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----------========== The NET.PLOTS.BOOK ==========----------
Volume IV
Compiled by Phil Scadden
Editors Note:
Here at last is volume 4, the latest attempt to keep GM's supplied with
inspiration. It contains plot and scenarios for mostly fantasy RPGs but at
last I have some cyper plots. (Now for some more horror and space adventures for
Vol 5). Plots have been presented in no particular order - if it isnt
written for your genre, try thinking of translating the core idea. I have
made only minimal changes (spelling and removal of trademarks etc. of a
certain gaming company) to the material as received. I hope everyone finds
this enjoyable and useful.
The book includes a very large appendix of ideas for starting out campaigns.
(seems to be the theme for this volume). Should be no excuse for the tired
old "you meet these people in a bar" hack.
Authorship of individual plots have been accredited individually with email
addresses. Author attribution is at the top of each plot. Authors appreciate
feedback - if you use any of these try telling the author how you did. IT
MAY WELL ENCOURAGE THEM TO CONTRIBUTE MORE PLOTS TO THE NEXT VOLUME.
Finally, my thanks to all who submitted these plots. You make the
net.*.books possible. Of course my mail box is now open for contributions
to vol 5...
Phil Scadden P.Scadden@GNS.CRI.NZ 7/3/95
<title>So where are we... and who are you...?</title>
<author>M. Taylor
<email>mtaylor@tartarus.uwa.edu.au</email>
</author>
<length>Medium</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Affliction</type>
<type>Exploration</type>
<type>Startup</type>
<setting>Dungeon</setting>
<plot>
Players are zapped to new low-magic fantasy world minus their memory and
anything metal they were carrying (If you are a kindly GM give magic
stuff a save to make the trip) and sporting a few new wounds (Its fun to
describe their injuries). In this new world they are poor, ill-equipped,
injured, they don't speak the language(s), their spells don't seem to
work as well and nobody likes the way they smell or they way they look
("Why's that short guy got pointy ears?").
I ran this adventure by starting them in a cavern that looked like the
start of an underground temple complex and stuck a cave-in at the
entrance to the complex. I then suggested their last memories involved
ransacking an underground temple of some kind. This accomplished a few
important things:
<list>
* An immediate goal - getting past the cave-in.
* An explanation of their injuries - they'd been set upon by
temple nasties.
* Some additional intrigue - the players didn't realize they
in a new world until a few hours into the game.
* A justification of their teleportation - temples always have
weird, nasty, magic traps in them.
* Most importantly a reason to get out in the society of the new
world - to get men and equipment to get past the cave-in.
* Finally an excuse for a traditional dungeon bash when they'd
done the hard role-playing stuff.
</list>
Once they were past the cave-in I gave the players a fun time exploring
the temple complex as a reward. In short order they found an ancient
magic artefact and an idol that looked familiar. They united the two and
wham-bam they were back in the real-world -- in the middle of the fight
they had fled from in the first place :)
The reason I made the new world low-magic was to short circuit magical
short-cuts. The cave-in, the language barrier and other fun stuff could
have been circumnavigated by the right spells.
Run correctly this can be a really hard adventure, going into a new
world with little to no resources and little recourse to magic will
really stretch your players inventiveness.
</plot>
<title>Grishnak the Merciless</title>
<author>Bryce Harrington
<email>bryce@canal.aero.org</email>
</author>
<length>Long</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Quest</type>
<setting>Rural</setting>
<monster>Giant</monster>
<plot>
This encounter was designed for a group of 4-8 low-mid level characters of
The encounter is intended to be challenging and to scare the pants off the
PCs. If they feel too cocky, they may not complete the adventure, or may
complete it too soon.
If the party includes a psionicist with the psionic blast power then the
part will have a much easier time with the encounter than otherwise, so you
may want to 1) disable the psionicist's power somehow, 2) beef up Grishnak's
immunity to psionics, 3) cheat on the power rolls. If nothing else, impose
the -7 penalty for trying to contact a monster, even though a hill giant may
still qualify as a humanoid.
If this adventure is too easy for the party, change the giant type to a
stone or fire giant. This *will* change the flavor of the encounter a bit.
One way to toughen up the encounter without changing the flavor is to give
the giant some helpers. A dozen goblins or orcs hanging around might slow
the party enough for Grishnak to get in a few good blows. Give him a couple
of ogres, too, and the party may have some difficulties. For a very high
level party, you may want to beef up Grishnak as a specialized fighter with
a high strength, high skills, and very high damage resistance.
It would work best if one of the party members is a dwarf; for a low level
party, spell casters or psionicists are a must.
I. RUMORS
Before starting the first encounter, it is important to build up a little
fear and respect in the PCs. Make them realize how tough this giant is by
rumors of its atrocities. Here are some rumors which I used in my campaign:
<list>
- The town of Inglesham was attacked by The Giant on Middenmonth 8th. Death
tolls vary depending on the teller, but at least two score of citizens found
their way to Grishnak's belly. Inglesham is shaken by the event, to say the
least, and is offering a huge bounty on Grishnak's head. Some say that the
King himself will lead his forces to defeat the brute, others wonder why
their protector has not stepped forth to protect them.
- A young rag-a-muffin boy has been asking in the city of Sherborne for an
organization known as The Giant Killers. The boy says that his entire
family was eaten by a Giant named Grishnak the Horrible. His desire for
revenge is so strong that he will do anything for the organization if they
help him.
</list>
[Note: The PCs had just recently decided to name themselves Unar's Hammer,
but had mistakenly spread several earlier names about, like Unar's Giant
Foes and such. The townspeople were a little confused as to exactly what
this virtually unknown band's name was.]
II. TANK
"Around noon you stop at a stream for lunch and a short rest. You've only
been there for a few minutes when you hear: "<SNIFF> .... <SNIFF> ... MEE
MIE MO MORPH, Me thinks me smell a Dwarf! I'll grind his bones to make me
bread, but first, let's go and bash 'is 'ead! <THUMP> <THUMP> <THUMP>.
Twisting your heads in all directions you finally spot the source of the
echoes as a tall humanoid shape on the top of a hillock several hundred yards
away flings his fist forward to release a huge boulder. Looking around
quickly for a place to hide you see a rocky hill on the south side of the
stream. Across, on the north bank, is a thick and gnarled stand of trees
and shrubbery. Upstream perhaps a hundred yards is a jumble of rocks the
stream flows through."
Ask each player to write down what they do individually. Then have everyone
reveal their plans and move their characters appropriately. The rock will
come crashing down where the PCs were. Make a to hit roll against anyone
still there.
If the players are stupid enough to attack, then they should suffer the
consequences:
<villian>
Grishnak the Merciless.
Grishnak is really nothing more than a semi-tough hill giant. He's been
ravishing the countryside and causing lots of local trouble.
Mediocre armour, (Many hides sewn together with chain mail, shields, and
metal plates); Good damage resistance; Weapons are: Fist, Club, or Rocks -
range 2-200 yards); Will also try to Grab.
Grishnak is selfish and cunning. He terrorises the local villagers (and
eats them, that's especially annoying to the villagers). He is oddly simian
and barbaric in appearance, with overly long arms, stooped shoulders, and a
low forehead. He is about 16' tall and weighs in at 4500 lbs. His skin
color is a dark tan; his hair and eyes are black as coal.
Grishnak carries a bag containing:
3 big rocks (2' dia boulders)
1 Metal truck with 6lb copper, 10lb silver, 23 crown and
a dwarven gauntlet (copper, worth 100 gp)
3 Children's toys - toy horse, wooden soldier, and a
wooden dragon, 1 short sword, blood stained,
but not rusty at all
</villian>
Ideally, the PCs will run for the rocks. Grishnak will close, saying,
"Grishnak, now don't squish food with rocks." At the last minute, just
before the giant gets to the characters, he will suddenly stand up straight
and sniff: "Hmm, Grishnak smell pigs. Mmm, pork!" Grishnak will then
stride off across rough terrain quickly outdistancing the PCs.
***
Wait a few sessions before throwing this next encounter at them. The PCs
should hear a few of rumors about the monster's depredation's. Perhaps have
some offers of rewards be offered to them for the creature's death. Here
are some of the rumors I gave out:
<list>
- The giant killing specialists known as Unar's Giant Foes are offered a job
to assassinate Grishnak the Merciless by a group of merchants in Caer
Shert. Grishnak has destroyed several villages in the Caer Shert region.
The organization is asked to report to The Benevolent Protectorate Order of
Grain Merchants in the city of Caer Shert.
- A band of ex-soldiers known as the Troll's Nightmare were found dead in
the fields near the base of the Castle Oncliff. They had apparently been
stepped on by Grishnak.
- The town of Inglesham was attacked by The Giant on Middenmonth 8th. Death
tolls vary depending on the teller, but at least two score of citizens found
their way to Grishnak's belly. Inglesham is shaken by the event, to say the
least, and is offering a huge bounty on Grishnak's head. Some say that the
King himself will lead his forces to defeat the brute, others wonder why
their protector has not stepped forth to protect them.
</list>
III. OOPTHS!
"There seems to be some kind of obstruction in the road ahead of you and
you approach it with caution. Your stomach knots in horror at the
gruesomeness of the scene: To one side of the road are the crushed remnants
of a gypsy wagon. A horse still wearing its bridle and harness lays dead on
the opposite side of the path, and by the way its ribs have been caved in
and by the way the creature's intestines have exploded from its abdomen you
figure that it must have been squeezed to death.
"Littering the whole area around the wagon are pools of blood and
assorted human body parts, and the way the skin has been torn and lacerated
from the bones, you realize that they had been physically wrenched from the
bodies to which they once belonged.
"Huge, 3' long footprints have left indentations several inches deep in
the seemingly hard packed soil of the path. Several nearby trees have been
completely uprooted. A pile of boulders and a tree trunk, strangely
stripped clean of bark and branches, and well rounded on one end, lays a
ways off near the woods to the left. You make out the tracks of a single
wagon leading off to that forest, multiple trails of blood revealing the
wagon's horrid cargo. Between the ruts are a single set of 3' long foot
prints. The prints do not look to be more than an hour or two old."
Grishnak, as the players should well be aware, has struck. A gypsy caravan
has been raided and its members carried off. It is expected that the
players will investigate. The path to Grishnak is 3 miles:
"You hesitantly enter the forest, but move fairly quickly, as a wide
path has been cleared already. You wonder how the wagon could possibly have
made it through the rough terrain.
"Proceeding through the forest you gradually come to an area where the
ground raises into rocky hills and cliffs. You stop suddenly as the smell
of burned hair and bone assaults your nose, followed by the pitiful sounds
of sobbing humans. A deep voice booms out, "Grishnak say shut up! Food
people giving Grishnak sore ears!" The screaming crescendos and then
suddenly stops. You appraise the surrounding terrain. To the right of the
trail is a 30' high raised hill, to your left the ground is more level. The
sounds of a babbling brook come to you from your left. The path continues
ahead of you and then turns to the right at a point where the rocky hill
comes to an end. You think that Grishnak is right on the other side of the
hill."
The players can climb the cliff and view Grishnak from above if they are
quiet. They will be able to see that Grishnak has made a bonfire right
below the hill. There is a cave in the hill at this point and Grishnak
occasionally goes into it to get something. To one side of the fire, not
far from the cave entrance, is the battered remains of the wagon, and inside
of it are the limp (though living) bodies of 16 gypsies. A small pile of
gypsy heads can be seen next to the wagon. The gypsies seem to be in a
state of shock.
Grishnak is stupid, but not dumb. If attacked, he will defend himself
fairly well, but unfortunately he has not left himself a cache of rocks
nearby, and left his club at the scene of the crime to be able to pull the
wagon back. Grishnak will try to flee if he takes over 1/2 his hit points
in damage.
Here are some things for Grishnak to say:
"Where Grishnak club? Stoopid Grishnak lost club when took rolly box."
"Where Grishnak rocks? No rocks? Oh, yeah, Grishnak empty bag for food
people."
IV. THE BATTLE
My PCs defeated the giant through a great plan, which took them 3-4 hours to
put together (no kidding!) The cleric cast silence, light, and heat metal
on the giant, in that order. As soon as the silence was on the giant, the
metabolic psionicist snuck in to the giant's cave and attempted to use
double pain. Unfortunately the giant woke up at that point and the fight was
on. The light successfully blinded the giant, and with the silence as well,
it was mighty difficult for him to hit anyone (I think the only damage came
from the giant randomly backing into the fighter). Most of the damage came
from the fighter's blows and the cleric's heat metal spell. The
thief/psionicist kept failing to strike the giant with double pain, at least
until the very end.
The giant finally fell and the party was, to say the least, very excited.
They cut the giant's head off and proceeded to carry it through the towns
Grishnak had terrorised.
V. EPILOGUE
There had been such a build up to the giant encounter that I felt there had
to be some sort of major rewards. Rather than simply giving out treasure, I
awarded fame. The party went around and collected bounties, and as they
travelled they were accepted as heroes throughout the lands. Here are some
of the rumors that the PCs received following their defeat of Grishnak:
- Word of the exploits of Unar's Hammer has reached the Humber
coast and the cities of Yartshire and Sherborne. The tales of
the defeat of Grishnak the merciless are second only to the
stories of Gipin's defeat of Navagoras the Magnificent.
- A group calling themselves "Heros of the Dark Fist" has claimed
responsibility for the defeat of Grishnak the Merciless. They say that
Unar's Hammer had accosted them after their defeat of the giant, while they
were still weak, and stole the giant's head. They proved their claims by
showing they had possession of Grishnak's hands and feet.
</plot>
<title>THE BROKEN IDOL</title>
<author>Loren Miller
<email>loren@hops.wharton.upenn.edu</email>
</author>
<length>Medium</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Investigation</type>
<setting>Urban</setting>
<setting>Village</setting>
<plot>
This plot assumes that player characters are members of an extended
family, or clan, and all live in the same castle/villa/manse. My
campaign is a RuneQuest campaign set in Carmania, which is a cold and
snowy land that was the heart of a splendid ancient empire conquered
and kept by warfare, and is now the heart of a growing merchant
network.
Strange ship docks at the clan village, word is sent to the clan to
pick up Farwalker, the chief's half-brother and wandering-merchant/
capitalist-oppressor-pig who has been gone for many years. He is sick,
very cold, and is clutching something in his hands. His hands cannot
be pried apart without breaking his fingers, something the chief (in
my campaign his nickname was Stoneface, but the PCs called him
"chief") would be very upset about.
Chief installs his brother in a sickroom, and appoints a PC to
watch him, alternating with other family members. A rivalry would be a
good thing to encourage here, because it makes the rest of the plot
possible.
Word comes that someone has been killed in the village. PCs are
sent to investigate. Discover several brutal murders. Chase the
murderer around, path leads to the clan house/castle/villa/manse.
While the PCs are out of the room, the rival searches through uncle
Farwalker's clothes and finds something, half of an ivory idol, and
removes it to his rooms. Then he comes back, pretending nothing has
happened. In the meantime, the murderer has snuck into the sickroom,
put out the lights, and is killing uncle Farwalker as the rival walks
in and lights a candle to see what's going on. The murderer is a yeti
or some other huge, hairy, tough humanoid (in my campaign it is a snow
troll from the glaciers) which was looking for an idol that Farwalker
took.
The PCs come in about the same time that the rival is being ripped
up by the murderer and join the battle. What happens after this is up
to you, but the PCs will probably discover the half idol, should
interrogate the rival, may want to find where the idol came from, may
want to return it, and may have to deal with more attempts to recover
the idol. And... the idol might be cursed, or blessed, or an
ingredient in a world-shattering magical ritual.
</plot>
<title>The Borrowers re-visited</title>
<author>Phil Scadden
<email>P.Scadden@gns.cri.nz</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<genre>Sci-Fi</genre>
<type>Affliction</type>
<setting>Any</setting>
<plot>
Ever enjoy "The Borrowers" as a child? Consider the possibilities of suddenly
shrinking the players to say 15 to 40 cm. Cats, dogs, rats become serious
monsters, a 3 foot wall becomes a major obstacle. To get back to normal size
they need say a potion found only on a high shelf. Make this a test of
ingenuity with utilising ordinary objects. Any genre will do!
</plot>
<title>Jericho Jones and Kruger Bioprime</title>
<author>Colin Steele
<email>colin@aol.net</email>
</author>
<length>Long</length>
<genre>Cyberpunk</genre>
<type>Investigation</type>
<setting>Wilderness</setting>
<setting>Rural</setting>
<setting>Urban</setting>
<setting>City</setting>
<plot>
A CP2020 scenario follows.
TRADEMARK NOTICE. Cyperpunk(tm) is a trademark of R. Talsorian Games Inc.
Copyright (C) 1992 Colin A. Steele
This document is free. Permission is given to redistribute it and/or
modify it under 2 conditions:
1. My name stays on it.
2. No profit is made from redistribution or modification.
This is not meant to be a fully fleshed-out adventure. There are many
gaping holes, that you, the GM, are gonna have to fill. My intention
was to create a framework which was sufficiently fleshed out to be
useful, but flexible enough to be adapted to your campaign.
Thanks, and enjoy.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Jericho Jones
Rocko, a small-time fixer known to one party member, contacts the
party with a "favor" to ask. He has a client, Malachi Jones, who
needs to have his son returned to him. To emphasize the "favor"
appeal, make one of the characters, preferably a nomad, somehow owe a
favor to Malachi Jones. If the characters are stupid enough to do
this as a "favor", Rocko pockets a big wad of cash. If the characters
are smart, Rocko makes them the real offer. His client offers 10,000
eb for the return of Jericho Jones, the son of Malachi Jones, the
chief of the Jones Tribe. Jericho is hiding out in Sky Mesa, with the
tribe of nomads living in the area.
The characters accept the job, and travel to Sky Mesa.
They arrive in the middle of a firefight. The tribe of nomads living
in Sky Mesa is getting the shit kicked out of 'em by the local
wastelanders, the Fury. Jericho is nowhere to be seen. If the
characters look *specifically* at the Fury's tactics, they'll notice
that the Fury is being semi-methodical, as if looking for someone.
The characters join in on the side of the Sky Mesa tribe, of course,
and eventually chase off the Fury. Again, if the characters are being
careful and keeping their eyes open, they'll see part of the Fury's
gang hop in an AV-4. (An extremely odd possession for a wastelander
gang.) But, the AV-4 has no markings, and it speeds off into the night
before the characters can do anything more. The rest of the Fury
takes off in cyberbikes.
The massacre is a sight. Women and children are just so much
lunch meat. Many RV's and trailers are ablaze. If the characters are
helpful, offering medical aid, etc., they will be taken to see
Jericho. Play the massacre up for maximum compassion effect.
The characters meet Jericho. Jericho explains that he and his father,
Malachi, had a huge falling out last year, and Jericho has been at Sky
Mesa ever since. Jericho was trying to prove to his father that
Kruger Bioprime, a mid-size multinational, is bad news. It's obvious
that Jericho is a righteous dude. He cares about people, and is
trying to create a better life for the people of Sky Mesa. In fact,
he's the de facto leader of the Sky Mesa tribe.
You ask, "Why is Jericho down on Kruger, when Kruger Bioprime has been
downright friendly with the Jones Tribe?" As part of a "multicultural
activism campaign" to "improve the public's perception of Kruger
Bioprime", they have been helping the Jones Tribe fight to regain some
land titles to property in Salt Lick.
Jericho never bought the corp's bullshit. He has always suspected
something more sinister, but hasn't been able to prove anything. To
boot, the corp has been winning some of the court battles, and the
Jones Tribe now has legal rights to some property in Salt Lick. That
makes it even harder for Jericho to talk sense to Malachi.
Jericho lays the cards on the table. He asks the characters to help
him find the dirt on Kruger. If the characters are of the mind just
to collect their money, Jericho will outbid his father - offering to
double their fee. Of course, he's full of it. The Sky Mesa tribe can
only pay about 1/2 of the 10,000 eb the characters were originally
offered for the job. But anyhow, Jericho'll play both on the
characters pocket book sense, and on their sense of justice. And, he
adds, if they can indeed turn the tables on Kruger Bioprime, the Sky
Mesa tribe will "owe them".
Now if the characters just want to bag Jericho, fine. Let 'em.
They'll have no problem bringing him in to 'ole Pop. They'll collect
their fee, and head off into the sunset. What they won't know is that
the Sky Mesa tribe springs Jericho from incarceration in the Jones
tribe. Much later, they'll read in the news about what Kruger
Bioprime is really doing in Salt Lick.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
The Real Fax
Kruger Bioprime *is* bad news. They've got Malachi Jones on the
payroll, keeping him quiet and rich, while they wrestle deeds out of
the legal system and into Malachi's hands. Don't even ask what
they're doing to the unwitting members of the Jones tribe.
The story goes something like this:
With some serious hush money, Kruger convinced Malachi to let them
build a secret R&D/training base on one of the parcels of land. The
base was completed over a year ago and code-named Cadence Canyon. The
original purpose of the base was lost when a violent internal coup put
Katherine Washington in power at Kruger. A smart Kruger exec, by the
name of Charles Marsh, was bucking to get a promotion to associate VP,
and took over as the Candence Canyon project leader. He realized that
Cadence is in the middle of nowhere, and has a more or less captive
population. It's perfect for dumping hazardous waste, new product
testing, covert op training, you name it! Mr. Marsh sent several
memos around to this effect, which is perfect dirt for Jericho to dig
up. If he can.
Kruger planned to use the Jones tribe for product testing/op training,
and they've made good on the plan, so far. Malachi doesn't know it,
but Kruger has already been testing a new virus on a small segment of
the Joneses. The virus hasn't broken out yet, but it's a new form of
anthrax which cannot live in soil. (Perfect for military
applications!) About 10% of the tribe is infected. Kruger plans to
try out their cure on 1/2 of the infected 10%, and let the other half
die to see how effective the virus is. (Kruger doesn't know it yet,
but their manufacturing process is for shit, and this is the only run
of the virus that will be useful. It'll take them about another year
to produce a second batch.)
Although Malachi doesn't know about the virus, he suspects something
might be up. Kruger knows this, and when Malachi reaches the breaking
point, which they know he will, they'll waste him. Then, according to
some keen legalese, the deeds revert to Kruger. Imagine that! Then,
Kruger can do whatever they please with the Jones tribe.
Through their two moles in the Jones tribe, Kruger learned that
Jericho was trying to dis 'em. Wanting to protect their investment,
Kruger ordered Malachi to "lean" on the Sky Mesa tribe. So, Malachi
hired the Fury. Big mistake. The Fury was too cybered up and
psychoed out for Malachi to control. Plus, their leader is kinda
greedy. So, when Kruger asked them to go ahead and waste Jericho, for
10,000 eb, they didn't think twice. They took it upon themselves to
*wipe out* the Sky Mesa tribe, and put Jericho's head on a stick in
front of their leader's tent. Malachi realized his mistake, and,
wanting to save his son, hired the characters to kidnap him. He
doesn't know that the Fury are playing both ends against the middle.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Diggin'
So, the characters team up with Jericho Jones! Now the fun starts.
They've got to get some dirt on Kruger, ASAP. In the previous
episode, the characters got hired to find Jericho and return him to
Malachi Jones. They landed in a firefight between the Fury and the
Sky Mesa tribe. Little did they know that the Fury were in the pay of
Kruger Bioprime *and* Malachi Jones. Kinda ironic, huh?
The Fury are planning another raid on Sky Mesa, and have some scouts
observing the movements of the tribe. If the characters move Jericho,
the Fury will know about it, and will attack at the first opportune
moment. Otherwise, they'll stage an attack on the Sky Mesa camp the
night following.
Perceptive characters will know that a) they Fury were using an AV-4,
and b) they were hunting for someone. If the characters make a point
of it, one of the Sky Mesa bunch will volunteer a few digital photos
of the AV-4, taken during the raid. The characters may decide to
analyze these. Another clue: if there are any bodies of Furies,
perceptive characters who make a coupla' skill checks will find out
that the Furies are sporting some keen *new* cyberware. Finally, if
there are any living Furies, they might be interrogated to reveal some
useful clues.
All of the clues will point the characters back towards a particular
fixer in Night City. From that fixer, they'll be able to make the
connection to Kruger Bioprime.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
A Thousand Words
The photo analysis will yield a vehicle ID number - but only after
some serious skill checks, time and cash. The characters can try it
themselves, using Photo&Film skill a program called DigiDesigner Pro,
and 8 hours. Or, they can call in some contacts to have it done, for
about 2000 eb. Once they locate the contact and upload the photos,
it'll take 2 hours. If they use a contact, success is guaranteed (but
don't tell them this).
The vehicle ID can be tracked down to a AV-4 reported stolen from a
Kruger Bioprime branch office in Night City six months ago. Included
in the NCPD files concerning the case are some interesting clues. The
case notes indicate that at the scene of the crime, investigators
found the tag symbol of the gang known as the Icemen. No gang members
could be apprehended for questioning, so the lead was never properly
pursued. In addition, a pattern of vehicle theft was developing,
though not necessarily correlated with the Icemen. AVs and expensive
cars were disappearing at a fairly high rate, for about 3 months
around the time that this particular AV-4 was stolen.
The next step for the characters might be to find and question some
Icemen. This should be fairly difficult. The Icemen are a small
gang whose primary reason for existence is to supply the members with
enough cash to support their drug of choice - ice. Ice is a
little-know, highly addictive hallucinogen. The users can be easily
identified by one of the drug's side effects - the user's skin
temperature is significantly lower than normal. With some street deal
and some luck, they might be able to hook up with Frost, the leader,
and chief junkie, of the Icemen. From her, the characters might be
able to find out that Micky hired the Icemen to do most of the vehicle
theft, including the AV-4 in question. Then again, Frost might just
decide that the Icemen need to have some fun, and jam on the
characters heads! GM's discretion on this one.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Furious
If there were any of the Fury still alive, the characters might want
to squeeze a little information out of them. None of the 'dorphed out
Furies is going to be of much value, but each successful
Interrogation/Intimidation/whatever skill check (average difficulty -
+15) will yield one of the following clues:
<list>
1. Zap was in Night City two weekends ago.
2. A bunch of Furies got treated to lots of shiny new cybergear at
a place called Rael's in Night City.
3. Zap stole the AV while he was in Night City.
4. Zap and part of the gang did a road trip to Salt Lick three weeks
ago. While there, Zap said he had business to take care of and
left for a couple of days.
5. Zap says we're supposed to kill Jericho Jones.
6. Zap's input, Jet, broke up with him last week and moved to Night
City.
</list>
Clue #1 can be used to search police records to find that a person
matching Zap's description was picked up on disturbing the peace
charges in a Night City club called the Rainbow Nights. The
characters might be able to find out from a savvy waitress that Zap
was seen talking biz in the corner with Micky the fixer.
Clue #6 can be used to track down Jet, and find out from her that Zap
got a big wad of cash from "some fixer" to "waste Jericho Jones".
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Bright Lights
If the characters check out the cyberware on the dead Furies, and make
an average (+15) CyberTech skill check, they'll determine that it's of
local manufacture, and find out its serial number. They can chase
that down by either making the right connections (for 200 eb and an
average Streetwise or easy Streetdeal skill check) or by an difficult
CyberTech skill check. The designer is Rael Sanchez, a Night City
ripperdoc operating out of Rael's Bodysculpting and Tatoo. (p. 98 in
Night City).
Time to head into the city! Note that the Fury is too dense to report
the characters' movements to Kruger Bioprime. Their laced-out brains
are filled with only one thought - ultraviolence on Jericho Jones.
If the characters pay a visit to Rael's Bodysculpting, and make an
average (+15) notice skill check, they'll see that Rael has some
concealed security cameras. If they grease Rael's palm enough, or
intimidate, or whatever, he'll let them take a peek at the footage
taken when the Furies came to visit. After about 2 hours of watching
the Furies bounce around the clinic, harass other customers, and have
black cyberware installed, they'll catch Zap, the Furies' leader, say
to Rael, "Good thing Micky gave us cash!" Hmm.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
You're So Fine
Characters who are fixers and are familiar with Night City will
automatically have heard of Micky. Characters with Streewise skill
will recognize her name on a successful skill check of average
difficulty. Micky is a fairly well-known edgerunner who works
primarily out of a dingy gym on the edge of the Zone.
To get info from Micky our heroes will either have to pay, bully, or
hack her data system. It'll take some serious finagling to see Micky,
in any case. If Jericho is with the characters, she'll take off and
order her bodyguards to kill Jericho. If not, she'll demand 12,000 eb
for the information. She can be bargained down as far as 5,000 eb.
Or, the characters can try to intimidate/persuade/fast
talk/seduce/interrogate. But, she's one tough cookie, and her
bodyguards won't take kindly to interrogation or intimidation.
The characters could also try to wrest the data from Micky's data
systems.
One way or another, the characters find out from Micky that Charles
Marsh hired her to deal with the Fury. (Jericho's fears are indeed
true!) Micky has done other work for Mr. Marsh and Kruger Bioprime,
including the vehicle roundup carried out by the Icemen. Furthermore,
she knows that Charles is working on some sort of secret base. She
doesn't know where. She'll even reveal that Malachi Jones is paying
the Fury to lean on the Sky Mesa tribe. Micky thinks this is a truly
amusing state of affairs.
Jericho's reaction to the information Micky provides is a mixed one.
Jericho is outraged at the news that his own father hired the
wastelanders to rough up the Sky Mesa tribe. He also doesn't
understand why. Jericho is properly justified, and not unsurprised
when he learns that Kruger Bioprime is trying to kill him. It only
hardens his resolve to make Malachi see the light.
The real question is, do the characters think their job is done? If
the characters are of a mind to teach Kruger a lesson, then just push
on.
Of course, Jericho feels that this is just tip of the iceberg, and
that they should try to push a bit further. He'll try his best to
persuade them to do so, and if he can't he'll vow to "do it on his
own" if he has to. Once again, the GM should play this up for maximum
compassion/anti-establishment/potential-monetary-gain effect. If the
characters bag out, fine. Jericho promises to send his brother to pay
them (which he'll do, but only with 5,000 eb.) They'll read about the
battle that Jericho, the Joneses, and the Sky Mesa tribe fight against
the Kruger ops at Cadence Canyon.
If the characters want to continue, then Jericho decides it's time to
tell Malachi. He'll travel home to Salt Lick, and meet his father,
who is overjoyed to see him. They'll go have a heart-to-heart. Since
Malachi doesn't know that the characters are working for Jericho,
unless they told him, he'll credit the characters' accounts with
10,000 eb. If they don't have an account, he'll surreptitiously slip
'em the cash. Either way, they won't find out about it until after
the next episode in the adventure.
Malachi and Jericho will emerge a couple of hours later, and call an
emergency meeting. The Sky Mesa tribe will travel down to Salt Lick
to join in.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
The War Council
The chiefs of the Jones tribe and the Sky Mesa tribe have decided to
let the cat out of the bag. Malachi will announce, with great shame,
the whole story about Kruger to the tribes. He tells them about the
secret base, and about his suspicions. Jericho tells them about the
Kruger connection to the Fury attacks. The tribes are incensed!
A quick vote is taken by the tribes, and the decision is unanimous -
they must rid Salt Lick of Kruger Bioprime. They begin to draw up
their plans to do so.
Malachi takes the characters aside, and thanks them for returning his
son. He tells them about their payment, and tells them, gravely, that
he is forever in their debt for saving his son. He informs them that
they are not obligated to join in the battle against the Cadence
Canyon base. He offers them a car to return them to Night City, turns
on his heel, and leaves.
Now, what kind of people are the characters? Here's the real test.
Do they leave the battered tribes to fight alone against the sinister
Kruger Bioprime? They might. In fact, it's really good theatrics if
they do, and then have second thoughts, and come screaming back into
the middle of the firefight at Cadence Canyon, just in time to turn
the tide against the highly trained Kruger ops.
But, if they don't, that's OK too. They'll read about the horrendous
battle at the podunk town of Salt Lick, and the allegations of the
Jones tribe that they were used as guinea pigs. Jericho will call
them three days later from a hospital bed, and tell them that their
payment is on the way. He also tells them that the tribes discovered
that the corp had infected some tribe members with the virus, and that
they had gotten the cure from a lab in the base. He thanks them, and
hangs up. The next day, an AV-4 - the same one that the Fury was
using - shows up, and a Sky Mesa nomad hands 'em the keys.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Cadence Canyon
The Jones and Sky Mesa tribes may have some difficulty in their
attack, because the Kruger facility is well guarded. Cadence Canyon
is at the end of a dirt road, off of what used to be highway 145.
Highway 145 winds out of Salt Lick to the north, towards the
foothills. It's a narrow, two lane asphalt road badly in need of
repair. Boulders, rocky outcropping's, and bare earth surround the
base, and the only cover is a few scraggly trees and bushes.
The tribes plan to attack at 1 AM. The Jones's weatherman predicts it
will be a moonless night, so the nomads may be able to surprise the
guards and effect a successful breakin. Jericho will lead a
hand-picked band of Sky Mesa nomads in a stealthy rear attack, while
Malachi will take a much larger group and use them in a frontal
assault.
There are 6 guards, 2 "Section 7's" (highly trained security ops), a
research team of 9, 4 administrative personnel, and 2 executives at
Cadence Canyon. A fairly sophisticated electronic surveillance
network monitors the facility at all times, which the nomads will have
to defeat or circumvent in order to get in.
It is a two-floor facility, with the labs on the ground floor, and the
offices on the second floor. There is an AV pad on the roof, and the
security team makes regular patrols in the AV (about every hour and a
half).
The rest of the details are up to the GM...
Cast of Characters
<stats>
MALACHI JONES
ROLE: Nomad (65 Char. Pts)
INT: 6 REF: 10 TECH: 5
COOL: 7 ATTR: 7 LUCK: 7
MA: 6 BODY: 8 EMP: 9
RUN/RND: 18 LEAP: 4
LIFT: 320 CRRY: 80
BTM: -3 IP: 0
SAVE: 8 REP: 0
_____________________________________
Location: Head|Torso|R.Arm|L.Arm|R.Leg|L.Leg:
: 1 | 2-4 | 5 | 6 | 7-8 | 9-0 :
Armor SP: 0 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 :
-------------------------------------
_____________________________________
:Light Ser. Cri. Mor0 Mor1:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 0 1 2 3 4 :
-------------------------------------
:Mor2 Mor3 Mor4 Mor5 Mor6:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 5 6 7 8 9 :
-------------------------------------
CAREER SKILLS
family: +5 ( ) endurance: +4 (BODY)
awareness/notice: +3 ( INT) wilderness survival: +1 ( INT)
athletics: +9 ( REF) brawling: +2 ( REF)
driving: +3 ( REF) melee: +4 ( REF)
rifle: +3 ( REF) basic tech: +6 (TECH)
PICK-UP SKILLS
strength feat: +1 (BODY) swimming: +1 (BODY)
interrogation: +1 (COOL) oratory: +1 (COOL)
human perception: +1 ( EMP) interview: +1 ( EMP)
accounting: +1 ( INT) shadow/track: +1 ( INT)
stock market: +1 ( INT) fencing: +1 ( REF)
martial art(___________): +1 ( REF) pilot dirigible: +1 ( REF)
AV tech: +1 (TECH) first aid: +1 (TECH)
forgery: +1 (TECH) pick pocket: +1 (TECH)
CYBERWARE
CyberOptics: Infrared
ARMOR
Armor EV SP EB
Flack Vest 1 20 200
WEAPONS
Weapon Type AC CN AV DAM SH ROF REL RNG EB
Dai Lung Streetmaster Med. AutoPistol +0 J E 2D6+3 12 2 UR 50m 250
H&K MP-2013 Lt. SMG +1 J C 2D6+3 30 32 ST 150m 450
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
JERICHO JONES
ROLE: Nomad (65 Char. Pts)
INT: 7 REF: 10 TECH: 10
COOL: 5 ATTR: 10 LUCK: 3
MA: 8 BODY: 5 EMP: 7
RUN/RND: 24 LEAP: 6
LIFT: 200 CRRY: 50
BTM: -2 IP: 0
SAVE: 5 REP: 0
_____________________________________
Location: Head|Torso|R.Arm|L.Arm|R.Leg|L.Leg:
: 1 | 2-4 | 5 | 6 | 7-8 | 9-0 :
Armor SP: 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 :
-------------------------------------
_____________________________________
:Light Ser. Cri. Mor0 Mor1:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 0 1 2 3 4 :
-------------------------------------
:Mor2 Mor3 Mor4 Mor5 Mor6:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 5 6 7 8 9 :
-------------------------------------
CAREER SKILLS
family: +5 ( ) endurance: +2 (BODY)
awareness/notice: +4 ( INT) wilderness survival: +3 ( INT)
athletics: +6 ( REF) brawling: +3 ( REF)
driving: +5 ( REF) melee: +1 ( REF)
rifle: +5 ( REF) basic tech: +6 (TECH)
PICK-UP SKILLS
resist torture or drugs: +1 (COOL) streetwise: +1 (COOL)
social: +1 ( EMP) accounting: +2 ( INT)
hide/evade: +3 ( INT) library search: +1 ( INT)
stock market: +1 ( INT) AV tech: +3 (TECH)
disguise: +1 (TECH) electronic security: +3 (TECH)
CYBERWARE
CyberAudio with: Wearman
Rippers (2D6 dam)
CyberOptics: Infrared
ARMOR
Armor EV SP EB
Kevlar T-Shirt 0 10 90
WEAPONS
Weapon Type AC CN AV DAM SH ROF REL RNG EB
Militech Arms Avenger Med. AutoPistol +0 J E 2D6+1 10 2 VR 50m 250
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CALEB JONES
ROLE: Nomad (63 Char. Pts)
INT: 6 REF: 10 TECH: 9
COOL: 4 ATTR: 2 LUCK: 9
MA: 10 BODY: 6 EMP: 7
RUN/RND: 30 LEAP: 7
LIFT: 240 CRRY: 60
BTM: -2 IP: 0
SAVE: 6 REP: 0
_____________________________________
Location: Head|Torso|R.Arm|L.Arm|R.Leg|L.Leg:
: 1 | 2-4 | 5 | 6 | 7-8 | 9-0 :
Armor SP: 0 | 0 | 20 | 20 | 0 | 0 :
-------------------------------------
_____________________________________
:Light Ser. Cri. Mor0 Mor1:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 0 1 2 3 4 :
-------------------------------------
:Mor2 Mor3 Mor4 Mor5 Mor6:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 5 6 7 8 9 :
-------------------------------------
CAREER SKILLS
family: +3 ( ) endurance: +2 (BODY)
awareness/notice: +8 ( INT) wilderness survival: +5 ( INT)
athletics: +3 ( REF) brawling: +3 ( REF)
driving: +3 ( REF) melee: +4 ( REF)
rifle: +5 ( REF) basic tech: +4 (TECH)
PICK-UP SKILLS
strength feat: +3 (BODY) oratory: +1 (COOL)
social: +1 ( EMP) botany: +1 ( INT)
education & gen. knowledge: +1 ( INT) history: +1 ( INT)
stock market: +1 ( INT) system knowledge: +1 ( INT)
dodge/escape: +1 ( REF) submachinegun: +2 ( REF)
forgery: +2 (TECH) gyro tech: +1 (TECH)
CYBERWARE
CyberOptics: Camera
CyberOptics: Targeting scope (+1 to smartgun att.)
Reflex Boost (Sandevistan - +2 init. rolls)
ARMOR
Armor EV SP EB
Hvy. Armor Jacket 2 20 250
WEAPONS
Weapon Type AC CN AV DAM SH ROF REL RNG EB
H&K MPK-11 Hvy. SMG +0 L C 4D6+1 30 20 ST 200m 700
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MICKY THE FIXER
ROLE: Fixer (53 Char. Pts)
INT: 7 REF: 4 TECH: 6
COOL: 8 ATTR: 3 LUCK: 10
MA: 3 BODY: 2 EMP: 10
RUN/RND: 9 LEAP: 2
LIFT: 80 CRRY: 20
BTM: 0 IP: 0
SAVE: 2 REP: 0
_____________________________________
Location: Head|Torso|R.Arm|L.Arm|R.Leg|L.Leg:
: 1 | 2-4 | 5 | 6 | 7-8 | 9-0 :
Armor SP: 0 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 :
-------------------------------------
_____________________________________
:Light Ser. Cri. Mor0 Mor1:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 0 1 2 3 4 :
-------------------------------------
:Mor2 Mor3 Mor4 Mor5 Mor6:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 5 6 7 8 9 :
-------------------------------------
CAREER SKILLS
streetdeal: +5 ( ) intimidate: +6 (COOL)
persuasion or fast talk: +3 ( EMP) awareness/notice: +5 ( INT)
brawling: +3 ( REF) handgun: +2 ( REF)
melee: +3 ( REF) forgery: +4 (TECH)
pick lock: +5 (TECH) pick pocket: +4 (TECH)
PICK-UP SKILLS
endurance: +1 (BODY) swimming: +1 (BODY)
oratory: +1 (COOL) chemistry: +1 ( INT)
composition: +1 ( INT) library search: +1 ( INT)
physics: +1 ( INT) programming: +1 ( INT)
stock market: +1 ( INT) martial art(___________): +1 ( REF)
pilot gyro: +1 ( REF)
CYBERWARE
CyberOptics: Infrared
CyberAudio with: Wearman
Rippers (2D6 dam)
ARMOR
Armor EV SP EB
Spiked Leather Jacket 0 5 150
WEAPONS
Weapon Type AC CN AV DAM SH ROF REL RNG EB
Federated Arms X-22 Lt. AutoPistol +0 J E 1D6+1 10 2 ST 50m 150
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ROCKO
ROLE: Fixer (50 Char. Pts)
INT: 7 REF: 5 TECH: 5
COOL: 5 ATTR: 4 LUCK: 8
MA: 9 BODY: 4 EMP: 3
RUN/RND: 27 LEAP: 6
LIFT: 160 CRRY: 40
BTM: -1 IP: 0
SAVE: 4 REP: 0
_____________________________________
Location: Head|Torso|R.Arm|L.Arm|R.Leg|L.Leg:
: 1 | 2-4 | 5 | 6 | 7-8 | 9-0 :
Armor SP: 0 | 0 | 20 | 20 | 0 | 0 :
-------------------------------------
_____________________________________
:Light Ser. Cri. Mor0 Mor1:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 0 1 2 3 4 :
-------------------------------------
:Mor2 Mor3 Mor4 Mor5 Mor6:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 5 6 7 8 9 :
-------------------------------------
CAREER SKILLS
streetdeal: +2 ( ) intimidate: +8 (COOL)
persuasion or fast talk: +4 ( EMP) awareness/notice: +3 ( INT)
brawling: +2 ( REF) handgun: +3 ( REF)
melee: +3 ( REF) forgery: +4 (TECH)
pick lock: +5 (TECH) pick pocket: +6 (TECH)
PICK-UP SKILLS
interview: +1 ( EMP) anthropology: +2 ( INT)
composition: +1 ( INT) geology: +1 ( INT)
hide/evade: +1 ( INT) zoology: +1 ( INT)
archery: +1 ( REF) martial art(___________): +1 ( REF)
pilot gyro: +1 ( REF) cyberdeck design: +1 (TECH)
electronics: +1 (TECH)
CYBERWARE
CyberAudio with: Radio Splice
Slice 'n Dice (2D6 dam)
CyberAudio with: Digital Recording Link
ARMOR
Armor EV SP EB
Hvy. Armor Jacket 2 20 250
WEAPONS
Weapon Type AC CN AV DAM SH ROF REL RNG EB
H&K MPK-11 Hvy. SMG +0 L C 4D6+1 30 20 ST 200m 700
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MICKY'S BODYGUARDS
ROLE: Solo (49 Char. Pts)
INT: 9 REF: 9 TECH: 3
COOL: 3 ATTR: 2 LUCK: 9
MA: 3 BODY: 6 EMP: 5
RUN/RND: 9 LEAP: 2
LIFT: 240 CRRY: 60
BTM: -2 IP: 0
SAVE: 6 REP: 0
_____________________________________
Location: Head|Torso|R.Arm|L.Arm|R.Leg|L.Leg:
: 1 | 2-4 | 5 | 6 | 7-8 | 9-0 :
Armor SP: 0 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 0 | 0 :
-------------------------------------
_____________________________________
:Light Ser. Cri. Mor0 Mor1:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 0 1 2 3 4 :
-------------------------------------
:Mor2 Mor3 Mor4 Mor5 Mor6:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 5 6 7 8 9 :
-------------------------------------
CAREER SKILLS
combat sense: +4 ( ) awareness/notice: +4 ( INT)
athletics: +5 ( REF) handgun: +7 ( REF)
martial art(___________): +5 ( REF) melee: +1 ( REF)
rifle: +4 ( REF) stealth: +2 ( REF)
submachinegun: +7 ( REF) weaponsmith: +1 (TECH)
PICK-UP SKILLS
swimming: +1 (BODY) intimidate: +1 (COOL)
seduction: +1 ( EMP) social: +1 ( EMP)
botany: +1 ( INT) chemistry: +1 ( INT)
shadow/track: +1 ( INT) dodge/escape: +2 ( REF)
operate hvy. machinery: +1 ( REF) paint or draw: +1 (TECH)
photo film: +1 (TECH)
CYBERWARE
CyberOptics: Infrared
Reflex Boost (Kerenzikov - +1 init. rolls)
Vampires (1D6/3 dam)
ARMOR
Armor EV SP EB
Light Armor Jacket 0 14 150
WEAPONS
Weapon Type AC CN AV DAM SH ROF REL RNG EB
Fabrica D'Armes M2012 Hvy. Assault Rifle +2 N P 6D6+2 30 4 VR 400m1400
Dai Lung Cybermag 15 Lt. AutoPistol -1 P C 1D6+1 10 2 UR 50m 50
Sternmeyer SMG 12 Hvy. SMG -1 L E 3D6 30 15 VR 200m 500
H&K MP-2013 Lt. SMG +1 J C 2D6+3 30 32 ST 150m 450
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rael Sanchez
ROLE: Medtechie (62 Char. Pts)
INT: 7 REF: 4 TECH: 8
COOL: 6 ATTR: 9 LUCK: 9
MA: 8 BODY: 7 EMP: 4
RUN/RND: 24 LEAP: 6
LIFT: 280 CRRY: 70
BTM: -2 IP: 0
SAVE: 7 REP: 0
_____________________________________
Location: Head|Torso|R.Arm|L.Arm|R.Leg|L.Leg:
: 1 | 2-4 | 5 | 6 | 7-8 | 9-0 :
Armor SP: 0 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 0 | 0 :
-------------------------------------
_____________________________________
:Light Ser. Cri. Mor0 Mor1:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 0 1 2 3 4 :
-------------------------------------
:Mor2 Mor3 Mor4 Mor5 Mor6:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 5 6 7 8 9 :
-------------------------------------
CAREER SKILLS
medical tech: +5 ( ) human perception: +4 ( EMP)
awareness/notice: +3 ( INT) diagnose illness: +1 ( INT)
education & gen. knowledge: +7 ( INT) library search: +3 ( INT)
zoology: +1 ( INT) basic tech: +6 (TECH)
cryotank operation: +2 (TECH) pharmaceuticals: +8 (TECH)
PICK-UP SKILLS
stock market: +2 ( INT) teaching: +1 ( INT)
cybertech: +8 (TECH)
CYBERWARE
CyberAudio with: Phone Link
Rippers (2D6 dam)
ARMOR
Armor EV SP EB
Med. Armor Jacket 1 18 200
WEAPONS
Weapon Type AC CN AV DAM SH ROF REL RNG EB
Dai Lung Streetmaster Med. AutoPistol +0 J E 2D6+3 12 2 UR 50m 250
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ZAP
ROLE: StreetPunk (65 Char. Pts)
INT: 10 REF: 5 TECH: 8
COOL: 7 ATTR: 4 LUCK: 10
MA: 9 BODY: 2 EMP: 10
RUN/RND: 27 LEAP: 6
LIFT: 80 CRRY: 20
BTM: 0 IP: 0
SAVE: 2 REP: 0
_____________________________________
Location: Head|Torso|R.Arm|L.Arm|R.Leg|L.Leg:
: 1 | 2-4 | 5 | 6 | 7-8 | 9-0 :
Armor SP: 0 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 :
-------------------------------------
_____________________________________
:Light Ser. Cri. Mor0 Mor1:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 0 1 2 3 4 :
-------------------------------------
:Mor2 Mor3 Mor4 Mor5 Mor6:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 5 6 7 8 9 :
-------------------------------------
CAREER SKILLS
intimidate: +2 (COOL) streetwise: +3 (COOL)
persuasion or fast talk: +2 ( EMP) awareness/notice: +2 ( INT)
brawling: +2 ( REF) melee: +2 ( REF)
rifle: +2 ( REF) stealth: +6 ( REF)
submachinegun: +4 ( REF) pharmaceuticals: +3 (TECH)
pick lock: +1 (TECH)
CYBERWARE
CyberAudio with: Amplified Hearing
Vampires (1D6/3 dam)
Slice 'n Dice (2D6 dam)
ARMOR
Armor EV SP EB
Flack Vest 1 20 200
WEAPONS
Weapon Type AC CN AV DAM SH ROF REL RNG EB
H&K MP-2013 Lt. SMG +1 J C 2D6+3 30 32 ST 150m 450
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CHARLES MARSH
ROLE: Corporate (51 Char. Pts)
INT: 7 REF: 5 TECH: 3
COOL: 2 ATTR: 7 LUCK: 7
MA: 7 BODY: 4 EMP: 9
RUN/RND: 21 LEAP: 5
LIFT: 160 CRRY: 40
BTM: -1 IP: 0
SAVE: 4 REP: 0
_____________________________________
Location: Head|Torso|R.Arm|L.Arm|R.Leg|L.Leg:
: 1 | 2-4 | 5 | 6 | 7-8 | 9-0 :
Armor SP: 0 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 :
-------------------------------------
_____________________________________
:Light Ser. Cri. Mor0 Mor1:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 0 1 2 3 4 :
-------------------------------------
:Mor2 Mor3 Mor4 Mor5 Mor6:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 5 6 7 8 9 :
-------------------------------------
CAREER SKILLS
resources: +6 ( ) personal grooming: +7 (ATTR)
wardrobe & style: +2 (ATTR) human perception: +5 ( EMP)
social: +1 ( EMP) persuasion or fast talk: +3 ( EMP)
awareness/notice: +1 ( INT) education & gen. knowledge: +4 ( INT)
library search: +7 ( INT) stock market: +4 ( INT)
PICK-UP SKILLS
anthropology: +1 ( INT) history: +1 ( INT)
wilderness survival: +2 ( INT) athletics: +1 ( REF)
dance: +1 ( REF) pilot dirigible: +1 ( REF)
AV pilot: +1 ( REF) submachinegun: +1 ( REF)
cyberdeck design: +1 (TECH) first aid: +1 (TECH)
pick pocket: +1 (TECH)
CYBERWARE
CyberAudio with: Amplified Hearing
ARMOR
Armor EV SP EB
Heavy Leather Suit 0 4 50
WEAPONS
Weapon Type AC CN AV DAM SH ROF REL RNG EB
Arasaka Miniami 10 Med. SMG +0 J E 2D6+3 40 20 VR 200m 500
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENERIC JONES TRIBE NOMAD
ROLE: Nomad (50 Char. Pts)
INT: 4 REF: 6 TECH: 5
COOL: 10 ATTR: 4 LUCK: 2
MA: 4 BODY: 6 EMP: 9
RUN/RND: 12 LEAP: 3
LIFT: 240 CRRY: 60
BTM: -2 IP: 0
SAVE: 6 REP: 0
_____________________________________
Location: Head|Torso|R.Arm|L.Arm|R.Leg|L.Leg:
: 1 | 2-4 | 5 | 6 | 7-8 | 9-0 :
Armor SP: 0 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 :
-------------------------------------
_____________________________________
:Light Ser. Cri. Mor0 Mor1:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 0 1 2 3 4 :
-------------------------------------
:Mor2 Mor3 Mor4 Mor5 Mor6:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 5 6 7 8 9 :
-------------------------------------
CAREER SKILLS
family: +4 ( ) endurance: +3 (BODY)
awareness/notice: +4 ( INT) wilderness survival: +1 ( INT)
athletics: +7 ( REF) brawling: +4 ( REF)
driving: +5 ( REF) melee: +3 ( REF)
rifle: +6 ( REF) basic tech: +3 (TECH)
PICK-UP SKILLS
wardrobe & style: +1 (ATTR) intimidate: +1 (COOL)
perform: +1 ( EMP) anthropology: +1 ( INT)
hide/evade: +2 ( INT) AV pilot: +1 ( REF)
aero tech: +1 (TECH) cybertech: +1 (TECH)
pharmaceuticals: +1 (TECH)
CYBERWARE
Big Knucks (1D6 + 2 dam)
ARMOR
Armor EV SP EB
Spiked Leather Jacket 0 5 150
WEAPONS
Weapon Type AC CN AV DAM SH ROF REL RNG EB
Kalishnikov A-80 Hvy. Assault Rifle -1 N E 6D6+2 35 25 ST 400m 550
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENERIC FURY
ROLE: StreetPunk (35 Char. Pts)
INT: 4 REF: 3 TECH: 4
COOL: 7 ATTR: 2 LUCK: 2
MA: 5 BODY: 4 EMP: 4
RUN/RND: 15 LEAP: 3
LIFT: 160 CRRY: 40
BTM: -1 IP: 0
SAVE: 4 REP: 0
_____________________________________
Location: Head|Torso|R.Arm|L.Arm|R.Leg|L.Leg:
: 1 | 2-4 | 5 | 6 | 7-8 | 9-0 :
Armor SP: 0 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 :
-------------------------------------
_____________________________________
:Light Ser. Cri. Mor0 Mor1:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 0 1 2 3 4 :
-------------------------------------
:Mor2 Mor3 Mor4 Mor5 Mor6:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 5 6 7 8 9 :
-------------------------------------
CAREER SKILLS
intimidate: +1 (COOL) persuasion or fast talk: +4 ( EMP)
awareness/notice: +1 ( INT) brawling: +1 ( REF)
dodge/escape: +2 ( REF) handgun: +1 ( REF)
martial art(___________): +3 ( REF) melee: +2 ( REF)
submachinegun: +1 ( REF) pick lock: +2 (TECH)
pick pocket: +3 (TECH)
CYBERWARE
CyberArm with: Heavy Pistol
ARMOR
Armor EV SP EB
Heavy Leather Suit 0 4 50
WEAPONS
Weapon Type AC CN AV DAM SH ROF REL RNG EB
Sternmeyer Type 35 Hvy. AutoPistol +0 J C 3D6 8 2 VR 50m 400
Sternmeyer Stakeout 10 Shotgun -2 N R 4D6 10 2 ST 50m 450
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENERIC SKY MESA NOMAD
ROLE: Nomad (50 Char. Pts)
INT: 8 REF: 6 TECH: 7
COOL: 6 ATTR: 2 LUCK: 7
MA: 3 BODY: 5 EMP: 6
RUN/RND: 9 LEAP: 2
LIFT: 200 CRRY: 50
BTM: -2 IP: 0
SAVE: 5 REP: 0
_____________________________________
Location: Head|Torso|R.Arm|L.Arm|R.Leg|L.Leg:
: 1 | 2-4 | 5 | 6 | 7-8 | 9-0 :
Armor SP: 0 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 :
-------------------------------------
_____________________________________
:Light Ser. Cri. Mor0 Mor1:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 0 1 2 3 4 :
-------------------------------------
:Mor2 Mor3 Mor4 Mor5 Mor6:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 5 6 7 8 9 :
-------------------------------------
CAREER SKILLS
family: +5 ( ) endurance: +4 (BODY)
awareness/notice: +1 ( INT) wilderness survival: +4 ( INT)
athletics: +4 ( REF) brawling: +4 ( REF)
driving: +3 ( REF) melee: +7 ( REF)
rifle: +3 ( REF) basic tech: +5 (TECH)
PICK-UP SKILLS
personal grooming: +1 (ATTR) interrogation: +1 (COOL)
seduction: +1 ( EMP) persuasion or fast talk: +1 ( EMP)
accounting: +1 ( INT) geology: +1 ( INT)
language(___________): +1 ( INT) mathematics: +1 ( INT)
programming: +1 ( INT) teaching: +2 ( INT)
heavy weapons: +1 ( REF) pilot dirigible: +1 ( REF)
electronics: +1 (TECH)
CYBERWARE
Big Knucks (1D6 + 2 dam)
CyberOptics: Antidazzle
ARMOR
Armor EV SP EB
Heavy Leather Jacket 0 4 50
WEAPONS
Weapon Type AC CN AV DAM SH ROF REL RNG EB
Uzi Miniauto 9 Lt. SMG +1 J E 2D6+1 30 35 VR 150m 475
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Generic Kruger Solo
ROLE: Solo (65 Char. Pts)
INT: 7 REF: 8 TECH: 6
COOL: 9 ATTR: 8 LUCK: 6
MA: 7 BODY: 6 EMP: 8
RUN/RND: 21 LEAP: 5
LIFT: 240 CRRY: 60
BTM: -2 IP: 0
SAVE: 6 REP: 0
_____________________________________
Location: Head|Torso|R.Arm|L.Arm|R.Leg|L.Leg:
: 1 | 2-4 | 5 | 6 | 7-8 | 9-0 :
Armor SP: 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 :
-------------------------------------
_____________________________________
:Light Ser. Cri. Mor0 Mor1:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 0 1 2 3 4 :
-------------------------------------
:Mor2 Mor3 Mor4 Mor5 Mor6:
:OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO:
Stun: 5 6 7 8 9 :
-------------------------------------
CAREER SKILLS
combat sense: +5 ( ) awareness/notice: +4 ( INT)
athletics: +4 ( REF) handgun: +6 ( REF)
martial art(___________): +3 ( REF) melee: +3 ( REF)
rifle: +5 ( REF) stealth: +6 ( REF)
submachinegun: +4 ( REF)
PICK-UP SKILLS
personal grooming: +1 (ATTR) strength feat: +1 (BODY)
oratory: +1 (COOL) streetwise: +1 (COOL)
gamble: +2 ( INT) hide/evade: +1 ( INT)
system knowledge: +1 ( INT) archery: +1 ( REF)
dance: +1 ( REF) pilot fixed wing: +1 ( REF)
basic tech: +1 (TECH) demolitions: +1 (TECH)
play instrument: +2 (TECH)
CYBERWARE
Reflex Boost (Kerenzikov - +1 init. rolls)
Vampires (1D6/3 dam)
CyberOptics: Infrared
ARMOR
Armor EV SP EB
Kevlar T-Shirt 0 10 90
WEAPONS
Weapon Type AC CN AV DAM SH ROF REL RNG EB
Uzi Miniauto 9 Lt. SMG +1 J E 2D6+1 30 35 VR 150m 475
H&K MPK-11 Hvy. SMG +0 L C 4D6+1 30 20 ST 200m 700
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Corporate Report: Kruger Bioprime
Industry: Biotech. Custom Organisms for the defense and agriculture
industries.
HQ: Dallas
Regional Offices: Night City, D.C., Chicago, Boston
Name & Location of major shareholder: Anthony Linsky, Geneva.
Employees: 1200; Troops: 110; Covert: 6
Background:
Kruger is a 10 year old company. Kruger specializes in
hard-to-design, hard-to-produce custom organisms for special
applications. Most of its business is with the US provisional
government. However, it is trying to diversify, hoping to be bought
out by Militech. It went public 5 years ago, and is doing well, but
not well enough to attract much new investment or interest. The Board
is hoping for a breakthrough with the Cadence Canyon project.
Equipment and Resources:
4 AV-4's (legally owned)
2 AV-4's (illegally obtained)
The home office and the Cadence Canyon facility have non-surgery
capable infirmaries.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Micky's Data Fortress
****
**CV T***
** *** *
*X12 A *
*34***G***BL*
** **
Legend
X = CPU
1,2,3,4 = MU
* = Data Wall
G = Code Gate
T = Terminal in Micky's Office
V = Micky's MetroCar
C = Security Cams in the Gym
L = Alarm
Data Walls: +4
Code Gate: +2
System INT: 3
System Skills:
Accounting
Library Search
Stock Market
Driving
Pharmaceuticals
Defense Location Code Notes
Watchdog M1 A -
Killer IV M4 B -
Stun M3 - In M3
File Type Location Locked?
HomeWare interface questions Inter-Office M1 no
New ACS alias Inter-Office M1 no
C. Bazer address/phone # Inter-Office M1 no
zombie process Inter-Office M1 no
dial-in line changes Inter-Office M1 no
NEW OPTIONS & MORE Inter-Office M1 no
RE: Memorandum ambiguities Inter-Office M1 no
Micky's Black Book Database M4 yes
Prime Client List Database M4 yes
Shit List Database M4 yes
Memo: creating warez that sells Business Records M1 no
Memo: dialogic stuff Business Records M1 no
Memo: CyDeck performance tests Business Records M1 no
Venn Diagram of Life Autumnal Business Records M1 yes
Q2 financials (draft) Business Records M2 yes
People we have Blackmail on Grey Ops M3 yes
Meeting reminder Grey Ops M3 yes
Did you get my voice mail? Grey Ops M3 yes
Kruger Grey Ops M3 yes
Financials Transactions M1 no
Balance Sheet Transactions M1 yes
</stats>
</plot>
<title>Reincarnation</title>
<author>Ray A Reaux
<email>reaux@csgrad.cs.vt.edu</email>
</author>
<length>Long</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<setting>Any</setting>
<plot>
Tired of your old campaign? Are the PCs getting somewhat institutionalized,
with no new challenged. Do you want to create a new campaign world, but
still retain the old PCs. These are suggestions for switching campaigns
gracefully, but also spectacularly. The idea is to give a reason and
background for the shift, and make it something more than "Bob, the game
master is tired of his old campaign, so he said that we found a cubic gate
and want to go plane hopping."
In order to switch campaigns, "kill" the PCs. Actually put them in a no-win
situation where they will all die. Remember, you want ALL the players
DEAD! Leaving one or two alive can cause problems since he or she may want
to resurrect the dead PCs. Also, do not arbitrarily kill them, make them go
out with a BANG, not a whimper. It is kind of unheroic to be told "Well
John, you were walking in a dark ally, and some assassin snuck up behind you
and stuck a knife in you. You're dead."
[In my campaign, I had the PCs fight an entire wagon train of vampires and
attendant werewolves. However, the PCs, being their normal perverse
selves, almost destroyed the vampires. They tracked the wagon train back to
the nasties' lair, which had an entire village of vampire and werewolves.
Even high level characters will be overwhelmed by an entire village of
vampires and werewolves, and the characters did destroy a lot of them in a
knock-down drag out fight, and they went out with a BANG.]
The idea of course is not to destroy the PCs but to give an imaginative way
to shift campaign worlds. So introduce several NPCs before they go to their
doom, and have one of them be a disguised demigod on a recruiting mission.
It would be great if the NPC is introduced early, (not as a demigod but as
someone of moderate competence but not overshadowing the PC), the rationale
being that he or she is scouting the PCs' abilities. When a PC dies, the
NPC demigod collects their spirit/soul.
The follow-up campaign can start on a different plane or, as in my campaign,
sometime in the future. It is up to them to learn about the new world that
they are in, and the stranger the world from what they know, the more
interesting it will be for them to explore. This is a good opportunity to
"retune" the PCs, that is adapt their possessions to the new campaign by
removing unwanted items.
[I started with the same PCs finding themselves naked on top of a butte.
They saw two bodies near by, an unconscious man, and a summoning circle.
They later found out that they have been summoned by the three into their
future to either redeem or destroy their people. Turns out an evil force
called the Blood God had convinced humans to wipe out most of the other
races, and had then enslaved the humans, all but one nation of "good"
humans. The old gods were no longer worshipped, and forgotten.]
If you shift them into a campaign setting into the future, you can tantalize the
PCs with things familiar from their time. For instance:
[The PCs discovered that there was a "Tomb of Heroes" built just after their
"death" and dedicated to them for their heroic services in the past
campaign.]
History can also provide interesting side plots such as trying to get
information about what happened to their people, or even how to regain what
they have lost. For instance, to regain their favorite magic items, they
might have to look in old dusty tomes to find it, and once they do, how do
they get it back from whoever owns it now, if anyone. And their magic items
may now have history, after all would it not be interesting to know that the
that their +3 longsword named Brightwind was used in the Orc Campaign and is
now known by the Orcs as Crouch Splitter. You can also have the magic items
change, gaining/losing powers. Or else, as in my campaign:
[ The PCs went to the Tomb, where each found their best magic item from past
with a special supplemental power thrown in by the demigods so that they
could meet their god-ordained test. Along similar lines, they found that an
old NPC they knew, a dragon, was now the grandaddy of all dragons and the
only good dragon left alive.]
Prophecies and old histories work well. And what is written is never the
same as what actually occurred. You could have fun with the effects of
distortions on historical recollections. "Hmm, is that the church I
established. Their interpretation of my writings was never what I intended,
I guess I have to set them straight." Or perhaps their battles have been
exaggerated out of proportion by minstrels. " Hey, he's singing about me
when I held the pass at Dragon's Beak. Did I really hold it against 50
trolls by myself, I thought there were only 7, and I thought you were there
Uruk."
If you are prophecy minded, the PCs might have to unravel prophecies to
figure out why they are where they are. And if you do time translation,
since it is into the future, you don't have to worry about paradoxes.
[ The PCs had to wade through old books of history they found in the Tomb of
heroes and tomb of kings to find out that their reason for being there was
to be judged by the gods. They found clues in old folk songs which spoke of
them and their deeds, as well as what the gods had inspired prophetic bards
to compose. They had to look at prophecies from the Red Book of Calcalsan
the Mad, an ancient prophet who lived after the PCs time, and was known for
his convoluted, but always correct prophecies.]
If you use this campaign shifting method, you need an epic villain,
something other than that nest of werewolves to kill. A quest format may be
appropriate where everything leads up to a final confrontation.
[In my campaign, the PCs were up against the Blood God who was an ancient
elf who had disguised himself as a human to lead the humans to destruction.
He wanted revenge because humans had destroyed his wife and nation in ages
past. The PC's eventually got to the Blood God, after wading through giants,
dragons, and his ogre legions, but was at a dilemma as to what to do with
this elf, the last of his race. They chose to kill him instead of showing
mercy. The major gods judged humans as flawed and rabid, with no capacity
for mercy, and decided to destroy the world and remake it.]
This led to another, more spectacular way of changing campaigns.
[ In my campaign, several of the lesser gods, including the one who had
chose them, sided with the humans and took the most worthy of them with them
through a tunnel of light to another plane. So began a third campaign, the
exploration of a new world, rebuilding of a civilisation, and the evolution
of the PCs into demigod hood. ]
</plot>
<title>Sutekh and Adaz move house or Real Estate, cheap. Adventurer's Dream</title>
<author>Jeff Stehman
<email>stehman@onyx.southwind.net</email>
</author>
<length>Medium</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Quest</type>
<setting>Building</setting>
<monster>Undead</monster>
<plot>
[Editor's note. What was written below was not intended for the net.plot.book
but as a kind of follow up on Jeff's great net stories about Sutekh and Adaz
now happily married and living in the temple. The plot idea at end is a great
one and after talking with Jeff, decided that this was as good a way to
present it as any! Hope you find such housing for your PCs]
Now, Sutekh tries to be a reasonable man. Understanding that living on the
grounds of a temple in the boondocks is not his wife's idea of paradise, he
agreed to quit his job and move to a city. He even went so far as to allow
her to make most of the arrangements for the move, hire the servants, etc.
He finds out, belatedly, that they are moving into a huge mansion they could
not reasonably be expected to afford. How are they managing this, he asks.
It's being given to us, Adaz replies. Why, he inquires. We promised to
renovate the house and raise the standards of the neighborhood, she replies.
Oh, I see; and how, might I ask, are we going to do that? Don't worry, she
answers, it will only be a few days work-- maybe a few nights, too. Blink,
blink. Are there undead in this house?
Got it in one. It seems ancestors of some rather well-to-do family have not
been resting in peace. Many of them meddled in dark arts and set themselves
up as protectors of their own crypts. Over the years, this trickled down to
those who had nothing to do with light arts, much less dark arts. The
current heir is understandably a little upset, as he would is hoping for a
little peace and quiet upon his death. In order to break the curse, a new
family must take up permanent residence in the house. Naturally, no one is
that stupid, except Sutekh's wife. The heir claims that the undead don't
bother anyone as long as their personal space is not violated. (Over the
years their personal space has grown to encompass most of the house.)
Undead, however, are a rather touchy subject from Sutekh. He recently had
the crap beat out of him by one vampire, spent five weeks in an infirmary,
and then got bitten by another vampire. The heir promises that there are no
vampires in the family, but he is rather vague on what all is in there. Oh,
a variety of things, he says. Wee.
Adaz has apparently already taken the time to clear a wing of the house for
living space, while Sutekh is expected to take care of the rest of the
house. (Notice that he hasn't actually volunteered for anything yet, nor
been offered a choice.) At least she has been kind enough for an old
clerical friend to help in this endeavour, but she sees this as an ideal
opportunity for her husband. You see, while staying at the temple, any
time he was called upon by king and country to use his talents as a spy, he
was gone for two weeks to two months. (Phantom Steed is his best spell;
cuts travel time *way* down.) And that was two or three times a year.
Inconvenient when one has a three year old son whose growth one would like
to witness. But now that is all a thing of the past. When he gets the
irresistible urge to fill his hand with steel, he need only walk down the
hall!
Yes, that's right, it's an adventurers dream home. What are you up to
today dear? I was thinking about flushing that wight out of the west wing.
Okay, but try not to be late for lunch. Heck, there's even treasure in
those crypts.
Anyone want to buy a house *real* cheap?
</plot>
<title>The Changeling Curse</title>
<author>John Hays
<email>John_Hays@Brown.Edu</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Quest</type>
<setting>Any</setting>
<plot>
The curse of an ancient evil Wizard King of an extinct, or nearly so,
race*, placed with his dying breath against the Human, Dwarven, and Elvan
races begins to rise after several centuries. A wizard, who was but a
young boy at the final battle has finally determined the location of the
Wizard King's lab. Due to his advancing age and the dangers involved he
needs a party of adventures to retrieve the papers of the long dead King,
so he can determine the nature of the curse, and plan to defeat it.
* The race was a race of Changelings, capable of assuming the form and
specific appearance of any humanoid. The Wizard King planned to have the
Dwarves and Elves annihilate by having his race attack the two in the
others' appearances. The Elves and Dwarves became so entangled in the
war, that they couldn't see what was happening until the humans made them
listen and see what was happening. Then the three races joined forces to
eradicate the changelings.
</plot>
<title>Secret Nation</title>
<author>Alaric B. Williams
<email>alaric@abwillms.demon.co.uk</email>
</author>
<length>Medium</length>
<genre>Sci-Fi</genre>
<genre>Cyberpunk</genre>
<type>Investigation</type>
<type>Intrigue</type>
<setting>Any</setting>
<plot>
Netrunner PC is asked by journalist to intercept terms of treaty/declaration
of war due to be sent from enemy HQ to Whitehouse. PC is to hack into
communications node in the middle of the Pacific, set up a filter for that
message, and basically sit and wait for it. Simple enough.
However, while waiting, with a puff of error messages, a shocked looking NPC
materialises in the Node. He was connected through to his girlfriend on
holiday somewhere when the line broke up and he appeared here. He knows
little about comms and is mostly shocked. When the PC tells him to send a
hangup code, which should clear the problem, it doesn't seem to work. Just
brings up cryptic error messages that give slight clue:
'NODE #2342876123@NORTHPOLE - Invalid security access block, request
packet denied'
Typical computer gibberish. Anyway, the message duly turns up, and the PC
flits off to sell it to his journalist, who will publish it long before the
official release date, getting tonnes of money.
Anyway, a couple of missions later, the same NPC who was in the Node is
found in the PCs house - sitting in the lounge when the PC gets home. He is
a mostly cybernetic type, who head butted a speeding bullet a few years ago,
and has lost most of his personality. He is a programmed killing machine
under the control of a secret nation on the North Pole.
Anyway, he is very obtuse in talking, and sounds kinda mechanical and flat.
Answering all the PCs questions, although not very usefully, he takes the PC
outside to a small unmarked van. Any attempts at attack he will simply dodge
with unbelievable speed, thanks to his super hi-tech cyberware. If
necessary, he will pick up and carry the PC. But he will not hurt them.
When he gets them to the truck, inside is a powerful microwave transmitter
and a weird gadget, which is a very advanced network access device - it
scans in your entire molecular structure, converting you to energy in the
process. As you are actually in there rather than having senses fed back to
your brain through cables, the interaction quality is superb, plus the fact
that you can be rematerialised at another similar doorway.
This doorway leads to an assembly hall at the North Pole nation, who are a
secret society trying to sort out the screwed up economic state of the
planet for purely moral reasons. They have several underground bases, and
are alleviated of the problems of cold arctic conditions by having
everything exist in computers. They only materialise in the real world to
fix things and perform assassinations etc. in the real world. They have good
motives, but will kill, lie, and cheat to reach them.
Anyway, their interest with the PC is what was he doing intercepting that
treaty? They are suspicious that if they have successfully kept an entire
nation secret by keeping it solely in a few kilos of computer, another group
might, possibly intent upon world dictatorship, and they suspect the PC of
being an agent.
Which basically leaves the PC with a few choices:
<list>
1) Work out a way of convincing them of his purely monetary motives for
taking the data
2) Try and escape, possibly to alert world governments of the secret nation
if they are vindictive
3) While doing one of the above, stumble across a REAL other secret nation
devoted to world power!!!
4) Join the secret nation and get some cool software/cyberware,
becoming one of their real world operatives
</list>
</plot>
<title>UFO Conspiracy</title>
<author>Nils Jeppe
<email>Nils_Jeppe@digital.fido.de</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Cyberpunk</genre>
<type>Investigation</type>
<type>Intrigue</type>
<setting>Any</setting>
<plot>
One neat plot idea I have for a Cyberpunk(tm) game, but haven't tried yet, is
that the players have to uncover the UFO Conspiracy: The U.S. government, in
alliance with some other nations and large corporation's, has made a secret
treaty with an alien race from Zeta Reticuli. The aliens offer the humans
technology; in exchange, they are allowed to abduct people and cattle and to
perform experiments on them, use women to implant alien foetuses (sp?), etc.
The government is trying to cover up this, of course, so the players will have
all kinds of fun with government, cooperation and later on, alien agents. The
scenario would include interviewing abductees, examining landing sites, or
perhaps even a crash site, breaking into corp/government data bases (to unearth
secret information), infiltrating military bases, and so on. It would probably
work best as a Cyber style games (or even Lovecraft Mythos games); and perhaps
shouldn't be fashioned into your existing long term campaign, because it has a
VERY large impact on your world. Should be a cool one-shot or short term
campaign. PS, to get ideas I would recommend getting onto the various UFO
related newsgroups/echoes on the various networks.
</plot>
<title>Sheep killer</title>
<author>Mark Green
<email>mark.green@almac.co.uk</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Investigation</type>
<setting>Rural</setting>
<monster>Werewolf</monster>
<plot>
A small village named Stonemire is plagued by a series of sheep killings
during winter. A fair has stopped nearby whilst the mountain passes are
frozen. A friendly Troll living underneath a nearby bridge is arrested for
the killings. A Bugbear has moved into a nearby deserted Watchtower and when
vanquished has been feeding sheep remains to his guard dog. However, the
true killer is a werewolf travelling with the fair/circus. A final fight
takes place in an old windmill. I involved a sub-plot about a local Swanmay
living beneath a waterfall and a Kobold bandit group camped out on the
nearby frozen lake. The winter effects (icicles collapsing in the swanmay's
lair, the frozen lake combat, the effects of snow on tracking) play a large
part in this scenario, which was paced for two start-up characters. They
must trade some maps found at the Kobold camp to their local Sage in
exchange for the loan of silver weapons to defeat the Werewolf. They find
out about this necessity in a book on Shapechangers in the Study of a Zombie
at the graveyard. Other plots abound in this sleepy village!
</plot>
<title>The Alchemist's Palafitte</title>
<author>Mark Green
<email>mark.green@almac.co.uk</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Exploration</type>
<setting>Building</setting>
<plot>
A Palafitte (Large wooden construction on stilts) sits out on a lake. It
was the Temple of an alchemist, and is shaped as a large cross. Each of the
four wings has an "elemental" theme; Earth, Air, Fire and Water. The central
Tower cannot be entered until a special elemental treasure has been
collected from each of the four quarters. The Palafitte is filled with
Manikins, animated human dummies who attack slowly, are highly armoured, but
have "strings" which can be severed. The central tower contains floating
globes which are the remnants of the soul of the old alchemist, and cast
spells at the party. This adventure was run for five startup characters.
</plot>
<title>BLUE VELVET</title>
<author>Graeme Adamson with Karl Kaufmann
<email>graemea@iaccess.za</email>
</author>
<length>Medium</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Quest</type>
<type>Affliction</type>
<setting>Urban</setting>
<setting>City</setting>
<plot>
Scenario: The PCs have been transported to Earth, circa 1995, either on a
quest, or mysteriously for an unknown reason. They cannot leave until they
have recovered a plane travelling artefact (the Blue Velvet Orb), which is
located at the top of the Post Office tower in London (or city of your
choice), and used it at a particular location at a particular time (the
artefact will guide them there as the time approaches.
Start: They find themselves in a small room, and can hear a lot of noise
behind the single door. Behind the door of this storeroom is a huge hall
currently being used for a Fantasy Role-playing tournament. They will
likely get comments about their great costumes, and will initially hear
things coming from the 100 or so gaming tables like "Fireball! Hit the
floor!". Feel free to embellish. If any trouble is caused, the police will
be called by the organisers.
Problems:
<list>
1: Magic spells and effects have a 25% chance of failure; if a spell
fails, there is a 70% chance of it doing something strange (like a Fireball
becoming a burst of flowers), a 25% chance of it fizzling, and a 5% chance
of it backfiring.
2: The Post Office tower is locked (mechanically and electronically) and
guarded.
3: The PCs will speak English with a strange (noticeable) accent.
4: The will have to con some jewellers into accepting their gold/silver coins.
5: The appointed time is a week away, so they'll have to find lodging.
6: The appointed time and place: Wembley Football Stadium at kickoff time
of the FA Cup Final - in the centre of the soccer field (and the tickets are
sold out).
7: All Earth items will disintegrate gradually after they leave.
8: All the usual problems you'd expect when a bunch of D&D adventurers go
wandering around a modern day city.
9: Clerics cannot regain spells. They can however use their learnt spells
(with no chance of failure, but they have to last a week).
</list>
This adventure was a classic in our campaign. The GM at the time is now
playing a woman the characters met at a fencing tournament they stumbled
onto, and who accompanied the party back. Some notable events: the paladin
scored a critical hit on an opponent at the fencing tournament, apologised
to the victim, who was badly winded, then did it again! (two twenties in a
row from an 8th level paladin with 18-odd strength - he was disqualified).
The party was arrested, and had to escape from Scotland Yard. The FA Cup
Final was delayed slightly after a Fireball went off (giving us enough time
to get to the centre of the field and go).
</plot>
<title>The Forgetful Queen</title>
<author>Graeme Adamson
<email>graemea@iaccess.za</email>
</author>
<length>Medium</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Intrigue</type>
<setting>Any</setting>
<plot>
This plot revolves around a low-level female PC. There can be other members
in the party, but this plot focuses on her.
BACKGROUND: The female PC believes she is the daughter of some low-class
rural folk in a small country. She is aware that she bears a resemblance to
the current queen who is married to a young king. The queen disappears,
believed kidnapped, and forces are mobilised to try to find the missing queen.
The PC, while adventuring in other lands, gets attacked several times by
assassins (more than several; more like many), and discovers from one of
them that they were hired to kill the queen by some of the nobles. This
should happen a number of times, making the PC and her companions very
annoyed. She is sure that she definitely isn't the queen. In an attempt to
find out what's going on, she returns to her home country (still under
attack from assassins).
There she is discovered by the local Thieves' Guild, and they fill her in on
some of the details; namely: she is actually the queen, but was mind wiped by
the king's Grand Vizier under orders from the king, after she discovered
some of the king's nefarious dealings. She was given the memories of a rural
woman with an uncanny resemblance to her, and switched with her to keep her
in a safe place (ie. out in the country). Later he decided to kill her, so
as to bring suspicion of treason upon some of the more powerful nobles,
giving him the chance to eliminate them. The PC accidentally escaped though,
and found herself adventuring, while the rural woman's body has now been
found, and all believe it to be the queen, except some nobles, who want to
kill the PC so as to be able to present two bodies and thwart the king's
plot. The Thieves' Guild offer to help because of the instability the state
of the country is causing to them.
They can smuggle the PC and her companions into the palace, where she can
confront the king and his crony. During the fight (or whatever develops), the
Vizier should get killed, to prevent him reversing the mind wipe. If the king
is killed, the throne passes to her, or alternatively to the next male heir
(GM's choice).
</plot>
_____________________________________________________________________
APPENDIX I
HOW TO START A CAMPAIGN
A perennial favorite question on the net is ways to start a campaign. A
recent incarnation of this was from Joshua Felsteiner
(phr01ya@techunix.technion.ac.il) who wrote: [edited slightly] " Hi , I am a
new GM who has formed a group. The problem is how to have the players start.
I don't know how to tell the story of their arrival to the world! I mean how
they met or born? or are they already formed as a grouped from the beginning
and I should start from that point? I want to make it better than that. Any
help?"
Here is collection of responses to this question and similar. Have fun.
<title>Talk about it startups</title>
<author>Brian Trosko
<email>btrosko@netaxs.com</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Any</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<setting>Any</setting>
<plot>
I stick the players alone in a room for 15 minutes to a half an hour at the
start of the first session, and let them ad-lib it out. When I get back from
the store, where I've bought munchies, they tell me, and I take that data
and use it for adventure hooks. The only catch it, the players themselves
have to be reasonable about it. It might work for you, but then again, it
might not.
</plot>
<title>Friendly startup</title>
<author>Mike Masten
<email>deadlock@hopi.dtcc.edu</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Any</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<setting>Any</setting>
<plot>
The player characters could be childhood friends that decide they want to go
out adventuring together before they settle into permanent jobs or something
in their community.
They all could have known someone that was a mutual friend to them and this
friend was killed/kidnapped/whatever. Therefore, they decide to help this
friend in need or a relative of this friend if the mutual friend is dead.
</plot>
<title>"The room grows misty..." startup</title>
<author>Phil Scadden
<email>P.Scadden@gns.cri.nz</email>
</author>
<length>Medium</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<setting>Any</setting>
<plot>
An obvious way to start a campaign, and a mechanism very like that of plots
much loved by fantasy authors, is to simply announce as the party gather
round that they have been transported as of now, as is and as dressed,
straight into the fantasy world. This is probably best for shortish high
fantasy campaigns, as no opportunity to role-play anyone other than
themselves, but many players will enjoy this for a shorter period.
The extent to which they are exactly themselves can be varied. Within the
fantasy world they might suddenly find they have special powers, items on
them (eg pens, house keys, rings, etc) might be mighty items (as in Thomas
Covenant series) in the new world. Can also have tranformations from skinny
literature student to muscle-bound hulk with a innate sword-fighting skills.
I'd stick with personalities and particularly their real knowledge being
unaltered.
Language is special one. What I would do let them be aware that what they
hear other people speak is a strange tongue but within themselves, they can
understand the speech (except for words special to the fantasy setting that
wont translate). Eg "Graco" might be a monster from the GM's drug-crazed
imagination - they might get descriptions of Graco from NPC or find out the
hard way but it wont translate. With a little practise, they will find they
can speak back but not words that dont translate. Eg "semi-automatic
rifle", "saltpeter", and "bidet" might be good words that fail translation!
A typical opening might be telling them, " the room suddenly fills with
mist, and you feel the chill of an autumn night. Slowly the mist clears and
you find yourselves together within a circle of standing stones below a
bright night sky of strange stars. A eerie green fire licks at the standing
stones but even as you watch it grows dim and dies. You are obviously in a
high place, with deep valleys below you. Small clusters of flickering lights
indicate these are inhabited. As you look around to try and get your
bearings, you eyes are drawn to a dull light hanging over a mountain far
away. Sometimes red, sometimes greenish, the light seems somehow
unwholesome. You become aware of dark figures beyond the stone circle..."
Swinging this on players gathered to plan what do to and stopping the
narrative at that point is probably best way to introduce it. Enough has
been said to rouse the players curiousity. If they like the concept, you can
get into gritty detail of deciding what changes to make in the transition
(if any), high or low fantasy, assigning game values to their own
characters, etc.
Some thoughts on character death needed. Players are playing themselves and
are obviously likely to feel the world events somewhat more personally than
playing a made up character. Re-introducing a PC in another character isnt
quite the same either (but could be done, especially if the player didnt
enjoy playing themself). One option is to have players body slowly turn to
mist. To get the player back again should involve returning to gate,
expending gross power, and some drawbacks for the player concerned.
High fantasy ("we have brought here to save the world") is probably best
setting but only if player enjoy a little railroading. A much freer campaign
could begin with hearing an NPC beyond the standing stones say: "Oh
(expletive fails translation)! This isnt who we wanted!". They cant be sent
back but arent going to be persuaded to save the world either.
The real fun in this campaign setting comes from players trying to use their
20th century knowlege and technology in the fantasy world. I wouldnt rule
any technology out but would be very tough on adjudicating whether player
efforts would work or not. Playing fair, they should not bring in knowlege
from reference works that they didnt have in their memory at the moment the
game started. (A good reason for making the start a surprise and then
arguing for it). Ie they would have to know he formula for gunpowder etc.
off top of their heads when the game started to attempt it. Of course, the
GM can make life a little difficult without being obstructive with a little
care about what is in the game world. Eg (on gunpowder again), saltpeter
wont translate. Game world has never heard of it. Even if players knew the
gunpowder formula, do they know how to find or make potassium nitrate?
Likewise, steel (as opposed to wrought iron) may not be a known technology.
Do they really know enough engineering and metallurgy to create a furnace to
produce it? Of course, GM needs to bone up a bit on medieval technology but
since this is fantasy, only what the GM is confortable with need be there.
Consistancy is the thing.
</plot>
<title>Group Creation startup</title>
<author>Brian W. Gruidl
<email>gruidlbw@garnet.cray.com</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Any</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<setting>Any</setting>
<plot>
What I like to do is give my group a brief idea of what is in our world and
let them create for themselves. I'm VERY open to their embellishing, but
will not allow magic items, special powers, etc. I then talk to each player
and "tweak" the character to fit into a certain area of the world. When we
reach agreement, I let him (all men - SORRY) search out information about
his region, politics, etc.
With respect to getting the group together, I have set up an Order of the
Tree (historically significant), whose charter is to seek adventure. This
gets rid of the uncomfortable "you meet in a bar" scenario.
</plot>
<title>Adventurer's children startup</title>
<author>Guy Robinson
<email>guyr@emtex.com</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<setting>Any</setting>
<plot>
They are the children, relatives or apprentices of an former party of
adventurers that have by and large retired or have been killed. It
therefore becomes natural that they might be gathered to attempt a to form a
second generation of that same party.
I would have the local survivors of the former party around to act as
mentors, role models and the source of an occasional hand if your players'
characters need to be rescued or ransomed. I would not make them too high
level (4-8 perhaps) so their capabilities are notable rather than
awe-inspiring.
If you adopt this I recommend you work out what ended the adventuring career
of the original party and make up character sheets for them using the rule
book guidelines on creating experienced characters. Perhaps there are some
matters left over that will warrant the new party's attention at some later
date.
You could have local landmarks bear signs of their experiences like the
place where the houses that the vengeful dragon burned down but which were
never rebuilt or the temple built around a fabulous altar stone brought back
from an expedition.
</plot>
<title>Treasure Map</title>
<author>Jay S. Robinson
<email>jsrobins@silver.ucs.indiana.edu</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Any</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<type>Quest</type>
<setting>Any</setting>
<plot>
I'm starting a campaign tonight with a group of new players and was mulling
over the same question. I've come up with the idea that there used to be a
fellow we'll call Bob. Now Bob had a lot of gold/treasure/ whatever and
wanted it to be safe so he hid it/buried it/etc. and made a map. He then
tore this map into x number of pieces and got rid of them. (He had x kids?)
Anyway, after generations have gone by, the PC's find themselves in
possession of the pieces of the map, or at least a few of them. Those
pieces each contain enough info to get them to their home town, wherever
you're starting them out at. (Let me guess, Shadowdale.) And if this sounds
too bland, have some of the PC's not have parts of the map, but have vital
knowledge to the missing pieces. There are plenty of ways to elaborate...
Just an idea.
</plot>
<title>Kings choice startup</title>
<author>Craig L Wigda
<email>clwigda@gdwest.gd.com</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Any</genre>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<setting>Any</setting>
<plot>
The king summons several adventures for a mission (say 50) after a short
question and answer session you are asked to enter the door to your right.
And there is the party. Pick which characters are in the room in which order
and give them some time to talk to each other. Then the king comes in a
briefs them on their mission.
I have used this so I could have characters that were moderately experienced
but had not worked together. I hate it when I'm at a con and the GM says you
are a party of adventures that have adventured together for x number of
years. Then you all fight among your selves or do not act as a group.
</plot>
<title>New employer startup</title>
<author>Craig L Wigda
<email>clwigda@gdwest.gd.com</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Any</genre>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<setting>Any</setting>
<plot>
You are down and out on your luck or last party of adventures you worked
with are all dead/retired/kicked you out (character picked one) and you are
looking for a new group to adventure with because you are broke/have no home
to go to/have yet to full fill some purpose (again each character picked
one). After spending all day searching out clues to adventure or employment
you return to your room at the inn to find a note with a strange item (in
the adventure I ran it was a coin made of mithril). Note tells you to meet
(location of GMs choice, mine was the bar so the employer could see them
before talking to them, plus he started a fight in the bar to see how they
handled themselves).
I used this so I could have characters that were moderately
experienced but had not worked together. I hate it when I'm at a con and the
GM says you are a party of adventures that have adventured together for x
number of years. Then you all fight among your selves or do not act as a
group.
</plot>
<title>Wadda yer mean "Are we monsters?"...</title>
<author>Robert Hall
<email>robert_hall@vnet.ibm.com</email>
</author>
<length>One-line</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<setting>Any</setting>
<plot>
You could just have them all be the subject of a monster summoning spell... :)
</plot>
<title>Lost in a dungeon startup</title>
<author>Daniel Romig
<email>DCR124@psuvm.psu.edu</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<type>Affliction</type>
<setting>Dungeon</setting>
<plot>
What i have done once or twice is to start the group in a dungeon. Don't
tell them how they got there just say, you wake up in a 10x10 room and you
see x strangers. Have everyone describe themselves and go from there. You
can make the dungeon large or medium, you must however, make it big enough
so everyone has to work together to get out. This builds trust in the group,
lets them get to know each other and that they can work really good as a
team. When they get out, they can say "hey", "we did pretty good getting
treasure, magic, whatever and maybe we should stick together"
This is good once in awhile but runs dry after the second or so time. I used
this before and it worked out fine.
</plot>
<title>"Wrong Company" Startup</title>
<author>Barbara Haddad
<email>melchar@shakala.com</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Any</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<setting>Urban</setting>
<setting>City</setting>
<plot>
One option (that I find superior) is have them all come from the same
town/city. Have a tavern where all the 'wrong' people hang out [rebels,
artists] so that they will have a chance to drift together, meet each other
and decide to go out together and adventure. You might have a lot of fun
making their city of origin a fun place in and of itself -- have their
families play parts -- you can referee it for several games -- AND then
they'll always have a place to return to............
.....and it helps settle in the player's mind that their PCs ARE
rebels ..... that the 'normal' people live in cities and _stay_ there...
</plot>
<title>Bail with hooks startup</title>
<author>Chris Bourne
<email>Shuldro@treehome.demon.co.uk</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Any</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<type>Affliction</type>
<setting>Urban</setting>
<plot>
If you have a campaign world/city/town which you've worked out in advance,
you should be able to prepare a sheet or two of background info about major
religions, a map of the general area showing major towns, that sort of
stuff. Give this out while they are rolling up characters. It's something
for the fast ones to read while they wait about :)
My favourite way of beginning an adventure is in jail - the party have all
been arrested in a riot/bar brawl. They may not have been involved, but the
watch just grabbed the nearest half dozen citizens and locked them up.
They can then be offered the standard approach by an influential stranger
who can get them off the hook IF they perform this leetle service for them...
Unless your players have played in your world before, it isn't a bad idea to
have an adventure which demands they travel right outside their own area, so
you don't have to go into huge detail about their previous life history.
Ideally you want an adventure which takes place somewhere NONE of the
characters will ever have been before.
As for background, any players who don't want to work out great detailed
backgrounds of their own can be told 'You are a dwarf from the mountains in
the north'/'You ran away from your farming home and became a thief, because
you didn't like your stepfather' etc. If the player doesn't actively seek a
detailed background, they will be happy with a minimal excuse for existing.
Those who do want a detailed background are capable of inventing their own
as a rule. They will say things like 'Are there villages in the hills, I
think my character lived on the edge of the wilderness learning to track and
hunt' To which you reply 'Uh, yeah, there's a village called Hillfort that
would do well. I expect your character hunted bighorn sheep, maybe wolves in
the winter, that sort of thing. There will have been orc raids to deal with
too...but only once every few years.' Then make a squiggle on the map for
the player's village (which you just invented).
</plot>
<title>Startup Ideas</title>
<author>Michal Bartek
<email>mbartek@acs.ucalgary.ca</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Any</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<setting>Any</setting>
<plot>
<list>
1.) Everyone meets in a bar and spontaneously decides to trust their
lives with each other. (Heard this one before?)
2.) The campaign starts just after everyone has been kidnapped by an evil
force. The characters MUST work together to save their skins.
3.) Some common goal (defeating evil group) draws them all together.
4.) The PCs are all relatives (brothers, cousins, etc.)
</list>
</plot>
<title>Volunteers? Startup</title>
<author>Joe Savino
<email>jsavino@gate.net</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<type>Quest</type>
<setting>Any</setting>
<monster>Dragon</monster>
<plot>
The campaign I'm working on now begins with the PCs all being told, in an
announcement by the king, that they'd been selected for the quest to kill
the dragon. They're gonna be just announced as "the <class>, <name>".. (ie:
the Cleric, Erasumas)... then, they are gathered together, by the king, and
left alone for a bit in a meeting chamber... this'll give 'em some time to
interact, and get a feel for each other.
</plot>
<title>Shipwreck Startup</title>
<author>Alex Oren
<email>orenalex@sunshine</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Any</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<setting>Any</setting>
<plot>
In my current campaign I asked the players for a reason to get on certain
ship enroute to the capital city.
Bad weather, angry gods, ship goes down.
PC's manage to get to some of the life boats, are washed ashore some unknown
island and have to survive with virtually no equipment.
</plot>
<title>Mini-adventure Startup</title>
<author>Angelo F Benedetto
<email>angelo@rice.edu</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Any</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<setting>Any</setting>
<plot>
Whenever possible, and when a player seems interested, I try to run a
_short_ mini-adventure for each character before the main campaign gets
started. In this mini, you can set-up the character's reason for being an
adventurer, this reason being shown by actual play as opposed to related
background. I find it tends to make the player relate to the background
more, since the events have been experienced rather than just described.
This method also works well for pairs of characters that already know each
other. It also allows for the introduction of special items into the
campaign. In this way, a character can start out with some item he/she
_earned_ in an adventure, rather than was given as background. To me, this
makes the item much more special. Also, it is guaranteed to go to the
character of your choice, as opposed to the character of the party's choice,
if that makes sense to you.
</plot>
<title>Escape from slavery Startup</title>
<author>Jason Choi
<email>ujchoi@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<plot>
PC's are slaves of an evil, upstart empire. They have to cooperate in order
to escape their present predicament. They could've been enslaved because
their parents were unable to pay taxes, thus they were kidnapped by the
soldiers of the emperor. They have to combine their abilities in order to
devise a plan of escape.
</plot>
<title>Country boys Startup</title>
<author>Jason Choi
<email>ujchoi@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<plot>
PC's are childhood friends living in a small hamlet or village. They've
worked hard over the past few summers and have earned enough money to go
travelling to the nearby Big city and follow their dreams and illusions of
grandeur (Ie. want fame & fortune). Being a small town, they are given the
blessings of the townsfolk (maybe a retired adventuring NPC actually lives
in this town, gives the PC's some advice, and maybe a fine quality sword or
a contact to reach once they arrive at the big city).
</plot>
<title>Awoken from stasis</title>
<author>Jason Choi
<email>ujchoi@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<plot>
The PC's are clones or simulacrum of Ancient Gods who are no more, either
having been destroyed, banished, or forgotten about. The PC's of course have
no Godlike powers, because they were made when the said God's were once
mortal. They have been kept in temporal stasis in a deep underground crypt
until someone finds them ( a party of adventurers, a wizard, or even a Lich
would be nice).The PC's have no recollection of who they are or how they
came to be here, all they know is their names and have a deja vu about
everything. Plus a strange sense of kinship with one another. As a
substitute you can have them entombed in a iceberg or a glacier, and have
northmen come across them to chip them out of the ice (this is the scenario
I used once).
</plot>
<title>Evil character startup</title>
<author>Jason Choi
<email>ujchoi@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<plot>
For evil campaigns, I always find it useful to have good aligned PC's hire
the evil PC's to fight off evil. Such as having the evil pc's in jail, the
only way they can gain freedom is if they perform a task for the ruling
council of the city or such. They can be ordered to track down an evil being
even more evil that themselves. Or to explore a uncharted region of land and
spy on the inhabitants. If the PC's gain freedom but refuse to carry out
their orders, you can have the authorities after them, or bounty-hunter
NPC's track them down everywhere they go. Another cruel element would be for
the GM to have a wizard put a quest or geas spell on each PC.
</plot>
<title>Save the clan startup</title>
<author>Jason Choi
<email>ujchoi@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<plot>
The PC's brethren, their clan, tribe, race, whatever, are stricken with
poverty and are poor, near the brink of starvation & death. They have to
adventure to:
<list>
1) Find a lost or stolen artefact of legend to bring peace & prosperity
2) As representatives of their clan, tribe, whatever, they have to restore
honor, glory, and pride to their people by doing heroic deeds.
3) Perhaps find a new home for their people (Eg. Their race lives in a
secluded valley. Their people are fearful & afraid to leave the comforts of
their home, so the ruler charges the party to see what lies beyond their
isolated homeland.)
4) The PC's must adventure to find weapons & food for their folk, to help in
a battle against some oppressing force (an orc tribe, an evil empire, etc).
They also take on the role as spies and assassins as they advance in level.
</list>
</plot>
<title>Convict company startup</title>
<author>Jason Choi
<email>ujchoi@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu</email>
</author>
<length>Medium</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<plot>
The PC's are imprisoned in the city dungeons for quite some time (they can
be, in this scenario, homeless street urchins). They spend a few years
growing older in jail, where they meet and get to know each other (you can
even have one of the PC's be a Guard). The ruling council/or ruler has need
of several expendable people to do various tasks for them. They can pick all
the party members and have them trained and outfitted (swords, spell
components, etc) to:
<list>
1) Scout out unfamiliar, dangerous land in the name of the government.
Perhaps explore possible trade routes for merchants of the city, or spy on
the inhabitants of a forest, etc.
2) PC's are sent as spies to a neighboring kingdom, where they are given the
name of a contact to look up. Once there, they find their contact near death
at an alleyway, arrows studded into his back, in hot pursuit, just as he
dies he hands the PC's something (in this case, a scroll tube full of
parchment). The parchment scrolls can be the report of a nasty plot to
assassinate some king or queen, a list of known spies in other lands, a list
of strengths and weaknesses in the army, etc.
3) PC's are assigned tasks to perform and are given little or no information
(I'm taking this idea from the movie-Point of no Return).They are simply
given straight forward instructions such as "Kill this noble" or "give NPC X
this note then walk away". Make their simple actions turn out to be
profounding. Perhaps the note they have to give to "NPC X" is an invitation
to a masquerade ball sponsored by the nobility of the city their in. And the
ball is the staging area for an assassination attempt on the NPC's life,
etc. The PC's might even find themselves in the roll of the assassins.
4) Players can be ordered to infiltrate various underground groups that
secretly oppose the government in order to reveal the identities of the
members that comprise such secret orders. Perhaps the rulers need to know if
a thieves or assassins guild exists without their knowing it (and the ruler
thus wishes to enlist their services as spies & assassins). It could be the
parties job as well to set up a meeting between the ruler they are working
for and the guild master. Even more insidious would be that the ruler is
secretly setting up an ambush for the guild master without the PC's
knowledge (which makes it look like the PC's did it, which the ruler may
desire because they've outlived their usefulness). However, with some good
roleplay the Players might be able to convince the guild's second-in-
command of the truth of the matter and devise a rescue attempt to free their
guild master.
</list>
</plot>
<title>Going into retirement - interview the new boys startup</title>
<author>Jim Opp
<email>jopp@ccs.carleton.ca</email>
</author>
<length>Medium</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<genre>Any</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<setting>Any</setting>
<plot>
The most interesting start to a campaign I was involved with began with the
GM having us roll up (and write and extensive history for) a high level
adventuring party. The premise was that this was an old party heading for
retirement, and our first chore was to pick successors who could continue
the company. Our GM presented us with a list of 100 possible candidates
(no, he didn't let us see the stats) and we had to design special tests and
trials to weed out the top candidates. When we made our final picks, then
the GM turned their stat sheets over to us (for better or worse...
fortunately the thief didn't pick the absolute quickest hands, since that
character only had low wisdom and gave us a specific time period which we
decided what skills/abilities the veteran characters would teach the new
apprentices. Then we spent the rest of the time as the new players, trying
to make a name for ourselves and constantly running into old ghosts/old
scores from the "past" of the original party.
It takes a while before the real "adventuring" starts, but in my opinion it
was worth it! This campaign had the best group dynamics, because it was a
real group exercise, rather than everybody showing up with "mature"
characters who have extensive histories that are just waiting for that final
piece to make their life complete.
</plot>
<title>Hometown destruction Startup</title>
<author>Jeffrey S. Hanks
<email>bubonic@netcom.com</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Any</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<type>Investigation</type>
<plot>
Characters all begin after hometown is destroyed by fire caused by
unknown attacker. They group together in hopes of finding out who attacked
and killed all of their loved ones, and destroyed the only home that they
ever knew. The characters would probably be out exploring ruins or caves
when the attackers came so that they were not there.
</plot>
<title>Rescue from Darklands</title>
<author>Ray A Reaux
<email>reaux@csgrad.cs.vt.edu</email>
</author>
<length>Long</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<type>Quest</type>
<setting>Rural</setting>
<plot>
I started a campaign where the PCs were people from the same home village,
and all were young and inexperienced (1st level). The PCs were a magic
user, a cleric, a fighter, a druid, a bard, and a ranger. Four PCs had
families in the village, and the ranger had friends. The Mage and Cleric
were brothers with the normal sibling rivalry. All were about the same age
and were friends, or at least friendly to each other. The first game day
was spent on light bantering and role-playing to develop the relationships
among the characters.
Twenty miles from the village was the Darklands, a huge monster-infested
region continuously enshrouded from the sun by darkness. The Darklands was
the home of a malevolent intelligence which had goblin armies to command.
The goblins often raided the frontier villages for slaves. At the end of the
first day of gaming, I had a large overwhelming force of goblins (about 60)
raid the village. The PCs had to try to react from their daily chores to
fight for their lives and family. All the PCs were knocked out (NOT KILLED,
and they later woke to find carnage around them, and signs that some people,
including family members and neighbors, had survived the massacre but were
slaves of the goblins and were being taken into the Darklands. Every
character except the ranger had a family member taken as captives. The Mage
and Cleric had their mother and sister captured. The Mage's girlfriend had
also been taken. The fighter had a brother captured. The ranger wanted
revenge since his teacher and mentor had been killed by the goblins.
Besides, his duty was to rescue and protect the people. The adventurers had
to find useable supplies from the ruins of the village, and work together to
pursue the goblins into the Darklands.
The adventurers pursued the goblins deep into the Darklands, fighting
roving, hungry monsters until they came to the keep which was the
destination of the goblin raiding party. The PCs had to find out how to get
into the well-guarded keep and rescue their family. A frontal assault was
out of the question, so they had to rely on stealth. They also had to
contend with a "thin man" a low-level lich-like creature that was commanding
the goblins, but who answered to the malevolence that inhabited the
Darklands.
The PCs rescued their family and friends and 30 or so other odd slaves, and
escorted them back out of the Darklands, while being pursued by the goblins.
Once they got out of the Darklands, they had to find a place for the
people. Some of the people that they had liberated had been slaves most of
their lives and did not know how to care for themselves as free people. The
adventurers had to get money to build a new village for them (the old
village was destroyed, and was too close to the Darklands). They had to
raise money to actually purchase land and get building materials. Since
their was no convenient gold-laden dungeon laying around into which they
could fall into, the players had to be creative and come up with their own
money-making schemes. Their money making ventures included beast- catching
and running a small travelling circus, of course with the encounters with
brigands and other hazards of the road. Once they purchased the land, they
had to clear it of some monsters, and also deal with the local Baron who
demanded a tax to "protect" the village. The PCs later ran afoul of the
Baron when they accidentally killed one of the Baron's men. They had to
leave the village, but not until they had made sure the village was firmly
established. The success of the campaign hinged on role-playing and real
NPCs. These NPCs gave the PCs motivations for what they were trying to do. I
gave the Mage and Cleric's mother and sister personalities. The mother was
strong willed and became the village matriarch. The sister started openly
dating the Fighter which brought out the brotherly protective instincts of
the Mage and Cleric. The Mage's girlfriend made the Mage jealous by
spending more time with the loud-mouthed boastful, but cowardly, obnoxious
village jerk that the Mage, Cleric, and Fighter despised (they had grown up
hating him). It was her ploy to get the Mage to quit stalling and marry
her. The despised jerk had the gift of gab with women who thought he was
the next best thing since the invention of baked bread. Even the Mage and
Cleric's mother often took sides with him. I had several other women
chasing the "heroic" Cleric and ranger, after all they needed husbands.
I had other NPCs help, since I generally add one or two adventuring NPCs to
assist in the PCs with some skills that they do not have or as an avenue for
me to provide suggestions or information to the PCs. For instance, a
grizzled mountain man they encountered and enlisted said, "Yes, I know about
this creature. My grandpappie once told me about a hippogriff that he saw
this Church Knight ride. He said that it was the dangest thing you could
ever see. Bigger than a horse, and ..."
Remember that when you are creating campaign, pay as much detail to the
environment as to the adventure. And by environment, I mean factors such as
NPCs and local politics. They add spice and motivations for the PCs and
bring out the role-playing in the players.
</plot>
<title>Island shipwreck Startup</title>
<author>Craig L Wigda
<email>clwigda@gdwest.gd.com</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Any</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<setting>Island</setting>
<plot>
The shipwreck has a lot of potential. Make the island large. Wild natives,
smugglers, pirates, a small coast town (soon to be under attack). It throws
the party together with a nice starting story line. It could also be setup
such that the entire party is needed to capture a boat/ship and only
(depending on the number of PCs) the player PCs are willing to sail on the
ship.
I've done something similar to this. It was great fun. I also used the
non-weapon proficiencies. Only one character had sailing/boating so the PCs
made him captain. This was great fun, since that person got into the roll
of trying to command characters that did not know anything about a boat.
Note, a lot of this also depends on the people you are going to have. Are
they roll-playing, or hack and slash? Either way the island could be turned
into either type of game with a limited amount of work.
</plot>
<title>Empire's Edge</title>
<author>Jeff Hildebrand
<email>jrah@space.honeywell.com</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Fantasy</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<setting>Urban</setting>
<setting>Village</setting>
<plot>
I just started running a PBEM and I told everyone to come up with characters
in a small (~200 people) village on the edge of an Empire. Justify what you
do there and you all know about each other because it's so small. Worked
out pretty well.
</plot>
<title>Murder Mystery Startup</title>
<author>Jeff Hildebrand
<email>jrah@space.honeywell.com</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Any</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<type>Investigation</type>
<setting>Urban</setting>
<setting>Village</setting>
<plot>
In a game where I am playing, the GM set everyone up in a large city,
basically separately. Then, one NPC that we all knew was murdered. We met
at the funeral and found out that we each had one little piece of a puzzle
because he had been asking each of us some pointed questions but didn't want
anyone to know too much, so needed to ask many people.
</plot>
<title>Scott's Startups</title>
<author>Scott Compton
<email>galahad@leland.Stanford.EDU</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Any</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<setting>Any</setting>
<plot>
Maybe just start them off all in a crowd of people watching a bard playing a
song or something and the crowd is attacked by evil city guards that ban
music playing in the city. You and the group fights back and escapes: the
typical Robin Hood & gang scenario (outlaw bunch).
Or how about a council meeting... all characters represent some political
force.
Or what about an 'invitation-only' party to some exotic tower out in the
middle of a dead forest. The typical Dracula start... ;)
</plot>
<title>Team Spirit Reference Startup</title>
<author>Ronald Lawrence ROSSITER
<email>ronald@halls1.cc.monash.edu.au</email>
</author>
<length>Short</length>
<genre>Any</genre>
<type>Startup</type>
<setting>Any</setting>
<plot>
There is an article in Dragon #208, called 'Team Spirit', that could give
you some ideas for party origins, customs and history. Also, another idea is
to make the players come up with the origin/meeting of the party after they
generate their characters (saves you from the work, as they know what they
want...).
</plot>
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