Wondrous Adventure

[SSWarlock]

The thread on Water Spouting stars opened up an interesting (for me, at least) yet brief discussion on Traveller adventures that didn't involve violence. Or rather adventures that focus on puzzle solving rather than violence.

I thought I'd start a thread regarding such adventures rather than just allowing that discussion get buried.

So..what are some favorite space adventures that haven't required (much) violent behavior?

I'll start it off with...

First Contact
How does one communicate with an alien race which knows nothing about the Imperium or even one's own species?

Strange New Worlds
Our heros must retrieve an item from a ship that crash-landed on a moon orbiting a gas giant. The challenge is the moon is within the gas giant's magnetic field which often funnels the nearby star's outpouring of flare material onto the moon. Example: Io.

Spatial Spelunking
Moving around on the very low gravity wilderness world was easy and fun..right up to the moment that the ship's mass opened up a sink hole underneath it while the crew was going about its business on the surface some distance away. It's now at the bottom(?) of a yawning pit that leads down an unknown distance into darkness. Whatcha gonna do?

Breath of Fresh Air
You've picked up tons of lye from a low tech world for delivery to a nearby system. The buffeting while refueling from a gas giant caused M-drive damage, forcing the ship to land on a nearby moon. The moon has almost no atmosphere and is highly volcanic with sulfuric lava. A rescue ship will reach you in 3 days; too bad life support was also damaged and you have 3 hours of air left. If only you had a source of water for your purification plant to separate into hydrogen and oxygen...

Thoughts? Contributions?

 

[rust]

Find the Gadget
You were sent to the ruins of an alien outpost to find and bring back an ur-
gently needed piece of technology. You know it is here, but you have no
idea what the alien version of such a device looks like, and there are so
many strange devices here. Which of them is the right one, and how do
you identify it without having to test all of the devices, with potentially ex-
treme consequences ?

Who is Who ?
You landed to explore the planet, and the first thing you found were corp-
ses. Two alien species, both obviously dangerous predators, and they ha-
ve killed each other with their natural weapons after what must have been
a long and brutal fight. Near the corpses you find a crude spear, so one
of the two species must be using tools, and therefore probably intelligent -
but who is the intelligent one, and who the dangerous animal ?

----------------------------------------

However, I usually prefer "long term mysteries" in my campaigns, series
of more or less interesting discoveries and events, introduced as one plot-
line among others, which seem inexplicable for a rather long time until a
new discovery or piece of information makes the pieces of the puzzle fi-
nally fall into their places - or leads to the conclusion that the mystery will
remain a mystery forever.

You know, someone in this part of the universe cut off the peak of one
mountain on each planet with a surface gravity of more than 0.73 G, he
embedded the peak in a substance which looks like glass and smells like
onions, and then he buried it exactly 249 meters deep at the equator of
the planet ...

 

[DFW]

If only you had a source of water for your purification plant to separate into hydrogen and oxygen...

Thoughts? Contributions?

Well, if the PC's have an EDU >7 they'd probably break down the lye.

 

[SSWarlock]

If only you had a source of water for your purification plant to separate into hydrogen and oxygen...

Thoughts? Contributions?

Well, if the PC's have an EDU >7 they'd probably break down the lye.

You've earned a cookie. :lol:

You'd be amazed at how many people with EDU > 7 don't know that or forgot it.

Lye (i.e. sodium hydroxide) + local sulphur dioxide gives sodium carbonate and water. Just don't store lye in an aluminum (aluminium if across the Pond) container. It goes boom.