Love that idea. My crew will probably accept that with gusto. As survey money is nice, but they have their eyes on salvage and 2ndry contracts from CCA/UN gov. or bounty hunting jobs for our CCA colonial marshal (CCA Space Patrol Captain '3M' Moore). They aren't planning to return to the Middle Heavens for at least a decade.Yeah, the self-doubt is strong in this one...
Anyway, talking about the in-between episodes developments with other explorer ships, I’m going for a sort of friendly rivalry between the crews. My focus is mostly on featuring the UNCSS Typhoon, which sets up the mission to rescue that ship in Ep. 5 – AGAINST A SEA OF TROUBLES (p.233).
So far, I’ve brainstormed news updates for the first four post-episode downtime periods, and it goes something like this.
Post-Ep.0 – ARRIVAL:
• UNCSS Typhoon strikes it big right from the start, staking a claim for a cold, water-rich, nameless/uncharted world with breathable atmosphere; a good potential planet for setting up a colony. Commander Barton of the Typhoon offers a fairness deal with the other three ships, wherein each pledges 1% of every survey bonus to their rivaling crews as a way to bolster camaraderie and ensure that everyone partakes in each other’s successes. (This idea was inspired by how George Lucas and Steven Spielberg gave each other percentage points on A New Hope and Jaws respectively; I always like that idea).
DX