Post Apocalyptic Plot hooks

[Broccoli21]

I am running a GURPS sandbox game. Here's some preliminary info:

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GURPS-about 100 years into the future

Humanity has spent majority of this time feuding over resources, and a utopia was set up on another system, named Oracle. After a bit, the world started freezing over for no apparent reason (alien terraforming ) and civil war broke. A few factions came from the chaos: the imperium (cliche republic of man), the brotherhood of the waning sun (quasi religious super-tech terrorist group, now fractured into sects), the PDA (freedom fighters), and the blood-blade clan (nomadic raiders). The world is now a fractured dying shell of what it once was. In the main city, the old imperium still tries to hold on to control as rioters and anarchists cripple the utopia further and blah blah blah...the pcs enter at different points (via solo sessions), and will have to fight for survival.

types of tech: lasers, railguns, liquid body armor, long duration spaceflight (no hyperspace) prototype particle beams and invisibility

PCs:
-brotherhood saboteur
-Corporation mining engineer
-Imperium mercenary police officer
-poor PDA rebel soldier

Other groups:
-rebellious robots
-aliens that froze the world over
-mutants from rouge alien bio-nanotechnology (either psychotic or zombified)
-mutant worshiping cult

notes:
-its gritty. very gritty
-aliens can control electric fields
-There is a constant need for uranium rods and deuterium for power
-This is sandbox, where i dont shove plots down the throats of my players.
-I'm not a very experienced DM

My question is: what are some suggestions for plot hooks that can be derived from this setting? I am just looking for some suggestions as to how to immerse my players in this world. I know a lot of you guys are experienced DMs, and I would like to learn to be a better DM.
Thanks in advance!

[Broccoli21]

really? nobody?

[Suropej]

For post-apocalyptic I'm always a fan of the Interplay Fallout Series : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout_(series)

They have plenty of cool little things to do, but maybe no over-arching plot hook.


Maybe you could have some rumors about a heat-generator that can hold the ice terraforming at bay so that a city can persist in the middle of an ice-wasteland. It could be a set of several geneators that can be placed to cover a substantial area. They could also breakdown later in the game and need to be fixed before the ice consumes what little life was scraping out a living under the heated protection of the generators.

That's just one suggestion, I guess.

[Math_Mage]

Wait, you've got the Imperial police officer in the same party as the terrorist and the freedom fighter? Please tell me the officer is on the take somehow.

Possibilities:
-A mysterious buildup of robot forces is occurring somewhere near town. Each faction sends its respective PC for different reasons--the Imperium thinks of it as just another law-and-order problem, the Corporation and Brotherhood each decide it takes technicians to deal with technology, and the PDA can't really be bothered but has to make a show of reacting to the problem for the people's benefit. After some exciting preliminary fights/investigation, the PCs discover that the robots are massing to attack, not humanity, but the aliens (who the PCs presumably didn't know about). The robots have picked up the alien footprint using advanced sensory technology unavailable to humans, and have decided to take out what they regard as the bigger threat first. If you make the robots a little bit sympathetic, the PCs have a right little dilemma on their hands--do they try to befriend/aid the robots, or do they try to subvert the potential robot revolution and bring the information about aliens back to humanity? This may not be sandboxy enough for your tastes.

-*insert force here* is threatening the supply of uranium/deuterium. Maybe the mutants are annoyed about the radiation or something. The PCs can try to take out *insert force here* before they can carry out their threat, or they can try to defend the supply against *insert force here*. If they fail, then there's a quest to find a new supply of uranium/deuterium.

Just some thoughts.

[Lev]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114367/