Deck of Fridays 10: Flimsy

Welcome back to DECK OF FRIDAYS, our weekly feature here at FATE SF. We make a draw from the Deck of Fate, RPG Inspiration Cards, or another Aspect-generative randomizer. Then we do something interesting with it, using the Aspect as inspiration for a campaign or scenario seed, a situation, scene, location, NPC, thingie, etc.

This week's draw from the Deck of Fate is a card with the Aspect: Flimsy. Since I traveled to DC this week, it occurred to me that a Damaged Luggage Table might be a fun thing to do today. After all, luggage ccan be pretty flimsy. And so are the excuses people sometimes offer for the illicit items they pack.

Like modern day airports, the spaceports of tomorrow will have plenty of damaged and unclaimed or confiscated luggage. In the Alwyn Campaign, one episode dealt with the luggage accumulated in the lower levels of the John M. Ford Interstellar Starport, a colossal wreck sandwiched between the ruins of Minneapolis and St. Paul. They found that the luggage had been thoroughly sorted through and reorganized into groups by contents (i.e., a pile of suitcases filled with underwear, another with projectile and energy weapons, one with evening gowns, another pile with drugs, etc.).

So what might players find in the damaged, confiscated, or unclaimed luggage in your game's starport?

Damaged Luggage Table

Roll 4DF and consult the results below.

Result:

• -4: An antimatter bomb with detonator; countdown underway!

• -3: A severed head or other body part. Missing ambassador found! 
• Roll 1DF: on a (-) face, it's from a human; on a blank face, from a robot, replicant, or android; on a (+) face, from an alien (yowzah, the stink!). 

• -2: The luggage was custom-built to hide a stasis box. 
• Roll on the "What's Inside the Stasis Box?" table to determine its contents.

• -1: Biological samples with cryptic notations in an alien language. The samples are small bugs, worms, and eggs. 

• 0: Drugs of some kind. 
• Roll 1DF: on a (-) face, they're powders; on a blank face, bottled liquids or gases; on a (+) face, pills.

Molecular Disruptor

• +1: A recent model, highly concealable molecular disrupter: the favorite weapon of assassins and hijackers.

• +2: The luggage is full of information.
• Roll 1D6, and consult the according result below: 
1. Books, scrolls, or maps
2. E-books on a tablet-like device
3. Data crystals, unmarked pastel colored microtapes, or data spools
4. Psychic sutras recorded on small bits of folded or rolled spacetime. Call in the professionals.
5. A sentient jewel, possibly the "egg" from which a Spindle might coalesce
6. An Autodidacta, Plasmate, or Laminate

• +3: At first glance, there's nothing too unusual among the items in this piece of luggage. The clothes look pretty nice, but some of them feel rather weird and tingly. And the tips of your fingers seem to disappear when you touch them...  

• +4: A variety of extremely high-value goods reported to the Port Authority as stolen from several different passengers on-board a luxury starliner. Unfortunately, the passengers have long gone their separate ways. Many of the items are insured and the underwriters would like the items returned to their rightful owners - that's always better than making a series of big payouts.