Survival on a spaceship

[Dangerious P. Cats]

Originally Posted by spiralcat

Does the spaceship need the characters?

It will, much of the campaign is going to work around the princple of once you get the hang of something there will be a problem that needs fixing. Likewise I can make problems occure to force the party to work something out. I think I'm going to teach them how to lock doors by causing an air leak....

[Kale]

Maybe the ship can have some sort of empathic component? When the PCs are about to do something that will get them all killed the ship thinks 'bad vibes' at them. Basically they have a limited form of Danger Sense provided by the ship. It can also use happy feelings and concerned feelings to guide the players. This way you can kind of play 'hot and cold' with them to help guide the players along.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Dangerious P. Cats

It will, much of the campaign is going to work around the princple of once you get the hang of something there will be a problem that needs fixing. Likewise I can make problems occure to force the party to work something out. I think I'm going to teach them how to lock doors by causing an air leak....

Does the spaceship know it needs the characters? Is it on the character's side, and if so, why?

[Kale]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Does the spaceship know it needs the characters? Is it on the character's side, and if so, why?

This is complicated by the earlier comment that the spaceship is supposed to be from the side of the 'bad aliens', not the 'good aliens'. Still though, if the ship is damaged and needs repair it may manipulate the PCs to get the job done, helping them along and protecting them until it gets what it needs. When it turns on them after being so 'nice' it will be quite a shock for the PCs... Muhahaha...

[dcarson]

Omnilingual by H. Beam Piper from Gutenberg. The definitive story on figuring out an alien language.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by dcarson

Omnilingual by H. Beam Piper from Gutenberg. The definitive story on figuring out an alien language.

Good link, but a little late on the idea.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Omnilingual by H. Beam Piper. The archaeologists on the alien planet hit it big when they find the periodic table on the wall of the Science labs at the ruined University.

[spiralcat]

"Pushing Ice" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushing_Ice is also a very interesting take on the humans trapped in alien structure theme.

It's not a spaceship, more a kind of super giant alien structure infested with different types of aliens - (the humans in the story end up being just another faction).

There are symbols on the floor which register being walked on. The symbols change when someone steps on them, though it is not obvious why.

There is a very good scene where a lone technician stealing power from the alien structure retraces her steps once too often over the same symbols and activates a defence mechanism. The remaining crew learn never to walk the same route twice after a few incidents like this.

Unfortunately, the book isn't free, but it is very good.

[cosmicfish]

Just as a quick note, it would not be unusual for the language of the aliens to be indecipherable or even undetectable by human standards. Audible messages would probably be within the range of human hearing (assuming similiar sizes), but our visual spectrum is a characteristics of our particular atmosphere. The "red" self-destruct button and the "green" repressurize button may look identically gray if the aliens see only in the infrared. For that matter, the "glass" displays might be transparent to the aliens' eyes but opaque to ours.

This can get real fun if the spectra overlap - perhaps they see green to UV, so some items will appear to be labeled, but others will not...

If you have never done so, I heartily recommend Heinlein's "Orphans of the Sky" - it is an interesting take on a generation ship that lost the knowledge of where they were and what everything really was.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

but our visual spectrum is a characteristics of our particular atmosphere.

If the humans are breathing it there can't be too much difference.

However, the atmospheric transparency window might go down to as low as approx. 1500 nanometers while human vision cuts out at 750 or so.

I've heard of some birds and insects seeing as high as 260 nm rather than the human limit of c. 350.

So there is some room for some added difficulty but I'd have to say no added difficulty was really necessary. Some of us are already having suspension of disbelief problems on this being a viable scenario.

[Dangerious P. Cats]

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

Just as a quick note, it would not be unusual for the language of the aliens to be indecipherable or even undetectable by human standards. Audible messages would probably be within the range of human hearing (assuming similiar sizes), but our visual spectrum is a characteristics of our particular atmosphere. The "red" self-destruct button and the "green" repressurize button may look identically gray if the aliens see only in the infrared. For that matter, the "glass" displays might be transparent to the aliens' eyes but opaque to ours.

This can get real fun if the spectra overlap - perhaps they see green to UV, so some items will appear to be labeled, but others will not...

If you have never done so, I heartily recommend Heinlein's "Orphans of the Sky" - it is an interesting take on a generation ship that lost the knowledge of where they were and what everything really was.

You could also have languages built around symbols relevant to the culture. Threat levels could be communicated well with a bear for danger, a Sperm Whale for safty and mereKat for moderate distress unless the audience doesn't know what those animals are.