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Post by jonas on Mar 22, 2017 8:13:57 GMT -8
Hi everyone; I need some inspirational help.
I'm currently gming Mutant: Year Zero, a post-apocalyptic game. We are basing the game on our hometown and I let the players use and explore real landmark through the adventures.
The players are going to travel to an island, using a derelict car tunnel, next session. They are really looking forward to it - since we all use the tunnel in our boring real lives - but I don't know how to use the tunnel in the game.
My first instinct is to throw in some creepy monster... but don't all creepy tunnels have monsters? If my gamemaster went into great detail about a 500 meters long dark tunnel - with car wrecks and puddles of grey water everywhere - it would be possible to see the fallout from my Ambush Alarm all the way up from space.
So what to do? Some random monster or ambush seems trite, but not having a cool scene in the tunnel is going to be a wasted opportunity. :-(
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Post by OFTHEHILLPEOPLE on Mar 22, 2017 8:24:48 GMT -8
Everything you described reminds me of Metro: 2033. If you want some inspiration for "what is hiding down these tunnels" that game is the one to look at.
Another route could just be Half-Life with the barnacles.
But one thing I would personally do is have a tribe of some kind using the tunnel as their home. Kinda like how Lizardfolk hunker down in weird places in D&D, a long dark tunnel is perfect for a tribe to just be living down there. Why not flip the whole thing on its head and instead of them being some threat make them a purely naive group curious about the characters but not threatened, hiding in the shadows but obviously following and whispering in their own language. See where the players take it. If they shoot first then, hey, now they have a tribe of angry natives to deal with on the way back or the tribe scatters never to be seen again. If they help them out maybe they get an ally when things hit the fan.
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Post by kurtpotts on Mar 22, 2017 8:38:53 GMT -8
To add to OFTHEHILLPEOPLE's idea. Maybe have two tribes living on opposite sides of the tunnel with battlements built up between them and they are locked in some kind of conflict. The conflict could be a recent split in the members of the same tribe. Half took the north end and half took the south end.
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Post by jonas on Mar 23, 2017 1:16:55 GMT -8
I like the ideas with barricades and battlements.
The players don't even need to meet the two warring factions yet, but could find a lot of foreshadowing clues about them. Love it!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2017 2:40:49 GMT -8
So I have to say I love the idea of barricades and factions at either end but reading this the first thing that came to mind is some sort of part modified vehicle like a steam engine that somebody has started adapting to run off rails. I've no idea if that works with the setting but in my head I just have this image of a group of PCs riding about in a post apocalyptic steam train and causing chaos.
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Post by uncommonman on Mar 23, 2017 4:04:50 GMT -8
My thoughts went to natural dangers: corrosive water, electric mushrooms or aggressive plants.
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SirGuido
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Post by SirGuido on Mar 23, 2017 9:29:35 GMT -8
My thoughts went to natural dangers: corrosive water, electric mushrooms or aggressive plants. And my thoughts went to "post apocalyptic troll?" But i'm a natural smart ass. Seriously though, I like the idea of the tunnel dwelling factions, but I also like the idea of it being a sanctuary for the muties. Like the Morlocks in X-men. They get shunned in regular society so they've banded together in the tunnels and made it their home. So they ruthlessly defend it against the normies.
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Post by Wakefield on Mar 23, 2017 13:58:11 GMT -8
If you're up for some mutations or bizarre ecosystems in your tunnel, you could have the tunnelfolk be bioluminescent, or have phosphorescent substances refined from tunnel plants, fungi, or creatures figure into their clothing or war paint. Alternatively, some of the traps the tunnel dwellers might lay could coat the party in some odiferous substance which could either help the tunnel dwellers hunt them or would attract...well, OK, I'm back to monsters. But at least this monster would have a semi- or fully symbiotic relationship with the tunnel dwellers, which is a twist.
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Post by Wakefield on Mar 25, 2017 17:00:20 GMT -8
You might have found a solution already, but even in a post-apocalypse there will be enterprising folk who might try to profit off of a handy stretch of road or tunnel that they control by charging a toll. And the toll needn't be cash.
*ominous music*
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Post by D.T. Pints on Mar 27, 2017 21:29:44 GMT -8
If you often throw monsters and such at them instead have them uncover dead monsters killed by an unknown force...then just have passive natural threats (ala No Great Loss in the Stand) rusted cars cut and scrape, ceilings cave in, extreme heat/gas pockets/flooded chambers). Let them be terribly jumpy and paranoid but death will come at them from the tunnel itself. "No one goes to Ravenholm anymore"...
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Post by chronovore on Apr 1, 2017 17:14:10 GMT -8
Yeah, my first instinct when I don't know what to put in front of the players is to give them something inexplicable, and then listen to them puzzle it out and choose the most interesting option they've voiced. As D.T. Pints suggested, a dead monster killed by something yet-to-be-encountered, though I would go with dead humans and something TRULY weird as a cause of death, e.g. "the remains are savagely decayed but have absolutely no smell," or "though fully clothed the body appears to be constructed from oil-based clay," or "the flesh has grown translucent and gelatinous."
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Post by RaspB on Apr 17, 2017 3:48:10 GMT -8
A series of traps set by a former pair of survivors who were trying to survive in the tunnel, but the players come to find out they got caught (gruesomely) in their own traps.
Nothing. Just use the tunnel to set up a crazy amount of tension. Then when the tension is released (on their exit from the other side) have a monster pop out there (surprise!), and they have to fight it at the mouth of the tunnel.
Foreshadow some big bad monster, by having the players keep seeing shadows of something in the corners of their eyes. Have it pop out near the end of the tunnel, or just use this as a precursor to have it hunt them for a session or two before they fight it. 'The Tunnel Monster'
The players run into another group of 'survivors' who may or may not want the PC's stuff.
Roleplaying/Quest opportunity where the players find a helpless NPC that needs their help to get somewhere. But maybe is reluctant to leave the tunnel because they feel safe inside.
Hope this helps!
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Post by chronovore on Apr 17, 2017 22:01:23 GMT -8
A series of traps set by a former pair of survivors who were trying to survive in the tunnel, but the players come to find out they got caught (gruesomely) in their own traps. Nothing. Just use the tunnel to set up a crazy amount of tension. Then when the tension is released (on their exit from the other side) have a monster pop out there (surprise!), and they have to fight it at the mouth of the tunnel. Foreshadow some big bad monster, by having the players keep seeing shadows of something in the corners of their eyes. Have it pop out near the end of the tunnel, or just use this as a precursor to have it hunt them for a session or two before they fight it. 'The Tunnel Monster'
The players run into another group of 'survivors' who may or may not want the PC's stuff. Roleplaying/Quest opportunity where the players find a helpless NPC that needs their help to get somewhere. But maybe is reluctant to leave the tunnel because they feel safe inside. Hope this helps! I love this! And sorry to dive immediately for the scatological, but I'd probably just use a few corpses and some Feces of Unusual Size to let the party know that something larger than they are is lurking nearby.
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Post by jazzisblues on Apr 19, 2017 10:36:42 GMT -8
Another tunnel ...
A tunnel within a tunnel, but going the opposite way with a psychic maelstrom resulting from the opposing flow of continuity.
Just a thought.
JiB
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