Monday, August 6, 2012

Need a quick hook for a X-plorers, sci-fi, or space opera adventure?

Just a few quick and easy one-off mission ideas for X-plorer GMs/referees. These run as short, pick-up jobs for PCs to rack up some extra XP and space creds between campaigns:

Take a salvage assignment to exploit a derelict (1d6) 
  1. ...high radiation danger on board (hazard pay is double normal rates) special gear required 
  2. ...near a known, dangerous anomalie (e.g., black hole, supernova) (pay is triple, plus anything you find that's not on the manifest)
  3. ...near a "devil's triangle" where space sailors are known to disappear (e.g., region of space planet, etc.) (no pay, but you may keep whatever you find that doesn't belong to the client)
  4. ...of a famous galactic crime boss (pay is double, expect a bonus and future contracts) but if PCs keep anything at all, the boss will put a hit on them
  5. ...which is an undead husk of a previously "living" ship (pay is double, and you get a "chaperone" to make sure you're doing things "right")
  6. ...just yer average abandoned ship...yep, nothing unusual to speak of... (pay is normal, ship hyperjumps to primative "lost island" system as soon as all X-plorers are aboard)
Take a live bounty (1d8) 
  1. Runaway bride/groom (grifter) who's left the last few spouses/marks totally broke, heartbroken, (lots of scorned exes desperate to get to her/him first)
  2. Gang of galactic bank robbers who made off with a fortune belonging to a long list of dubious investors (same as above, but potential for space gangs, decadent-and-crumbling empires, etc. to be after them)
  3. Cosmic mind wizard, extremely dangerous, powerful, and likes to make law enforcement his lab rats
  4. Previous bounty hunter who absconded with last quarry for reasons unknown
  5. Deposed interstellar gangster who's heirs are looking to put a hit on him so they can win control of his empire
  6. Shamed politician who's gone missing and knows too many juicy government secrets and is ready to sing like a canary
  7. Escaped android convict who hates humans, aliens, and anything else with a heartbeat
  8. Alien meta-morpher that's infiltrated a royal house on a civilized planet to overthrow a rich galactic ally
Take out the trash (1d6) 
  1. Extermination of space kaiju that are plaguing orbital- and asteroid-based luxury hotels
  2. Eradicate an Insectaur infestation, which are in this case a race of garbage truck-sized, robotic hornets that move from system-to-system
  3. Infiltrate a sentient, artificial planet's subterranean tunnels to shut down its main computer before it makes it's way to Earth
  4. Immoliate a particularly nasty strain of space algae that's gumming up spaceship lanes and creating a "Sargasso Sea" from which no ship can escape....without getting stuck yourself 
  5. Take down anyone in the "Take a live bounty" table, but for half the XP and double the money (also, the PCs automatically incur someone looking for revenge in a later session) 
  6. Literally "take out the trash" by capturing and/or blasting space junk endangering an orbital space station or planetary settlement
Click the "random" tag below to get more random tables for your sci-fi gaming.

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