Thia Halmades Posted March 29, 2006 Report Share Posted March 29, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas The Infiltration: An extended covert op that requires precision planning and timing, with a 'no casualties' and 'no evidence' clause in the contract, forcing the players to use either non-lethal force, or preferably and by the contract, not be seen *at all.* Requires extensive mapping and use of hackers and complex squad manuevers to pull off well, but it can be done. The videogame series "Splinter Cell" is an excellent, one-man version of this. Tactical Assault: A variation on the information gathering theme, instead of the usual "Find the building, shoot everyone" the tactical assault puts the emphasis on tight manuevers and survival, putting the players against truly overwhelming odds that they can't simply shoot their way out of. Done right, it's extended moments of horrible tenseness punctuated with automatic gunfire and explosions. See: Rainbow Six/Ghost Recon and other squad-based games that translate well. Within both of those over-arc scenarios you can place multiple sub-scenarios, which include 'grab the macguffin' and 'free the hostage' and 'execute the bad guy du-jour.' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted March 30, 2006 Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas Somewhat off-topic, but not entirely so... For those who aren't turned off by the official Hero Universe timeline, or maybe even for some who are, but see the dark years of the cyber age as a limited term thing, how do you see the cyber age ending and future history eventually brightening as Mankind heads out to the stars? Knowing the end of the bad times may suggest some adventures where the PCs can improve some small thing and set the world on a better road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thia Halmades Posted March 30, 2006 Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas The Scapegoat: Your team is hired to engage in a small street war against the local group of toughs who've been interfering with development of a macguffin/leader/etc. This mission has nothing to do with what the Corp actually has planned, and using carefully laid out footage of how you fight, manage to recreate your moves as an assault on an enemy base, replacing your footage with the real thing, "placing you on the scene." Now the macguffin is gone, the feds are pissed, and everyone is hot on your tail. Objectives include: - Get the real macguffin - Clear your name (well, as much as possible) - Get revenge - Don't get caught. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted March 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas Could someone with good organizational skills compile a total list so far? I'm hoping to get my workload to a place that Ill have some time to work on this on Sunday, and it would be a big help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted March 30, 2006 Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas The big thing that seems to make a difference is the advent of cheap interplanetary space travel. That allows the movement of heavy industry out of Earth's environment, bleeds off some population, and creates a influx of wealth that revitalises Earth's economy while sweeping away the established power of the particularly evil corporations. Secondary to that, is the creation of some kind of more or less democratic planetary government with enough muscle to slap around particularly abusive corporations. But who controls the cheap interplanetary space travel if not the corps? And how does a democratic planetary government get established when the corps and their lobbyists control all the existing national governments? Your ideas are sound in and of themselves, but there's still somewhat of a disconnect in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted March 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas Can we not hijack the thread please? Just make a new thread for "How To End A Dystopia" or something please. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted March 30, 2006 Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas Can we not hijack the thread please? Just make a new thread for "How To End A Dystopia" or something please. Sorry. And done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Johnston Posted March 30, 2006 Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas Attempting to genericise where possible and eliminate redundant duplication, here's the list so far as best I can make out. The Hit: find, stake out and take out someone or some group. On The Run: Someone's taken a Hit out on you! Bodyguard: You're hired muscle to protect someone. Decoys: Your job, no matter what you think it is, is to attract attention away from another team. Monster Hunt: The PCs have to trackdown, find, and capture/eliminate a self-willed weapon. Maguffin Hunt: The PCs get involved in the quest by multiple parties to get their hands on a object of great supposed value, either as questers or because they accidentally get their hands on it at the start. Scapegoats: The PCs have been framed for something they didn't do. The Snatch & Grab: Object A is on the move from one highly secure locale to another; the goal is to acquire it while it has theoretically less security The Ambush: The goal is to interdict something on the move and cause as much damage to it as possible. The Raid: Direct assault on Location A The Collateral Damage War: The general goal is openended -- cause random damage to Company A over time. The Distraction: Whether the team knows it or not, the real goal is to serve as a distraction for something more important thats going down. The Hit: The goal is to take out a specific person. The Extraction: The goal is to get someone out of the clutches of someone else. The Prison Break: Similar to the Extraction, but done from the inside and usually longer term The Heist: Acquire something -- whether it be data, an object, valuables, research results, whatever. The Crash: The goal is to take down organisation A's network. The Indirect Sabotage: The goal is to sabotage something seemingly minor that indirectly hoses something bigger / more important. Missing Person: Someone has stumbled into trouble or run from it and disappeared. You must find out where they are hiding or being hidden. Who Are You?: One or more characters find their records (including their bank account) have been erased or altered, leaving them with a different or no idenity Who Am I? One or more characters find their actual memories have been erased or altered. Stuck in the Middle With You. Two organisations are tearing up the place. You're in the middle, and have to survive. Infiltration: The goal is to penetrate a location's defenses _without_ attacking The Sacrificial Lamb: Secretly hired by Company A to attack or infiltrate one of their own facilities. This is really to test the security or to make an example out of them...or both. The Pick: Similar to an Ambush...hired to provide a scrape off for some other job done on the move. The operators on that job move thru the teams emplaced position, leading any pursuers into an Ambush and giving themselves more time to get away. Stranded: You have been dumped in the middle of dangerous or enemy territory and have to find your way back, probably because your pickup failed to make it. Information Wants To Be Free: The goal is to defeat those who want to keep something secret. Warzone: You take a side in actual warfare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted March 31, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas Thanx! People should keep adding new ones though! The more the merrier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted March 31, 2006 Report Share Posted March 31, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas There was an adventure in one of the Cyberspace books where, while en route to the supposed mission site, the team's plane crashes. Nearby, they find a lab where some biological experiment has gone awry. Afterward, they discover that the crash was planned and the original mission was a cover for what the employer actually wanted: find out what the hell happened at their secret bio lab without endangering any of their own personnel, and without paying a "high danger" premium for freelance operators. Perhaps something like this should be called "The Bait-and-Switch".... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 31, 2006 Report Share Posted March 31, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas A heavy part of any dystopian world is that any adventure can, and almost inevitably does, have at least one layer of frame-up/double-cross on top of it. I can recall playing a Shadowrun adventure that had three levels that we the PCs figured out, and I had suspicions of at least one more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolf1066 Posted April 3, 2006 Report Share Posted April 3, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas A heavy part of any dystopian world is that any adventure can' date=' and almost inevitably does, have at least one layer of frame-up/double-cross on top of it. I can recall playing a Shadowrun adventure that had three levels that we the PCs figured out, and I had suspicions of at least one more.[/quote'] "False flags" are a good one - the "goodies" turn out to be "baddies" and vice versa because the hirers lied to the group - one I did which was apparently a simple "Industrial Espionage" matter ("stop these #$@$s spying on us") was really the Mafia being "spied on" the Feds... Great thread, BTW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted April 7, 2006 Report Share Posted April 7, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas We gotta get out of this place: The characters don't want to walk these mean streets any more, and what they've been doing isn't getting them loose. There are a number of sub-types: Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose: "Frag this 'we're independent' flup. We're taking a corp job and frag you if you don't like it." Thing is, which corps haven't they hosed over, and of those, which is willing and able to protect the characters from the corps they have hosed over. And how long will that corp (if it exists) protect them. Most of all, though, how do they get themselves hired to do something other than 'run? Upwards!: The characters are given one, slight, slender, difficult, risky chance to get themselves in the good life, and get there so solid they never have to 'run again. This might be a high-stakes, high-risk run, it might be legit but way outside their actual abilities, it might be somewhere between. Whatever it is, it's a long-shot gamble. Farm living is the place for me: "If you want out of the danger, get out of the city." That's what the characters figure, but they haven't figured on the difficulties of making a living from the land. And if they thought city-based corps were bad, wait till their first run-in with agribusiness! Bright lights, big (other) city: The town there in is too hot, or too squalid, for the character, so they're going to pull up stakes and move to another city. It might not be much better, but at least it'll be different. More different than they're expecting. Outward bound: Chuck the Earth, there's no hope there any more. Time to move to the stars --- well, the planets, anyway. Thing is, how do they get the money, and what skills do they have that are any use on the High Frontier? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted November 22, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas Not finished, but: Plot Generator Prototype Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Frisbee Posted November 22, 2006 Report Share Posted November 22, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas Twists -- just in case things get too predictable: We're working for who? -- The mysterious employer turns out to be one of the following: 1) An A.I. 2) A rival corporation/government/organization 3) One of the PC's relatives/enemies 4) A wealthy but terribly eccentric/insane millionaire 5) A flatline construct of an enemy the PC's thought was so dead Pandora was a stupid name anyway -- The PC's suddenly realize that if they accomplish their objective, one of the following will happen: 1) One of their enemies will be set for life 2) Many of their friends will be disadvantaged/injured/made homeless/killed 3) They will have more enemies than they know what to do with 4) They will cause an international incident 5) They will enable someone to kill people in mass quantities. Matt "Let's-do-the-twist" Frisbee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted November 22, 2006 Report Share Posted November 22, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas Sweet. Rep for the effort put into creating this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted November 22, 2006 Report Share Posted November 22, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas Nice! I'll pass this on the the GM of our current Cyberpunk 2020 game too! (Although he is currently converting the game to use the White Wolf system). hmm - maybe I should show him the humorous thread on stereotypes as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted November 22, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas No problem, thanks for all those that have contributed, and sorry it took so long to get around to it. All that aside, I added 32 new line items, bringing the current total to 72. Give it a whirl, and if it inspires new ones then post em for potential inclusion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted November 23, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas Got the list up to 80, and linked up. Id like the list to grow to at least 100 different items; hopefully more new ideas will continue to roll in.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted November 23, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas Got the list up to 80, and linked up. Id like the list to grow to at least 100 different items; hopefully more new ideas will continue to roll in.... The current list can be seen here (scroll down a bit towards the bottom): PlotGenerator.js Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheQuestionMan Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas I hate your Brilliance sir Thank you QM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alverant Posted November 27, 2006 Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas Something that hasn't been addressed yet is the PCs lives and goals. Now I don't mean "end the dystopia" goal. Characters have their own needs, wants, desires, friends, dreams, etc so use them in these formulas. Does the PC have a rival? Give him a chance to take the rival out. Does a PC run a business? Threaten it or give him a chance to expand it. You can do a lot if the other PCs are employed by the PC owning the business. Adventures in many genres have a lot in common. The difference is atmosphere and attitude. In cyberpunk the PCs motives can be more self-centered than superheroes. Theft, revenge, whims, etc are perfectly acceptable reasons to do anything in cyberpunk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted November 27, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas Something that hasn't been addressed yet is the PCs lives and goals. Now I don't mean "end the dystopia" goal. Characters have their own needs, wants, desires, friends, dreams, etc so use them in these formulas. Does the PC have a rival? Give him a chance to take the rival out. Does a PC run a business? Threaten it or give him a chance to expand it. You can do a lot if the other PCs are employed by the PC owning the business. Adventures in many genres have a lot in common. The difference is atmosphere and attitude. In cyberpunk the PCs motives can be more self-centered than superheroes. Theft, revenge, whims, etc are perfectly acceptable reasons to do anything in cyberpunk. Its not that they havent been addressed so much as such things should be tailored to the individual PC's backstories and histories, and therefore are generally not generic enough to put into a randomizer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted November 29, 2006 Report Share Posted November 29, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas I ddnt see this one exactly, but I could have missed it: M.I.B.'s The PCs are being followed. The trick is, they don't know by whom, and they haven't been up to anything lately! They're just being followed for no apparant reason at all. At least that they can figure out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alverant Posted November 29, 2006 Report Share Posted November 29, 2006 Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas Its not that they havent been addressed so much as such things should be tailored to the individual PC's backstories and histories' date=' and therefore are generally not generic enough to put into a randomizer.[/quote'] Point taken, so how about I try to generic-ize it enough? "Play up to random PC's psych limitation/rivalry" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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