Need encounter ideas for 3 Galaxies campaign I plan to run

[Shorty Lickens]

PC's will be part of a planetary survey team. Not sure if they are members of one of the major empires, or a smaller independent civilization, or mercenaries with no official citizenship.
Also not sure if adventures will be episodic or part of a long campaign.

Obviously Star Trek and Star Wars will be good inspiration for encounters, but I am not much of a sci-fi reader so I don't have a lot to work with. Last books I read were the Naked God trilogy and they didn't have a lot of planet exploring.
Strange and unusual phenomenon are fine. First Contact is fine. There probably won't be much helping already established colonies. The OCCASIONAL space pirate is fine but I've already been in groups with nothing but space pirates and that crap got old real fast. I think we're gonna focus mostly on investigating virgin territory, which in the 3 Galaxies should be ample.

You can do it in H,L,S format if you like.

Oh, the team will probably be very diverse in classes, mostly spacefaring but also some scientists and probably a heavy or an assassin. Races will be diverse if its appropriate to their employer. I'm open for a Kreegor team or some other homogenous culture if thats what they wanna do.

[Father Goose]

Stargate SG-1 is available on Hulu and all the early episodes deal with exploring unknown worlds for the first time. There is a lot of inspiration to mine there.

[Warshield73]

First I want to say that your main inspiration for encounters should be the books:
- Naruni Enterprises. They can hire out to work for them or be targeted by them for working for a competitor like Hartigal Combine in the Anvil Galaxy book. Or they can survey systems for Kyllaryte crystals from Phase World SB.
- Have them salvage some high tech and run into Necrons from Three Galaxies book who hate technology.
- They can get involved in the Forge War in the Anvil Galaxy book or the Minion War in Dimensional Outbreak.
- My favorite is a campaign around the Free Worlds Council. When you are going against the TGE it gives you reasons to travel to Phase World and all three galaxies and even leave TGE space to acquire artifacts, weapons, or allies. This is were your Star Wars stuff can really come in. Read the FWC OCCs in the Three Galaxies book. They have great adventure ideas even if you don't use those OCCs in your group.
- DB 2: Phase World book page 8 says "the Phase World Universe is a place where magic, technology and super powers coexist and create volatile mixtures". Keep this in mind when you people your three galaxies. Also starting on page 173 gives a lot of campaign ideas.

If you are looking for something different in terms of inspiration Farscape is now on Amazon Prime and that has many encounter ideas that would work in Phase World.

Hope some of this helps and good luck.

[taalismn]

*Cultural Misunderstandings----You encounter somebody and try to communicate, but the concepts just aren't the same, and little errors in translation or slips in protocol can lead to severe consequences("To Serve Man").

*Biological Misunderstandings---Encountering new lifeforms and not recognizing how different they really are(like a human-looking species that is, in fact, made up on nannies or are only a phase of insectile alien intelligences) or not recognizing them at all(that fruit you just ate? It was the sentient and sapient young of a massive networked vegetable intelligence that is now seriously pissed at you).

*Cosmic Phenomenon----Something that bends the laws of physics as we know them. It could a relic of an earlier phase of universal development, something from outside this universe, or something engineered to break reality to some end(time travel, sanctuary from entropy, magic prison/piggybank, etc...).

*Realpolitik----Discover the secrets of another galactic power bloc, like a secret base of the Star Hunters, or the secret mineral stash of Altess-backed corporate monopolists. Start running like hell when they take exception to your discovery.

[eliakon]

The back of the Thundercloud Galaxy book is stuffed full of random more or less 'weird things to find on a new world" which is probably exactly what you are looking for.

[gaby]

I make One Where a CCW Explorer discover a binary system where two Aliens from H.U Universe One Arismal and another from Rifter 60,s New Hope Adventure.

[Warshield73]

I make One Where a CCW Explorer discover a binary system where two Aliens from H.U Universe One Arismal and another from Rifter 60,s New Hope Adventure.

I like this, I may steal it.

I have always used all the AU races in my PW game, when it was just the first 2 books there just wasn't a lot of races, but now I am using fewer and fewer of them as the 3G get a little more filled up and the politics get more complicated.

[jtjr26]

I had a long term campaign where my players were running a trading ship with some questionable ties to organized crime. Over the course of several years they were always reports of mysterious attackers out on the fringes of the Three Galaxies and over time the attacks ramped up intensity with a TGE fleet base in the Corkscrew Galaxy totally destroyed. The attackers appear destroy everything in their wake leave no survivors and then disappear. No it is not the 'Intruders' as described in Dimension Book 3.

As tensions mounted the TGE and CCW went to war again. The mysterious attackers were quiet for a time. As the fighting between the 2 empires intensified in he Anvil and Corkscrew galaxies. Then a massive multi pronged assault was launched against positions along the boarder between The TGE and FWC. There also some other select bases destroyed and yet no one still knew anything. When finally revealed it was Wolvem from the Consortium and the Empire dedicated to restoring the Wolven Empire. Seems Wolven with political aspirations to unite their people under one banner once again while exploring an unknown region of the Thundercloud galaxy some 200 years ago, came across a massive alien ship with advanced technology including a intact fabrication center which allowed then to develop and deploy a massive fleet of unknown origins slowly over time. The powers in the three galaxies see this a potential opportunity to deal a deathblow to the TGE but not without consequences. What could rise in the power vacuum that replaces it.

My players uncovered this massive plot in out last session, but as 3 members of the group including myself were moving out of town so we never saw a conclusion. Feel free to use.

[Thom001]

Stargate SG-1 is available on Hulu and all the early episodes deal with exploring unknown worlds for the first time. There is a lot of inspiration to mine there.

Also Stargate Universe has some ideas to be plundered for adventures based around limited supplies and ship maintainable issues.

[Warshield73]

Stargate SG-1 is available on Hulu and all the early episodes deal with exploring unknown worlds for the first time. There is a lot of inspiration to mine there.

Also Stargate Universe has some ideas to be plundered for adventures based around limited supplies and ship maintainable issues.

Farscape is good for this too, especially the first 2 seasons. If you are interested in running a marooned I would also recommend the old Transformers Beast Wars cartoon.

[Thom001]

Also depending on the circumstances the survey team could be

trying to steal native technology/artifacts (depending on what kind of survey you meant)

they could inadvertantly disturb something dangerous (like a bts feel in a space age time and place)

or they could be actually using this as an excuse to increase diplomatic tensions one way or another by fabricating events and or history of the area

[Sohisohi]

Here is a campaign idea that I stole from YouTube campaign that worked pretty good.

Players work security on a luxury world, specifically the survival department. Players are recruited by Head of Security, who wants tough looking guards. It makes hunts look dangerous, but in reality people are giving SDC lasers and if their aim is poor you have to pre-kill their game.

It's all a front, at no point are you actually in danger when navigating the survival park, "it's just bad business". But somethings kind of weird, doesn't seem like there are any animals.

Turns out a ship crash lands, or a structure was missed during their survey, and the park is overrun with MDC creatures. Players must now survive in a "Jurassic Park" situation.

[Borast]

As tensions mounted the TGE and CCW went to war again. The mysterious attackers were quiet for a time. As the fighting between the 2 empires intensified in he Anvil and Corkscrew galaxies. Then a massive multi pronged assault was launched against positions along the boarder between The TGE and FWC. There also some other select bases destroyed and yet no one still knew anything. When finally revealed it was Wolvem from the Consortium and the Empire dedicated to restoring the Wolven Empire. Seems Wolven with political aspirations to unite their people under one banner once again while exploring an unknown region of the Thundercloud galaxy some 200 years ago, came across a massive alien ship with advanced technology including a intact fabrication center which allowed then to develop and deploy a massive fleet of unknown origins slowly over time. The powers in the three galaxies see this a potential opportunity to deal a deathblow to the TGE but not without consequences. What could rise in the power vacuum that replaces it.

Hmmm...was the person at the head of this organization named Revan by chance? lol!
Hey! If you're going to steal, steal big! (And how much bigger can you get than a planet sized semi-sentient factory!)