Hook, Line, and Sinker – Vampires, Werewolves, and Ghosts, Oh My

It is October, the month when you see horror stories everywhere.  As a Gamemaster you may feel yourself drawn in to the spirit of the season and want to run a horror story for your group.

It is tempting to just use one of the standard favorites as the main villain in your horror story, but it can be a letdown for both you and your players if they figure out what the creature is and unavoidably metagame how to kill it within fifteen minutes of the start of the adventure.

I have put together three adventure ideas that you can use to make your players believe that the monster they are chasing is one thing when it is actually something else entirely.

Idea #1 – Werewolf

Hook – A representative from a local noble contacts the party saying that the noble needs their help to hunt down a creature.

Line – The party is asked to take care of what is believed to be a problem with a large wolf.  There have been a number of peasants mauled and killed when travelling at night.  Witnesses speak of a large beast that is definitely not a bear having made the attacks.  No normal weapon seems to hurt the beast and it appears only around the full moon.

Sinker – The monster is actually a creature that is owned and trained by another local noble.  It is outfitted in a set of armor which it why normal weapons do not appear to work on it and the shape of the armor distorts it silhouette so it does not look like a normal animal.  The other noble releases it on the full moon on the other noble’s land to scare the peasants so they lose faith in their lord and ask him to step in to help.  Once he stops the attacks he plans to petition the king to be given the lands because the other noble cannot control them.

Idea # 2 – Vampire

Hook – During a night on the town the players come across a dead body.  The city guard happens by at the same time.  The players are stopped and questioned about it.

Line – While the players convince the city guard that they are not the ones who killed the person, they hear that the victim was drained of blood and the only visible wounds on the body are two puncture marks on the neck.  The head of the guard asks the party of their help to find the killer.

Sinker – The perpetrators of the crime of is a evil cult of blood drinkers.  In order to do their sacrifices they use a tool that makes marks similar to that of a vampire and drain the blood from their victim and drink it.  They believe that the blood gives them power.  It is up to the players to find the cult and put an end to their crimes.

Idea # 3 – Ghost

Hook – The party is invited to stay at the remote estate of a friendly noble to participate in a hunt.

Line – During the night after the party gets to the estate, one of the other guests is killed mysteriously.  The death has all of the hallmarks of an attack by a poltergeist.  Each night thereafter someone is killed.  Will the characters be able to find the murderer before one of them is killed?

Sinker – The cause of the death is a very powerful psionicist.  The person has a natural talent that is out of their control.  As they figure out that they murders are being cause by them, it warps their mind more and more until they become evil, twisted, and willing participants in the crimes.

This are only a few ways that you can twist what seem to be flat out signs of the participation of a specific supernatural monster in an adventure into something else.  Just remember what appears to be  obvious does not have to be.

Hook, Line & Sinker – Science Fiction Plots

In this week’s Hook, Line, and Sinker I am going to provide three plots centered on the vehicles that are used in anime and science fiction games.

One of the mainstays in science fiction and giant robot stories are the vehicles.  So much so that these spaceships and mecha become characters in the stories that they are part of.  I remember being stunned by the destruction of the Enterprise in Star Trek III.  It is not something you would have thought would have happened in Star Trek. The ship was not only the characters’ way to get from place to place, but it was their home.  Yet you almost never see the vehicles in an RPG campaign used to move the story along.  At best they are used to get from point A to point B and then the adventure begins or continues.

The plots that I am presenting here are not as drastic as leading to the destruction of the campaign’s home base, but ways to get the characters to think about the vehicle less as a tool or weapons platform and more as part of the team.

Idea #1

Hook – There is a race for a government contact for a light freight hauling through the local star systems.  This is a very lucrative contract for whoever wins it.

Line – If the players win the contract it will give them the cover that they need to do whatever other activities that they will be doing during the campaign.  If they character’s ship is supposed to be in an area the local customs agents and military will not give it more than a cursory look.

Sinker – Some smugglers have hidden a bomb on the ship.  If the players do not make a rendezvous with one of their ships during the race and take on board some illegal good to be dropped at the next destination, the ship will be blown up.  However if the players take the time to do this run for the smugglers, they will lose the race.

Idea #2

Hook – The player’s mecha start to malfunction during a mission.  The neural interface is not reacting as quickly as it should.

Line – The metal that the neural interface is made out of has somehow become corrupted.  The reaction speeds for the mecha will continue to deteriorate until eventually the mecha will stop following commands altogether.  Replacements are weeks away and there is an important mission that needs to happen on a specific timetable.

Sinker – There is a source for the ore that the metal is made of on a nearby planet that is occupied by the enemy.  If the players get ore, their mechanics may be able to cobble together some replacement neural interfaces for the mission.  The players must sneak onto the planet without the benefit of the mecha and find enough of the ore to make replacement interfaces without alerting the enemy to their presence.

Idea #3

Hook – There is an engine malfunction that causes the ship to drop out of hyperspace/warp in an uninhabited system.

Line – The players cannot repair the engine without certain parts that they do not have available.  The nearest port is now hundreds of year away at their current top speed and it seems that the system in not an uninhabited as they thought.

Sinker – The system is the home to pirates.  They have a weapon that can knock out the engines of a ship without causing it any damage otherwise.  They are looking to take the ship and its cargo.  They will dispose of the crew to get what they want.

Hook, Line & Sinker – The Darker Side of Being a Superhero

This time in Hook, Line and sinker we will do some more vigilante hero plot lines.  These are ideally suited for Dark Champions, GURPS: Hero, and Mutants & Masterminds campaigns with a darker edge to them but can be used in most other games with a modern setting.

Hook #1

Hook – Museums and private collections are being broken into.

Line – It appears nothing is being stolen in the break into but it appears that the areas that hold items that have occult value are being ransacked.

Sinker – The break-ins are being committed by a cult that is looking for a specific object of power.  Their research has led them to believe that the object is located somewhere in the city but not exactly where.  The object of power is used in rituals to summon a powerful demon.  The cult hopes to force the demon to make them more powerful.  Will the heroes stop them before they can get the object?  If they do not, will they be able to prevent the demon for escaping into the world to cause untold pain and suffering?

Hook #2

Hook – A number of children have disappeared from poor neighborhoods in the city.

Line – The police are baffled by the disappearances and assume the children are runaways until the body of one of them shows up.  He was badly beaten before his death.  To make matters worse an at risk youth that the heroes know (a DNPC if possible) has just disappeared.

Sinker – The children are being taken by a Jekyll and Hyde type villain who believes that he is helping them.  All of the children that have been taken are from broken home or have abusive parents.  Both personalities want to help the children but hate the system that is in place to help the children so they have taken things into their own hands. 

Unfortunately, the conditions that they have created are much worse than anything the children would have found in the system.  The children are being held in cages until they are brainwashed into believing that the villain is working in their best interests.  Add to that the volatile personality of the Hyde side which has already beaten one of the children to death and you have a recipe for disaster.  How will the heroes react when some of the children try to harm them for taking them from their new parent?

Hook #3

Hook – There is a new vigilante in town that has been taking on organized crime.

Line – The vigilante has been taking down drug dealers and prostitution rings but most of the time the evidence that would keep those that lets live off the street goes missing. Also there does not seem to be a drop in the amount of drugs on the streets to match what this new vigilante has taken.

Sinker – The vigilante is actually a super villain looking to start his own organized crime empire. He figures the best way to do that is to take down the competition with the help of the city’s hero and police community and finance his new empire form the old organized crime families.  This will get him an inside track on how the heroes and police fight organized crime and provide him an advantage when he finally changes sides.  Will the heroes figure this out before that or will they inadvertently create their own worst enemy?

Hook, Line & Sinker – Fun with Fantasy RPGs

Sometimes you and your gaming group need a break from the main story of the campaign you are running.  This can be especially true after a really heavy part of the story happens.  Even the darkest and gloomiest shows on television have an occasional funny episode or they wind up being the fodder for angst ridden teenagers.   This is not a successful model unless you are writing a series for the CW.

This week I will present some light hearted plot ideas for a game master to use to break up the heavier stories of their campaigns.  They can also be use as part of a campaign that is lighter in tone.  Of course just because a story starts out light does not mean it does not have a darker end as you will see.

I had framed them around a fantasy theme but with some adjustment they should be usable in other types of games.

Idea #1

Hook – A young girl approaches the party and asks them if they will help her find her dog, Fluffy.

Line – The dog ran into an abandon mansion that the girl is not allowed to go into.  The girl is a daughter of a noble that the party has been trying to get something from.  Use this to leverage the players in to the story if they are not so inclined to help the girl when she asks for their help.

Sinker – The mansion is a base for a smuggling ring. The dog is a small terrier and should be able to get itself into and around things that make it difficult for the party member follow it.  Use the dog to lead the party through the building to the smugglers den by the most precarious route.  Things like rotten floors should give way under the characters after the dog goes across the area and the characters should at times be able to hear the dog but not see the dog.  Once the party defeats the smugglers, the dog should lovingly jump into the arms of one of the characters with its tail wagging.  Give them the impression that the dog’s goal was to have them take care of the smuggling operation the entire time.

Idea # 2

 Hook – The party is hunting down a group of evil cultist that has been terrorizing the area.

Line – The party is hired by the local authorities to take out the powerful evil cult.

Sinker – The cult is not actually all that powerful.  During the party’s search portray their actions as bumbling bordering on incompetent.  The party should become skeptical that the cult is the source of the problems that are happening.  The party finds them at the end of a ritual summoning that is supposed to bring forth a demon o f unimaginable power and an imp appears and promptly flies off.  One of the councilmen that hired the party is actually an evil cleric that is trying to get rid of the competition.  His existence should be revealed when a pack of hell hound join the fight toward the end to make sure that none of the cultist survive.  To make matters worse, the imp decides he likes the party and starts to follow them.  Unfortunately he gets bored a lot and will play pranks on the party members.

Idea #3

Hook – The party is traveling through the forest to the next town when they hear what sounds like a large group of people approaching.

Line- The party is swarmed by an large group of orcs that passes by them at full speed without even stopping when they see the party.  If any of the characters understand orcish, they hear phrases like “Is it still following us?” “We’ve got to get out of here!”  A minute after the orcs pass, a young boy emerges from the woods and asks the party if they will be his friends.

Sinker – The boy is actually a polymorphed dragon that is out to have fun with the locals before killing them.  It tells the party that he got separated for his parents and believes that they are over that way, pointing in the direction he is going.  If the party decided to help search of his parents, the “boy” will lead them around the forest and eventually to his lair before revealing himself as the dragon.  If he is attacked before then he will fight the party, but would prefer to wait because he does not want to have to lug all of their cool stuff back home by himself.

Hook, Line & Sinker – Espionage Games

Espionage games along the lines of a James Bond Film or a Mission: Impossible episode can be fun to be a part of.  Trying to keep a long running campaign interesting a group of players is a very tough proposition.  Below are three story ideas to try to help keep things fresh.

As always I have tried to keep the ideas generic enough that you can use them for any system.

Idea #1

Hook – The team gets called in for a meet with their handler from the agency that they work for.

Line – When the team gets to the meeting spot the handler is a no show.  If the location is a base of operations, the place has been ransacked.  If they try to check in with higher ups, they find out that the handler has missed his last check in and has indeed gone missing and are assigned to find him before he can leak vital information to the opposition.

Sinker – The controller has been kidnapped by one of his enemies from the days that he was a spy.  The enemy spy is looking for revenge for a team he lost because of the controller and is luring in the team to kill them.  If he can get information from the handler that he can sell in the meantime so much the better.

Idea #2

Hook – The team is tasked to take out a terrorist base somewhere in Africa and provided everything that they need create a plan and are issued the gear that they need to execute the plan.

Line – On the plane in route to the drop zone for the mission they receive an alert that their current mission has been scrubbed.  They are being retasked to take care to intervene in a hostage situation in the Mediterranean.  A resort has been taken by a cell from the group of terrorist they were going to attack.  Among the hostages is the prime minister of a friendly nation and his family.

Sinker – The players now must come up with a plan on the fly they must rescue the prime minister and everyone else at the resort and take down the terrorist with a minimum amount of collateral damage.  The whole world will be watching as the situation unfolds after all.

Idea #3

Hook – On the way to a drop, a member of the team finds out that they are being followed by some enemy agents.  They quickly hide the object that they are taking to the drop know that the team will retrieve it when they have taken care of the threat.  (This team member should be an NPC if possible.)

Line – When the team goes to retrieve the object they find that it is gone.  They know the enemy agents did not take it.  When they review the security footage in the area, they find that a teenager took the object from its hiding place.  Now the team needs to retrieve the object so they can get it to the drop.