Hey there fellow GMs. I'm looking for some ideas for a Halloween game for my crew. Most likely a one shot, and nothing super serious with galactic implications. I've already run an infected (host) zombie type game, so I'm looking for something other then that. I know I have some options, but nothing I am thinking of is really thrilling me. Just seeing if the community comes up with something that's a bit more inspiring for me.
Thanks for any assistance,
Hello,
Maybe like your infected story, but I did one with mind worms or Waynee. I mixed Star Trek 2, ST:NG episode Conspiracy, and Aliens.
The players pick up npcs from a ship and are taking them the rest of the way on their trip. No danger and all seems safe till as Leia had a bad feeling on Cloud City.
The ncps start to act strange, the ship just breaks down with no power, and the players find the black box of the ship the players picked up the ncps from, the ship's captain screaming of evil, blew up his ship and everyone on it.
One of the ncps ( works best if one, no players suspects) is under the control of a mind worm. A tiny creature that once inside the body controls the brain as it eats it and reproduces. It is the Queen and plans on spreading her children one host at a time. The only way to end the attack is to kill the Queen, who is mind linked to all her children.
Characters have to find out what is going, do a monster hunt, and face the scare of brain eating worms crawling on them ( I will just keep a sealed space suit on the whole time and be safe, hey what's crawling on me inside my suit?).
If like your infected story, maybe switch the worm Queen for a force type user. A dark jedi or witch sister in hiding is taking over with mind control.
I actually have something to that, but with the Energy Spider. So its like an aliens/Stargate Atlantis (wraith)/zombie mashup.
Star Trek: Next Generation episode " Lonely Among Us " had a creature that jumped from computer terminals to people and back again.
What starts as an energy creature attacking the ship, becomes Ghost Busters as the energy creature is really in the ship.
Hello,
Maybe like your infected story, but I did one with mind worms or Waynee. I mixed Star Trek 2, ST:NG episode Conspiracy, and Aliens.
The players pick up npcs from a ship and are taking them the rest of the way on their trip. No danger and all seems safe till as Leia had a bad feeling on Cloud City.
The ncps start to act strange, the ship just breaks down with no power, and the players find the black box of the ship the players picked up the ncps from, the ship's captain screaming of evil, blew up his ship and everyone on it.
One of the ncps ( works best if one, no players suspects) is under the control of a mind worm. A tiny creature that once inside the body controls the brain as it eats it and reproduces. It is the Queen and plans on spreading her children one host at a time. The only way to end the attack is to kill the Queen, who is mind linked to all her children.
Characters have to find out what is going, do a monster hunt, and face the scare of brain eating worms crawling on them ( I will just keep a sealed space suit on the whole time and be safe, hey what's crawling on me inside my suit?).
If like your infected story, maybe switch the worm Queen for a force type user. A dark jedi or witch sister in hiding is taking over with mind control.
The infected story I did was very similar. I used bugs too. Got inspiration from Fleet and the real life zombie ants.
Had a prison barge, the players were supposed to drop off a bounty. They were allowed on board, but the ship was empty. Soon enough they start to stumble upon bodies and one isn't in the place they left it.
Was a great game, hard to tie up, but lots of fun to run and play.
Star Trek: Next Generation episode " Lonely Among Us " had a creature that jumped from computer terminals to people and back again.
What starts as an energy creature attacking the ship, becomes Ghost Busters as the energy creature is really in the ship.
Going again to other scfi, Doctor Who " Robots of Death".
A small group of humans on a sandminer run by robots are being killed off one by one, but it could not be the robots who first program is not to harm but protect humans. The boss robot has decided that humans are no longer needed. The twist is that the real villain is one of the human miners who is really a crazy robot scientist raised by robots and thinks he is one freeing his fellow robots from human control. Along with a false suspect, an undercover robot from the mining company.
Also the GM adventure is about rogue mine droids, you could run or use for ideas.
A little murder mystery tends to lend itself to a creepy Halloween setting... The PCs have just tooken up a large group of spacers, some fancy and some low down and rotten, and there is a big jumble of luggage. There's a big pay for this ride, but the PCs are reluctant to take up the offer. They only do it because the crime lord/Imperial/enemy of theirs said that this job would allieve some of their obligation, and stated that these individuals were enemies of theirs that they wanted to be taken to so-and-so planet to receive punishment.
However, as the PCs are flying about in space, and after they've gotten to know these individuals and have a chance at taking up suspects, someone is found stuffed inside a crate, their body all broken. They also find a note saying someone else is next (it gives a name). Of course, means will be taken to make sure this individual is protected. Then, against all expectations, a completely different person dies. It becomes a whole ordeal of whodunit.
As time goes on, more deaths occur, each one more gruesome than the last. The PCs should obviously be searching for the murderer, but if they aren't, then feel free to say, "Well, morning comes, and as Tom goes into the refresher, he finds Alex with his head stuffed in the toilet with his face all cut up, so that he's barely recognizable." NOTE: It turns out after about one game day that the alleged 'Alex' player (whoever you decided had his face in a toilet) IS alive, so don't worry.
The point of having a PC appear dead is that it makes the group want to work harder, because really, who's next?
As I said, the PC didn't die. They awaken as 'night' falls and the crew goes to sleep. The PC is in a small, cramped space, and across from them is an eery creature with plenty of spikes on them. It speaks in a slow, creaky voice, and says that it needs more power. It also says that the PC is going to give it the food it needs to gain this power. The creature can't see, but it can sense. Through its senses it knows that there is an individual on the ship with immense power on them (or several if any of the PCs are Force Sensitives). If there ae Force Sensitives in the group, it says there are multiple sources of power, but one is the strongest. However, it is so immense that the creature cannot sense it directly, and whenever it tries to kill it, it turns out it's killed a different person. So, the creature wants the PC to find the person with this power. To keep the PC from telling the group about this, it threatens to give the PC a fate worse than death. And, to keep the others from knowing the PC is actually alive, it takes the PCs essence and puts it into the body of another passenger it had killed silently in the night. NOTE: Tell the player this away from the group, to keep up the idea that the PC is truly dead. Then, make it seem as if the player has tooken up the role of one of the passengers for the time being until the adventure ends and they can create a new character.
Now, the player has to discreetly go around trying to find out who this individual is, and not even knowing that it means they are Force Sensative. And the entire time, more deaths are occurring. It all escalates to a climax where either the PC finds out who is the Sensitive of the passengers or the group finds out where the monster is (which is actually in the engine of the ship, where the creature is also draining light energy to survive). Then there is a climatic battle where the creature tries to find and kill the sensative and the ship tries to kill the creature (which is very powerful).
What do you think?
This one is inspired by the System Shock video game:
The party stumbles across the drifting wreckage of lost consular's ship (something like Tantive IV). The ship's engines and power core are too badly damaged to repair and it is unarmed. Once they restore what power they can, they begin to see images of battle on board - make them believe they are seeing some kind of holograms, but they should eventually figure out that the force is showing them what happened. After the initial assault, they see the familiar form of Darth Vader stalking the halls, searching for something. Eventually, they witness a climatic battle between Vader and an unknown Jedi. The Jedi seems to look directly at them before being struck down. The ship itself starts out open to vacuum and there is very little evidence left of the people who were on board, but if you want a combat encounter, perhaps Vader left behind an assassin droid in case anyone came nosing along. Otherwise, play it like a haunted house - lots of creaks and groans, random falling objects and collapsing floors - stuff that may be the result of the battle damage or could be an intelligence moving them toward or away from something. In the end, the party may find something important the Jedi hid aboard the ship that Vader didn't find as well as the knowledge of the fate of this ship and the Jedi aboard it, which may be valuable to someone.
Unlike the video game, I don't think having a homicidal ship computer trying to do in the players is going to work. For one reason, if you want this to be a one-shot adventure, it's probably best to keep the combat to a minimum and have the players focus on solving the mystery of what the Jedi hid. For another, ships in Star Wars don't have a central AI - they may have a hyperdrive computer, a life-support computer, etc. but not a central AI.
So, basically, this is a low to no combat mystery adventure that you can build around various skill challenges for technical stuff (getting the ship powered, maybe restoring partial atmosphere and gravity, salvaging some parts and components) and dealing with hazards and traps.
Here's an adventure idea I'm currently working with. Kind of long, so sorry about that.
The party is approached by a low level Imperial Officer. The officer has been stonewalled by Imperial command, so has resorted to higher rabble like the players to do some investigating into an incident.
You see, the Officer got his family, who were barely scraping by on some backworld, into a colonization program where they would be generously rewarded and supported in setting up a pro-Empire colony on a recently scouted moon in the outer rim territories.
The problem is the bulk frigate and the Lambda shuttle (with a contingent of stormtroopers) that was escorting it have gone dark so to speak. There's been no contact with them, and no indication they arrived at their destination. The Officer is worried about his family and wants you to check into what happened.
The ships are discovered about half way between the departing location and the destination drifting in space. The shuttle is docked with the frigate. No communications can be established, but you do notice a couple distress beacons floating nearby. The beacon lights are working, but the distress signal is not being transmitted.
Upon docking with the freighter, they discover a grisley scene. Blood splattered hallways, and a few colonist corpses that have been heavily desicrated. A communication panel near the airlock turns on and a fearful voice asks about who has boarded their ship? Voice comms are sketchy, and vid comms are extremely distorted, but what appears to be a human on the other end of the comms is asking for help. He'll ask if you are Imps, then suspect pirates, salvagers, etc. He begs for help. He tells a tale of some of the colonists being terrorists and attacking the ship from within. They are currently trying to access the bridge and he needs your help to dispatch them.
The journey to the bridge is difficult. Dead ends, locked doors, jammed doors, areas of the ship that have been vented to space. The 'captain' attempts to help guide the players, but constantly complains about their limited control due to the incompetance of the engineering crew. Sensors are damaged, controls are damaged, and the assistance from the bridge often leads to the wrong path. The ship is mostly dark, only emergency lighting is working. Frayed wires spark, doors open and close without reason. Try to play up the spookyness a bit. Strange sounds, movements leading the players to explore empty rooms.
The players journey takes them past the other docking air lock where the players can investigate the shuttle. Rotting flesh, blood stains, dead Imperials. The computer logs tell of the freighter sending out emergency beacons and powering down. Upon communication with the frieghter, they explain that the beacons malfunctioned and that the engines have completely shut down. They then request technical assistance from the shuttle. All other logs after that event have been erased. If the 'captain' is asked about this, he'll explain that the engines were the first target for the assault, and they didn't know what had happened yet.
They also wander upon a group of the ship's crew stranded in engineering. Due to the possible take over of the ship, Engineering was automatically locked down. Engineering lost override controls for the ship though due to someone hacking the system. They believe the ship was overtaken by pirates, but believe the 'captain' is one of the pirates. They have the ship in a state of semi-lockdown as neither the bridge nor engineering can access all of the systems in the ship. A communication panel is near engineering, and the players need to make a choice. It seems that the bridge can gain more control if the emergency override is activated for engineering. It's a drastic solution put in place to deal with mutiny situations. The 'captain' instructs you to enact this override. The engineering staff explain that doing this will vent engineering into space and kill all of their crew. The 'captain' explains that he'll gain more control over the ship and be able to aid the players better.
At this point, the adventure turns into a long road/short road situation. If the players support the bridge and vent engineering, they are guided down an easier path with fewer deadends and locked doors. If the players support engineering, the path to the bridge is much more difficult and they no longer get assistance from the bridge due to communication issues.
Possible encounters include rooms locking down and venting the atmo, needing computer checks to escape. Unlocking rooms with stormtroopers that shoot first as they believe you to be enemy combatants. If captured alive, they tell of being called to duty after the colonists rebelled. Droids that attack the players in a state of rage, yelling obsenities and whatnot. Droids attacking certain parts of the ship (life support, venting by drilling holes, damaging facilities, etc). Colonists wearing bits of stormtrooper armor and carrying various weapons standing over destroyed droids (they will attack if threatened, but are more scared than anything. They were attacked by stormtroopers, then droids, they have no idea whats happening). A crazed, blood covered man crying in the corner of a room with several bloody bodies (he seems scared at first, but then starts ranting about ghosts, spirits, evil beings...saying things about someone trying to steal his skin, then he attacks with vibro-knives and a hold-out blaster...he's a surprisingly strong enemy with ranks in adversary. His crazy, unpredictable actions make him difficult to fight).
Along the way they discover more desicrated bodies, and if they pass a perception check that gets easier with each discovery, they notice that the bodies all seem to be missing various pieces of their skin...faces, hands, legs, arms, scalps. Each body has a few different chunks torn off. Some cases seem to be almost surgical, others appear to just be ripped from the bodies.
If the 'captain' is accused of being the bad guy, he grows angry and accuses the party of being pirates, and refuses to assist them anymore.
When the players make it to the bridge, there is a group of stormtroopers and colonists trying to access the bridge. They attack immediately but are easily dispatched. How the next part of the adventure plays out depends on the actions of the players so far...
If the players are still allied with the bridge, they are let in by the bridge crew after dispatching those outside the door. The bridge is dark, but there are several humanoid forms outlined by the light of the displays. A blood covered form approaches you. His uniform shows obvious signs of combat, and his right sleeve is completely removed. He holds out his hand to shake yours and begins to thank you for your actions when you notice that the skin on his arm and face seem to be stitched together from various people.
If ignored, the 'captain' rewards you with some credits for your assistance and asks that you leave so they can begin cleaning up and repairing the ship so they can continue their mission. If asked about their mission he'll explain that they are going to colonize a moon to set up a sanctuary of sorts of others of their kind. He refuses to explain anything else. If his scars are mentioned, he explains that they are recent grafts due to an industrial accident.
If attacked, the other figures on the bridge join in the attack. If the players force their way onto the bridge after siding against the bridge, they are threatened by the captain and told to leave the ship immediately. If battle starts, the bridge crew aids the captain...including an R2 droid that has a human face attached to it's swiveling head. You see, the figures are all droids that have apparently gone mad and think of themselves as humans. They killed the other humans as percieved threats to their colonization project. The damaged comms distorted the image and sound enough so that the players didn't pick up on it prior to seeing them in person.
Hopefully the setting, the gore, the surprises, and the various explanations of what happened will keep the players guessing and on the wrong path. Then when they finally meet the 'enemy' they'll be heavily disgusted and surprised by the reveal, and hopefully a little creeped out.
The officer's family is among the dead and desicrated bodies. Upon receiving the news he is obviously saddened, but thanks you for your efforts and pays a small reward to the group.
This is an idea I've been kicking around for a while that I'm actually going to get to run next week. The PC's have all seen the movies, but aren't familiar with much EU stuff, so the campaign this far has been a tour of memorable spots from both trilogies (smuggling Rebel agents off Naboo, gambling on Cloud City, spelunking on Utapau, etc.) as they track down a lost Separatist treasure ship.
The trail has led them to Mustafar, and they've even discovered the ruins of the old mining facility where Anakin massacred the Separatist Council. Although nothing is still alive here (they've found the Council's bodies mummified in the control room already) I've got two separate horror subplots going on.
Firstly; the Force echoes of Anakin's fall to the dark side are giving the PC Force Sensitive fits, and I've declared that all tests in the area automatically upgrade one Difficulty die (purple) to a Challenge die (red) because of the malign energies at work. Even better, most of the PCs failed their Cool checks upon encountering the bodies of the Council, and have standing Setback dice (black) for fear as well. The possibility of drastic failure has unnerved the players as much as it has their characters, and they've been jumping at everything.
Secondly, the ship they're chasing belonged to Gizor Delso (the Geonosian scientist from Star Wars: Battlefront II) and it carries a legion of battle droids that he programmed to be able to sustain themselves without technical support. And by that I mean they cannibalize other droids and electronic systems to perform self-repairs. Essentially, they are zombie droids.
They've been shadowing the PCs and stealing small items of electronics like datapads, toolkits, backup weaponry, and a waffle maker (don't ask). When the droid PC short-circuited himself from Strain, he woke up an hour later with the casing over his spare power source dented and loose. The players haven't wizened up yet, and they just unearthed an entrance hatch to the old Separatist transport, so we're about to go from "patient zero" to "apocalypse".
I'm working on a cult game for this Sunday - they're on Naboo and cultists just set off an ion bomb targeting the local security garrison in the last game. For sunday's game, they discover the bomb was a cover for the cultists to kidnap a bunch of children from a nearby orphanage.
The imperials on the planet seem uninterested in helping out, so a rogue local naboo security force member says he thinks he's figured out the location of the cult members and offers to help take them there.
They arrive and it's in the side of a mountain, they can choose to either try and sneak in the back (which is where the cultists have been dumping bodies off a sheer cliff face) or fight their way in the front. If they fight their way in they're less likely to be able to explore and save anyone.
The cultists are being led by an insane force sensitive (not a jedi or sith, just someone crazy with some minor force powers) who has the ability to affect his followers, so he gives them bonuses and such.
I'm basing a lot of it off 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom' so lots of pulling hearts out of chests and innocent children as potential sacrifices, etc.
Edited by Blue DogHey there fellow GMs. I'm looking for some ideas for a Halloween game for my crew. Most likely a one shot, and nothing super serious with galactic implications. I've already run an infected (host) zombie type game, so I'm looking for something other then that. I know I have some options, but nothing I am thinking of is really thrilling me. Just seeing if the community comes up with something that's a bit more inspiring for me.
Thanks for any assistance,
I already posted this in another thread, but its what im running for halloween.
Here is my Halloween adventure in "Unknown Space" next week, it involves a derelict imperial Star Destroyer...
Its called: CRUDE MATTER
Module backstory: Around 30 years ago, Senator Palpatine secretly recovered Darth Mauls corpse from Naboo and performed a Sith burial for the Fallen Dark Lord (why?..Palpatine always has his reasons). The ceremony is performed in two phases, 1. Cremate the body and 2. Release the ashes into space. After Palpatine completed the first phase of the ceremony, he had one of his imperial guards secretly bring the ashes to "Unknown Space" in a modified T-4 Lambda class long range shuttle. The shuttle contained the ashes in a small Sith Pyramid resting on a pedestal with Mauls black robes covered in runes (drawn on during the first part of the ceremony). When the shuttle reached deep into "Unknown Space" the remains were released. As soon as the remaines were tossed into space, Unexpectedly,a random, rare form of supernova appeared, destroying the Lambda's computer systems and causing the pilot (imperial guard) to be thrown across the ship killing him instantly. The supernova, uncharacteristically, also merged itself with the sith remains causing a large cloud of pure dark force energy that was left to drift aimlessly, untouched, for almost 30 years in Unknown Space. Almost 30 years later, an imperial Star Destroyer scouting "Unknown Space" , unknowingly, flew straight through the dark energy. The energy latched on to all organic beings aboard the massive ship causing them to enter madness then later turning into ghoulish creatures called "Rhaghouls". Due to the chaos onboard the ship, most of its power is gone and most of the crew is dead or a Rhaghoul.
Present time: The Empire is looking for the lost destroyer and reached the point of sending out galactic transmissions to planets offering a very large reward to whoever finds the destroyer and reactivates the navo computer so they can verify and locate the ship (Why?...the empire has their reasons)
Enter PC's...
**GM needs to come up with how players have co-ordinates of the lost destroyer**, I had the players find an R2 units processor with attached lens that showed a star map with general location of destroyer. The PCs found this at the Nikto bounty hunters lair at the end of the "Shadows of A Black Sun" module ...
Players need to make 3 daunting astrogation checks to reach Destroyer
After the First successful check, the players come across the lambda shuttle and can search it to find the pedestal, robes, long dead imperial guard. This invites Lore, core world, mechanics, computers Skill checks for learning of the shuttles age, what the runes are for, etc...
At the 3rd successful astrogarion check, the players arrive
At the Destroyer.
In the destroyer:
-Should receive a setback die to all checks because of poor lighting in the ship (most of the power is out), need to climb through elevator shafts etc...
-The players should make random fear checks when inside the destroyer because of the dark force presence that remains.
-because the dark energy involved the remains of Darth Maul, he should randomly appear on the ship, at first at a distance. The players should not be able ever tell it is darth maul, you should only say "you see some humanoid figure at the end of the corridor, wearing black robes and yellow, red eyes, you cant make out his face (enter the fear check) he then walks out of sight or fades into the darkness". Maul is only a spectre and cant actually harm the players, because he is a product of the dark energy that haunts the ship, he is just there for the fear checks
-at some point when a player is briefly alone he should turn and see darth maul directly/engaged in front of him and all at once Maul ignites his red lightsaber and slices down on him (daunting fear check - lightsaber does not damage...hes a spectre, but a very real feeling spectre) and as quick as he slices down on you he fades into darkness where a Rahsghoul steps out and attacks the player. remember the players dont know that the evil yellowed eyed figure is darthmauls spectre, he is there to bring the feeling of madness of being on the ship.
Anyway, more Rahsghoul encounters, infected prisoners (one who may know one of the players perhaps?) etc on the destroyer...i have more details for it but you get the idea, think Aliens meets Event Horizon but on a Star Destroyer. lots to play with here for a scary setting, and a small portion of what im doing for my Star Wars session this halloween season..
Lots of great ideas going on in here. I've actually taken a collage of them, a snippet from here, a snippet from there. I'll post the run tomorrow evening, after my crew plays it (some of them read the boards and don't want to spoil it).
Thanks,
Anybody thought about doing an Anzati story? Anyone got an idea of how to stat the Anzati?
Anyone got an idea of how to stat the Anzati?
ANZATI
Species Abilities
Brawn 3
Agility 2
Intellect 2
Cunning 2
Willpower 2
Presence 1
Their draining ability really doesn't seem to be an in combat maneuver once they've taken control of their target in one way or another.. Something that causes damage and can, potentially, kill the target. Something like a coup de gras in some cases.
Edited by mouthymercActually if an Anzati could immoblize the target some how he could train the person.
ANZATIAnyone got an idea of how to stat the Anzati?
Species Abilities
Brawn 3
Agility 2
Intellect 2
Cunning 2
Willpower 2
Presence 1
Their draining ability really doesn't seem to be an in combat maneuver once they've taken control of their target in one way or another.. Something that causes damage and can, potentially, kill the target. Something like a coup d'etat in some cases.
- Wound Threshold: 10 + Brawn
- Strain Threshold: 10 + Willpower
- Starting Experience: 80 XP
- Special Abilities: Anzati begin the game with one rank in Initiative. They still may not train Initiative above rank 2 during character creation. They also begin the game with a Universal Force Specialization (right now either Force-Sensitive Exile or Force-Sensitive Emergent).
- Regeneration: Whenever an Anzati would recover one or more wounds from natural rest or recuperation in a Bacta tank, he recovers one additional wound. He does not recover one additional wound when receiving first aid or medical treatment from a character, or when using a stimpack.
Their draining ability really doesn't seem to be an in combat maneuver once they've taken control of their target in one way or another.. Something that causes damage and can, potentially, kill the target. Something like a coup d'etat in some cases.
A
coup de gras
, you mean. Unless they're draining the Emperor, I guess.
Their draining ability really doesn't seem to be an in combat maneuver once they've taken control of their target in one way or another.. Something that causes damage and can, potentially, kill the target. Something like a coup d'etat in some cases.
A coup de gras , you mean. Unless they're draining the Emperor, I guess.
Yeah that's it. Dammit. Hate getting distracted.