Last time we talked about ways a ship can be used as a dungeon. Let’s expand the topic and talk ship purposes, ship related plots, and ship quirks. Enjoy! Six Ship Purposes First, consider why the vessel was commissioned or built. That decision raises a few question to help you add more detail and flavor. Entertainment: What features make it viable for that? Does it have an entertainment deck complete with a stage for performers? A swimming pool? A gambling area? A shuffleboard deck? A video lounge? War: Is it built for spying on the enemy, for making quick strafing attacks, or is it the fleet’s core, heavily armored with large cannons but slow moving? Prison: What is being locked away and why is it so dangerous it can’t be let out? Harvester: If it exists to gather needed materials what is it gathering and why? Why is a ship an ideal method of transport? Transport: What type of material support is it carrying? Food? Rebuilding teams for aid? Medicine to stop the plague? Exploration: What is it exploring and why? Is it trying to get treasure from exotic locales? Discover more of the world, galaxy, or universe for the sake of knowledge? Twenty Ship Plot Seeds Ships don’t always have to be waiting at the dock. Put them in dynamic situations. The Pretorian, drilling for oil far beneath the ocean floor, has somehow opened up an intra-dimensional rift. Cthulhu-esque creatures are spilling out, attacking the rig and endangering the lives of those aboard. It’s up to the crew to figure out how to close the rift and get back to the business of drilling for oil. A working-dog-driven paddleboat, appropriately named the Dog Paddle, is going up and down the river to promote awareness of the abuse of working animals. While dogs power the boat, they are well treated, cared for, and loved as pets. The fear-powered spaceship, the Terror, has appeared in the skies over Earth. Its yellow-ringed Sinestro Corps crew are hoping for a glut of power as they frighten earth’s populace. They will then spread that despair throughout the universe. The gnomish clockwork steam engine dirigible, the Kelpos, is exploring new areas of the world. The crew is a mix of races with a variety of skills, headed up by Jefan Grazbel, the ship’s main engineer. Unbeknownst to them, the ship’s arrival has upset delicate negotiations between neighboring barbarian tribes of difference races, each thinking the other has summoned outside help in the form of the airship. If the crew doesn’t straighten out the inhabitants, the fragile peace will dissolve into complete war. The Kanamits’ energy-powered flying saucer the Servitor sails through the vast emptiness of space. It is an exploration and food gathering vessel come to Earth to harvest…humanity. Will mankind fight back against the aliens who ended many of Earth’s greatest woes and take up their technology? Or will they become another entrée for the Kanamits? A space faring race made up of various catlike peoples has landed in an area similar to ancient Egypt to mine cats eye stones to fuel their pyramid-shaped spaceships. To do this they set themselves up as gods and enslave the natives to do their bidding. Unfortunately, after many years of oppression, a slave uprising is in the works. The interconnected mass of sailing ships of the People of the Dust on the Silt Sea drift aimlessly, seeking treasure from ships whose crews have died and risen as undead. Their victims are none too happy their ships are ransacked and their rest disturbed by trespassers. The Baleck, a D’deridex-class Imperial Romulan Warbird powered by an artificial quantum singularity reactor, is patrolling in the Neutral Zone during a relatively peaceful time when it receives a distress call from the Imperial Klingon Ship the Ch’Tongu. The crew needs to decide whether or not the distress signal is a trap to cause an intergalactic incident or genuine request for aid. A mysterious 14th century galley ship is piloted by the original crew, cursed by the sea witch Marian the Soul-Taker never to die. Her crew seeks to find a way to end their curse without spreading their ailment to those who cross their path. The nuclear-powered submarine, the Destiny’s Manifest, is exploring the Marianas Trench when its crew discovers a new species of fish. As they go deeper and deeper they are pushing the marine craft past its safety limits. Galactus’ cosmic energy-powered Worldship, the Taa II, is approaching earth with The Devourer of Worlds on it. What can our heroes do to dissuade him from sating his hunger using the planet Earth as a snack? The dilithium crystal-powered USS Firedrake, NCC-787543, has received word of a medical plague in the Dagnius System which they happen to have ability to replicate the cure for. Unfortunately, to reach the system in time to put their replicators to use they’ll have to violate the Federation’s directive and exceed warp 5. A group of space pirates called the Dark Force pillages worlds from their ship the Penumbra, capturing other races to be made into slaves. Their real purpose is much more sinister…to take the life force of their slaves and sell it to the highest bidders for crom, the universal currency. China developed an experimental cold fusion ship that can travel at sub-light speeds as a high orbit vehicle, move three times faster on water than any other ship and twice as fast when submerged. It can descend to depths of 100,000 fathoms without pressure damage or decompression problems. It’s also undetectable through radar. American spies have stolen the ship and are attempting to get it into American waters where they’ll be protected and this new technology can be analyzed. The sentient wood-powered elven airship the Laurëa Mallorn sails atop the trees of their homeland with feathery extensions that grasp the treetops gently, gliding it forward. Its crew is having an enjoyable day when in the distance the see smoke. They must reach […]
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