How Would You Game A Wrecked Zoo Specimen Spaceship?

[Cacique Caribe]

I bought these awesome CP Models spaceport aliens a few weeks ago:

https://cpmodels.co.uk/shop/sf1529-spaceport-scum/

Then I started reading Ship Wrecked by Mark Wayne McGinnis and it suddenly got me wondering and thinking how I’ve never heard of anyone gaming the recapture of alien escapees from a wrecked spaceship.

Has anyone ever done so? If so, how did the game rate on your fun-o-meter scale?

How does one go about gaming such a scenario? Was it like a campaign game, with each capture being a separate game of its own? What rules, figures and terrain did you use?  Did earthlings harmed by the alien escapees count as points against you?   Inquiring minds wanna know!

Thanks

Dan
https://read.amazon.com/nc/?kcrFree=only&asin=B0788THR27

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/m/mark-wayne-mcginnis/ship-wrecked.htm

[Juan]

Interesting idea.
I would use "Galactic Heroes", of course, in Battle System terrain. Figures, those from Lead Adventure Miniatures are perfect, I think. They have a lot of crew members and a group of hunters! For the beasts, Reaper and GW can be good sources.

Bad, very bad. I am thinking more and more about this idea... 

[Daeothar]

Immediately, modifying Space Hulk rules sprang to mind. But instead of killing them, you'd have to stun them, or wrestle them down in CC. Different stats for the beasts; some easily taken, like space vermin, whilst on the other end of the spectrum you get that cosmic horror thing on Solo's ship in The Force Awakens.

Then you can mess around with civilians running around too of course. But the blip mechanic would be pretty funny and atmospheric; is it a cat, a grox, a womprat, a xenomorph or just the janitor? The only way to find out is to get close...

Sounds like a very fun premise actually!

[zrunelord]

Dan, An idea that has merit.
Never played something like it but it would be very interesting to try not as a campaign but as a one off.

Different scenarios come to mind.( not original)

1) Escape form area 51 type facility/ downed ship / lab ... shape shifting alien.
2) Aliens style creature escape from crash landed escape module, race against the clock before it infects the nearest city.
3) 60's style army men or modern day combat squads versus alien stargate mishap appearing in the middle of a major city. Aliens are psychic.
4) Meteor hit containing Alien Pathogen... Containment protocols required.

I think I would use either Nordic's Bughunt or Squad hammer , perhaps modified to taste.

Z

[Grumpy Gnome]

I would take some inspiration from Expedition to the Barrier Peaks....

[CookAndrewB]

5 Parsecs: Salvage Crew uses a system of Points of Interest (objectives) and "contacts" (blips that have to be revealed and that move around each turn) in a pretty effective manner. Added benefit for me is that this is a solo gaming engine, which can be easily used for coop or opposed play.

If the goal was to trap and return the escapees, then You could just do the old Star Trek "set phasers to stun" trick and keep all the attack rolls the same as any other combat. In games where I've played a scenario where a particular enemy has to be captured, I tend to give a couple figures a stun gun or taser of some sort. So those characters aren't particularly useful in a firefight, but they are the only ones who can engage the target when it is time to capture. You could think of it like lugging around a giant net gun. Maybe you don't have the ammo to shoot at everything, but it is the only weapon that will get the mission objective completed. I like the tactical management of that arrangement since part of the mission is an escort event with limited resources.

[fred]

If the goal was to trap and return the escapees, then You could just do the old Star Trek "set phasers to stun" trick and keep all the attack rolls the same as any other combat. In games where I've played a scenario where a particular enemy has to be captured, I tend to give a couple figures a stun gun or taser of some sort. So those characters aren't particularly useful in a firefight, but they are the only ones who can engage the target when it is time to capture. You could think of it like lugging around a giant net gun. Maybe you don't have the ammo to shoot at everything, but it is the only weapon that will get the mission objective completed. I like the tactical management of that arrangement since part of the mission is an escort event with limited resources.

I was thinking something similar - that you have limited weapons to capture the various escapees, some of which work better against some creatures than others. Some could even enrage a creature rather than stunning it!

[War Monkey]

Wow! I can think of a few things to do too!

Yes, Five Parsecs Salvage Crew would work great for this type of gaming. I would have some very challenging things to it. The capture crew and the escort crew dose limit their abilities as who can do what. Kind of like keeping a level one magic user alive in a  level four D&D Game. 

My first thoughts about the ship, was inline with the series "Star Lost" a traveling Spaceship of dome habitats. There is more to this story but I have to keep moving along, each dome could have a few alien creatures living in a replica of their environment of what ever planet they were from. Much like in the movie "Silent  Running".

The ship has a forced landing damaging landing gears and hull enough that most of the domes were damage just enough to allow creatures and animals alike to get free, inside and out side of the ship on a minimal populated planet.

Challenges;
Repair Domes and food and water dispensers
Repair ship in general, creating a safe zone for ships crew, power, water, air, and food, or anything else in that line.
Capture creatures specifically for that dome running about in the ship
Protect ship from environment mishaps i.e.. storms and such
Protect repair crew missions
Protect capture crew missions
Protect the population
Protect from angry mobs
Capture creatures that live on land running about outside the ship
Capture creatures that may live in water areas that are around the ship in places
Find dangerous plants, hey not all things have to walk, crawl or fly.
 
So there is a start to my ideas. I would start with making a few round or square terrain pieces that would best represent the dome's interior and corridors. You could also have a section as a safe zone for the crew as well, for creatures events as breaching the safe zone.

Huh. A crashed ship On Saharamanji!? 

[Citizen Sade]

Interesting idea. It might be fun to have your players control the critters in an Escape from Colditz style game.

[has.been]

How about the board game 'Awful Green things from outer-space'
bag of chits for the effect a weapon has on the Awful Green things.
Effects vary  e.g.  killing them, make them bigger, make them multiply etc.
Players try to get various weapons (dotted about the spaceship) & use them,
but until you do (& draw a chit) you don't know the effect.

I do recall that there is a grid in the game. It has all the possible weapons & a
space next to each for whatever chit is drawn.

'No Jake, NO !!!! Don't use the flamer on it!!!!!' 

[bandit86]

Just for fun   Intersteller zoo  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbrJEZUmJviP-UaI7TusUmEQ1E_pmppSX

[Grif]

This reminds me of an old Poul Anderson "Nicholas van Rijn" story, in which the human merchant crew need to get their ship repaired (I think) and need to contact the crew of an alien ship that they've found. Unfortunately, the "Adderkops", a bunch of human descendants turned space pirates, ravage this part of space, and the aliens think all humans are this murderous bunch of scum, and so they've destroyed everything that gives a clue to their shape, and hidden themselves in one of the pens of their zoological vessel. It's a pretty good puzzle - maybe not a wargame, unless it could be adapted, which would be an interesting challenge. It's called "Hiding Place" in the collection "Trader to the Stars".

[Cacique Caribe]

Wow!  I never expected such a positive response to the idea.  Fantastic suggestions too!  I might need to turn the premise into a game after all.

Keep them coming.

Dan

[Cacique Caribe]

Check out this old story of an interstellar “collector”:



https://pulpcovers.com/exhibit-one/#1

Perhaps it can fuel a few proper (and more modern) SciFi gaming scenario ideas. 

Dan
PS.  Or in your game the collector could be an Earth human crashed on an alien planet, looking to recapture escaped stock or perhaps in search of local ones.