eldath
2nd Incarnation
Posts: 13
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Post by eldath on Jan 1, 2024 21:19:11 GMT
Doctor Who – Murder on the Disorient express
The group wake to find themselves in what appears to be a stateroom on the Orient Express in the 30s. Even though they begin dressed in twenty first century garb and act in a modern fashion, the crew and passengers will for the most part accept them as dressing/acting normally, with any blatant anachronisms being put down to them being ‘silly’ or ‘annoying’. Any request to be let off at the next station has them informed that the train cannot stop for hours as it is very far from any stops.
Shortly after their arrival a body will be discovered in one of the staterooms, with the others on board seeming to defer to the player characters. Should they not engage, one of them will discover a note (printed on what looks like a dot matrix printer) requesting that they help solve the murder. Examining the body it will be obvious at the outset, even with the crew and passengers referring to the body as being Mr Lowersoft, that this body is not from the 30s. The corpse is of a near human, with a slightly green caste to the skin, and horizontally-slitted pupils. The body appears to have had technological devices grafted to them, but had no signs of contusions or wounds of any sort. With the right kind of examinations being performed (including scans), the victim appears to have died from organ failure. This is partially caused by cell damage from an exotic form of radiation (not currently dangerous) and the integration of the technological devices.
During this period another human appears, unconscious to begin with but disoriented once awake. She will seem to recognise that the group do not match the era they appear to be in. After a while however she will become almost emotionless, a Dalek eyestalk and gun arm will emerge from her and she will try to take over the ship that she has figured out that they are on. She will exterminate anyone who gets in her way including the clockwork robots.
What is happening:
The Orient Express that the group have found themselves on is a recreation on board a 51st century Starship. The crew died following radiation exposure with the crew trying to repair them using spare parts from stores, though this did not have the effect that the robots expected. Having accessed the ships database the robots got the wrong idea completely from parts of the entertainment database causing them to think that they will learn what ‘murdered’ their crew. They have recreated the Orient Express and created holographic passengers and holographic disguises, grabbing the characters from their home times using time windows. The Dalek Puppet (from the episode Asylum of the Daleks – Series 7 episode 1) was pulled on board by accident and once it has figured out what the situation is it will want to take control in order to rescue its masters.
In my game this is also an introduction to my 'time lord'. My group will meet up with Jenny (the Doctor's Daughter) who has been travelling looking for her father using a less than reliable Vortex Manipulator.
Any thoughts?
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Post by thewarchief on Jan 2, 2024 16:58:41 GMT
I looks interesting.
What if it was a 51st century version of one of those murder mystery dinner things? Originally people would pay to ride aboard the Orient Express and solve a 1930s, Agatha Christie style murder mystery. Then the accident killed off the living crew, and the robots being left to their own devices.
The simulated experience could be right down to the fake landscape, viewed through the fake windows (PCs can open to breath the fake mountain air and watch the simulated sunset), train noises, tunnels, period dining cars and menus, etc. The train could follow the same iternary as the orginal, passing through various towns and cities (all simulated with a set prepared by the robots). All a realtic simulation of the original, except the smoking car has fake pipes and cigarettes on cheroots (non cancerous, no addicting tobacco substitute - 51st century vaping) instead of the real thing. Oh, and maybe the train has USB (well USB K, it is the 51st century) and WiFi for the guests.
When the PC awaken (say each in their own first class compartment) the robots take them for the next run of passengers (advanced ticket sales, so what if the passengers are a little late, they're here now, that's the important thing) and begin the whole production along with a fake murder (very good robot props) for the "passengers' to solve. Once things get going clues stat to pop up that show that something is off. Maybe the crew tell the passengers that they all won a free trip courtesy of the line in celebration of it's one hundred thousand trip. Any confusion as to how they got here could be deflected with "Well, Sir, if might say so, there was a god deal of Champaign at the station during the ceremonies, and everybody did stay up well past midnight."
Naturally the murder doesn't happen until after dinner, so the player can get a little time to notice they are on the Orient Express, mingle with the other passengers (the Dalek puppet and a few robots programmed to act as the murder, victim, and a couple of red herrings), and basically have a fun time trying to figure everything out.
I'd also suggest that most of the radiation should have faded long ago so the players can survive the exposure. Maybe the crew had the robots shut down the reactor and the ship is now running on backup power (say solar collectors and some batteries)? Maybe when the power gets low the robots will want to turn the damaged reactors back on!
Food and other perishables could be stored in some sort of stasis field ("for freshness") explaining why it's all still good after all these years.
The PCs could all have staterooms, with period costumes provided (pulled from stasis) as part of the service. Not all guest want to wear full peroid dress so any anachronism are ignored so as to not detract from the experience.
I think the big worry here could be the Dalek Puppet. I think it might be best if something one of the robot passengers or crew does, like say, accuse her of being the murder, triggers her eyestalk/Dalek gun response, so the PCs will not be her initial targets.
Oh, and since the original Orient Express was the Venice-Simplon Orient Express, you could have the ship heading to New Venice. In fact that could be something of a clue for the players. If they ask about their destination or ETA they will be told that the train will arrive at New Venice at precisely 9:00 hours on Monday morning. Which could clue them in that they aren't heading to Old Venice.
Any of that help?
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eldath
2nd Incarnation
Posts: 13
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Post by eldath on Jan 2, 2024 17:08:17 GMT
Hi thewarcheif, thanks. You have made some interesting points. I ran a murder mystery evening themed adventure previously, I try to avoid repeats lol, but otherwise a good suggestion. I had considered the radiation issue but hadn't thought to add my way of dealing with it which is that the ship has moved beyond the radiation source.
I think the Dalek Puppet should be OK, it has no reason to attack the Pcs first as they are just normal people (mostly), and no immediate threat. The ships crew (robots) however are initially an issue for it as they will try to stop it from taking over the ship.
Thanks again for your input and your time.
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Post by thewarchief on Jan 2, 2024 18:17:15 GMT
Hi That's a good reason. That's a really good reason. Maybe this is too technical for Doctor Who, but radiation that can get through a ship's hull and kill of all the crew will probably irradiate the ship and make it deadly for others to be there for some time. Maybe the robots had something that could scrub the ship clean, but the crew had already been exposed to a fatal amount of radiation? I'm just bringing it up because once the players realize that somebody died of radiation exposure their next thoughts will be about their own levels of exposure, and how to get out of dodge. Maybe everyone could wear little name badges that detect radiation, which can show that they are all safe? Okay. It's just that a Dalek isn't going to be all that concerned about not attacking a PC. And a Time Lord PC would probably "outrank" the robots on the threat scale. Maybe there is some timey-whimey reason for the puppet not to be aware of the time war. Say the puppet came from before the time war, when the TIme Lords were not their main adversary? Thanks for the thread. That's why we come here. BTW, what do you think the ending for this will be? What will the players be trying to do other than just try to escape. What are the consequences if the Puppet takes over the ship, or if the robots defeat the Puppet? |
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eldath
2nd Incarnation
Posts: 13
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Post by eldath on Jan 2, 2024 19:00:35 GMT
In answer to your points
My perspective of the radiation thing is that this is Doctor Who, there have been many types of radiation which only lasted long enough to kill the red shirts.
Regarding the puppet and Time Lord, my intention is that there will not be a Time Lord per se, the closest would be the Doctor's daughter and the Dalek's don't know about her yet.
My preferred end will be that the Pc's (with the Doctor's Daughters help, and perhaps Clockwork robots if they can get them onside) is that the Dalek Puppet would be defeated. This doesn't have to mean killed, but beamed back across the time window or onto an abandoned planet nearby). Once the ship is safe and the robots have been deactivated or brought onside Jenny can get them to help her and the other Pcs get back to the right time zone.
As to your last questions; If the puppet defeats the Robots it will use the time windows to bring the Daleks from the time/location it came from. Saving them and then using this as a method to get back to conquering the stars. If the robots defeat the puppet (unlikely) then they would try to continue the recreation.
E
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Post by thewarchief on Jan 2, 2024 19:37:53 GMT
In answer to your points My perspective of the radiation thing is that this is Doctor Who, there have been many types of radiation which only lasted long enough to kill the red shirts. I agree, but how will the players react? Will they know that they are safe ? Regarding the puppet and Time Lord, my intention is that there will not be a Time Lord per se, the closest would be the Doctor's daughter and the Dalek's don't know about her yet. Oh, okay, I thought you had a Time Lord player character in the group. My preferred end will be that the Pc's (with the Doctor's Daughters help, and perhaps Clockwork robots if they can get them onside) is that the Dalek Puppet would be defeated. This doesn't have to mean killed, but beamed back across the time window or onto an abandoned planet nearby). Check Once the ship is safe and the robots have been deactivated or brought onside Jenny can get them to help her and the other Pcs get back to the right time zone. So the PCs will need to figure out a way to deactivate the robots after dealing with the puppet (or vice versa). Gotcha. As to your last questions; If the puppet defeats the Robots it will use the time windows to bring the Daleks from the time/location it came from. Saving them and then using this as a method to get back to conquering the stars. Are the players going to be made aware of that somehow? I'm just thinking that unless the are informed of the threat, they might not consider the puppet to be the main antagonist, since the robots were the ones who kidnapped them. They might think that since the robots caused the trouble and since "no one is going to get hurt", the puppet can be ignored and the PCs can just go about their own business. Maybe the puppet should drop some comments about "securing the time corridor so she can bring her masters here." And then you might need to have the ship heading to someplace that the PCs don't want to be overrun by Daleks. I'm just thinking that unless the PCs are aware that something bad will happen if the puppet succeeds, they might just decide that she makes an excellent diversion and make their own escape during the confusion. If the robots defeat the puppet (unlikely) then they would try to continue the recreation. Which means status quo for the PCs, right? Thus the PCs have to deactivate the robots if they ever want to leave the simulation and get on with their lives. |
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eldath
2nd Incarnation
Posts: 13
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Post by eldath on Jan 7, 2024 21:37:56 GMT
Well, I ran this on Friday and it was great fun. My players noted the radiation but were not worried about the immediate effect of it on them beyond trying to build a Geiger counter to try to track down the source.
The Doctor's Daughter (Jenny) was as close to a Time Lord (My wife was playing her) as we got and she was great in keeping everyone going without railroading anyone, when people seemed to be going to plan Bs she pointed them into useful (usually) new lines of inquiry.
As it turned out the group got to a point where the holographic recreation was just not going to fly any more and the robots decided to drop the act and just tell them what they needed the Pcs to do. About this time the Dalek puppet (who had been working alongside them) activated and after a brief struggle where one Pc got a small amount of damage, the group ran. They already had seen a time window into 1970s New York, having discounted the idea of using that to escape and figured that letting the Daleks access to this ship was a bad idea. So they broke every time window they could find while they were running and then set the engines to explode (some very good rolls and Jenny's knowledge). As the engines built to overload the Dalek puppet came into the room and they all gathered around Jenny and the Vortex Manipulator got them back to Earth and roughly in the right time zone.
The best part for me was the look of glee on players faces as they figured out or reveals happened showing things like the Clockwork Robots and the Dalek Puppet (also the use of the Theme song at the start and end.
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