I'm preparing to run a "shipwreck/survival" roleplaying game with some friends on Saturdays in my home soon. 

The basic idea is that the characters are on a colony ship being sent to colonize a planet, . . . Earth's first colony.  The idea was to run a generation ship with most of the settlers in stasis, while a crew of a few hundred spend their lives running the ship (Supposed to take roughly 150 years to reach their destination, which means that it will be the grand kids, and great grand kids who are supposed to finally reach their destination.)  Unfortunately for the crew, and their colonist passengers, things do not go to plan.  About half way to their destination, there is a problem with the ship when passing near a nebula, and the captain has to make the hard decision to put down on a planet inside the nebula that may, or may not, be capable of sustaining human life (It had been passed on as a possible place to settle by the people back on earth because they were unable to get any reliable data on the planet through the interference of the nebula.)  Due to the troubles with the colony ship, when the captain tries to park the ship in orbit so they can start shuttling things down to the surface, instead, the ship ends up making a crash landing which leaves parts of the ship, and many of their supplies, spread out over several hundred miles of the planet.  about half of the crew is lost during the crash, including most of the command staff (Leaving some of the characters as the highest ranking survivors, and they are fairly low on the chain of command.)

At this point, the game starts, with the characters discovering that the planet IS capable of sustaining human life, and the characters scrambling to find lost supplies and settlers.  The characters quickly discover that while the planet has a breathable atmosphere, its a VERY dangerous place to try surviving.  And after the crash, there is no chance of leaving the planet, and no hope of help from earth.



With all of that said, does anyone know of any good sci-fi shipwreck books or movies?  I'd like to do a little reading, and possibly watch a couple of movies that fall into this nitch to help me gear up for the game and maybe give me a few ideas.  Things along the lines of Earth2?

I can't think of any of any good books I've read or good movies, but I do know of someone who might.

thphantombrain:

May I call upon your expertise in this area? I know you've seen a few good movies from back in the day.



BTW, How expansive did you plan on making this RP? Just survival? Plan on bringing in native aliens of that planet in the stone age or something?

Just Curious.

How expansive, . . . fairly.  I expect the roleplay campaign to run 1-2 years in real life, playing every other weekend.  While there are two native alien species on the planet (Both stone age, moving into the bronze age.) the players wont immediately run into those species.  The world itself will provide plenty of dangers during the first few panicked days.  The characters wont find themselves caught in the middle of the war between the two native species until they start to get a handle on their situation.

I figure that about 10% of the campaign will take place before the characters encounter any of the natives (though there will be clues to the fact that the characters are not alone.)  The rest of the campaign will be a mixture of dealing with the natives, trying to find various important equipment/potential survivors, and setting up a secure settlement.  Once the campaign reaches a degree of relative safety, it will come to a close.

This question... is right up my alley. Although I won't be very helpful in the book department, I can think of many movies that fall in the areas that you're looking for.

Pandorum (2009) - Long voyage colony ship and probably the closest to what you've described from the space aspect.
Enemy Mine (1985) Co-habitation with an enemy species after crash landing.
Alien (1979) Cryogenic Sleep
Aliens (1986) Cryogenic Sleep
Planet of the Apes (1968) Crash on an unknown planet
Avatar (2009) Humans on an alien planet
Interstellar (2014) Haven't seen it (yet) but it might be a possibility.
After Earth (2013) Staying alive on a hostile world.
Pitch Black (2000) Staying alive on another hostile world.
Star Trek Generations (1994) - Crash of the USS Enterprise D
Star
Trek Voyager (11-18-1998 -S05E06 - Timeless) -
Crash of the USS
Voyager in an alternate timeline here is a link to the Full Episode (watch out for
popups)

I could probably go on and on about different episodes of Star Trek (again obviously, just look at my post layout!) and how it touches on so many of the aspects of what you've suggested but that post would be far too long.

After looking closer at your last post, I think it might help with character development to have some of the RPG take place in space in the beginning. There would be no stopping the ship from crashing but it would make the players feel as though they may be capable of salvage and some rudimentary engineering and/or manufacturing. Also, I highly recommend checking out the currently running TV series on the CW called "The100". That show mirrors your idea about "dealing with the natives, trying to find various important equipment/potential survivors, and setting up a secure settlement" in some interesting ways.

Sword legion : I'm a sci-fi junkie so thanks for the heads up on this!

A great list of movies.  Most of which I've seen at one point or another (I've always loved sci-fi)  Love Pandorum, just finished rewatching the Aliens series about a week ago, Pitch Black was fun, and Enemy Mine is one of my old favorites! 

The100?  I just added that to my Netflix list the other day, had no idea it was that kind of story.  Will start watching some of that when I have a little time!

I haven't had the chance to see Interstellar or After Earth yet, but I'll be sure to bump them towards the top of my list!

I actually intend to have the first game session or two take place in space.  I figure this will give us a chance to get used to our characters, establish some of the lore/story behind what is going on, and since the characters will KNOW they are still +60 years from their destination, . . . . they will know something is up, even if they aren't sure what it is. 

Thanks for all the feedback and the insights, I appreciate it!

For reference; some of the books I've read that touch on the subject:
-The Warriors of Spider by W. Michael Gear (Deals largely with the descendants of a crashed prison ship.
-Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon (Deals with an old lady who stays behind when a colony leaves and her dealings with the natives.
-The Legacy of Heorot by Niven/ Pournelle/Barnes (A colony struggling to survive on a distant world with no chance of outside help.)

GateKeeper_A :

Sounds cool!

I would be willing to help, or critique ideas of you want, jus offering though.

I usually like to pitch mine to other people first just to be sure, but I understand if you don't.


thephantombrain:

Glad it wasn't an irritance to you.

EDIT failsummon, oh well.

Sword legion :

I might take you up on that.  Right now, I have a basic framework in place, and we're going to be playing Battletech for the next few weeks before picking this up after new years (That way, the inevitable missing players over the holidays don't miss anything, or slow the game down in any significant way.  Instead, all we need to do is drag out some miniatures and a few mech sheets.)

Had a chance to watch the first episode of "The 100" last night.  I have to admit, I REALLY enjoyed it.  Their circumstances may be very different, but the overall feel felt a lot like what I want to accomplish with my own game.  It looks like that's going to be my evening TV staple for the next couple of weeks!  Thanks again for the great suggestion!

Check out the Coyote Series from Allen Steele.  It's pretty much what you're looking for.  Great writing mixed with good sci-fi and realistic events.

Try that one out.  It's a great series.