Got an idea for a Storyteller incident?

[BeanusMaximus]

It'd be interesting to see an event which transforms the terrain.

Things such as parts of the map flooding or changing the land to a completely different type of terrain such as snow/desert/lava pit/alien. Seeing animals & pirates etc be effected by this would be good too.

[AspenShadow]

It'd be interesting to see an event which transforms the terrain.

Things such as parts of the map flooding or changing the land to a completely different type of terrain such as snow/desert/lava pit/alien. Seeing animals & pirates etc be effected by this would be good too.

Don't forget the sci-fi bread and butter of "glassing" a planet's surface. The ultimate in bad terrain, useful only for building upon.

[BeanusMaximus]

It'd be interesting to see an event which transforms the terrain.

Things such as parts of the map flooding or changing the land to a completely different type of terrain such as snow/desert/lava pit/alien. Seeing animals & pirates etc be effected by this would be good too.

Don't forget the sci-fi bread and butter of "glassing" a planet's surface. The ultimate in bad terrain, useful only for building upon.

It'd be kinda wounding if they did try building and an earthquake levelled the building. Especially if the progress of the building was delayed.

[AspenShadow]

It'd be kinda wounding if they did try building and an earthquake levelled the building. Especially if the progress of the building was delayed.

Yes, I think if tile-altering events were included then a rider would have to be added that ensures the tile isn't used by the player. It should limit expansion to new terrain, there are other condition/events that can devalue/harm your existing infrastructure.

[IncredibleNode]

Fissures opening up and producing new geysers to set up Geothermal Generators on

[CptLavish]

Just from recent worldy events that i heard about and such i got the idea of a tsunami of some sort maybe?  If there is going to be water on the maps or assumed oceans on the planet the idea could work.  Would have to seal your colony off or divert water somehow.

[Finjinimo]

- Bounty Hunter: A bounty hunter arrives to collect one of your colonists.

     * "We don't want no trouble..." - Hand over colonist (they're removed from game).

     * "Come and get them, copper!" - The bounty hunter attacks.

[Enjou]

• Unusually High Solar Activity - The local star's output has increased for a time. Solar panels generate more energy during the day and outdoor plants grow slightly faster, but fires may start randomly outdoors.
• Unusually Low Solar Activity - The local star's output has decreased for a time. Solar panels generate less energy during the day and outdoor plants grow slightly slower.
• Blockade - You've angered a powerful aristocrat! Perhaps that Pirate King you just executed was a beloved relative, or maybe one of your colonists is a former rival that was tracked down and this is about revenge, or it could be that the jerk is just drunk on power and is doing it because he can. Mercenary ships have been hired to blockade your world, preventing traders from trading with you. Bribe them to leave or wait it out until their contract runs out or they are driven off by another force. At least they may kill any pirates attempting to get through as well, and maybe some intrepid smugglers may risk running the blockade... to sell at exorbitant prices, of course.

[noego]

How about a terraformer crash... A terraformer ship crashes onto the planet and malfunctions, starting to slowly poison the air. Could be destroyed to stop that or repaired to increase planet quality?

[salt1219]

Corrosive substance.
A strange corrosive substance has covered your walls.  10% of your walls are damged.

Relief package.
Shortly after your crash a relief package is dropped by a passing ship that heard your distress call but was unable to pick you up.
You gain some more food, two med packs, and some building supplys
Glutton.
A colonist arrives and eats more than his fair share of food.  He refuses to haul/work.  (Worst roommate ever)

[AspenShadow]

A nice idea that just came to me was a random story event centring around Wuv lol.

"Eloping Justice" - Your warden and [opposite sex?] prisoner are getting along so well they've started a secret romance without you knowing. That charismatic devil you captured has actually convinced her/him to join them as they elope into the sunset with some supplies.

You lose a colonist and a prisoner, that's what you get for thinking a Level 6 social warden was capable of turning a level 13 social prisoner!

[SpaceEatingTrex]

Rather than a specific idea, I think it might be good to have some general idea of what a Storyteller Incident should be. In my mind, a Storyteller Incident should cause the player to make a meaningful choice.

With that in mind, I think a good approach to incidents is to make them both potentially helpful and harmful. That might not be possible or even desirable with all incidents, but it seems like a good guideline. Incidents that are entirely positive or negative are still good (particularly if players have multiple ways to react to them), but events that can be both have intrinsic elements of choice.

There have been a number of ideas like this in the thread already, and some ideas that could be adapted to it. Let's look at some of them:

Meteor strikes.

Presumably very destructive, if Meteor Strikes left behind metal or other resources they would have the negative/positive duality. Ideally one of the resources would be time sensitive (radioactive material with a short half-life?) so that colonists would either need to brave the meteor storm or forgo repairs to collect it.

• Crashed Alien Vessel - Think 'Aliens' Movie. Unleashes one strong/fast creature. Or more. Upside is it could also have advanced tech your colony could utilize (faster crop growth/energy efficiency)

Having both a dangerous creature and valuable resources spawn together has a similar risk vs. reward mechanic.

- Emergency Medical Shuttle -
- Indigenous Critters -

Both of these were good concepts that could potentially be either a benefit or disaster. If we do go with the "fluffy creatures that turn vicious" idea, we should try to make sure players don't feel cheated if they lose pets/colonists.

Cold Sleep: When you check out the ruins of a old colony, you find a hibernationpod. Inside you see a single human. After examine it, you accidantly awake the person inside. (Friendly and hurray, a new colonist. Foe? Well, bad luck then. His reanimation triggerd a beacon and his friends are comming...)

Events to this play to people's curiosity and gambling instincts. FTL has an event similar to this, but that one wasn't good because the reward was getting an untrained crew member and the risk was losing a trained one, so it's rarely worth taking the bait. As long as the risk/reward was balanced well events like this could be good for a story.

Similarly, rather than a stasis pod just having a sealed container that could contain valuables or could be booby-trapped or any number of things would be good for adding another element of intrigue to game stories.

Sorry if that was long-winded, but I wanted to demonstrate that risk/reward mechanics can be integrated into a number of different kinds of events. Again, although not every event needs them I think an event having the potential to be positive or negative will keep stories fresh and players interested.

[Louist]

There has been some talk about multi-stage events, and I like that idea. Having an event with a chance of causing a follow up event (or a short chain of events) is a great way to add some narrative cause and effect without forcing a storyline on the player. I also like the idea of having events that could be beneficial or harmful, depending on the AI's mood. This way the same event could have a wide range of effects, and the player won't initially know what will happen. With these thoughts in mind, I'd like to suggest a few events.

Salvage: an unknown item is found (mined out? Crash lands? There from the start?) and can be taken back to the research station where it becomes a new research project. Researching it could do a number of things: it could partially or fully unlock a random project; it could introduce a new and otherwise unavailable research project; it could be a unique item (a special weapon, for example) to be cherished; it could be utterly incomprehensible, and waste your researcher's time; it could be dangerously unstable, and cause a power drain, an explosion, a blight/disease or other malady; it could be or contain a hostile life form. What it ends up being and doing could be decided by the storyteller, either when it appears or when it is researched.

Traitor(s): perhaps one or more of your colonists are actually raider spies, and sabotage defences in preparation of a pirate attack, or a converted prisoner/slave uses an attack, storm or other distraction as an opportunity to escape/enact vengeance.

Debris Fall: we already know the space surrounding Rimworld is dangerous. Perhaps wreckage from a space battle has crashed down nearby. It could contain any number of valuable items or resources, it could be salvageable (as per the event I suggested) or it could structure too large to move, but worth claiming, maybe a med-bay, a powerful turret, or a special generator. But you may not be the only one who saw it come down. Whether it draws fellow colonists, opportunist raiders, those responsible for wreckage, or no one at all remains to be seen...

Feel free to critique these, or let them inspire some other ideas.

[mumblemumble]

If someone abandons the camp, later there is a chance they could return with friends, saying he (and his friends) want back in because life was too hard outside the base. This could also come with bonuses from their return, like weapons / items they brought with, connections with low level traders, or even able to call in "favors" from a raider band the person was with for a while.

[Gazz]

And some will, in dwarfish fashion, become psychotic and throw a violent tantrum.

How about... something other than the overused psycho killer rampage?

A single colonist goes insane. Batshit crazy. Very rarely he quietly and efficiently murders a single victim. Then he goes back to living a quiet and content life. For a while.

He could be using means like a drug that leads to spontaneous combustion after a delay, a malfunctioning airlock or prepping a walkway over dangerous machinery to... become a fallway.