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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

1d10 Space Travel Customs Forms

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So it turns out even Apollo astronauts can't escape red tape! This is a supremely cool artifact from the Apollo era space missions--it's the customs form that astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins had to complete on their return home from the moon.

This is something I'd LOVE to incorporate into a game, being the inclusion of an at-the-table artifact, plus seeding endless options for role-playing. Is the form filled out correctly? Some bureaucrat is not going to like that and this could mean anything for the PCs:

  1. Delay in travel makes for a stay at a local space hotel or stop at a cantina (1d4 days)
  2. PCs are detained, quarantined, questioned, tortured, mind-melded for information (1d4 days)
  3. PCs are not allowed on-planet and are refused entry to the dock at the spaceport in question
  4. PCs are welcomed for bringing much needed (whatever the cargo is) but then sentiment turns when it's not enough for the populous
  5. Forms get mixed up or are forged by a corrupt official, fingering them for a crime they didn't commit (stolen goods, breaking embargo, etc.)
  6. The form falls into the hands of local merchants who are looking to snuff out competition at the source--with the suppliers
  7. Forms attract all manner of criminal element trying to "rob a train" and the PCs are the protectors of said cargo
  8. Forms are a way of stealing PCs identities, ship registration, and mission info so they can be offed and replaced
  9. Guards are unable to read the forms (either because of smudges, missing data, whatever) and PCs are held and added to a "watch list"
  10. Nothing really, it's just a record of the cargo, but it's held onto and comes back to haunt them later

And so forth....




1 comment:

  1. Thanks a lot, this is too cool. My inner Bureaucrat is doing cartwheels of joy!

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