Help.....i Need Some Help!!!!

[TheRavenIs]

Very soon I am going to be starting a pulp based game, http://herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52989, this is the setting.

 

 

The help I need is plot hooks. I have a few idea but with the creative minds here I know I can get enough to keep me going for some time. The important thing is that the game starts in 1932. Also the basic idea is that the PC's can and will change the future.

[st barbara]

Re: Help.....i Need Some Help!!!!

 

Well if you have a "Doc Savage" type scientific genius, what about the idea that he has helped develop some "new" technology (e g radar, a new super plane, an anethetic gas etc) that is stolen during its first test by a villain bent on world conquest, the nazis, someone else. The P C's witness the theft (but can't stop it) and have to chase down the stolen technology and stop the villains evil plan ! Simple ? Sure, but there are plenty of false trails, gangs of thugs,secret lairs and other things that you can throw at your P C's to keep them interested along the way !

[Spence]

Re: Help.....i Need Some Help!!!!

 

Do you have a more detailed list of pc's yet?

[TheRavenIs]

Re: Help.....i Need Some Help!!!!

 

I will try to post the .hdc files when I have all four of the C's.

 

For now all I can say that I have a minor Mage, a Gunslinger: X-Texas Ranger, a Asian-English Butler, the fourth C is the one holding me up on what I will do the first game session.

[Spence]

Re: Help.....i Need Some Help!!!!

 

I will try to post the .hdc files when I have all four of the C's.

 

For now all I can say that I have a minor Mage, a Gunslinger: X-Texas Ranger, a Asian-English Butler, the fourth C is the one holding me up on what I will do the first game session.

 

What is the feel you are going for? Gritty'ness wise.

 

Also for a timeline, the one in Pulp Hero is great. Unless that isn't what you mean by a timeline.

 

Also have you tried any of the Hero Plus adventures?

[TheRavenIs]

Re: Help.....i Need Some Help!!!!

 

The feel of the game that I hope to get is something out of the better Pulp Novels of the day. I want the world to be real, what I want is the players to know that they can and will alter the world by the actions they take.

[Narratio]

Re: Help.....i Need Some Help!!!!

 

1932, post depression US and a golden era in Europe. The world is industrialising at a faster rate, Steam is just passing it's peak and electricity usage is spreading out from the big cities. The Panama canal is a done deal and the latin states from Texas to the canal are still in a political miasma of inefficiency and corruption.

 

Southern US states were worst hit by the depression and Mexico is still a total mess. A Nazi minded redneck might think that it was all caused by those (what was the derogatory term? Greasers?) Greasers and start up some kind of Lebensraum movement. Extend the USA borders southward perhaps?

 

Back in Asia we have the superscience of various mad Chinese warlords with their designs on starting WW2 early. making the Japanese increase infiltration of the US west coast and Australia. Establishing Triads/Tongs etc with an aim on spying out superior tech...

 

Back in England, The Royal Navy's latest advanced warship is about to head off on a Round the Empire goodwill trip, stopping in every major nation and many minor ones including a host of African and Carib' countries. Is it just goodwill or are they dropping off more? Odd how 1932 was a year for really bad but mostly non-fatal diseases in so many countries eh?

[TheRavenIs]

Re: Help.....i Need Some Help!!!!

 

Narratio, you are one sneaky jackel. I like that.

[Spence]

Re: Help.....i Need Some Help!!!!

 

The PC’s are in San Francisco when Asian-English Butler is approached by Amanda Peterson the daughter of Professor Jonathan Peterson. Asian-English Butler is an old friend of the family from the days when the professor and his then living wife had worked on a project in London. It has been over 10 years, but his reputation has prompted Amanda to ask for help. Professor Peterson is the lead scientist working on a Top Secret project for the US Government and has disappeared. The lab burned to the ground and no one in the government will talk to her and rumors say that the professor is suspected of treason.

 

After the Mystery Men begin to investigate things look bad. Gunslinger’s investigation uncovers that the Professor was seen boarding the “Shingetau Maru” a Japanese freighter bound for Singapore. The witness remembered not because of the professor but the beautiful woman that accompanied him to the ship. Based on the description Gunslinger traces her to a Hotel in Chinatown and discovers it is none other than Shen Lihwa (in reality Ming Wei from Masterminds & Madmen) the infamous leader of the Bing Kong Tong. Consorting with a criminal organization! A Japanese ship, Singapore? Top Secret project for the US Military!

 

Can our heroes solve the mystery? Will the disappearing professor be absolved of wrong doing or must the innocent Amanda discover her father is a traitor! What dark secrets hide in the shadows of the South Pacific, only time will tell.

[McCoy]

Re: Help.....i Need Some Help!!!!

 

February 27, 1932 Adolf Hitler gains German citizenship prior to elections

 

Captain Chronos shows up, informs the PC's "There is a man named Adolph Hitler who must show up at the government offices in Brunswick, Germany, on February 25, 1932, to apply for a minor civil service position. He must arrive on time! I can't telly you why, just that's the way it's suppost to happen. Another time traveler, I can't tell you Who, is going to try to stop him. Not kill or harm him, just a scuffle, a traffic accident, something like that to delay him long enough that he doesn't apply for the job and someone else gets it. It is vital that Gefreiter Hitler arrive for his appointment on time, and equally important that he not even suspect that anyone is watching over him. The other three teams -- well never mind about them, just get him to his appointment on time."

 

March 1, 1932 Charles Augustus Lindbergh III, the infant son of Anne Morrow Lindbergh and Charles Lindbergh is kidnapped.

 

Everybody else is looking for the Lindbergh baby, why not the PC's? What will they do if the evidence points to the Lone Eagle himself? Will they get along with or butt heads with Col. Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police? Of course, the PC's have no way of knowing that if anything happens to Col. Schwarzkopf, his son Norman Jr. (of Desert Storm fame) will not be born in 1934.

 

March 25, 1932 Tarzan the Ape Man opens, with Olympic gold medal swimmer Johnny Weissmuller in the title role. Weismuller starred in a total of 12 Tarzan films.

 

Johnny Weissmuller, Edgar Rice Burroughs, or both kidnapped at the world premere.

 

July 28, 1932 US President Herbert Hoover orders the United States Army to forcibly evict the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, DC. US troops dispersed the last of the "Bonus Army" the next day.

 

The Bonus Army or Bonus March or Bonus Expeditionary Force was an assemblage of about 20,000 World War I veterans, their families, and other affiliated groups who demonstrated in Washington, D.C. during the spring and summer of 1932 seeking immediate payment of a "bonus" granted by the Adjusted Service Certificate Law of 1924 for payment in 1945. They were led by Walter W. Waters, a former Army sergeant, and encouraged by an appearance from retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, one of the most popular military figures of the time.

 

The Bonus Army massed at the United States Capitol on June 17 as the U.S. Senate voted on the Patman Bonus Bill, which would have moved forward the date when World War I veterans received a cash bonus. Most of the Bonus Army camped in a Hooverville on the Anacostia Flats, then a swampy, muddy area across the Anacostia River from the federal core of Washington. The protesters had hoped that they could convince Congress to make payments that had been granted to veterans immediately, which would have provided relief for the marchers who were unemployed due to the Depression. The bill had passed the House of Representatives on June 15 but was blocked in the Senate.

 

After the defeat of the bill, Congress appropriated funds to pay for the marchers' return home, which some marchers accepted. On July 28, Washington police attempted to remove some remaining Bonus Army protesters from a federal construction site. After police fatally shot two veterans, the protesters assaulted the police with blunt weapons, wounding several of them. After the police retreated, the District of Columbia commissioners informed President Herbert Hoover that they could no longer maintain the peace, whereupon Hoover ordered federal troops to remove the marchers from the general area.

 

Do the PC's side with the Feds, the Veterans, or some on each side?

 

November 7, 1932 Buck Rogers in the 25th Century airs on radio for the first time.

 

Shades of War of the Worlds: Aliens, not realizing this is a work of fiction, attack the radio station during the broadcast. Or if there are no aliens in this campagine, actors hired as mock aliens, unaware that the police think it's real, are drawing police attention from another job elsewhere in the city.

 

November 30, 1932 The Biuro Szyfrów (Polish Cipher Bureau) broke the German Enigma cipher.

 

Having an Enigma machine would greatly help in reverse-engineering it. Covert Ops anyone?

[McCoy]

Re: Help.....i Need Some Help!!!!

 

OK, let's try 1933.

 

February 15, 1993 In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to assassinate President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but instead shot Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak. Had Zangara been successful, John Nance Garner would have become the 32nd President of the United States.

 

Another visit from Captain Chronos?

 

March 2, 1933 The original film version of King Kong, starring Fay Wray, premieres at Radio City Music Hall and the Roxy Theater in New York City.

 

King Kong was a documentary, the real Kong is at the premere, and he escapes.

 

March 23, 1933 The Reichstag passes the Enabling Act, making Adolf Hitler dictator of Germany.

 

Anybody having second thoughts about the errand they ran for Captain Chronos last year?

 

April 4 - US airship Akron crashes off the coast of New Jersey- leaves 73 dead.

 

Was it sabotage? Are other airships in danger?

 

May, 1933 Detection by Karl Jansky of radio waves from the centre of the Milky Way galaxy reported

 

May 2, 1933 First modern sighting of the Loch Ness Monster.

 

May 18, 1933 New Deal: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.

 

Something is going wrong at the TVA. Specs are being changed to allow concreet that is too weak, the spillways are too small for the generators, the generators ordered are twice the size of the rooms designed to contain them, other errors that would really slow down construction if not caught in time. But the draftsmen insist these are not the blueprints they drew, someone is making changes, and strangely enough only on two dams. Only the GM will know that the saboture is trying to prevent the as yet unbuilt Oak Ridge Nuclear Labrotory from producing enriched Uranium for the Manhattan project.

 

May 26,1933 Nazi party in Germany introduces law to legalize eugenic sterilization.

 

May 27, 1933 The Century of Progress World's Fair opens in Chicago.

 

Maybe the tech at the fair is a little too advanced, and some would-be villians will be there with their shopping list or just browsing, looking for inspiration.

 

June 17, 1933 In Kansas City, Missouri, Pretty Boy Floyd kills four unarmed FBI agents and captured fugitive Frank Nash in a failed attempt to free Nash. This becomes known as the Union Station Massacre.

 

July 22, 1933 Wiley Post becomes first person to fly solo around the world, traveling 15,596 miles in 7 days, 18 hours, and 45 minutes.

 

July 22, 1933 "Machine-Gun" Kelly and Albert Bates kidnap Charles Urschel, an Oklahoma oilman, and demand $200,000 ransom.

 

Hostage rescue anyone?

 

October 10, 1933 A United Airlines Boeing 247 is destroyed near Chesterton, Indiana by a bomb. This was the first proven case of air sabotage in commercial airline history.

 

Who and why?

 

October 17, 1933 Albert Einstein arrived in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany.

 

Are agents sent to bring Einstein back to Germany, or to silence him?

 

November 4, 1933 In Paris, a burglar tries to rob an antique store wearing an armor suit but is captured.

 

December 5, 1933 The 21st Amendment, repealing Prohibition in the United States, went into effect. Many former bootleggers become legitimate businessmen. Far more look for a new source of illegal revenue.

 

Mature themes: A low level thug comes to the PC's. He cofesses he's been running a Speakeasy, but now has an opportunity to own a legitimate bar. Problem is that some former business associates are applying muscle to become current business associates once again. They want to use his bar to (a) sell drugs ( as a front for a prostitution/blackmail operation © Shanghi able-bodied men down on their luck and who probably will not be missed by slipping them a mickey, so they are passed out at closing time (he has no idea what happens to them after that) or (d) some combination thereof. Will the PC's help him get back his seedy but honest bar?

 

OK, I'll stop now, and I haven't even mentioned Nikola Tesla yet.

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Help.....i Need Some Help!!!!

 

Doctor Eon had led the group on a merry chase, his advanced autogyro (allegedly a 1952 Ford-Mitchell design) finally being tracked to his out-of-town lair. His series of bizarre crimes quickly brought him to the attention of the heroes, not to mention the police.

 

As the heroes burst in, he is enraged! "Curses! No! You can't stop me! Not yet! I have to save the future from...THEM! You won't be able to stop Tobor though! Hahahahhaha!" He triggers a switch on his Chrono-throne that shuts him off from the interlopers. Shortly afterwards as they try to open the door or find a way around, they hear an explosion and a short scream.

 

Finally prying their way into Doctor Eon's lab, they find a charred corpse next to a pile of destroyed parts, presumably some kind of killer robot that had a bad malfunction. The menace of Doctor Eon is no more!

 

Among the Doctor's effects they find a book...with details from the future...disturbing details...

 

Doctor Eon is not from the future. He's just playing an elaborate game. Some of the crimes are for parts for other inventions of his, some are just for show to throw people off the real trail. His real purpose is to get "the book" into the hands of some capable, violent people with a penchant for taking the law into their own hands. Either a basic history textbook or a personal diary, the book is designed to make readers think it is from the future. A dark future, with many horrible events. The villains from this "history" are various notable individuals in the US and around the world. Enemies of Doctor Eon's secret identity of course - obstacles to his plans.

 

"Wow...so millionaire playboy Wayne Bruce becomes dictator of the Great Lakes in 15 years, sparking another Civil War? We've got to do something about that! He must be stopped!"

[TheRavenIs]

Re: Help.....i Need Some Help!!!!

 

McCoy, Supreme Serpent.......thanks guys. I will add those to the growing list of idea's.

[The Monster]

Re: Help.....i Need Some Help!!!!

 

Here's a few ideas off the top of my balding head....

 

In the '30's, China was an absolute mess. Civil war (Mao's Long March started in 1934), foreign intervention (Europeans and Imperial Japanese), local warlords. Some of the latter could easily be employing occult elements. China's big and varied enough you could do almost anything there, in the rugged countryside or in the usual places such as Hong Kong. And since one of your PCs mentioned in the linked thread is a "martial artist, ki-master" you have a natural link to China.

In my pulp campaign I had a warlord who was building up an undead/occult army, using critters stolen *ahem* inspired from the Feng Shui game. I almost killed one character with a blow to his face from a hopping vampire.

 

The famous "War of the Worlds" broadcast was in 1938. Who's to say the martians hadn't sent some probing expeditions a few years before, especially in isolated places like polar icecaps or uninhabited islands? You can still have them vulnerable to disease if you put them in a remote enough place, or you could have a mad scientist employing/adapting the machinery the recon mission left behind when they died.

 

Delta Green, a Call of Cthulhu supplement, mentioned the dealings Nazis had with Mythos creatures and powers. My campaign is currently set in 1936, so I've had the Nazis trying to set up an alliance with the Deep Ones to rules the Atlantic Ocean from below, which the PCs are trying to prevent. 1932 is really too early for much Nazi activity, but their knowledge had to come from somewhere...

 

Russian agents are available as nasties as well - Stalin was still nailing down control in 1932, and his agents could and did hunt exiles down (probably the most famous example being the assassination of Trotsky in 1940). They could also be hunting for lost treasures of the czar, setting up underground networks anywhere in the world, or engaging in just about any nefarious deeds you want. The Soviet Union, after all, bordered on China, Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey, as well as Poland and Finland, so there's plenty of exotic locales right in their back yard (some of which might only be accessible by mule train or...airship!).

 

US Prohibition ends in 1933. Besides general crimefighting, you could also have a plot to distribute mind-control (or whatever) drugs to the elites who frequent the speak-easies. Gangsters, corrupt politicians, and mad science, all rolled together!

 

Kong Island. 'Nuff said.

 

 

 

 

Well, that should get some juices flowing. Good luck!

["V"]

Re: Help.....i Need Some Help!!!!

 

February 27, 1932 Adolf Hitler gains German citizenship prior to elections

 

Captain Chronos shows up, informs the PC's "There is a man named Adolph Hitler who must show up at the government offices in Brunswick, Germany, on February 25, 1932, to apply for a minor civil service position. He must arrive on time! I can't telly you why, just that's the way it's suppost to happen. Another time traveler, I can't tell you Who, is going to try to stop him. Not kill or harm him, just a scuffle, a traffic accident, something like that to delay him long enough that he doesn't apply for the job and someone else gets it. It is vital that Gefreiter Hitler arrive for his appointment on time, and equally important that he not even suspect that anyone is watching over him. The other three teams -- well never mind about them, just get him to his appointment on time."

 

Oh I like that one.

[TheRavenIs]

Re: Help.....i Need Some Help!!!!

 

Rep to the Monstor> I'll add all that to my growing list. Thanks.

[McCoy]

Re: Help.....i Need Some Help!!!!

 

Oh I like that one.

Thank you. A little off the beaten path.