Finding inspiration for adventures

[weckar]

I'm about to run a low-special urban game, where 99% of the population consists of normal humans. Now.... This feels really cool and interesting, but I have no idea how to even begin to create a plot hook for it, or how to get the party together (they are part of the 1%). Is there any material around that you think may inspire me?

[calam]

I would be more comfortable giving you advice if you wrote more about you campaign first. What's the genre? Is it dark or lighthearted, horror or high adventure? My advice is going to be a bit generic because your question is a bit vague. A big factor will be how the society sees that 1%. Do they bring awe to people like superheroes or are they seen as fundamentally different and shunned or even seen as evil, do most people even know about them?

The easiest way to make plot hooks for any sort of campaign is to read up on similar stories for inspiration. Find something a bit similar and see how they do it. Also many tabletop manuals have some plot hooks in it. If you're still stuck you can always look up plot hooks on the internet and if you find one that sounds like something you'd like running put some special touches on it to make it your own.

For getting them together there are many ways that partially depend on the society it takes place in. It could be public training or special group, or if they are ostracized some sort of secret society that they use to band together against those who hate them.

For sources there's a wide variety but it depends on what you're going for. Most world of darkness game lines deal with this to some extent while X-men also has a similar theme to what your suggesting. Even Harry Potter follows the strict definition of a mostly mundane world with some special people.

[Knaight]

The easiest way to make plot hooks for any sort of campaign is to read up on similar stories for inspiration. Find something a bit similar and see how they do it. Also many tabletop manuals have some plot hooks in it. If you're still stuck you can always look up plot hooks on the internet and if you find one that sounds like something you'd like running put some special touches on it to make it your own.

Nonfiction can also work really well. For instance, I'm currently GMing a space opera game. I'm also currently writing a paper on solar radiation management techniques. Several sessions worth of material gets pulled from stuff in the paper, because it works surprisingly well. Sure, the technique probably works better with some genres than others, but it's worth noting.

[Valefor Rathan]

Some of our old standbys are gimmicky 80's movies. Some examples...

Reenact "Die Hard" but have the players be the bad guys (so much fun in Shadowrun)

"Surviving the Game" - players get used as bait during a crazy-wrong big game hunt

"Fool Proof" is another good movie that could lend itself to an RPG setting - a group of friends plan heists for fun (get crazy meticulous in the planning - average time to do the stairs, pick the locks, etc.) and then one of their plans goes missing and some one else pulls of the heist exactly how they planned. Maybe the players are part of the "hey, this could really work" group and have to track down the NPCs who came up with the plan for their next big score.

[Jay R]

For the first adventure, unless they define their characters as already knowing each other, you need several plot hooks. I used the following for a superhero game.

To PC1: Listening to your car radio, you hear about a building on fire downtown.

To PC2: You see a column of smoke to your north.

To PC3: A couple of firetrucks drive by you will their sirens on.

To PC4: Relaxing at home with a good book, you say to yourself, "It certainly is warm in here."