Post by Eternally Lost Zeppo on Jan 11, 2011 9:38:11 GMT
I had a shot at running this campaign on RPOL.net, but due in part to my social life being pretty busy at the time, and in larger part to the fact I just couldn't get used to running a forum-based RP, I had to cancel it before it really got started.
Now, though, the Call of Cthulhu campaign I'm in is drawing to a close, and I'm feeling all inspired, so I've decided to give it another shot as an IRL campaign for the CoC group.
Players Intro
"Seen aliens? Travelled in time? Experienced psychic phenomenon? Or any other paranormal activity? You are not alone! Join S.O.S. - the Summerton Occult Society. Call (06667) 456373 or visit www.summertonoccultsoc.org.uk for further information."
Summerton is the most successful of the Scottish New Towns (and arguably the only successful one) designated in the 1950s. Since then, it has grown to become a city, and a hub for scientific research and development thanks to the flourishing Summerton Innovation Park attached to the local university.
Many of the companies there, particularly Lawson Dynamics, have contributed a great deal to the advancement of modern technology, and have donated a generous sum of their proceeds towards the city's growth and development.
But this city of the future is haunted by the shadows of the ancient past, built upon an old village settlement abandoned in the mid-1300s, in an area said in old times to be haunted by demons, fairies and other spirits. Even today, Summerton's residents see or hear things that can not be explained.
Ghostly apparitions, strange creatures, UFOs in the sky, that sort of thing. Most people don't like to talk about it. The city authorities are all too quick to dismiss any reports that are made as superstition and paranoid delusion, and do their best to ignore them and sweep them under the carpet. It's not good for the public image, after all.
Only the Summerton Occult Society - a student society based at the university - are willing to acknowledge these goings-on, and dedicate themselves to the investigation and study of paranormal activity in the area. They're a mixed bunch of science geeks, spiritual or superstitious types, students with an insatiable curiosity, and thrill seekers. But this is no game. The city is filled with wonders and horrors that are all too real, and quite often dangerous...
Secret Background
The city is situated on top of a Rift, like Cardiff. Unlike Cardiff, however, this Rift is not a natural formation. Its epicentre is Updike Crater, which was created by an anomalous explosion near the city's current location during the 1940s. The explosion became a mystery comparable to the Tunguska Event of 1908, and was hushed up by the government to avoid panic in the general population. Such an event is hard to completely conceal however, and word of it leaked shortly after the war. Theories ranged from the test of an experimental weapon by the government, to a meteor impact, to the crash of an alien spacecraft. The last theory isn't too far off the mark. The crater is the physical evidence left behind by the crash of an experimental TARDIS/Void Ship. The crash didn't just leave its mark in the earth, it fractured the fabric of space and time in the immediate area. The Rift created by the event is a fluid thing, its tendrils touching different points in space and time in our universe at any given moment, and at its centre is a hole into the Void between worlds. There, wedged in the very heart of the Rift, the TARDIS is stuck like a cork in a bottle. The sole survivor of the crash is Specialist Turrilusttonyerisatbur (we'll just call him the Specialist though), who has locked himself away in stasis while the TARDIS attempts to repair itself. There is little hope of the TARDIS and its last remaining occupant being rescued, however.
Many of Lawson Dynamics's breakthroughs have been the results of salvaged alien tech washed up by the Rift. In their laboratory, they work on reverse engineering devices that emerge from the rift. Lately, a team of researchers from LD have set out to the Updike Crater to analyse the Rift and use a device called a Quantum Drill to mine for anything that is caught within. Their operation leads them to discover the TARDIS, though all they know (or suspect, rather) is that it's some kind of ship. They're quite eager to get their hands on it, and learn its secrets.
Unknown to the LD Quantum Drilling team, one of their number is working as a spy for their investors (the mysterious Committee), who have taken a great interest in their endeavour. But even the spy has no idea what his employers have planned. Because, at the heart of Summerton, an ancient darkness lies waiting to be released from its dimensional prison, and the Committee wants to make sure that happens, by using the Quantum Drill to widen the rift in such a way as to breach the prison's walls...
--
And that's the basic set-up so far. The stuff about the Committee, and the Darkness (yes, I'm taking the mick out of that getting mentioned in DW/Torchwood constantly and them never going anywhere with it) won't be revealed until the season finale, for much of the season the focus will be on the rift and LD's interest in it.
Throughout the season, the city will be shaken by earth tremors as the Quantum Drill team mess with the Rift, during which the Specialist (once the first tremor has woken him from stasis) will be trying to get a warning out to the outside world, which will manifest as a rather garbled pirate signal breaking into radio and TV channels. I'm not sure how I'm going to bring the PCs' attention to the drilling operation itself though. To serve as a Big Bad, I'm going to throw in an annoying shapeshifting mercenary who shows up two or three times during the season to bother the gang. He works for the Committee, and he'll turn up in the finale, having taken the place of their spy on the Quantum Drill crew in order to set their plan in motion.
I know roughly the direction of the series, but I don't have any specific plans about episodes yet, except that the first episode should involve aliens of some kind or other planning to harness the power of the Rift for their own plans of conquest against the human race. It was my intention, with the original version of this campaign, to interact with the Cthulhu Mythos somewhat, so in order to get that across at an early stage, I thought maybe the race in question might be a Mythos race, possibly the Lloigor. Still not got a specific plot in mind yet, though.
I do have an idea for a mid-to-late season episode, wherein the characters stumble upon a sort of 'psychic black box recorder' from the TARDIS/Void Ship that was jettisoned just prior to its crash. This would lead to a special episode, where they would play the ship's crew during their fateful test run, which culminates in betrayal and sabotage by one of their own. The difficult part here, would be running the session so that everybody but the Specialist dies. If I can pull it off though, it gives them a bit more background about the Rift before they reach the finale.
I'm also currently still debating whether to run it with DWAITAS, or with the Buffy the Vampire Slayer system, given its Buffy-esque leanings. I want to run the Buffy Unisystem as Buffy at some point, and I suppose I could make this fit into the Buffyverse as well as Doctor Who if I really wanted...
So, what do you think? ^^
Now, though, the Call of Cthulhu campaign I'm in is drawing to a close, and I'm feeling all inspired, so I've decided to give it another shot as an IRL campaign for the CoC group.
Players Intro
"Seen aliens? Travelled in time? Experienced psychic phenomenon? Or any other paranormal activity? You are not alone! Join S.O.S. - the Summerton Occult Society. Call (06667) 456373 or visit www.summertonoccultsoc.org.uk for further information."
Summerton is the most successful of the Scottish New Towns (and arguably the only successful one) designated in the 1950s. Since then, it has grown to become a city, and a hub for scientific research and development thanks to the flourishing Summerton Innovation Park attached to the local university.
Many of the companies there, particularly Lawson Dynamics, have contributed a great deal to the advancement of modern technology, and have donated a generous sum of their proceeds towards the city's growth and development.
But this city of the future is haunted by the shadows of the ancient past, built upon an old village settlement abandoned in the mid-1300s, in an area said in old times to be haunted by demons, fairies and other spirits. Even today, Summerton's residents see or hear things that can not be explained.
Ghostly apparitions, strange creatures, UFOs in the sky, that sort of thing. Most people don't like to talk about it. The city authorities are all too quick to dismiss any reports that are made as superstition and paranoid delusion, and do their best to ignore them and sweep them under the carpet. It's not good for the public image, after all.
Only the Summerton Occult Society - a student society based at the university - are willing to acknowledge these goings-on, and dedicate themselves to the investigation and study of paranormal activity in the area. They're a mixed bunch of science geeks, spiritual or superstitious types, students with an insatiable curiosity, and thrill seekers. But this is no game. The city is filled with wonders and horrors that are all too real, and quite often dangerous...
Secret Background
The city is situated on top of a Rift, like Cardiff. Unlike Cardiff, however, this Rift is not a natural formation. Its epicentre is Updike Crater, which was created by an anomalous explosion near the city's current location during the 1940s. The explosion became a mystery comparable to the Tunguska Event of 1908, and was hushed up by the government to avoid panic in the general population. Such an event is hard to completely conceal however, and word of it leaked shortly after the war. Theories ranged from the test of an experimental weapon by the government, to a meteor impact, to the crash of an alien spacecraft. The last theory isn't too far off the mark. The crater is the physical evidence left behind by the crash of an experimental TARDIS/Void Ship. The crash didn't just leave its mark in the earth, it fractured the fabric of space and time in the immediate area. The Rift created by the event is a fluid thing, its tendrils touching different points in space and time in our universe at any given moment, and at its centre is a hole into the Void between worlds. There, wedged in the very heart of the Rift, the TARDIS is stuck like a cork in a bottle. The sole survivor of the crash is Specialist Turrilusttonyerisatbur (we'll just call him the Specialist though), who has locked himself away in stasis while the TARDIS attempts to repair itself. There is little hope of the TARDIS and its last remaining occupant being rescued, however.
Many of Lawson Dynamics's breakthroughs have been the results of salvaged alien tech washed up by the Rift. In their laboratory, they work on reverse engineering devices that emerge from the rift. Lately, a team of researchers from LD have set out to the Updike Crater to analyse the Rift and use a device called a Quantum Drill to mine for anything that is caught within. Their operation leads them to discover the TARDIS, though all they know (or suspect, rather) is that it's some kind of ship. They're quite eager to get their hands on it, and learn its secrets.
Unknown to the LD Quantum Drilling team, one of their number is working as a spy for their investors (the mysterious Committee), who have taken a great interest in their endeavour. But even the spy has no idea what his employers have planned. Because, at the heart of Summerton, an ancient darkness lies waiting to be released from its dimensional prison, and the Committee wants to make sure that happens, by using the Quantum Drill to widen the rift in such a way as to breach the prison's walls...
--
And that's the basic set-up so far. The stuff about the Committee, and the Darkness (yes, I'm taking the mick out of that getting mentioned in DW/Torchwood constantly and them never going anywhere with it) won't be revealed until the season finale, for much of the season the focus will be on the rift and LD's interest in it.
Throughout the season, the city will be shaken by earth tremors as the Quantum Drill team mess with the Rift, during which the Specialist (once the first tremor has woken him from stasis) will be trying to get a warning out to the outside world, which will manifest as a rather garbled pirate signal breaking into radio and TV channels. I'm not sure how I'm going to bring the PCs' attention to the drilling operation itself though. To serve as a Big Bad, I'm going to throw in an annoying shapeshifting mercenary who shows up two or three times during the season to bother the gang. He works for the Committee, and he'll turn up in the finale, having taken the place of their spy on the Quantum Drill crew in order to set their plan in motion.
I know roughly the direction of the series, but I don't have any specific plans about episodes yet, except that the first episode should involve aliens of some kind or other planning to harness the power of the Rift for their own plans of conquest against the human race. It was my intention, with the original version of this campaign, to interact with the Cthulhu Mythos somewhat, so in order to get that across at an early stage, I thought maybe the race in question might be a Mythos race, possibly the Lloigor. Still not got a specific plot in mind yet, though.
I do have an idea for a mid-to-late season episode, wherein the characters stumble upon a sort of 'psychic black box recorder' from the TARDIS/Void Ship that was jettisoned just prior to its crash. This would lead to a special episode, where they would play the ship's crew during their fateful test run, which culminates in betrayal and sabotage by one of their own. The difficult part here, would be running the session so that everybody but the Specialist dies. If I can pull it off though, it gives them a bit more background about the Rift before they reach the finale.
I'm also currently still debating whether to run it with DWAITAS, or with the Buffy the Vampire Slayer system, given its Buffy-esque leanings. I want to run the Buffy Unisystem as Buffy at some point, and I suppose I could make this fit into the Buffyverse as well as Doctor Who if I really wanted...
So, what do you think? ^^
