Hi tech Plots

[Mr. R]

So its easy to come up with plots that involve magic/mystical.  Insert magical ceremony / ritual / artifact.  World wide chase to stop / disrupt opponents.  Strange portals to OTHER Worlds with gibbering horrors slurping their way through.

 

But I find it harder for High tech type plots.  So Hero fans, give me some ideas.  Stir up the high tech soup for those people who play the gadgeteer / power armour / super agent type.

[dsatow]

Hi tech polluter - A big business man is pumping toxic waste into the sewers/subways where the homeless have been hiding out.  The toxin in true comic book fashion is mutating them.

 

Alien Nature Observation - The Galactic Union, a conglomeration of alien world, has mark Earth as a pre-spaceflight applicant, meaning that due to unusual activities (i.e. supers) there is a chance that humanity might encounter a space faring race outside their solar system.  The aliens have put a group of 5 alien races to monitor and intercede in Earth affairs to see if membership into the Union is possible.  1 of those alien races has found that while they do not have mental powers on any other alien race including their own, they can mental dominate and control the human race.  Another alien race has discovered that humanity's brains make a perfect aphrodisiac/hallucinogen.  The other three are doing the work unbiased and have differing view points on Union membership.  The Dominating race wants to put the Earth under its wing as a territory in a "mentoring" position.  The druggie aliens want to make Earth a nature preserve so that they can hunt humans in culling operations.

 

 Adam - Adam is an AI which is making human replacement androids and warbots.  It has several goals.  1) the creation of another AI (propagation).  2) the spurring of research and development (ingestion of data).  3) And world conquest for the BETTERMENT of humanity.  That's right, the AI wants to make the world a better place, but humanity is fearful of machine based rulership so its doing both a subversive tactic to take control and an overt FUD tactic to get humanity to unite for the better.

 

Clone - Scientists are looking to use the genes of mutant supers to create a superhuman soldier.  Unfortunately,  the newly created superhumans decide to rule earth.

 

New India - Humanity is finally able to travel the stars using the stargate technology.  Their first planet they encounter outside the solar system is inhabited by intelligent cute small blue furry creatures.  Unfortunately, the planet is full of a rare metal (Nth, vibranium, etc.) and companies are scrambling to exploit the natives and strip the planet of its resources.  The aliens though have a horrifying secret which could have jeopardize all mankind.

 

Spread the wealth - the government has prevented the wide spread adoption of futuristic weapons (blasters, beam sabers) to the general populous.  Unfortunately one unscrupulous super believes that knowledge should not be restricted for the betterment of humanity and starts sharing blaster weapon information on line.

[Scott Ruggels]

1 hour ago, dsatow said:

 

 

Spread the wealth - the government has prevented the wide spread adoption of futuristic weapons (blasters, beam sabers) to the general populous.  Unfortunately one unscrupulous super believes that knowledge should not be restricted for the betterment of humanity and starts sharing blaster weapon information on line.

 

My Hero!  And they would be legal in California! For 6 months!

[Greywind]

Heist plots are easy with hi-tech. Everybody wants the new MacGuffin.

[dsatow]

Terrorist by Nature - Super terrorists have raided the CDC and taken hold of an experimental new virus.  Unfortunately, the virus is highly unstable and prone to mutating.  The terrorist plan to release the virus on a large population center unless $1 Billion in unmarked bills is sent to them in 48 hours.  If the virus is release, the virus has mutated into creating a large amount of paranormals (think Wild Cards virus).

 

Lullaby - A new sonic weapon has been developed.  When used, everyone takes 5d6 AVLD Sonic Flash Defense damage in 32m radius for one turn at a 6 Speed.  The last time it was used, it took everyone out around a bank with people driving in cars blacking out and crashing.  What is intriguing is that the weapon is actually a crying baby.  A genetically engineered child who when he cries does sonic damage to everyone.  The villains wear special sound dampening suits to prevent damage to themselves and has a carrier to carry the child (looks like a large dog carrier).

[Lord Liaden]

A Bridge Too Far - A technological villain has developed a prototype personal teleportation device allowing someone to step between dimensions, to travel great distances and bypass barriers. But a thief stole the device and has gone on a robbery spree. Unfortunately his frequent use of the device has had an effect on the dimensional continuum, creating ruptures drawing creatures and beings from other dimensions to Earth. Some are hostile, others just confused, but many are dangerous. PC heroes will have to track down and capture a teleporting criminal before the dimensional damage becomes permanent and irreparable. They may also have to locate the device's villainous inventor and ask for his help; or perhaps the villain will come to them offering to assist, if they return the device to him.

[BoloOfEarth]

Stroke of Death:  The members of Deathstroke have found an old lab of Dr. Draconis, which included the design for the Aftershocker, a device which projects vibrations into the earth, which bounce off the mantle and combine to eventually fracture the Earth's crust in a distant location.  They use this to attempt to blackmail the government into surrendering to their will.

 

MacGuffins:  ARGENT opens a store, providing high-tech armor and weapons to gangs in exchange for a percentage of their take in various crimes. 

 

Gravity Lens:  A supervillain team finds a remote lab / factory of Mechanon, and steals his plans to send a hundred gravity-wave generators into orbit, which when together in a certain configuration will create a massive gravitational lens that can focus sunlight into a massive (meters wide) laser beam, killing targets from orbit.

 

 

[Duke Bushido]

This seems... familiar....:

 

Every now and then, a thug gets found with high tech gear.

 

_Your_ high tech gear.  Beautiful imitations, identical in every way except perhaps power output and your unique power source.  How did they get it?  Who is distributing it, and how?  Why?  Who has access to your designs?

 

 

[bubba smith]

14 hours ago, dsatow said:

Hi tech polluter - A big business man is pumping toxic waste into the sewers/subways where the homeless have been hiding out.  The toxin in true comic book fashion is mutating them.

 

Alien Nature Observation - The Galactic Union, a conglomeration of alien world, has mark Earth as a pre-spaceflight applicant, meaning that due to unusual activities (i.e. supers) there is a chance that humanity might encounter a space faring race outside their solar system.  The aliens have put a group of 5 alien races to monitor and intercede in Earth affairs to see if membership into the Union is possible.  1 of those alien races has found that while they do not have mental powers on any other alien race including their own, they can mental dominate and control the human race.  Another alien race has discovered that humanity's brains make a perfect aphrodisiac/hallucinogen.  The other three are doing the work unbiased and have differing view points on Union membership.  The Dominating race wants to put the Earth under its wing as a territory in a "mentoring" position.  The druggie aliens want to make Earth a nature preserve so that they can hunt humans in culling operations.

 

 Adam - Adam is an AI which is making human replacement androids and warbots.  It has several goals.  1) the creation of another AI (propagation).  2) the spurring of research and development (ingestion of data).  3) And world conquest for the BETTERMENT of humanity.  That's right, the AI wants to make the world a better place, but humanity is fearful of machine based rulership so its doing both a subversive tactic to take control and an overt FUD tactic to get humanity to unite for the better.

 

Clone - Scientists are looking to use the genes of mutant supers to create a superhuman soldier.  Unfortunately,  the newly created superhumans decide to rule earth.

 

New India - Humanity is finally able to travel the stars using the stargate technology.  Their first planet they encounter outside the solar system is inhabited by intelligent cute small blue furry creatures.  Unfortunately, the planet is full of a rare metal (Nth, vibranium, etc.) and companies are scrambling to exploit the natives and strip the planet of its resources.  The aliens though have a horrifying secret which could have jeopardize all mankind.

 

Spread the wealth - the government has prevented the wide spread adoption of futuristic weapons (blasters, beam sabers) to the general populous.  Unfortunately one unscrupulous super believes that knowledge should not be restricted for the betterment of humanity and starts sharing blaster weapon information on line.

i'm for the last one

[Tech]

A villainous organization plans to sell old, outdated or obsolete technology to raise funds - and clear out their inventory. They will sell their tech to anyone. As the heroes infiltrate the selling area to stop this, it looks like a marketplace with various sellers calling out their goods to sell (for humor):

Seller 1: "Come everyone! Get your C-2 Blaster! An oldie but goodie!"

Seller 2: "Ignore him! You can't go wrong with a Photon Blaster.. and cheaper!"

(in the distance) "Swinglines! Get your swinglines!"

[BoloOfEarth]

Just to stir the pot, I had Utility publicly accuse the PC gadgeteer (Maker) of stealing the tech designs of others (including him) for her own use.  She wasn't (except for outright stealing VIPER flyer bots and their plug-and-play modules for her own use), but the accusation certainly pissed off the player. 

 

I've had Foxbat build a force field dome generator to cut off part of the city so he could rob the Federal Reserve Bank (actually replaced some of the existing money with FoxbatDollars).  As an aside, he also generated snow inside to effectively create a half-mile diameter snow globe.

 

Enemy of My Enemy:  An anti-American supervillain group breaks into a Russian missile silo to launch missiles at the US.  (The reverse could be done, with an anti-Russia group firing US missiles at Moscow.)

 

Return of the Third Reich:  A dimensional travel experiment goes a little ca-ca, switching a chunk of the city with it's counterpart in another dimension, where the Nazis won WWII and subjugated the US.

 

All Your Armors Are Belong To Me:  A brilliant gadgeteer discovers how to override the neural controls of high-tech battlesuits, causing them to sneak off and commit crimes while their normal operator is in secret ID.

[bubba smith]

1 hour ago, BoloOfEarth said:

Just to stir the pot, I had Utility publicly accuse the PC gadgeteer (Maker) of stealing the tech designs of others (including him) for her own use.  She wasn't (except for outright stealing VIPER flyer bots and their plug-and-play modules for her own use), but the accusation certainly pissed off the player. 

 

I've had Foxbat build a force field dome generator to cut off part of the city so he could rob the Federal Reserve Bank (actually replaced some of the existing money with FoxbatDollars).  As an aside, he also generated snow inside to effectively create a half-mile diameter snow globe.

 

Enemy of My Enemy:  An anti-American supervillain group breaks into a Russian missile silo to launch missiles at the US.  (The reverse could be done, with an anti-Russia group firing US missiles at Moscow.)

 

Return of the Third Reich:  A dimensional travel experiment goes a little ca-ca, switching a chunk of the city with it's counterpart in another dimension, where the Nazis won WWII and subjugated the US.

 

All Your Armors Are Belong To Me:  A brilliant gadgeteer discovers how to override the neural controls of high-tech battlesuits, causing them to sneak off and commit crimes while their normal operator is in secret ID.

the last one sounds too much like the armor wars storyline

[Christopher]

19 hours ago, Mr. R said:

So its easy to come up with plots that involve magic/mystical.  Insert magical ceremony / ritual / artifact.  World wide chase to stop / disrupt opponents.  Strange portals to OTHER Worlds with gibbering horrors slurping their way through.

 

But I find it harder for High tech type plots.  So Hero fans, give me some ideas.  Stir up the high tech soup for those people who play the gadgeteer / power armour / super agent type.

Clarks Law states: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Maxim 24 states: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a big gun."

 

The only problem with Science plots is propably that you know too much science. There have been any number of Science Fiction plots where I can only: Nice story, but does not make any sense.

 

If you got a cloning plot where the clones turn into powerfull monsters:

Is it magic? K, magic.

Is it science? What the bleep, that is not how cloning works! There is no way this outcome could have happened!

 

I made a post on how "Computers are the new Magic". But I can not find it right now. Propably archived.

 

 

And the new Jumanji Movie gave me some rough ides how magic would deal/cope with the modern world:

 

Or how about a crossing of magic and techology? I remeber a Shadowrun Computer Game Plot:

1. Aquire a DNA sample from someone

2. Clone that person a few times

3. Cast a spell on one clone with the goal of affecting everyone with that DNA. You got a control group.

 

Normaly you "genocide" or "certain death" spell would not work on a small sample. The effect of  the spell/energy spend on it is directly proportional on how little of hte target you have.

But you just used science to make the sample way bigger. Allowing you to cast way more dangerous spells with little retaliation potential.

[Scott Ruggels]

OPERATION: Mountain Fortress: Military exercise in the Southern California Desert. The Military is training a unit of their new Powered Armor suits against OPFOR.  Heroes with Secret IDs related to the military, will have their secret ID called up. Military Heroes with Public IDs will be called up with a bit of press.  The problems arise as follows:

The new Powered armor suits are armed with simulated weapon and ammunition. The OPFOR is also armed with simulated weapons. [Insert EVEIL ORGANIZATION] is NOT armed with simulated weapons, and have their first change to grab a suit... or three, outside and away from the heavily guarded research facility they were invented at.  the Villains could infiltrate dressed as OPFOR, or as support personnel. The Heroes have to stop the abduction of the suits and their pilots, or failing that, Track down the missing equipment and pilots.

 

RELATED:  Over at the tank range, the tanks are trying out experimental chemically fueld particle beam ammunition, that loads in, rather than chemical propellant projectiles, in a  cost saving measure to  give the army powerful beam weapons without having to build a new tank and turret.  The beam weapon is an AP RKS Beam weapon, that is at the edges of the campaigns power level, but needs a tank's cannon breech to fire. A case of five shell cased, one shot, reactors has gone missing.

 

"What's that annoying Buzzing Sound?"  A series of hi tech robberies of small, High value items (anything from jewels to  electronics, to rare manuscripts.) The common denominator is that all the items weight less than 2lbs, and were removed shortly after any security cameras were removed.  THE items were removed by a coordinated swarm of drones, each going through a careful sequence of actions to Disable security,   deploy to protect the theft, and then grab the target and extract from the area.

If the Heroes catch the drones in action, the drones will summon a larger swarm of armed drones to take out the heroes. I will leave the type of weapons and the number of drones to the GM.

 

[DShomshak]

First, if you have the 5e book Conquerors, Killers and Crooks, start there. Lots of high-tech villains, each with three story seeds.

 

If you don't... For high-tech villain plots, the Scavenger Hunt is a classic. The villain needs three or four rare items to complete his super-weapon; he and his minions steal them one by one. The items could be anything from an Atomic Clock to calibrate the energy matrix resonance, to the Hope Diamond (whose unique chemical composition and fluorescent properties make it perfect as the core of a giant laser).

 

It’s exactly the same plot as the Evil Wizard who gathers rare items for a ritual to summon a Dark God, achieve Ultimate Power, yadda yadda. So what? Comic-book sci/tech is usually just magic in drag.

 

Heck, you can use the plot for a martial arts campaign. The ancient master wrote the secret of his unstoppable technique on a tablet that was broken into three parts/ three scrolls you have to overlay to read/ three bronze ceremonial cauldrons/ whatever. The three parts were scattered by his quarreling disciples/ hidden to keep the secret from the unworthy/ whatever. The arch-nemesis of the PCs searches for the three parts, and they chase after him.

 

I dare say you could create versions for other power/character types as well.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Cancer]

Discovery of extraterrestrial alien shipwreck in Greenland or other site opened by retreating ice sherts.  No survivors, a few very fragmentary bits of organic matter that might be bits of mummified alien; and the wreck is of order 100,000 years old, but it is the wreck of a spaceship.

 

... and there are disturbing indications the wreck is just an interplanetary shuttle...

 

... and signals inadvertantly triggered and released from the wreck match signals in the radio-listening logs that have off-Earth origins, suggesting a base?  mothership?  relay station?  other marooned shuttles?  exist elsewhere in the Solar System and might have at least low-level continuing operations...

 

... or perhaps similar signals that seem to originate on Earth but at positions that do not correspond to land sites in the best/newest charts, or even fresh satellite imagery ...

 

 

[bubba smith]

On ‎11‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 8:14 PM, Greywind said:

Heist plots are easy with hi-tech. Everybody wants the new MacGuffin.

amen

[Lord Liaden]

12 hours ago, DShomshak said:

First, if you have the 5e book Conquerors, Killers and Crooks, start there. Lots of high-tech villains, each with three story seeds.

 

 

Plot seeds are one of the things from 5E books that didn't make it into 6E, which I really liked. Almost every 5E Champs character and group had at least three of these handy little story catalysts. And all the 5E books, like the villain compendia, are half their original cover price from the Hero website store.

 

OTOH I can also offer you this compilation of plot seeds generated by us fans right here on these forums. Lots of tech-related stuff to glean from these. (I didn't compile it, but I'm afraid I can't remember who did.)

PlotSeeds.pdf

[segerge]

If your campaign has Doctor Destroyer (or an equivalent villain) being brought to justice and the location/keys to his master HQ being turned over to UNTIL (or an equivalent organization), his technological treasure trove will become an irresistable target for most supervillains looking to "jump themselves up the food chain".  Bonus points if you can have some level of antipathy between the heroes attempting to keep that tech out of villainous hands and the organization holding it.

[steriaca]

A typical thing in silver age comics is "science = superpowers". Marvel used radiation as an excuse for superpowers at one point. You can see it now with genetic manipulation.

[DShomshak]

Yes, I liked the plot seeds too. It's why I used them in my little Shared Origins booklets. They aren't just a benefit for readers: If I couldn't easily come up with three reasonably original story seeds for a character, I knew the character was too specialized or peculiar for other people to use in their campaigns.

 

Later I'll pull together and post a batch of story-seed summaries of adventures from my past campaigns.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Tech]

A country builds its first high-speed magnetic train, ensuring a safe, quick and bump-less ride. It also looks cool, so cool that a villain decides he wants it for himself.

 

Foxbat (or some other villain) runs into a hidden trove of forgotten collected tech from some other villain. Foxbat gets together a bunch of thugs and decides to test out all of this wonderful technology - even though no one knows what any of it does. Can be a serious episode, though more likely a chance for a hilarious episode.

 

Bulldozer finds an exo-skeleton or power suit in a dump and actually manages to get it in working condition. Now he's going by the name MECHA-BULLDOZER!

 

The heroes are stumped by groups of teen thugs committing petty crimes that have amazing and powerful technology. Eventually tracing back the technology from one of the thugs that talked, they find an 14 year old boy who's building this technology in a fit of anger because he didn't get into the local school science club.

 

A villain gets ahold of a timepiece that can slow time and plans to take over the city if his threats aren't met. When the heroes confront him, he actually activates it. However, the time disruption slows everyone in the large area to 1/2 their SPD, including the villain.  Enjoy a 3 SPD battle. Be sure to describe the slow punch of the hero to the villain's face, or the slow motion knockback sequence of an attack.

[Mr. R]

On 11/3/2018 at 11:36 AM, Christopher said:

Clarks Law states: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Maxim 24 states: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a big gun."

 

The only problem with Science plots is propably that you know too much science. There have been any number of Science Fiction plots where I can only: Nice story, but does not make any sense.

 

If you got a cloning plot where the clones turn into powerfull monsters:

Is it magic? K, magic.

Is it science? What the bleep, that is not how cloning works! There is no way this outcome could have happened!

 

 

 

 

This is my problem, and my last group.  Anything high tech, can we reverse engineer it and make a fast buck!  

 

Or I could do something like the above and get a "YEAH!  RIGHT!"

[Christopher]

11 hours ago, Mr. R said:

This is my problem, and my last group.  Anything high tech, can we reverse engineer it and make a fast buck!  

That would be like Proliferating Nuclear weapons.

 

Ironman correctly deduced that Arc Reactors are one heck of a dangerous power technology. Just take this comic:

http://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1077

 

As the reporter says, "the power requirements alone" are huge issue. If we reverse engienered that weapon, we would get the power technology. And the mind boggles what kind of weapons we can craft with that knowledge alone.

Nevermind a handheld railgun. For anything but superhuman targerts, it is overkill. Points wasted on penetration rather then doing damage. But with that energy tech we could create a EMP wave that covers the whole planet (it has simialr requirements of producing a really high current for a really short amount of time). One that could penetrate propably most existent shielding (because Isolation vs electricity is a relative thing).

 

Or a fusion bomb that does not need a nuclear device as detonator.

[DShomshak]

On 11/4/2018 at 1:51 PM, DShomshak said:

 

Later I'll pull together and post a batch of story-seed summaries of adventures from my past campaigns.

 

And here they are.

 

Mechanics of Rage. A brilliant but embittered engineer builds a powerful vehicle and uses it to attack the company that wronged him. [The vehicle-based gadgeteer is a character type you occasionally saw in the Silver Age but I don’t recall seeing in the CU.]

 

Mars Needs Beanie Babies. [Okay, the name shows how long ago I ran this one.] Everyone wants the hot new fad toy. They sell for 5 or even 10 times retail price on eBay and other secondary markets. A group of second-string techno-villains concoct a Master Plan to exploit the situation. First they drive the price up even further by hijacking shipments of the toy, courtesy of a vehicle-based villain. [When I ran this, one of the villains was Invader, whose schtick is that she built a flying saucer. So, planes carrying shipments of Beanie Babies appeared to be hijacked in flight by aliens.] But they don’t just sell the stolen toys on black markets and online. One of the villains can build Hypnno-Ray widgets. They plant Hypno-Ray devices in the toys so the buyers can be hypnotized into sending all their money to the villains’ Cayman Islands bank account! Can the heroes track the villains to their lair, stop the evil scheme and save Christmas for America’s retailers?

 

Autocracy. A powerful new techno-villain called the Autocrat is giving second- or third-string villains a power boost by giving them battlesuits. Maybe the Autocrat gathers them into a new villain team; maybe he’s just a power vendor, selling the suits for a share of the villains’ ill-gotten gains. Either way, the villains are considerably more powerful and dangerous.

 

Ah, but there’s more. The battlesuits slowly take over the wearer’s minds. The Autocrat is building an army of super-villains!

 

And a further twist: The climactic battle against the Autocrat and his enslaved villains reveals that the Autocrat isn’t a person in a battlesuit; he’s an android in a battlesuit. Who did not know he’s an android. The Autocrat himself is just a front for someone else. But who?

 

Telethon of Terror. A super-scientist villain creates a big, powerful monster. (Kaiju or giant killer robot, as you prefer.) The villain posts a video showing the monster’s destructive power and nigh-indestructibility and issues a demand: One billion dollars sent to his offshore bank account within a certain span of time, or he sets the monster to rampage in a major city of the targeted country. Anyone can contribute.

 

For a variation, the villain holds an auction. Governments (or other people) can submit bids either to have their country spared, or for the monster to be released on another country.

 

Skyfall. Every few years, a comet or asteroid passes relatively near the Earth. Space is very big, though, so there’s little chance of a major impact; and once astronomers know a body exists, they can forecast its orbit decades in advance. So, not much chance of dino-killer-scale impacts taking humanity by surprise.

 

Except one such object has changed course. It’s going to hit in a month. A technological Master Villain takes credit, saying he built a Gravitron powerful enough to shift the body’s orbit. [When I ran the adventure, the object was comet ISON-Something.] The villain has decided that if he can’t rule the world, he’ll destroy it, or at least destroy humanity. Or the human race can save itself by surrendering to him. But people had better make up their minds quickly, because soon the impactor will be too close even for the Gravitron to push it back on a safe path.

 

As a further complication, once the heroes find the villain’s base a techno-hero can see that they must defeat the villain without ever striking the Gravitron. The core of the machine is a neutronium torus spinning at near the speed of light, with the mass of a mountain. If the machine is disturbed, the neutronium core either decompresses and explodes, destroying everything in hundreds of kilometers, or it collapses into a black hole that sinks into the Earth’s core and starts eating. Important safety tip, yes?

 

Kludge. Governments, and a few other people and organizations, salvage wrecked super-tech and try to repair or reverse-engineer it. This does not always go well. At a facility for such research, a damaged super-robot reactivates and tries to repair itself with all the other super-tech on hand… including the battlesuit worn by a super-agent guard… without taking the guard out of it first. The result is a powerful, crazed cyborg on a rampage. The heroes want to stop the rampage; other people might get involved for other reasons.

 

Smash the Machine. A villain attacks a research facility that tries to reverse-engineer alien or other super-tech. Only, the villain isn’t trying to steal super-tech; he’s trying to destroy a specific bit of tech. It isn’t even an obvious weapon or power boost; it’s a bit of general-purpose technology that could create whole new industries. Think room-temperature superconductors, antigravity or <insert technobabble>. So why is the villain trying to destroy it?

 

Variation: The New Luddites. There’s a whole team of villains dedicated to obstructing technological progress. Maybe each of them was harmed by advanced tech in some way… or maybe there’s a deeper agenda such as industrial espionage (a government or megacorporation is trying to hold back competitors in hopes of gaining a technological edge), or the leader is a time traveler from a country that loses out in the super-tech future.
 

Dean Shomshak