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View Full Version : Turning a bland adventure into a fluffy one



Thrawn4
2019-10-30, 03:10 PM
So I am starting a new campaign tomorrow featuring a custom cyberpunk setting, and I devised the plot/outlined the situation for the first session.
And than I realized that it felt bland because it might as well take place in the present, no need for cyberpunk.
So I created a mindmap with all the points that form a stark contrast to our reality, and I quickly realized that a few changes would add a lot of flavour.

Are there other ways that you know of that help you to add the right kind of fluff?

Tvtyrant
2019-10-30, 03:52 PM
Lots of setting stuff can change the feeling of a setting. I read a comic called Plush and Blood once which was essentially frankenstein-punk with body modifications and undead, but everyone was a stuffed animal so stitching creatures together was more normal then in reality.

Instead of piercings or tattoos changing the kinds of body modifications helps with the feeling of the world, as do different cultural inefficiencies. Like all computers being immobile kiosks instead of cellphones, or built into people's heads so texting is basically telepathy.

Lvl45DM!
2019-10-30, 09:31 PM
So I am starting a new campaign tomorrow featuring a custom cyberpunk setting, and I devised the plot/outlined the situation for the first session.
And than I realized that it felt bland because it might as well take place in the present, no need for cyberpunk.
So I created a mindmap with all the points that form a stark contrast to our reality, and I quickly realized that a few changes would add a lot of flavour.

Are there other ways that you know of that help you to add the right kind of fluff?

The important thing about cyberpunk is really more the punk than the cyber. Make sure the world is suitably miserable and dirty.

Another thing to do is instead of going "how are tattoos really different" you ask yourself how incredibly strange things are actually normal. In a dungeon punk book I read, the main character was flying a passenger dragon to the city controlled by basically illithids and started to pray for a safe landing by cutting herself and chanting over the blood which lead the lizard woman air hostess to ask her to "Please cease all prayers, invocations and rituals while the dragon is descending." Normalize that which is normal in this world.

Anxe
2019-10-30, 09:55 PM
My usual method to spice up an adventure is to make one of the NPCs have a previous relationship with one of the PCs. Family, romance, business, friend, doesn't really matter. It increases the tension because the shared history with that person that either clearly motivates the player or it gives them a good internal conflict to explore.

Thrawn4
2019-10-31, 04:31 AM
The important thing about cyberpunk is really more the punk than the cyber. Make sure the world is suitably miserable and dirty.
...
Normalize that which is normal in this world.
I agree, and the second bit is a nice idea. Thanks.



My usual method to spice up an adventure is to make one of the NPCs have a previous relationship with one of the PCs.
I like that one, too. It also decreases the pressure for the GM because the players contribute to the setting. Cheers.

Lorsa
2019-10-31, 10:14 AM
Insert some kittens and puppies, that will make it more fluffy?

Sorry, couldn't resist with such a topic title...

Jay R
2019-10-31, 08:47 PM
The creators of The Big Bang Theory once said that if a script could be used for any other show, then it wasn't a good script for The Big Bang Theory.

Don't add fluff. If you do that, you still have a scenario that might as well take place in the present, no need for cyberpunk.

Start with the fluff you want, and build a plot or situation that cannot occur without that fluff.

Thrawn4
2019-11-03, 04:28 PM
Start with the fluff you want, and build a plot or situation that cannot occur without that fluff.

That's certainly something to keep in mind, thanks.