Titanic Down

Part of the  Other Campaigns series.

This was a campaign idea I came up with while we were still living in Rochester. I had thrown a couple pages of notes together (yet another victim of the great NAS failure of 2023) but never ran the game. Back in January we started playing this out. Playing with long-term gamer friend Bill and his family. We're using the old d6 Star Wars Re-Up, but simplified down some to speed up the pace, so more like Mini D6, but leaning heavily on Re-Up (I can't find a "safe" link to put in here) but with fewer rolls involved. I'm not a huge fan of the system, but it works. I'm adding a bunch to it so that the Jedi aren't "I win" buttons and other character types are more interesting. Probably my biggest gripe with the system is that race can totally make or break a character. It's a fairly large hindrance to be human.

### Campaign Intro

The pool deck was the relaxing place to go on the ship. It was an extra luxury on an already luxurious ship. The sounds of the waves lapping up at the beach, and the calls of the exotic birds added to the atmosphere.
It was that much more shocking when it all stopped. The lights went out. The soft background music stopped. For a brief moment, it was so silent that you could even notice that the deep subsonic rumbling of the wave motors and pool filters had even stopped. Then the panic struck. A few bewildered shouts, an angry curse, a mother panicking for her daughter in the water. You never got the feeling of your stomach creeping up, but when the water began to slosh out of the pool, it became obvious that even the artificial gravity had gone down. Some began running for escape pods, some ran for the turbolifts, some just ran. Realizing the danger, you ran for an escape pod, finding it an unusual experience as your first step launched you 3 feet into the air; but you made it there in a few leaps (possibly losing control a couple times and crashing into things). You climbed in, and strapped down. This was better than being in the open pool deck with the water splashing all over, but ejecting might not make things better. A few more came to your escape pod (except the Barabel’s, where he actually took up a guard position in the hatchway, protecting his charge) and strapped in, but the pods were far from full. Through the open hatch, you saw a planet approaching quickly, dark and ominous, and worse, you realized the ship was inverted; threatening to crash on its upper decks. As the ship began to enter the atmosphere, gravity started to actually pull the “wrong” direction, making you glad you’d strapped in (making the bounty hunter give up his post and dive for a seat). Just as the signs of the dome over the pool deck began to glow with heat buildup from reentry, the ship began a relatively slow roll onto its belly, also bringing up its nose, but you also looked in shock and horror as you saw a few large parts of the ship break away, careening off into the night sky.

The plunge seemed to take forever, the horror of it settled in. The crash was over in an instant. You’re not sure if you passed out, or just closed your eyes and were stunned by the impact. Your chair wasn’t comfortable, partially from the straps having tightened in the crash, partially the odd angle the escape pod sat. Opening the hatch on the escape pod, you were shocked to see all of the damage to the pool deck. The water had drained, the dome had several cracks and was even missing a few panels on the port side. Vegetation had piled up against the front of the dome, but so had wreckage from forward decks, giving the dome some extra protection in that area. As you took in the scenery, you also realized how incredibly cold it was, and it was still dark.

Grabbing what was available in the escape pod, you threw on the survival jacket, threw the backpack over your shoulders and headed out onto the pool deck. Someone fired a flare up into the sky, and it quickly became a gathering point for survivors. In less than an hour, and after a couple more flares, there were over 100 survivors gathered, as best could be told, all were on the pool deck when the problem started. A few volunteered to remain behind for any stragglers. Someone pointed out that there had been over 1200 passengers on the ship, plus crew.

You volunteered to be part of the group that would look for shelter. It didn’t take long, in fact, it was somewhat surprising as the group rather quickly encountered 4 unarmed natives; short (1.3 meters) near-humans, dressed for the cold. They led the group back to a cave system where their village of about 1000 residents.

### PCs

* Rangar (RAN-gar) - Barabel Bodyguard
* - Verpine Engineer
* - Togorian Padawan
* - Togruta Padawan
* - Human Scoundrel