Welcome back everyone! Something a bit sci-fi for you all this week, but based on my own interests, I can easily see how this one could easily be used as inspiration for a deep future Lovecraftian game too. Whatever you choose to use it for, I hope you enjoy it.
The crew were all in Deep Sleep. It was the only way that any kind of space travel was going to happen. Faster than light was still the stuff of science fiction, even after so many other ideas and concepts first touted in the pages of trashy fiction have long become a reality. Deep Sleep for instance wasn’t what most people would think. It wasn’t some elongated form of hibernation, with fully functional humans coming out at the end without suffering any of the crippling muscle atrophy that would actually occur.
In a way it’s about immortality. If the cost wasn’t so prohibitive, the private sector would be offering it to anyone who wanted it by now, but it takes the kind of budget that can launch objects out of out solar system to be able to cover the costs. Everything about you is taken from you, and when they say everything, they mean it. Not just memories, but aspirations and emotions. What they want is for the whole of you to wake up on the other end. Vat growing the bodies was actually the easier part of the whole thing, and without that technology the human race may have starved a long time ago. So, you get yourself downloaded into server farms the size of an SUV, and along with the equipment you’re going to need, you get shot into space.
Luckily, the space between stars is pretty damned cold, so keeping the machines running wasn’t going to be a problem. And then, when the ship’s sensors picked up an object big enough, it adjusted the thrusters and set about waking everyone up. There would be no point keeping the vat grown bodies around until needed; there was no way to know how long that would take. So they were created, with life but no control, and that’s when you come into it. That personality that’s just been sitting around in shut-down mode for who knew how long, gets a jolt and is sent to a nice warm brain, wrapped in a shiny new body. And as the eyes get used to what they’re seeing, it’s time to start working.
The players will be part of a crew of deep space explorers. One of hundreds of vessels flung out of the solar system looking for new planetary body that the human race could call home. It will quickly become obvious though, that the object in space that the ship’s sensors has started to track is not orbiting any star. It is in fact, just as alone as the ship. The ship’s Captain however, will want to investigate. Having come out of Deep Sleep, there really is little else to do. The process of putting everyone back under will take months, and during that time, they can maneuver the ship to orbit the strange object and get as much as information as the long range sensors will allow.
The object is large enough to have a gravity slightly stronger than Earth, no more than an extra 5% though. It has a molten core and a carbon structure. As the weeks pass by, it becomes increasingly obvious that there exists within the object a honeycomb like structure, that may not be natural. This gets everyone very excited, and the Captain quickly decides to hold off on putting everyone back under until the object is fully investigated. This means landing teams, made up of a variety of personnel. The barges are readied, and the players form up into one of two teams to take the first steps onto the object.
Begin with standard space exploring fare, the landing can be as troublesome as you require, but the fun starts when the players get beneath the surface. Unnatural formations quickly become evident and markings on the walls that could only be made by sentient beings. The further down they go, the more obvious it becomes that none of the things they’re seeing were made by nature. Doors that look as if they could once have been sealed to maintain an atmosphere within are soon spotted, and sensor readings show an increase in temperature the further the party move away from the surface. Unsurprisingly, the Captain is thrilled by this, and begins proceedings to land the ship on the surface to carry out a full investigation. As it moves in orbit to find a suitable landing spot for such a large craft, it moves into an area of radio silence, as the first door is found that remains sealed…
Future plot ideas
- It turns out, there’s no one there. Not too exciting I know, but gives the players a chance to play at world builders if that’s what they want to do, and gives the GM some great opportunities to mess with them in unusual ways.
- The sentient life that inhabited this rock has long since perished, and in the millennia since, the cattle they fed upon has evolved into a neanderthal state, primitively worshiping the remains of the old civilisation as if they were Gods.
- Go full horror, and have the creatures that remain engage in planetary wide hunt of the human encroachment.
- The rock is a weapon, and was aimed at a distant planet many years ago, and evacuated when its course was locked on.
shortymonster
Hello there, learned reader. My name is not shortymonster, but since we will soon become firm friends, feel free to call me Shorty. I am a well versed and well traveled gentleman gamer, with no particular favourites in regard to system or setting, playing or GMing. You can also find me at my personal RPG blog.