Connection Trouble
Overview:
This is a much more sci-fi encounter then we've been posting so far (it's also a bit grim so be prepared). Your party is visiting a location in space. It is a junked space station that has slowly been built up by many humanoids bringing nearly defunct ships, locking them on, and leaving them there to build up a giant complex living area. Your PCs are hanging out in a crowded venue (Club, concert, whatever else may be), when an enemy of theirs disconnects and sends out the piece they are on. This means your characters quickly have to find environmental suits to keep them alive, deal with being attacked, and move around what will shortly become a giant collection of bodies floating around in zero-g.
Initial Description:
The atmosphere of the club is picking up. People are talking, drinking, and generally having a good time. Your waiting for your contact to arrive. They should be here any moment. Then you here a loud hissing noise as the air is immediately sucked out of your lungs. (roll appropriate checks and damage for sudden decompression here, we did this in Starfinder which has great rules for this sort of thing). You look around as many of the patrons are screaming, though no sound escapes their lungs. Roll initiative.
Enemies:
Bossman - It should be someone your PCs have made angry and has the connections to set your PCs up like this. They show up, do the dirty work, and then take off.
Henchmen - A group of people the boss has promised a massive amount of credits to if they kill the PCs. They will stick around until it's super clear the fight will not go in their favor and probably by that point the boss has taken off, making their only possible course of action killing the PCs.
NPCs:
Patrons - The poor rest of the people in this area. Their main goal is to live and unless your PCs think of a really inventive way to save them, they will probably die. In our game, the mechanics allowed about 2 rounds before becoming unconscious and maybe 2 more before death.
Objectives:
Main:
Survive - To survive the encounter, which actually will consist of three sub goals:
- Suit up - Get an environmental (space) suit
- Get the thugs - Deal with the henchmen
- Get back - Find a way to get back onto the main station (now that this piece has started to drift away)
Side Objectives:
That Bastard! - Get the boss, whatever major NPC had done this your PCs will probably want to try and get him before he escapes.
Help the Innocent - Your PCs may try and do what they can to help people. They don't have long, but if they can think of something it would help their future situation a lot.
Map:
Overview:
The two important aspects of this map are short hallway connections that will get severed along with the huge amount of space that should be filled with the public. The rest of it is quite movable.
Key:
Red X - Henchmen
Blue X - Boss
Green X - The open connections to space
Dark Yellow Triangles - Environmental (Space) Suits
Brown Squares -Tables
Black Circles - Chairs
Brown Line - Bar
Special Mechanics:
Space! - The main special mechanics of this encounter are how you deal with space. If your playing a sci-fi game it's almost certain the system has rules for dealing with both movement in zero g and what happens in case of sudden decompression and oxygen loss. Just make sure you have those handy.
A floating Graveyard - If most of the NPCs die you end up with a mass of bodies floating through the space. They would count as hard terrain (whatever that means for your game) and also give cover from ranged attacks. It could make trying to find the enemies hard and dangerous as they could easily catch the PCs by surprise.
Extras:
How We Used it - The bad guys of our game found out the PCs were going to this location (through the PCs broadcasting that information). He then sprang the trap when the PCs started.
Easy Re-skins - This is fairly easy to replicate in any space game. You simply need a space station. It might be a bit harder to replicate in a fantasy game. Maybe the club/tavern/auditorium ends up underwater.
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