How to Twist Plots

[mmadsen]

Later, they learned that the "cultists" actually had a damn good reason for drilling holes into the heads of some people - they tried to free them from the demonic brain parasites infesting them...

I love it, Jürgen! I love it. And, of course, it's a wonderful example of "Upside down" -- as is Angelsboi's mom-as-werewolf story. (Nice touch, running that one on Mother's Day, by the way. Twisted, but smooth.)

 

[mmadsen]

Ehh... Wow. BUMP!

Thanks for the bump, Jolly Giant, but don't you have any plot twists to share? Or anyone out there? Has anyone taken a popular module and added a surprise twist?

 

[Ravellion]

"Now that's Convenient!
When the party wants something just give it to them, but in a way they couldn't have expected.

Example: The party is sent to kill Goblins, and will get 20 gp for each goblin left ear. They find an entire battlefield full of dead goblins, probably a goblin clan vs. clan war. They start cutting off ears, but then the 5 carrion crawlers come out.

Rav

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I love it, Jürgen! I love it. And, of course, it's a wonderful example of "Upside down" -- as is Angelsboi's mom-as-werewolf story. (Nice touch, running that one on Mother's Day, by the way. Twisted, but smooth.)

Truth to be told, I stole most of the ideas from Delta Green: Countdown, which gets my vote for "RPG supplement that gives the GM the largest number of evil ideas".

I've already mentioned the demonic brain parasites and the people with the drills who fight them. Then there is the cult worshipping the fertility deity whose initiation rites involve various stages of castration - and that runs orphanaries. There is the otherworldly entity that slowly warps the perceptions of its victims until they are slowly vanish from this world. And there is the government agency that fought the Good Fight - and lost big time.

Every GM should own this book, no matter what kind of game he is running!

 

[mmadsen]

Truth to be told, I stole most of the ideas from Delta Green: Countdown, which gets my vote for "RPG supplement that gives the GM the largest number of evil ideas"....Every GM should own this book, no matter what kind of game he is running!

I shouldn't be surprised that Delta Green provides lots of evil plot twists; conspiracy's the name of the game there.

I've already mentioned the demonic brain parasites and the people with the drills who fight them. Then there is the cult worshipping the fertility deity whose initiation rites involve various stages of castration - and that runs orphanaries.

Demonic brain parasites are one thing, but castration rites? Yeesh!

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Demonic brain parasites are one thing, but castration rites? Yeesh!

Did I mention that one of the spells available to them is called "Wither Limb"?

Choke on that, you so-called "Book of Vile Darkness"!

 

[mmadsen]

"Now that's Convenient!
When the party wants something just give it to them, but in a way they couldn't have expected.

Nice twist! I can see using that one over and over again -- and not just for wishes.

Example: The party is sent to kill Goblins, and will get 20 gp for each goblin left ear. They find an entire battlefield full of dead goblins, probably a goblin clan vs. clan war. They start cutting off ears, but then the 5 carrion crawlers come out.

Or they're cutting off ears when the Goblin Wolfrider cavalry crests the hill. Or they see all those Goblin corpses, but find all the left ears have already been taken. Or they stumble across another mercenary party cutting off the ears.

 

[mmadsen]

Anyone else have any favorite plot twists they've used? Or plan to use?

 

[SurfMonkey01]

I'm toying with using the time-honored tradition of "upside-down" (or would it be "bait-and-switch?")... anyways, in my upcoming game, there's going to be this noble. He'll be the one who brings the group together, and he'll be their major source of adventures/income. Of course, he's also using them to accomplish all sorts of various little odds and ends he needs done before he can claim a mythical artifact that promises total invincibility, which would then allow him to wipe out the town's ruling council and take over, using the assassin's guild he secretly sponsors as his army/enforcers...

It's all a little cliche, I know, but my players are all so used to linear plotting, it'll work... I think...