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Old 11-05-2010, 02:54 PM   #1
laguna
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Default new campaign, need input

ok, so I'm getting ready to start a nice hack and slash game with my friends. the setting is a bit like rifts earth in that it's post-apocalypse and I reserve the right to pull anything I want out of my hindquarters.

my twist on the setting is that humans have become psychic and don't know it, and the fictitious characters of today have become the gods of tomorrow. every worshiper of one of these "gods" contributes his psychic power to a pool that is available to that god's clerics.

the two characters are clerics of zeratul and travis touchdown. all of this is basically an excuse to have a fanwank game while maintaining power level balance.

here's the part I need help with:

I'm starting the game with a 9 mission campaign, and I am planning to at some point reveal to the players that I lifted the plot. below is an outline of the plot, including the hints I plan to give the players as to the source material. many if not most will figure out where I lifted the plot from, but if you could please include WHICH of the below facts was the one that gave it away.

-character's hometown is threatened by invading army

-emmisaries demand the city surrenders to "general sever"

-players go to sever's location, the ruins of a prison outside of the town.

-there they meet a soldier named rock who will become a party member
(my players are asking me to run a GMPC)

-rock will initially not think the PC's can help, asking, "what can a couple of zeros like you do?"

-depending on how much they question rock, the players may find out the following information sooner or later:

-rock reveals general sever works for a man named dr. coyote, who fancies himself emperor coyote

-rock works for a former colleague of dr. coyote named dr. yagami

-if they press, rock will explain he works for yagami, and yagami takes care of him and his sister.

-besides sever, there are 5 other generals, sever uses a bladed projectile that boomerangs around to hit from behind if it misses.

-for the other 5 generals, one is very strong, one uses explosives, one uses fire, one uses ice, one uses electricity. (I'll hold this bit back a few missions)


if they players don't figure out anything by the time it comes to take on dr. coyote, I'll drop the name of rock's sister: Roll
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Old 11-05-2010, 02:57 PM   #2
Kalzazz
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Default Re: new campaign, need input

Pure genius definitely
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Old 11-05-2010, 03:10 PM   #3
laguna
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Default Re: new campaign, need input

by the way, it's worth mentioning that one of my players is a BIG fan of the source material, hence why I'm worried about an early giveaway.
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Old 11-05-2010, 07:42 PM   #4
Centisteed
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Default Re: new campaign, need input

I have no idea what setting this is. I was
thinking Hellraiser 3 (or 4?) for the flying
bladed projectiles thing...

Certainly is an interesting bit of trivia trying
to figure out a "lift". :-)
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Old 11-05-2010, 08:51 PM   #5
modred11
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Default Re: new campaign, need input

no idea who yagami is & unsure about Rock & Roll but the five generals and Two Doctors make me believe that a hero is just a man who knows he's free (which is a reference to an unfortunately obscure band who base their work on what I think is the overall reference)
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Old 11-05-2010, 11:03 PM   #6
zoncxs
 
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: earth....I think.
Default Re: new campaign, need input

Quote:
Originally Posted by laguna View Post


-rock works for a former colleague of dr. coyote named dr. yagami

-if they press, rock will explain he works for yagami, and yagami takes care of him and his sister.

-besides sever, there are 5 other generals, sever uses a bladed projectile that boomerangs around to hit from behind if it misses.

-for the other 5 generals, one is very strong, one uses explosives, one uses fire, one uses ice, one uses electricity. (I'll hold this bit back a few missions)


if they players don't figure out anything by the time it comes to take on dr. coyote, I'll drop the name of rock's sister: Roll
these give it away VERY fast. if they are big fans (like me) the yagami hints to it, and when linked with "coyote" you think of a certain cartoon character that starves all the time and can never "catch" his meal >.o

then the 5 generals and their powers are a nice tie-in too, giving away that sever uses boomerang bladed projectiles will give it all away too if combined with the Doctors names, so I wouldn't give away the powers of the enemies.

and the last part about the sisters name, best idea for it. if by that time they can't figure it out, somethings wrong with them. the "rock and roll" is the BIGGEST hint you can give for telling them where its from.
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Old 11-06-2010, 12:36 AM   #7
laguna
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Default Re: new campaign, need input

Quote:
Originally Posted by zoncxs View Post
and the last part about the sisters name, best idea for it. if by that time they can't figure it out, somethings wrong with them. the "rock and roll" is the BIGGEST hint you can give for telling them where its from.
yeah, if it comes down to having to hit them with a clue-by-four, I can always mention that rock and the generals are reploids. mercifully my one friend is terrible with names, so an encrypted name will be beyond him, while my friend who's the big fan is a little oblivious.

what really sucks is that when the first general is killed, there's no way around revealing he isn't human, and at some point, rock will be injured and show some mecha bits. giving the hint that most of the NPCs are robots is a bigger hint than I wanna give so early in the campaign.

I think I'll probably drop coyote's name in the first mission, but wait til the second or third to drop yagami's. at least then, the puzzle pieces will be separated by a week or two.

EDIT: btw, there are 5 generals PLUS sever for a total of 6.

Last edited by laguna; 11-06-2010 at 12:39 AM. Reason: addendum
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Old 11-07-2010, 01:49 AM   #8
laguna
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Default Re: new campaign, need input

I appreciate everyone who responded, and more responses to my original post are welcome. I might try to find a name other than rock to use to keep this all a little more subtle.

there's something else I'd like to get everybody's opinion, and it's my character point pricing of one of my players abilities.

I mentioned in the first post that I have a player essentially playing as Travis touchdown from no more heroes. he asked for me to make him some kind of equivalent to the slot machine that Travis has that puts him in his various supermodes.

My Solution: a roulette ability, at the beginning of each combat, player rolls 1d. on a 1, nothing happens, on a 2 or 3 character gets special move 1, on a 4 or 5 he gets special move 2, and on a 6, he goes super saiyan and gets a hefty boost to DX and basic move.

the way I priced this roulette ability, is by pricing the two special moves and the stat boosts, then added up

<special move 1 price> x2 + <special move 2 price> x2 + <stat boost price> + 0 (because if you roll a 1 nothing happens)

it all added up to 420 character points, then I divided 420 by 6 (for the number of possible outcomes of the dice roll) and roulette is priced at 70 pts.

I'm going to feel silly if this process is explained in one of the rulebooks, but what do you guy's think?

also, I didn't give details on the special moves since they weren't relevant to my question, but I can give details if anyone is curious.
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Old 11-07-2010, 07:33 PM   #9
laguna
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Default Re: new campaign, need input

bumping with apologies.
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Old 11-07-2010, 09:02 PM   #10
zoncxs
 
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: earth....I think.
Default Re: new campaign, need input

Quote:
Originally Posted by laguna View Post
I appreciate everyone who responded, and more responses to my original post are welcome. I might try to find a name other than rock to use to keep this all a little more subtle.

there's something else I'd like to get everybody's opinion, and it's my character point pricing of one of my players abilities.

I mentioned in the first post that I have a player essentially playing as Travis touchdown from no more heroes. he asked for me to make him some kind of equivalent to the slot machine that Travis has that puts him in his various supermodes.

My Solution: a roulette ability, at the beginning of each combat, player rolls 1d. on a 1, nothing happens, on a 2 or 3 character gets special move 1, on a 4 or 5 he gets special move 2, and on a 6, he goes super saiyan and gets a hefty boost to DX and basic move.

the way I priced this roulette ability, is by pricing the two special moves and the stat boosts, then added up

<special move 1 price> x2 + <special move 2 price> x2 + <stat boost price> + 0 (because if you roll a 1 nothing happens)

it all added up to 420 character points, then I divided 420 by 6 (for the number of possible outcomes of the dice roll) and roulette is priced at 70 pts.

I'm going to feel silly if this process is explained in one of the rulebooks, but what do you guy's think?

also, I didn't give details on the special moves since they weren't relevant to my question, but I can give details if anyone is curious.
I wouldn't divide by 6, those are "alternate abilities" and as such should be given that. pay for the most expensive and pay 1/5 for the rest, even given them the "accessibility: only on a roll of X" <-- that part you would have to decide for yourself how much it would be. so when he wants to use them he would roll, what ever the roll is is the one he gets. best way I can think of making a "roulette" ability.
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