Interesting Speculative Documentary Could Generate Gaming Ideas

Applying the laws of life on Earth to the rest of the galaxy, this series blends science fact and fiction to imagine alien life on other planets.

Watch Alien Worlds, only on Netflix December 2

GM Ideas: Hell Planet

It may sound like Mustafar, from the Star Wars Universe, but the very real 'hell planet' of K2-141b could give WASP-76b a run for its money as one of the most extreme yet discovered by astronomers.

According to an article on CBS News, this tidally-locked planet boasts rock-vaporising temperatures of over 5,400 degrees Fahrenheit (almost 3,000 degrees Centigrade) on its "day side" while its permanently dark "night side" is a balmy negative 328 degrees Fahrenheit (or minus 200 degrees Centigrade).

As well as a thin, inhospitable atmosphere, the larger-than-Earth-sized planet - which is 202 light years away - rains rocks into 60-mile deep oceans of lava.

The article explains:

"The sodium, silicon monoxide, and silicon dioxide on K2-141b evaporate into mineral vapor, which is carried to the dark side of the planet by supersonic winds that rage over 3,100 miles per hour. From there, rocks "rain" back down into the 60-mile-deep magma ocean, which flows to the bright side to restart the cycle."

GM IDEAS: Wormholes & Space Travel

GM IDEAS: Asteroid Mining

After you've watched the short clip above from Ancient Aliens about the wealth of resources in our asteroid belt, check out the infographic below (you'll have to click on it to make it more legible) from space mining start-up Planetary Resources explaining the trillion-dollar potential of industrialised asteroid mining.

click to embiggen

GM IDEAS: Underwater Space Station

Fabien Cousteau, grandson of legendary ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, is proposing the construction of The Proteus, an underwater 4,000-square-foot modular lab off the coast of the Caribbean island of Curaçao.

CNN reports:

"Designed as a two-story circular structure grounded to the ocean floor on stilts, Proteus' protruding pods contain laboratories, personal quarters, medical bays and a moon pool where divers can access the ocean floor. Powered by wind and solar energy, and ocean thermal energy conversion, the structure will also feature the first underwater greenhouse for growing food, as well as a video production facility.

"The Proteus is intended to be the underwater version of the International Space Station (ISS), where government agencies, scientists, and the private sector can collaborate in the spirit of collective knowledge, irrespective of borders."

Not only do you have the potential for Underwater-style Earth-based adventures, but this idea of a submerged 'space station' could easily be transposed to any alien planet with a large body of water.

GM IDEAS: Irradiated Oceans

Scientists studying exoplanets now believe that the class they've described as "mini-Neptunes" (just over twice the size of Earth)  may actually be "rocky exoplanets covered by thick, deeply-irradiated oceans", according to an article on Futurism.

The article, on research by scientists at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, explains:

"...some may have oceans of highly pressurized and heated supercritical liquid that’s been irradiated by a powerful greenhouse effect. The ocean, just like a gas giant’s atmosphere, could account for the low density and mass of the exoplanets."

Just something else trying to kill your explorers in a cold, uncaring universe!

GM IDEAS: Spacesuits

Continuing Wednesday's theme of 'contemporary antiques' that could make interesting plot points, salvage etc in the world of 2183, here's a graphic by u/crunchsmash of 20th Century spacesuit designs.

GM IDEAS: The SpaceX Starship

                                                                                                                          Credit: © SpaceX

Elon Musk's SpaceX has released a "user manual" for its Starship, which one day could ferry up to 100 passengers to the Moon or even Mars.

The stainless steel rocket includes private cabins, solar storm shelters, and a viewing gallery.

Perhaps in 2183, there are still some of these "antiques" in operation or available for salvage.

However you decide to use it in your game, this six-page PDF will certainly come in hand for technical details, to add an air of authenticity.

GM IDEAS: Planet Of Iron Rain

Astronomers have discovered a tidally locked exoplanet with an atmosphere where it rains of molten iron.

WASP-76b orbits a star in the Pisces constellation, 640 light-years from Earth, and an article on Popular Mechanics explains:

"The day side is constantly bombarded by radiation and can see temperature spikes of over 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit (roughly 2,204 degress Celsius)— hot enough to split open molecules and vaporise metals like iron."

However, the nightside is much cooler, about 1,482 degrees Celsius, and so when:

"...the atmospheric winds carry the vaporised iron over to the night side, they begin to condense and fall to the surface as rain."

GM IDEAS: What Might Hyper-Advanced Aliens Look Like?

What would hyper-advanced aliens even look like if we could find them. Director of the Columbia Astrobiology Center at Columbia University, New York, and author of The Copernicus Complex, Caleb Scharf explains how, using advanced technology, aliens could have progressed beyond physical matter.

GM IDEAS: Doom Worlds

Apokolips from the DC Comics Universe

This infographic from Futurism is a handy source of inspiration for scientifically-based weird worlds: Planets of Doom - The Strange Worlds of Dead and Dying Stars.

There's some wonderfully wild science there, including a planet which is a giant diamond!

GM IDEAS: Black Holes Suck!

Doctor Who: World Enough And Time

Doctor Who, Star Trek, Stargate - pretty much every sci-fi franchise has dabbled with run-ins with black holes at some point.

Which means they deserve the tabletop treatment at least once in your on-going sci-fi roleplaying game campaign.

If you're looking to throw one in the path of your players - and their starship - but aren't fully au fait with the scientific technicalities of these cosmological phenomena, then Futurism has you covered.

The science blog recently ran an article entitled Here’s How You Could Survive Being Sucked Into a Black Hole which has gaming potential written all over it.

GM IDEAS: Ground Control To Major Tim

When Tim Peake was on the International Space Station, the BBC published a couple of articles that could be useful fodder for games set in space that take a 'realistic' approach to that environment:

• What Could Possibly Go Wrong On A Spacewalk?
• How To Deal With A Medical Emergency On The Space Station

GM IDEAS: Alien Oceans

Our ideas of planetary explorations tend to be a blend of sci-fi movie science and the moon landing (ie. explorers/adventurers traversing solid ground), but NASA is working on ideas for exploring alien oceans and water worlds.

Futurism has one of its great infographics spelling out current thinking on the topic, that can surely serve as inspiration for an off-world watery adventure for your player-characters.

And while we're thinking about space travel, here's Futurism's guide to the world's top space agencies.

GM IDEAS: Was 7,000-Year-Old 'Spaceport' In Iraq The Work Of The Engineers?

Kazem Finjan

For those of us who love the whole Ancient Aliens deal as inspirational material for our roleplaying game campaigns, we have a new font of ideas in the shape of Iraq’s Transport Minister Kazem Finjan.

During a press conference in 2016, he broke the "news" that in 5,000BC the Sumerians had the world's first spaceport, in Dhi Qar, and used it as a launchpad for space exploration and the discovery of Pluto!

See, we don't need to make this stuff up: we have global politicians to do that for us!

GM IDEAS: Proxima b...

An artist's impression of the surface of Proxima b                 Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

In case you missed it in the last couple of weeks, a potentially-habitable Earth-sized world has been found orbiting around Proxima Centauri, a mere 4.23 light years away (or 40 trillion km).

Sure, that's several thousand years away travelling with current technology, but hopefully this will spur both government and private space initiatives to press on with developing the next generation of propulsion systems.

You can read all about this exciting discovery at the BBC News website here and learn all about "other Earths", potentially habitable exoplanets, in this infographic from Futurism.

All of the planets listed at Futurism have the potential for adding a touch of 'realism' to the homeworlds of any alien races your player-characters meet, be that in pure sci-fi adventures, superhero games, or just unexpected alien invasions of Earth.