Freeform Sci-fi Depthcrawl

I'm on a four day trip to Prague, visiting my brother. I had a 10 hour train ride ahead of me and so inspired by technoskald's Stygian Library solo campaign, I set out to improvise a sci-fi depth crawl. Welcome to Station Δ.

An abandoned space station orbiting an unnamed planet. It is of great interest to the Space Federation as it is the last recorded location of the Important McGuffin. The station doesn't have the best reputation. Allegedly, due to unknown planetary influences, the internal structure of the station is in a constant quantum flux, rearranging and altering. Thankfully, through the wonders of modern technology, there is a way to locally stabilize the quantum field. Temporarily anyway. And its still not exactly safe. Rather than dirtying their own hands, Space Federation decides to hire a crew of freelancers specialized in voidship salvage. Que the Fragmented Leap.

It is a hauler class inter stellar vessel (ISV). It's crew is as follows:

• Captain Percival Hallow [He/Him]
• Edward Fest [He/Him]
• Deborah Charset [She/Her]
• Simon Gregson [He/Him]
• Frederick Adlesack [He/Him]
• Paulina Gratler [She/Her]

I decided I need 20 progress to retrieve the Important McGuffing. I start with 11 already, based on Percival's aptitude. Overall not too bad and that's how I planned it cause I wanted this to be a one-shot.

They arrived at Station Δ. Percival used the ship's scanners to look for a docking port. He found a docking bay and even picked up a strong electromagnetic signature not too far away from it. He wasn't certain what it was but it was powerful for sure. Frederick attempted to perform a docking maneuver but the docking bay gate was not opening. Either stuck or the automated docking procedures were out of order. Frederick simply rammed the gate and thanks to the sturdy make of the Fragmented Leap, it only gained few surface level scratches.

Depth 0. Once landed inside the docking bay area, they saw it contains 5 inter planetary vessels (IPVs). They were however not what they came here for, so the party decides to pass them and venture deeper.

Depth 1. They pass through a truly vast hydroponics bay. It takes them a good 10 minutes, just to walk across to the nearest exit. They don't see anything of note though and so they decide to push deeper.

Depth 2. They come upon a closed sliding door, one exactly like many they've already passed. Simon however urges them to halt and points to his portable scanner device. Section ahead of them had been breached and had no atmosphere as a result. Opening the door would put them at risk of being pulled out into the space. They retraced their steps.

Depth 1. As they were passing through a corridor, beforehand innocuous pipe burst open and hit Percival with scalding steam. He was in a critical state and only Simon's quickly administered first aid, help him remain alive and conscious. He was however greatly weakened. One more injury like that and he's gone for this world for sure.

Depth 2. They came upon a dormant AI console. It has been clearly tinkered with and oddly put together pieces of electronics were strewn all over the room and connected to the console. Fearing what they might unleash by waking up the sleeping AI, they simply bypassed it for now.

Depth 3. This section had a lot of small chambers. Rooms for the crew of the station perhaps. They were completely stripped, down to even lights and doors. Party spent some time looking carefully for any clues of McGuffin's whereabouts but came up short. Deeper again.

Depth 4. Here was once a mess hall for officers or better off inhabitants of the station. Furniture was lavishly decorated and comfortable. Searching the room carefully, Paulina found a locked drawer under one of the tables. She forced it open and found 40 credits (c) and a data slate document which had some really good leads on the location of the Important McGuffin. Progress up to 15.

No doubt alerted by all the noise they made, an older woman dressed in an officer uniform stormed into the mess hall. She immediately declared the party arrested. For trespassing. Party couldn't be certain if she was part of the original crew of the space station. All communication with her failed. She was obviously not thinking quite clearly. Situation escalated, Percival snapped and simply shot the woman with his phaser pistol. He missed, barely, but that convinced her to flee. As she ran away, she dropped a small data chip, worth 40 c. Pocketing the chip, party continued moving deeper.

Depth 5. After the mess hall for officers, they entered their meeting room. Long metal table was covered with stacks of paper files. Party searched through them carefully and found nothing but repeating complaints filed by none other than the mad officer they met earlier. Nonetheless, the officer was quite thorough in her reports and this helped them narrow down where to look for the Important McGuffin (+2 progress, up to 17). As they were browsing through the files a telescopic security probe extended from the ceiling. Deborah tried talking to it and successfully found out, the AI splinter controlling the probe would like to listen to a particular audio recording which should lie not too far from where they were right now. If party fetches it, they might expect help in their mission. With that agreed upon, party ventured deeper.

Depth 6. Group found themselves in what appeared to be a daycare center for children of the crew. Furnitures was plush and soft and it appeared to be a great place to rest. If it weren't for the fleet of cleaning droids sweeping through at the moment. Percival attempted to ask them for directions but only managed to agitate them. Party swiftly moved on.

Depth 7. Some sort of lounge with a lot of wear and tear. Almost as if it was much older than the rest of the station. Or maybe just badly maintained. Whatever the case, party searched it thoroughly and found nothing useful. As they were about to leave, a group of plantoid life forms strolled through. They seemed to be friendly and as such Percival asked them for advice. They didn't know where to find the Important McGuffin but warned the party of several creatures lurking around the station which favor ambush tactics. Party said their thanks and goodbyes and went deeper.

Depth 8. Party walked into an incredibly loud engine room. There, sound asleep was the mad officer. How she managed to fall asleep in such a loud environment is anyone's guess. Deborah set her phaser pistol to stun and sent the officer to even deeper slumber. Perfect opportunity to loot her. They found some documents which helped them triangulate the location of the Important McGuffin (+1 progress, up to 18). Searching the room, they found the music record wanted by the splinter AI.

They pocketed it and as they were leaving, they ran into a delivery bot. It told them it has package for the officer. Frederic tried to bluff and have the bot release the package to him but the bot had their instructions. Since the officer had been a good source of information on the Important McGuffin, party saw seizing the package as a good opportunity to further their search. They jumped the poor delivery bot and exchange blows. Bot held up for a few seconds but eventually the concentrated phaser barrage utterly destroys it. Simon suffered a minor injury but nothing he couldn't patch up himself. And with it the package contents, unfortunately. Having retrieved the music record, party decided to head back to the splinter AI.

Depth 6. On they were back, they ran into a quite unusual situation. Their doppelgangers, walking in the opposite direction. They looked more ragged and very frightened. Simon tried to calm them down but they remained rather cagey. All the shared with the party was an advice, not to pact with the splinter AI. They would surely uncover something they shouldn't. Something no man should. Party decided to trust themselves (?) and changed their heading.

Depth 7. They entered a sizeable meeting room with lavish catering prepared for whoever was supposed to sit here. There were also some dataslates prepared on the table and a thorough browse through them revealed the final destination of the Important McGuffin and also a small stash of crypto currency worth 100 c. As they were reading through the dataslates a man dressed as a diplomat entered the room and addresses Frederick as if he knew him. Assuming he mistook him for his future self, Frederick plays along. Diplomat wanted to talk as they walked along. Since they were heading for the Important McGuffin anyway, party obliged him.

Depth 8. Before long, party found themselves in some sort of a navigation room. All the consoles had their output encrypted. Diplomat entered his credentials into one of the consoles and brought up a file showing an offsite location of a considerable crypto credit stash. For whatever reason, he believed it belonged to Frederick and also gave him a signet ring which is supposed to be necessary to retrieve the stash. Well, the party did not protest and continued to play along. They also searched the room and found the Important McGuffin just as they predicted. With it they found a variable postfungible token worth 600 c. With the mission accomplished they parted ways with the diplomat and started returning  to their ship.

Depth 7. Splinter AI contacted them through the intercomm system and urged them to return but they decided to simply ignore it.

Depth 4. They met a group of scavengers, ransacking cutlery and other valuables from the mess hall. Neither side wanted a confrontation and so they simply noded to each other and moved on.

Depth 0. As a last ditch effort to earn extra creds, Percival orders towing of one of the parked space ships. Their tractor beams were unfortunately simply too weak for the job and the crew had to settle for the payment promised for the retrieval of the Important McGuffin, 4500 c. Plus 780 c of various treasure they found, bringing the total profit to 5280 credits.

All the mechanics I used during the gameplay, I came up with on the spot. As with my previous solo plays, I mostly relied on a simple coin flip based oracle. To help come up with room descriptions and events I used a random word generator. Technically the depth in this one did not matter at all because I did not roll on depth tables, rather I generated all the locations randomly. But I would like to write up a sci-fi themed depth crawl at some point (possibly...) and this could be a good first stepping stone. Seeing what sort of vibe can be created and then base the tables on that. I was little more terse with journaling than normally cause I've done it pen and paper. I also slacked on creating personalities for the characters so they were all kinda bland but that can be improved on.