Silus
2015-04-01, 06:53 AM
Okay so the title isn't 100% accurate but it's the best I could come up with on short notice.
So I've got this idea that I want to use for a homebrew setting I'm working on and, while I've a good idea how it would work in, say, a story or a book, I don't know how I can turn it from a literary idea into something for the PCs to interact with on a meaningful level.
It basically breaks down like this (I apologize for any disjointed storytelling on my part):
The world is recovering from an apocalypse that decimated civilization about 1000 years previous (Think Fallout but with magic mixed in to the nukes and such). One of the major players/organizations was a company called Aspis Robotics that started out building rather benign robots (service robots, medical robots, etc) and later in the war that brought about the apocalypse began producing constructs for war.
Anyway, big powerful company that, on the surface simply made very popular robots (It was like the Apple of the robotics market in terms of size and influence). Under the surface, the practices were...less than ethical. Experimentation with binding souls to robotic shells, biological tampering, biomechanics, invasive cybernetics, almost like a magitech version of Japan's Unit 731 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731). Baaaaad stuff all around.
Deeper under the surface though, Aspis Robotics, through numerous shell and puppet companies, blackmail, magic, and possible fiendish pacts, were the ones that kicked off the apocalyptic war in the first place, all under the instruction of the company's CEO for his own purposes.
Anyway, that's the bare bones version (I'll elaborate more if asked). Evil corporation that Machiavelli'ed their way into a Fallout scenario for their own unknown goals and succeeded in bringing about the end of the world as people (at the time) knew it. Which is good for backstory, but I want to try and get the players involved in the intrigue and whatnot. The whole learning about what the company is, how far their control went, hints that they were responsible for starting the massive wars and what, after 1000 years, their next move is and possibly a way to stop them.
Soooo...I guess suggestions on general plot hooks, advice on how to pace the hints and clues, suggestions for an "end game", etc.
I suppose I'm mostly looking for people to bounce ideas off of...
Edit:
Feel that I should address this (and I'll edit the OP as well) is that in the setting there were...sorta two apocalypse, with the first one engineered (mostly, maybe) by a group of well intentioned deities at the 1000 year mark. Essentially the world (and solar system) was forced outside of reality (or over a dimension and a half) to starve out a good deal of the jerk'ish Greek-God style deities.
The second apocalypse began and lasted a bit longer into the 1000-year span (lasting ~100-200 years or so) and mostly consisted of the nations of the world killing each other out of blame for the majority of the gods vanishing/dying. More of a traditional apocalypse comprising of high end magic and megaspells, proper munitions and nuclear weapons.
The setting is what I term as "Post-Post Apocalyptic" in that the apocalypse has happened and gone, and the survivors have pulled them out of the Fallout/Book of Eli/Mad Max Post-Apocalypse and have begun the process of creating civilization and nations and such once more. So like...(then) High-Tech robots, spacecraft + magic => (less then) Fallout => (now) Eberron.
There is a link to the setting information in my signature with the current setting history in the "Fluff" document.
So I've got this idea that I want to use for a homebrew setting I'm working on and, while I've a good idea how it would work in, say, a story or a book, I don't know how I can turn it from a literary idea into something for the PCs to interact with on a meaningful level.
It basically breaks down like this (I apologize for any disjointed storytelling on my part):
The world is recovering from an apocalypse that decimated civilization about 1000 years previous (Think Fallout but with magic mixed in to the nukes and such). One of the major players/organizations was a company called Aspis Robotics that started out building rather benign robots (service robots, medical robots, etc) and later in the war that brought about the apocalypse began producing constructs for war.
Anyway, big powerful company that, on the surface simply made very popular robots (It was like the Apple of the robotics market in terms of size and influence). Under the surface, the practices were...less than ethical. Experimentation with binding souls to robotic shells, biological tampering, biomechanics, invasive cybernetics, almost like a magitech version of Japan's Unit 731 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731). Baaaaad stuff all around.
Deeper under the surface though, Aspis Robotics, through numerous shell and puppet companies, blackmail, magic, and possible fiendish pacts, were the ones that kicked off the apocalyptic war in the first place, all under the instruction of the company's CEO for his own purposes.
Anyway, that's the bare bones version (I'll elaborate more if asked). Evil corporation that Machiavelli'ed their way into a Fallout scenario for their own unknown goals and succeeded in bringing about the end of the world as people (at the time) knew it. Which is good for backstory, but I want to try and get the players involved in the intrigue and whatnot. The whole learning about what the company is, how far their control went, hints that they were responsible for starting the massive wars and what, after 1000 years, their next move is and possibly a way to stop them.
Soooo...I guess suggestions on general plot hooks, advice on how to pace the hints and clues, suggestions for an "end game", etc.
I suppose I'm mostly looking for people to bounce ideas off of...
Edit:
Feel that I should address this (and I'll edit the OP as well) is that in the setting there were...sorta two apocalypse, with the first one engineered (mostly, maybe) by a group of well intentioned deities at the 1000 year mark. Essentially the world (and solar system) was forced outside of reality (or over a dimension and a half) to starve out a good deal of the jerk'ish Greek-God style deities.
The second apocalypse began and lasted a bit longer into the 1000-year span (lasting ~100-200 years or so) and mostly consisted of the nations of the world killing each other out of blame for the majority of the gods vanishing/dying. More of a traditional apocalypse comprising of high end magic and megaspells, proper munitions and nuclear weapons.
The setting is what I term as "Post-Post Apocalyptic" in that the apocalypse has happened and gone, and the survivors have pulled them out of the Fallout/Book of Eli/Mad Max Post-Apocalypse and have begun the process of creating civilization and nations and such once more. So like...(then) High-Tech robots, spacecraft + magic => (less then) Fallout => (now) Eberron.
There is a link to the setting information in my signature with the current setting history in the "Fluff" document.