What are some ideas for self-contained quests or adventures in a sci-fi game that spans the galaxy (preferably including mecha in some fashion)? Think Space Dandy-style, where every episode was a new environment and place to explore, though maybe less psychedelic.
The basic premise I'm looking for are hooks I can throw out in an ocean and let the players pick their own bait in a sandbox freeroam. Any length of quest is welcome, and anything can go. There's no real tech limit, and the setting I use has things like psionic powers, so "magic" ideas are applicable too.
Some ideas I've got include:
Landing on a planet where the local government is a dictatorship with a strict no-fly policy that grounds the PCs until they can get permission to leave (likely by assisting the government in quelling rebels) or help the rebels.
First contact with new species of varying tech levels.
A ship found adrift with an Alien-like creature on board.
An old cryopod with a survivor of x catastrophe or with something valuable inside worth investigating.
Being trapped on a world where every door leads to a different dimension, Planescape-style.
Helping out in a planetary mecha civil war.
Trying to win the literal Miss Univers by finding the hottest alien in the galaxywhich really depends on the alien-jury
Geocaching through the galaxy.
Prison-planet escape.
Any kind of monster-hunting on different planets. On ice-planets, lava-, jungle-, desert-planets, whatever you can imagine.
Entering a space-wizards magical realm.Space Dandy thread?
Finding a member of the crew has been replaced/duplicated by a doppleganger.
Recovering lost shipments/materials/etc for x faction.
Finding the single remaining lifeform on an empty planet.
A false hydra-like creature that affects the PCs and their companions.
Delivery of a Do Not Open box with signs all indicating that they should open the box.
Planets found on or around "leylines" which affect their perceptions and abilitiesDandy thread is good
Princess of X planet falls for Y character and stows away aboard their ship. .
One of the players is mistaken for someone else and receives a missive not meant for them.
Their future selves show up out of nowhere to warn them about something they are about to cause, just to find out that they coming back in time is what causes the incident.
bump
>>47940495
Just copy a cartoon. That's what you're asking for, isn't it?
>>47940495
why are the party together?
do they have a space ship?
Does it go faster than light on its own?
are they rich?
what is their moral compass?
You could have them be game hunters who travel from planet to planet collecting the heads of the most dangerous or exotic creatures that live there, sentient or not. You could have them be police agents sent to put down any dissent against the local government, you could have them be murderers for hire.
An organization of Android-rights activists hires the party to smuggle a disassembled agent into a conflict zone hidden within a shipment of cybernetic prosthetics.
A planet with insufficient tech level to evacuate the world is on a collision course with a rogue star/planet/black hole.
A shapeshifter has been hopping from system to system, impersonating starship captains and stealing their vessels.
The flow of a valuable space-drug has been interrupted by an infestation of giant sand worms on the planet where it is produced.
A hyper-advanced species has created a slow-zone right in the galactic core, where they prohibit faster-than-light travel, causing all shipping to have to plot much longer routes around the zone.
Space-whalers are hunting the space-whales to extinction for their valuable space-ambergris.
A planet of thrill seekers has begun staging mecha vs kaiju fights on a nearby moon.
A space station where the players regularly do business/meet contacts has been assimilated by a hivemind, which seems intent on running everything according to business as usual.
>>47944090
Not really. The cartoon is more for reference of what I'm looking for, I'm not looking to rip it entirely.
>>47944132
It's actually a 1-on-1 game, so the "party" is essentially everyone she gets together. Consists of an engineer, a HtH specialist, a comm specialist, and herself as an all-rounder. They're together because of her. She was originally employed aboard a trading vessel before the owner was imprisoned (with her help) for trading government secrets.
They do have a space ship and it can go FTL.
They're not very well-off personally, but they're officially employed by the galactic federation, she in particular is a Mass Effect Spectre-style agent, with a general moral compass of "young wide-eyed hero who wants to help everyone."
Appreciate the suggestions though, interplanetary game-hunting could make for something interesting.
>>47940495
Steal all the plots from FTL
All of them.
>Approaching a planet you receive frenetic distress calls from the surface.
>The orbital defensive system has gone haywire and is lashing out at anything it perceived as a threat, and brother, it perceived a *lot* of things as threats, both terrestrial and in orbit, and on the distant moon.
>The planet is located in an area with intense asteroid and meteoric activity, so they need the defensive system active to prevent potential planetary apocalypse scenarios, but the system just used it's Solar Lance to destroy the offices of the engineers who were responsible for maintaining the defense system, effectively killing all fifteen people who knew how to shut it down at once.
>Can the party stop the omnicidal orbital platforms without becoming so much space junk?
>>47940495
Lone astronaut floating out in space that was separated from his ship.
Civilians chased by pirates are always classic, especially if you can track them down to some larger organization.
