| Forum Posts | | |
| Help Keep Yoggie Going... |
|
Yog-Sothoth Needs You!
|
|
Donat-o-Meter Stats
|
|
November´s Goal:
|
$99.00
|
| Due Date: |
Nov 30 |
| Gross Amount: |
$40.00 |
| Net Balance: |
$37.23 |
| Left to go: |
$61.77 |
| © | | Donations | | Anonymous | | moonbeast | | Anonymous | | Anonymous |
| |
| Become a Patron |
Support from $5/monthgains you access to extras, ( over 9 GB of extra content) while helping to keep YSDC online.
Click for More Info
| |
 | |
|
Yog-Sothoth.com: Users Journal |
|
How do you write a scenario? Posted on: 10-28-2009 @ 07:50 pm |
|
I am a Keeper, and I am currently writing a new scenario for the group that I'm in charge of. The group consist of four players and me, and I try to make the scenarios fun for all that participate. Earlier groups have been happy with my scenarios, but I feel I could evolve my skill at writing them.
Here is what I normally do when writing the scenario.
As I run a modern setting, I watch the news, or read a few papers, to see if I find something weird, sensational, or just scary, and then I spin on what's there.
Example: A few days ago, I read in the paper Verdens Gang (a Norwegian daily) about a woman (aged 34) who had passed away from cancer. She had loved sunbathing, and when the weather was poor she used a solarium. (I feel sorry for her family and friends loss, but I'll use this as my example nevertheless.)
In Norway, you'll find a solarium no matter where you go. They have been popping up all over the last few years, and my mind started thinking. What if this is some sort of a conspiracy? Who might be behind this, and why?
I'll start with the why, and then move to the who later.
When you go into a solarium, you get your own room with a bed in it. (Not that kind of bed, a solarium bed... jeez!) You then pay in a vending machine, get undressed, and lie down for some rays. You'll have to re-pay after 15 minutes or so, because you're not supposed to stay there all day. So, why all the fuss? Do you spread solariums all over the nation just to help people work on their tan, or do you do it to harvest their POW? I think the latter is the cause.
All well and good, the solarium are harvesting peoples POW. They keep coming back though, so perhaps there is something in the water they serve there, or maybe something in the air, to make people feel like it's a good thing lying there in the fake sun. We all know that POW will return at a rate, and if people doesn't overdo the tanning, this is a safe way to harvest peoples POW.
What will the solarium people do with all the POW? Well, that is obvious. They'll use it for a ritual of sorts. Those tanning beds are linked to some kind of storage, and the people who run the solarium come by every once in a while to swap storage containers.
Let's see... What cult might harvest people's POW for a ritual? Using the (fake) sun? Could it be... Oh, yes! It's Hastur's worshippers who harvest POW.
Time to invent a cult. The cult needs a charismatic leader, some sort of a priesthood, ordinary members, and goons. They will have to be more or less fleshed out, but I'll leave that for later (or for you if you want to run a scenario based on this.) Sufficient to say, they need one or more safe houses, founds, equipment, and what else a crazy Hastur cult might want.
As for the why, I think they harvest POW to do an ancient ritual, one that might bring Hastur, or an avatar of Hastur, or maybe a servant of Hastur, to them. Or they might need the POW to keep something blasphemous here. To sustain their ritual perhaps.
I think it's time to give the investigators something to work with.
Maybe the doctor who treated the woman who died noticed something out of the ordinary with her. Perhaps the skin cancer was slightly different from what might be normal? The journalist who wrote about this might have disappeared, and her notes lead to some of the owners of the solariums? Maybe the people living near the solarium have seen something strange? If the investigator of one of the players is a doctor, perhaps he can access the files? (As could an investigator who is a hacker...) Maybe someone with paranormal skills can have a chat with the woman, post mortem?
The possibilities are vast...
This is not a scenario I have written, it is just thoughts that I have played with over the past days. It need fleshing out, but I think this would be a nice scenario. The point of this thread wasn't giving away a full scenario, but show how I think when making one.
How do you prepare your scenario? |
|
Last updated on 10-28-2009 @ 07:50 pm
|
Comment By: jabonko (Posted on 11-11-2009 @ 04:28 am)
Comment: I think you're onto something there. You've basically laid out everything you need for a scenario except clues and links. Some ideas: maybe she didn't die of cancer, but that's what the doctor said to cover his tail. So the Investigators sweet-talk him, or intimidate him, or threaten legal action, and now they get to see the medical records (a clue!).
Maybe it's not all solariums, just a few made by a particular vendor. They use a particular type of glass (clue!) and their accounts look funny (clue!) implying they keep a second set of books. Finding this second set of books reveals accounts not only of money, but of POW drain (clue!).
Here's where I'd call for a library use scene, and have the Investigators research the type of glass or who would use it in this way. They'd find info on an old cult supposedly dead (but not!).
That's how I might try it. |
|
|
RSS/XML feed via backend.php, and our forum posts via backendforums.php
