Continuing from yesterday's theme with a maritime disaster in the making, combining a versatile environment with a central challenge to save a sinking ship. This should be pretty adaptable and easily re-purposed for many different potential stories - although they all open with a desperate SOS.
Overview
This environment assumes the ship its focused on is in grave danger of sinking in the near future. What caused the situation is up to your campaign's needs, but some likely possibilities include sabotage, severe weather (which could add further complications if the storm is still ongoing), supervillain attack, a hijacking gone horribly wrong, a passing encounter with a kaiju, or the catastrophic failure of some exotic device. Regardless of why, the damage is beyond the ship's crew to repair or even contain for long and the whole vessel is in dire need of superheroic assistance.
The situation also features the following challenge, which counts as a separate difficult scene element unto itself. If the scene tracker runs out before the challenge is completed the ship will sink, although the players may be able to mitigate the disaster by finishing the separate Assist Evacuation environmental challenge when it comes up.
Completing the core challenge before then saves the ship, but villains (not their lieutenants or minions) can (and usually will) add boxes to the challenge through Overcomes, potentially "reactivating" it even if it had been completed. To triumph in this scene, all villains must have fled or been defeated and both the Save Our Ship and any Fire! challenge the environment produced must be finished before the scene tracker runs out.
Save Our Ship difficult timed challenge The ship is doomed - unless the heroes can save it!
Requires H successes (min 3, max 6) 000+
Timer expires when the scene tracker reaches the Red zone.
Special: Villains (not lieutenants or minions) may add one extra success required for completion of this challenge by taking a successful Overcome action.
As always, players must be able to describe what they're doing to perform an Overcome that helps keep the ship afloat, justifying their die pools in the fiction. They may need to be in specific scene locations to perform certain types of Overcomes, eg patching a breach in the hull to reduce flooding probably calls for being Below Decks or overboard in the sea, and twists generated while doing so might involve drowning risks, electrical shocks from shorting cables, attacks sea life - or a friendly NPC being winding up in the sea and needing a rescue. A fair bit of the scene's narrative stems from Overcome twists and the whole table should collaborate to keep things interesting.
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Locations
Shipboard locations should be tweaked to fit your game, but in general terms they should include the following:
- Bridge - Controls where the ship is going, among many other functions. Substitute Helm for actual sailing ships.
- Engine Room - Controls whether the ship is going anywhere at all. Substitute Rigging for actual sailing ships.
- On Deck - Topside, exposed to the weather. Some cargo ships will have stacks of containers here. For military ships this is where most of the weapons are, as well as any flight deck they might have. Passenger ships often have swimming pools and other attractions. Science vessels often have sensor and communication arrays, as well as small exploration craft and/or helipads.
- Below Deck - Everything else within the hull structure. Cargo holds, arsenals, black powder gun decks (on sailing ships), infirmaries, mess halls and dining rooms, staterooms, crew quarters, laboratories, specimen tanks and whatever else is needed for the ship's functions.
There's also the sky overhead and the sea itself, which is where you wind up if you go overboard.
Key features (eg the mad scientist's doomsday cannon) may be their own separate sub-location (hopefully On Deck if he plans on firing it) as needed, but don't go overboard subdividing things. Six locations is usually plenty for a scene and this game runs best on fairly abstract positional play.
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SOS! Ship In Distress environment
Major Damage d10, Ongoing Flooding d8, Custom Hazard (see Variations below)
Green Zone
(Minor Twists)
Panicky VIP: Too important to ignore but calming them down wastes precious time. Roll the environment dice. Hinder one hero using the Mid die.
Welcomed Aboard: Everyone's glad to see heroes show up in a crisis. Roll the environment dice. Boost all heroes using the Min die.
(Major Twist)
Jumpy Criminals: No one really cares about whatever crimes they've committed right now, but try telling them that. Roll the environment dice. Add Min die Maritime Malefactor environment minions to the scene.
Yellow Zone
(Minor Twists)
Captain On Deck: Master and commander. Add one Ship's Captain environment lieutenant to the scene.
Rolling Deck: Not quite capsizing but it sure feels like it. Roll the environment dice. Attack two targets using the Mid die as they're hurled around or struck by shifting cargo. Until the next environment turn, any target Above Deck that rolls a one on any of their dice involuntarily goes Overboard at the end of their turn.
Shifting Debris and Structural Failures: This ship's in bad shape and getting worse. Roll the environment dice. Attack one target using the Mid die. Hinder the same target using the Min die. If they were on deck, move them to a Below Deck location as it collapses beneath them.
Where's That Smoke Coming From?: As the old saying goes... Roll the environment dice. Start a timed challenge. Until this challenge is completed, Hinder all targets using the current Min die. Locate Source of Smoke 00 Timer 00 Timer Clocks Out: Start a Fire! challenge (see below). If there's already an active Fire! challenge, add two to the number of successes needed to complete it instead.
(Major Twist)
Fire!: Dangerous even with all that water around. Roll the environment dice. Start a challenge. Until this challenge is completed, Hinder all targets using the current Min die. Extinguish Flames 000 Outcome: If this challenge has not been completed by the end of the scene, the ship, its contents, and anyone who didn't abandon ship are lost in a raging conflagration.
Red Zone
(Minor Twist)
Assist Evacuation: Too late to save her, but the passengers and crew might still survive. Start challenge. All Hands Abandon Ship 000 Outcome: If this challenge hasn't been completed by the time the ship sinks, there are significant casualties as much of the crew goes down with the ship.
Wracked By Explosions: Whether it's fuel, ammunition, volatile cargo or dangerous technology, something is going BOOM! Roll the environment dice. Remove all minions from the scene, then Attack all targets onboard ship using the Mid die.
(Major Twist)
Outside Intervention: International Rescue? An orbital tractor beam? Random gravity inversion? Neptune himself taking a hand? Whatever it was, it bought you some time. Add one more box to the Red zone.
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Ship's Captain d8 environment lieutenant
Description: The ship's top officer, busy directing his crew to deal with the crisis as best they can. A powerful ally for the heroes - and an obvious target for those attacking his vessel.
Command Responsibilities: You may not take actions, although you can move between locations normally or be brought along with a hero as they move.
Master and Commander: Allies in your location gain a +3 bonus to all actions. If you are defeated, add one to the number of successes needed to complete each challenge in the scene.
Maritime Malefactor d6 environment minion
Description: They might be passengers, they might be crew, they might even be stowaways, but one way or the other they've gotten their hands on a mix of things to hit people with and maybe a few pistols and plan on using them to avoid arrest. The fact that no one was actually trying to arrest them doesn't really matter at this point. Superheroes make them jumpy.
More Desperate Than Determined: If you roll a zero or less at any point, you surrender and are removed from the scene.
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Variations
The above environment is a generic template of twists that can be used for any type of oceangoing vessel, but its intended to be customized with one of the following subtypes. Each includes its own hazard die which are added the two above and a unique special rules or twist option.
Cargo Ship Hazard: Hazardous Cargo d6, d8, or d10 (varies by cargo)
(Special Rule) Valuable Goods: No one wants to miss out on their share of the booty. Any villain target in the below deck cargo hold location may use an action to Boost themselves with a basic action and gain a Loot token as well as the usual bonus. Any villain target that doesn't have a Loot token suffers a -1 penalty to all actions (not saves versus damage or reactions). A hero can take a Loot token from a target carrying one by Hindering that target and taking a minor twist, or by using an Overcome action to do so.
Passenger Ship Hazard: Panicking Passengers d8
(Special Rule) Potential Hostages: Easy hunting ground for the villains to take advantage of. Any villain or villainous lieutenant in an on deck or below deck location may use a basic Defend action to gain a Hostage token as well as the usual defense effect. While a target has a Hostage token all Attack and Hinder actions taken against them suffer a -2 penalty. A hero can remove a Hostage token from the scene by taking an Overcome action to free them and help them escape to safety.
Military Ship Hazard: Volatile Weaponry d12
(Yellow Minor Twist) Damage Control Parties: Military crews are well-trained to deal with damage and fires onboard. Roll the environment dice. Mark a number of successes on any number of challenges in the scene equal to the Min die.
Science Vessel Hazard: Dangerous Technology d10
(Yellow Minor Twist) Exotic Equipment: The wonders of Science! at work. Roll the environment dice. Remove a number of mods from the scene equal to the Mid die, starting with the ones that have the largest values.
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Design Notes
The GM has a lot of dials they can turn to make this play out differently, so think about which twists to introduce and when to do so and be ready to adjust on the fly. Several environmental twists can be actively beneficial to the heroes and many are neutral in terms of who they target. Challenges that apply a penalty until completed can be very nasty since they will stack and leave the ship shrouded in smoke - but letting them time out makes for a raging fire instead. There can be a lot of pressure on the heroes' actions to keep up with challenges, but there are at least two scene elements spent on the central Save Our Ship challenge and environment. The actual combat opposition should be a little lighter than normal, and villains are tempted to tie themselves up with Overcomes to batter the ship further.
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