplugging it would mean death to everyone on board but having it on board would be tantamount to accepting slavery. They would have to figure out the way to communicate with it...other than as a computer...