Last Saturday our planned RPG session fell through, and it would have been ideal for me to offer up a Traveller adventure its place. Unfortunately I had almost no time to prepare and wasn't ready to run off-the-cuff.

For such situations in the future, I offer up "76 Plots", a series of adventure ideas which could be used to fill an hour or two of play or could be developed into a full adventure with an hour or so of additional work.

This week's article covers half of my one-off adventure set in space and generally presumes that the players have their own ship. They're intended to be run at anytime, when you need to fill a gaming session, and your players are between worlds. Pick one that you like, or else roll 1d6 for adventure type, followed by 1d6 for plot twist.

1. Signal GK

As they jump into a new system, the players receive a distress signal. According to the Imperium's rules of space, they must respond to it.

Plot Twists.

1. It's a trap! Human raiders, Vargr corsairs, or other deviants wait in hiding for fools to rush in.
2. The ship can't take any more! The maneuver drives are firing madly and the GK ship is spinning out of control. The players need to get over to the ship without damaging themselves and then solve the basic problem.
3. It's an artifact. The GK signal is very weak because it's been running undetected for hundreds (thousands?) of years. The players only noticed it because their jump landed them about 50 diameters' further out then required. Now they get to explore a cool artifact ship.
4. It's not what it appears. Some interstellar alien beastie is giving off a signal that's a lot like GK. The players will need to explore enough to determine there's no real ship in danger, then might want to bring back data for the scientific community.
5. The ship is caught in a spatial anomaly. Black hole? Strangely curved space? Super-magnetic comet? Whatever it is, they need help getting out. (Watch next month for a "Spatial Anomaly" chart.)
6. It's some kids out for a joy ride. What, that button sent off a GK signal? Fah, it was surely all in good fun. What will the players do about these noble trouble makers?

For more, see Signal GK, GDW's Traveller Adventure 13.

2. The Silent Space Station

Coasting into (or out of) a system, the players realize that a well-known space station out by one of the gas giants has gone entirely dark. It's not emitting any energy, nor does it respond to any communications.

Plot Twists.

1. They're dead! Some malevolent force has rampaged through the station, killing nearly everyone on board. It might be an escaped animal, a strange stellar beastie, or some larger force of aliens (see also, the following plot twist). Players may need to rescue survivors aboard the station, recover valuable data, and/or kill the beasties.
2. It's an invasion. Someone has taken over the station. It could be a rival planet, the Zhodani, or a rival corporation. They've currently got everything turned off, hoping that the players will go on by.
3. It's an experiment gone wrong. Some scientific experiment has gotten out of control and has taken the entire station offline. Players will have to put things right.
4. It's a psionic experiment gone wrong. See #3, above, but as players help put things right, they realize that the experiment was psionic in nature. Will the players try to report this? Will the staff try to stop them?
5. It's a trap! (An ever popular choice.) The players are being purposefully lured to the station, perhaps by the station personnel, perhaps by some old foe.
6. It's purposefully been abandoned. Some time ago, someone (a corporation, a scientific community, a local government) shut down the station for a good reason (lack of funds, a plague, failing scientific experiments). Now, the players get to nose around and find some interesting stuff that's been abandoned, and maybe even find a way to get the station back on line by defeating the old problem.

For a longer look at the abandoned space station motif, see GDW's Death Station, part of Double Adventures 3.

3. Special Ships

When the players jump into a system, they quickly encounter another ship of note.

Plot Twists.

1. It's a hostile war ship. The players have stumbled into either a local conflict or the start of a war. (If you're in Imperial space and it's a Zhodani war ship, things are probably not good!) The players must make peace with the ship and/or get out of harm's way as soon as possible.
2. It's a friendly war ship (as much as a war ship can ever be friendly) and they need help. They might need support in an upcoming battle or repair from a recent one. Of course, even if things look peaceful now, there's no guarantee that a less friendly war ship isn't right on their heels.
3. It's a merchant, a simple trading ship. Perhaps they'd love to have the players over to do some trading before they dive deeper in system, or perhaps they've been looking for someone just like the players to help collect a certain rare item.
4. It's a scout. They want some help looking into a recent discovery in a nearby system, and don't have the time to go all the way down the main planet's gravity well and not. If some of the players are detached ("retired") scouts, they can be brought back up to active duty, else the scouts might offer the players some pay.
5. It's a weird alien ship. Give your players an opportunity to interact with beasties not commonly met. The Droyne are an ever popular choice, but in the Spinward Marches it might equally be the K'kree or the Hivers. It could also be a powerful minor race never met before.
6. It's a megacorp's flagship. Perhaps they want the players to do a little mission for them or perhaps the players are just in the way.

For more looks at possible ships you could meet, see Steve Jackson Games' Behind the Claw, which features a much more extensive "Starship Encounters Table" on pages 136-140, plus some ideas for "Possible Starship Missions" on page 141.

Conclusion

These first couple of months I'm going to be jumping back and forth between notes on starting a campaign and articles for those already running Traveller games. Next month expect to see the other half of these space adventures, then in two months I'll publish the follow-up to my "Setting a Campaign" series, covering the many potential settings within the modern-day (1105) Imperium.