4 Dice SFRPG – an adventure set in 2127 Colonising the solar frontier

Introduction

I am playing solo the boardgame The Final Frontier about colonising the Solar System.  I thought I can test my 4 Dice SFRPG by playing some adventures along the way.  This is second adventure and is one act taking place in a spaceship.

Adventure

It is 2127 and Earth is recovering from World War 3.  Nation alliances and boarders have been redrawn.  As Earth stumbles back to some sort of normality, thoughts turn to space.  One of the first powers to do so is the APA, the Asia-Pacific Association, which has a five year lead on space technology.  They use this to great advantage to implement a Martian colony years before anyone else has a chance of doing so.  Another power, The Organisation for Economic Prosperity is reaching further out and setting a foothold in the Jovian system.

Prologue

The date is 011 2127 on an ONEP (Organisation of Nations for Economic Prosperity) spaceship bound for Europa.  It is the early days of the colonisation of the solar system.  Some members of the Asia Pacific Association are on board.   The APA party is:

• Rashad Gillespie, a snobbish male Human from an industrial background with good skills and a survival kit.
• Noel Santana, an intimidated male Human from an industrial background with average skills especially survival.
• Annabelle Calhoun, a shy female Human from a rich background with good skills and a vibroknife.
• Skip, a Robot from a space background with average skills and a vibroknife.                 

The team – Rashad, Noel, Annabelle and Skip the robot.

The APA are not well liked due to their five-year lead on getting into space.  The team need to convince other passengers that the APA are not all bad.

While in the galley with many of the other passengers they are jostled and not-so-subtly pushed/squeezed against the various walls and other vertical surfaces of the galley.

Rashad turns to Annabelle and whispers “Not fond of us, are they?”

Rashad turns away from Annabelle and uses his elbows to great effect to free himself.  Annabelle does the same.

The passengers crowd in

All they have done is annoyed some of the passengers a bit more. A few of the passengers are now being aggressive.

 “Hey, what do you think you are doing?”

“And what are you doing here anyway?”

“APA-scum!”

Lucky for the APA team the passengers are all talk and no action.  The team manage to leave the Galley unharmed.

The team are alone and walking through the commons area when the lights go out and the team are plunged into sudden darkness.

“Great” say Noel nervously. “Just what we need - practical jokes.”

“They are just trying to get us on edge,” says Rashad. ”Ignore it”.

Rashad switches on a torch and the team, unhurt, continue on.

It is now the late hours outside the command deck. 

“Hey you!” Rashad calls out.  The person he is shouting at turns away.  He does not look like he is doing something innocent. Rashad grabs a short knife out of his survival kit.  The other person takes one look at Rashad and runs down the corridor.  The team give chase but he gets away.  They quickly scout the area and find small bits of wire but no clue as to why.

“Curiouser and curiouser.” thinks Rashad.

The lone saboteur

It was while following the trails they went near the cargo hold where they met some of the spouses of some of the executives.  Idle chit chat showed that the spouses were quite friendly, not what the team were expecting.

They go back to the command deck and do some more investigation and come across a loose panel.  They open it and see that there is a box that obviously does not belong there is wired into the main cables.

Rashad steps forward opening his kit “We’ve got this.”

He begins work on extracting the foreign box. 

“Hey Annabelle, have you got something to lever the box up slightly so I can get at it?”

Annabelle comes over at insets her knife between the box and the side of the panel and moves it slightly.

“Great” says Rashad.  “Nearly there.  Nearly –“

The twang! of the knife as it breaks echoes in the corridor.  Annabelle is distraught and walks off.

“Damn.  We are not going to be able to get it.  Noel, you go get an officer.  At least we tried.”

Working on the sabotage

Back in the commons the team walk in and talk stops.  It is silent for a moment and someone sneers at them.

“You planted it just to look good by finding it.”

Rashad fires back. “Really, and what do you think would have happened if we hadn’t found it?  I don’t think you theory holds up.”

He can see a murmur of agreement with his statement.  Two security officers enter the commons and go straight for the team. 

“Well done.  And we are grateful for your quick thinking and attempt at voiding the box.”

This brings more nods and warm feelings from the passengers.

Meeting the security officers

Later, the team are wandering through the engineering deck and see two people that seem up to no good.

Skip, with his robotic memory, recognises one of them as the person from the corridor.  He only had time to say “Hey-“ before the pirates charged them.

It was a short fight – four against two.

Fighting the pirates

The outcome of the fight won most of the passengers over.

“I guess not all APA is bad”.