New Campaign Idea...

[Scribble]

So the other day when driving to a friends house for our weekly game I had an idea for a new campaign...

Campaign would be modern d20... Players would be asked to make heroes, but to so far keep them as normal people.. IE normal jobs and such, probably won't be walking around with crazy automatic weapons, equipment etc... Players would have no real idea of the theme tone or story of the campaign. Only that it's modern...

Campaign starts one morning while they are going to work on one of the subways in Philly. (I used to live in Philly and grew up in the area so I know it well enough to be comfortable setting a campaign there...) Suddenly the train is rocked and thrown off track. There is a horrific crash, and the first challenge is to survive it.

Once that is done, all power is out, and players need to get off of the train (maybe burning?) and maybe rescue whomever they can. Outside they will find considerable destruction to the tunnel. The emergency phones seem to be inoperable. All cell phones are out etc...

Next challenge, get out of the tunnel.

The idea would be to keep them in the dark (pun intended) for a few sessions... When they finally make it out of the tunnels, they find the city seems to be in pretty bad shape. Many collapsed buldings, fires, floods, dead bodies etc...

Welcome to the world after an asteroid impact.

Only thy won't know that. They'll just know there's been a huge disaster. Most of the survivors think it was a nuclear attack, but no one is really sure.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Cool.
That sounds like a fun game. PLenty of paranoia and panic.

 

[boerngrim]

Hi
Sounds like a good start!

 

[Frozen DM]

Very cool idea. I had an idea similar to this about a year ago. Same sort of premise, players make "average" characters in a modern setting. During a subway ride (set in my home of Montreal) something happens and there is a subway crash. The PC's are the survivors, who manage to escape the wreckage, but find the tunnels blocked by burning debris. With the smoke thickening, they have only one choice, to escape through maintenance tunnels.

After getting lost for a while, they reach a surface, and find the city in a panic. News reports are sketchy, but there are mass reports of hysteria in the streets. It turns out that a zombie apocalypse broke out during the late night, and finally exploded during the morning.

Never developed it past an idea though. I was planning on leaving the PC's in the dark about the real nature of the campaign as much as possible.

 

[GreatLemur]

Campaign starts one morning while they are going to work on one of the subways in Philly. (I used to live in Philly and grew up in the area so I know it well enough to be comfortable setting a campaign there...) Suddenly the train is rocked and thrown off track. There is a horrific crash, and the first challenge is to survive it.

Once that is done, all power is out, and players need to get off of the train (maybe burning?) and maybe rescue whomever they can. Outside they will find considerable destruction to the tunnel. The emergency phones seem to be inoperable. All cell phones are out etc...

Next challenge, get out of the tunnel.

The idea would be to keep them in the dark (pun intended) for a few sessions... When they finally make it out of the tunnels, they find the city seems to be in pretty bad shape. Many collapsed buldings, fires, floods, dead bodies etc...

You know, there's a manga that seems to be about exactly that.

 

[Asmor]

Nice. Wasn't there a movie a while back... I wanna say it was called Daylight? About people trapped underground when a subway tunnel or something collapsed?

If I were you, I'd take the opportunity to mess with their heads, since they don't know what's going on... Toss in some groaning, shambling people (because they're hurt, of course!) and start your description off to make them sound like zombies... Just make sure to complete the description (that they're still alive) before the players shoot first and ask questions later.

 

[Scribble]

Nice. Wasn't there a movie a while back... I wanna say it was called Daylight? About people trapped underground when a subway tunnel or something collapsed?

If I were you, I'd take the opportunity to mess with their heads, since they don't know what's going on... Toss in some groaning, shambling people (because they're hurt, of course!) and start your description off to make them sound like zombies... Just make sure to complete the description (that they're still alive) before the players shoot first and ask questions later.

Oh man.. I think that was a Stalone movie wasn't it?

I like the idea about the "zombie" people... But I don't think I'd make it a necessity that they figure it out before they shoot... Maybe add to the tension a bit to have them realize they just shot some live people...

 

[Asmor]

Oh man.. I think that was a Stalone movie wasn't it?

Wouldn't know, never saw it. For some reason, I'm thinking it was Bruce Willis, though.

I like the idea about the "zombie" people... But I don't think I'd make it a necessity that they figure it out before they shoot... Maybe add to the tension a bit to have them realize they just shot some live people...

Serves the meta-gaming bast-- I mean, players right. What person in their right mind would immediately jump to the conclusion that someone in a collasped tunnel who's groaning and shambling is a zombie?