Scenario Building For People Without Creativity

[Dracorex]

((This is where I note that if you're one of my players in the Welcome To Singapore campaign, and want the scenarios to be a surprise, leave now.))




Okay. I give up. I have a fridge full of ingredients, but no dish or recipe comes to mind. What could a powerful wizard, skilled in combat, with a somewhat decent information network, possibly be unable to do, that a group of mortals and minor practitioners could offer help with?

The power level of the PCs is currently Up To Your Knees (7 refresh, 25 skill points, skill cap Great), and the plan, assuming we stay together long enough, is to build them up to awesome levels. We have a ferromancer mechanic, a diviner with visions of the future and aikido skills, a human con artist/thief, a human bouncer, a pseudo-werecat marked by the Wild Hunt, and an ex-Warden who's drowned most of his repertoire at the bottom of a bottle.

The only things they have in common are a penchant for visiting nice bars/nightclubs, take-no-shit-from-anyone attitudes, and a lack of direction in life.

(click to show/hide)

Basic Layout, mortal perspective: Singapore is an incredibly small city-state island in Southeast Asia, with a high population density and a lot of high-rise buildings in order to address the problem. There is a surprising amount of greenery and water, a micro-managing government, and the races, religions, cultures and nationalities of the people are incredibly diverse. It is decidedly not a place for strange happenings - if anything that happened in the Dresden canon (even, say, just the Three-Eye drug bust or porn star deaths) ever took place here, there would be massive outrage.

The supernatural side: A few exiled White Court vampires - the Skavis guy runs a bar and keeps his head down, the Malvora gal is a monster hunter just for the kicks, and the Raith brother-and-sister pair caused the recent sex scandals involving civil servants or something. I'm thinking some of this contributes half my opening scene, where they earn the enmity of the Raiths, offering future opportunities I can use.

A couple of ghouls. A group just moved in from Malaysia, and they are being mostly discreet for now, though a lot of stray cats and dogs have vanished. It's only a matter of time till they graduate to humans.

Water and forest spirits and fae. An old servant of a Chinese rain- and prosperity-bringing capital-D divine dragon looking for a successor. Ghosts dating to WWII. An Indian were-tiger vigilante who recently immigrated.

Probably siting a Jade Court camp, more ghoul clans, pontianaks (the local flavour of vampire), and mundane organised crime in Malaysia, the much bigger jungle-, mountain- and Wretched Hive-filled country just next door, for future exploration.

A hefty handful of minor practitioners. One ambitious sorcerer (who will take a turn for the Dark Side after a few milestones). The nearest Warden is in Australia. One Council-level wizard (who is not Council, like Elaine Mallory) who considers Singapore 'his turf' and actively keeps a lid on any funny business.

(click to show/hide)

He's an 80-year-old ex-Kemmlerite who settled down in Singapore for a new beginning. A high-ranking government official in the know contracted him to protect the country from supernatural threats, and it's a full-time paid job with certain resources available to him. He takes this job very seriously.

I'm planning to use his past and the abundance of ghost stories to throw a necromancer (and visiting Warden complications) at the PCs once they're sufficiently leveled up, but early ripples like the necromancer sneaking about trying to find and train apprentices/minions may be a good idea.

Said Council-level wizard's been out of town. It just figures that everyone and all the trouble would start coming in during the one-to-two months he was gone, instead of the years he's been here.

I know that right now my current potential opening scene includes them encountering the wizard, who needs their help because:
1) Obviously, he can't do modern technology much.
2) Most of the PCs would be better in a fistfight than he would be. (When in a situation where revealing supernatural powers would be inadvisable?)
3) He can't be in two places at once, and he only has a couple of associates who will occasionally reluctantly back him up in a fight. If several incidents crop up islandwide....
4) One of the PCs is a professional thief, and no pure mortal would be hampered by not being invited across a threshold.

I'm having trouble building an actual specific scenario for them to be introduced/thrown into, suitable for the current power level. How do I build lead-ins to explore, meet problems like teenage practitioners gone way off base or a greedy two-bit sorcerer binding spirits into service or whatever?

Suggestions would be very much appreciated, the more the merrier.  My most sincerest thanks in advance.

[JDK002]

If they all happen to frequent the same places, make something crazy happen when they all happen to be in the same place at once.  Most of your players with powers of any kind would probably know eachother at least in passing.  The "something crazy happens" could be where the bouncer works.  You could leave the motives of the thief a mystery initally.

I wouldn't stress about it too much.  Everyone is there to play the game afterall, players will usually come up with their own reasons for their character sticking around.

[Taran]

What are the players trouble aspects and how can you tie them into your city?

That's what I usually do.  I have a fair idea as to what is going on around the city, then I look at all the trouble aspects of the characters and try to tie those things into something that is going on.

Then you compel them and that's how things start.  Sometimes I'll have a plot-line that involves one player but I often like having several plots going on at the same time so I can compel mid-session to throw them off-task and cause all kinds of chaos.

List their trouble aspects.  Maybe I can offer some ideas.

[Dr.FunLove]

...Spoilered!

I kid, I kid. My understanding was that the wizard that made Singapore their home has been out of the country. Why not deal directly with that? Maybe he hasn't returned when he was supposed to and maybe his apprentice or secretary needs the help? How have the supernatural or mundane forces of Singapore reacted to his abensce? I mean, if we look at the novels, Harry Dresden is dead for a day before It hits the fan.

Ja feel? Anyway...NINJA VANISH!

[Theonlyspiral]

My recommendation is steal. STEAL IT ALL. Find a Movie or Book, likely having to deal with espionage or a heist. File off the serial numbers, make some changes based on Supernatural powers...and then throw your party in as the opposition.

[Dr.FunLove]

That's not stealllinnggg...that is Creative Appropriation!

I think anyone that writes, whether it's for the game or in some other medium, likes/wants to write what they like and love. That's a great starting point. The great additional thing about role-playing is that we're often gathered into groups where the creativity can be spread around.

Once the game starts, the ideas are going to flow forth very easily. Just gotta kick it off.

[Eathalias]

I agree with Dr. Fun Love, the council level wizard's absence is awesome for an intro and a good way for some lower powered characters to get motivated to find him when it starts hitting the fan and get some more muscle on their side.
Possibly throw in some drug ring motivation from the vanilla side of life and instant times of shine for your non-practitioner's and for the love of god kill those ghouls!

[blackstaff67]

((This is where I note that if you're one of my players in the Welcome To Singapore campaign, and want the scenarios to be a surprise, leave now.))




Okay. I give up. I have a fridge full of ingredients, but no dish or recipe comes to mind. What could a powerful wizard, skilled in combat, with a somewhat decent information network, possibly be unable to do, that a group of mortals and minor practitioners could offer help with?

The power level of the PCs is currently Up To Your Knees (7 refresh, 25 skill points, skill cap Great), and the plan, assuming we stay together long enough, is to build them up to awesome levels. We have a ferromancer mechanic, a diviner with visions of the future and aikido skills, a human con artist/thief, a human bouncer, a pseudo-werecat marked by the Wild Hunt, and an ex-Warden who's drowned most of his repertoire at the bottom of a bottle.

The only things they have in common are a penchant for visiting nice bars/nightclubs, take-no-shit-from-anyone attitudes, and a lack of direction in life.

(click to show/hide)

Basic Layout, mortal perspective: Singapore is an incredibly small city-state island in Southeast Asia, with a high population density and a lot of high-rise buildings in order to address the problem. There is a surprising amount of greenery and water, a micro-managing government, and the races, religions, cultures and nationalities of the people are incredibly diverse. It is decidedly not a place for strange happenings - if anything that happened in the Dresden canon (even, say, just the Three-Eye drug bust or porn star deaths) ever took place here, there would be massive outrage.

The supernatural side: A few exiled White Court vampires - the Skavis guy runs a bar and keeps his head down, the Malvora gal is a monster hunter just for the kicks, and the Raith brother-and-sister pair caused the recent sex scandals involving civil servants or something. I'm thinking some of this contributes half my opening scene, where they earn the enmity of the Raiths, offering future opportunities I can use.

A couple of ghouls. A group just moved in from Malaysia, and they are being mostly discreet for now, though a lot of stray cats and dogs have vanished. It's only a matter of time till they graduate to humans.

Water and forest spirits and fae. An old servant of a Chinese rain- and prosperity-bringing capital-D divine dragon looking for a successor. Ghosts dating to WWII. An Indian were-tiger vigilante who recently immigrated.

Probably siting a Jade Court camp, more ghoul clans, pontianaks (the local flavour of vampire), and mundane organised crime in Malaysia, the much bigger jungle-, mountain- and Wretched Hive-filled country just next door, for future exploration.

A hefty handful of minor practitioners. One ambitious sorcerer (who will take a turn for the Dark Side after a few milestones). The nearest Warden is in Australia. One Council-level wizard (who is not Council, like Elaine Mallory) who considers Singapore 'his turf' and actively keeps a lid on any funny business.

(click to show/hide)

He's an 80-year-old ex-Kemmlerite who settled down in Singapore for a new beginning. A high-ranking government official in the know contracted him to protect the country from supernatural threats, and it's a full-time paid job with certain resources available to him. He takes this job very seriously.

I'm planning to use his past and the abundance of ghost stories to throw a necromancer (and visiting Warden complications) at the PCs once they're sufficiently leveled up, but early ripples like the necromancer sneaking about trying to find and train apprentices/minions may be a good idea.

Said Council-level wizard's been out of town. It just figures that everyone and all the trouble would start coming in during the one-to-two months he was gone, instead of the years he's been here.

I know that right now my current potential opening scene includes them encountering the wizard, who needs their help because:
1) Obviously, he can't do modern technology much.
2) Most of the PCs would be better in a fistfight than he would be. (When in a situation where revealing supernatural powers would be inadvisable?)
3) He can't be in two places at once, and he only has a couple of associates who will occasionally reluctantly back him up in a fight. If several incidents crop up islandwide....
4) One of the PCs is a professional thief, and no pure mortal would be hampered by not being invited across a threshold.

I'm having trouble building an actual specific scenario for them to be introduced/thrown into, suitable for the current power level. How do I build lead-ins to explore, meet problems like teenage practitioners gone way off base or a greedy two-bit sorcerer binding spirits into service or whatever?

Suggestions would be very much appreciated, the more the merrier.  My most sincerest thanks in advance.

What can they do?  Most importantly of all, they can be in more than one place at a time.  They can go places where a powerful wizard may be powerless or weakened or useless--places with Thresholds, to name one.  Martial arts tourneys where the Fists/Guns/Weapons experts congregate, to name a second.  They can fight magic-resistant Trolls without much fear provided an iron crowbar is nearby.  And they can use technology without ruining it.

[Haru]

What could a powerful wizard, skilled in combat, with a somewhat decent information network, possibly be unable to do, that a group of mortals and minor practitioners could offer help with?

Well, one of the more obvious things would be "plausible deniability". Why would he risk himself or someone he cared about, if he can send some lowlife supernatural wannabes instead? And if they succeed without getting caught, they have proven themselves to be quite effective, so he might use them again for more serious stuff. Sort of a "Shadowrun" style approach.

Another thing could be that he wants to train some progeny to take over his network, because he is about to die and doesn't have an heir. Through a series of rigorous missions, he tries to both train and test the group of young promising supernatural people in order for them to take over his business one day.

You could go for a less powerful version of the "cosmic chess game". There are 2 powerful wizards who are bored and have decided to play a little game. Each of them picks a few minor powers and they set them up to fight each other. Depending on how you want to go, this could go grimdark or rather lighthearted/comedic.

I'm having trouble building an actual specific scenario for them to be introduced/thrown into, suitable for the current power level. How do I build lead-ins to explore, meet problems like teenage practitioners gone way off base or a greedy two-bit sorcerer binding spirits into service or whatever?

I find that "add more ninjas" usually works pretty well, especially if the player characters are prone to mischief and mayhem. But this basically comes down to how you go about with your overall plan. If you know what's going on in the background, you know which parts of that will come to the surface and cross the players path.

It feels like it would be a good way to let the players stumble upon things, rather than go the "so here's what I want you to do" route. So maybe there's something the wizard needs, and he has send someone to make a deal with someone else in a back room of the bar all the players frequent. Suddenly, the bar gets crashed, the wizard's guy gets killed and the players find themselves in the possession of something they don't really understand and are chased for it. The only one who can really make any sense of it is the rightful owner of the magical whatchamacallit, namely the wizard.

[Amul]

Forget how to get the characters involved. Work the problem from the other angle.

What are the themes of the city and it's faces? Write down some names and locations on small cards, and then play the glass bead game. http://rdonoghue.blogspot.com/2010/11/glass-bead-fate.html

Come up with reasons why various factions and faces might be in conflict. Make a list of a dozen or so. For each conflict, make a short note about what their goals are (good goals never involve attacking the other guy. Good goals fulfill a desire and are obstructed by someone or some aspect). Then figure out what the very FIRST rumor someone might here about that conflict would be.

Introduce these rumors to your PCs. Whichever ones they bite on, make the game about them. If this is a play by post game, then all the better. Whatever questions they ask, assume those are really important questions about the larger conflict they don't know they are asking about, come up with an answer, and then figure out what the piece of it they would see is.