Cruise passengers endured stench, cold food
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Summary

November 12, 2010: Article tells the story of a Cruise ship, the Carnival Splendor, with 4,500 passengers aboard, which had an engine fire that shook the ship and knocked out all the power. After it was determined that evacuation into lifeboats was not needed, it still took three days for tugboats to find the ship and haul it back to shore. Three days with no electricity or running water, no hot food and no air conditioning for nearly 5,000 people stuck on a ship 952 feet long.

Plus, they were outside of cellphone range for most of it, so no contact with the outside world.

And did I mention that a large number of the passengers were aboard for a magician's convention?

Source

Game and Story Use

  • Seems like a perfect place for zombie outbreak, Cthulhu mystery, or other horror genre story.
    • A search or chase through the darkened, powerless bowels of the ship has serious potential for creepiness. Stagnant swimming pools with no power for the pumps, empty casinos, all the usual amenities of a Cruise ship take on a sinister spin when devoid of power. Add a monster to the mix, and it gets even better.
    • A large portion of the passengers are magicians. Stage magicians, no doubt, but why not blur the line, and assume some real magic as well?
  • Set the PCs up on one of these as a straighforward survival game … eventually they make landfall, only to discover that the real disaster happened on land and that's why no-one came to rescue them.
  • Alternatively, the PCs are the rescue team … or a boating party/tramp merchant crew etc. who stumble across one of the above scenarios, or a Marie Celeste that's been going on for ages.
    • More interestingly, the loss of the liner hasn't made the news yet … who has covered it up? Or has it slipped in from … somewhere else?
  • Very easily recycled in space.
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