Amaranthum

Hazards

• Depressurization
• Radiation
• Toxic atmosphere
• Temperature
• Biological infection
• Predation
• Piracy
• Gravity too high
• Gravity shear

Annoyances

• Taxes
• Decontamination
• Fees
• Poor food
• Poor lodgings
• Corrupt personnel
• Customs (checking for contraband, foreign plants, etc.)
• Strange etiquette

Inspirations

• Futurama
• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• Farscape
• Filk
• Discworld
• Spelljammer
• Cowboy Bebop

Scenarios

• Out of gas
• Stranded in the doldrums
• Shipwrecked on a…
  • Empty, airless, tiny asteroid
  • Hostile planet
  • Abandoned space station
• Ship inspection by an agency of an oppressive government
• Space Madness
  • Reavers
  • Cabin Fever
  • Crackers Don't Matter
  • Brain Switch
• Nuclear blast
  • Blindness
  • Burns
  • Radiation poisoning
• Cybernetic surgery
  • Limb replacement
  • Eye replacement / augmentation
  • Neural alteration / augmentation
• Interdictor ship encounter
• Salvage
  • Abandoned, depressurized, depowered ship
  • Abandoned, powered ship. Automatic processes might be a hazard.
  • Abandoned cargo
    • Another ship has a legitimate yet conflicting claim
• Haggling
  • With a dealer who knows you're at their mercy
  • Trying to find the best price
  • A “kind” stranger offers you a black-market deal
  • For something necessary
    • Food
    • Water
    • Fuel
    • Ship component
      • Engine
      • Battery
      • Sail
      • Life support
      • Automaton / Computer / Autoabacus
  • Trying to sell something
    • Goods
    • Stolen goods
    • Services
    • Something nobody seems to want
      • Because they already have it
      • Because it's illegal
      • Because it's loathsome
      • Because it's too dangerous

Modes of travel ideas

• Stellar Wind on lightsails - slow, but steady and reliable
• Jumpgates - fast and reliable, but expensive.
• Wormholes - fast and cheap, but unreliable.
• Starburst, riftjump - fast, cheap and VERY unreliable. Though requires rare technology.

• Stellar wind - lightsail (or other slower-than-light modes such as an Orion drive - nuclear pulse engine)
  • Advantages: Easy to understand and adjudicate.
  • Disadvantage: Universe has to be built differently than ours: Star systems must be MUCH closer than normal; or speed of light (causality much slower than normal.
• Warp drive - lightspeed, FTL
  • Advantages: Easy for players to understand.
  • Disadvantages: Certain details must be arbitrarily imposed, such as:
    • What happens when two ships meet during FTL travel?
    • How long does it take to go from sublight to FTL? Too fast and the players can just escape everything.
• Jumpdrive - hyperspace, interdimensional
  • Similar advantages and disadvantages as Warp drive.

Mission types

• Bounty hunting
  • Dead or alive
  • Alive
• Survey
• Deliver
  • Smuggle
• Steal
• Terraform, beachhead, foothold
• get to the gig on time
  • the Bard is performing
  • we're getting awards