[Raven Bloodmoon]

Well, as luck would have it, a girl on a really weird and twisted forum has asked me to sort of DM an play by post freeform RP with her, despite the fact that I have never once mentioned RPing, DnD, or worldbuilding. But that weirdness aside, I find myself in need of a world and a plot.

For the world, I am sort of just taking a lot of stuff I've talked about on here so I won't have to work so hard. I'm thinking about having my typical religious witch hunt and a really dark setting, like something from one of Grimm's fairytales. Not the nice ones. The ones where children are beaten by their mothers and husbands kill their wives because fish tell them to. She's all about the horror genre with some lighthearted moments to relieve the pressure. It would seem like heaven, but then there is the issue of the nonexistant plot....

I need a plot! I need some reason for these people to be running around. So far, we have a witch and a thief. I'm considering tossing some form of a shadowy NPC, though his nature I'm not settled on. Two othe rpeople have expressed interest in joining, and I know the town and local area they'll be starting in. It's on the edge of a really nasty forest and a really nasty swamp in a creepy town. I figure all sorts of weird stuff will live in the forest, but before I just raid some Armanian folktales, I thought I'd see if anyone has any general ideas out there.

So to summarize, I need comments or thought-provoking questions on the world itself and absolutely ANY plot ideas whatsoever. Please. Onegai shimasu!

[Dthclaw]

Psychic demon fish in the swamps are compelling living creatures to drown themselves so that the fish might eat. A few of them get the fish instead boring into their skulls and reanimating them for a campaign of terror against the land-dwellers. Initially suspicions point to witches, but by the time they realize the fish are doing it you have a horror campaign rolling.

As for your world, start small - you got the local area figured out. From there, decide if the background world is more political or more magic controlled (ie, are there dominant political groups running things or is at all about the monsters).

[Raven Bloodmoon]

Oh my god, Dthclaw! You are such a genius! Muahahahaha! So yeah, mind if I steal that fish idea? No one will expect that...hehe....

As for the world, I think the local region, which is covered mostly by this forest, is probably more magical-controlled, with local lords that vie for power amongst themselves, but always trying to beat the world civilized. In the grander scheme of things, there is a lot of politics between nobel families, the guilds, and religion. Those three always seem to make a nice love-hate triangle.

For an overall campaign of sorts, I was sort of leaning toward a conspiracy / murder-mystery type of thing. One idea I had (stolen) was that a number of murders seem to be linked by the presence of one individual, and he is considered the culprit. But as luck would have it, he is merely someone trying to chase down and kill the murderer.

Perhaps one of the drownings had nothing to do wtih the fish and (hopefully) stands out as a loose end? I hate having to do this stuff on the fly...

[Dthclaw]

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Oh my god, Dthclaw! You are such a genius!

You hadn't figured that out by now? I'm insulted

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So yeah, mind if I steal that fish idea?

Go right ahead. You mentioned fish telling men to kill their families, and it was the first random bizarro thought that popped into my head.

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Those three always seem to make a nice love-hate triangle.

True enough, but if you're going more for the Grimm's feel you should make politics much more backseat to the freaky monsters and happenings in the campaign.

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For an overall campaign of sorts, I was sort of leaning toward a conspiracy / murder-mystery type of thing. One idea I had (stolen) was that a number of murders seem to be linked by the presence of one individual, and he is considered the culprit. But as luck would have it, he is merely someone trying to chase down and kill the murderer.

Then perhaps, in the long run, run a sort of whacked out Grimm's Fairy Tales meets The X-Files sort of campaign. The players are invesigators for the Control of Magical Denizens secret group or some such and have to deal with other shadow groups using the bizarre freaks and tweaks of the campaign world.

Was it Pipe-Smoking Man? Or was it Madhilda the witch down the street? Or was it... the fish...

[Axel]

Raven Bloodmoon, on Aug 1 2007, 08:53 AM, said:

So to summarize, I need comments or thought-provoking questions on the world itself and absolutely ANY plot ideas whatsoever. Please.

This sounds familiar.... Remember, your whims are the best way to run a plotless game. It's always unexpected.
I am, as one might guess, a fan of the mystery genre. Borrowing from my favorite book, and building on the fish idea, I propose that, in fact, the hypno-fish (like communism) is a red herring. There are no psychic fish, that's just what they want you to think. Really it's the last person you'd expect, Old Man Jenkins, the guy who runs the haunted amusement park! No, it's really Wadsworth, who's really Mr. Body in disguise!* Well, maybe not. But as you pursue the hypno-fish just watch out for Prof. Plum back at the manor, he's been seen with the Knife.**
Anyway, before that tangent, I was going to say that the hypno-fish could be a lead away from the real force behind everything. After all, the hypnofish isn't the very last thing you'd expect. Especially not after hearing about it for the first time. No, the 2nd murder victim is the last person you'd expect. Let's be honest, we can believe someone faked their own death and then went on a spree. But to start the spree and then fake your own death as part of it? That's pretty clever. It'll take a clever detective to figure that out, especially in the middle of a gothic tale.

*Two Clue jokes in one post. That's sad.
** Okay, 3. Plus a Scooby Doo joke and a fish pun. That's gotta be some kind of record.

[Raven Bloodmoon]

Shall I award you a Punny?

[Dthclaw]

Ooh, another idea I just had.

Sci-Fi channel has recently been showing a long-since cancelled UPN series (bear with me here, and it isn't "Enterprise") called "Special Unit 2." The premise of the show is that it's basically "Men In Black" but with a smaller budget and a fantasy bent instead of aliens set in modern-day Chicago. So... why not take what we've got already and take the idea further into fantasy land?

Have the PC's be part of some secret organization that patrols your Grimm world and keeps the strange and bizarre [BROWNIES] from leaking over into everyday public awareness. Only they're doing it with witchcraft and evil demon fish instead of laser guns and aliens.

Hey, that's actually a decent name for your campagin... Grimmworld...

[super sorcerer]

Maybe the fish are not evil but instead they only try to save the town from folphin sorcerers who try to take over the world and the fish assasinate only peaple who realy are dolphin sorcerers in disguise. There are many ways this could develop. Maybe the dolphins will relize it and will try to make the party look like disquised dolphins with thier illusions. Perhaps one party member is realy a dolphin sorcerer who will try to make a war between the peaple and the fish (I had a DM who liked traidor characters very much once he even asked me to play betray the party but my character refused). Maybe one is a dolphin one is a fish and one belonged to another secret organization so nobody is realy loyal to the group but everyone think that the other character are normal peaple (this coild be the funniest choise).

[Axel]

Fond as I am of both Enterprise and SU2, I'll stand by my Hound of the Baskervilles inspired proposal. Hypno-fish are too predictable. But really, in horror and fantasy inspired stories, who genuinely expects Mrs. White to be behind it all?

[Dthclaw]

Too predictable? In what bizarre reach of the Multiverse? I don't know about you, but when people start killing each other I'm going to be looking at Mrs. White a long time before I start cracking skulls open looking for fish

[Raven Bloodmoon]

I vote in favor of the fish based on the idea that this is a dark fairy tale sort of world, and Mrs. White just isn't a fairy or fantastic in the least. Furthermore, the SU2 idea just might fly. I could use the NPC to induct them into the organization during the hypno-fish adventure, and during the episode, he could possibly look like the murderer, since he's always at the scene of the crime, trying to catch the fish doing it. Woo! Thanks guys! Plot twists galore.

But don't stop putting out those plot ideas. We should really make a proper thread of plot ideas. It'd be a good resource.

[Dthclaw]

Ooh, good idea. I'll throw one up... err, post one, that came out wrong... tomorrow if someone else doesn't beat me to it.

[Raven Bloodmoon]

I beat you to it.

[Dthclaw]

Curse you! You even posted my fish!

*runs away into the bone fort to cry*

[Raven Bloodmoon]

I can unpost your fish...I just didn't know if you'd remember to post them.