Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="wolff96" data-source="post: 4615342" data-attributes="member: 342">If you're going with a retrovirus, I would borrow something from the "Wild Card" series that George R. R. Martin used to edit.  (Bonus humor points, since that short story compilation series started from a Heroic P'n'P game).The retrovirus was developed by the university.  However, one of the researchers found out that a prime investor in the development was the military/criminal organization/space aliens whatever.  He intended to take the information (and virus) public.  He told some of his co-workers, destroyed vast swathes of the research information, and called a press conference.  Before he could reveal the secret, he was assassinated and the virus inadvertantly released -- maybe he was carrying a sample in a test tube that got crushed when he fell.All the PCs were (for whatever reason) around to be exposed.  Maybe it happened in a museum they were visiting, maybe the scientist fled into a mall, whatever works for your players.Of those exposed, 89% died.  10% were degenerated into the ancient creatures that could tap into the ancient power as well and went beserk.  1% survived and were empowered -- the PCs.It lets you drop them into a 'power discovery' fight right off the bat, gives some early foes in the form of the mutants, and presents an initial mystery of "who is that guy that got murdered and what just happened".  And it gives you a shadowy organization right off the bat -- I would have the assassin killed by the virus, but have some identifying mark, tattoo, or other recognizable feature.They are the only survivors of a mass-death, which means that if the authorities aren't behind the virus, they WILL have questions.  The intial backers are having trouble re-creating the formula, so they want their only successful guinea pigs.  Maybe some surviving scientists want to help them.  And there's always the original race that the powers came from in the first place who might have a part to play...It also allows a nasty plot point in the future -- can the PCs cause the same type of mass-infection and death that they saw in the mall?  How do they prevent another catastrophe when the shadowy group tries again?</blockquote>

Verification