[Adventure Idea] - Marooned Off Vesta

[burningskies]

Hi guys,

I’ve been reading a collection of Isaac Asimov short stories and came across one that would be very playable as a DW adventure. There are no aliens involved and minimal (or no) fighting. The story is called “Marooned off Vesta” and was written by Asimov in 1939.

[*Note - if any of my players are reading this, please avert your eyes. Otherwise, I will feed your character to a starving Horda! *]

The story starts off with 3 characters board spaceship Silver Queen which is behind schedule. The captain of the ship decides to fly through the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and not around it, which is safer, but takes longer. The ship collides with an asteroid and is almost completely destroyed. The 3 characters were knocked unconscious by the force of the impact and then had to figure out what happened.

The characters survived when the ship broke apart. Their section of the ship alone was intact. It consisted of their cabin situated along an access corridor which was pressurized and sealed. Their room had a small porthole. There was a functional airlock at one end of the corridor which still has emergency power. The characters’ room was located next to the ship’s water tank - which is about 2/3rd full.

The characters had 3 man-days of air (3 days of air per person); about a week's worth of food per person and about a year’s worth of water; there is only one spacesuit, a heat ray and a detonation charge. Life support has failed, but there’s enough supplies to last for a while; their segment of the ship will slowly lose heat, but they will be dead long before this becomes an issue. They have emergency power (lighting), but the batteries will not last for too long (a few days worth of emergency battery power). The story assumes that they have a functioning “gravity control” (called a gravitator) unit which gives those onboard earth gravity.

They discuss the possibility of being rescued - the authorities might notice the missing ship, but only once it’s late for its destination, which might be days or weeks yet. There are no functioning radios; the only ones aboard ship were in the command module which was destroyed in the impact.

They are currently about 200 miles from the asteroid of Vesta, Vesta has an almost non-existent gravity field (because it is so small) which will not pull the segment of their ship into it (they way Earth’s gravity would). Vesta has a small colony - there is an observatory along with a scientific mission doing further research/exploration there.

They manage to rescue themselves. - one character leaves through the airlock, maneuvers around the wreckage of the ship (dangerous areas with pieces of jagged metal, girders and beams, etc.) to a location on the hull just above the water tank. Using the heat ray, he punctures a hole in the hull, and then in the tank; the water boils off almost instantly as it escapes the hole (it has a low boiling point because of the difference in pressure). The character has effectively given them a rocket engine; the water supplies the thrust. It’s sufficient to push them towards Vesta (only about 200 miles or so away). It will take several hours to reach Vesta; since it has no atmosphere, they do not have to worry about burning up. Their speed is slow enough that impact will not do major damage to the hull.

This can easily be adapted for a DW story, one that involves problem solving and cooperation. In order for it to work as an adventure, the GM will need to separate the PCs from anything that provides an easy escape - TARDIS, Vortex Manipulator and so on.

GMs wishing to make it more complex can add many additional challenges, making it into a kind of “disaster in space” type story.
I’ll provide some suggestions below.

If you had a very small group of players (1 or 2), the majority of the action could be centered around coming up with a solution and implementing it. It would take a roll of Ingenuity + Science vs. Very Difficult for a character who is versed in modern science) to come up with the idea once they’ve inventoried everything, know about their water supply and their location relative to Vesta and then making the solution work. The space walk itself would be dangerous, especially for an inexperienced character (e.g. Leela or Jamie might not be the best candidates to do it). They would have to navigate through pieces of wreckage, jutting girders, etc - all which might tangle them or rip their suit. (Perhaps requiring Coordination + Athletics rolls). Finally, once they get into place over the water tank, use their heat ray (Coordination + Marksmanship?) to burn a hole through the hull and then through the tank beneath it. Instead of Marksmanship, GMs might allow the PCs to substitute the Craft skill if they have experience with something similar to manipulating a heat ray (such as welding or using a blowtorch).

Once the characters made it to the planet, they were rescued in the story. If you want to make it more dramatic, you can have them find their way to the observatory or science team (see the next post for suggestions about this.)

[burningskies]

Okay, here are some ways to make the adventure longer or even transform it into a full blown "space disaster" type story.

1) Passenger trauma/Passenger drama (if there are multiple NPCs)
For purposes of this, we’ll assume that there was a number of NPCs survived as well; there are multiple cabins along the corridor. Any passengers in these cabins survived.

a) Calm/restrain - maybe there's a lady who is crying hysterically or a guy who mentally breaks down and screams “game over, man” againa and again. Maybe even one of them will try something stupid (banging their head against a wall), or suicidal (killing themselves) or homicidal (like trying to puncture the hull of the ship, to “end it now”); if they are not calmed down, they will upset the rest of the survivors and make things even more difficult.

To calm passengers down may require characters to roll Presence + Convince (or replace Presence with Ingenuity or Resolve if you’re trying to argue with someone about why they should calm down). If PCs wish to restrain passengers, treat this as a combat action. Restraining may require a Strength or Coordination + Fighting roll to first grab them and then a further Strength + Fighting roll to restrain or control them. Additional rolls may be required if they have to wrestle something out of a passenger’s hands or disarm them. All the rolling here should not replace verbal interaction on the part of the players. If they play it very well or use especially appropriate words on their part (saying more than just “Calm down”) , the GM might give them a bonus to their rolls or even a story point. Somebody like the Fifth Doctor’s companion, Tegan Jovenka, an airline stewardess, might be ideally suited to calming people and organizing them.

b) First aid - other NPCs might be in adjoining cabins and may require medical help (roll of Ingenuity + Medical vs level of difficulty appropriate to injuries). It might be a small adventure to get appropriate supplies (if the injury is serious); maybe there’s a med-kit or auto-doc at the end of the corridor,
but access to it is blocked by collapsed girders and hull structure (Coordination + Athletics to move around or Strength + Athletics to move out of the way); if you wanted a full-blown medical crisis - add a woman who’s in labor. I can see a Seventh Doctor companion like Hex (from the Audio Adventures), who is nurse, ideally suited to this.

c) Stop Fights - as the PCs go about saving people, maybe under stress some of the survivors get a little punchy, they exchange words and maybe even throw fists at one another - PCs could attempt to de-escalate (use of Convince + Presence); restrain (as above, Strength/Coordination + Fight to grab and then further Strength + Fight to restrain/grapple; the combatants might resist with rolls of their own or even attack the PCs!)

Note: If two people are fighting, then two people should restrain; let the PCs figure out how best to do this. A single person stepping in between two that are fighting may end up getting injured (but they may be able to do it on their own.)Complications: Maybe an NPC picks a fight with a PC. For loads of fun, have the NPC pick on the PC with negative traits like
Argumentative (GM guide p.14) or Bad Temper (not in the GM guide). While Tegan may be good at calming people and preventing fights, other characters like Leela or Jamie might be best suited for physically restraining ones who are fighting. The Third Doctor could use Venusian Aikido as might the Seventh to retrain them. (The Seventh Doctor uses his finger to manipulate a pressure point or something in order to temporarily paralyze Paterson in the episode Survival)

d) Coordinate - depending on the total number of characters trapped, NPCs may be an integral part of the self-rescue/survival operation. Leader-types may want to inventory the passengers; have them introduce themselves and see what kind of special skills they might have (one might be a doctor or nurse, another might be a zero-g ship construction worker; a third might be on the ship’s damage control teams, etc.) and put them to work.

Notes: This is a good time for more verbal interaction. It may take a few rolls by the PCs to convince reluctant NPCs to help. (They might be too frightened or despondent, or may not even be aware that they have useful talents).

e) Inventory - the characters should explore their surroundings and make an inventory of all the equipment and resources they have available.

As detailed above - there is about 3 days of air and a weeks worth of food per person, along with enough water to last for months or more. The ship is slowly losing heat, but the effects would not be noticeable for some time (long after the
characters are dead). No functional radios. Emergency batteries will last for about a week, leaving them able to operate lights
and similar electrical appliances. There is only one (or maybe a few more) space suits. One heat ray and whatever first aid
and hull repair kits can be found in the corridor or cabin(s).

2) Hull Damage
Fix a hull leak - the corridor/cabin (probably cabin, since it’s a fairly small place) is not fully pressurized and is slowly losing
atmosphere. There is a hole nearby that characters must find and patch. They can hear and maybe feel the hiss of the air (air
the air current), but can’t see the hole. Characters would need to make a Ingenuity + Awareness roll to find it vs. a very difficult task). Clever characters might tear up a piece of paper (or use a balloon or something like that) and throw it into the air - the
shredded paper will be sucked to the hole itself. (it’s like throwing scraps of paper at the intake of a fan). If characters come up with an idea like this, give them an automatic success.

Since the hole is very small, the characters could plug it very temporarily with a piece of chewed gum. Along the corridor
they will find an emergency repair kit that has a small torch/welder and pieces of lead which can be used to fill the hole for a more lasting repair. (It might even have some kind of electronic device which detects holes in the hull by analyzing changes in air pressure and air currents, which might be useful if they can't otherwise find the hole).
Note: If one of the cabins is leaking air, characters might instead simply leave the cabin and shut the door behind them. They will lose any stuff they leave behind. Once sufficient atmosphere is lost in a sealed room, the door cannot be open (the door will then lock automatically to prevent catastrophic loss of atmosphere.

3) Getting help
If you wanted the adventure to end there, you could have them simply detected by the observatory or exploration team upon landing. If they detect the vessel, they will automatically send a response team to investigate.

If you wanted to make it a little more challenging, you could have the characters improvise/repair a radio of some kind. Perhaps one of the PCs or NPCs has the futuristic equivalent of a “walkman” type radio. A character with the Boffin trait might be able to modify it into a transceiver, so they can send a message or distress signal.

If you wanted to extend the adventure, you could have one or more of the characters leave the shipwrecked hull and cross Vesta to reach the observatory there for help. If you wanted to make it dramatic, have them down to their last lungful of air in spacesuit when they stumble across the observatory or rescue team or whatever.

I haven't run this adventure yet, but will once my campaign starts. There are a couple of other Asimov short stories that might make for good adventures. As I come across them, I'll try to put them into a playable format and post them here.

Steve

[rev503]

To really mess with peoples heads....
take away the airlock and make the room they have a barraks with about 40 beds and an entrance corridor.
You can build a low tech airlock by draping the blankets from the beds one after the other through the corridor, the trick is to keep the partial pressure differential on each side of each individual blanket low enough so the blanket dosn't get blown away
which involves setting the whole thing up and slooooowly cracking the sealed door at the end of the corridor and letting the vacuum in.