Game Seeds

[rowyn]

I'm only putting up three possible settings/plots this time. This is partly because I already have three ideas I'm fond of and would like to do, and that's two more than I will actually use. Coming up with more ideas just means more that I'll want to do and can't. Also, I have Friday off and if I already have the setting picked than I can spend part of the day ruminating on the details.

Dungeon Dwellers: PCs are henchmen monsters guarding a dungeon for an evil wizard. The evil wizard will be gone for 24 hours. Havoc ensues. The PCs do not have to be evil themselves in this scenario: the plot may revolve around PC plans to betray the wizard, for example. This would generally be a silly, light-hearted campaign, with various plot devices to prevent PC death. ("Hey, he may be an evil wizard but he's got a *great* healthcare plan.") Inspired by stories like "Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic" and "Dungeons & Denizens", etc.

Study in Space: The "Black Event" happened to a manned survey ship in orbit around an uninhabited planet. All of the crew survived the event, but they have no memory of it and their ship was destroyed. (They were rescued by another ship). Amidst the wreckage of their ship were several alien artifacts, which are poorly understood by modern scientists but which have tremendous potential. Several years passed, during which scientists have built a small research space station at the same orbital position. The PCs are researchers on this space station when another Black Event happens. PC goals: try to gather as much information as possible and protect the results of existing research plus any new discoveries from destruction until the Black Event ends (the duration of the last one isn't known for sure, but it was between twelve and seventy-two hours). No people were harmed during the last Black Event, so no one expects to be harmed this time, but it would be really nice to come out of this with more data and maybe even some new alien artifacts .... This would be a space opera-ish setting, with hand-wavey science, because I don't have the background to do real science. Basic idea stolen from octantis. Thanks, Octantis!

Dealing with the Unknown: A race of fey, or aliens, or people from another dimension, or something -- no one's quite sure what -- has made contact with modern Earth. They're called "Traders", and they have a bazaar where they'll make deals with humans, trading their goods and services for human ones. The Trader's Bazaar appears at random on locations all over the world, and disappears 132 minutes later. Twenty-two hours later, the Bazaar reappears for thirteen minutes and fifteen seconds, during which time any deals made at the previous Bazaar may be cancelled. The bazaar stocks a bewildering array of tangible and intangible goods. the Trader's Bazaar has been appearing for several years now, and humanity is ... sort of used to it. In many countries dealing with the Traders is illegal, but it's currently legal in America.

The Traders do not sell at fixed prices or for cash. They barter. For everything. They are very friendly and cheerful, but only partially comprehensible. They're translated by small floating crystals near their heads (or maybe that's a second mouth?), but often the crystals render parts of a deal as , and you don't know what you've traded, or what you've got, until the deal is sealed. But you do get one chance for a refund, during the 13-minute window 22 hours later. The PCs will be a group of people who've just completed deals with the Traders. These deals will give the PCs certain known powers (to be picked by the player and to be superbeing type abilities, like mind-reading or teleportation) with unknown side effects (determined by the GM). They will also have given up certain known valuables, plus one mental/social/emotional ability (personal integrity, capacity for love, abiltiy to deceive, etc.) The player will get to pick the last, but ICly the PC will not initially have realized what they traded away. PC goal: figure out in the next 22 hours whether you want to keep what you got or get the refund. This'd be a good option for "The Terrible Way". Idea ganked from conversation with terrycloth and tuftears.

Now, on to the poll! Once again, please only vote if you're interested in playing in one of them.

[Poll #1211163]

Comments

[the-vulture.livejournal.com]

I just wanna play a kobold sorceror again because it was damn fun the last time I played one (a one off session with my former gaming club - the GM did pretty damn good for his first session!).

[rowyn]

So, is it the kobold or the sorceror part that's fun, or is there something about the combination of the two that works particularly well? :)

[the-vulture.livejournal.com]

It was a combination of many things, including the situation. I had forgotten to bring the characters for the session (was doing some work on 'em at home), so I got one of the boys to volunteer to GM (his first time doing it). Whilst he and a co-GM quickly fleshed out an idea, the rest of us chose and photocopied example 5th level NPCs from the DMGs as characters. I wanted to play a sorceror; turns out the example was a kobold. Said kobold, as well a half-orc barbarian, a lizard man druid, and a goblin rogue woke up in a small prison without any memories of their past save that they had been with each other on some form of prison ship for a number of weeks. First task: escape. It worked. I have never had so much fun playing a stock character before in my life. Much of it, being the physically underpowered member of the group, was about being extremely clever and sneaksy, as well as a bit of quick talking now and then, whilst all the while trying to hide the temptation to eat someone's eyeballs. *chuckle*

[zorkfox.livejournal.com]

Wow. Those are all so creative! *_*

[rowyn]

Creative on someone's part, anyway. Plagarism is the sincerest form of flattery! :)

[octantis.livejournal.com]

I like these all for different reasons, that's what makes it so hard to decide. I love the potential diversity of the dungeon denizens (gonna totally be a gelatinous cube), I've had a major hankering after some space opera (still want to run that Homeworld campaign), and supa-powas for ordinary folk are always cool, though ultimately I think that'd be the most unwieldy.

[rowyn]

Yay, enthusiasm! :) I'm not sure which is my favorite, either. The superpowers-for-ordinary people has one significant advantage, though -- I don't need to do nearly as much in the way of worldbuilding. >:) And the players don't need to understand the abnormal aspects of the setting, since they're not familiar with them anyway, so much less required reading and assimiliation for players, too. The comparative ease of setup is one of the reasons I've done games like Mirari and Just Trust Me. It's always nice to let the PCs explore the strangeness and unfold it naturally, instead of having to give a huge infodump up front.

[the-vulture.livejournal.com]

And it also lets you 'adjust' game reality as needed! *grin*

[rowyn]

Now, would I do a thing like that? :)