Life Pod [Spaceships]

AlexanderHowl · 05-12-2020, 01:04 AM

A typical life pod is a TL 10^ SM+4 spacecraft designed to transport a number of passengers to safety. They have one control room, one fusion reactor (1 PP), one hyperspace stardrive, one soft landing system, one standard reactionless engine, three nanocomposite armor, and twelve cargo holds. The cargo holds contain six suspended animation tubes and enough supplies and tools for six people to survive for three months.

During an emergency, passengers load into the tubes and the computer automatically puts them into suspended animation. After its passengers are safely asleep, the spacecraft attempts to find the nearest inhabited planet or, failing that, the nearest habitable planet. If need be, the spaceship is capable of traveling for decades until it reaches safety.

Of course, six people is about the right size for a party, so such a spacecraft offers plenty of adventuring opportunities. During the first session, the PCs must evacuate the spaceship and go into hibernation, trusting the spaceship will get them to safety. Sometime later, they awaken on a strange world and must find a way to survive until they are rescued.

So, how would you use a life pod in your games? Would it just be something that PCs could use just in case things go terribly wrong or would it be the start of the real adventure? Have you ever used that premise in your games and, if so, how did it work out?

David Johnston2 · 05-12-2020, 01:39 AM

If you've got a hyperspace engine, why would you need suspended animation tubes?

Aldric · 05-12-2020, 02:18 AM

I never tried to stat a life pod, mainly because they're too small and the spaceships rules don't seem to work too well if you go outside the SMs on the table.
Also, I've never been very sure how many life pods are needed on a ship, since I can't find an exact number for crew, and how many shifts there are.

That said. I have a plan to have a group end up on a lifeboat just at the start of a campaign

copeab · 05-12-2020, 03:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

If you've got a hyperspace engine, why would you need suspended animation tubes?

It takes up a lot less cost or volume than full life support and beds?

copeab · 05-12-2020, 03:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

So, how would you use a life pod in your games? Would it just be something that PCs could use just in case things go terribly wrong or would it be the start of the real adventure? Have you ever used that premise in your games and, if so, how did it work out?

I would prefer a small craft with more day to day utility, rather than being a one-use Save vs Death. A detailed escape pod, to me, is just an excuse to railroad the party.

Varyon · 05-12-2020, 06:54 AM

As written, your life pod would have to have a disabled stardrive engine, or the main ship would have either needed to have spent something like 50% of its mass on a massive stardrive or have been a generation ship or similar, for the "must survive on uninhabited planet" bit to come into play. The fusion plant can power your stardrive for 200 years, after all. Some setting switches can change this, of course - perhaps the stardrive needs some exotic fuel (that you have precious little of on the life pod), or it sucks up energy from the fusion plant at 1000x the normal rate (Cosmic Power) and will only last 2.4 months.
ETA: It occurs to me that, unless your passengers will only be entering or exiting the stasis tubes when the life pod's either in a ship or on a planet, they'd need to do so with vacc suits (which may be doable, you could have stasis pods and vacc suits designed so they can link up, forming a seal for the passenger to transfer from one to the other, but this will probably add mass and cost to your stasis tubes). I'm pretty certain cargo holds aren't meant to be Sealed (they certainly don't spend any mass on it); if you want a cargo hold you can move around in without a vacc suit, you probably need steerage cargo... or a superscience life-support field.

I'd primarily be inclined to include life pods of various designs primarily as a "flavor" component of spacecraft/stations. If the place the PC's are located is being destroyed, of course, they could well see use, but it would be more of an episodic thing - either the 'pod can make it back to civilization, or it goes elsewhere (an undeveloped planet, a hostile planet, whatever) and the PC's need to survive long enough to arrange a rescue/be rescued/steal a ship. If I want to have an entire campaign about the characters crash landing on a planet and needing to survive, I'd start with the crash - starting with them on the ship means either railroading them or running the risk of them saving the main ship, taking the pod elsewhere, going down with the ship, hijacking an alien boarding pod, or any number of other things that would completely invalidate all the work I put into designing the setting (which was meant to be "survive on this primitive planet"). Of course, designing the pod that crash-landed in the "opening cut-scene" of the campaign is still worthwhile, at the very least to determine what might be able to be salvaged from its wreckage.

Flyndaran · 05-12-2020, 09:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by copeab

I would prefer a small craft with more day to day utility, rather than being a one-use Save vs Death. A detailed escape pod, to me, is just an excuse to railroad the party.

I think it could work fine if you start the adventure in the life pod or on the uncharted planet with only the pod for supplies. Players could give the GM suggestions on what their respective characters would've included, without knowing exactly where the GM's going to strand them, of course.

Otherwise you're kind of stuck with murder mystery or soap opera cliches.

Fred Brackin · 05-12-2020, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

, the spacecraft attempts to find the nearest inhabited planet or, failing that, the nearest habitable planet. If need be, the spaceship is capable of traveling for decades until it reaches safety.
?

Why would it do this? It's got FTL-1 and is quite possibly just as capable of making the originally planned trip as its' mother ship.

The "nearest planet" and "decades" thing might make sense if it had no FTL.

AlexanderHowl · 05-12-2020, 10:11 AM

In my mind, life pods are meant to keep people alive regardless of the circumstances. Its first strategy is hyperspace travel but its second strategy is STL travel, and its power plant can still provide support if the pod can only crash land on a planet. The suspended animation tubes (which people can only access through the cargo bay doors) are meant to be accessed before the life pod launches (a slightly different design replaces three cargo holds with a SM+5 hanger bay, effectively giving an airlock).

Celjabba · 05-12-2020, 10:42 AM

It is terminology, of course, but I would call your design a Lifeboat.

For such a build, I would only include the suspended animation if the emergency FTL on the lifeboat will take a long time to reach the nearest safe place.
That's a setting switch, obviously.

Life Pod, for me, are build with minimal propulsion (if any), and are designed to keep people alive until help arives.
I would build them either with suspended animation or with planetary landing capacity and a cargo hold full of survival gear, depending on the setting : are you likely to be in proximity of an habitable planet in case of disaster ?
Is a rescue by another spaceship likely in a relatively short time ?

Landing in such a Life Pod on a foreign planet (on a desert beach for the low-TL version :) ) is the start of many a book/adventure.

05-12-2020, 01:04 AM	#1
AlexanderHowl Join Date: Feb 2016	Life Pod [Spaceships] A typical life pod is a TL 10^ SM+4 spacecraft designed to transport a number of passengers to safety. They have one control room, one fusion reactor (1 PP), one hyperspace stardrive, one soft landing system, one standard reactionless engine, three nanocomposite armor, and twelve cargo holds. The cargo holds contain six suspended animation tubes and enough supplies and tools for six people to survive for three months. During an emergency, passengers load into the tubes and the computer automatically puts them into suspended animation. After its passengers are safely asleep, the spacecraft attempts to find the nearest inhabited planet or, failing that, the nearest habitable planet. If need be, the spaceship is capable of traveling for decades until it reaches safety. Of course, six people is about the right size for a party, so such a spacecraft offers plenty of adventuring opportunities. During the first session, the PCs must evacuate the spaceship and go into hibernation, trusting the spaceship will get them to safety. Sometime later, they awaken on a strange world and must find a way to survive until they are rescued. So, how would you use a life pod in your games? Would it just be something that PCs could use just in case things go terribly wrong or would it be the start of the real adventure? Have you ever used that premise in your games and, if so, how did it work out?

05-12-2020, 01:39 AM	#2
David Johnston2 Join Date: Dec 2007	Re: Life Pod [Spaceships] If you've got a hyperspace engine, why would you need suspended animation tubes?

05-12-2020, 02:18 AM	#3
Aldric Join Date: Nov 2015	Re: Life Pod [Spaceships] I never tried to stat a life pod, mainly because they're too small and the spaceships rules don't seem to work too well if you go outside the SMs on the table. Also, I've never been very sure how many life pods are needed on a ship, since I can't find an exact number for crew, and how many shifts there are. That said. I have a plan to have a group end up on a lifeboat just at the start of a campaign

05-12-2020, 06:54 AM	#6
Varyon Join Date: Jun 2013	Re: Life Pod [Spaceships] As written, your life pod would have to have a disabled stardrive engine, or the main ship would have either needed to have spent something like 50% of its mass on a massive stardrive or have been a generation ship or similar, for the "must survive on uninhabited planet" bit to come into play. The fusion plant can power your stardrive for 200 years, after all. Some setting switches can change this, of course - perhaps the stardrive needs some exotic fuel (that you have precious little of on the life pod), or it sucks up energy from the fusion plant at 1000x the normal rate (Cosmic Power) and will only last 2.4 months. ETA: It occurs to me that, unless your passengers will only be entering or exiting the stasis tubes when the life pod's either in a ship or on a planet, they'd need to do so with vacc suits (which may be doable, you could have stasis pods and vacc suits designed so they can link up, forming a seal for the passenger to transfer from one to the other, but this will probably add mass and cost to your stasis tubes). I'm pretty certain cargo holds aren't meant to be Sealed (they certainly don't spend any mass on it); if you want a cargo hold you can move around in without a vacc suit, you probably need steerage cargo... or a superscience life-support field. I'd primarily be inclined to include life pods of various designs primarily as a "flavor" component of spacecraft/stations. If the place the PC's are located is being destroyed, of course, they could well see use, but it would be more of an episodic thing - either the 'pod can make it back to civilization, or it goes elsewhere (an undeveloped planet, a hostile planet, whatever) and the PC's need to survive long enough to arrange a rescue/be rescued/steal a ship. If I want to have an entire campaign about the characters crash landing on a planet and needing to survive, I'd start with the crash - starting with them on the ship means either railroading them or running the risk of them saving the main ship, taking the pod elsewhere, going down with the ship, hijacking an alien boarding pod, or any number of other things that would completely invalidate all the work I put into designing the setting (which was meant to be "survive on this primitive planet"). Of course, designing the pod that crash-landed in the "opening cut-scene" of the campaign is still worthwhile, at the very least to determine what might be able to be salvaged from its wreckage. __________________ GURPS Overhaul Last edited by Varyon; 05-12-2020 at 07:02 AM.

05-12-2020, 10:11 AM	#9
AlexanderHowl Join Date: Feb 2016	Re: Life Pod [Spaceships] In my mind, life pods are meant to keep people alive regardless of the circumstances. Its first strategy is hyperspace travel but its second strategy is STL travel, and its power plant can still provide support if the pod can only crash land on a planet. The suspended animation tubes (which people can only access through the cargo bay doors) are meant to be accessed before the life pod launches (a slightly different design replaces three cargo holds with a SM+5 hanger bay, effectively giving an airlock).

05-12-2020, 10:42 AM	#10
Celjabba Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Luxembourg	Re: Life Pod [Spaceships] It is terminology, of course, but I would call your design a Lifeboat. For such a build, I would only include the suspended animation if the emergency FTL on the lifeboat will take a long time to reach the nearest safe place. That's a setting switch, obviously. Life Pod, for me, are build with minimal propulsion (if any), and are designed to keep people alive until help arives. I would build them either with suspended animation or with planetary landing capacity and a cargo hold full of survival gear, depending on the setting : are you likely to be in proximity of an habitable planet in case of disaster ? Is a rescue by another spaceship likely in a relatively short time ? Landing in such a Life Pod on a foreign planet (on a desert beach for the low-TL version :) ) is the start of many a book/adventure.