Meta Gaming Support Blog

Question: Hey Dungeon Monkey!  My party and I are playing in a space campaign and we are currently penniless and stuck in a space port, the GM wants us to figure out a hustle or a trick to help us get off this rock (literally) and back into the space lanes, however we are flummoxed on ways we can creatively trick or convince a space freighter captain to let us get berths on his, her or its ship.  Any suggestions on ways we can do this that will get out GM laughing rather than frowning and shaking his head at us?

Answer: Well there is nothing quite as frustrating as being stuck in a space port, one of the universes probably most dingy points of existence, with no outlet off and out to a new location, sorry to hear that you and your fellow players are cooling your heels and lacking cash.  However hope is at hand, there are a few tricks you can use to get yourself off the rock you landed on and back hoping around the stars, the key trick though is you will need to be creative and able to make a few…selective misdirections in presenting yourself to the captain of your perspective ride off planet.  Now I am assuming that you and your fellow party-mates lack skills that will allow you to simply book passage as working crew on a ship, skills such as piloting, navigation, or engineering, because if you have these skills you might be able to actually get a berth just by offering to work for passage.  However most space ships usually don’t actually leave a safe port without a full crew on board and you probably don’t want to fly with a captain who is that “seat of the pants” when departing a safe port of call.  However the first trick, assuming you are unskilled, is the easiest, find the nastiest most labor intensive ship docking and offer to work for passage doing any nasty jobs the captain has trouble filling.  Ideally you want to work on a ship that is so dirty and nasty no other creature is willing to do the job, trust me you will know the kind of ship I am talking about by the fact it ends up with a berth all to itself.

Assuming though you get a normal level of generic traffic in your space port, things get a bit more tricky but are still quite doable.  If any of your characters are able to act at all set up a performance that you are a rich noble/important official and you need to get off this rock but have a bit of a cash flow problem.  A bit hard to pull off but with the right acting skills you and your group might be able to trick a gullible or greedy star ship captain into getting you off planet.  Please note though if you have no resources to actually back this up when you get to your destination you might find yourself in a serious bit of trouble.  Indeed, if your captain turns out to be really wicked at heart you might end up having to use that “survive in vacuum” skill that you thought was a joke at character generation.  But leaving that aside if you can work this particular routine it might not only get you off planet but get you off planet in style.  Another trick you can also attempt to use is to find a smuggling ship or pirate ship and attempt to sign up, the key being that you will first need to find this crew and also need to convince them you and your fellow players are tough hardened criminals and possibly a bit crazy.  The first part is easy, find the seediest bar in the space port and hang out there, look for shifty eyed people/creatures and get near them, try to listen in on their conversation, if you are able to do so without being noticed listen for ones talking about nefarious crimes in quiet voices.  Crimes with words like “smuggle” or “raid” or “piracy” are good, crimes with words like “frilly” or “carnivorous slugs” or “giggles” should probably be avoided.  Once you find such a group, then you have to convince them you are a hardened bunch.  To do this, pick a fight with the toughest (and hopefully dumbest) tough in the bar, fight hard, you will take a beating but if you keep at it enough you will look like a hardened and semi-crazy individual.

Then you have one of your confederates talk, generally but in the direction of your nefarious crew, about how your (now knocked out and probably badly hurt) character is going “stir crazy” and needs to get some “action.”  Most criminal individuals will understand the code you are using and will probably offer to hire you onto their crew if your Game Master (GM) is even semi-savvy.  If your GM acts obstinate then turn in their boat to the local authorities and try again in a week or so with a new nefarious crew that has replaced the one arrested.  (However be sure the first crew is not paying off the local cops, if so, doing this might get you killed or hauled off planet to an even worse fate.)  Finally if all else fails, threaten to enlist your characters in the military, it will get you off planet, derail any non-military campaign hopelessly, and might get your GM to relent and offer you a chance off the rock you are stuck on.

- Dungeon Monkey

Have a question for the Dungeon Monkey?  Want to seek out some gaming suggestions?  Email Dungeon Monkey at dungeonmonkey@umich.edu and get your answers!