Casting Shadows

This Saturday Seed presents an idea for the rough and tumble SF frontier of Blue Planet’s Poseidon.

The seed
This seed is based around the concept of the sort of continuous reinvention needed to survive in a new, and constantly changing environment. Poseidon sets the example of ‘adapt or die,’ but does everyone see it? Does everyone listen? Can everyone change?

Planting the seed

Planting the seed is easiest if you are just about to launch a campaign or a planned series of a set number of games. The seed itself, once planted, can be used to great effect at varying points in the run, with its culmination near the overall end of things.

If the game is in motion already, you can plant it naturally through the ongoing expansion of player contacts.

Planting the seed is nothing more than having the characters meet, and continue to have brief and meaningless chats with over the course of the campaign, an orbital pilot. The man, an obviously cybered veteran of great skill, but a history of low-income, time-consuming jobs, has a charm and peace about him – despite his many stresses. This is not to state that they have to become friends or develop into some kind of working relationship – although that is always possible. It is more to stress that they develop a positive connection with a man who knows and loves his job, does it well and with loyalty, and puts a positive and welcoming face on the arrival to Poseidon.

The details

New people arrive through the wormhole to Poseidon on every transport to make a new life for themselves. Not everyone succeeds. Being in possession of unique skills can be a boon at first, with many job offers and high rates of pay, but can soon turn sour as word gets out and more people rush to Poseidon to follow suit. Eventually, newcomers offer their precious skills at half the price, and cut their predecessors out of the life they carved for themselves out of nothing.

This seed involves a contact of the characters, an orbital pilot assigned to a Hercules fitted for passengers, discovering over the com as he begins his descent run from Prosperity Station that he has been made redundant. A new, younger, healthier pilot (who will work for much less) has been hired to take his route.

Instead of heading for the surface, he puts the craft into a dangerous orbit and refuses to acknowledge broadcasts from orbit control.

News reports offer confused details, some claiming it is a hostage situation, others an accident, and still others paint a picture of terrorism and fiery death from above. Security forces are on alert, and tensions run high.

It’s a slow news day and this is news. The accounts get more and more dramatized and fill every channel. Sooner or later, the characters will encounter the story.

What is going on

There is nothing going on but life. People suffer setbacks all the time. That doesn’t mean that something cannot be done. How the players react to this development and what their characters do as a result is the payoff in this seed.

The characters might be sent as a function of their jobs to deal with this rogue employee and his captive cargo. They might have the ability to aid, but no outward compulsion to do so. They might think themselves powerless to act…

Enjoy~