Fifty Two Hooks Part 3
Jan. 15th, 2008 09:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cheshirenoirAs promised to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
babalon_93, I'm going to be doing 52 items of my own for the next year.
I'll be trying to come up with a new "game idea" for a RPG every week. These can be very minor (Suitable for a single session), to medium (suitable for a multi-week campaign) to major (Suitable to build a whole world around).
I have used NONE of these before, so although some of these have been kicking around the old grey matter for ages, this is the first time I have most of them down on screen.
Hook 3: Dark Places
(Suitable for a multi campaign world)
This is a wierd one: Inspired by some funky funky dreams and some of the earliest HR Giger artwork, comes a pan-dimensional world of some strangeness.
The opening hook on this one is that the players need to design their characters for the same power level but for ANY world. It doesn't matter. They won't be there long. You see, they're all going to die. Separately, in a series of 1 to 2 hour one on one sessions, the GM corners the players characters through whatever means appropriate, and puts them in a completely no win situation. Drink the Poison from the Chalice, Final last stand surrounded by the VC, the supervillain sets off the doomsday device. It's pretty much dependent on the characters as to what method the GM chooses. The GM, however, under NO circumstances, actually kills the player. At the critical moment, the GM will speak the critical words that lead to the group forming. "... and then, strangely, everything goes dark".
The players are now all dead. And then we begin to play.
They all awake, at roughly the same time, in what appears to be a sealed off drainage culvert, about 1.5m in diameter. It's really hard to see. They have any equipment they previously had, with all clips / charges refilled. This is the last ammo / charges they will see. Despite theoretically speaking different languages, they have no problems understanding each other. If / when the players emerge from the tunnel, they are on a precipitous ledge, overlooking a strange grey abyss. There are stairs hacked into the rock, leading up and down, with thin, rusted guard rails covering some, but not all edges. They are of simple iron, rusted with age.
This is the Abyss. It's their new home.
Light comes from the rock itself, although all it really does is alleviate some of the gloom. the Abyss is effectively bottomless. Strange carved pathways hacked into the rock cover the walls. Sometimes the opposite wall is visible. Sometimes it's not. Occasional bridges branch from one side to another. The abyss isn't a straight chasm, it weaves and wends, sometimes making loops, but never touching the other edge. The paths are sometimes properly made, up to 2 meters wide. Other times they are boards covering rusty star pickets hammered in to the rock. Some are immeasurably old. Others are much, much fresher.
While here the players will not need to eat, drink or sleep.
This place is deliberately an enigma.
In various places are culverts in the rock face. Some of these are sealed. Others open up into other worlds. (they usually open up into a sewerage or storm drain in suitable worlds. In other they open up into more natural features like sinkholes or caves.) These sideworlds may or may not be populated. Certainly there will be language barriers if they are populated. While in these worlds, players age, get hungry and must sleep. Some planets will be incompatible with the biosystems of the players, proving to be poisonous and toxic.
Any time the players die, they wind up in the last sealed culvert they visited.
Other Notable Features and Locations
One of the culverts early on will lead to a "dead world" with the remains of a few ornate buildings floating over a all encompassing static sky. This is a world that has otherwise died and will be suitable for the players to use as a base of operations while exploring.
There is a huge artificial structure, like a giants staircase filling the gap between a wide part of the Abyss. A thriving civilization has sprung up here, with huge numbers of refugees building and constructing, farming and warring over the realestate of these 10 Km wide steps. (yes, farming. Players may not need food but it doesn't mean it doesn't still taste good)
Trade goods are bought and sold here. Players may be able to start making money by trading goods looted from sideworlds.
Goals for the Players
Initially they'll probably want to work out how to top up any non-renewable sources. They may wish to try and find their way "home". They may wish to discover more about this strange world. They may just want to find a nice sideworld that they can survive in. It's deliberately VERY open ended.
Strange, isn't it?
babalon_93, I'm going to be doing 52 items of my own for the next year.I'll be trying to come up with a new "game idea" for a RPG every week. These can be very minor (Suitable for a single session), to medium (suitable for a multi-week campaign) to major (Suitable to build a whole world around).
I have used NONE of these before, so although some of these have been kicking around the old grey matter for ages, this is the first time I have most of them down on screen.
Hook 3: Dark Places
(Suitable for a multi campaign world)
This is a wierd one: Inspired by some funky funky dreams and some of the earliest HR Giger artwork, comes a pan-dimensional world of some strangeness.
The opening hook on this one is that the players need to design their characters for the same power level but for ANY world. It doesn't matter. They won't be there long. You see, they're all going to die. Separately, in a series of 1 to 2 hour one on one sessions, the GM corners the players characters through whatever means appropriate, and puts them in a completely no win situation. Drink the Poison from the Chalice, Final last stand surrounded by the VC, the supervillain sets off the doomsday device. It's pretty much dependent on the characters as to what method the GM chooses. The GM, however, under NO circumstances, actually kills the player. At the critical moment, the GM will speak the critical words that lead to the group forming. "... and then, strangely, everything goes dark".
The players are now all dead. And then we begin to play.
They all awake, at roughly the same time, in what appears to be a sealed off drainage culvert, about 1.5m in diameter. It's really hard to see. They have any equipment they previously had, with all clips / charges refilled. This is the last ammo / charges they will see. Despite theoretically speaking different languages, they have no problems understanding each other. If / when the players emerge from the tunnel, they are on a precipitous ledge, overlooking a strange grey abyss. There are stairs hacked into the rock, leading up and down, with thin, rusted guard rails covering some, but not all edges. They are of simple iron, rusted with age.
This is the Abyss. It's their new home.
Light comes from the rock itself, although all it really does is alleviate some of the gloom. the Abyss is effectively bottomless. Strange carved pathways hacked into the rock cover the walls. Sometimes the opposite wall is visible. Sometimes it's not. Occasional bridges branch from one side to another. The abyss isn't a straight chasm, it weaves and wends, sometimes making loops, but never touching the other edge. The paths are sometimes properly made, up to 2 meters wide. Other times they are boards covering rusty star pickets hammered in to the rock. Some are immeasurably old. Others are much, much fresher.
While here the players will not need to eat, drink or sleep.
This place is deliberately an enigma.
In various places are culverts in the rock face. Some of these are sealed. Others open up into other worlds. (they usually open up into a sewerage or storm drain in suitable worlds. In other they open up into more natural features like sinkholes or caves.) These sideworlds may or may not be populated. Certainly there will be language barriers if they are populated. While in these worlds, players age, get hungry and must sleep. Some planets will be incompatible with the biosystems of the players, proving to be poisonous and toxic.
Any time the players die, they wind up in the last sealed culvert they visited.
Other Notable Features and Locations
One of the culverts early on will lead to a "dead world" with the remains of a few ornate buildings floating over a all encompassing static sky. This is a world that has otherwise died and will be suitable for the players to use as a base of operations while exploring.
There is a huge artificial structure, like a giants staircase filling the gap between a wide part of the Abyss. A thriving civilization has sprung up here, with huge numbers of refugees building and constructing, farming and warring over the realestate of these 10 Km wide steps. (yes, farming. Players may not need food but it doesn't mean it doesn't still taste good)
Trade goods are bought and sold here. Players may be able to start making money by trading goods looted from sideworlds.
Goals for the Players
Initially they'll probably want to work out how to top up any non-renewable sources. They may wish to try and find their way "home". They may wish to discover more about this strange world. They may just want to find a nice sideworld that they can survive in. It's deliberately VERY open ended.
Strange, isn't it?
