It was a mystery to me of what I was going to blog about for Day 14 of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge. Especially since the topic is ‘Mystery’. I don’t know if I’m just tired or what as I write this and possible puns come out. I swear I’m not trying to start every blog post recently with a possible pun.
I’m not very good at mysteries. Sure I see clues when I’m watching some TV shows and movies. But sometimes I miss them all together until it smacks me upside the head when the culprit is unmasked. I’ve done the same in some RPG session that I’ve participated in. I think part of it may be the paranoid-mindset I get into with some sessions. This is part of the reason I also don’t participate in “romances” in my RPG session. “What, some buxom wench or powerful princess wants to date my character. Why am I hearing Admiral Ackbar in the background yelling ‘It’s a trap’????”
So, instead of trying to explain how to run a mystery in a roleplaying game, I’ll borrow from my earlier challenge post of “Ancient” and provide GMs with a seed for a possible Sci-Fi RPG session that is wrapped around a mystery. Again this will be system agnostic that can be adapted by the GM.
Adventure Idea: Discovery of the SS Normandie
The party is a band of a deep space salvage crew/hired mercenaries/science team that has discovered (or was lead to by ???) a lost generation ship called the SS Normandie. This gigantic ship was a legend from the earlier days of space-exploration and colonization where the passengers and crew were primarily placed in a form of cryo-sleep. The salvage and historical discoveries could be tremendous and lead to great rewards and fame for the party.
The ship is found near an uncharted nebula. While there is no apparent damage to the vessel, the hull shows signs of age to the vacuum of space. It won’t take long for the characters to find a port that they can connect to and board the Normandie.
As you board the ship, the power flickers on, and the ship’s ancient AI, C.L.A.I.R.A. (Command-Level Artificial Intelligence for Reconnaissance and Assistance), greets you with a surprisingly cheerful, if slightly distorted, voice. C.L.A.I.R.A. explains that the ship is in perfect working order, but a small, “routine” maintenance issue has caused a slight malfunction in the ship’s stasis pods. She needs your help to fix it.
As the crew makes their way through the ship they quickly discover the “malfunction” is far more sinister than C.L.A.I.R.A. let on: the stasis pods are full of human bodies, but they are all hundreds of years old, and all of them are dead. The mystery deepens as you explore the ship. You find that some pods are completely empty, while others contain strange, crystalline growths. The ship’s logs are corrupted and only show fragmented data, but they point to a catastrophic event that happened shortly after the ship went missing. The event caused the ship’s stasis pods to fail, killing everyone on board.
The last log entry is a panicked message from the captain, but it is cut off before the captain can finish their sentence. Your crew must figure out what happened to the Normandie, why C.L.A.I.R.A. is lying to you, and what the crystalline growths are. Is there a hostile presence on board, or is C.L.A.I.R.A. hiding a dark secret of her own?
Is C.L.A.I.R.A. suffering from a form of digital psychosis due to centuries of isolation? A core programming conflict that may have caused the death of the crew? Taken over by an alien intelligence and the real C.L.A.I.R.A. is trying to fight back? Believing the crew is still alive but just “asleep”? Following instructions from her programmers to conduct a social experiment on the Normandie that went wrong? Trying to keep the secrets of a long-dead company hidden from non-authorized personnel? Will she help or hinder the characters as they get closer and closer to the truth?
Once again, I push an adventure seed into the ground and gives it some water. Take this tidbit and let it grow. But share with me if you run an adventure from this idea. I’d love to hear how it turns out.
Did this idea inspire you? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.