The Long Voyage

[ChalkLine]

Setting; The World War Three of your choice.

Dramatis Personae; Coast Guard, Customs Service, Water Police.

Objective; Crew a ship from the Korean Peninsula to Brisbane, Australia.

Vessel; The NOAA MV Rude.

Okay, this is a No Military game, the PCs are paramilitary seaborne personnel sailing a ship.

Now, what I want is, scenario features!

Come on guys, hit me with your ideas.

[Ed the Coastie]

The Coast Guard (at least the US Coast Guard) is in fact a military service...

[ChalkLine]

Originally Posted by Ed the Coastie

The Coast Guard (at least the US Coast Guard) is in fact a military service...

Yeah, I know, but you know what I mean by 'paramilitary' in this context

[headquarters]

I think piracy is self evident..as well as fog ,navigational anomalies and a seemingly uncharted island appearing out of it...

I had so much hope for my party as a boat crew-but I guess they really are just landlubbers after all.

[JHart]

It's about gas, water and food, with gas being the big problem. Water can be collected rain water, found on an island, or made if the ship has water plant. Food can be had from fishing and from foraging from islands.

Gas/Diesel will have to begged, traded or stolen. Extra fuel drums could be stored on deck, increasing storage and range, and finding said drums is an adventure. If fuel was scarce, and the PCs are not in a hurry, they could set up stills on a secluded island. They use some for getting materials, and store the rest for the voyage home.

If the ship retains the crane, it could find work as a cargo ship, moving stuff around. There is no internal space, but deck space could be made.

Moving people is another option, but PCs would have to be very careful on who they let aboard or risk being taken over.

The biggest seamanship problem will be weather. Without shore based weather forecasting, the ship will be down to local instruments to predict weather. They will only have a few hours warning of bad weather.

[LAW0306]

Its an american ship based out of Norfolk...How and why would it be in austrialian waters so far from home..the ship has limited range and it would take forever to get there.....its a non story......could not happen...


In T2K it would have been sunk in TDM or abandoned in the radoactive mess there.

[firewalker]

Gas/Diesel will have to begged, traded

in regard to trading one of the most valuable assets the crew would have would be the ship it self, X amount of fuel, ammo or “passage rites” for Y mission. Mission’s off ours ranging form simple cargo runs (and some not so simple) to more military type actions (how would your guy’s like a letter of mark?). also a good way if you wanted a way to make it somewhat hard for your guy’s to keep heading in the right direction. Just have ‘em keep getting job’s that send ‘em off to all hell in gone.


also you could through in the odd ghost ship. Could be a strait up derelict (to be salvaged), a plague ship or an honest to gosh ghost ship (depending on how much weird supernatural your willing to tolerate)

[kcdusk]

Marmaids?

Or what was that women who would sing to attract sailers, then turn them to stone or something when they seen her (Medusa was it? Or is there some other creature who does it???)

Wait ... i'm not with my regular DnD guys am i :-)

[Targan]

Originally Posted by kcdusk

Or what was that women who would sing to attract sailers, then turn them to stone or something when they seen her (Medusa was it? Or is there some other creature who does it???)

You're thinking of Sirens. Greek legend. The turning to stone part was a different legend, the Medusa.

[kcdusk]

Mines, (hmmm, sea mines). Always a T2K favourite.

I'm not sure how big your boat is, but maybe a sea whirl pool (?), enough to scare the players for a little bit.

What about some old fashioned treasure, have the players find some gold on an island. Of course, gold isnt worth what it used to be.

Giant squid.

A fire on board while at sea is always scary.

[Raellus]

Bumping into (not literally) a Soviet nuclear sub with serious reactor trouble. It happens all the time. This could present lots of story options. Do the glowing Soviet submariners just want a ride? Do they try to take over the ship? Does the crew dare help them? What if they don't? Could be interesting.

Mutiny. That's what NPCs are for.

Any "Lost" fans out there? The island used to be in the South Pacific somewhere. Probably a bit too metaphysical for most T2K campaigns.

[chico20854]

Indonesia, Philippines & PRC have all descended into chaos. Lots of piracy and corrupt armed forces there in peacetime, can't begin to imagine how bad it would be post-TDM. Add in the chaotic remnants of the Soviet Operation Primus - commerce raiders and piracy, especially in Indonesian waters.

Why would Aussie paramilitaries be operating a US government civilian research vessel based in the Atlantic? Why wouldn't they use an Australian equivalent, such as HMAS Flinders or HMAS Brolga? Come on, do a little research here folks! I mean, if you do all this research into the Australian Customs service paramilitaries and US civilian research ships, how about some work on the obscure parts of your own naval services?

[Targan]

Originally Posted by chico20854

Come on, do a little research here folks! I mean, if you do all this research into the Australian Customs service paramilitaries and US civilian research ships, how about some work on the obscure parts of your own naval services?

Fair enough. Can't argue with that.

[headquarters]

Originally Posted by chico20854

Indonesia, Philippines & PRC have all descended into chaos. Lots of piracy and corrupt armed forces there in peacetime, can't begin to imagine how bad it would be post-TDM. Add in the chaotic remnants of the Soviet Operation Primus - commerce raiders and piracy, especially in Indonesian waters.

Why would Aussie paramilitaries be operating a US government civilian research vessel based in the Atlantic? Why wouldn't they use an Australian equivalent, such as HMAS Flinders or HMAS Brolga? Come on, do a little research here folks! I mean, if you do all this research into the Australian Customs service paramilitaries and US civilian research ships, how about some work on the obscure parts of your own naval services?

the GM needs only point out the unrefutable fact -"its because of unknown effects of radiation after global thermonuclear war.."

If the major obstacle people see here towards the campaign proposed is that the actual boat is stationed somewhere alse than the proposal stated ,I cant get onboard with that .(maritime jargon intended).

So what ? That vessel could have been moved all over the world before shtf to act as a part of a task force , an exchange program,stolen,on its way to be sold to a friendly /bellingerent nation etc etc

I believe it is an excellent backdrop for a campaign - until recently our party did something similar before they all decided to hightail to shore and hide up in their fiefs again..cowardly landlubbers ..

Here is a nother little something for the boating excursion - having to disguise and go into a pseudo neutral harbour to obtain " xxx" ( yes-x rated movies ..hehe) or medicines,parts ,fuel,a doctor etc ) and find that they have to do a dirty job for the boss of the waterfront as a merc mission in order to be "served" .

good way to introduce a nemesis that keeps on keeping on and follows them with irregular assasination attempts etc

[ChalkLine]

Originally Posted by chico20854

Why would Aussie paramilitaries be operating a US government civilian research vessel based in the Atlantic?

Simple.

There's very, very good deck plans of that ship.

I have an interest in the area I've mentioned.

= Scenario!