Dark Heresy Shipboard Encounter Tables

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Random Shipboard Encounters Table

Contributed by Wildeyedjester, Lightbringer
Here is a now complete encounter table for shipboard journeys for Dark Heresy. The vast majority of these assume that this is an ongoing warp journey, but most will work equally well for realspace voyages.
To use, roll a D100 and roleplay out the appropriate encounter.
1. Stowaway! The players hear a heated argument between the ship's crew and a young man. It turns out that the man stowed aboard the ship at the last port. As is traditional aboard this ship, the crew are now proposing to throw him out of the nearest airlock. Will the Players let this happen?
2. Warp ripples. The protective Gellar fields around the ship flex and shudder. All players have a momentary series of horrific visions.
3. Water tank flood. A water tank bursts in a compartment adjoining the player's berth. Their compartment begins to fill with rancid water, and the crew seal off their compartment. The players will have to convince a sceptical crew that it is worth risking the rest of the ship to let them out before they drown...
4. Navigator. The crew meet one of the rare Navigators wandering through the ship. He is a particularly disturbing example of his peculiar breed, with obvious physical mutations. How do the players react to this unique individual?
5. Swab the decks. A cleaning servitor who appears to be built into some sort of large scrubbing machine/automop goes haywire and attacks the players.
6. Game of chance. Some of the void-born crew are playing a peculiar card game. If the players join in, they discover that some of the imagery on the cards is rather...alarming. (The Ace of hounds, the five of flies, the prince of serpents, the slave of eagles...) Are the gamers ignorant of the hidden meaning behind the game, or is this a sly attempt to initiate the players into a cult.
7. Grav-shock. Suddenly the players experience zero-gravity, for complex scientific reasons too tortuous to explain. the players begin to float around, which could be dangerous in the larger compartments...
8. Shipboard romance. The players hear noises aboard a lifepod under a tarpaulin, and investigate. They find a young couple lost in the throes of passion. It is immediately obvious that one of the lovers is a ship's officer, the other a rating. Such conduct is unseemly and forbidden: how do the players react?
9. Strange cargo. The players discover that a crate has split open in the cargo hold. It appears to full of devotional
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images of Saint Milus the Attanite. However, they appear to be made of a weird white powder which crumbles easily. What is the powder? And why do some of the passengers seem willing to kill to keep it a secret?
10. Strange Cargo II. The players discover that a crate has split open in the cargo hold. Amazing that you could fit a live, ravenously hungry Sauroid into such a small crate... Are the players interested in finding out why it was there in the first place?
11. Distress Call - The ship receives an urgent distress call from a non military vessel very nearby. When the ship arrives, they find a derelict and ancient craft. It looks deserted with no signs of life....
12. Saboteur in our midst - One of the crew has taken it upon themselves to try to interfere in whatever current mission the players are on. This may include rigging doors with grenades, destroying sensitive equipment, fabrication of false rumours, and etc.
13. Rogue Worm Hole - Klaxons sound throughout the entire ship, and everything shudders. Most of the power fails and the ship lurches and shakes. As the power comes back on it is clear that the ship has been carried to an uncharted area via a rogue worm hole. The ship finds itself just outside orbit of a planet covered by an alien civilization.
14. Shipboard Explosion - A torpedo/warhead shifts from its store and explodes in the torpedo bay. A large percentage of the crew is injured, the ship is damaged, and much of the ships areas are needed for emergency treatment of the wounded.
15. There's something on the wing! - The crew has been hearing random clanking noise outside of the hull. The even odder thing is that it sounds like footsteps, as if someone is walking around the outside of the ship in heavy boots. Someone will have to put on a void suit and check it out.....
16. Inspection - a naval ship contacts the players ship and informs them that they are to stand down at once and make ready for immediate inspection. Armed troopers will come aboard and precede to ransack the ship searching for contraband OR perhaps the troopers are only posing as naval troops.
17. Cabin Fever - A strange malady/disease is being passed amongst the crew of the ship. Those affected are acting strangely screaming or dancing and running about the ships compartments. The Captain has ordered those affected to be put into the brig/restrained but more and more of the crew is coming down with the madness.
18. A strange superlight craft/space probe locks on the players vessel and gives chase. If the players do not avoid it, it will ram the players ship and seek to breach the hull. When the players examine the smoking ruins of the craft/probe a small hatch slides open revealing an ancient but mummified corpse clutching a golden aquila.
19. Void Night - This ancient and secretive holiday is meant to appease the angry spirits of the void and warp/show faith to the emperor and his endless vigil in maintaining the astronomicon. The crew will offer up bits of themselves to the void, shaving too closely, pricking fingers and collecting blood. Particularly distressed crews, on this night, have been known to offer up digits of fingers all the way up to living sacrifices. A secretive ritual is carried out and then the offerings are sent out the airlocks.
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20. Electromagnetic Storm - A nearby pulsar throws off intense waves of electromagnetic radiation. As the ship tries to escape, portions of the ship become heavily magnetized. Servitors and machine priests struggle to keep their feet, as metal and loose tools are torn from the hands of crew and players.
21. Unexpected stop. The ship is suddenly thrown back into realspace by a warp hiccup. The ship is fine, but the navigator will require a few hours to recover from the experience. During that time the vessel hangs in the void between star systems, surrounded by impenetrable blackness.
22. Hull rat infestation. Hull rats, unknowingly taken on board at the last port in a shipment of grain, have started moving about the ship; chewing through cables and door seals with their razor-sharp teeth. Momentary brown-outs and power fluctuations announce the rat's presence, and all hands are drafted in to locate and eradicate these annoying pests before the ship suffers too much damage.
23. Steam attack! Pass a dodge test or suffer 1D10 E damage from a spontaneous steam leak in a cooling tube!
24. Watch out for the dark spots! Pass awareness test or stumble into an open repair pit and suffer 1D10 I damage!
25. Hey you! Can you gimme a hand dude!? Pass agility test or lose any one small item or weapon to a dirty thief in the crew!
26. Door control failure! Pass agility test or be trapped for 1D5 hours in a room or corridor until servitors free you!
27. Wish they would clean this place! Pass awareness test or slip on a small puddle of oil suffering 1 level of fatigue.
28. Why are the lights gone? Pass intelligence test to find your way out of the pitch black ship section or be trapped for 3D10 minutes until servitors arrive.
29. Ouch, damn little bloodsucking bugs! Pass awareness test or be stung by a fat pox beetle to a random location and suffer -10 to awareness for 1D5 hours as you scratch the bite on your body!
30. bleep what is this place? Pass intelligence test or be lost and find yourself again in room number # D100 and face the eventual consequences, maybe the room was off limits!
31. Hey dude got a …? Pass fellowship test or start a brawl with a drunken crew member (citizen profile)!
32. Foreigner, did ya know that …? Pass a fellowship test to learn something secret about the ship or crew, fail and suffer a mouthful of bad breath and be occupied for 3D10 minutes.
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33. Something in the Darkness. While walking along an access corridor the lighting suddenly goes out, plunging the whole area into pitch blackness. Worse still, something nearby suddenly starts making unholy sobbing, groaning noises. Is it the power, trying to come back on? A servitor with a leaky gasket? Or is it something much, much worse?
34. Oxygen leak - The air quality in this part of the ship is very poor. Each player must take a toughness test or begin choking and spluttering. The worst failure from the group faints from lack of oxygen, and will have to be carried from the area.
35. Port Outward, Starboard Home - The players encounter a rich Imperial Noble undertaking a Grand Tour of the Calixis sector. The Noble is arrogant, obnoxious and condescending, and keen to stress that his accommodation aboard the ship is far superior to theirs. How will the representatives of the Holy Ordos deal with such disdain?
36. Void born - the players encounter a "nursery" for sick voidborn children. This is a zero-G environment, and many of the children are disturbing to look upon. They're not mutants, but zero-g and a life in the warp has twisted and weakened them, and their bones have grown in peculiar ways... Does the nursery need to be purged?
37. slime leak - as the players walk down a narrow corridor, a vent above their heads discharges an utterly foul smelling green liquid over the clothes of the best dressed player.
38. Pilgrim - the players encounter a humble pilgrim who is travelling to the same world as them. He will earnestly bore them with stories of the lives of the saints and the history of their destinations' holy sites in the manner of a narrow minded tour guide.
39. Good for the soul - the players accidentally overhear a confession to an Imperial Priest in the adjacent chapel through a pipe vent to their room. The sins confessed are trivial and largely imagined, but the priest seems to be taking a salacious delight in humiliating the poor confessee. Is he up to something?
40. Bad for the soul - the players accidentally overhear a confession to an Imperial Priest in the adjacent chapel through a pipe vent to their room. The sins are heinous and arguably heretical, yet the priest has not mentioned this to the Inquisition, as the Imperial laws on confession require. Why not? Who do the players burn first?
41. Unwanted company - a very unattractive fellow traveller makes a series of increasingly desperate passes at the player most likely to be offended by them.
42. Saints day - the life of an obscure Imperial Saint, venerated by the void-born crew, is celebrated today. The lights of the ship are turned off, and everyone travels the echoing metal corridors via candlelight, muttering prayers to the saint for intercession between the crew and the perils of the warp. But this saint doesn't seem to appear in any of the theological works the players know of...
43. Astropath - the players literally bump into - and knock over - a frail, blind old woman in green robes. As they help her up, they realise she is an astropath. The next thing they notice is that she seems quite mad. She seems drawn to one player and gives him a dark prophecy as to his future...
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44. Captain's table - the players are invited to dinner at the captain's table. When they get there, they discover that the Captain and the ship's surgeon are locked in an incredibly dull debate about the nature of evolution and violinicello music. How do the players react?
45. Corpse starch biscuits - suddenly, the good food runs out. The captain anxiously explains that everyone is going to have to live off corpse starch ship's biscuits for the next month. The players then discover that their supplies have been infested with warpweevils...
46. Make New Contact – Each member of the party has a 50% chance of making a new contact – at the players choice this can either be a romantic contact (with either a member of the crew, or a fellow passenger), or a useful contact (such as befriending an important or interesting fellow passenger, or the ship’ captain, for example).
47. Warpdead Bequest - A rich fellow passenger, the Dowager Lady Organilla Blaumrosen, dies of a heart attack during the voyage (rumours state she was in flagrente with a burly deck hand at the time), and true to Calixis tradition all the other passengers get given one of her belongings from her luggage by the Captain. These ‘warpdead bequests’, as they’re known, can be anything from antique pistols she was taking to a relative, an item of her jewellery (which scandalously seem possibly to be xeno in origin), or more startlingly a book that seems to hold dark sercrets between the lines of it’s text. (GM’s can use this to either feed future adventure hooks (was she a cultist, a dabbler, or something else?), or just bits of tech and gear, as they choose.
48. Minor Warp Leak – Warp seals on the ship begin to leak, causing all aboard to have a 50% chance of suffering 1-6 Corruption Points.
49. Moderate Warp Leak – Warp seals on the ship are leaking, causing all aboard to have a 75% chance of suffering 1-10 Corruption Points.
50. Severe Warp Leak – Warp seals on the ship are seriously leaking, causing all aboard to suffer 1-12 Corruption Points.
51. Murder Aboard - One of the crew or passengers is a murderer. People start to be killed horribly. The PCs can investigate if they choose, if they do an adventure will need to be played through, if not the killer gets away with his or her crimes.
52. Engine Trouble - The ship’s engines fail, leaving the ship adrift on the Warp Stream. The crew manage to fix them after a week, by which time the ship is well off course. (Roll 2D8 X axis and 1D8 Y axis, to pinpoint on the Calixis pictorial map).
53. Mutiny – Over half the crew of the ship mutiny during the voyage; (01-50 - This is understandable as the Captain is a brutal martinet, and the mutineers are sympathetic and generally likeable. 51-80 - The crew have been taken over by a relative handful of murderous piratical thugs, perhaps actually ex-pirato trash, who intend to slaughter and rob all the passengers. 81-00 - The mutineers are led by a Chaos cult that intend to flood the ship with the raw ‘purifying energies’ of the wondrous realm of Change.) How the pc’s deal with this is up to them and the GM. If a quick fix is required the PCs can choose to burn a Fate Point and seize a lifeboat, to be spat out of the warp (roll on table), however roleplaying is suggested in order to scotch the mutiny and survive to the destination.
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54. Food Spoilage – A blight has got into the food, rotting or corrupting almost all of the ship’s supplies. This will probably mean stopping at the nearest planet to resupply, and thus lose time. However, there is a 30% chance that the navigator also advises that it will take him 2 weeks sidereal (shipboard) time to reach a suitable point to exit the warp, or risk being ‘spat’.
55. Water Shortage – As ‘Food Spoilage’ except that the ships water supplies have inexplicably dried up, either through ageing pipes and the like, or perhaps some strange warp effect. Either way the PCs have to face a resupply stop at the nearest planet, or 2 weeks without any water.
56. The Data-slate of Chaos. Over the course of the voyage, a dataslate in one of the pc’ possession starts sending messages to him seemingly from dead relatives. The messages become threatening, and more and more disturbing. The messages stop after the ship leaves the warp. (Grade 2 Fear Test)
57. Nightmare Voyage. From the first night onwards, the pcs, crew , and other passengers, are beset by vivid and horrifying nightmares whenever they sleep. The GM can decide the nature of the nightmares for each person, or be vague if he chooses. (Pcs fatigued, exhausted, and each should have had made a Grade 1 Fear Test, when they arrive at destination…
58. Sudden Seer. One of the pcs experiences a very intense vision, either of the near future, or of a secret event involving other party member’ past he wasn’t previously aware of - the dirtier and more damning the better.
59. Up warp-creek without a navigator. The ship’ navigator succumbs to a warp surge, there is an 80% chance he dies, in which case his death spasms cause the ship to crash out of the warp to appear randomly anywhere in the Sector (see ‘spat’ table), or a 20% chance he goes insane and suffers an extreme delusion that he should be heading for Holy Terra, the source of the Astronomicon, as it’s the only place he’ll be safe from the evil outside the ship. It will take several weeks before the Captain, passengers, and crew realise they are a long … long … way from where they should be, and worse that the navigator will believe anyone who tries to stop him getting to Terra is a Chaotic enemy, and will resist them as best he’s able, possibly leaving the occupants of the ship adrift in the Immaterium without their vital navigator…
60. Daemonic Stowaways. The ship picks up a passenger, or passengers, that slide in from outside; a daemon, or daemons, bent on causing the most havoc they can; 01-50% 1-8 Malleus Minima daemons, 51-70% 1-4 Malleus Minoris daemons, 71-90% 1-2 Malleus Majoris daemons, 91-00% 1 Malleus Extremis. Naturally a hunt will have to ensue, once the PCs actually realise they have company of course. The actions of the daemons will depend upon their specific type and Chaotic affiliation of course, and is something the GM should decide. Personally I think, even for powerful daemons, initially subtle corruption of crew to serve and worship them would be a good first step, rather than simply running about the corridors killing npcs and practically asking to be taken down. It’s even possible the daemons might wish to hide until the ship arrives where it’s going, thinking to slip into human society at large …
61. Mass Corruption.Widespread corruption of the crew occurs, mutation and insanity spreads quickly and riot and mutiny follow. The GM can either make the pcs roleplay and battle their way out of this, or the pc’s can burn a Fate Point and be ‘spat’ (roll on table).
62. Ice-ship. Throughout the voyage the interior of the ship periodically becomes frigid with warp-frost, lowering the temperature to potentially dangerous levels - the crew begin to freeze to death on several occasions and begin combing the ship for wood to break up and burn in large bonfires in their struggle to keep warm. Even passengers without coldweather clothing will face a very unpleasant, and possibly fatally cold voyage. Psykers aboard suffer terrifying feelings of ‘presence’, and appalling nightmares (Grade 1 Fear Test nightly). However nothing actually happens beyond this disquietening phenomena.
63. Static Shock. Corposant bolts and searing sparks of psychic electricity begin to intermittently flash and crackle across bulkheads, consoles, metal doors, even deck plating, shorting out cogitators and ships systems, and charring unfortunate crewmen and passengers. Each day in the warp there is a 15% chance that each pc will suffer being hit by one of these flashes of warp lightning, suffering D10+1 Damage, and 1-5 Corruption Points.
64. Love Boat. Chaos and the warp don’t always mean blood and death. Throughout the course of this voyage crew and passengers begin to exhibit greatly increased –ahem- amorous feelings. The rest of the passengers and crew engage in all manner of unusually blatant lewd behaviour and seem to be pairing off on a daily basis. Each week in the warp each pc needs to make a (average difficulty) Willpower Test, or he will try to initiate an amorous encounter with whoever is around, if he gets ‘knocked back’ (ie turned down) he will move onto someone else until he gets what he’s looking for. Any children conceived during this voyage will grow up to become prodigiously powerful psykers. The pcs suffer 2-6 Corruption Points for every Test they fail.
65. Warping Wind. A shrieking pillar of spinning of raw warp-matter screams randomly through the corridors and chambers of the ship, melting people into hideously deformed lumps of bubbling flesh, or merging others into the very hull and bulkheads. If not exorcised, the wind will suddenly end, leaving it’s trail of devastation behind, and each pc will need to have successfully made an Average Agility Test to have stayed out of its way. If hit, either the pc burns a Fate Point, or dies horribly. The wind leaves behind corruption in its wake (all aboard suffer 2-8 corruption points.
66. Ships that pass in the flow. Due a flux in the warp, as the pc’s ship passes another vessel headed in the other direction, several members of each ship’s complement (including possibly the pcs) are uncontrollably and instantaneously transported onto the other ship, at the same time as an equal number of people from that ship suddenly appear on the pcs ship. There is a 10% chance per pc that they will ‘swap ships’. The nature of the other ship, and thereby who the new people on board are, is obviously of great import …
67. Possession. The ship’s servitors become possessed by a powerful, though disparate, warp spirit, calling itself Gon’chadribar the Many. This daemonic spirit is a strange, and unfathomable thing, which only seems to want to make the servitors under its command perform eerie slow dances in baffling patterns. Naturally, a group of monotask docking servitors spinning and turning in ever more complex patterns is not exactly terrifying or dangerous … but naturally when bridge servitors are ripping themselves up out of their console nests, in order to join in, the normal running, operation, and piloting of the ship is at risk. How the pc’s handle this is up to them, however if Gon’chadribar is not somehow exorcised (an exercise that may result in combat with the possessed servitors) the passengers and crew may have to abandon ship, or exit the warp precipitously.
68. Vitae Corripio - Due to sickness/madness/cult involvement one of the crew has been drinking the blood of others during the night time. The crew is frightened to hysteria and whispers of Vitae Corripio (Blood Stealers or Vampires) are being passed amongst the crew. They are carrying out any and all superstitions they can to keep the 'creature' away
69. Rogue Trader - The characters ship is hailed by a limping rogue trader spacecraft. The crew seeks safe passage to the nearest port. The derelict craft is in terrible shape, and could collapse/explode at any moment. The players might have contacts or equipment to gain out of a bargain.
70. Frozen find - What is initially believed to be a small comet, is actually a frozen piece of machinery/xenos technology. When the captain brings it aboard, it begins to interface with the machine spirits of all technology around it, causing mass havoc.
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71. Escape Pod - The players ship is hailed by a distress beacon. When the ship responds, they find a small windowless escape pod drifting in space. Opening the pod, they find a withered and half starved imperial confessor. He is nude with the exception of copious amounts of prayer papers and wax seals. He is either mad/ a prophet/ was cast from his own ship/ escaped in the only pod prior to destruction of his ship.
72. The funeral - A beloved crew member is killed due to falling debris in one of the holds or a buckled compartment. The crew is in morning and a funeral will take place to send his body into the void. Any priestly characters could certainly prove their worth to the crew by conducting the ceremonies.
73. Blue Captain - The captain of the ship has become horribly depressed/fatigued/disgusted with the ship and crew. He has withdrawn to his cabin and is refusing to return to the bridge. The players must address the captain and see if they can shrink his problems.
74. Failing Life Support - The archaic and difficult to understand spirit that controls the life support has become angered. Coils responsible for warmth within the ship have quit functioning and the temperature is falling at an alarming rate. Corridors and Chambers near the hull have frozen, and only chambers containing a large amount of technological units are staying warm. The crew has huddled around the reactor, and cogitators in an attempt to stay alive.
75. Safe Passage Ritual - As the ship nears an especially hazardous section of space, the captain calls on his crew to carry out the rituals of Salvis Via (safe passage). The crew will anoint themselves in 'holy oils' affix prayer cloth to their coveralls, and stand vigil by the warp drives in prayer.
76. Smuggling - Unbeknownst to the captain, his crew has brought aboard a wanted criminal/illegal xenos artefact/contraband and hidden it within the ship until the next port is reached. The players catch on to the problem.
77. Warp affects - A particularly treacherous portion of warp space plays havoc with the ship. Disturbing vox transmissions sound throughout the ship, data slates and picters show terrible acts, and the ship all but refuses to respond to the crews pleas. Dropping out of warp space seems an impossibility. This continues for several days and during this time players will observe slight mutations amongst a few of the crew, and a slight warping of some of the ships corridors and chambers. Glow globes take on a permanent sickly green colour, shadows within the ship have grown larger, and disturbing sounds can be heard periodically.
78. Daemonic Intrusion. The Gellar fields momentarily fade out for less than a second. During this time, a daemonic creature from beyond consumes the soul of a luckless rating , possesses his body and decides to explore the shipboard environment. It turns the rating's body inside out, breaks all of his bones from the inside and stalks the dark corridors of the ship as a shattered bag of blood, attacking all who encounter it with utterly uninhibited fury. Alarms blare across the ship, crew rush to gather boarding axes, small arms and shipboard shotguns, and no one seems to know where the creature is. The daemonic creature has the profile of a bloodletter, though it is not armed with any weapons. The players must calm the terrified crew, marshal their forces and hunt down and destroy the creature before it kills again...
79. Fire - a fire breaks out in a lower compartment. The players happen to be standing next to a fire door when this happens, and must seal the hatch quickly. How many fleeing ratings will they let past them before they shut the door? Will they give in and listen to the pleas of the burning crew on the other side and re-open the door once it is shut?
80. Kraken - strange, mournful bass tones rumble through the ship. These are the voices of kraken, vast, deep space creatures of legend which haunt the more remote space lanes. No one has ever exhaustively categorised these xenos beasts, and some are reputed to be utterly deadly to shipping. The ship stops its engines, douses its lights and tries to
evade the creatures by going silent. All of the players must join the crew in whispered prayers for salvation in the darkness...
81. Vox casting - One of the players begins to hear strange noises, like static, in his head, as the ship travels through the warp. Gradually, he realises that it is a distress signal from an Imperial transport vessel. The signals appear to be a vox recording of a ship encountering horrific xeno beings that are torturing the entire crew to death in the most depraved manner. Will he try to convince the ship to go to the aid of the crew? If he does, after a while, the player realises that the voice requesting aid is in fact his own...Is this some daemonic trick...or an echo of the future?
82. Burn the Witch! The players observe a sweaty bunch of ratings unloading cargo in one of the holds. Suddenly, they notice that the bandana of one has slipped, revealing the sanctioning brand of a psyker! Why is he here? Why is he hiding his status?
83. Fight! Fight! A brawl breaks out between a pair of ratings, whilst their colleagues stand around and jeer. A Ships officer wades in with a cat'o'nine tails, and a wider fight breaks out amongst the crew. Can the players calm things down before a mutiny breaks out?
84. Hive virus - someone appears to have picked up a nasty bug at the last port. As the ship continues its journey, more and more crew begin to display symptoms, and some begin to die. The players must assert their authority and enforce rigorous quarantine protocols cross the ship, or all are doomed!
85. Asteroids?!? Sounds of explosions and collisions echo across the ship. The crew appear completely unconcerned...how do the players react?
86. Customs check! The Imperial Navy board your vessel to search for contraband. You know, things like drugs, weapons, explosives, unauthorised armour, false Inquisitorial rosettes...
87. As the ship enters a warp route, a strange rumbling sound comes from the cargo hold. When the players investigate they find that one - or more astral- spectre/s have appeared in the cargo hold.
88. One of the players sees the ships cook throwing something into the garbage chute, but he seems to be trying to hide what it is....What can it be?
89. Genestealer! There is a terrific fuss amongst the crew, klaxons blare and shotguns are handed around: there is a Genestealer in the hold! It has been spotted by a young crewman, Adi Venress, and must be hunted down. Once this is done, the players can relax, and listen to Adi's plans to find a nice quiet planet, settle down and raise a family...
90. Morality play. The ship has a tradition that every year, the crew are able to stage a play and poke fun at the senior officers without fear of retribution. The players are chosen for the starring roles, and are able to write the script. How will they lampoon the Ship's captain, a notorious martinet and bully? And are outsiders really able to mock the captain safely?
91. Man overboard! There appears to have been a suicide: a man has walked out of the airlock without a survival suit.
The body must be retrieved, which takes time and expertise. Void born players might be roped into this duty. The body must be examined, and an investigation conducted. a call goes out..."Do any of our passengers have experience of conducting investigations...?"
92. Warp Whispers - During a trip through the warp the PC's have wandered into an abandoned but functioning section of the ship. Suddenly, they hear shotgun blasts, the crack of autoguns, and the roar of flamers. Bullets ricochet from the walls around them, and they can hear the battlecries and orders of the combatants.
"Die you (insert something appropriate), back to hell!" "Argrid, cover that corridor!" "They're in the vents! Throne alive, they're everywhere!" They can hear the terror and violent deaths of men fighting something that no man should see.
The PC's quickly notice that there is no actual gunfire, and the scars of combat are decades, possibly centuries old. The effect and severity of this event varies from individual to individual, and a Fear (1 or 2, GM's choice) test can reflect this. An Ordinary (+10) Awareness test or a Simple (+30) Psyniscience test will reveal that the creatures the crewmen were fighting are whispering directly to the PCs. Will the PC's investigate, or make a break for it?
93. She cannae take nae more, Cap'n! The players are accosted by a red-robed engineseer. He explains that, although the warp drive is an immeasurably sophisticated and arcane device pulsing with secret mysteries from the Dark age of Technology, its machine spirit is, unusually for a ship of this class, powered by a coal engine. And the stokers are collapsing with exhaustion. He then hands the players a couple of shovels and orders them to get stoking. How do the players react?
94. Oh, rats! The players encounter a swarm of rats in one of the ship's corridors. They are acting very oddly. Most of them swarm into an airlock, but some of them remain behind. The rats left behind swarm onto the airlock's controls and send the rest of the pack spinning into space, to certain death. The remaining rats then run into the airlock and look expectantly at the players. Why are they acting like this? How did they learn to operate the airlock? What do the players do? What the hell is going on?!
95. An affair of honour. One of the ships senior officers has taken offence at some poor unfortunate soul, possibly one of the PCs, and decides the only way the matter can be settled is on the duelling floor. If a PC is not his opponent, then they are chosen to act as seconds, and must prepare the weapons and ground; otherwise, they must choose a melee weapon and face an accomplished swordsman in a duel to the death, but even if they win, can they really survive?
96. Ghost Ship - Contact has been lost with a section of the ship. The PCs, for whatever reason, are asked to investigate it. The crew can lend them void suits and lamp packs for their weapons at the GM's choice. Roll a D3 (1D6 divided by 2, rounding up):
1. Just outside your vision - A malevolent warp entity has entered the ship through a hole in the gellar field. It cannot manifest and is too weak here to possess anyone now. It is free to toy with the minds it comes across, however, and caused the crewmen here to go mad and kill each other. Damage to local controls have cut much of the power (including life support) Actual combat is unlikely, but that doesn't mean the PC's won't shoot at things (seeing dead crew members attacking them, etc) 2. When there is no more room in Hell... - A cultist crewman of the Vile Savants was transporting a sample of the Fydae
Strain Virus on board! He got into a fight with another crewman and the vial was shattered, releasing the virus into the crewmen's wounds. They soon turned to the walking dead. The tech priests cut the power to the entire area (including life support and door controls) here to contain the infection, but were killed before they could call for help. The ship must be cleansed of infection before it inevitably escapes and spreads! (Higher rank PCs with powerful weapons recommended) 3. The naked man - A crewman with latent psychic abilities has been possessed by a minor warp entity. The creature has killed the tech priests and cut most of the power save for life support. It has delighted in slaughtering some the helpless crew in the darkness of the corridors, toying with their souls after killing them. Others have been driven mad. Others are just visions of those who have died. Unable to morph the body of its host, the daemon has mutilated into a form more to its liking instead (picture the Weirbeast from Event Horizon). It has a hideous intelligence, and wishes to "play" with the PCs and crew. It appears from the darkness to talk before disappearing, makes noises, and attacks randomly.
97. Rough journey. The ship suddenly lurches like a drunkard, making the players feel as if they have suddenly dropped into a pothole. Then the ship shudders violently and shakes from side to side like a rat being shaken by a terrier. The players are juddered around, and run the risk of injury. All players must take an agility test or run the risk of taking stun damage.
98. Mad Captain Jad. Captain Jad Heronin has sailed the Empyrean for decades, and is as skilled and genteel an officer as one could wish for. However, he has recently been crossed in love, and is starting to act erratically... The players first notice him talking to himself, then wandering the corridors during the night watches naked, carrying a candle. Soon he is barricaded in his cabin, weeping, and threatening to shoot any who disturb him. Finally, the ship's crew approaches the players, aghast, to reveal that the Captain has kidnapped the ship's navigator, and appears to be steering them into a black hole... Can the players effect a reconciliation between the Captain and his lady-love before all is lost?
99. Between the decks. The players hear strange scuttling noises between the decks late at night. If they tell the crew, they are laughingly told that this will be the ship's rats. But then the players start hearing taps on the pipes...and then something on the deck above begins replying to whatever message is being tapped out...
100. "This is Mutiny, Mr Kristunn!" The players are approached by the First Mate, Ebrehael Kristunn. An ambitious and clever man, who has somehow found out about the player's Inquisitorial connections, he regales them with tales of the Captain's incompetence, though his claims are too technical to be easily tested. He wants the Captain removed and will try any ruse - up to and including accusations of warp worship and heresy - to get his way. Will the players see through him before they throw the innocent Captain out of the nearest airlock?
Credits: Many thanks to all who contributed, especially wildeyedjester, who both contributed and came up with the original idea. Also, thanks to evilscary, invivos, Adam France, Devilmix, Bjornislog, Kerrahn and Alasseo. Well done, guys!
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Dark Heresy Shipboard Encounter Tables

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Dark Heresy Shipboard Encounter Tables

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Dark Reign | The Unofficial Warhammer 40K Roleplay Site for Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader

Random Shipboard Encounters Table

To use, roll a D100 and roleplay out the appropriate encounter.

Generated: 31 October, 2009, 00:01

Generated: 31 October, 2009, 00:01

Generated: 31 October, 2009, 00:01

Generated: 31 October, 2009, 00:01

Generated: 31 October, 2009, 00:01

Generated: 31 October, 2009, 00:01

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