Uncreative GM needs help w/campaign

[bardolph]

Genre: modern-day conspiracy/espionage/horror.

Premise: Player characters are "normal everyday joe"-types, who presumably get involved in some kind of international conspiracy.

The Setup: The Bureau for Community Service (what is it actually called?). All of the PC's have to do Community Service time for petty crimes (drunk driving, etc). However, today is an unusual day. Instead of the usual bus, there is this big black bus which picks up the folks, and the PC's have a "special assignment."

Where I need help: who sent this bus? Where is it taking the PC's? What is this "special job" that the PC's need to do? Why are they recruiting hapless bystanders to do this? And, most importantly, how much credit do the PC's get towards their community service requirement?

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Salutations,

You are probably kidding, but..

I don't see why most organizations would want to pick these people up for any "special assignment". Unless it is to use them as test subjects for something.

So, going with that- it would not be the government, too public.

It probably would not be a big Fortune 400 company for the same reason.

1)Some rich recluse?

Ok, now this rich person could be good or evil-

If good, then he offers these people a chance to clean up their lives and legal records if they agree to be his personal servants. It seems this rich guy likes to stick his nose in other people's business, and is a big news junky.

When he sees a story going unresolved, he sends his servants in to help.

If evil, then perhaps she owns a secret business where corporate execs can hunt people in the sewers. Or she just likes hunting people on her own property.

Or she just needs their fingerprints and hair samples for her own purposes- they are paid well and dropped back off.

They are all later accused of robbing the Alamos labs. Sure, they all have alibis, but how did their prints end up everywheres?

They have a reason to stick together- as further crimes arise that have their touches all over them.

2) A cult

They believe in saving the souls of the wretched, and they have decided to start small with this group of low criminals.

They have to escape some crazed group in the middle of nowhere.

Oh, well, good luck to you!
FD

 

[bardolph]

Salutations,

You are probably kidding, but..

Nope. This is going to be a real campaign. I know I want this setting. I thought that "community service" is a pretty neat device to gather the PC's together (it could easily account for the diverse backgrounds). I always wanted to try a modern-day setting (it's so convenient), but I'm just not sure where to go with it. My players are pretty proactive, though. I just need to give them a situation to latch on to, and they can pretty much pick up the ball from there. The rest is just winging it. I just have to provide a compelling introduction to the campaign. That's why I'm posting here.

I don't see why most organizations would want to pick these people up for any "special assignment". Unless it is to use them as test subjects for something.

Good point. How about this? They go on a "routine assignment," but due to some bureaucratic mishap, the PC's stumble onto some kind of evidence from Some Big Conspiratorial Mess-Up (any ideas??). The guy in-charge tries to play it off as nothing to worry about, and tells the PC's to come back next Sunday as planned.

On the second weekend, Somebody Working Behind The Scenes decides to round up the same cast of characters that saw the Incriminating Evidence From Last Week, and shows up at the Bureau of Community Service to round up the PC's.

That's when the Mysterious Black Bus appears, and the Plot Starts To Thicken.

So, going with that- it would not be the government, too public.

It probably would not be a big Fortune 400 company for the same reason.

1)Some rich recluse?

Ok, now this rich person could be good or evil-

If good, then he offers these people a chance to clean up their lives and legal records if they agree to be his personal servants. It seems this rich guy likes to stick his nose in other people's business, and is a big news junky.

When he sees a story going unresolved, he sends his servants in to help.

Not a bad idea. However, many of the PC's presumably have some real petty crimes on their record, and won't necessarily be willing to become someone's personal servant just to clean up a single Drunk Driving charge (or whatever).

However, maybe I can use one assignment to get the PC's framed for one crime, then have this "rich recluse" offer to get them off in exchange for some services.

If evil, then perhaps she owns a secret business where corporate execs can hunt people in the sewers. Or she just likes hunting people on her own property.

Or she just needs their fingerprints and hair samples for her own purposes- they are paid well and dropped back off.

They are all later accused of robbing the Alamos labs. Sure, they all have alibis, but how did their prints end up everywheres?

They have a reason to stick together- as further crimes arise that have their touches all over them.

Excellent. A frame-up! Right. Some bureaucrat at the Community Service Office gets bribed by someone to provide the patsies for some larger crime. Niiiice!!

2) A cult

They believe in saving the souls of the wretched, and they have decided to start small with this group of low criminals.

They have to escape some crazed group in the middle of nowhere.

Sounds good, but I'm not sure what you mean. Is this like, some cult actually buys the PC's from the Office?

Anyway, thanks for the ideas! I really like the idea of using a frame-up to get the PC's involved. Now, just gotta figure out what they're getting framed for...

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Sounds good, but I'm not sure what you mean. Is this like, some cult actually buys the PC's from the Office?

Hmm, well, howabout one of the social workers is in the cult and arranges to have the regular bus delayed for an hour- giving the cult's bus plenty of time to get there and claim to be a "spare bus" that will be taking them to pick up little in a local park.

The first thing that came to mind with the bus was an outer limit story about hippy/naturalists hopping on a bus to go live in a commune- along the way they all fall asleep and awake to find themselves arrived.

It turns out it is an alien slave ship that peacefully kidnaps some members of a species in these large bio-ships that replicate an environment.. there is no ftl, so they hope as the years pass an generations grow out of this group that they will use the commune beliefs to make turn the future generations into willing servants.

FD

 

[LostSoul]

How about this:

The bus is a mystical thing, either good or evil (nobody's sure). It just shows up at certain times, picking people up and dropping them off in strange situations where they can make a difference (or die horribly).

I'd make the bus have some kind of strange enchantment that messes with people's minds, but your players might not like the railroad too much.

 

[Andor]

The black bus is sent by the Bad Guys (tm) to recuit some average citizens as disposable distractions. They feed the PCs some barely plausible -and-bull story, fit them out with secret agent gear and send them to infiltrate/assault the good guys lair. Smart players will have the opportunity to figure out what's going on. Gullible kick-the-door players will need new characters. If they are sufficiently successful the good guys recuit them to undo the damage they did by allowing the Bad Guys (tm) to succeed. If they trip to the story and aid the good guys then are are obviously valuable assets and get recruited anyway.

-Andor

 

[bardolph]

So, assuming that there are Bad Guys (tm) involved, and that they own the Big Black Bus, the next question is:

Who are the Bad Guys (tm)?

 

[LostSoul]

Who are the Bad Guys (tm)?

At this point, it shouldn't really matter. You can leave it open and let the course of the campaign decide.

 

[Volefisk]

Who are the Bad Guys (tm)?

Well, not exactly Bad Guys, but my current favourite conspiracy plot organization, guaranteed to make your players scratch their heads in disbelief: the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

The United States Patent and Trademark Office reviews the specific attributes of novelty for submitted inventions (claims), and grants their creators the exclusive privilege of employing that unique process or piece of technology for a specified period of time. The USPTO operates under the jurisdiction of the Department of Commerce, and the authority of Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution (1790).

What few people know is that this regulatory body also has a secret policing role. Under the auspices of Benjamin Franklin, first head of the USPTO and contributor to the US Constitution, a special task force was created to protect the world from potentially dangerous inventions that the public were not yet ready to handle.

Today, the secret police of the USPTO are mostly computer geeks, engineers and bureaucrats. When a patent application for a potentially dangerous new invention crosses their desk (often even the inventor isn't aware of the invention's potential threat) the geek police of the USPTO try to bury the inventor under red tape. If this doesn't work, they reluctantly take to the streets to use their superior technology to make the problem disappear.

Think of them as a really uncool MIB, with a more terrestrial source of advanced technology. They have the toys, but lack the social skills, physical attributes, or streets smarts to work in the field.

And that's where the black bus comes in: the Geek Police use their social service connections to recruit a bunch of nobody 'everymen,' give them some advanced technology, and send them out against a mad scientist that's found a way to "co-extinguish variable high-order eigenstates and harness null-parity wave distortions on a quantum scale."

Now, depending on your desire, the players can either be unwilling dupes of the USPTO plot... thrown into the path of the mad scientist, or actively recruited as field agents and participants in the government conspiracy.

Either way, the USPTO should make for a very original conspiracy organization. Let's hope they can stop that mad scientist from "bifurcating space-time" before it's too late...

<volefisk>

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Either way, the USPTO should make for a very original conspiracy organization. Let's hope they can stop that mad scientist from "bifurcating space-time" before it's too late...

*chuckle* Thats a cool idea.

FD