I need campaign episode/villain ideas
Im running a campaign that is based on an episode concept, sorta like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Star Trek in that a new threat happens every sessions, but there are also reoccurring villians.
The Campaign is based in GURPS. It's a silly campaign. It takes place in Unlikely, Oregon in a 1980's movie sort of setting. The town is a weirdness magnet. It wouldn't be strange to meet a talking dog, or an undead pigeon in the town. Things like magic, psionics, demons, vampires, and angels are all possible as is high technology and aliens.
Basically, there are 3 main players: a super-awesome robotic engineer (255 pt character), a super strong, yet pacifistic robot(he can not kill) the scientist invented that has gained mysteriously gained sentience (500 pt character), and a badass newly transfered-into-town police man(100 pt character). They've already played through the pilot episode. Now i'm looking to create some further scenarios and villains or possibly even allies.
Im not looking for anything detailed, just a basic synopsis.
They already have an enemy in General Patterson, a war-crazy army general secretly bent on world domination. The robot was designed as a prototype for his "Army of the Future". The PCs tricked him into thinking the robot was destroyed and moved to the farm in oregon. He still has animosity towards the scientist, and will probably show up again. He has access to high technology, and intends on monitoring the scientist.
Episodes I have planned.
- A latent psionic priest begins to unknowingly combust sinners who have confessed to him on fire in the church.
- A carnival comes to town.. an evil carnival. It's run by demons who take the souls of people and leavemere husks behind.
- A budding Angel comes to town who wishes to get his wings back, a demon show up who wants to ear his horns.
- A psychometric sees that in the near furture the robot will destroy all of his friends, if they don't do something about.
- While on the characters are vacation skiing, they meet some @#%$ guys who challenge them to race down the dreaded k47 mountain. Meanwhile, the General learns the robot is still functioning and sends in the previous 4 prototypes to bring him back. He also has his number one assasin on the job.
I'm looking for more basic episode ideas and villain discriptions. The campaign is designed to be cheesy, yet cinematic with that 80's movie feel to it.
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Posts: 365
(2/11/04 4:24 am) Reply
Re: I need campaign episode/villain ideas
Yeah, it sounds pretty good. If I can think of some more scerenario type things that might spark your interest I'll post them, but I've never played Gurps before.
Re: I need campaign episode/villain ideas
GURPS(generic universal roleplaying system) is just a generic roleplaying system. It's not based in any specific game world. It's a set of rules that can be applied to any setting. GURPS is based off of real life as opposed to being based off of itself, like many other systems. I gave the point totals to give a feel for the powerlevel of the campaign.
Your average joe would be a 25 point character, your neighbor todd is a 25 point character.
Your averager hero would be 100 points, someone like John McClane(Die Hard) is around 100 points.
Indiana Jones might be about a 200 point character(we've argued this one).
Someone like Legolas is about a 500ish point character.
Dark Scheinder (Bastard!) is about a 1000 point character.
But the system isn't really too important to the plotline..
Re: I need campaign episode/villain ideas
I have a robot character in one of my local gurps campaigns. 1350 point character. Top of the line in the Robotics guide. Dude can fly, take a nuclear blast on the chin and go "Oo, warm!", one-hand a howitzer, move faster than the eye can see, shoot lasers from its eyes, and is just as big as a normal guy.
Re: I need campaign episode/villain ideas
How about all the RC toys come alive and, seeing your robot PC as a god, attempt to create a new world of the machines with him as their ruler.
You can never go wrong with alien abductions. First cows start going missing, then the local drunk complains about anal probes, finally your policeman gets taken up. When the other 2 go to rescue him, it turns out that he's chillin' there with a margarita and the aliens were just looking for directions.
The engineer's mother in law comes to visit. Unfortunately, she's a cybernetic mother-in-law of death and destruction!. She begins to explode cats, dogs and small children.
The local cattle herd begins to get restless, and it turns out one of the dairy cattle is an oracle (or, depending on if your players wno't be offended, the Second Coming). General so-and-so wants control of the cow for his world domination plot, whereas the cow has decided humanity isn't worth it and just wants to chew her cud.
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Posts: 4381
(2/13/04 12:11 pm) Reply
Re: I need campaign episode/villain ideas
Kinda like what Llab says, have one of the robots go rogue and start to build other robots until hes got an army of junkbots.
Junkbots rule!
As far as reoccuring villians. I say a supernatural crime boss. Yes indeed. With a supernatural lawyer lacky.
Re: I need campaign episode/villain ideas
Thanks for the lesson SX! I'm serious though, I knew I was spelling it wrong.
I like the junkbot/RC toy thing and the cow oracle. I've already introduced a sorta supernatural crime boss.
He is the police officer's arch nemisis, Balthasar Rex a british drug lord who loves classical music. He killed the officer's wife and kid and was recently let out of prison on a technicality and then moved to Unlikely. To make a long story short, one of his lackeys found a time machine designed to look like a closet in a crazy old man's basment. He traveled to the future and is now the pinnacle of technology, and yes he actually does have an android lawyer. Fortunatly the time machine was destroyed and he doesnt fully understand the technology, yet.
There also a bunch of rekoned high schoolers popping up (a type of zombie from Dreadlands). I'm definatley going to add in the smaller robots becoming sentient soon. Thanks for the ideas.
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Posts: 4385
(2/14/04 1:03 am) Reply
Re: I need campaign episode/villain ideas
Ooh, do you have Agents? In a town this wierd you gotta have MIBs trying to destroy all the evidence and witnesses of the strange events.
Oh, and if the general isn't dead you should have the crime boss show him some of that new technology and have the general create some robots-that-look-like-people. Or instead of just having them team up you could have the General capture the android lawyer to learn his "awsome robot secrets".
And you could always have the yakuza try and muscle in on the crime boss and have the players get caught in the middle. And there would be ninjas. Lots and lots of ninjas.
Edited by: Ravenwinged Angel at: 2/14/04 1:07 am
Re: I need campaign episode/villain ideas
The campaign was conceived as an amalgamation of Short Circuit + Eerie, Indiana + 80s cliches.
Pirate ghosts is good, I like that. I have a drug lord/general team up down the line, maybe as a season finale. I have apache poltergeists in the game(they caused the zombie kids).
And I can't believe I didnt think to incorporate ninjas! Man!
I think I might steal the premise of the episode of eerie indiana where they find out where all the lost things go, like "the other sock" and stuff between the couch cushions. And if they ever do manage to time travel Ive added the end of time a la chronotrigger.
As for Agents(MIBs), the scientist is a member of the illuminati, well an ex-member(at least he thinks he is). He used to work with the MIBs. The reason he chose to move to this town is because it's an anomaly and the illumanti(the conspiracy makers, the faces behind the curtain, or what have you) have no data on it. Besides the censuses, the town doesn't exist in any other data, not even in other newspapers. Agents could be interesting, but he could technically pull rank on them.
Re: I need campaign episode/villain ideas
The only idea that I've had is to introduce Nodwick into your campaign. Let your people see a little 5' tall guy dragging a 50' statue across the desert while complaining about his evil masters. You wouldn't have to reveal that the masters are just idiots with a love for ale, destruction, and magical duct tape.
Heck, read through the strips at Nodwick and see if you get any crazy ideas.
Re: I need campaign episode/villain ideas
How about some Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy tributes, like having their town threatened by large yellow bulldozers manned by notoriously bad poets? Make the android lawyer a bit like Marvin the depressed robot.
Re: I need campaign episode/villain ideas
You have to have a nod to sweeps week, where for reasons unknown to even the writers there is suddenly a bikini contest and/or the town is suddenly next to a beach resort.
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