On Tue, Aug 2, 2016 at 2:24 AM, Richard Aiken <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

On Tue, Aug 2, 2016 at 1:14 AM, Abu Dhabi <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

I *assume* that when they trade on planets equipped with internets, they at least get around the spaceport to load the stuff up. Other than that, no explicit leaving the ship.

If they only have "face time" with NPCs via electronics, then they aren't really being human. There is a REASON that ship crews have a RL reputation as hell-raisers. When you spend weeks trapped aboard a ship seeing the same faces day in and day out, you REALLY want to see OTHER faces when you hit port. If your PCs never get away from each other like that, then they are - quite literally and with complete technical accuracy - INSANE.

Make up a newspaper as part of your next adventure. In addition to the plothook for the actual session, include the headings of other news stories. Make one of these something like "Recent Imperial Sociology Study Finds That Long-Serving Space Crews Tend To Experience Difficulty Discerning Reality."

Then when they keep staying on their ship all the time, start having them experience strange events, especially during jump travel and when each PC is alone. These should start small; odd sounds, strange smells, movement seen out of the corners of their eyes, etc. The events should gradually build up in significance and slowly begin to involve more than one PC. Ideally, you should reach a climax with them "encountering" a derelict ship while in jump space. Since they probably won't want to leave their own ship, you will want to have this "derelict" interface directly with their vessel, by occupying the same space. Their familiar corridors suddenly morph into strange hallways, their bridge morphs into something out of a scene from Aliens, their cargo bots are replaced by tentacled horrors. After they manage to survive and make it to the port, they report all this . . . and an investigation reveals nothing that can't be explained by the PCs going crazy and shooting up their own vessel, as they tried to kill imaginary boarders. 

As the men with the hyposprays move in, the PCs should overhear one of the doctors saying something like, "It's so sad, really. There should be better monitoring of these long-service crews. When they begin to shut themselves away like the records show these people doing, someone should intervene. That way these extreme paranoia cases might be avoided."

--

Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein

"I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as Muhammed." Alexis de Tocqueville (1843)

"We know a little about a lot of things; just enough to make us dangerous." Dean Winchester

"It has been my experience that a gun doesn't care who pulls its trigger." Newton Knight (as portrayed by Matthew McConaughey), to a scoffing Confederate tax collector facing the weapons held by Knight's young children and wife.

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