The Narrenschiff

The Narrenschiff is, like the Barge, a rogue vessel that was once one of the Authority's fleet. Unlike the Admiral, the Narrenschiff's Cap'n has entirely discarded the mission of personal transformation that unites the Authority ships... thereby sacrificing the primary power source that fuels those ships. The Narrenschiff has been forced to turn to piracy to survive, stealing both power and supplies from unwary Authority vessels that it tracks throughout the multiverse.

During raids, the Narrenschiff's residents are tasked with looting supplies, while the Cap'n focuses on siphoning energy. The Narrenschiff never makes port and the Cap'n is notoriously stingy with requests, so these raids are the only viable way for passengers to resupply. Kinder characters can always try to persuade the victim ship's passengers to give them supplies out of charity... but when the Narrenschiff goes on a raid, it's invariably because stocks are running critically low and they need a big buttload of stuff, and "give us almost everything you have because we super duper need it; when we're gone, your own captain will resupply you, maybe probably I guess" is never an easy sell.

After many, many years of severe power limitations and survival through raiding, the ship's functions are running down and supplies are chronically limited. Passengers are on their own for most of their basic needs, machinery is often semi-functional or non-functional, and the Cap'n isn't interested in wasting the ship's precious power on any whiny little requests from his passengers. Everyone onboard is living on borrowed time, having been offered at the moment of their deaths the opportunity to come join the Narrenschiff's Crew: if you're here, it means you accepted that offer. You're alive and free to be your best selves in the vast multiverse, and if you don't like it, he'll happily send you back to your deaths. Really, what more do you want from him? Food? Figure it out.

SETTING



The Upper Deck of the Narrenschiff is large, but cluttered with practical items. It is open to space, with three massive masts set at regular intervals from bow to stern. Each mast holds a vast, blue-glowing, transparent force field that serves both as the ship's sails and as protection against incoming attacks. Some weaponry is stored on the Upper Deck, as are cables, ropes and any supplies that are too bulky to be transported to the lower deck storage areas. Hatches with ladders lead down to the uppermost gun deck, and a particularly large wooden hatch in the center of the deck with a series of pulleys rigged over it opens to reveal a shaft leading all the way down to the bottom two decks. Rope ladders and wooden cross-pieces nailed to the masts provide a way to climb them to help maintain or repair the sails; the masts themselves are full of nooks where former or current passengers have hung hammocks or nailed a few extra boards on to create little refuges from the life of the ship below.

Below the Upper Deck are the Gun Decks, three full decks dedicated to grappling and damage-dealing weaponry. The Gun Decks are lined with open ports, each one holding a different weapon from a different era. Medieval ballistae sit next to laser cannons, rocket-propelled harpoons share space with airship carrier guns and 18th century cannon: no matter the home world or era of a ship's passenger, something on the Gun Decks is likely to be from their time and place. The center of each of the Gun Decks is a walled armory, filled with ammunition as well as with hand-held weapons.

The Berth Decks lie under the Gun Decks. There are three, from top to bottom:

Top: Towards the bow is the Galley, where long wooden tables with benches accommodate the crew for meals. The food preparation area itself is cramped, with a mixture of technologies similar to the one found on the Gun Decks: everything from wood-burning brick ovens to food synthesizers might be stuffed in a corner in the Galley. It's anyone's guess whether it will work.

Towards the stern are the bathing and recreational facilities -- exercise equipment, library shelving, and games. Between the two are a warren of small cabins built of whatever materials are available: some have wooden bulkheads for walls, others may have scrap metal sheets nailed to the floor and ceiling, plastic, parts of shipping crates or more. These cabins are constantly shifting as the Narrenschiff's passengers put up extra or tear down the walls of a lost comrade's cabin to expand their own space.

The Middle Berth Deck has an infirmary towards the bow, directly under the galley. This is one of the better-supplied areas of the ship, with a variety of medicines and medical devices and a reasonably large and clean space devoted to it. The remainder of this deck is split between passenger-built cabins and open area with hanging hammocks.

The Lower Berth Deck is entirely devoted to living space. There are fewer makeshift cabins and more hammocks here.

Below the Berth Decks is Steerage, a largely open deck (except for the occasional mysterious large column or wall) devoted to storing the ship's most recent haul of stolen goods.

Below Steerage is the Orlop Deck, a barely-lit and mysterious space, low-ceilinged and filled with heavy cables, glowing lights of every color human eyes can see and quite a few that they can't, dials, gauges and strange displays. A glass jar contains a six-legged frog that changes color and croaks five-note jingles as the ship moves to new regions. A diamond lens is set in a frame that slides in front of the indicator lights, refracting them in a thousand different points of brilliance. A floor-to-ceiling magnetic coil contains a small blue flame at its exact geometric center. Vast and complex networks of copper tubing dispense tiny droplets of liquid into equally tiny vials.

Ship Mechanics

Powers/Weapons: The Cap'n imposes no limits on his passengers.

Comas, Death, and Disappearances: Death revivals are one of the requests that the Cap'n will grant, although not without grumbling. Characters who die can be resurrected if any other character requests their resurrection from the Cap'n. They will return to life within six to eight hours after the request, either through their dead body healing and coming back to life or by appearing in the Infirmary if their body was completely destroyed or lost. Comas happen on the Narrenschiff just as they do on the Barge. Disappearances do too, though they're not entirely random: anyone who rebels too hard against the conditions onboard, or against the Cap'n's norms and expectations, tends to vanish pretty quickly.

Graduation/Pairings/Demotion: The Narrenschiff doesn't do graduation - it's too artificial and restrictive, says the Cap'n. Instead of focusing on change and growth and all that woo-woo nonsense, he encourages everybody to put all their energy into embracing themselves as they are in the here and now. There are also no deals to be earned: it's the present moment that matters, not some nebulous future happiness that may or may not ever come to pass. Accordingly, there are no pairings, and no distinction between passengers in a Warden/Inmate sense; everybody is just Crew. With everyone dead back home, and with no way to earn their lives back via graduation or a deal, that means... yup. All Narrenschiff passengers are on board forever - unless they disappear, or unless they choose to leave and die for good.

Communicators/the Network: Though the Narrenschiff does have a network, the Cap'n no longer bothers to provide new passengers with communicators; all "official" communicators are either leftovers from the ship's run as part of the Authority's fleet, or were looted from other ships during raids. Communicators are largely identical to Barge communicators in form and function. As the only way to get a communicator is to snatch one from someone else, onboard theft is common, making anonymous text communication fairly simple and private messages rather risky (someone else might pick up that device.) Passengers sometimes make alternate options (ex. shortwave radios) for themselves and their friends, but these can't hook up to the Narrenshiff's official network.

Locked Areas/General Security: The Cap'n does not lock or secure any areas on board the Narrenschiff. After all, his passengers are all free and equal! Why would he keep anything under lock and key? Security is therefore a problem for passengers to solve, not one that the Cap'n takes any interest in.

Jobs: The Cap'n does not assign jobs or even notify his passengers of what jobs need to be done. Every passenger is expected to participate in raids and supply-gathering, but beyond that, someone can spend a month lying on a deck chair scratching themselves or swab decks twelve hours a day, and it's all the same to the Cap'n. Passengers may take on self-imposed duties helping with maintenance, cleaning, cooking, inventory for supplies or weapons, and so on, in any number and schedule of tasks that they choose.

Ports/Floods/Breaches: The Narrenschiff does not make any port stops (outside of raids), but does sometimes experience floods and breaches similar to those that the Barge undergoes.

Cabins: Passengers on the Narrenschiff have no private cabins unless they build them personally or steal them from someone else. The default is for each new arrival to have a hammock assigned on one of the three berth decks... although, given the extent of building private spaces on those decks, there's no guarantee that someone's assigned hammock still exists.

Other/Miscellaneous Information: The Cap'n does not grant most requests. Resurrection requests can be handwaved, but due to the extreme power restrictions suffered by the Narrenschiff, requests for items will be denied unless they are both small and a matter of life and death (such as specific medication.) The Cap'n comes off as superficially very hearty and friendly, but is quick to get pissed off if people ask for supplies and favors, or try to bring problems to him. He likes to give orders and to be seen as the fearless leader of his plucky Crew of rejected misfits, but he has no interest in enduring the pains of actual democracy.