Types of campaigns

[rcbecker1]

Ok guys my crew of players are running around in a Fat Trader which leaves me running a trading type of game more than a outlaw, surveyor, miner, pirate etc. type game. When you guys play this way what scenarios do you use? How do you handle this so its more than rolling on charts and counting beans/passengers. What do you have as side track games.
The reason Im asking is if you have a ship full of cargo and passengers you cant really stop for off the wall missions since the passengers are exspecting to get delivered on time same as the cargo being bought by buyers. Any help would be great.
Ray

 

[far-trader]

"What do you mean "IT" is loose in the cargo hold? You don't think it can get in the ventilation ducts do you?!"

...typical critter(s) as cargo get out and spread through the ship. Have fun containing, capturing, surviving, saving the passengers, cleaning up the mess, etc. etc. And of course you may be facing penalties if that shipment is damaged. Anything from mutated deadly specimens through simply pests, or Tribbles... why did it have to be Tribbles?

"Excuse me Steward but Monty isn't answering and his stateroom door is locked. It's not like him to miss a meal... "

...dun dun DUNNNN! Upon opening the stateroom Monty is found murdered! Shock! I'm sure you've read the classic "Murder on the Orient Express" yes? Or any other locked room murder mysteries. Time for the crew to play detective and solve the case... hope they get their man or woman before another murder is committed. If they are too slow there may only be one survivor when the ship drops out of jump space. At least then we'll know, posthumously, who the murderer was... mass murderer by then I suppose.

Two quick adventure ideas. Not at all original, steal them at your earliest convenience. Unless your players would turn up their noses at such. Spin some fresh twists in if you can. Use each only once though.

 

[GypsyComet]

"It looked like a good destination at the time."

What looked like a good round trip to a less frequently visited world has turned into a mess. No return cargo, or not enough to make the trip pay. And the trip *needed* to pay. Then a fellow who smiles too much approaches your table at the port bar, and has a proposition...

 

[Elrick]

When I've run trader missions most of the adventures have happened in the week stopover between the old passengers/cargo being unloaded and the new passengers/cargo being loaded. The passengers and cargo are more a 'hook' to get the players to move between systems, although passengers are also a good source of patrons (they don't only have to meet patrons in bars) and rumours. It's useful to have names for the passengers and details of the cargo though, so that the players can't tell when it is suddenly going to turn into part of the plot...

 

[Hopeless]

During the trip you get suspicious of one of your passengers who requires frequent access to their luggage and cargo.
So much so that you confront him and force him to open said luggage/cargo and discover he's smuggling his kid sister offworld haven rescued her from a Government facility where they've been performing experiments on her to turn her into the perfect (psionic) assassin.
Initially you assume he's a slaver but then another passenger draws his gun and reveals himself as a Government agent who has been pursuing the brother and his sister and openly declares you all equally guilty causing a fight after he shoots one of your fellow player characters badly hurting her (Hope you have a doctor onboard oh wait the brother is a doctor what are the chances?!).
You now have a govt ship heading after you, an unconscious agent and whatever means he was using to contact his ship and very probably some kind of beacon to track your ship and the errant brother has to calm down his unstable sister who he reveals is proof of the govt black project to kidnap suitable candidates to turn into remorseless killers.
Of course the above also involves the Captain of the ship haven been a Sergeant in an army unit who fought in the last war where this particular govt won and he's been using his small trading ship to remain outside of their (Alliance) space.

One of your passengers is a skilled engineer who befriends your crew and approaches you with a mutual beneficial proposition.
Now he reveals he knows the location of a small disused base where he has plans to meet up with some friends before heading off to an important meeting, now he's looking for someone to keep tabs on this place and in return for access to facilities that will cover the ship's maintenance costs for as long as they use this base he's willing to set up an account to cover their wages so they don't salvage the place equal to the standard wages for their particular job aboard their own ship.
However their new friend has enemies of his own and the real reason for this mission is so when they come looking they should only find a small trading ship and its crew making use of a small base thats perfectly legal and above board... as long as they don't do anything stupid since we are talking PCs the question is not will they do anything stupid but what and just how big a mess they get into... :roll:

 

[Easterner]

During the trip you get suspicious of one of your passengers who requires frequent access to their luggage and cargo.............
:

Ludicrous plot, who'd like that?...might as well post something about space hookers and preachers and giving the guys girls names.

Something more original like:

"Sensors say it's not there but it shows on viewscreen."

A comet looking object is approaching ship, turns out to be ancient artifact. Up to GM to determine what it does from nothing to possessing item on ship.

 

[Hopeless]

You jump insystem and find yourselves flying past the scene of a major battle, you're not sure but with a number of beacons being detectable it must have happened within the last week.
You have the chance to investigate and rescue escape pods if you want or take a look at the massive derelict battlecruiser thats ahead of you which looks like it holds a lot of salvageable gear to plunder and with noone the wiser about your presence (for the moment) this could be a win-win situation if you play your cards correctly...

You're stopped insystem and boarded, although you know there's nothing aboard that should violate regs the customs and excise people seize your ship and crew allowing the passengers to disembark and any cargo to either be passed onto their collectors and anything you're selling is seized and held as evidence.
You're eventually approached in your cell by a govt operative who explains if you do this one mission for them they'll see to clearing you, your crew and ship by the time you return.
Accept and you get dumped aboard a shuttle along with the rest of the player characters (who needn't be part of your ship at this point) and eventually are dropped off at a planet whereupon the ship is shot down and you wake up on a tropical paradise with no weapons, no armour and not a clue why you're here...
And the nearest base you locate has been broken into and the resident marines (in ripped up battle dress) have been wiped out by what you assume is the local wildlife which the records you find inside the base only come out at night.
The good news is that there's plenty of combat armour available and enough weapons, ammo and supplies to last a few months... the question is will you last the night though... :twisted:
By the time you read this the sun is slowly setting...

 

[Dave Chase]

Hmm, all the above suggestions sound like the

The Traders of Gaths XII

PbP game that I am in on these forums.

Always wondered where those GM ideas came from. LOL

Dave Chase

 

[IanW]

Its an genuine Imperial Navy-surplus power plant. OK, its from the First Imperium, but those old-school Vilani built things to *last*. Keep feeding it uranium fuel pellets and it'll make 20 megawatts from now until the end of time.

I've even got a customer for it, but this isnt a mainworld job. They want to collect it in the Outsystem of Collace. You jump to your preferred location in the Outsystem, and then send a tightbeam message to the location I'll give you, and they'll send a boat to you. You unload it, get your ship safe, and wait to collect.

If you take the deal, I'll send them a message, and you get your slowboat to Collace.

The pay ? Your call. You can take 250k down in Imperial Credits and the balance of the cold million in cash from them, or we can do this on tick, and they'll pay in 20 dtons of one percent or better lanthanum ore. Find a refiner, and thats worth serious megacredits on Trin.

Oh, and as we're friends, I'll even have a paying passenger for you to go to Collace. Guy called Terry, and he'll pay 40k in cash for the trip.

 

[Hopeless]

Your ship was badly damaged getting into port, you've used up what little credit you have just for getting a berth and a meal in the cheapest dinning hall in the station hub and your efforts to find work seem to have come to nothing.

A man walks up to your group as you star gloomily into your drinks at your table.

"Hello, my name is Joshua Tuarte I believe you're looking for some work, right?" he asks.
Looking up you're all dumbfounded because those of you with the streetwise skill don't know who he is and the rest of you are wondering what else is going to hit the fan.

"I need your help and am willing to pay you, all of you will share in a lump sum of 250,000 if you go check on a friend of mine who hasn't been in contact since early last week," he begins to explain.

"How much in advance?" your rogue player quips.

He holds up a hand in reply.

"Now I know your reputation (he says addressing the rogue), so its on completion of this task and it involves you going out into the belt to answer an emergency beacon, I need you to bring him back or at the very least evidence of his death if you want to be paid," he explains.

"Now if you do this for me I'll arrange for your ship to be repaired once you've returned and I'll cover your living expenses whilst you're waiting for your ship to be repaired," he adds.

"I said living expenses not shopping expenses, ok?" he glances back at the rogue who grimaces.

"We don't have a ship to go check the Belt," one of you begins to explain.

"Thats okay, I have a self defence boat prepped and ready should you agree, however it will need to be returned as well if you want to be paid," he replies.

"We'll need to reequip," the rogue player adds.

"I've taken care of that, of course I suspect most of you can't use combat armour but if you'd rather stick with a mining vessel and vacc suits I can arrange that too," he answers back firmly.

"Combat armour, what about battle dress?!" your marine player splutters.

"Don't be silly thats illegal and I'll need an answer now as well as the fact you'll need to leave immediately as well, so whats your answer?" he glances at all of them.

Yes I can see them saying no and him leave the hall but that would be fun to see their reaction though!
I wonder if they said yes and they board an armed sdb when they'll wonder whats waiting for them in the Belt?

 

[locarno24]

Ok guys my crew of players are running around in a Fat Trader which leaves me running a trading type of game more than a outlaw, surveyor, miner, pirate etc. type game. When you guys play this way what scenarios do you use? How do you handle this so its more than rolling on charts and counting beans/passengers. What do you have as side track games.

Smuggling-type missions - obviously you won't be doing millenium falcon style dodging through asteroid belts, but blagging your way past a suspicious patrol cruiser can be just as stressful.

Emergency Incident - getting caught in the aftermath of a disaster; a SDB just transmitted a Code Omega signal, and you're the closest ship to her position. System control is instructing you to go and look. It may be the aftermath of a pirate ambush, equipment malfunction, micrometeor strike or the Space Kraken, but whatever it is, the survivors are counting on you to save them.

 

[AdrianH]

Take a look at "Foundation" by Isaac Asimov, specifically the merchant adventures of Hober Mallow.

As an example of a scenario loosely based on this, the PC's might be given the job of opening up a market for a certain corporation, to which end they are given a cargo to sell on a certain world. The catch is that the world is a dictatorship and the dictator dislikes foreigners in general and this corporation in particular. So the characters had better be careful who they talk to because they can never be sure who's a genuine customer and who's in the secret police. That includes the refugee who wants to be let onto the ship to get off-world and seek asylum.

One reason the dictator doesn't want this corporation establishing a market is that it's the thin end of the wedge; the planet's society will become little more than consumers for said corporation, and may also want to overthrow the isolationist government. He's right - the Imperium wants a regime change and figures this is a relatively bloodless way of doing it. The characters may or may not know this.

 

[Elrick]

Here's a free ebook (in a variety of formats) by Stephen Hunt which might give you some ideas for your campaign: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/207324/

 

[Treebore]

I just ran one where the loading crew were stealing shipments between the warehouses and the space port. The cargo turned from a highly valuable load of precious metals to nothing but rocks. The crew noticed a discrepancy in the weight their ship should be with the cargo on loaded, and opened up some crates to find out why. From there they went through all kinds of actions to find out what happened to their precious metals, which they had lots of their own money tied up in at 118 tons.

 

[IanW]

I just ran one where the loading crew were stealing shipments between the warehouses and the space port. The cargo turned from a highly valuable load of precious metals to nothing but rocks. The crew noticed a discrepancy in the weight their ship should be with the cargo on loaded, and opened up some crates to find out why. From there they went through all kinds of actions to find out what happened to their precious metals, which they had lots of their own money tied up in at 118 tons.

BreX ! BreX! BreX! For those of you that dont know the story, I'll start at the end. The site geologist got dropped out of a helicopter, and nobody went to jail.

 

[Putraack]

The Trader gets caught in a system that is the target of a mercenary unit that has some space transport. The mercs are seizing all shipping in the system until further notice, and are chartering your ship to hold the impounded crews.

See the Elizabeth Moon novel "Trading in danger" for what might happen next.

 

[Hopeless]

The Trader gets caught in a system that is the target of a mercenary unit that has some space transport. The mercs are seizing all shipping in the system until further notice, and are chartering your ship to hold the impounded crews.

See the Elizabeth Moon novel "Trading in danger" for what might happen next.

Might want to also read the rest of that series for various other ideas especially if you think your players might want to become privateers!

 

[jappel]

The ship is chartered to make a resupply run to a Doctors Without Borders camp on a world with a mid-sized brushfire war going on. While they're on the ground, raiders attack with the intent of capturing either the DWB hospital ship (a converted subsidized trader) or the new target the players just landed in their reach...