[Space] Emergency Drills

[SpaceGurper]

I'm working on a space campaign where there is going to be various emergency drills on board a Starship in transit. This is to build teamwork and add flavour to the adventure.

The players are characters on their first mission for a very large corporation. Since it's their first mission they're given simple tasks and not in control of their own ship but as crew of said ship. The captain is well decorated in the company and is understanding for the most part.

Also this ship is new off the line and is doing it's first transport mission after the initial series of shakedown cruises in which the characters were not part of the crew.

So what I'm asking all you wonderful forumites is if you can assist me in creating a emergency drill table of give me sample emergencies that I should toss on the crew.

So far I have Pressure leaks, fires, and external door malfunctions. All of which are to be simulated via holographic's but stressful none the less.

Most tasks will be defaulted to Spacer and ranging from -4 to +2 in difficulty. I want it to be exciting but not life threatening yet. Might toss some REAL emergencies in later on as well as other life threatening situations.

[The Colonel]

Power plant/drive malfunction, air contamination, life support breakdown, computer collapse, 'electrical' failure, hijacker, contagious illness, shuttle crash, 'man overboard'.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Power plant/drive malfunction, air contamination, life support breakdown, computer collapse, 'electrical' failure, hijacker, contagious illness, shuttle crash, 'man overboard'.

Cargo or passenger vessel?

Anyway a few others. Fuel leak (get a patch on that before we loose too much fuel to make any port, fun EVA practice). Control run break (you can practice using pretty much any ship system in local control). Vermin control (vacuum will finish the rats, it won't necessarily do for insects). Hazardous cargo problem (depending on how you load just getting [to] it could be difficult).

If you are carrying passengers there are lots of possibilites, passengers can be very stupid. Lifeboat and/or suit drill - there's getting the crew into them, and then there's the much harder problem of passengers. Flipped out/drugged/drunken passenger (akin to hijacker, but with legal complications if you hurt him, and you don't want to rile up the rest of the passengers either). A passenger arrest is easier, more like the straight up hijacker scenario. Lost child (of course one or both parents panic). Medical emergency (what, you expected them to tell the truth about pre-existing conditions? Premature childbirth is another good one). Forbidden or hazardous stuff snuck aboard (particularly fun, it's little Jenny's extremely expensive purebred pet Wirechewing Rodent, and its gotten into the ventilation)

[gjc8]

If artificial gravity exists, gravity failure either on it's own or in combination with the others. Or gravity malfunction: fix the problem while operating at 5Gs.

Providing emergency assistance/rescue to another craft. Emergency takeoff and landing.

[SpaceGurper]

Awesome everyone. That'll help nicely, thanks. Anyone else have some examples that I could use? maybe with skill modifiers.

I figure if it's a Power Plant failure it would require Mechanic (Power Plant) -2 (due to unfamiliarity) or Mechanic (Starship) -4 including the unfamiliarity.

I'm also lazy and use reactionless engines and artificial gravity. though gravity failure could be fun. Oh ya and mainly cargo not passenger.

[gjc8]

Originally Posted by SpaceGurper

I figure if it's a Power Plant failure it would require Mechanic (Power Plant) -2 (due to unfamiliarity) or Mechanic (Starship) -4 including the unfamiliarity.

Remember to have a wide variety of tasks for each of the problems. Tailored, as needed, for the skills of the PCs.

For example, in the power plant failure case:
1) A sudden failure, leading to problems with equipment: Piloting to maintain control with reduced instrumentation, Mechanic or other skills to control the drive without active controls.
2) Activating emergency power: Navigating the ship (in the dark), Mechanic and/or Electronics operation.
3) Diagnosing the problem: Mechanic and/or Engineering.
4) Finding/improvising spare parts: Mechanic/Engineering/Scrounging.
etc...

Failures at any step need not be a failed operation, but additional difficulties. A failed roll in finding or installing parts might require cannibalizing other systems, which leads to more challenges (Piloting at a penalty if flight instrumentation is cannibalized, etc).

And any or all of these tasks can have a time constraint.

[Nolinquisitor]

Very good topics. Here some more:

Abandon Ship Simulation: "All chosen ship personnel wearing the violet tag, please abandon ship, abandon ship. This is a drill. I repeat..." (Spacer).

Communication Problems: Radio Parasites, Loss of Communication Feeds, IFF Systems Malfunction, Language and Cultural Barriers, FTL Communication Oddities: "Johnny, this is yourself speaking to yourself from... 2 minutes into the future man! That's awesome!" (Electronic Operations - Communications).

Computer Systems Crash: "Hope you did your backup yesterday cadet!". (Computer Operations, Programming, or Electronics (Computers)).

Emergency Impact Procedures: "How many times should I tell you cadet! Your head under the table. You're decapitated now!" (Spacer).

Escape Pods Malfunction or Operation: (Spacer)

Sensors Systems Problems: Visual artefact, sensors-computer software crash, (Electronic Operations - Sensors, or Computer Operations).

Logistics Simulation: Who forgot the toilet paper? (Administration (Starship)).

Skills Modifiers:
- Very Well-Prepared: +6-7
- Well-Prepared: +4-5
- On Schedule Drill: +0, -1
- Surprise Drill: -2, -3
- Surprise Drill with lot of Unexpected Turns/Problems: -4,-5

Spaceship Drill Critical Failure Table:
3 – You screw up real bad! You damaged or destroyed a piece of equipment, place yourself or other into a real dangerous situation.*
4 – You manage to injured yourself during the drill. Takes one or several dices of appropriate damage type.*
5 – You were unable to end the drill, either you had an accident or because of medical reasons.
6 – At some point, you loose 1d-2 points of Fatigue because of the stress (can be after the drill).
7 – Minor screw up. You did something wrong and had to take more time to finish your exercice (+3dx10%).
8 – Minor blunder! You stuck your sleeve into the escape pod door hatch or something like that.
9, 10, 11 – Besides humiliating yourself in front of the crew, no harm was done.
12 – Minor blunder! You spill coffee on the Captain's shirt or something like that. Hope that won't go on your record.
13, 14 – Slowpoke. You did okay but you took too much time! (+3dx10%)
15 - You lost a tool, a piece of equipment or something during the drill. Can't find it anymore.
16 – Frightening Experience! At some point during the drill, you must roll a Fright Check.
17 - You manage to injured yourself during the drill. Takes one or several dices of appropriate damage type.*
18 – Epic fail! You are responsible for a catastrophe and now everyone unboard is now in danger thanks to you.*

*This may count as a critically missed Job Roll.

[RyanW]

Evacuation drills
Random inspection
Quizzes ("What would you do, right now, if {X} happened?")
Repel boarders

And the classic "How fast can you get where you're supposed to be and into your vacc-suit when the lights are out and you don't know what the hell's going on?"

Dad was Navy. Will ask him tomorrow for more ideas.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by SpaceGurper

Pressure leaks, fires, and external door malfunctions. All of which are to be simulated via holographic's but stressful none the less.

Most tasks will be defaulted to Spacer and ranging from -4 to +2 in difficulty. I want it to be exciting but not life threatening yet. Might toss some REAL emergencies in later on as well as other life threatening situations.

Is there any benefit to performing these drills? If no, why are they performed?

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

Is there any benefit to performing these drills? If no, why are they performed?

Probably for the same reasons that you do emergency drills in any other workplace - not only is it likely to be a legal requirement, but it helps give people some idea what to do if the emergency happens for real, may reveal any problems with the emergency plans and, hopefully, allows people to get their panicking done during the simulation rather than the real thing.