I love ships as settings for sci-fi adventures because they harken back to the dungeon crawl of fantasy games. That said, I love the seldom thought about but should be present rooms that become adventure locations.
Some examples:
Hydroponics bay
Machine shops
Ore Refinery
Waste Treatment
Water tanks/purification/storage
Galley
I am sure there are more. What are your favorite aspects/room for sci-fi adventure on a ship? Feel free to throw in some short room adventure ideas.
The surface of a ship. Especially near the engines.
For space ships with giant kinetic weapons or star fighters or whatever, the acceleration shaft by which the projectile leaves the ship. Climbing onto a ship by going down the barrel of its gun is a cool image.
You've covered most of the unusual ones already, but how about the ship's magazine(s)? A large room crowded with dangerous explosives.
Also, the service panels -- narrow crawl-spaces underneath and between sensitive sensitive functioning devices aboard the ship. Yeah, yeah, like the fucking "Jeffries Tubes" on ST:tNG.
!i!
Cold-sleep tubes, especially on a derelict. Always fun. Its like Christmas!
The zero gravity physical training room? Plenty of chaos able to be caused in there, I'm sure!
Cheers
Malcolm
The breached processing chambers of a now crippled and insane AI navigation core.
The damaged machine intelligence still has capabilities for limited holographic projection, nanonic infestation and construction, as well as number of autonomous and slaved defense drones.
The net result is a patch of hell at the centre of decaying, tumbling derelict.
Labs of all sorts
Large ships may have entertainment centers with all sorts of strange stuff
Maybe a living ship, imagine one so large that an encounter could take place inside an organ.:D Ok, I'm smoking crack on that one.
I have to say, I have always had fun with the bio-mechanical ships. Also, insane AI are almost a trademark of my games. ;)
Labs are interesting in that they can be so many different things. For instance, a cybernetics lab could produce borg -like drones to do an insane AI's bidding. Alternatively, a bio-weapons lab can lead to a further adventure to cure the party since they did not scan the atmosphere before entering.
Nano-tech labs are one of my favs though. Lots of potential for reconstructed technology or just straight up "grey mush" syndrome.
Boy, that makes me sound like a killer GM...Mike?:p
Bill
Prison or Jail areas. Especially when the power goes out and the prisoners break free.
Maybe there is a zoo on board?
How about the escape pod level? Could be as elaborate as on 'ALIEN' or lots of little ones like on 'Star Wars' or the '5th element'.
Veering marginally away from the topic (only marginally), does anyone recall the Nyotekundu Sourcebook for Traveller: 2300/2300AD? It has a fantastic and very detailed (and very large) mining vessel described in it and might be worth picking up on the cheap as a source of ideas.
Cheers
Malcolm
Quote from: HinterWeltI am sure there are more. What are your favorite aspects/room for sci-fi adventure on a ship? Feel free to throw in some short room adventure ideas.
Depending on setting, I tend to treat my spaceships like a cross between a submarine and a nuclear powered aircraft carrier.
It's sodding huge, but needs to be largely self sufficient.
You'll probably have movie theatres, entertainment suites, shops and all sorts on a big spacer, especially a military one.
I like the concept that the PC's ship is largely unexplored. In sci-fi settings where ships are large and amazingly old this can be very fun. Who owned the ship 100 years ago? What did they leave behind?
Player 1: Deck 13! I never knew we had a Deck 13!?
Computer: That's because it was quarantined by Captain Xrg'guLarb 150 Earth years ago to protect Cargo Container 7B/9.
Player 1: What's in Cargo Container 7B/9.
Computer: You are not authorized to access this data.
Dungeon Crawl in your own ship!