Someone on another thread suggested that TMPers make a generic SF scenario list.
So lets get this started.
Go as detailed or undetailed as you want… think about the old Rogue Trader scenario list. It had everything from "there is a rebellion on an Imperial Planet" to "The roboticist goes crazy and tries to take over the research station with his army of robots! The rest of the crew have to stop him!"
This isn't a generator, its a list. So don't worry about making it too big for the die roll type…. if you really want to go random, pick a die, choose that number of scenarios from the list, and roll.
Note that most of mine will work best for small level skirmish games, military or otherwise…. also some work as space combat games, too. Depends on how you view it.
* The local cantina gets into a brawl when one of your team sees someone he knows. You can choose to draw your weapons, but that increases the danger… then again, if he draws first (instead of a fist fight), you're in a bad place!
* Several pirates came aboard one of the ships in the caravan you're flying with. The pirates on one ship have already taken the passengers hostage and taken control, but there could also be more 'sleeper' pirates on other ships in the caravan…. this makes a good mini campaign. Do you start blowing up 'pirate' ships, or do you try to get on board with a small assault team? Do you satisfy their commands and risk giving them some firepower and losing the whole fleet, or do you try to stall while you try to prevent future insurrection?
* A man/cult/corporation claims (or perhaps they keep it secret… seems more likely…. you find out through some other investigation) to have made contact with an ancient and powerful alien race sleeping beneath the crust of this hostile world. They seem to now act as the servants of these cosmic monsters. Your nation/corporation/curiosity sends you to the caverns where the aliens are said to sleep. Fight your way through the Servants to try to reach the Masters. (on a roll of 1 at the start of any turn the caverns explode- the Servants are willing to die to keep their masters from being discovered…. something about their plot requires that they wait!)
* On a small, hostile planet, there are only two colonies. They are within walking distance of each other. When their parent countries/corporations declare war on each other, they are forced to fight each other by politics and need to survive while the shipments of resources have stopped coming for a certain amount of time.
* In an academy, a student who was being being experimented on by biotechs/was born to be psychic/was possessed by an alien/whatever starts going on a rampage. While the security, students, and staff try to fight off the monstrosity, the government sends a black ops team to cleanse the academy and take the monster to turn into an assassin. Extra creepy if the academy is for smaller children.
* Hive Aliens/quickly created robots get into a fight with you. Everytime you kill one, a new alien or robot is created the next turn with +1 armor against the weapon that killed the last one. The eggsack/manufacturing plant can be destroyed fairly easily, if it is reached, however, and will also power off/paralyze the remaining enemies.
* Two competing merc teams/black ops units are trying to secure the same data stache. When the first team finds it, they realize that both teams are in much greater danger… either the two nations/teams are being played against each other by a greater power, or the stache contains information about the deadly aliens that are surrounding the two combatting teams at this very moment….
* Your military's laser star (think like a space ship sniper)/solar conditions/something else is currently in view/acting up. All enemy ships are either grounded or have had to fly in complex, changing orbits to stay out of view for the next two days. This gives your side a chance to make a strike at the enemy's beach head on your planet. Fight through the landed ships, dug in positions, and outnumbered enemy camp.
* An orbital satellite with a powerful laser/kinetic weapon is controlled by a computer site in neutral territory. Both nations send forces to try to seize the site to prevent the enemies from raining fire on their heads and to annihilate their opponents.
* Your crew is sent on a mission to investigate a ship that has gone silent. No one knows what happened to them, though they made contact with several ships during flight before they went silent. They could all be dead by some alien monstrosity, or it could all be a complex trap by your employers who secretly want you dead…. or the crew could be dead, and its all a complex way of framing your crew for murder, or some political enemy for murder….. Really you can get anywhere with investigating an empty ship.
overcomes character flaws and fields a dozen starships.
