1KM1KT Free RPG Community

You know those games, when you haven't had a minute to think of a scenario and game day arrives. What do you default to? Do you have one that works every time?

As for me, I usually have the players travel somewhere and randomly run into things. I used to default to shopping games where an opportunity comes up for the players to spend their loot. In my campaigns, it's a rare thing for players to have free access to a market so the players would normally be really excited.

(Sorry for being late, I try and get these in on Fridays but I forgot this week.)

Stealing my players' stuff. Of course, it has to be done in moderation, but it works well.

The alternative is giving my players a new toy and letting them try it out. I have a group that's more than happy to burn down forests "because they're there", so it works well to just throw them a wand/APC/assault cannon/MacGuffin and let them go wild.

These can be looped together, but should still have an interval between them.

I like a good "bottle episode". A flashback of the events that have happened so far, but focusing on events from a specific angle that bring a current dilemma into context. A favourite NPC is dying, so we go back and revisit all of the scenes where that NPC has been prominent in some way. A familiar town is being revisited, so we revisit the fun scenes in this town, or fill in the gaps we glossed over during previous scenes in this town.

I find few things enthrall players as well as a good heist. Give them a mission to enter a place and some time to consider guards or equipment, and they will go through twelve versions of the plan and probably give you a few ideas to work with during their plotting. Throw in a few neat locations for cinematic fights or an unexpected enemy type, then some evidence of a greater conspiracy - and you are all set.

Elevator scenario... You stick them in a limited space area where they have to wait for something, can't leave, and then add an annoyance factor (like the music in an Elevator)... Nothing is more fun than watching Characters and their player go mad...

Random pirates. It works in any scenario (just rebrand them). Unlike a random encounter, pirates are intelligent, know what they want and have a plan.

1. Space Opera: Pirates are spaceships that want to steal your cargo.
2. Cyberpunk: Pirates are a gang that wants to steal your stuff.
3. Fantasy: Marauding gang of an "intelligent race" that will try and capture and sell off players.
4. Supers: Group of criminals just robbing a bank BECAUSE.
5. Modern day Illuminati: A corporation that tries a hostile takeover of another organisation.
6. Steampunk: Any of the above, really.
7. Post apoc: Well organised group of people with resources who are always on the move and want more resources.

You know, I'm totally going to steal a few ideas from this thread. Heck, Woebegone Inbetween already has the stealing-the-player's-stuff idea (with actual physical items to steal!).

My answer: Big bad guy shows up and gets hunted down by players. I don't run this very often, because I'm the king of over-prepping.