Writer’s Block

[parmasson]

Great Celon’s ghost!
I have a game Saturday and have the worst case of writer’s block.
From the last episode . . .
Four PCs, a mob boss offering bounties on each of their heads, twelve recently emancipated slave girls, a sample of zombie virus, a 2 Kt nuke, a far trader and a patron for them who wears powder pink suits. I even revisited the Forbidden Science of the Imperium thread for some ideas but I used most of the good ones already.

The campaign is brimming with possibilities and I am stuck. We had zombies and tentacle monsters thrown in to the classic adventure Death Station In Orbit. The Lab ship was in orbit around an IISS containment and research station for even more fun!
With babies, housework and my evening job there just aren’t enough hours in the day.

This is going to be a two cider problem.

This is all I have so far
The Ine Givar will make an appearance.
The mob boss will get close but not close enough

 

[stofsk]

Twelve slave girls? TENTACLE MONSTERS?

Oooh boy... and you're running out of ideas? You've got a gold mine and don't even know it.

What is "Death Station In Orbit"?

 

[deadlock]

Greetings and salutations,

Can you send me the back story of the campaign thus far? You can e-mail it to binaryhelix@comcast.net. It'll help me think of ideas for you.

 

[far-trader]

Check out my post in Random Static, it might inspire you. If this isn't the game that had the monster hurricane already.

lazy link

The news, especially fringe stories can be great adventure idea seeds.

 

[parmasson]

Death Station is Double Adventure #3 from the reprint series. I missed them in the old days so we got them now. My style of GMing is to throw as much a as you can at them, make them make difficult choices, give them the opportunity to kill themselves and make sure to end the night with al least two loose ends. You know serial style. Most of the time it works out great! Three months into the campaign I have them keeping notes to keep track of what is going on.

Perhaps I need to dig back into the wisdom of the ancients and draw my inspiration from them.

 

[parmasson]

Stand by for the executive summary.

 

[parmasson]

I think I will start using the computer to write them. Trouble is that my Model 1 is already running the microwave oven and the oscilloscope and I am almost out of memory. I knew I should have gotten that Mod. 2

 

[parmasson]

They have . . . .
Fought the Tentacle Monsters form the deep beyond
Survived a battle with pirates I was sure that would kill them
Been stranded in an abandoned mining complex full of fast zombies.
Rescued the slave girls
Pulled off a caper that cost he mob slaves and money
Avoided being lobotomized for their psi powers
AND managed to make a cred or two on the side.
Hell they even have a house in the countryside and a mortgage!

The trouble is that our wives are very understanding and let us play for 5-6 hours at a time. One day we all took off work and played for 9-10 hours. Do you know how much material it takes to go all day. I went through some of my best stuff that day

 

[jhulse]

Umm... who or what is the Ine Gevar???

What about this one...
One or more of the slave girls has been impregnated with monster larva... perhaps one of the tentacle monsters?
The mob boss has an underground connection with slavers / forced sex trade, and thinks the 12 women are his property. Perhaps he was on his way to finalize a deal. The mobb boss will take the bounties off their head if they give him back his property plus a little compensation.
Now, do the PC's let the "damaged" girl go to the mob boss so he and his cronies can get waxed by the monster when it "hatches" or do the try and find a specialist who can save the poor girl(s).

 

[parmasson]

<scribble, scribble>
That's what I am talking about! Cool but twisted! Consider it used.

 

[parmasson]

Ine Givar is an general purpose anti-Imperial freedom fighter/terrorist group. Their background is kinda fuzzy. I ran across them in a GURPS supplement somewhere.
Here is some online info


http://zho.berka.com/ine-givar
http://www.stl-online.net/vanya/tns/1105.html

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

Have the Ine Givar purchase their weapons from the mob boss in exchange for him having them do a few favors, like attacking the PCs!

Have the tentacle monsters be a bioweapon that the mob boss was researching for the Ine Givar.

 

[parmasson]

Nice twist.
I am writing right now. I will be sure to include it.

 

[stofsk]

Originally posted by Jeff M. Hopper:
Have the tentacle monsters be a bioweapon that the mob boss was researching for the Ine Givar.

Ok it's a bioweapon, but what's its purpose? For example, you could say the xenomorph from the Alien movies was an antipersonnel terror weapon, to be used strictly against civilians. What would this tentacle sexbeast's purpose be?

 

[jhulse]

Originally posted by Parmasson:
Ine Givar is an general purpose anti-Imperial freedom fighter/terrorist group. Their background is kinda fuzzy. I ran across them in a GURPS supplement somewhere.
Here is some online info


http://zho.berka.com/ine-givar
http://www.stl-online.net/vanya/tns/1105.html

Ah. And I plan to start off my campaign with a terrorist group. Non official Sword worlders that is... This could fit perfectly into my plot line! Thanks Parmasson! Must do some more reading...

 

[parmasson]

Ok it's a bioweapon, but what's its purpose? For example, you could say the xenomorph from the Alien movies was an antipersonnel terror weapon, to be used strictly against civilians. What would this tentacle sexbeast's purpose be?

To scare the poop out of characters and make them run, run, run!

The tentacle monsters are being engineered by a race called the Illithid. Apparently they have found their way into MTU and cannot get back so they have decided to do what mind flayers do best, eat brains and be evil. They have taken root on a world not far from the Imperum’s borders and have discovered the delightful fun of genetic engineering. They hope to engineer a slave race of themselves to do the heavy lifting without that “human” smell. They are going to be the climax of this story arc in a few months.

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

Originally posted by stofsk:
What would this tentacle sexbeast's purpose be?

The smartass in me has just realized that I have voted for Traveller: Hentai and is busy insulting me. Damn.

OK, what purpose for a tentacle monster? It could be just an animal from a world that is ugly and has a voracious appetite. The Lovecraftian Horror angle should never be overlooked, especially if this is part of a cult's project to bring back Nyarlathotep or Cthulhu. The tentacle monsters could be a larval/pupae form of the Hivers.

I know, its pretty tough to find solid justification for monsters as bioweapons when a tailored germ would be far more efficient. I'm thinking on it, though.

Maybe the tentacle monster is actually a human being who has been mutated by a tailored germ bioweapon? The mutation being a rare but possible result of the infection?

 

[stofsk]

Originally posted by Jeff M. Hopper:
[QB]I know, its pretty tough to find solid justification for monsters as bioweapons when a tailored germ would be far more efficient. I'm thinking on it, though.

Far more efficient perhaps, but wouldn't it also be a lot more traceable? One of your colonies gets stricken with a tailored virus, and intelligence comes to you and says "This has the fingerprints of those disreputable folk from Star System Bad Guys, so let's go over there and teach them a lesson."

Something like the xenomorph from Aliens could be used when you want a level of deniability. "What? Of course we're not responsible for this! You can see what they are, alien critters with tentacles. Blame the Hivers or someone."

On the other hand there may not be a need for a reason. The tentacle monster could have been an insane result of a Doc Moreau 'experiment'.

 

[jhulse]

[/QUOTE]The tentacle monsters are being engineered by a race called the Illithid. Apparently they have found their way into MTU and cannot get back so they have decided to do what mind flayers do best, eat brains and be evil. [/QB][/QUOTE]

DARN YOU THE HECK!

It's ironic, but I'm planning on something very similar. Most of the players I know are long time D&D players. I have a mind flayer miniature that I have modified. I removed the hand from the MF miniature and replaced it with a blaster wielding hand I took off a star wars miniature. IMTU, there are other ancient races besides the Dryones. There are traces of them left here and there. Ilthids are a possibility.
A future plot hook involves the characters investigating a research station on an ice world. The scientists discover an old ship buried in the ice, and presto... enter the mind flayer, a psionic minor race long forgotten. At least, that's the idea. I haven’t even written them up yet.
So how did your game go this weekend?
JakNaz

 

[parmasson]

It was pushed back to today. I will write up an after action report and post it Mon or Tues.