Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > Roleplaying in General

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 05-21-2019, 08:44 PM   #1
Shostak
 
Shostak's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: New England
Default Top 40 Seeds

Elton Robb's thread and a long-ago episode of Improvised Radio Theater With Dice inspired this thread. I'd have posted this as a response to Elton's post, but this thread has a particular focus; as the title suggests it is for sharing ideas for adventures and campaigns inspired by Top 40 songs of any era. Each Top 40 campaing/adventure seed should include a link to the lyrics, performer, album and year released, suggested game system (and why you think it is a good match). You are also free to add as much other detail as you want, e.g. background, NPCs, power level, etc.

Song:
"Jupiter's Child" lyrics here
Performer: Steppenwolf
Album: At Your Birthday Party, 1969 (b-side of the single "Rock Me", which reached Billboard's no. 10)

The moody music and lyrics suggests dark deeds, hopelessness, and an occult flavor. The story centers on Sibyl, an orphan with strange powers of precognition. In 1950, Sibyl's mother, Lamija Zukanovic, was selected by a cult of Zeus to mate with their god, an extraterrestrial entity which manifests as a 9-foot tall man crackling with an eldritch aura. After the ritual, Lamija flees to the United States, gives birth to Sibyl, and gives her to an orphanage. By the adventure's present-day (1969), Sibyl has bounced between orphanages and foster homes where she endured various awful abuses and assaults, spent three years as a runaway, and now supports herself (and her drug habit) by telling fortunes. With her usual palm and tarot readings, she sometimes gives strange riddles that reveal her true uncanny power which is slowly driving her mad with the horrifying visions of the future is shows her. Now, both the cult and her father want her back, for different reasons. The PCs become involved when Lamija Zukanovic winds up brutally murdered after leaving one of them a desperate message to find and protect her daughter.

Games: GURPS (Horror, Mysteries, Psionics) because GURPS rocks, Fall of Delta Green (time/cultural frame, horrors humankind was not meant to know)
Power level: Use templates from GURPS Mysteries or Horror to keep the PCs as relatively capable yet normal people.
Shostak is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-26-2019, 11:16 PM   #2
David Johnston2
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Default Re: Top 40 Seeds

I pick the low hanging fruit

Song: Mr Roboto https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/styx/mrroboto.html
Album: Kilroy Was Here, 1982

The players are part of a cell of revolutionaries who after being targeted by drones belonging to the oligarchy are rebuilt into cyborgs who can pass for common androids, even though under their cheap facades they have military and espionage grade hardware. With their new bodies they can infiltrated the gated communities of the oligarchy to gather intelligence and commit acts of sabotage in preparation for the uprising.
David Johnston2 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-21-2019, 07:00 PM   #3
YankeeGamer
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Default Re: Top 40 Seeds

We're not gonna take it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsXU...&start_radio=1
I actually used this some time ago. The PC's were rebels against the Empire--angry rebels. Darth Vader was far away, they had to worry about BBH's (boring bounty hunters) and customs checks, and being too loud with their opinions.
Star Wars D6 system
YankeeGamer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-22-2019, 04:06 PM   #4
PTTG
 
PTTG's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Default Re: Top 40 Seeds

Song: We Didn't Start the Fire
Performer: Billy Joel
Album: Storm Front, 1989

The PCs are a group of lab technicians in an eccentric inventor's laboratory in 1989, when an unusual lab accident fractures the past 40 years of history. Only if they repair the timeline with the unusual prototypes in the lab can they hope to restore the normal flow of time...

Be glad it's this, and not California Gurls (Katy Perry & Snoop Dog). Or Mr. Brightside.
PTTG is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
adventure design, campaign advice, campaign design, gurps

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 06:26 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.