Hello!
I have a campaign idea in mind and just started working on it. The basic concept is that sea creatures have been dying wherever the PC’s go. The dead marine life then turn into zombies and are attacking the nearby town where the Player Characters are living temporarily. The main monster I think is going to be a puppeteer who has cursed the PC’s in order to take revenge on the town for ruining her life in some way.
The problem I have is setting up the countdown. The main problem is that the Countdown is based on if the hunters weren’t there and stopped it. But I need the hunters as wherever they go, the problem occurs. I’ve tried this with past curses that the monster has put on different people but I haven’t thought of a way to incorporate into the story.
Is the puppeteer cursing the PCs or taking revenge on the town?
You’ll have a much easier time (and I think a better game) if you focus on her taking revenge on the town. If the PCs weren’t there, the puppeteer zombifies the dead marine life and has them attack the town. That’s your inciting incident. Now have your countdown follow from there. Who is affected? Who is killed? How does the town react? How does the puppeteer escalate her actions to wreak vengeance on the town? Who is she particularly punishing within the town? And, if the PCs never showed up, how would her vengeance end? What is the state of the town and the marine life? Is she satisfied? Does she go on to wrecking other towns.
The hunters will chase the problem. Don’t make the problem chase the hunters. That way your malevolent forces have drives and trajectories that exist beyond the PCs which lets you know how to play them.
It’s a great setup for a scenario, by the way.
Well…
In cases like these, I find it helpful to “put myself in their shoes” and see what I would do, especially in light of their motivations, etc.
So, I’m Marion Ettings, a nasty villanous sort, with a plan to finally rid myself of those dang meddling hunters. Seems pretty on the level, right?
So, how do I bait these bumbling buffoons?
First thing that comes to mind is that I probably don’t want to alert them to the trap, so I want to start small. Maybe I can dig through their previous escapades and get some inspiration? Maybe I can make them think some monster(s) they thought were dead have come back to wreak havoc… That should make them come running. Or perhaps a friend or family member (NPC) might work as the bait? Or hell, I can just put an op-ed in the local paper calling them out, or arrange an award…
Either way, I need to be SNEAKY and not tip them off that I’m doing all this, otherwise the surprise will be ruined, right?
So, (as a keeper now) we need to think about what Marion would do starting off ‘small and very sneaky’ all the way up to ‘huge and super obvious’.
In this case, we will assume Marion knows enough “backstory” about the team/etc to properly bait the team into investigating, and therefore, falling into the trap.
So, something like this might look like:
1. “Rumors” of a previously defeated monster being seen in/around Trapville filter down to the player team.
(No bites? Then proceed)
2. “Victims of the monster” start popping up in/around Trapville.
(No bites? Then proceed)
3. “Media reports” (fabricated/etc by Marion) in Trapville happen, insinuating or outright blaming the team for the monster issue.
(No bites? Proceed. By now, Marion is probably furious and it’s obvious that being sneaky won’t work, so it starts to become more and more obvious)
4. “Warrants”, manhunts, etc are issued for one or more team members, in ‘connection to murders in Trapville’, to be held in a Trapville jail and be tried in a Trapville court…
And so on and so forth…
The idea is to get an idea of the villain/monster, their motivation, and then extrapolate the angles, limits, and levels of escalation the enemy would go through in order to “set a trap” or “make the team a Patsy” or “eliminate each team member while making it all look like accidents” or… Well whichever way your villain would do it.
In my head, Marion, being a puppet master, would naturally try to pull strings (haaaaa) and avoid direct interaction with the team, like a traditional comic book-y villain.
The goal is “get the team to fall into the trap in Trapville, without the team finding out about it first”, so I see Marion digging around, understanding their prey, and finding the perfect level of bait, the perfect screw-over tricky trap, and doing everything they can to end that team.
So, focus on the bait… What would likely ‘trigger’ the team into going into Trapville? Once the team is there, what is the worst thing that can happen to them? What are some easy ways to ‘amp up the tension/stakes’ if the players dawdle or ignore the “trap”?
Then it’s a matter of planning your countdown around that rough framework, and going to town.
Fiction is full of what are basically contrived backstory hooks to entangle protagonists into situations like this, so you can probably think of a ton of “reasons to show up in Trapville”.
Here’s a few in case you have writers block:
1. A previously defeated enemy seems to have come back from the dead, and only the team can stop them.
2. An innocent person is about to be sentenced in court, and only the team has the tight info to prove that Innocence.
3. A family member or loved one has gone missing, last seen in Trapville.
4. A hazily seen premonition/precognition/vision warns of “danger in Trapville”
5. A fake/planted letter/clue/job points to Trapville as an important place to visit (as part of another job, arc, etc)
6. Trapville wishes to honor the team with a key to the city, parade, etc, so the team needs to show up for good PR.
7. Their otherwise trusty mode of transportation has a critical breakdown out in the middle of nowhere… Just on the outskirts of Trapville’s city limits…
Hope that helps.
Jason and Johnny thank you for the feedback! This advice will make it easier for me to create the campaign!