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Jimp
2008-08-26, 02:01 PM
I'm looking for story/plot ideas that have a hidden evil in them, such as the secret beholder cult under the city in BG2 or the lost bunker with monsters in the Penumbra series.
The location is a cold area, sort of like settled areas of Greenland or Alaska, and the setting is Arcanum-style steampunk where there is both technology and magic but the two don't mix. The system is not D&D, probably GURPS or All Flesh Must Be Eaten. A point based system anyway.
Any ideas?

BigPapaSmurf
2008-08-26, 02:05 PM
One module I had used a portal to an icy planet and the cold of the area eminated from there, perhaps you could do the opposite, have a heat source which threatens the stability of the area, glacial dams break, towns washed away and whatnot. Discovering the source of the heat under the ice is the goal, getting there is a major bitch.

Thorosofmyr
2008-08-26, 02:14 PM
This may work. Have them come across a fairly well preserved ruin of an ancient settlement of some sort. There are ruins, statues, half destroyed houses, the like. Eventually this leads to something large and fairly shiny, such as a large luminescent globe or floating crystal.

Once the pcs get close enough, describe them accidentally scratching away a faint rune, or have the very shiny luminescent thing shatter upon contact, releasing all the previous harmless statues to be some kind of locked away race of ultimate evil, or release some kind of hideous evil and all his minions, or reveal a mcguffin that will be of amazing amounts of use later.

I know, it's been done several times before. If frozen statues start moving people will probably call "Wind Waker" on you before too long. With a bit of planning, it could be pretty cool though. Very classic fantasy.

Alternately, aliens.

Tormsskull
2008-08-26, 02:54 PM
Hmmm, you could lift elements from the movie "The Thing". It had a group of workers in an artic settlement uncover a until-recently frozen alien. The alien is able to assume the form of anyone it has killed (I think that's how it worked).

Or, depending on how difficult of decisions you want to give your players, you could have a HUGE creature that is burried underground or under the sea. Then, have a guy who knows about the creature, and the only way to make sure the creature doesn't come to life and destory everything is to sacrifice 1 person every so long to it.

Hmm, I don't have a lot of experience with steampunk, but you could probably adabpt either of those ideas to most any game.

Storm Bringer
2008-08-26, 03:00 PM
hmm....

maybe a splinter sect of a major religion that really dislikes modern tech (aka "amish with fireballs") took up residence in ice fields to escape the hated tech, useing better than normal magic to make the area just about habitable. Slowly, over several generations, the sect becomes more and more extreme in it's feeling about advanced techology, feeling it is a heresy etc.

then players stumble into them, all kitted up with steampunk gear and generally personifying the things that the sect hates.

Hilarity Ensues, as they say.

Jimp
2008-08-27, 10:36 AM
Good ideas so far.
I just remembered that Alien Vs Predator had a similar kind of set up, with the excavation and finding everything.
Any more ideas?

Matthew
2008-08-27, 07:09 PM
An isolted settlement with a dark secret of some sort (such as cannibalism to prolong life, ala X-Files).

Colmarr
2008-08-27, 08:58 PM
An imprisoned god/demi-god/primordial/evil wizard etc.

An ancient war machine awaiting the command to awaken.

An artifact that controls the weather (and has long been set to "snow/ice").

A long-lost expedition (or their corpses) that was carrying something that is vital to current affairs (eg. a signet ring that dis/proves the legitimacy of a claimant for the throne).

A monastery of some sort.

Thrud
2008-08-27, 10:05 PM
Meteorite strike that brings something alien and evil to the planet.

Long lost civilization wakes up after millenia long sleep to reclaim their rightful place from the 'slave race' that has evolved whilst they were 'away'

Deep drilling for oil/geothermal/something else, hits something buried from ancient past/other planet(buried meteor).

Wierd artifact/alien tech, transports PCs to other world where humans are minority and considered tasty.

Computers are taken over by some sort of software (from any of above sources, or simply stupid government), and it decides to learn about humans by playing with them. With nuclear weapons. Leftover wasteland not as pleasant to be in any more. And computer is still there experimenting.

Might be able to be a bit more helpful with a few guidelines.

Kiero
2008-08-28, 06:05 AM
Have you seen S. John Ross' Big List of RPG Plots (http://www.io.com/~sjohn/plots.htm)?