[Scenario Seed] Get ET home.

[senko]

Just a little idea that came from a teen titans episode.

Scenario

The party gets a communication from an advanced but isolationist species. Not in a "We are too powerful to intervene" sense but just a "we have better things to do than deal with these primitives" sense. The species even have little patience with their own children prefering to just let them learn on their own as they are almost indistructable giving them toy spaceships to wander around the galaxy. However one of their children has not only lost his pet (shapeshifting goo type alien) but collected a primitive being with who know's what diseases in its place. The party are requested to return the new pet to its home planet and retrieve the original one.

Complication

Two issues rapidly become apparent to the party first both pets are actually sentient beings in their own right and when they find the original it doesn't want to go back to a life of being collared and punished if it doesn't entertain its master. Secondly the being they've been asked to return is from a culture roughly comparable to 20th century earth and can only identify its planet of origin in a "Its somewhere on this arm of the galaxy." sense.  They can try getting an answer from the toddler but it wont want to give up its new pet.

[grinch]

That’s a really neat idea. And quite horrifying actually as well.

A bunch of irresponsible children just going around the universe randomly abducting people from various planets all to serve as their pets. Would make for a really good PC character origin I think. Someone who was abducted when they were young and believed themselves to be the subject of horrific scientific experimentation only to be returned back to Earth traumatised by their experience. As it turns out, however, there was no experimentation on the part of their abductor. They just wanted to play and weren’t aware of how basic human physiology works.

[Catsmate]

Dec 14, 2021 14:11:28 GMT grinch said:

That’s a really neat idea. And quite horrifying actually as well.

A bunch of irresponsible children just going around the universe randomly abducting people from various planets all to serve as their pets. Would make for a really good PC character origin I think. Someone who was abducted when they were young and believed themselves to be the subject of horrific scientific experimentation only to be returned back to Earth traumatised by their experience. As it turns out, however, there was no experimentation on the part of their abductor. They just wanted to play and weren’t aware of how basic human physiology works.

Indeed, and interesting juxtaposition between tragedy and humour. And, as you say, an interesting background.
Oddly the first image that comes to mind is a rather young Peter Davidson dressed as a traffic warden.
WARNING: click at your own risk.

Of course there's also the possibility that the kids might bite off too much and choke. A psychopath named George perhaps? So now there are further problems; a missing/stolen starship, a killer with a starship and a plan, some mildly concerned parents and some dead/kidnapped alien children.

 

[grinch]

Ah, A Man For Emily. The television debut of which Peter Davison wishes the world would just forget.

Definitely a lot of storytelling potential there as soon you introduce a character like George into the mix. Your PCs might have to even play hostage negotiator in order to rescue the kidnapped children. Not to mention, even if your PCs succeed in rescuing them that in turn could lead to further adventures. The children's parents might want to enact retribution on the planet Earth and its species or having George involved might have changed history and set back Earth's galactic relations by centuries!

[Catsmate]

Dec 14, 2021 17:39:14 GMT grinch said:

Ah, A Man For Emily. The television debut of which Peter Davison wishes the world would just forget.

I'd forgotten about it only a few months ago and a TP binge.
    He's actually not bad in it.

Dec 14, 2021 17:39:14 GMT grinch said:

Definitely a lot of storytelling potential there as soon you introduce a character like George into the mix. Your PCs might have to even play hostage negotiator in order to rescue the kidnapped children. Not to mention, even if your PCs succeed in rescuing them that in turn could lead to further adventures. The children's parents might want to enact retribution on the planet Earth and its species or having George involved might have changed history and set back Earth's galactic relations by centuries!

Yes, a vast range of complications, even if George's plans are foiled.

[Catsmate]

OK, this is an off-topic rant but why is PD cropping up everywhere I watch?
I expect him in All Creatures Great and Small but immediately afterwards he appears in Tales of the Unexpected as a naive solicitor (did not like the moustache). And now my Jonathan Creek binge has him in a dog collar...

It's the flux....

[grinch]

Dec 20, 2021 11:22:36 GMT Catsmate said:

OK, this is an off-topic rant but why is PD cropping up everywhere I watch?
I expect him in All Creatures Great and Small but immediately afterwards he appears in Tales of the Unexpected as a naive solicitor (did not like the moustache). And now my Jonathan Creek binge has him in a dog collar...

It's the flux....

I’d say it’s a coincidence myself Catsmate but if you change the channel only to be greeted by an episode of ‘Campion’ or ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’ then you’ll know he’s following you.