[Campaign Thread] Adam500's Local Campagin

[adam500]

Brainstorming for my first DW:AitaS game I hit upon the idea to use the Celestial Toymaker as an arc villain. In the novels and supplementary material he was one of the Six Guardians of Time (Crystal) and fused into the body of a Timelord named Rallon. The idea here being that Rallon's body is finally beginning to fail under the strain of containing the Toymaker, but the Toymaker doesn't want to die. The rest of his kind fled reality/died in the Time War. He wants to be around to play his games for eternity.

This is enough to give me a set of Arc Words: "lost the game"

Aside from the final episode of my first 13 episode season, Ive also got plans for a meet-up with Herman Melville (author of Billy Budd) in an encounter with the Sea Devils.

I'm posting all this for two reasons, one if anyone wants to steal any of the ideas below your welcome to them. Two, if anyone has suggestions (like a cohesive way to make the Toymaker plot work, like how to make it a 'game' per-se. Or suggestions for the Ghost Subway plot, or better Arc phrase) your welcome to make your suggestions here, I'm a bit rubbish for a writer.

For the rest of the season I'm going to take Kaemaril's idea and get them to tell me what sorts of things (like aliens, Time periods, etc) they want to see as the game progresses and write from that.

Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions.


1.1 Ghosts of the Northern Line
- An Alien Blackbox creates psychic ghosts with a shocking touch, what brought the blackbox to earth and killed the crew of it's ship? Will the heroes come together and find out before the ghosts kill them all? The only clue is a phrase: "We lost the game."

1.2 Radio Free (part one)
- Alien Pirate Radio inducting people into a hive mind, ready for conversion into alien bug drones.

1.3 It came from Pluto (part 2)
- The conclusion to the plot of the Blattariamorphs

1.4 Seed of Regret (by jimmyev)
The charactors find themselves leaving the TARDIS into a passage way where all the floors, walls, and celings have been covered in green vines with purple leaves. There is a fog on the floor and a slight haze in the area. As they start to adventure they will all do a roll to see who is infected with the hallucinagen made by the plant. The first thing to happen will be one of the charactors will see someone who caused them great regret or sorrow over, but when they look closer they will be gone. The charactors now get further in the ship and find some logs talking about a strange statue they found with some dead vines on it. By the end they will find out that they need to kill the plant which is psychicly attacking them with their guilt and lost ones.

1.5 Acushnet
- The TARDIS materializes on board the whaling ship Acushnet making a dangerous trip around Cape Horn, a trip made even more dangerous by the awakening of the Sea Devils! What are the Sea Devils after, and can they be put back to sleep before history is deprived the written works of Herman Melville?

1.6 The Fifth Member (by jimmyev)
The team comes out of the TARDIS in the old west where they are suddenly knocked unconcious somehow. When they come to they're in an old barn and meet the family of *** (name pending) who has been travling with Eddie since before they were "volunteered". I need a person or alien or group of somethings (pleral would be best right now) now to be claimed to be harrasing the town. In the end it will be that the Fifth Member is actually some how part of those peoples' downfall and that he should be turned in... but will they?

1.7 (To be written by jimmyev)

1.8 World's Fair (part one)
- Its time for the 1851 Great Exhibition, and something is wrong. There should be thousands of people going in and out, but many have gone missing inside. Will Human 2.0 replace the Industrial Revolution with a Cyber Revolution?

1.9 Cyber Revolution (part two)
- The Cyber Revolution has begun, with hundreds of Cybermen walking the streets. What can be done to stop them?

1.10 Lords of Time
- Someone has created a duplicate of Gallifrey! What could this mean? Who is The Maverick, and how is it possible that hes a Time Lord?!

1.11 (To be written by jimmyev)
1.12 (To be written by jimmyev)

1.13 Endgame
- The net is drawn closed, and the Celestial Toymaker brings the TARDIS to his playroom. With The Maverick as his pawn, he is ready to play the ultimate game with Eddi, and put an end to his misadventures.

[Curufea]

Hmm, I've always regarded the Toymaker as above death. The Black Guardian and the White Guardian are effectively immortal godlike beings. The Time War to the guardians is only a trivial local skirmish.

[adam500]

Jan 8, 2010 5:28:05 GMT Curufea said:

Hmm, I've always regarded the Toymaker as above death. The Black Guardian and the White Guardian are effectively immortal godlike beings. The Time War to the guardians is only a trivial local skirmish.

I know, its a stretch, and its supposition based on three things:

1. We know the Eternals, who are almost gods themselves fled this reality in despair due to the Time War (I always thought this was a horrible excuse to remove them from the new series, but it is cannon so instead of a retcon I asked myself "why" my answer was the death of thier gods, the Guardians)

2. The Guardians of Time were well known for posing as the Gods of Gallifrey, its entirely possible they would get involved in the Time War because of its scope (and we know from novels they were involved in some capacity in the Millenium War) and if they weren't killed like I said, they could be trapped in the Time Lock or something else. Really I could say anything here, its just to get them out of the way.

3. The death of the Toymaker that is the impetus for whatever his plot is, is sort of a metaphysical thing. Hes fused to a Timelord at the end of it's regenerations (having used them earlier) and the Timelord has been holding the Toymaker back for years. The idea is that because the Timelord's body is failing, the Toymaker has more freedom, but not enough to free himself, and when the body fails the Toymaker will be dragged along with it wherever souls go when they die thanks to the metaphysical link.

Or I'm talking out of my ass, you be the judge.

[Curufea]

One of the BF plays deals with splintering the Toymaker amongst various minds as a method of disposing of him...

[Null and Void]

Jan 8, 2010 7:54:49 GMT Curufea said:

One of the BF plays deals with splintering the Toymaker amongst various minds as a method of disposing of him...

Which Audio Play was that?

For my part, I always assumed the Eternals fled because they suddenly lost millions of Ephemerals in the Time War, and were weakened accordingly. Learning where the War was leading (per The End of Time. I'm not going to post a spoiler by being any more specific than that), they ran.

[adam500]

What I get for plotting late at night: They did the Toymaker's body is dying plot in a Novel. Everyone here has also made some great points.
I'll have to rethink this.

[adam500]

Okay well Ive decided I'm going to still use the Toymaker as the arc villain. Hes been a lot more active recently and several of the adventures (pretty much wherever I put the Arc phrase) will be dealing with the repercussions of of people who have lost his games. All the while trying to draw in a new worthy competitor.

For Example, Adventure #1: Mind the Gap!
(Yes I stole the title from the Episode title thread, but it fits for a scenario in the London Underground).

Hook: There are ghosts haunting the London Underground, trains are returning to stations with no one aboard, and with a strange signal drawing in the Timelord player's TARDIS, its clear that something alien is the cause...

Antagonists: The ghosts, and their source.

Action Scenes: Running through the underground avoiding ghosts, and possibly trains. Disabling the device which is causing the disturbance before the ghosts reach them.

Problems: The device creating the ghosts is a sort of alien 'black box' it holds psychic imprints of those who die within it's range until someone can communicate with it and learn the cause of the disaster. However its malfunctioning and is drawing power from the tram system, enough power that the psychic imprints are dangerous.
With every person who dies adding another ghost to the army can it be disabled without destroying it's original imprints? Why is it here?

Things that may need preparation: A good knowledge of the London Underground, ability to describe tunnels, etc.

Continuing the adventure: Before finally being disabled the original psychic imprint (pilot of the ship the box belonged to) says his last words: (insert arc phrase here, "Game Over." is a possibility) hints at them having played against the toymaker and lost.

[dvalkyrie74]

There is an old Novel with the 5th doctor running into the Toymaker again. Pretty cool book. Talks a little about the Doctor's past and even brings up some of the Master and the Rani when they were at the Academy with the Doctor.

Mark

[Curufea]

Jan 8, 2010 13:50:04 GMT Null and Void said:

Jan 8, 2010 7:54:49 GMT Curufea said:

One of the BF plays deals with splintering the Toymaker amongst various minds as a method of disposing of him...

Which Audio Play was that?

A recent Sylvester McCoy one - The Magic Moustrap

[zebaroth]

sounds good here something a sinister toy shop is trying to mind control the kids
and they say come play with me forever

[zebaroth]

here is a web link homepages.bw.edu/~jcurtis/modules.htm the have an Adventure
Called MIRROR OF THE PAST that the toymaker in it

[adam500]

Update: Working on a season outline...

1.1 Ghosts of the Northern Line
- An Alien Blackbox creates psychic ghosts with a shocking touch, what brought the blackbox to earth and killed the crew of it's ship? Will the heroes come together and find out before the ghosts kill them all? The only clue is a phrase: "We lost the game."

1.2 Radio Free
- Alien Pirate Radio?

1.3
1.4
- The TARDIS materializes on board the whaling ship Acushnet making a dangerous trip around Cape Horn, a trip made even more dangerous by the awakening of the Sea Devils! Can they be put back to sleep before history is deprived the written works of Herman Melville?

1.5
1.6

1.7 World's Fair
- Its time for the 1851 Great Exhibition, and there is display of new technology which no one leaves. Will Human 2.0 be the hit of the fair? What are the Cybermen really after?

1.8
1.9
1.10
1.11
1.12
1.13 Endgame
- Encounter with the Celestial Toymaker

So, I still need to decide how to use the Toymaker, and come up with another 9ish episodes and titles. Some ideas my players threw out:

Family of Blood as villains: An interesting idea, perhaps accidentally freeing Sister of Mine, or any of them, and then being forced to put the genie back in the bottle so to speak, might be better as arc villains though for Season 2, still that would require something elaborate.

Dr Joseph Bell: The inspiration (loose anyway) for Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes character, not exactly meeting Holmes like one of my players mentioned but could I pull off something creative enough to make it work?

An adventure dealing with some kind of negative space wedgie, maybe a Time Loop? Could be a good idea to tuck away for a rainy day if I'm ever short one or more players to give someone a spotlight episode.

An adventure in the old west.... High Noon at the TARDIS?

Places players asked for (in no particular order, or context): Japan, Egypt, Alaska

Thats all I have right now, if everything is right with the world I'll run Ghosts of the Northern Line this week (and open a campaign thread in the subforum to tell you all about it), honestly I'm just typing all this to get ideas thrown out without cluttering up my note file.

Pre-emptive thanks to anyone who helps flesh these ideas out.

[adam500]

Ive made the decision to have ep 2 and ep3 be my first attempt at a two-parter.

EP2: Radio Free (part one)
EP3: It came from Pluto (part two)

I already have my plans for these in stone, just putting this here in the case anyone following my campaign thread in the sub forum is curious about whats next.

Still need a title for EP4... I'm thinking a quote from Melville's work that's appropriate to the situation would work, but I can't think of a good one. Any suggestions?

[The Other]

From "Moby Dick" -

(Chapter 1) Loomings

(Chapter 48) The First Lowering

(Chapter 92) Ambergris

(Chapter 117) The Whale Watch

"Loomings" could have a double meaning if you wanted to use it, and if you're using the Gallifreyan Genetic Looms as backstory...

Unrelated to the above, possibly "The Devils and the Deep Blue Sea" or something along those lines...

www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/between%20the%20devil%20and%20the%20deep%20blue%20sea.html

[adam500]

I didn't even think about chapter titles from the book! The Whale Watch is my current favorite, but I'm still open to more suggestions.

[The Other]

From the epilogue, "And I only am escaped alone to tell thee." from the Book of Job in the Bible. If the Sea Devils are going to really do some damage to the ship before the characters intervene (or during or after) it might make a good title. Put Melville in Ishmael's place...

[jimmyev]

I'm the person who played the Charactor Thomas (Tom). My charactor died in episode 3 so i'm now working as a co-DM for Adam500. He asked me to help him out so I came up with some story Ideas. Unfortunately, i'm only good with big pictures so I need help with story flow. I've come up with 2 episode ideas so far... well here they go.

Episode: Seed of Regret

The charactors find themselves leaving the TARDIS into a passage way where all the floors, walls, and celings have been covered in green vines with purple leaves. There is a fog on the floor and a slight haze in the area. As they start to adventure they will all do a roll to see who is infected with the hallucinagen made by the plant. The first thing to happen will be one of the charactors will see someone who caused them great regret or sorrow over, but when they look closer they will be gone. The charactors now get further in the ship and find some logs talking about a strange statue they found with some dead vines on it. By the end they will find out that they need to kill the plant which is psychicly attacking them with their guilt and lost ones.

The second story works off the same principle as an episode of Stargate SG1 called "The Fifth Memeber" which my episode is also called since it fits so well.

Episode: The Fifth Member

The team comes out of the TARDIS in the old west where they are suddenly knocked unconcious somehow. When they come to they're in an old barn and meet the family of *** (name pending) who has been travling with Eddie since before they were "volunteered". I need a person or alien or group of somethings (pleral would be best right now) now to be claimed to be harrasing the town. In the end it will be that the Fifth Member is actually some how part of those peoples' downfall and that he should be turned in... but will they?

If you guys could critique this it would be much appreaciated. I've typed you guys the skeleton, now I need his meat and other red gooy things.

[adam500]

An idea for the Fifth Member, start the adventure in media res. Before the opening 'credits' have the scene be of the TARDIS group in the western setting, along with this member who has been with them the whole time, here visiting his family.

[jimmyev]

I quite like that idea, I think that i'll use it. Thankyou for the advice. now all I need is a ruddy name for number 5... I don't even know what gender they will be... perhaps female, leaves gaps for added story points. *evil laugh*

[The Other]

Jan 22, 2010 22:30:17 GMT adam500 said:

I didn't even think about chapter titles from the book! The Whale Watch is my current favorite, but I'm still open to more suggestions.

Having thought it over for a few days, I'd suggest just calling the episode "Acushnet" - it'll be a mystery to the players unless they're Melville/whaling history fans already, and since the scenario is set aboard, I think it works as an episode title.

[adam500]

Thats not bad either. Updating first post with updated season.

[jimmyev]

Okay, so the episode starts off with the team being introduced to the fifth member's family, who will be played by adam500 (thought you might like to play a bit) the Antagonist (that's right, the loser is a good guy this time) is a single member from Torchwood named "John Wayne." Thats right. Need to work out more details. The town will be told that all those that came out of the out of order "out house" (the form the tardis takes this time) are actually bandits and there is a reward for them. The team must join up with some actual bandits and trick John Wayne into thinking that the Fifth member is actually the leader of the bandits. The fifth member can then live in peace.

please give me some input to help make this better

[adam500]

I like it. My only quip is that I don't think the old west (in America) had Torchwood operatives (a British institution). He should probably just be the local law man to avoid complication.

[adam500]

First post updated. Campaign thread updated today to fifth episode.

[jimmyev]

Need a name for the EP but I've got an idea.
It will take place in New New York, the often visited city seems to have a racing craze. If you get last place twice in a row your vehicle is "Recycled"... with you on board. Need a lot of fleshing out with the story, but it's a general idea.

[adam500]

"Finish Line"

Question: Is this New New York pre-Gridlock or Post Gridlock?

If its set post-Gridlock the highway from that episode could have been repurposed into your 'Race Track'.

I know I pitched the racing themed episode, and I like the idea so far, but the intention was to give the group a use for the Motorcylce they have been lugging around. I'd write with that in mind.

[jimmyev]

I would say post gridlock. "Games" would be good to help build the economy back up. And who dosn't like a "good" racing game?