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"Conspiracy" Fantasy: have you ever done it?
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<blockquote data-quote="Wraith Form" data-source="post: 2039417" data-attributes="member: 10789"><p>I'm a first-time DM who's trying to get some ideas on how to run a very conspiracy-oriented fantasy game. This will probably be a fairly low magic setting, and will have little or no demi-humans or standard MM critters. I'm thinking a late Renaissance tech level (i.e. exceptionally rare, but existant, gunpowder/guns) that is just on the cusp of seeing a clockwork/steampunk-style industrial revolution wash across it's societies.</p><p></p><p>My influences for this setting:</p><p>Geoffrey Rush's character Francis Walsingham in <em>Elizabeth</em></p><p>Iago in <em>Othello</em>, especially the Kenneth Branagh film interpretation</p><p>Oliver Stone's <em>JFK</em></p><p>Atles' <em>Dynasties & Demagogues </em>and, to a lesser extent, <em>Crime & Punishment</em></p><p>Call of Cthulhu-related <em>Delta Green</em> and it's "sequel," <em>DG: Countdown</em></p><p><em></em>Looking Glass' <em>Thief</em> computer game series, specifically the clockwork & steam tech in <em>Thief 2</em> -> forward</p><p>Gibson & Sterling's <em>The Difference Engine</em></p><p>...and of course, my main source of inspiration, Chris Carter's <em>X-Files</em> and <em>Millennium</em> TV shows (<em>Millennium</em> has the Owls and the Roosters).</p><p></p><p>You'd think with these rich sources to draw from, I'd be able to whip together a kick-butt plot for a group of PCs to adventure through.... I'm a bit too--challenged? dumb? uncreative or unimaginative?--to generate plotlines, and have no experience in thinking "conspiracy"--how to leave clues, how to have a layered, circle-within-a-circle plot, etc.</p><p></p><p>So I'm turning to you. This is a very open question, so I'm looking for any form of feedback. In particular, I'd like some "plot hooks" that can easily be tied back to a fantasy government: low level adventures that I can throw at PCs that, after a second glance, will hint at a government conspiracy. For example, several of the X-Files episodes looked like your typical "monster of the week" show until the end, when they showed (or implied) a deeper level of government involvement.</p><p></p><p>Please help--feed me reference materials, your experiences, plot seeds/hooks, opinions of the type of government to use, whatever. I assume that creating a modern, quasi-X-Files level of conspiracy is going to be difficult to transition into a fantasy/Renaissance/almost-Industrial Revolution era....but have you done it successfully? And how?</p><p></p><p>Thank you in advance.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Wraith Form, post: 2039417, member: 10789"] I'm a first-time DM who's trying to get some ideas on how to run a very conspiracy-oriented fantasy game. This will probably be a fairly low magic setting, and will have little or no demi-humans or standard MM critters. I'm thinking a late Renaissance tech level (i.e. exceptionally rare, but existant, gunpowder/guns) that is just on the cusp of seeing a clockwork/steampunk-style industrial revolution wash across it's societies. My influences for this setting: Geoffrey Rush's character Francis Walsingham in [i]Elizabeth[/i] Iago in [i]Othello[/i], especially the Kenneth Branagh film interpretation Oliver Stone's [i]JFK[/i] Atles' [i]Dynasties & Demagogues [/i]and, to a lesser extent, [i]Crime & Punishment[/i] Call of Cthulhu-related [i]Delta Green[/i] and it's "sequel," [i]DG: Countdown [/i]Looking Glass' [i]Thief[/i] computer game series, specifically the clockwork & steam tech in [i]Thief 2[/i] -> forward Gibson & Sterling's [i]The Difference Engine[/i] ...and of course, my main source of inspiration, Chris Carter's [i]X-Files[/i] and [i]Millennium[/i] TV shows ([i]Millennium[/i] has the Owls and the Roosters). You'd think with these rich sources to draw from, I'd be able to whip together a kick-butt plot for a group of PCs to adventure through.... I'm a bit too--challenged? dumb? uncreative or unimaginative?--to generate plotlines, and have no experience in thinking "conspiracy"--how to leave clues, how to have a layered, circle-within-a-circle plot, etc. So I'm turning to you. This is a very open question, so I'm looking for any form of feedback. In particular, I'd like some "plot hooks" that can easily be tied back to a fantasy government: low level adventures that I can throw at PCs that, after a second glance, will hint at a government conspiracy. For example, several of the X-Files episodes looked like your typical "monster of the week" show until the end, when they showed (or implied) a deeper level of government involvement. Please help--feed me reference materials, your experiences, plot seeds/hooks, opinions of the type of government to use, whatever. I assume that creating a modern, quasi-X-Files level of conspiracy is going to be difficult to transition into a fantasy/Renaissance/almost-Industrial Revolution era....but have you done it successfully? And how? Thank you in advance. [/QUOTE]
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