1) The village PSH punk has joined the Knights of Genetic Purity (because he's tired of getting beat up by the mutant kids). The PCs must stop him before he can use his new 'toys' (Artifact weapons and scrounged armor) on half the village.
2) A known bandit has raided a convoy and took off with a very powerful Thing of the Ancients. The PCs are tasked to go to his usual hideout and see if he is there. If he is, they should call for backup and then try to beat up the bandits.
3) Red Death bands are massing to cross the river and kill everybody they meet. Fight them, or help everybody run away, or save yourself, or help fortify the river crossing.
4) Ok, here's one of the first scenarios that came to mind when I read the GWPH. First off, I didn't go for the Blaashes being called Thra, that's a bit too corny even for me, so I went with the old name, plus I mixed in nanotech and a little Slake Moth from Perdido Street Station since those things were friggin wicked!
The blaashes, though radioactive and rather predatory, do produce a rather usefull resource. Nanofactories in the species are powered by the radiation as well as radiate excess energy, but they produce a susbstance that acts as a treatment for radiation poisoning. It's found in their poo. It can be something the PCs home community barters with for the things they need, or perhaps it's vital for the communities survival in an irradiated area, either way it's the PCs job to go collect the droppings, which is of course deep in their territory. Plus, you can figure there could be a mutant or two with the Half-Life or radiation leak mutations nearby...
5) The local Healer has offered (or asked permission) to set up shop in your village. The village elders - or whoever is in charge - have not yet made up their minds. The village witch doctor is definitely against it. He will not limit his tactics to words alone. The PCs get involved because one of their party needs to be healed.
6) A Bonapartist army is rumored to be approaching the area. Find out more.
7) The Created have found an obsolete (or heavily-damaged) war robot and are trying to fix it up. Testing on live targets is desirable.
8) There has been a drought this year, and the Cursed area upwind has begun generating dust storms. Go to the nearby Taboo land, search the Bones of the Ancients, and find their machines that made Cursed land fertile again.
8b) The search has failed. Help the entire village pack up and move away. Somebody may already live in the place where we will end up.
10) Raider attack the PCs community, stealing whatever they can get their hands on. It's discovered after they've left that a vitally important code-key was taken. The village elders anually conduct a "ritual of resetting" at the nearby Nuke plant. The ritual resets the plants safety protocols and keeps it from having a meltdown. It's 3 days before the time of the ritual and the PCs need to track down the raiders and get back the key in time or the entire region will be irradiated.
11) In ancient times, groups of environmentally minded people created guardians for endangerd forests and gave them the ability to make the forest grow. The guardians were giant cyborgs that were given plant-based organics instead of the common flesh sheatheing. Often referred to as "Ents" for reasons lost to history, the guardians did their job well, and after the Fall, it was easy to get the plants to reclaim their lost territory. When bio-agents warped the plant DNA, making new species that were more "active" and predatory, the guardians just rolled with it, and make the new plants grow ever faster. A traveller has rode into the PCs town, warning everyone of the coming of The Crawling Forest!
12) An android priest,(programmed with the totallity of whatever given religion as a record) has had a vision!(spontaneous algorithim) He is ravelling the countryside gathering followers and all who will listen as he tells of his message from God and offers to lead them to the Promised Land where they will await the Messiah! Is he genuine? Is he being duped by or under the control of some A.I.? How fanatic are his followers and how many of the PCs friends or PCs themselves decide to join his flock?
13. Six bearwyrms(10 at first, but some of them met) have been sighted coming towards the village from different directions. Six hunting parties are being assembled to stop these menaces from attacking the village. Will the PCs help?
14. Your group meets an android who asks for your help in tracking down a crazed shape-shifting android(Stepford) who goes murderously insane every few months and slaughters whatever group of people they are with. The stepford android's tracks lead to your village. There have been a dozen newcomers who arrived in the last 2 months. How do you find the Stepford android before it goes berserk?
15. You find a large collapsed building. Exploring the ruins you find stairs going down. At the bottom of the stairs to the left is a large locked metal door. What wonders of the Ancients does it hold and how do you get in there?
17) A convoy of salvaged hovercrafts has been romored to be moving in the general direction of the PCs. The convoy is a known group of furry bandits whose leader is known only as "Mittens."
18) KA-BOOM! The PCs better figure out what that noise was!
19) A baby chimpanzee in a diaper speaking with a cultured british accent visits the PCs village (or where ever they are). He opens up a public school that teaches illiterate people how to read. The price? One soul! Stop this soul-nabbing ape before he sucks the whole town dry!
20) The town bully, Brickhouse, suddenly grows five feet taller and grows two extra arms. BRICKHOUSE POUND! BRICKHOUSE SMASH! BRICKHOUSE KILL! Stop Brickhouse! After he's been brought down find out what caused that bizarre occurance! Was it radiation? Was it faulty nanomachines? Did he have an overactive pituitary gland? And most of all, will it happen again?
21) Rumor has it that there's great treasure buried inside a building in Nau Yorg. There's only one problem. A brand new force of Nau Yorgers has arrived! They're big, scaly, armed to the teeth and they come from Florida! Rumor has it that they only have two weaknesses. Raw chickens hurled into their mouths and big, stinky stogies.
A) the terrain is such that you can only run in the same direction the stampede is going - as in a canyon
B) the stampede and a river are on opposite sides of the party
C) an Ancient building or an upward cliff is nearby; climbing about 3 floors up is safety ... if you can do it in the limited time available
D) the PCs are in a natural low spot and cannot see where the stampede is coming from
E) the herd is HUGE - hundreds of feet across and miles deep
F) an aerial stampede as all the sparrows &c flee a group of hawks
G) the earth vibrations have woken up something carnivorous in the big river nearby, which recognizes the signs of a LOT of food coming up fast.
H) the stampeding beasts have Fear Generation, an unconscious mutation, that operates in a cone ahead of them
I) There is a cliff down to one side of the party and the stampede is pushing them towards it
- Army ants in any climate
- any giant insects
- locusts eat anything growing, then fly off
- fish-based bugs could ignore the ground but foul the water
- mini-blaash quote lightning bugs unquote
- the swarm comes, stays overnight, and leaves without damaging anything. A little later, the eggs they laid hatch, and the caterpillars eat everything. Then they chrysalis, emerge, and fly away.
- the swarm has a mutation (pick something that makes it hard to fight) when they are all together
- the village elders have found out that a bug swarm is coming. The PCs are tasked to search the Ancient ruins for a cache of beekeeper suits, so somebody can resist their attacks.
- mosquitos You need a dozen to drain 1 HP, but you can't swat them all fast enough. There are hundreds or even thousands.
- the swarm moves by hopping. They flatten anything they land on, or jump off of. Crop damage?
- the swarm of flyers does a sonic attack on anybody who gets too close.
- the bugs can be diverted by . Find out more from the suspicious xenophobic villagers down the road who made it work for them last year.
I started this game last night, introducing a group of D20 players to the simplicity of Story Engine. It was a blast. Although they managed to avoid many of the nasties I had hidden about, they got a great sense of anxiety from exploring the old installation, especially when bullet holes and laser burns were clearly visible on the dura-crete walls. The giant Sentinal Cylinders, large columns with dozens of auto-weapon blisters hanging limp at their sides in particular were very spooky as they creeped past them in the cold darkness. Then, the techie of the group decides to go off on his own. He discovers the generator and manages to get it started. The power comes on, and the security systems come on-line. Fortunately for the rest of the group, they had just entered a hallway that didn't have any SCs in there, but the exits are covered, but they have a plan...
This is turning out to be a great adventure! With a nod to Stephen King's Wolves of the Calla, I had them find a couple of sneetches and a lightsaber in the searching the rooms. I'm thinking of letting them find a Poke'Ball if they end up in the right place. :D
Now, let's see if they manage to revive the corporate leaders corrupted by Cthulu-esque nasties that are in cryo-freeze... :88E:
I would consider changing A-1 Slave Pits of the Undercity to this genre.
There is alot of possiblity in the slave trade.
(28) The group finds an famous old amusement park(GM's choice) that is being run by friendly synthetics. Junk or simple devices are the price charged for admission. Food is extra. A synthetic wants to join the group when they leave. What do the players do?
31) What happens when the PCs find a sentient shuttlecraft who likes to travel and wants the PCs to help it explore the world as it now exists. Are the PCs ready for this turn of events.
33) A group of 50 Seekers armed with flintlocks and cannons are attacking a small community built near a functioning mechanized farm. The community has few fighters and only a defensive wall for protection. An intellligent mutant bird asks your people for help to drive off the invaders and share the farm's bounty. What do you do?
34) A brutorz wants to join your party as an equal. He knows of some abandoned ruins sealed by a steel door and wants to check it out.
35) You find a strange semi-metallic dog digging a hole in the side of hill. He looks up at you and whines slightly and then goes back to digging. Then some dirt falls away partially revealing a buried building. What do you do?
37b) It's a threat and you can't stop it. Now what do you do?
38) You encounter a twenty foot tall fire-breathing cat. It decides you are its offspring. It will groom you(head to toe wash, 5 times a day) and provide food for you. It's twice as fast as you are and can easily retrieve you if you escape the den it puts you in. What do you do. PS it's not stupid just lonely.
The "wambyr" is a medical droid from an ancient dome. Some of the cryo equipment has failed and the robot has strict orders to keep alive the one person in the dome, THE LAST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!
Ok, I admit it, I ripped this one off an old issue of 2000A.D. with Judge Dredd. ;)
Originally posted by DarthCestual
The "wambyr" is a medical droid from an ancient dome. Some of the cryo equipment has failed and the robot has strict orders to keep alive the one person in the dome, THE LAST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!
The Deathlands novel "Rat King" has an interesting variation on this idea. I'll make you read the book to find out what it is. Imagine 5 Cabinet members who are medically incapable of leaving their facility, desperately in need of an Ancient-tech checkup.
Originally posted by Lissa
44) The council of your village has sent your group to establish trade relations with a nearby tribe of people. Only one problem: your group is human and they hate humans. What do you do?
You should find this out only AFTER you arrive. Until now, it was normal for anybody to snipe at (and scare away) members of the other group. But since the recent Sign in the Heavens - perhaps just a solar eclipse - peoples have been less trigger-happy than before. Are the other tribe Arks? They could return the party in an ... interesting ... condition.
The facility is/was nearly intact and could easily serve as a base of operations for larger, more extensive, adventures. But the plants need to be stopped first. Forging a relatioinship with the primary think tank and its mobile personality (android) could be really important to the future.
51) Once the plants are stopped. Getting more raw material, and refining it for the power plant is a high priority. And can easily pose some interesting challenges.
(you would be amazed how much I did with these ideas)
Originally posted by beavis123
52) PCs are paid to escort a merchant who transports his goods on an old river boat up and down the Mississippi river to villages along the river. (Plenty of encounters and adventure hooks here)
Hey bevis123
Did butthead take over your computer? You know you only have to post a message once, right? We don't need the same message two, or FOUR times. haha
FYI: You can delete your own messages. Just click on the edit button, delete all the text, and then at the top of the page, click the box that says delete. It's that simple. REALLY. haha
This goes for everyone. I guess I wasn't the only one that was having difficulty getting posts to upload properly.
56. A take of "The Thing" a village or outpost is infected with a parasitic orgamism. Infected folks can't be discerned from anyone else.
59. Bits of metal from precious artifacts and irreplacable items are dissappearing, ruining several of them. The PCs may discover this after a rather vital piece of their equipment has been damaged, and find it's all over the village. A Clockwhirl colony has infested the town and is making more clockwhirls with the stolen metals. Find the colony and remove/destroy it before they start to cause real harm.
60. Outriders for a trade caravan that left two days ago come staggering and bloodied back to the PCs town. They inform them that WinSeen/Winisleans have have sprung up along the trade route. The nasty and aggresive tangle vines will have to dealt with, or the town could be cut off!
61. It's time for the Festival of the Harvest Moon and a great feast must be prepared, the main course being an entire roast Rakox. The task, the Rakox must be roasted alive, and guess who gets to go capture a live one...
62. At the Festival of the Harvest Moon, the old Master Rologolo, a mutant hamster makes his picks for his "potential" apprentice. Afterward, he returns to his mountain home and in 3 days time, the potentials set out after him. If they survive the trecherous journey up the mountain, avoiding both natural perils as well as the boobytraps Rologolo himself set, he will teach them the secrets of the Firedust-gunpowder.
The Badder tribe that holds overlordship over your people is sending the Head Honcho Noble on his yearly visit to collect taxes (read: take the fruits of your harvest) and dispense justice. One of the PCs is falsely accused of a crime and sentenced to death. The other PCs must deal with this threat to their friend's very life. The nature of the death sentence is that the Head Honcho - who has the sole right of punishment - turns the criminal out at the edge of the village and, after a morning's head start, hunts him. If/when he finds his victim, he will kill and eat him ... not necessarily in that order. If the Head Honcho is in a bad mood, he may just eat an arm today and save the rest for tomorrow. Clever PCs may be able to find a way to send the Head Honcho out hunting the corrupt accuser.