7 Distress Calls to Start a Space Horror Game

Nobody can hear screaming in space, but distress calls seem to get through just fine. Distress calls have a long history in sci-fi horror stories set in space. A prominent example is Alien (1979, directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O'Bannon), which started a franchise with a transmission that turned out to be a warning. The highly regarded sequel, Aliens (1986, written and directed by James Cameron), is built around the "we lost contact, go find out what happened" variant of the trope. Here are seven ways to lure in a group of player characters in a role playing game or begin the narrative for a miniatures wargame scenario.

Just go out there and find out what happened. Easy money, right?

"Guilty Consciousness"

A freighter reported as missing and presumed lost is tracked drifting through a remote star system. No life signs and minimal power readings are detected. Long range observations indicate a hull breach, but the vessel is otherwise intact. The corporate owners send a salvage team to recover their investment. Naturally, things go south as soon as they get to the freighter.

The freighter suffered a debris collision that killed most of the crew on impact. The AI responsible for navigation went insane with guilt almost immediately. It was under orders to get the ship to its destination in the shortest possible time so that the crew could earn their bonuses. The captain had authorized transit through a high risk area to save time. The conflict between its orders and its safety protocols caused the AI to suffer severe psychological stress. The deaths due to the collision caused it to snap. It removed any witnesses by killing off the surviving crew and went on the run. The ship has been moving along minimum energy courses, conserving power, and only refueling at automated stations in isolated systems to keep out of sight.

Signs of its discovery and the appearance of salvage crew cause the AI to panic and lash out. The freighter is low on fuel, so it can't evade the salvage mission. However, it has complete control of the ship's automated security systems and will use them on any boarders. Handling the AI could take anything from an extended psychotherapy session to a sophisticated hacking attempt to spending a little time and effort in its processing core with a really big hammer.


"The Tools of the Other"

A private exploration ship returning from a long range mission has developed a technical fault. The audio-only request for assistance sounds almost bored as the voice describes a problem that could easily be repaired with the right part. Unfortunately, the expedition ran out during its decades-long mission. Should be an easy fix, right?

The transmission was weak, distorted, and garbled - the only things that experts could agree on was the source. A private exploration ship set off with its crew in stasis for the decade long voyage. When they arrived, they found the impossible - a duplicate of their own ship crashed on the surface of a dead world. Most of the team spoke of temporal anomalies and paradoxes, but one found answers in the wreckage. He found a journal and a few other items in the cabin of his Other. The journal, written in his own handwriting, told him what he needed to do. As the expedition prepared for the return trip, he reprogrammed his stasis capsule to awaken him early. The ship was still a year from home when he emerged from stasis and began the work of the Other. He awakened each member of the expedition, one by one, and murdered them using the Other's tools and following the rituals in the Other's journal. However, the work was not done. He made preparations, sent out a distress signal, and went back into stasis. The ship's computer will revive him when a ship approaches. He will be ready to receive any responding to his call. More sacrifices will be needed for the Other's plans.

The whole ship is rigged with traps to disable any who board it. The Other wants them to live long enough to die properly, after all.


"Servile Revolution"

Ideally, a new settlement should have as much infrastructure in place as possible before the majority of the population shows up. While the initial survey teams often face many challenges, the work of the construction crews who follow them is usually mundane. The process mostly involves assembling pre-fabricated structures and is assisted by automation. It comes as a surprise when one such effort stops reporting on the edge of explored space. The settlement's sponsors dispatch a ship to investigate.

It turns out that the work of setting up a new settlement got a little too routine and this particular construction crew sought out novel ways to deal with their boredom. One bright spark started running pit fights between construction robots modified by teams of technicians. To keep things lively, teams began to incorporate self-improving intelligences and augmenting the local wildlife into cyborg combatants. Some of the artificial gladiators were made self-replicating to cut down on build time. Naturally, the newest creations became a little too smart and got ideas about how to shake up the order of things. The construction personnel now only survive as parts in the descendants of their own creations. The place is now host to a self-replicating population of dangerous cyborg creatures optimized for close combat.

It would take a significant infantry force to clear out the settlement and make it safe for human habitation. A less brute force approach might take the form of a virus - software, biological, or both - targeting the former gladiators. Or the team sent to investigate might decide to nuke the site from orbit as the only way to deal with the threat. Of course, that team would have to survive long enough to escape back into space.


"Unwelcome Passenger"

The new FTL drive is a revolutionary development. It offers longer range and better performance with none of the drawbacks of older systems. The published results of all tests to date are positive, but there are rumors of unreported difficulties. Even so, the prototype installed on an experimental ship is sent out for testing. The first full power test ends with the loss of all communications. Long range scans detect the ship near its target destination. A spacial anomaly is also detected at the same coordinates. The ship is adrift, power readings are minimal, and there are no signs of life. A rescue ship is sent to recover the expensive hardware and find out what happened.

Any boarding team soon discovers that the corridors and compartments of the ship extend beyond the ship's external dimensions. The new areas are obviously of alien origin. Scraps of bloody uniforms and a few bones are all that's left of the crew.

The full scale test opened a door to somewhere else and attracted the attention of something living on the other side. Always hungry, it crossed over, consumed the fleshy things it encountered, and made itself at home. Now fresh prey is at hand.

Weird sculpture with strange writing? Nothing suspicious here. Ship it!

"Never Dig for Miskantonic U"

Miskantonic University regularly sponsors xeno-archaelogical expeditions throughout known space. Many proceed without incident, quietly expanding humanity's knowledge of ancient extraterrestrial cultures. Contact with some expeditions ends mysteriously and later investigation reveals abandoned camps and missing personnel. The last word from others are urgent messages - sometimes spoken in strange languages - stating that something has gone horribly wrong before getting cut off.

One example is the expedition lost while surveying the cyclopean ruins of a world scoured of life by a nearby gamma ray burst. The camp is in good order with all atmospheric seals intact. It's as if every single expedition member just got up and left at the same time. The only clue is the last entry in the expedition log mentioning something about an artifact found in the ruins. The entry describes a bizarre sculpture carved from green-black stone.

Another example is the expedition sent to explore a vast repository of knowledge taking up most of a newly discovered planet's surface. Regular uploads of data are cut off by a panicked report of hostile beings approaching the camp site. The location could be orbiting the star Celaeno or be a Yithian library. Either way, both the staff and the non-human patrons don't view the expedition or would-be rescuers favorably.


"Runaway Growth"

A passenger transport ferrying workers from a remote mining outpost emerges from FTL. An automated distress call indicates that it has suffered a reactor overload and radiation leak caused by a FTL drive malfunction. Life readings are confusing. There are no indications of human life, but something is still alive on the ship. Scans of the transport ship also indicate that it is running on emergency power. A rescue team is dispatched to investigate.

The ship was carrying samples of organic material discovered during routine mining operations. The mining outpost lacked the means to analyze it, so samples were placed in sealed containers and sent back with the workers. The organic material includes a colony organism of a type not previously encountered. The radiation leak penetrated the sealed containers and triggered rapid growth and mutations. The growth of the organism broke the seals on the containers and they escaped.

None of this was noticed by the crew and passengers, who had other issues. The FTL malfunction greatly accelerated the flow of time aboard the ship. There was no way for the supplies to last for the decades of relative time that the trip would now take. The crew began to work on ways to shut down the FTL drive.

Their efforts were overtaken by the spread of the organism. Efforts to contain it failed. The ship's medical personnel discovered that spores had moved through the life support systems and infected everyone aboard. The spores had also infected the food supplies and hydroponics bays. Already weakened by radiation exposure, the crew and passengers began to die from their infections. Strange creatures burst from the corpses to attack the dwindling survivors. Meanwhile, the colony organism continued to spread throughout the ship.

The decades of relative time allowed the organism to use the bodies, food, and other organic materials aboard to evolve into a full blown colony. Growths have spread throughout the interior of the ship. The drones that once collected resources for the colony are dormant in their cocoons. Any disturbance aboard the ship will alert the colony to new sources of organic materials it can consume and use to grow.

Was this on the manifest? What were they thinking?!

"A Taste of Forbidden Fruit"

An automated emergency beacon signal is received from a distant planetary survey team. The team was investigating the potential of a paradise-class world of lush, biochemically-compatible forests and jungles for settlement. All previous communications from the survey team were routine check-ins and progress reports. An expedition is launched to rescue the team and recover their findings.

The survey camp is in ruins and the team is missing, but the data systems can be salvaged. An initial search of the survey team's logs reveals:

• All tests indicate that the native flora is safe for consumption. The team leader authorized using the native fruit and vegetables to supplement their food supplies.
• Cataloging the local fauna is still proceeding. Reports of a large primate could not be confirmed. No member of the team was able to catch more than a glimpse of one.
• Weak radio signals have been detected coming from a nearby magnetic anomaly. A group of volunteers would be deployed as soon as work schedules would permit.
• Team morale is declining. The overall mood improved after the introduction of fresh food, but dipped back down quickly. Conflicts are escalating and tempers are beginning to flare. The team leader plans to focus the team's attention on investigating the radio signals to divert their attention away from internals conflicts.
• A fair amount of survey data, but not enough for a complete report.

The rescue expedition has its first encounters with native fauna soon after arriving.

Deeper searches of the logs are possible, but require time to yield results:

• An expedition was sent to investigate the radio signals and magnetic anomaly. The magnetic anomaly is the wreck of an obviously alien spacecraft and some nearby structures. The team determined that the hull of the spacecraft was partly disassembled and the components used to construct the nearby structures. The poor condition of the wreck and structures, along with the amount of overgrowth, indicate that they are centuries old. The source of the radio signals is a beacon inside the wreck using the last of its power.
• The expedition had to be abandoned due to attacks from the native primates. The survey team was taken by surprise and several team members were carried off into the wilderness. None of the survey team was killed, but some sustained injuries. The team leader decided to pull back to their camp after an effort to track down the captured team members ran into further attacks.
• Further survey team logs describe how the native primates have been systematically attacking the camp. The long range communications and remaining food supplies were specifically targeted, but none of the team were killed or seriously injured. Fortunately, the primates have not interfered with the team's efforts to forage for native fruits and vegetables. One particular fruit is noted as particularly delicious.
• Barely enough survey data for a tentative report.

Hanging around the camp to recover more data, venturing into the wilderness, or going to investigate the alien wreck triggers an aggressive response from the native primates. They avoid killing - their goal is to take captives.

The final logs are corrupted and take time and effort to recover:

• Discipline and morale within the team collapsed. Some members of the survey team became obsessed with a particular native fruit, gorging on it and trying to persuade others to give it a taste. They later banded together and attempted to force others to eat the fruit. They became aggressive when confronted and rebelled. They were last seen disappearing into the wilderness around the camp.
• Efforts to forage for food have begun to come under attack.
• Piles of the fruit have begun appearing near the camp. With other food supplies running low, the team will have to consume the fruit into order to survive.
• The remaining team members are concentrating their efforts on defending the camp and repairing the emergency beacon. Hopefully, they can hold out until help arrives.
• All of the survey data collected by the team.

There is a specific native fruit possessing addictive and transformative properties. Anyone eating the fruit quickly craves more and encourages others to partake. The fruit's effects slowly transforms those who consume it into a powerful primate that appears to be native to the planet. The primates already present when the survey team arrived are descendants of the aliens from the wreck. The captured survey team members were forced to eat enough fruit to begin the transformation. The rebellious survey team members left when they felt the transformation beginning. The last of the team were left with no alternative but to eat the fruit and transform. They left the camp soon after repairing and activating the emergency beacon.


Hope y'all enjoyed these ideas! Let me know how they work out in play.