Author Topic: Plot Ideas?  (Read 1624 times)

42

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Plot Ideas?
« on: August 30, 2003, 01:21:44 PM »
Okay I'm looking for some plot ideas for my current campaign I'm running. It's set in the Iron age (that would be around the same time as ancient Egypt or Greece, not neanderthals). I have three players who are trying to establish a new mining settlement. The mining settlement is threatened by psionic goblins. Also, each player has been branded with a symbol that grants them special power, but in tutn makes them insane and will eventually turn them into an evil diety.

Ideas? Suggestions?

Thanks
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Entsuropi

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Re: Plot Ideas?
« Reply #1 on: August 30, 2003, 01:47:02 PM »
I think you win points for leveraging in as much wierdness into your campaign as possible. And i thought ancient greece and egypt were bronze age, while the Roman Empire was soon after the start of the iron age.
If you're ever in an argument and Entropy winds up looking staid and temperate in comparison, it might be time to cut your losses and start a new thread about something else :)

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Re: Plot Ideas?
« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2003, 01:49:27 PM »
That's what I thought as well, but I may be wrong.
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42

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Re: Plot Ideas?
« Reply #3 on: August 30, 2003, 01:53:36 PM »
Iron was widely used by the Hittites in 1600 B.C., about a thousand years before the classical period of Greece.

Iron was traded by the Minoans by 1500 B.C.

In Egypt, there is the 2nd intermediate period. Which comes before the New Kingdom, which coincides with ancient Greece. This is supposedly when the Hittites have entered Egypt.
« Last Edit: August 30, 2003, 01:55:53 PM by 42 »
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Re: Plot Ideas?
« Reply #4 on: August 30, 2003, 05:32:39 PM »
However:

The frames of reference we typically have of both Greece adn Egypt are Bronze age references. The Iliad and the Odyssey, for example, both refer to Bronze armor and shields as the primary weapons.

It may have been widely used by the Hittites, but it was not widely used in the cultures you used for points of reference for us at the same period.

I have 24 hours of lectures on Ancient Greece by Jeremy McInerny (widely known scholar) and another 24 hours on Egypt by Discovery channel regular Bob Brier about this.

Entsuropi

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Re: Plot Ideas?
« Reply #5 on: August 30, 2003, 05:45:25 PM »
Back on topic, i think you could take good inspiration from the Odyssey. And the roman version, the Aeneid. The Aeneid is a boring book btw. The Illiad is pretty low on plot seeds i think, too much of the book is praising each and every hero in the armies involved (all 4000 of them).

Really, go to the classics, since thats where your game is set. Obvious advice i know, but its true.

Some plot ideas off the top of my head:

-> evil mythical creatures are using magic to turn the landscape into roasted wilderness.
-> Tall men with unknown symbols on their armour arrive on the horizon, in their galleys. Chance for RP - will the characters act with hostility or try to negotiate. Make sure the force is a strong challenge, but can be beaten by the characters.
-> One of the gods decides to make life difficult for the characters over some percieved slight.
-> Another god takes romantic interest in a character. Ancient gods didnt like not getting what they wanted. And the ancient greek pantheon didnt like mortal-god romances.
-> A emerging sea volcano threatens to destroy their settlement. They must somehow stop it (think, divine favours).

Sorry so many are revolving around gods, but my Classical Civilisation class in high school was full of them. And so were the stories we studied.
If you're ever in an argument and Entropy winds up looking staid and temperate in comparison, it might be time to cut your losses and start a new thread about something else :)

Fellfrosch

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Re: Plot Ideas?
« Reply #6 on: August 30, 2003, 08:25:15 PM »
I think a lot of stuff I've been planning so far has been around dieties. What I'm looking for are little plots to keep things interesting.

Also, SE, the Greeks and Egyptians used Iron a lot. Mostly for chariot wheels and housing tools. They considered iron to be too heavy for armor or weapons. Which it is. It's not until the steel age that iron really gains any practicality in for warfare. I've got at least few people with PHD's in the evolution of materials backing me on this.
« Last Edit: August 30, 2003, 08:26:02 PM by 42 »
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Entsuropi

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Re: Plot Ideas?
« Reply #7 on: August 30, 2003, 08:49:40 PM »
-> A water spirit (they existed, one appeared in the Oddyssey) takes a disliking to a character as he takes a bath in a river.
-> A philosopher takes up residence and starts to attract the wrath of temple authorities.
-> The goblins recieve backing from Hades
If you're ever in an argument and Entropy winds up looking staid and temperate in comparison, it might be time to cut your losses and start a new thread about something else :)

Fellfrosch

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Re: Plot Ideas?
« Reply #8 on: August 31, 2003, 08:27:05 AM »
Just for background, if i remember right, the classical Greek age ends by the fourth century, when Alexander the Great starts his conquests. This begins the Hellenistic age, which is culturally distinct from Greek. From memory, i can't recall when the age stated.

As for ideas, again go with the classics: A curse is on their city because someone within it (perhaps a PC) as sinned (though you may not want to bring in incest....)
another: a race of creatures live in a cave and think that is their only reality, until one escapes to discover the real world. He is probably perceived as a threat to the surface people, and when he returns he is not believed by his own. the PCs must act as a) intermediaries to keep the visitor from being killed (or perhaps they lead the lynch mob) or b) evidence that the visitor isn't lying/mad when he goes home. Obviously, I'm taking some extreme liberties with Plato's Allegory of the Cave. Plato has a lot of good ideas. There's also the story of the man who finds a magic ring while plowing his field. the ring can turn him invisible, which he then uses to rape the queen, kill the king, and rule the city. somehow the PCs discover the plot and must stop him/convince him to live virtuously.

note: I erased a lot of this because i realized I was just being contentious, and may have even had a number of innaccuracies in my phrasing, it wasn't important anyway.

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Re: Plot Ideas?
« Reply #9 on: September 02, 2003, 01:57:15 PM »
As long as we're raping queens and killing kings, why not give one of the PCs an Oedipal complex?
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Re: Plot Ideas?
« Reply #10 on: September 02, 2003, 08:35:18 PM »
Yeah dig out your old copy of Edith Hamiltons mythology and go to work.  Troy and the events preceeding and following its fall is the best source to plunder ideas from.  But in truth it depends on wether you want it to be a travelling story (quest) or an Urban Story (Curse)
Not that one cant have elements of the other.
Religion and spiteful gods are one angle that you should definately explore.
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