Happy Halloween!

[Max Schreck]

Well, the Halloween meme is upon us, and like so many others I have been infected, and as such I will not be able to post anything but Halloween-themed antics until 11/1 (excepting of course acerbic, pedantic, hairsplitting replies to discussions already running).

This Halloween-theme even extends to these hallowed halls of enlightenment and science, the TS forum. Even here, the bastion of hard science fiction, Halloween and its ghouls and goblins will rear their ugly heads. But not to worry. Tomorrow I will have regained my sanity, and exchanged this unhealthy Halloween meme for my usual Rationalist memeplex.

Without further ado, here are some Halloween-themed adventure seeds for Transhuman Space. In the spirit of the holiday, please forgive any slack in rigid scientific thinking. For just one day a year, let the powers of superstition reign supreme, even in 2100.

* The Circle: Rumours surface that a strange Japanese InVid is circulating on the Web. Urban legend has it that anyone who experiences this InVid will die exactly one week later.
A string of mysterious deaths lead the characters on the trail of this InVid, and by accident or design, they watch it. Do they dare believe it only an urban legend, or do they seek to solve this puzzle to save their necks?
And what is behind these mysterious deaths? A vengeful ghost (the spectral kind, not the mind emulation) somehow inhabiting the InVid? Or is it something more transhuman and even more weird, like self-replicating meme that scares people to death or an infomorph that possesses the user's VII and drives him to suicide?

* A Simple Assignment: A distraught woman seeks the help of the characters. Her husband has been acting strangely lately, uncaring and cold towards her, and she is worried that he might be having an affair. She needs the characters to trail him and find out more. On his way home from work, while the party is shadowing him, he is suddenly attacked by a gang of men armed with autopistols and Molotov cocktails. They fire several rounds into him, and one of them yells: "Kill it, kill it!", whereupon the one with the Molotov throws it directly at the client's husband. Any surviving attackers refuse to explain their homicidal behaviour, except to say that they are doing the Lord's work.

* Frozen: A research station on Europa has fallen eerily silent, and a nearby team of Royal Marines/Foreign Legionaires/EDI mercenaries has been scrambled to investigate, as it is feared that the research station has been attacked by either the Europa Defense Force or a Green Duncanite squad. Arriving at the facility, the soldiers notice that all power is off. There are no sapients to be found, but evidence of combat is scattered about. Something has been fired upon that didn't fire back. On their way in to turn on auxilliary power, the team finds traces of blood, but it is not evident where the blood is coming from. As power is coming online, everything is lit in a dull, red colour. Then the motion trackers start detecting movement...

That's all for now.

Happy Halloween.

Max

[Max Schreck]

Okay, one more. Yes, I know it's not Halloween anymore, but it's close enough.

* Dead Space: The party is hired by a biotech corporation to investigate why their research station in orbit has suddenly fallen silent. At the station, they are stranded due to various mishaps, and the station's orbit starts to degrade. At the station the investigators find out that the former crew have turned into ravenous, bloodthirsty zombies due to black proteus virus research, and... Oh, it's already been done before? Never mind then.

* The Shipwrecked: On their way to somewhere in the system, the characters pick up a distress signal from a nearby space craft (hopefully they'll have enough fuel to brake, plot a new course to the ship, and then to resume their original course). Investigating they find the ship totally silent and without power. Inside all crew members are dead, all looking sickly and anaemic with puncture marks on the neck. All except one. A man with another uniform than the rest of the crew is in nanostasis. If power is put back on, the ship's LAI can confirm that the crew picked up an emergency bubble with a shipwrecked spacer in it. Shortly there after, crew members started falling ill, complaining of anaemia, and then started dying one by one.

What is going on? Is the last spacer a vampire? Or is the exotic macro-bioweapon the unfortunate crew members unwittingly smuggled for their Triad boss in the cargo hold responsible?

Max

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by Max Schreck

The party is hired by a biotech corporation to investigate why their research station in orbit has suddenly fallen silent. At the station, they are stranded due to various mishaps, and the station's orbit starts to degrade.

I know you were kidding, Max, but let me just say this, because I have to, you know?

AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Orbits do not spontaneously "start to degrade". This is crappy space-opera nonsense. Anyone who says "the orbit starts to degrade" in a Transhuman Space scenario should have his GM'ing license taken away.

(Yes, orbits that are low enough that atmospheric resistance is a serious factor will degrade over time. Yes, lots of LEO satellites fall out of the sky every year. This is predictable and well-understood, and no half-sane spacer will take a contract for a trip to such a satellite which is going to fall in the next few days without a well-arranged departure method, an agreed schedule, and probably prior arrangements with another operator to come pull them off if they have difficulties.)

Originally Posted by Max Schreck

The Shipwrecked: On their way to somewhere in the system, the characters pick up a distress signal from a nearby space craft (hopefully they'll have enough fuel to brake, plot a new course to the ship, and then to resume their original course).

Just for the record - "nearby space craft" is almost a meaningless term, except within planetary orbits. You're extremely unlikely to just happen to pass by another ship in interplanetary space without the velocity difference being so huge that the chance of docking is zero. This sort of thing has to be planned and plotted and fuel-budgeted.

Now, making an intercept on a ship which has fallen silent and not adjusted course and velocity for its arrival at another planet may be feasible, and occasionally necessary for rescue or salvage purposes. But like I said, this is something you plan in advance.

The chance of stumbling over and picking up a rescue bubble in deep space is even lower. This too is only going to look plausible in a planet's orbital space. Which tends to be a busy and well-policed place.

[Max Schreck]

Hey there, Phil.

Hehe. Orbital Decay returns. But as you thankfully noticed, it was a spoof of said adventure, and not any serious attempt by me to create a zombie-infested, doomed space station in TS.

As for the other seed, what can I say? It's Halloween (or was). Let a little implausibility and superstition crawl in just once a year.

Have a happy post-Halloween.

Max