Search & Rescue Mothership Campaign

Loads of Mothership distress signal adventures ping out in the void, so here's a way for folks to get those to table as a cohesive string of one-shots.

Guess what chump? 

You've made it onto a Search & Rescue team. For the next three years, you're a crew member on a spaceship trawling on a patrol through three star systems. Once every six months, you'll have a chance for some Shore Leave.

Misenum, J1C-II 

THR:30 BTL:13 Autocannon 1 MDMG SYS:15 CREW:15 CRYOPODS:65.

• Autocannon, Laser Defense System
• Extended Cryobay: Adds 25 additional crypods per ship class.
• Tug Clamps & Mobile Engines: Affix to derelict in EVA, only for in-system travel

Your ship has a tug engine, and an expanded cryobay for potential survivors. The Company Pays the Bills (see Shipbreaker's Toolkit, pg. 40), and during this the patrol, your crew is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the ship.

The Patrol Loop

Your ship, Misenum, travels on a three year patrol through three systems: Calacatta & Onyx, Bizimuth, and Agate. The Loop goes:

Calacatta > Onyx > Bizimuth > Agate > Bizimuth > Onyx > Calacatta 

Your crew spends six months on patrol, then does a Jump to the next system, takes Shore Leave there before taking off for another six month patrol. Rinse, repeat. 

During a six month tour, the Warden rolls four times on the 2d10 Distress Signals table, one roll for each six weeks in space. Before assigning rerolls as All Clear, check to see if there might be an adventure that fits a previous theme. 

While the Patrol Loop suggests taking Shore Leave at designated areas, your players could also discover pirate stations or other stop-overs to spend their time. Play it loose, let the system dynamics grow as you play.

To further flesh out some of these empty worlds, check out the Rimspace Planet Generator.

Calacatta & Onyx: Binary star system

• Calacatta: Rich system
• Bluewhite star
• Cal-4: lush, terraformed world; gated 
• Cal-5:  home hub station orbits factory and mining planet
• Onyx: Resource-rich system
• Orange binary star; Jump required 
• Onyx-a: Hot Jupiter, loads of resources on moons, asteroids. 
• Shore Leave location

Bizimuth: Chaotic young system, loads of freelancers

• Yellowhite star
• Biz-6: Shore Leave station, orbits ice giant.
• Hyperdense asteroid field between Biz-6 and outer gas giant, Biz-7
• High-impact ice debris field past Biz-7 orbit out towards captured rogue planet Biz-8
• Biz-4: Oceanic world

Agate: Outpost system

• Orange star
• Agate-a, b, c: dead terrestrial worlds, each with ongoing, independent terraformation studies
• Agate-d: Shore Leave Station, orbits superearth with microscopic life
• Agate-e: cross-ringed gas giant, hosts a few remote research stations 

2d10 Distress Signals

Every six weeks of space travel, roll 2d10 on the following table. The sole unique entry to this one would be Cold Opening, which takes place on the PCs' own ship. If it gets rolled, save that one for after a Shore Leave when they're preparing to jump into the next system. 

2. Cold Opening
3. There is a Goblin on the Loose in Icarus Station

4. Adrift

5. Terus Maju (from Distress Signals)

6. Chiron (from Distress Signals)

7. The Logorrheum (from Terrors from the Cosmos)

8. The Ship Who Swallowed a Spider

9. Prevenge (from Distress Signals)

10-12. All Clear. The ship is cramped, stinky, and boring. Gain 1d5 Stress.

13. Warped Beyond Recognition

14. Aphrodite: Luxury Space Yacht (from Terrors from the Cosmos)

15. Circle the Flame

16. Firebird (from Distress Signals)

17. Dead in the Water

18. Rogue Brood

19. Argosy (from Distress Signals)

20. SIS/TR

But wait, there's more!

You could just use this for any Mothership campaign, really. Replace the entries on the table with modules you own and want to run (note the bell curve), and roll 2-3 times to generate Jobs. 

You lose the potential for ship-to-ship combat, and you'll have to do your own leg work for potential system hopping, but it works. Though in this secondary case, I'd also recommend setting a Job timer and maybe consequences for if the Job doesn't get done right so bad stuff still has a chance to turn up (à la TOMBS). 

Now that this one is done, I should get around to the Ocean Superearth and Jungle Moon campaign framework tools, too...