Generation Ship Campaigns

[Michael Hopcroft]

What sort of campaign could one have aboard a generation ship? Admittedly it wouldn't be the sort of camapign you could get in an FTL environment, but being aboard a generation ship could prove quite intreresting, especially is the ship is large enough that it comes a world unto itself.

What happens to the society that developes after six or seven hundren uniterrupted years in space with no contact with the outside universe?

[Bill_CCHKK]

What happens to the society that developes after six or seven hundren uniterrupted years in space with no contact with the outside universe?

I assume that you've read Robert Heinlein's novella, Orphans in the Sky (or is it Orphans of the Sky?). Multigeneration ship has a mutiny n generations into the trip, all officers are killed, radiation is released on certain decks of the ship. After many more generations, the humans in the outer/lower decks have reverted to peasants run by a religious class who control the power, access to information, etc. The inner/upper decks are controlled by mutant groups who kill any pure humans who venture that far. Everyone forgets they're on a ship.

Anyway, you could get some very good ideas from that book.

Hope that helps

[trechriron]

I think running the campaign from that perspective could be fun.

My suggestion - make up a huge dungeon like map of the inside of this HUGE generation ship. Have several decks of jungle like hydroponics, lakes, engineering decks full of pipes and machinery, all kinds of things. Then run it like a diaspora, urban city like cyberpunk thing. Put some tribal stuff in there; urban shamans, chieftains, rights-of-passage. Sort of the mature "lord of the flies" theme with some technology thrown in. Have an AI that was programmed to observe, but certain people can ask it questions and it answers cryptically (maybe it has been damaged or evolved into something weird, perhaps this is the source of the shamans power – talking with the “ancestors�). You tell the players it is a gritty mystical cyberpunk diaspora thing, don't mention the generation ship. After about ten sessions you have one of several events happen.

1) Man the guns? - Aliens find the ship and take it over. The unknowing populace comes face to face with both the truth and a superior invader. Change this up with the evil modern human galactic empire.

2) Look ma we're home - The world starts to make funny noises. Whole levels of the city begin to change, and then the great earthquake happens. After several moments of shaking the people all fall asleep. They awake on a beautiful planet where the ship has landed and converted itself into a colony/city (of course it transported the sleeping populace to the surface before the ship transformed...).

3) All in the family - The power goes out and the water stops running. It starts to get really cold. Some of the other tribes talk about the air leaving parts of the city and killing whole tribes. The heroes go on a quest and discover the truth about their "city". The AI helps them contact the modern galactic civilization growing over the last 500 years, where they are saved and integrated into the new civilization.

Of course you could extend the "wool over their eyes" part and run sessions where the tribe must combat rogue sentry robots, or go on quests to find rare items talked about in elder lore, fight rival tribes for territory and resources, who knows how vermin would evolve in that environment over the ages, you could have abandoned auto-research labs that malfunctioned and produce untold horrors that plague the populace (hunt the monster creation machines...).

This could be a fun campaign, lots of interesting possibilities.

[Spence]

There was an old science fiction series based on the concept. Starlost or something. I can't really remember the name, but the people living on it had forgotten that it was a ship. They lived in villages in the agri-domes (?). They heros had somehow gotten into the ship proper and discovered that the crew had died hundreds of years before and the ship was on course to fly into a star. So the quest was to find someone who could figure out how to fly the ship. Old scifi but pretty good.

[travellerne]

The RPG Metamorphosis Alpha sounds like a good source for you to look at. It's out of print, but a classic.

See:
http://rdushay.home.mindspring.com/M...SF/MArevw.html

TNE

[travellerne]

There was an old science fiction series based on the concept. Starlost ...

Yes, you got it: The Starlost.

TNE

[Citizen Keen]

I haven't played this type of campaign, but I have played a character from this type of campaign. A character who was about nine generations in on a sleeper ship which was intercepted by the new FTL Galactic Empire. So, I was the 'naive hero' to whom the GM could explain everything about the world that the other players 'already knew'. So my advice is to let players keep their characters once the campaign is over.

[Trailblazer]

Late last year I ran a campaign like this, using Metamorphosis Alpha heavily as a source. It was post-apocalyptic, and not only did the PCs (who were mutants) have to fend off a growing horde of one of the mutant races, they had to save their "level" when these same mutants broke into one of the level control centers and made off with the chronometric sequencer, the device that controlled many time-related functions, including the rising of the "sun". The campaign was a great success, and we only stopped because one of the players wanted to try a fantasy campaign. We may get back to it one day.

While MA is long out of print (the initial version came out just after the original D&D, and it's had I think three versions since), it's currently being resurrected, last I heard. The original author, Jim Ward, who also later worked on Gamma World, was working on a new version, as people were still playing it nearly thirty years after it was originally published. Fast Forward Games (www.fastforwardgames.com) has more info, and another very good MA resource is www.metamorphosisalpha.com.

[keithcurtis]

You could also read Mayflies, by Kevin ?? I can't remember the author. I'll get off my duff and look it up if anyone is interested.

Basially, there's a generation ship whose central computer is based on a human brain. Slowly the brain regains memory and volition. It is an immortal observer of the generations. Good book.

Keith "To lazy to walk into the library room" Curtis

[Greatwyrm]

You could to it Planet of the Apes style. The generation ship goes out. Some problem happens and the AI at the helm decides to return home. Over the several hundred years they've been out, either all civilization has destroyed itself or been conquered. The ship arrives home. None of the colonists realize that it's actually the same world their ancestors left X hundred years ago.

If you go with conquerors, maybe the people remaining on the homeworld got a message notifying them of the return and have been hoping to use the colonists to help fight off the conquerors?

[SleepyDrug]

Elizabeth Moon's Generation Warriors features a generation ship. One of the main characters keeps having to enter stasis due to injury or disaster and lives each part of her life in different generations.

[Mentor]

You could also read Mayflies, by Kevin ?? I can't remember the author. I'll get off my duff and look it up if anyone is interested.

Basially, there's a generation ship whose central computer is based on a human brain. Slowly the brain regains memory and volition. It is an immortal observer of the generations. Good book.

Keith "To lazy to walk into the library room" Curtis

My only problem with a scenario based on Mayflies, is that IIRC, the humans were merely passive observers/victims. If I am remembering the story correctly, the decisive action on the part of the passengers was to meditate and successflully clear any hostile thoughts from their minds as the alien invaders wandered the ship. Our players aren't all exactly type As, but that is too passive a scenario to get even their interest.

[Ternaugh]

Late last year I ran a campaign like this, using Metamorphosis Alpha heavily as a source. It was post-apocalyptic, and not only did the PCs (who were mutants) have to fend off a growing horde of one of the mutant races, they had to save their "level" when these same mutants broke into one of the level control centers and made off with the chronometric sequencer, the device that controlled many time-related functions, including the rising of the "sun". The campaign was a great success, and we only stopped because one of the players wanted to try a fantasy campaign. We may get back to it one day.

While MA is long out of print (the initial version came out just after the original D&D, and it's had I think three versions since), it's currently being resurrected, last I heard. The original author, Jim Ward, who also later worked on Gamma World, was working on a new version, as people were still playing it nearly thirty years after it was originally published. Fast Forward Games (www.fastforwardgames.com) has more info, and another very good MA resource is www.metamorphosisalpha.com.

Another source would be the Amazing Engine game, Metamorphosis Alpha to Omega, which has maps and descriptions of the denziens. And, it'll probably be cheap, if you can find it (my copy was a buck at a local hobby store wanting to get rid of it).

JoeG

[Ghost who Walks]

Imagine a a ship, where generations of people have lived. Assume technology is not much more adavnaced than our own (no FL, no artificial gravity, spinning ship, no clones)

Clearly, the oldest people would be in charge, they would no where everything is.

New people would be easy to make, humans breed like rabbits, especially in a sealed environment.

The younger generation would be an excellent source of spare organs for their elders...

Diseases would be wiped out, no one would have any resistance or immunity to anything...

So the question is, if they ever reached their destination, would the people (especially those in charge) actually want to leave?

Its very likely they would have difficulty surviving...

Enter the PCs.

[Citizen Keen]

What if the ship worked fine, and there were no mutants. No explosions, no loss of culture, every body remembered where they were.

But let's say a religious cult begins spreading amongst the newer generations. This religious cult believes in growth through punishment and deprivation. They detect a desert planet with breathable atmosphere, and decide to take over the ship and land it on the desert planet.

So you have espionage escalating to all out war for control of the various parts of the ship - engines, power, navigation. The campaign can end in a climax with the cultists threatening to destroy the hydroponic farms that are needed to keep the colony alive.

Eh, eh? Anybody like?