Need help fleshing out plot ideas...

[Bob Aberton]

Just what the title says. I have an idea for a very cool, very creepy adventure. I just need help fleshing it out.

The PCs are trapped in an abandoned asylum on an island. Long ago, ti was a working asylum. However, the catch is, the directot himself was insane, a delusional paranoid schizophrenic, but he hid it well. Anyway, one day he went totally insane and locked himself in the asylum.

He's still there. Now the PCs, somehow, have gottne trapped inside the asylum (insert plot hook here). They have to get out. The trick here is, while in the asylum, they are slowly going insane themselves. They can't be sure whether what they see is a hallucination or real, and what are those voices in their heads, telling them things?

They lose a point of Wisdom every time they rest inside the asylum. When they reach Wisdom 0, they become totally insane (possibly transforming into an allip?). Thier goal is to get a floor plan of the asylum, telling them where the exit is. But the Voices say that their friends are going to betray them. The Voices say that their friends must be killed. The Voices....you get the idea.

Anyway, I want this to be light on combat, heavy on roleplaying. Suggestions?

 

[SableWyvern]

An idea for one thread within the scenario (I did something similar once, and it worked pretty well).

Seperate the group. Do a quick private spot with each player until they meet back up, and inform one that he is now playing an evil imposter of himself. Let the player know exactly how he is meant to disrupt/scare/kill/place doubt into the minds of the party.

Have the party meet the real PC (being played by you), in a predicament/trap etc... The player resumes playing the real PC once the situation is resolved.

Repeat with a different character.

Do a third time, but this time the player continues to play the real PC, and the one encountered and played by you is the imposter.

Another option:

Factions of ghosts/shadows/whatever (or individuals) within the asylum.

-The ones that wish to lead the party to its doom through pleading and begging.
-The ones that wish to lead the party to its doom through aggression and threat.
-The ones that wish to help the party through stern, somewhat aggressive motivation.
-The ones that want to help the party, but first want the director slain so that they can be freed.
-The ones who know that defeating the director will require destroying item 'X', which will just so happen to release some dark and evil entity even more powerful, insane and malicious than the director.

etc.... Mix and match as many as you want.

 

[wolfpunk]

Ok a few questions...

Does the director himself have any powers? Perhaps he didn't originally but has his ages in the asylum done anything to him. Perhaps illusion and enchantments, not persay actual magic, but a few powers he can manifest a few times per day.

Are you intending to have them get there via a shipwreck, or by magic means or what?

You are intending this to be a puzzle quest with little to no combat? If you want to include combat, any ideas of what you would like the to fight?

What type of party do you have to work with? Character types and levels?

Some more information will give us a better hand of coming up with usable stuff for you.

 

[LostSoul]

I would try to keep magic out of the adventure. Dispel Magic spells would wreak havoc. And if everything can be written off as "that's just magic working on us", none of the events will seem disturbing. A small ghoul isn't terrifying; a starving 12-year old girl chewing on the bones of her young brother is.

Later in the adventure, you can throw magic in; but at that point they should be questioning thier sanity so they won't respond with Dispels and other spells of that sort.

 

[Painfully]

Let's say the insane insane asylum warden was something of a dabbler in arcane arts, and that he was attempting to "lure," a particular person (perhaps a relative, or a woman?) to be there with him. The woman or relative in question might already know the warden is insane and call upon the party to try to "rescue," the warden away from the asylum.

The device the warden uses might be as simple as a teleport scroll. Cursed, of course, to teleport the reader and those within the room to cells in the asylum. If you bring along the woman, or relative mentioned it might even make for a more interesting adventure!



You have done your homework on this haven't you? You know...watching crazy people. Let me tell you it is FREAKIN WEIRD what these people will do, but the majority are quite harmless. I'll never spend another summer internship at a mental institute again But I WILL spend a few days in a sensory deprivation tank if you pay me enough money

 

[SableWyvern]

You have done your homework on this haven't you? You know...watching crazy people. Let me tell you it is FREAKIN WEIRD what these people will do, but the majority are quite harmless. I'll never spend another summer internship at a mental institute again But I WILL spend a few days in a sensory deprivation tank if you pay me enough money

While visiting a friend who was temporarily institutionalised (he thought he was Jesus or somesuch at the time), I was incredibly surprised to discover that these places (and, more to the point, the residents) are one of the few things that Hollywood actually depicts reasonably accurately.

 

[Bob Aberton]

Good ideas all. I'm planning to use either the "relative" plot hook, or the "shipwreck" plot hook.

I'll probably break up the party at odd intervals. The director is not "evil" per se, he is, however completely insane. I like the idea of the evil artifact needing to be broken to bring the director out of his condition, but that releases a bigger, darker, evil.

This is actually also the plot for a novel I'm writing, although set in modern times in my novel.

Actually, I didn't do any research into insanity, but I did see a couple TV shows on it...

Must go now. The Voices are calling me.