Simon_Harrison Posted August 25, 2003 Report Share Posted August 25, 2003 I am running a stupidly ambitious champions campaign. The setting is dark, emerging powers set in 1980s New York. The flavour is x-filesish. The modus operandi is newspaper articles - ie I write lots of newspaper articles containing weirdness which the players can investiagte (or not). Some are links to long term plots, some one offs, some red herrings, some are mundane news articles to complete the newspaper page. You get the idea. Speed is slow - ie each session covers a couple of days of game play, so I have to write a couple of days' worth of news stories every month (our game interval) - generally about 4-6 new/follow up stories each day (a number of which are now generated by the players themselves!) So, your help? Any random weirdness that could be turned into a story with or without plot (I can make one up to go with any weirdness you think of!, or it can be a red herring) - I just don't want it to get stale now I've been going a couple of years, so I figured maybe outside input would help. I'll be very grateful for any suggestions, large or small! Thanks in advance, Simon Harrison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddHat Posted August 25, 2003 Report Share Posted August 25, 2003 http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/ Seriously. All you could ever want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted August 25, 2003 Report Share Posted August 25, 2003 Weird idea #1: Women from all walks of life, some considered lower class, others prominently positioned, have been seen sporting a silver bracelet with dark gem stone on their left wrist. All the bracelets look alike, yet these women have no public connection and claim none. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddHat Posted August 25, 2003 Report Share Posted August 25, 2003 Soap Stars Report Alien Abductions! Strawberry Pie Diet Plan! Pet Resurectionist Can Bring Fido Home! New Talking Teddy Will Teach Your Child! Smart Breast Implants Double Your Cup Size And Your IQ! Charlies Angels Real Adventure! Gravity; Will it always be there for you? Chocolate Magnate Canibal!?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted August 25, 2003 Report Share Posted August 25, 2003 US spy satellite falls from sky over western China Mystery disease strikes local livestock; vets baffled Tornado tears thru Midwest town; No storms on radar Record numbers of runaway kids return home Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted August 25, 2003 Report Share Posted August 25, 2003 There are lots of truly bizarre ideas to be found in tabloid newspapers - the headlines alone can spark interesting concepts. I was once part of a shared GM campaign in which we each accepted the challenge to develop a Champions plot based on an actual tabloid headline. These are the ones we used: "Half-Human/Half-Seal Baby Washed Up on Beach!" "Satan's Face Appears on Mountain in Norway!" "Rash of Spontaneous Human Combustions in Louisiana!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald Mask Posted August 25, 2003 Report Share Posted August 25, 2003 Man says Civil War dead talk to him Woman dies eating choclate eclair filled with new fat subsitute I am the result od selective breeding claims major league athlete Ancient Iraqi scroll able to summon Geni. David Bowie is a alien explorer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinecone Posted August 25, 2003 Report Share Posted August 25, 2003 I just saw a Champions worthy Tabloid headline...Saddam had real jurassic park filled with killer dinos!I don't know if it still in print ,but I used to use the fortian times,a mag based on the mind set of Charles Fort.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyGuardian Posted August 25, 2003 Report Share Posted August 25, 2003 One of the few GURPS supplements I own is their Illuminati supplement. Great conspiracy ideas. real news you can use: http://www.washtimes.com/business/20030521-094809-8963r.htm and http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=12704&c=39 http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_794215.html http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/business/2003/06/27airportxraysmay.html Anyway there are x-ray systems in use today to look through clothing, through cargo containers in shipyards, through cars and trucks etc. As well as isotope based systems. search a bit in the news and you can find a lot of strange stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Arrow Posted August 25, 2003 Report Share Posted August 25, 2003 Spontaneous Combustion on the Increase Blizzards in August The Phantom of the Soap Opera? Stars claim to see shadowy figure at studio who vanishes from closed rooms. Lorry of Fish Heads Vanishes Handless Corpse Tally Rises Brownouts - Where Does All the Power Go? Bizarre Aztec Object Found. Professor says it proves they were visited by aliens. Mice Found on the Moon I Was a Teenage Senior Citizen Role Playing Games Forums Linked to Sleep Deprivation Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug McCrae Posted August 25, 2003 Report Share Posted August 25, 2003 Indianapolis Man Claims to Have Fought in Revolutionary War Green Circle Observed on the Moon 'Whale Eggs' Discovered In Sargasso Sea Corpse Disappears From City Morgue 'Aztec' Killer Strikes Again: Fifth Victim Found With Heart Removed Thousands Report Angel Sighting at Baseball Game Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nyakki Posted August 26, 2003 Report Share Posted August 26, 2003 Take a look at Fark nyakki Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thirdbase Posted August 26, 2003 Report Share Posted August 26, 2003 The truly frightening thing is that many of those headlines are true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoonHunter Posted August 26, 2003 Report Share Posted August 26, 2003 A good site for source material... http://www.urbanlegends.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon_Harrison Posted August 28, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2003 Thanks To anyone I might have missed sending a personal message to - thanks for your suggestions. I'm currently in article creation mode, and some of your ideas are already being woven in. Any more suggestions always welcome, however! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet Posted August 28, 2003 Report Share Posted August 28, 2003 If you're interested, I'll e-mail you copies of our campaign's newspaper, Weekly Globe Enquirer. It not only provides data on recent superheroic activities, but also leads, red herrings and fluff. (Sound familiar?). I've got 3 issues so far, #4 is currently in progress. (Including an interview with my superheroine.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zornwil Posted August 28, 2003 Report Share Posted August 28, 2003 Someone already posted WWN; you're welcome to plunder anything from my campaign site http://www.asterick.com/realschluss/x-champions/, either browsing in particular http://www.asterick.com/realschluss/x-champions/x-champions_issues/index.html or the characters at http://www.asterick.com/realschluss/x-champions/x-champions_setting/x-npc-supers-regular.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Negative Posted August 28, 2003 Report Share Posted August 28, 2003 Although most of the headlines submitted were of the tabloid variety, I wasn't sure from your original post that tabloid headlines were what you were looking for. I though you may have been looking for "normal" headlines that hinted at High Strangeness to people disposed to look for it. I'd highly recommend looking at Fortean Times, a British periodical (available in America) which chronicles a lot of strange reports from around the world. Recent issues have covered SARS panics, Japanese cult activity, theories of disease from space debris, strange deaths (a monthly column), out-of-place animals (big cats in Britain, etc), and a lot more. They both reprint, without commentary, articles reported in other news publications, and print longer articles on particular topics, which range from sober and scholarly to panicky true-believer. They have a web page at: www.forteantimes.com where the daily news headlines for today (8/28) include: Pony injured by 'big cat' Rainbow miracle Fired Fair Employee Strips, Hit by Train Satanist trial opens in Brazil Mars Approach Will Spawn Record Number Of Alien Hybrid Babies Bonsai trees pampered in own hotel in Portugal Man Burns Down Apartments in Wasp Hunt Eating bats not as healthy as you thought Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyChaos Posted August 28, 2003 Report Share Posted August 28, 2003 Sorry that this reply is a bit late. My kid and I were just talking about the WWN and "science" the other day when I came up for a fun idea for a character ... ELVIS. Yep, The King did fake his death. Too many nitrates from fried bologna sandwiches and strange pesticides used on the bananas in those PB&B sandwiches account for any powers you might want to give him. Make him PC, NPC hero or villian. You're choice, although Elvis as villian does appeal. Maybe his "body" disappears from Graceland. HIs secret ID is fry cook at a Bob's Big Boy. Seriously (if you can take tabloid headlines seriously) you might also want to check out some conspiracy theory websites. I bet you can have lots of fun between those, the ideas here, urban legends (http://www.snopes.com) and other tabloid headlines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zornwil Posted August 28, 2003 Report Share Posted August 28, 2003 Originally posted by LadyChaos Sorry that this reply is a bit late. My kid and I were just talking about the WWN and "science" the other day when I came up for a fun idea for a character ... ELVIS. Yep, The King did fake his death. Too many nitrates from fried bologna sandwiches and strange pesticides used on the bananas in those PB&B sandwiches account for any powers you might want to give him. Make him PC, NPC hero or villian. You're choice, although Elvis as villian does appeal. Maybe his "body" disappears from Graceland. HIs secret ID is fry cook at a Bob's Big Boy. Seriously (if you can take tabloid headlines seriously) you might also want to check out some conspiracy theory websites. I bet you can have lots of fun between those, the ideas here, urban legends (http://www.snopes.com) and other tabloid headlines. That's funny, one of the PCs in my current game is a morph-type who loves to imitate Elvis and has spent lots of points to do so (as well as received lots of points from the GM who loves the whole thing and how the character handles it). He's actually this weird lifeform with no real knowledge of his past except that he awoke in this biochem (and more) company's lab, as the subject of experimentation. Now here's the funny part - when the character first came on the scene, the other players didn't know about the Elvis idea, and the player with this character had only conceived the idea and executed nothing, so there were no clues other than some reference on his sheet. Another player created an NPC for a detective agency with an extreme psych disad for...Elvis Presley! She loved him fanatically. So when Sammy, the character in question above, appeared as Elvis, she freaked out. She's still convinced that he really is Elvis, and that Elvis was/is a mutant. Unfortunately her love for him is unrequited (after all, he's not at all human), and now he's found one of his own kind and is becoming a partner with this new friend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted August 28, 2003 Report Share Posted August 28, 2003 Hero Games hits hard times; Latest books too large to ship to stores Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddHat Posted August 28, 2003 Report Share Posted August 28, 2003 Originally posted by zornwil That's funny, one of the PCs in my current game is a morph-type who loves to imitate Elvis and has spent lots of points to do so (as well as received lots of points from the GM who loves the whole thing and how the character handles it). He's actually this weird lifeform with no real knowledge of his past except that he awoke in this biochem (and more) company's lab, as the subject of experimentation. Very cool. Have you checked out the Enforcers Inc thread? http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=110110#Kung Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Rune Posted August 28, 2003 Report Share Posted August 28, 2003 Originally posted by LadyChaos Sorry that this reply is a bit late. My kid and I were just talking about the WWN and "science" the other day when I came up for a fun idea for a character ... ELVIS. Yep, The King did fake his death. Too many nitrates from fried bologna sandwiches and strange pesticides used on the bananas in those PB&B sandwiches account for any powers you might want to give him. Make him PC, NPC hero or villian. You're choice, although Elvis as villian does appeal. Maybe his "body" disappears from Graceland. HIs secret ID is fry cook at a Bob's Big Boy. Seriously (if you can take tabloid headlines seriously) you might also want to check out some conspiracy theory websites. I bet you can have lots of fun between those, the ideas here, urban legends (http://www.snopes.com) and other tabloid headlines. What a coincidence.....The King is an NPC in my current campaign Here's a quick rundown: Elvis Presley didn’t die of a drug overdose back in 1977, he just needed a…. break. Approached by a contact he had made in the D.E.A., the King was given the chance to disappear as well as purge his body of his drug and alcohol habit. Undergoing experiments linked to Project: Overlord, Elvis’ mega gene was triggered which not only reversed and slowed his aging, but also granted him superhuman speed and reflexes. This made his “stuff†all the more deadly. Claiming to be a clone of the original, the King now fights with Team Alpha in hopes to make the world a better place (and to get back into the spotlight, somewhat..). Sometimes heard singing under his breath, the King will deny, categorically, that he’s the original (though a deep mind scan will prove differently). Approached by Monty Lorde and promised a chance to be in the spotlight once again (and not on such a grand scale), the once and future King couldn’t resist and decided it was time for his triumphant return. Powers: amazing martial arts prowess, enhanced reflexes and senses, rapid healing, sonic scream and slowed aging. Appearance: “Young Elvis†(circa Jailhouse Rock)…usually wears black pants, shiny loafers, a white shirt with a large collar, a white silk scarf, and a gold, shiny, blazer…..uh huuuh! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Rand Posted August 29, 2003 Report Share Posted August 29, 2003 Hi all, I'm not sure how weird this is, but years ago, back when I had my 286 Tandy, I bought shareware programs from Software Shopper of Prospect, Ky. (I don't know if they're still in business.) One program I have is Galactic Headlines v1.1. It generates random headlines from the Galactic News Service. You can get them in multiples of five and either print them out or put them on your monitor. The last line always is "FILM AT 11". If you print it out, the line'll appear on your monitor. Yours, Mark Rand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zornwil Posted August 29, 2003 Report Share Posted August 29, 2003 Originally posted by OddHat Very cool. Have you checked out the Enforcers Inc thread? http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=110110#Kung Missed it, thanks, am checking it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.