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Looking for ideas for a scenario


Steffen

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Hello!

 

As I'm having a hard time writing a scenario for a group of new superheroes I was told elsewhere on this forum to ask you guys for input and comments. Maybe you can help me.

 

It's going to be the first HERO game for two of the four players, all characters will start with 150 CP, it will be set in the real world with only a few superbeings having appeared so far one year ago and there is no magic (as far as everyone knows).

 

I would like to start with the characters' origin story (I LOVE origin stories!) and give all of them the same one so they have a reason to work as a team even after the first adventure (assuming they have fun and want to continue). If no one will change their mind the rough concepts will be light powers (a Re/Horus avatar), darkness/shadow powers, plant powers (something like a Poison Ivy/Groot mix) and animal powers (not sure if shape changing or abilities only).


This is what I came up with so far:

A supernatural event (caused by PCs of an earlier campaign) unleashes energies that activates an ancient (Sumerian?) artifact, setting free the captured powers/spirits/energies of deities/demons causing them to find new hosts. Some of these energies end up in the PCs granting them superpowers, other spirits find NPC hosts turning them into heroes or villains to be used for later adventures.

At the same time shadow demons/spirits (vulnerable to light and shadow powers) get released and start attacking people. Maybe some shadows are able to possess a few victims turning them into a different kind of monster the heroes have to fight without killing the possessed people. The possession will end at dawn but people will get hurt if the PCs do nothing.

 

The scenario should not only be a series of fight scenes but should also involve investigation and use of various skills. However, I can only think of all of this happening on one evening at a museum, preferably at a special event, lasting only a short time.

 

Things I would like to include:

  • the PCs can keep their civilian identities

  • Re/Horus PC can somehow help ending the possessions

  • maybe a second artifact (Egyptian door?) was activated by the first one and summoned the shadows

  • research

  • crucial information has to be translated from Egyptian or Sumerian texts

 

I'm quite sure that I should be able to turn this into an adventure lasting more than 1-2 evenings but the pieces just won't fall into place.

 

I would really like to hear your comments and ideas. Thank you!

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8 minutes ago, Steffen said:

 

At the same time shadow demons/spirits (vulnerable to light and shadow powers) get released and start attacking people. Maybe some shadows are able to possess a few victims turning them into a different kind of monster the heroes have to fight without killing the possessed people. The possession will end at dawn but people will get hurt if the PCs do nothing.

 

 

And at dawn the light demons arrive and start possessing people.. The player characters must deactivate the ancient Door to put an end to the flow of dangerous spirits.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary sings an old Joni Mitchell song.

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You could have some sort of ominous figure/face appearing in the sky that 'curses' the heroes for trying to stop him/them.

Someone is trying to steal artifacts or something there heroes have. This can delay the heroes or lead onto further adventures.

Someone close to the heroes (DNPC) is carried off by a bad guy who is left behind after the others are vanquished. Or alternately the person is carried off in order to stop the heroes from closing the door.

Someone close to the heroes is possessed and the heroes cannot end the possession.

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Well it seems to me that all the people happen to be at the museum when the event occurred.  Perhaps Demon or other appropriate sorcerer/occultist was trying to raise some entity of course. Now the museum doesn’t hold all the info so perhaps they have to tract down an ancient manuscript or two. And of course there is trouble there. And translating the texts ain’t going to be easy. So who is willing or can translate them?  Whose going to stop them?

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An invisible creature has a low level attack causing people to take irrational and sometimes dangerous action.  The heroes must find a way to detect the creature while at the same time protect the influenced from hurting themselves.

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The PCs and their associated DNPCs are at an event at the museum. So are the museum's staff, and anyone else you feel should be there.

 

The PCs get to interact with all the NPCs, make friends, make enemies, and notice various people acting suspiciously (for various reasons, not all related to the current scenario).

 

Then things hit the fan.

 

At the end of it, an ominous face appears in the sky as per Death Tribble's suggestion. It's not over yet.

 

By the way, 150 points isn't a lot.

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1.  Make sure the players are all on the same page as you regarding a shared origin revealed in-game.  Everybody may be cool with the idea, but it still wouldn't hurt to talk to them beforehand and ensure they're all okay with the idea.

 

2.  I'm assuming the spirits inhabiting / empowering the PCs are benevolent spirits / deities, and those empowering the bad guys are natively bad themselves.  I'd suggest those benevolent spirits might provide their PCs with info on select bad guys' spirits / powers.  For example the Horus-empowered PC might have key info on the Set-empowered NPC villain, while the plant-powered PC has info on a different villain, etc.  This can maybe lay the groundwork for some arch-nemeses in an ongoing campaign.

 

2a.  The link between the empowering spirits and the PCs might also provide some odd skills that the PCs might not have naturally.  For example, the Horus PC may inexplicably now be able to read hieroglyphs, the animal PC now has a great Tracking skill without knowing anything about tracking prior to the event.  Having a secret set of skills (nothing major, say 5 points worth) that the players learn about in-game could be cool for the players, and if selected and presented well could provide opportunities to spotlight different PCs throughout the scenario.  ("As the museum curator is stumbling through translating the Sumerian text, you realize you intimately know about the ancient artifact he's describing, including how to activate it.  It's like someone is whispering the info in your mind.")

 

3.  Regarding the museum event, this could be a fundraiser or the opening of a new exhibit (or both combined).  Regardless, I'd make sure you include non-powered bystanders, in addition to those gaining powers from the evil spirits.  Perhaps the darkness spirits trap a handful of bystanders (including a DNPC or two for the PC heroes?) in an extra-dimensional shadow realm, and the heroes have to figure out where they disappeared to, and then a way to free them before dawn.  Thus, the non-combat investigation and research.  Whether the PCs have to travel to the shadow realm themselves, or just open the door to allow the hostages to be freed, is up to you.

 

For example, a large slab of volcanic obsidian, polished to a mirror finish, with Sumerian cuneiforms inscribed around the periphery, is part of the new exhibit, but is not part of the whole empowering thing.  It's only after people disappeared and the search is on that one of the PCs notices there's more "reflections" in the mirror than there are people in the room with him.

 

4.  Flesh out a few non-powered NPCs (a reporter, a professor from the nearby university, an unappreciated underling at the museum, a beat cop moonlighting as a museum security guard, etc.)  that are key to the plot.  You don't need full writeups, but a paragraph or two and a handful of key stats / skills on each to make them a little more three-dimensional. 

 

That's just a few ideas off the top of my head.

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Oh, and:

 

5.  Have a decent list of various museum artifacts that *aren't* involved at all in the main plot, especially a few that are eye-catching but complete red herrings (a gold-handled ceremonial dagger, a jeweled comb reportedly belonging to a temple priestess, etc.).  You don't want to only mention the ones that are important to the plot, or the players will instantly fixate on them.  And find ways to introduce both the key items as well as the unimportant ones.  (For example, "You see ace reporter Deanna Purtan looking longingly at a jeweled hair comb that supposedly belonged to a temple priestess.  Across the room, you hear a bleach-blonde socialite scoffing about 'how the Summers [intentionally mispronounced] could use something as worthless as this!' while gesturing at a piece of polished obsidian labeled as a Sumerian mirror.  When going through the Egyptian exhibit, you hear local celebrity chef Olivier James wondering aloud if the gold-handled ceremonial dagger is sharp enough to slice tomatoes.")

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Example scenario (blatantly stealing an idea from a Warehouse 13 episode):

 

The PCs are attending the local museum's unveiling of their Ancient Cultures exhibit, featuring items from ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, and Sumeria.  This corresponds with an annual fundraising dinner, so a lot of the city's movers and shakers are there as well.  Caterers, guards, visitors, reporters, students, the well-to-do: a wide selection of people are there.

 

After a bit of the PCs wandering around and the GM describing the various items on display, including a stone statue of Sumerian god Anunnaki and the sarcophagus of the Egyptian 13th Dynasty pharaoh Amehemhet VI, and an odd semi-circular stone that feels like it's vibrating slightly (and visitors are encouraged to touch if they wish).  A section of stone wall, inscribed with hieroglyphs and paintings of Horus and Osirus, separates the Egyptian exhibit from the Sumerian.  The PCs hear Dr. Richard Reynolds, the museum's curator, arguing with an archaeology grad student about the translation on a stone tablet or the stone wall, with the grad student, emphasizing his words by repeatedly poking the tablet / wall with his index finger, when a bright light temporarily blinds everybody, and a wave of energy is released from the stone tablet / wall (giving the PCs their powers, as well as various NPCs).  When everybody can see again, they notice a number of museum visitors / staff / VIPS are gone, replaced with shadowy figures who begin attacking the bystanders and PCs.  (Cue intro fight, with the PCs somehow knowing what types of powers they now have thanks to the spirits that empowered them.)  Any shadowy figures not captured will retreat but not leave the premises.  (Actually, nobody can leave due to a strange energy dome that is now encompassing the museum, erected by the beneficial spirits / deities to help the PCs.)  Their ability to pass through walls should be a pain for the heroes, as well as their ability to temporarily possess innocent bystanders.

 

The PCs eventually learn that the missing people weren't transformed into the shadowy figures (which they might initially suspect), but are instead trapped in the obsidian mirror while the shadow figures were apparently freed from the mirror, which the PCs' research uncovers was actually the shadow figures' prison for millennia.  Also, they PCs learn from their benevolent spirits that when dawn comes, the energy dome will end and the shadowy figures can go anywhere they wish. 

 

The PCs then have to figure out how to re-trap the shadow figures inside the mirror, which will release the innocent people trapped there.  This likely requires capturing all of the shadow figures and bringing them into the room with the obsidian mirror, then performing a ritual of some sort. 

 

That's my rough outline.  Feel free to change / add / ignore whatever you wish.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Late to the game

 

You can have the museum downtown near the courthouse and other federal buildings.  After the scenario in the museum is done, when they exit a museum, they can find a wrecked jail bus overturned near the museum.  Instant rogues gallery.

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There is a group called The Pantheon in Alien Enemies, a 4th Edition supplement book.  They are a group of aliens who take over the bodies of a number of humans and become the basis of Ancient Roman Gods.

 

Maybe the group of heroes in their secret identities are at a museum when pandora's box is opened releasing energy beings that take over a number of DNPCs and they become icons of the seven deadly sins.  The heroes have to battle them and return the beings to the box to free the DNPCs and preserve their secret identities at the same time.

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21 hours ago, Cassandra said:

There is a group called The Pantheon in Alien Enemies, a 4th Edition supplement book.  They are a group of aliens who take over the bodies of a number of humans and become the basis of Ancient Roman Gods.

 

Maybe the group of heroes in their secret identities are at a museum when pandora's box is opened releasing energy beings that take over a number of DNPCs and they become icons of the seven deadly sins.  The heroes have to battle them and return the beings to the box to free the DNPCs and preserve their secret identities at the same time.

 

I actually own Alien Enemies but didn't read it yet.  Thank you for pointing it out.

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Let's go through the first three Enemies books. I'm excluding those who appeared in Classic Enemies.

 

Enimies 1:

 

Agents of Genocide: No 5th or 6th edition writeup. Replaced by IHA.

 

Frisbie: No 5th or 6th edition writeup.

 

Minutemen Robots: A 5th edition writeup somewhere.

 

Sledge: No 5th or 6th edition writeup. Officially "comic book" dead.

 

Enemies 2:

 

Um...wrong thread.

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On 6/3/2018 at 7:12 PM, Lucius said:

 

And at dawn the light demons arrive and start possessing people.. The player characters must deactivate the ancient Door to put an end to the flow of dangerous spirits.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary sings an old Joni Mitchell song.

How can the Door be deactivated? Maybe it's written in hieroglyphs on the frame. But this sounds like a magic spell or ritual and a paradigm of my campaign world is that magic doesn't work. Maybe I will have to change that or maybe a small amount of magic was released by the event that triggered the artifacts.

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On 6/3/2018 at 9:13 PM, Ninja-Bear said:

Well it seems to me that all the people happen to be at the museum when the event occurred.  Perhaps Demon or other appropriate sorcerer/occultist was trying to raise some entity of course. Now the museum doesn’t hold all the info so perhaps they have to tract down an ancient manuscript or two. And of course there is trouble there. And translating the texts ain’t going to be easy. So who is willing or can translate them?  Whose going to stop them?

 

The Horus character is an archaeologist and will probably be able  to read several ancient  languages.

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On 6/4/2018 at 12:15 AM, Cassandra said:

An invisible creature has a low level attack causing people to take irrational and sometimes dangerous action.  The heroes must find a way to detect the creature while at the same time protect the influenced from hurting themselves.

 

This description matches the shadows . I got the idea from edimmus, some kind of spirits in Sumerian religion, that were considered vengeful toward the living, possessed people and inspired criminal behavior.

 

How do you detect these beings in a living person? Maybe possessed people can be recognized because they don't throw shadows aynmore?

 

And how do you exorcise them? By intense light? Horus will have a Flash attack that may be suitable but it's a bit simple, isn't it? And it will make Horus seem more capable than the other characters...

 

 

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On 6/4/2018 at 12:39 AM, assault said:

By the way, 150 points isn't a lot.

 

I know but we did this before and you can do a lot with 150 points. The characters will not be Comic Book Superheroes but powerful enough for street level action. And in the beginning I will probably grant XP at a higher rate than usual.

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On ‎6‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 1:00 PM, Steffen said:

Hello!

A supernatural event (caused by PCs of an earlier campaign) unleashes energies that activates an ancient (Sumerian?) artifact, setting free the captured powers/spirits/energies of deities/demons causing them to find new hosts. Some of these energies end up in the PCs granting them superpowers, other spirits find NPC hosts turning them into heroes or villains to be used for later adventures.

 

2 hours ago, Steffen said:

 and a paradigm of my campaign world is that magic doesn't work.

 

I don't think I understand you.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary can't wrap its heads around that

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8 hours ago, Lucius said:

 

 

I don't think I understand you.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary can't wrap its heads around that

 

Sorry, I didn't realize that this is ambiguous. I didn't want to bore you with details of my campaign world.

 

My campaign is based on the assumption that the legendary gods of Earth were descendants of extradimensional aliens and  actually the first superheroes/-villains. However, they didn't know that and actually considered themselves  deities. While these supernatural beings owed their powers to unspecified "energies" real magic was a different kind of energy that could also be used by normal humans.

One megalomaniac god wanted to be the only one and found a way to destroy all other gods and also render magic useless but his plan was sabotaged. This resulted in the creation of a barrier/energy field that depowered, killed, scattered, trapped or shut out almost every supernatural being (including himself) and suppressed magic. The genetic heritage of the gods became dormant.

The barrier has slightly deteriorated over time but is still active.

 

The first new superheroes were created in 2003 when a scientist developed a virus that was able to activate "junk DNA". This was the start of my last campaign. One year after gaining their powers the curious characters managed to crack open the barrier for about a minute to talk to the beings behind/inside  it. This is the supernatural event that released the energies that will start the new campaign. It also means that the new superheroes do not need to have the the genetic makeup to be superheroes.

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Perhaps, this could have been a prophesied event and there are two opposing shadow organizations working secretly behind the scene waiting for it to happen.  The good organization could turn into allies and supply exposition, and the evil organization can be a source of additional complications.

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