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Post by swordnut on Apr 4, 2016 17:40:26 GMT
I want to explore this trope and have a few ideas. I would love your thoughts and hooks.
Any setting, any system. Only one common feature: Rocks fall, everyone dies
How you define "Rocks", "Fall", "Everyone" and "Dies" is up for debate
1 Begin the game in the afterlife.
Afterlife is a simulated environment.
Players can try to bend the environment, transfer to a different one or escape to the real world.
Use the strange system or fate?
2 Begin with descriptions and character history.
Have them narrate or play up to the point you can railroad them or just give them the objective they must end up in a cave/canyon etc.
They die and become ghosts. They must find a way back to the land of the living or avenge their deaths
3. Modern setting - your home city. Have the PCs narrate the opening scene with complete freedom except they are all in the same place.
The world turns white, then black as the asteroids land. They pull themselves out of the rubble the next morning and must survive.
Use cthulhu/numenra monsters.
Monsters could be real or a shared halucination
4. Have them draw up a mid-high level character and their low level retainer/squire they can call on for aid (make it clear these are basically NPCs). The high level chars go into a dangerous situation. Rocks fall.
The support crew must pick up the pieces. Do they complete the quest or seek revenge?
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Post by DM Windhover on Apr 4, 2016 17:55:05 GMT
Clever ideas.
#4 wouldn't go over well with most players, I suspect. In that case the DM is directly lying to them, and allowing them to create and invest in characters who are already planned to die in session 1. Feels a bit like a cheap trick, and I'd certainly be extremely ticked off if it happened to me.
I could see the other 3 working, though.
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Post by swordnut on Apr 4, 2016 18:05:26 GMT
Clever ideas. #4 wouldn't go over well with most players, I suspect. In that case the DM is directly lying to them, and allowing them to create and invest in characters who are already planned to die in session 1. Feels a bit like a cheap trick, and I'd certainly be extremely ticked off if it happened to me. I could see the other 3 working, though. perhaps run the game as standard but be clear about the high chance of a TPK, like mines of madness or tomb of horros, then have another party attempt it and find the other parties bodies, loot intact. Also, all of the progress made, traps sprung are all still in place, so its easier going? |
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Post by swordnut on Apr 4, 2016 18:09:13 GMT
5. It has been a week since the rocks fell and everyone died (scenario 3). The PCs task is to visit the wreckage of the city and piece together what happened, and stop it happening again
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Post by swordnut on Apr 4, 2016 18:15:21 GMT
6. The last surviving traces of civilisation have sought refuge in the levitating archipelago. A huge network of earthmotes, flying platforms and airships. Something is causing the Islands to sink into the roiling chaos below....
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Post by dmsam on Apr 4, 2016 23:16:32 GMT
I would love to run number 2, but I have no good approach to it. Should the story be a series of time-limited ghostly possessions? Should the PC'S wake up as some sort of undead, devoid of their memories but trying to maintain their humanity (Dark Souls 2)? If so, how would they manage their stats and equipment?
Better yet, what if they ARE the possessed equipment that takes over whoever wears them?
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Post by swordnut on Apr 5, 2016 7:10:51 GMT
I would love to run number 2, but I have no good approach to it. Should the story be a series of time-limited ghostly possessions? Should the PC'S wake up as some sort of undead, devoid of their memories but trying to maintain their humanity (Dark Souls 2)? If so, how would they manage their stats and equipment? Better yet, what if they ARE the possessed equipment that takes over whoever wears them? . Three brilliant ideas there :-) I ran it using the inspectres system, which was ideal, as the players can do it any way they please. Results here: swordnutradio.podbean.com/e/53-inspectres-big-boob-cookies/I could see doing it as possession only, but you would need a ton of character sheets, or just the physical stats to hand to the players as they jump about. If they were all trying to possess the same body, you could use the rules from Everyone is John to share the narrative. |
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Post by swordnut on Apr 8, 2016 14:28:22 GMT
7. In the town of Rocksfall, a plague rages uncontrolled. With no pattern or apparent means of transmission, can the PCs figure out the dark secret behind the affliction and what ties all the victims together before everyone dies?
There should be some agency behind it and at some point the PCs would be targeted for infection.
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Post by swordnut on Apr 8, 2016 14:40:22 GMT
8. The PCs are super villains, former henchpersons of an evil mastermind.
They receive messages or pick up clues leading them back to his/her secret lair. They each assume or reason one of the others invited everyone. They find their former master dead, but before they can investigate, there is an explosion, caving in the secret volcano base.
They must unite to find out who is responsible and exact vengeance. Will one of them find be able to use the situation to their advantage?
They should be encouraged to try to stitch up their fellow PCs, while working together, perhaps with a scoring system to see who exits the game most successfully? - helping a fellow villain's enemy, exposing a plot/crime, removing personal opponents etc.
Perhaps re-purpose the faction mechanics from the rage of dragons storyline?
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Post by swordnut on Apr 24, 2016 11:34:51 GMT
9. Rocs have attacked the Village of Falleve. Ryone, the village elder and healer was singled out and torn to shreds. Her apprentice was carried way, leaving the village with no healer in a time of great need.
You have been hired to retrieve the apprentice (short version), but the village is harbouring a dark secret and not everything is as straightforward as it seems (long version)
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Post by kjmagle on Apr 24, 2016 12:39:04 GMT
10) pcs are in Purgatory but they dont know that. They have no memory of the past. Though out the canputhey slowly get hints of the big bad thet killed them and memories of before (scrolls, stories seeming familiar of them, paintings that look like them, etc)
The ending would be to get back to the moment of the big bad fight to start it over or 2nd wind and win but also dieing in the process.
The time in purgatory would be about 1 sec of realtime death of before. Kinda Jacobs Ladder moment.
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Post by swordnut on May 4, 2016 9:00:15 GMT
11
The famous and sacred landmarks, the Tiverton Rocks are falling. They have stood, perilously balanced on point for thousands of years. Last year, the smallest of them began to list to the side, rendering the temple on top unusable. At the same time, all of the crops, animals and people started to turn blue (everyone dyes ;-)).
It came to rest gently on its side on midsummers day. This year. Then the second began to list.
The PCs must find out what is going on. Investigating the fallen rock, they should find a clear liquid leaking from the base where it used to rest on the ground.
The Rock is hollow and can be explored (but it's on its side, so climbing and access is a thing).
The liquid is what's turning things blue as it gets into the groundwater
I feel like the solution should be technological - it screams numenera to me.
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Post by swordnut on May 4, 2016 21:21:46 GMT
12
"Rocks Fall Everyone Dies" is a gameshow. The party must complete tasks to win a naff holiday or a speedboat. If they fail, their houses/cars get crushed
There could be a sinister version where there is a hostage situation or an entire town at risk. Perhaps run by a trickster god.
Play could start cooperative and end competitive
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Post by swordnut on May 6, 2016 9:19:36 GMT
13
The house of Graves Rock has fallen. Finally ripped apart by the machinations of rival houses in the city of Harvenburgh, you were at last vulneralble to attack without fear of reprisal.
You wake up in the family manse amid the screams of your extended family. Fleeing into the night, you must rebuild your resources, allies and contacts to make a strike back to reclaim your place or simply seek revenge. But who can you trust?
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Post by swordnut on May 10, 2016 11:17:44 GMT
14
Deep in the Cranic Nebula, the prototype Robotic Orbital Command and Control Station (R.O.C.C.S) has stopped transmitting. Yesterday there was a steady stream of reports, test data, shipping manifests and crew rotas. Then it just stopped. Your team has been rerouted from a survey mission to check on the station. You are poorly equipped, but you are the only people nearby with clearance.
The nebula has a shielding effect, but long term exposure shifts organic matter into adjacent dimensions, turning the crew into Dimensíonally Inverted Entities. The automated elements of the station are not yet fully operational and have switched to "safe mode", basically locking down the station. Some of the simulations are still running and there are weird dimensional rift apparatus set up by the crew in an attempt to save themselves. it didnt work, but some thing has come through...
sci fi dungeon craw', heavy on traps and terror. The sanity mechanic should be at play, as well as effects on the players as they too feel the effects of the nebula.
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