Ghostship
 

Blackrider 11-13-2005, 06:08 AM picture this...


its a rainy night in a dockside bar in one of the surviving fishing ports on the US coast, you over hear a drunk fisherman talking about how he was out last night and a thick fog back rolled in, he was in it for what seemed like hours, the all of a sudden a old pre war ship just appeared out of the fog, almost running him under, along the bow was the name Cape somthing... he cant remember exactly, the hull was blackened as if from a fire and was ridding low in the water... when he looked up toward her aft on the main superstructure he swares he saw decomposed nd have burned human skeletons on the railling, and... they were moving!! he turned his boat about... started his motor burning all his fuel to get as far from there as possible... he then falls into silence and seems to be shuddering in fear....



great idea on how to start a Adventure huh? and i will give one thing away, there is no supernatural forces at work... :vamp: but it does sound good doesnt it?? :sawink2: and what players dont know wont ruin my fun?


if you want in my next post ill explain my ideas

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TiggerCCW UK 11-13-2005, 03:46 PM I'm busting a gut to know what happens next!! PM me it if you're worried about players reading it on here!

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DeaconR 11-13-2005, 10:22 PM Verrrrry interesting indeed, and I must confess that immediately I want to use such an idea in my game. Since my game has supernatural elements I would strongly agree, indeed it would be far more creepy for my players to figure out the mystery...

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firewalker 11-13-2005, 11:18 PM or the Dutch man. in this case one of the old diesel attack sub's, but it's still going. it has never been known to dock but dose meet represintivs from a few town's at sea (thy sail out to some pre determined spot) to exchange food and info in return for protection. thy never ask for anything besides food and some mechanical parts, no fuel no water.


the kicker is there is nothing supernatural about it (the local community play up this angle) it's just a prototype form just before the war. that has been converted....to an alternate fuel type :sawink2:



man i got to find a game some time.

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Blackrider 11-15-2005, 07:15 PM the Ghost ship is the MV Cape Kennedy, one of the RORO transport shipsthat made the convey run from CONUS to Eurpoe from 1996-1997 tranporting vehicles and equipment suppiles to the war.


in late 1997, the same time as the thanksgiving massacre, the convoy she was a part of was attacked by three kilo class submarines the convoy suffered heavy losses... the Cape Kennedy is listed as lost, but the two anti ship missles that hit her side, only one detonated... fires ragged out of control and the surviving crew abandoned ship...


the ship herself didnt sink. but has been driftting on the atlantic current ever since...


she was carrying support vehicles and apc's bound for Europe. (ship of this class can carry 700 vehicles, including 39 tanks!! :tank: ) but the fires and the sea water in the hold would heavily damage most...


now... take you pick on who would want it... answer... EVERYONE!!! :haufen: CivGov, MilGov, NA take your pick


now plot ideas i would suggest keeping the tanks to a min. say maybe 1 or 5 at the most the rest truckes and hummers but it all comes down to how much of a munchkin you wanna be, if you really want to be evil... after they have fought off the other to take possession of it... have the 2nd antiship missile finally detonate :firedevil


as to more rumors... say that her ghosts of her crew are trying to return home...doomed to wander the see forever.... superstition does have a tendancy to rise up out of hard times


enjoy...

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Targan 11-16-2005, 12:18 AM Love it, will shamelessly use it (with appropriate credit given).

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DeaconR 11-16-2005, 02:26 AM This is quite good actually, I'm impressed with the originality. I must say that I would like to use it as well.


Being on a big largely empty ship is also unbelievably creepy in my humble opinion. Adding it being rather waterlogged and fire damaged and you have something fit for the Alien trilogy.

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Targan 11-16-2005, 02:57 AM In my campaign when the PCs were crossing the Atlantic with operation Omega, because there were Navy officers among them they were placed at the disposal of the Captain of a large ferry with clamshell doors at the front. Weatehr conditions early in the voyage were poor and several ships in the fleet struck submerged rocks north of Scotland, including the one the players were aboard. Lt Commander Jones had been a Meteorologist with the Navy early in his career and was also very good at navigation, so from then on he was assigned to the bridge. There was a terrible storm mid way across the Atlantic and the players' ship had suffered damage to the clamshell doors in the grounding, so it began to take on water. Eventually the players' ship capsized and sank, but remained like an iceberg with just a bit of the stern sticking up above the waves. There were several hours during which personnel could be taken off the ship, and during that time there was some combat in the bowels of the vessel with some panicked and looting mutineers. The PCs engaged in some heroics that day (they hardly ever do anything good for others), in trying to save as many people as they could, and several of the party's NPCs were tasked with getting some of the party's high value cargo from below decks. Gunny Lamont failed to return from that task, and Jones actually did the Navy SEAL thing and dived down into the dark then climbed up inside the now near-vertical ship to rescue Lamont (who by then was hypothermic and on the brink of death). That was an intense gaming session let me tell you.

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DeaconR 11-16-2005, 04:06 AM That sounds like a cool and exciting game session indeed. One thing you might want to do to increase the players' sense of altruism is to have them meet one of the people they saved, who is grateful and is a key person in them being able to get a piece of information or something useful to them.

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Targan 11-16-2005, 04:31 AM Good suggestion DeaconR, there is definitely food for thought there. Thanks.

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abaumgartg 11-16-2005, 11:14 AM That is a great story line Blackrider.

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thefusilier 11-16-2005, 10:16 PM Great story. I too have used "lost" weapons. For me it was to help explain how the Texian National Legion was able to tear apart the US military units mentioned in the US Vehicle Guide.


For me, it was a abandoned train transporting small arms and support weapons, ammo, etc. The finding of the train was a crucial event which the TNL realized they would have some serious firepower to actually accomplish their interests.

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