My group (7 players) have reached the end of Shadows over Twilight. Most will be fighting off the Dark Eldar whilst the Tech-Priest will be getting the escape pods ready.

I've kind of got myself into a corner. To ensure the players just don't run for the pods I've said that the escape pods will take a while to get ready. What I'm looking for is a way to simulate this process for the tech-priest player rather than just asking for a few tech-use and other rolls.

I'm thinking of having the tech priest player play a game (with me) or solve some sort of logic puzzle to simulate his character working through the power up problem. Meanwhile the combat with the Dark Elves can be going on with the other players.

Any suggestions/advice/previous experience? The player will be up for this. I've got a laptop so if it is an online puzzle/game he can use that.

I'm currently looking through the armorgames.com range but haven't found anything suitable. Also would prefer a game that is physical or interactive.

create a complete the circuit puzzle but secretly time it

Skipping the usual spoiler disclaimer due to the subject line....

I have a Techpriest player in my game as well. What I ended up doing is add a little bit of extra detail to the information presented to the players by the ghost accolyte. He gave the warning that the escape pods have been badly neglected and will take a while to get ready, but he further added that the access to the required engineering spaces had been partially crushed and were compromised to the void. For the living to go there is to invite certain death. "Fortunately for you, I am a ghost so this is merely an annoyance. Likewise I have had a few hundred years here on this ship to work on my telekinesis and the wards are broken. I will prepare the pods and come for you as soon as they are ready."

I suppose you could hand the player a stack of puzzles published by Mensa and when he has solved them then the pods are ready.

Alternately have the Tech Priest "off camera" for the Dark Eldar scene and let the player pick one of Soldevan's team to play (Except the one with the dark secret, obviously). Every once in a while ask the player to make some Tech Use and appropriate Lore skill checks for his own character, then mumble to yourself a little and make it look like you are scribbling down notes as he reels off his margins of success for those (fake?) rolls you just called for. When the tension is just right and it is dramatically appropriate glance down at your notes and make a show of quickly doing some "calculations", then announce that the Techpriest has succeded and the pods are now online.

I don't like having players sitting around for long periods without having some involvement in a scene but sometimes it is more important for the team to be split up. If the split-scene is going to be long then I usually offer some NPCs up for player control. They are usually "mooks" in these cases, but most of my players have gained a special piece of joy by managing to kick a huge piece of ass while playing "generic PDF Trooper #4" or similar. Some of the "loaner mooks" have performed well enough to get recruited into the Inquisition and I reward the controlling player by allowing them to name the character and come up with a basic description. One of the "super-mooks" even managed to impress one of our Guardsmen enough that he handed over his coveted combat shotgun (it replaced the Lasgun as his starting kit!) as a gift. It was reasoned that if he could dismatle a few combat servitors with a pump-action shotgun loading buckshot then he deserved a "man's gun". As an added bonus, if someone manages to get themselves killed off and are hurting for new character ideas it is fairly easy to have the Inquisitor "promote the new guy to field duty."

Well here's a couple of classics. On the plus side they are easy to explain in game if a bit flimsy "the launch sequencer is all messed up and, as a result, the machine spirits won't get into the pods. You've got to get the launch arrays aliened so the pods will power up as they are supposed to for launch!" etc. On the down-side, they rely strictly on the players thinking ability and not his character. However, I am by no means a smart guy (kinda dim in a lot of ways) and was able to solve them in less ten 10 min each so your player, if you go tis route, should be able to as well.

Oslik Get the yellow square to the bottom.

Fifteen Arrange the numbers in numerical order (my parents usually threw this one in mass quantities into the back seat for long car trips to keep us quiet tough it was usually in the form of a smiley face... worst toy ever).

Good old fashioned Pipes type game good substitute for circuitry.