Post by StoryTeller on Apr 11, 2006 7:24:07 GMT
The NET.PLOTS.BOOK
Volume III
Compiled by Phil Scadden and Aaron Sher
Editors Note:
Compilation of this volume was originally started by Aaron Sher and has been completed by me. It contains plot and scenarios for mostly for fantasy RPGs but some from other genres have also been submitted. (Come on other-genre players - get you contributions in for Vol IV). Plots have been presented in no particular order but there is a large Appendix which is a compilation of the responses to the "On the road you meet..." thread in ec.games.frp.misc. I have made only minimal changes (spelling usually) to the material as received. I hope everyone
finds this enjoyable and useful.
Authorship of individual plots have been accredited individually with email address where I had them (missing from some collected by Aaron - if you can supply please email me). Author attribution is at the top of each plot.Authors appreciate feedback - if you use any of these try telling the author how youdid.
IT MAY WELL ENCOURAGE THEM TO CONTRIBUTE MORE PLOTS TO THE NEXT VOLUME.
Finally, my thanks to all who submitted these plots and especially to Aaron Sher who dreamt up the Net.plot.books in the first place.
Phil Scadden MDLCPGS@LHN.GNS.CRI.NZ 18/2/94
Author: Ben Davis Email: bjd12@cus.cam.ac.uk
Local temple (agricultural type goddess) been generally lax and living it up, not actually doing much work in the way of religion. One of the PCs knows someone in this temple - is asked to do a favour. The major temple of the same religion is sending round a small group to "inspect" all the little provincial places. The report will be both a financial one (audit) and a load of interviews with the congregation. If the report gets done properly (ie truthfully) all the priests are in big trouble.
What the PCs are asked to do is to help alter the way the report gets done. The problem is that _a_ report has to get done, that killing the visitors is a massive no go, and that the PCs are going to have to alter the perception of the temple and the surroundings without the visitors realising.
In the version we ran, the PCs got a hand from the priests in that the priests took care of the congregation (by buying them all drinks etc) and the party only had to deal with the visitors. They did this by finding out some background (5 visitors), and then seducing 2, getting 1 blind drunk, bribing one, and blackmailing the last. Thus the report was written by the right people, and no-one's suspicions were raised.
Author: Ben Davis Email: bjd12@cus.cam.ac.uk
Staying in pub - landlady's daughter comes back from playing on the beach in the early morning to collapse - initial thoughts are that she's ill, further investigation will reveal she's been poisoned.
Turns out the kids (small group on beach) found a rowing boat aground, with a case in it. They nicked the case, found it was full of food, and eat it several die, all very ill (they didn't eat much of the food 'cause they didn't like it - unusual taste).
Food was being dropped off to be picked up by a caravan passing nearby, where it would be swapped for an identical case (unpoisoned) and sent on to its buyer, a powerful alderman (or equivalent) in a nearby town.
So - to help out the landlady the PCs have to sort out a number of things owner of the boat, realise a caravan was going to be nearby at the time, find out from the merchant where the food was going, make all the right connections. They should then meet up with the alderman, who'll realise the attempted assassination attempt (especially if the PCs have still got a sample of the food - its a delicacy that's his favourite and that no-one else likes), and may ask the Pcs to sort out who was behind the poisoning. This will now entail crawling around the city getting the poison analysed, tracing the boat, the buyer of the poison and so on. Who's behind it is up to you (as is everything else really) - I had his son responsible (via a long and convoluted chain.
Author: Ben Davis Email: bjd12@cus.cam.ac.uk
PCs are dealing with some nomadic tribe (in my version, they were trying to set up a trade deal with them). Problem - chiefs brother has disappeared in mysterious circumstances (surprise me) and, guess what, the tribe is mourning and is not prone to doing business - so, if the intrepid PCs can rescue the brother, everyone'll be happy.
The brother has in fact tried to visit the ancestral plane to find out loads of Good Things, meet ancestors etc. He got the instructions from a ghost in an old ruined hill fort, which he got the location of from a diary he bought from some other nomads (the PCs can sort all this out with the right clues). He went to the hill fort, summoned the ghost, and got the spell to open a gate to the other plane. Unfortunately, the ghost being a miserable bugger, and the brother being of the trusting and slightly awed sort, the ghost withheld how to get back "for a laugh". So, the brother successfully built the gate, went to the ancestral plane, only to discover he couldn't get back. The PCs had better be more ruthless when talking to the ghost or exactly the same'll happen to them,
The way this scenario goes depends very much on what the PCs do - when I ran it, the main feat was getting to the hill fort and talking to the ghost - rounding up the components for the gate and rescuing the brother were fairly simple compared to that.
Author: Ben Davis Email: bjd12@cus.cam.ac.uk
PCs are asked/hired to go and pick up (if they have a starship) or escort on a liner (if they haven't) four people from a nearby system. Ideally, get them to agree before they have much chance to do any background research.
The world they'll be going to is a Balkanised water world. The four people they're meeting are political dissidents from one of the governments, a theocracy. The starport is in a different country, a bureaucratic obsessed blood pressure inducing place.
Unsurprisingly, the four dissidents don't turn up for the rendezvous. Depending on things, they've either
-been put under house arrest
-been arrested by the bureaucracy for a minor traffic violation (driving a powerboat without due care and attention)
-or something similar.
The governments concerned (make the planet have at least 4 or 5 for fun) should be sufficiently twitchy that, when the PCs do eventually find out where these people have got to, they can't just steam in with guns blazing. 'cause the military are on standby most of the time, and all hell'll break loose. The way my PCs got them out from house arrest on a floating hydroponics plant (remember, its a water world, makes life _much_ more difficult) was to hack into the theocracy's job allocation computer, have all four of them transferred on a Police boat (so as not to attract attention) to a nearby oil rig, and took the boat in transit during an electrical storm (weather conditions on a slowly
rotating (40hr day) water world)
Just for comment, we were using a 2300AD/old Traveller(TM) hybrid (2300AD characters, Traveller universe, hybrid gear with a touch of Cyberpunk(TM) for good measure.)
Author: Jan Garefelt Email: d90-jga@nada.kth.se (or svl-d@nada.kth.se)
REVENGE.
The PC:s get kidnapped in their youth, before starting their career as adventurers. (This of course makes it difficult for the players to choose a scholarly profession, but it is not impossible.)
The kidnapper (in our campaign his name was Barbarossa) is really a slaver who enjoys tormenting his captives before selling them off in a slave market in a country faaar from the respective PC:s home.
After x years of slavery in {a coal mine, a salt mine, the fields picking cotton} our heroes get a chance to escape. The escape can be an adventure by itself.
The PC:s may be from any part of the world. (They may even have problems in understanding each others language in the beginning.) After successful escape they by incident see Barbarossa. The word "revenge" suddenly appears in their minds.
What can they do to hurt the seemingly too powerful slaver?
Author: Graham Wills Email: gwills@research.att.com
The PCs find a freshly dug grave, haunted by the ghost of the victim, who will follow them around and wake them at nights wailing "John Smith killed me; avenge my death". They are also hired to hunt down someone who robbed a rich merchant. His name was John Smith. Whatever. Eventually the PCs will go looking for John Smith. He is a local farmer, totally innocuous, who lives on a rather isolated farm near a dangerous area.
When they find him, he tries to zap them with a nasty wand, but after one charge, he drops it and attacks with a sword. He is berserk, but has very few hits and dies rapidly. When they get back to town they are told that while they were gone John Smith left on a boat/caravan/pogo stick. They are confused. They are even more confused when they are attacked by John Smith.
A shape changer/illusionist has got hold of a neat magic item that is supposed to make people believe they are someone else. Unfortunately the item is broken and makes people believe they are one particular person ... namely John Smith, the first person the item was used on. Undeterred, our villain controls numerous people, making them John Smiths and occasionally taking on the John Smith persona to do dirty deeds. Even when there are obviously far too many John Smiths, he'll keep doing this, as people will be reluctant to kill someone who could be their wife, brother or mother!
The PCs will have to tackle numerous John Smiths of varying dangerousness and capture them, determine whether he's a stupid peasant or a high-level evil genius and deal with the situation.
This is great for low-level types without spells that could solve the problem rapidly. High-level PCs would just do a Detect X spell and wrap up.
Author: Charles W. Manry Jr. Email: cmanry@eecs.wsu.edu
Setting: Town with 1 or more tavern's, meeting places, etc.
Target is male Pc.
A Pc is on the make, ie. looking for love. A woman comes in and looks over the place and picks one of the Pc's. She grabs 'em and asks him to come back to his place. They get into a very *nice* coach. If the Pc asks any questions about the woman's background she'll say that she is a wealthy widow (she is lying!). One into the carriage she becomes all hands. Once home, a nice large mansion, she ignores the servants strange looks and drags Pc up to the bedroom where a night of passion will commence.
The punch line: The lady is really the wife of mayor/prominent community leader/miliary leader/etc who has been cheating on her. She's out to get revenge! The night with the Pc is the method of her choosing!
In the morning the servants, who do their best to ignore the Pc's presence, will come in and straighten up. They will fold the clothes and bring breakfast. In the middle of breakfast the husband will come home. The wife will get out of bed and start throwing their freshly folded clothes all over the bedroom. Mean while, one of the servants will tell the husband that his wife has company! The husband will charge into the bedroom and try to kill the Pc. This will be occurring while the wife is saying to her husband, "Serves you right for cheating on me!", "He was much better than you", "Oh! I never new what I was missing until last night", etc. This causes the husband to go into blind rage
causing him to not fight up to this full potential.
Options:
The Pc can try to fight if he gets his weapon. Once this occurs the husband will calm down and fight to the best of his ability. If the Pc does kill or wound the husband the wife will attack the Pc. She really still loves
the husband (all well as a few other women!) and will try to protect him. At this point the Pc becomes just a tool for her revenge. She does not care what happens to him....
Flee!!!! The husband will chase the Pc into the streets and then stop saying that he'll get revenge!
Either situations can cause a man hunt for the Pc. The city guards will be brought into the situation. If caught, you can toss 'em jail, strip them of $$'s and items, etc. If they flee the town, bring this sub-plot back into play
every time they return to the town. Or send mercs. after the Pc's party to bring back the one Pc to "justice".
Have fun with this one. Make 'em pay for fooling around with out thinking too much! 8^).