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Old 01-13-2016, 06:10 AM   #1
khorboth
 
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Default Plot ideas - You wake up from stasis with no memory

There's a campaign hook that I just can't get out of my head. I'm hoping to get some good brainstorming of ideas for eventually running something that starts this way.

The PCs wake up from stasis with total amnesia. Then... I'm sure my players will do a great job of creating interpersonal drama, but the game needs a plot too.

I need something that will force the PCs to stick together even if their personalities totally clash. Perhaps they are on a spaceship? A deserted mining outpost? What other factors could I use?

I don't want aliens, I'm looking for a humans-only sci-fi setting.

I have an odd but challenging mix of scientific knowledge among the players; one is a biochemist, another does something top-secret for satellites, and several would be quickly bored with technobabble. I'd like the world to be mostly scientifically plausible with a minimum of handwaving, but don't want to get bogged down in details (FTL travel is fine, though).

What tech level would you recommend for this? I've run more low-tech games than I can count, but only a handful of high-tech ones.

I'm looking for plot ideas in all scales from individual scene to running themes to overarching plots. Please let your imagination go wild and let's see what works.

Disclosure: I got the idea from the series Dark Matter which I just started watching on Netflix. I really like the hook, but I'm not yet impressed with what's been done with it.
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Old 01-13-2016, 06:34 AM   #2
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Default Re: Plot ideas - You wake up from stasis with no memory

I don't think the TL matters much honestly, simply because you can use the same mechanics with a different flavour for different TLs.

First question you probably want to answer is the scope of the game. If they're on a ship, are they meant to quickly get the ship working again, how big is the ship (could a character potentially 'get lost' on the ship and have minimal interaction with the others), is it important that they stay together with the ship, or just that the group stays together. Any other setting piece will basically have the same questions (whether it's an abandoned mining outpost, a science station, stranded on an 'alien' planet etc).

For keeping the players together I'd say you have 3 broad categories.
Enclose the area:
  • Trapped on a drifting ship they can't control or depart.
  • Trapped in an abandoned mining outpost where the only supplies are in the outpost itself.
  • Stuck on an alien planet with a hostile atmosphere and the only supply of breathable air is where they woke up.
  • Any variation on this really. Just something that forces them to stay in proximity to an area

Common goal:
  • You're all wanted and if you don't work together you'll get identified easily (reinforce this by actually having the first character to split off be identified and chased).
  • Variations on the above really.

Forced proximity:
  • Everyone has cranial bombs and if one gets too far from the group it blows up.
  • They're linked to an object (or another player) and if they move away from it they suffer severe migraines and other nastiness.
  • Psychically link them and drop a hint on how to break the bond (even if they separate they constantly hear each other's thoughts).
  • Mostly this. Give them a central mechanic and penalize them from moving too far away from it. Works even better if the group needs every member to use the mechanic properly.

Combinations of the above could also work really well. So something like neurally linked to an AI ship that 'punishes' them for moving too far away from it (could be intentional or just a natural product of distance).

Plot could be anything really. But if you're forcing amnesia on the players I'd probably suggest having a fairly aggressive plot line for a while. I'm sure that from a player perspective they won't have an issue getting up and going, but from an RP perspective I feel it's better to light a fire under them and make them go (as it precludes characters that would take time to figure stuff out or just wander aimlessly for a bit 'exploring' their new environs). This could be anything from being attacked or having a crucial system they need to survive break down.
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Old 01-13-2016, 07:11 AM   #3
Joseph Paul
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Default Re: Plot ideas - You wake up from stasis with no memory

You are describing the set up for the show Dark Matter. Find it and watch it.
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Old 01-13-2016, 07:29 AM   #4
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Default Re: Plot ideas - You wake up from stasis with no memory

This is the plot of an interesting adventure called "In media res" appeared in "Unspeakable Oath"


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...ynesworldof-20

Plot: Four inmates have been visited by a recurrent dream. In the dream, a shadowy being, who calls himself "the Opener of the Way" (Nyarlathotep) promises freedom if the men choose to join him. Extensive flooding reaches the Liberty Center for the Criminally Insane, where the prisoners are incarcerated. As they are transported to another location, a hunting horror tears the bus apart. The prisoners escape along with a guard. They then hijack the car of Linda and Susan Olcott. One of the prisoners shoots them both and stashes the bodies in the trunk. The inmates sacrifice the guard and complete the ritual, but something goes wrong. Now all of the characters have no memory of who they are or why they are there. All of it revolves around an ink blot on the wall that each prisoner interprets differently.

I have readen the adventure and it seems interesting, although I have never played it.

As it is a comtemporary adventure there is even a "prop" for Keepers here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwOITaTwNmk
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Old 01-13-2016, 07:31 AM   #5
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Default Re: Plot ideas - You wake up from stasis with no memory

Quote:
Originally Posted by khorboth View Post
I need something that will force the PCs to stick together even if their personalities totally clash. Perhaps they are on a spaceship? A deserted mining outpost? What other factors could I use?
How about encouragement rather than force?

Maybe the spaceship they find themselves on is superior to most other spaceships the group could reasonably aquire? Leaving it behind would seem wasteful. Arguably apply familiarity penalties, where an early adventure is the group learning to operate and use the ship... and if they ditch this ship it will take them months to get used to all the features/controls of the new ship.

Is the mining outpost operational? Maybe the machinery there could be used to turn a profit or to make supplies that they need. Can they find a job with no memories or paperwork/electronic-records? I would sooner take the steady/comfortable income of the mining outpost over no guarantee of any income at all.

Do they have any idea of the outside world/universe? - What dangers are out there? What supplies will they need? How willing is your group to prepare properly for dangers? It could be an incentive for them to work together for a while, hopefully long enough to develop a better working relationship with each other.
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Old 01-13-2016, 07:41 AM   #6
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Default Re: Plot ideas - You wake up from stasis with no memory

Have them pick up a broadcast that indicates that they are being hunted by some powerful enemy ... a bounty notice or somesuch.

Possibly they were captured and placed in status by a bounty hunter and the "notice" is actually the planning wall in his office. Or just photos of all of them (and maybe some useful NPCs) stuck to a bulkhead. The hunter and his crew have since got into trouble and are no longer aboard* and the ship has, for some reason, taken them out of stasis (perhaps the power has failed and the stasis units went into autothaw).

* Trapped planetside? Killed by another capture? Doublecrossed by a client?
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Old 01-13-2016, 08:44 AM   #7
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Default Re: Plot ideas - You wake up from stasis with no memory

Quote:
Originally Posted by khorboth View Post
Disclosure: I got the idea from the series Dark Matter which I just started watching on Netflix. I really like the hook, but I'm not yet impressed with what's been done with it.
Right? I think I made it six episodes in when it hit me: Didn't they go into stasis to account for the long journey to their destination? Then... why don't they need to do that the rest of the time they're zipping around in FTL? I mean, in the very same episode, the captain-chick zips off, tattles on the whole situation, and is back in less than the time it takes to have a battle. So... why were they in stasis at all?
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Old 01-13-2016, 09:35 AM   #8
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Default Re: Plot ideas - You wake up from stasis with no memory

Often deprecated in writing workshops as the "White Room Syndrome" cliche.

But hey, it worked for Zelazny in "Nine Princes in Amber". I'd be happy to "fail" that badly. I think the lesson here is to make sure that the immediate setting is interesting (not a "white room") and there's something immediately compelling that the characters must do, rather than just pondering their unknown circumstance. "In media res" is more important than usual.

I'm also reminded of an old Twilight Zone episode, "Five Characters in Search of an Exit", which I caught recently during a holiday marathon. The characters are an extremely odd assortment, which at least holds a little interest, despite their setting being utterly and deliberately featureless. Of course, since it's The Twilight Zone, setting up the twist ending is the whole point, and they only had to keep their surrealist game going via characterization for half an hour. I don't think this would translate well to an RPG, though you might get away with something along these lines as a one-shot. Your players might inject some inter-character drama, but don't rely on that and wait for it to happen naturally. I think you're going to need to give them a fairly forceful shove at the start to get things moving.
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Old 01-13-2016, 10:41 AM   #9
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Default Re: Plot ideas - You wake up from stasis with no memory

Quote:
Originally Posted by khorboth
The PCs wake up from stasis with total amnesia.
If the location the PCs wake up in is really and truly deserted, you have an opportunity for the players to really play at separating player knowledge from character knowledge. In most instances of this plot, the PCs realize almost immediately that having total amnesia isn't the norm for the population. Without a NPC to tell them otherwise (and any NPCs they might immediately meet could be suffering from total amnesia for the same reasons as the PCs), there doesn't seem to be a good reason for the PCs to assume that their total amnesia isn't normal and need a reason to stay together other than thinking that together they have a better shot at finding out how and why they lost their memories and whether they can retrieve their memories [and if all the immediately available NPCs have total amnesia then, mathematically speaking, it is normal for that limited locality]. The players know that total amnesia isn't normal but the characters don't, or at least, don't necessarily know.
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Old 01-13-2016, 11:13 AM   #10
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Default Re: Plot ideas - You wake up from stasis with no memory

Amnesia plots in RPGs always suffer from the question of what goes on the character sheet? In Dark Matter, they invoke "instinct" or "muscle memory" for how crew members are able to recognize what skills they have and perform accordingly. It's harder for the players to really experience this kind of discovery for themselves.

Unless you rely entirely on keeping player and character knowledge separate, you will be creating all the characters, masking the sheets, and revealing their capabilities over time. Your players have to trust that you will provide them with solid characters suited to their interests. You could, perhaps, prepare versions of the sheets with different levels of masking.
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