Death Traps and Enemy Bases

[Lisa Padol]

So, yesterday, I ran Cthulhupunk. Parts of it went quite well, parts dragged cuz my pacing was off.

One plot thread involved Evil Villain Master Mind Hanoi Xan (yes, -that- Xan) doing essentially a big distraction while kidnapping an NPC named Lily. He escaped with Lily, naturally, to his Hidden Fortress / Domain.

Now, this thing is part in and part out of the Dreamlands, so I can do some interesting things with the rules of reality. What I want to do is have something with a pulp feel, and death traps, and decadent harems, and danger -- with a villain who is not stupid, but who is pulp to the core, and with plenty of ways for the PCs to do Cool Stuff. I'd not mind if the PCs did not trash the entire enemy base,  though I'm okay if they do. Hm, you know, this could be the "garden of earthly delights" place where assassins in training go to see what their reward for faithful service will be. Hm...

Anyway, where do I get ideas for good death traps -- ones that don't strike players as lame and stupid, but ones that PCs can be ingenious and get out of? Where do I go for good ideas of Secrit Bases, preferably system free? I don't mind enlisting my players' help to make the Secrit Base, but I want to be able to have the whole thing up and running without helpful suggestions so that they don't have to do all the GM's thinking for her.

Am also trying to figure out another kind of villain lair, more high tech, but also with folks who can do magic. Hm, this one seems a bit easier to figure out, probably because I know exactly what I'm doing here -- the bad guys have specific plans and motives that are evil, but make sense. Xan is more pulp than that. He doesn't  make a heck of a lot of sense, so I do a lot more on the fly plotting. I've figured out a few things in retrospect (Ah, powerful NPC X was backing him, which is why he's not dead yet....), but I don't have a great overall picture.

Not that I have to have one. I just want to get an idea of what the PCs should find in Xan's base, er, Xanadu, in terms of clues and resources and dangers (and get an idea how to modify for whatever allies the PCs convince to help them against thie Evil Guy).

[John Kim]

Anyway, where do I get ideas for good death traps -- ones that don't strike players as lame and stupid, but ones that PCs can be ingenious and get out of? Where do I go for good ideas of Secrit Bases, preferably system free?

I'm not sure quite what the setting is, which I imagine would be important for what sort of secret bases are appropriate.  Is this the "Cthulhupunk" setting from "GURPS CthulhuPunk" -- which (as I understand it) is cyberpunk plus Lovecraftian monsters and magic?  From first principles (pulp-ish deathtraps and secret bases), the resources I would turn to would be Daredevils and James Bond 007 adventures (both of which have excellent adventure lines, IMO).

[MachMoth]

I would say, from my personal experience, if your players are into it, they will get out of any death trap, so long as they have a small amount of time to react.  Players are creative sorts.  So much so, that I've given up using traps as a means of directing the plot.  

Example:  Players are on a cargo train, surrounded by guards.  

My Idea: Gas the car, they wake up in evil doers clutches, begins escape plot.

Player's Idea:  Pull out massive rifle he found earlier.  Blow hole in side of train.  Gas is sucked out.  Mook fight ensues.  Players continue to next car.  GM begins mental plot rewrite.

I guess it's a bit of a topic drift, but my advice is focus on the traps being cool, and not how the players will escape.  Leave them some room to work, and they will do the rest.  One of the most fun parts of GMing this kind of game, for me, is seeing what the players come up with.

[Lisa Padol]

Replying to both replies. I'll try to give fuller context later. Basically, I was running my Cthulhupunk campaign long before the SJG supplement was written, and I used a cross between BRPs and RTG's Interlock system. I used no actual cyberpunk modules, but plenty of CoC, and background from NightLife, as well as some V:TM stuff. but not as WoD -- as a few factions and personalities, generally very modified.

So, we've now got high magic, supernatural critters, immortal sorcerers, high tech, bat science, the Dreamlands, the sidhe realms, and other alternate realities known as the Folds.

I also had a brainstorm this morning about how to use all of this to tie the PCs-in-Deathtraps part to the PCs-rescue-people part when I wanted them to see what the villain was trying to do. More on this later -- it lets PCs be more active, generally a Good Thing. Also works in the topos of the fake assassin paradise.

Yes, PCs generally do figure out how to get out of deathtraps. This just means I need to figure out a) how to get them into the deathtraps and b) what deathtraps to use so that the players think it's fun and unlame.

More later, I hope.

[Mike Holmes]

Yes, PCs generally do figure out how to get out of deathtraps. This just means I need to figure out a) how to get them into the deathtraps and b) what deathtraps to use so that the players think it's fun and unlame.

Railroad them into it. It's the only way to be sure. In any case, it's kosher, because the challenge is getting out of the trap. And once they have, getting the bad guy is so much sweeter.

You don't have to make it obvious, but just make it inevitable.

Mike

[clehrich]

One literary model you might look at is the numerous Fu Manchu novels by Sax Rohmer.  The big problem with these is that he very rarely bothers to have the characters fall into the traps; he just has them kidnaped and then they wake up in the trap.  But there are exceptions here and there.  Regardless, the books are fun, and when you want to emphasize the death end of deathtrap, very effective.  Fu Manchu is also quite into biological nasties--killer bugs, snakes, flowers, and fungi especially--which is quite a different direction from the James Bond hyper-technological traps (not that he didn't use killer crabs and squid in the book of Dr. No, but whatever).  Besides, you can always use other means to get people into deathtraps.

There are omnibus editions of all the Fu Manchu novels, but they can be tricky to find.  I haven't seen the Hammer films with Christopher Lee, which ranged quite a ways from the books (no bad thing, really), but I imagine there are lots of good deathtraps there.

Chris Lehrich

[Mike Holmes]

I think that that method is appropriate, Chris.

Would The Prisoner have been good if he'd been allowed a saving roll against the knockout gas and had made it? Ron mentioned the old A4 D&D module recently, again. In that one the players get to a room, and then the GM is just supposed to narrate things going dark as the characters are captured. They wake without their stuff or spells and have to escape. Not much adventure if the players are allowed a die roll.

There are loads of ways to engineer this less heavy handedly - but even these ways work. Just tell the players, "Your character wakes up to the face of Dr. Madness, and notes that he's in a deathtrap." Doesn't matter how they got there.

Mike

[John Kim]

I think that that method is appropriate, Chris.

Would The Prisoner have been good if he'd been allowed a saving roll against the knockout gas and had made it? Ron mentioned the old A4 D&D module recently, again. In that one the players get to a room, and then the GM is just supposed to narrate things going dark as the characters are captured. They wake without their stuff or spells and have to escape. Not much adventure if the players are allowed a die roll.  

While it may be obvious, I would be very careful about this.  While some are okay with it, a lot of players really don't like railroading.  Just because it was used in a D&D module doesn't mean that your players will like it.  

The example of The Prisoner is meaningless.  There are tons of great possibilities for stories which can start from that character and situation.  Suppose he had escaped, and then found out that the agency had betrayed him.  He would have tried to take on the agency, uncovering the conspiracy while desperately avoiding its clutches.  It might have been a very different series -- and would need a different title (maybe "The Fugitive" :-).  You can't say that the series would have been worse if something else happened, because we don't know what that something else is.

I'm not saying don't do it, but at least be wary.

[clehrich]

Now hang on.  I don't have a problem with kidnaping players (or rather, with kidnaping PC's; kidnaping players gets you in legal trouble), and I don't have a problem with scrupulously avoiding doing so either.  All I was saying was that in the Fu Manchu books in particular, it happens so often that it becomes laughable.  As in sometimes 4 or 5 times per book, and these aren't long books.  You can be as heavy- or light-handed as you like about railroading PC's into deathtraps, but I think you're going to find it's more fun not to use the exact same specific method every time.  I mean, in some of the Fu Manchu books, you begin to wonder why people ever approach a car, since every single time they do so they get kidnaped.

Read 'em and you'll see what I mean.  Here's a hint if you live in Fu-world: if you ever see a Eurasian woman or an Asian man, there is about to be an attempt on your life.  If you ever get into a taxi, be damn sure the driver isn't one of these (if female, in disguise), because otherwise you can be 100% sure that knockout gas will be pumped in and you will wake up in a secret laboratory somewhere.

See what I mean?  I was only talking about those books, not really about gaming at all.

Chris Lehrich

[edited to add:] The important exception is that sometimes Eurasian women will fall in love with you simply because of your looks, and in that case they won't usually kidnap you (although they might) and might instead tell you the bad guy's plan.  But if this has happened to a friend of yours any time recently, and it probably has, you're going to die, I promise.  Unless you're Sir Denis Nayland Smith and can't die.

[further edited to add parenthetical about kidnaping PC's rather than players]

[Lisa Padol]

Okay, I'm going to try to give some context. POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR LISA'S CTHULHUPUNKERS -- if you've got to read it, let me know you did.

[Not sure if any of my players do follow this thread, but I know Avram hangs out here a bit.]

The idea I had was that the PCs fight Xan, as they did, learning that he's escaped with the DNPC Lily. Next session, first they go to his base, which I'd not planned on, and then to where the DNPC is. Or at least, that was the plan.

You see the problem? Part I is a red herring. Part II is a deathtrap that escaping doesn't get the PCs further, since Xan's base is not where Lily is. Now, I could change that, but I have reasons for her not being there related to, well, theoretically, Xan's plans, but actually, more the complicated knot of plot threads that is my campaign.

However, Xan's base is in the Folds, a magical area. So, there could be a short cut from there to where Lily is. I might have a helpful NPC tell them "She's thataway" or plant a clue or two, but however I do it, I now have a better structure: Get the PCs into a deathtrap, if possible -- and I have one in mind, though I do like the whole weird plants and animals thing. I'd skim the Fu Manchu books, but I got rid of them after not reading past the first one for years.

So, get PCs into a deathtrap. They get out of the deathtrap, one presumes, and go to where Lily is. It doesn't matter how many miles she is, theoretically; in plot terms, she's around a corner. Okay, so why is where she is linked to where Xan is? Actually, I can almost make that make sense.

Also adding to the mix, you know the story about how the original assassins were shown a faked paradise? I figure this place can also be that, and maybe toss in an extra plot thread or two that I'm stealing from WitchCraft's Book of Hod.

At this point, everything is nicely convoluted, the PCs should get to be active and find stuff out, the main thread connects to another thread I established, and I'm just left with annoying, but dealable practicalities, like statting out bad guys and deathtraps.

The knocking folks unconcscious is an option, maybe -- a lot will depend on how well the players convince me the PCs prepare. And it is possible that they will do something that will bypass Xan's base, though, at this point, that might cost them something -- partly, I admit, because I'm having to go to all this trouble to plan the tanj'd thing. It should be more a missed opportunity than a Bad Stuff Happens kind of thing, if I do that option at all.

So, Fu Manchu. Any other ideas?

One problem with source material, of course, is that what makes a good story to read may make a really annoying story to play a role in. How many campaigns of GURPS Prisoner are there out there?

I wonder if the weird mirror thing from Phantom of the Opera would actually work in play. Pagan Publishing puts it in its Golden Dawn supplement, but in such a way that the odds of PCs actually encountering it are really slim, IIRC.

Hm, if Fu Manchu is available via Project Gutenberg, which book has the most cool suitable for PC deathtraps for the reading time?

[contracycle]

The Evil Overlord web list might be of some use, if only becuase of its comprehensive coverage of death-trap style cliches and how they might be avoided by the intelligent villain.

The simplest trap techique is, of course, bait.  Walking youreself into a deathtrap is the most cutting.  Its even better if it looks suspiciously like a trap first, and they can't find it, and have to go in anyway.

[Lisa Padol]

Thanks for the Evil Overlord suggestion. Meanwhile, here's an  overview that I sent to a friend who gave me a really cool death trap idea, summarized below.

Again, SPOILER WARNINGS FOR ANYONE IN LISA'S CTHLUHUPUNK GAME.

The year is 2023, magic and technology co-exist and everyone knows
it, and the Lovecraftian deities can't touch the earth for some
thousands of years.

The Evil Hanoi Xan has kidnapped Lily, adopted sister of the smuggler
Jin Joo Lee, who has had the temerity to resist acknowledging Xan as
the Head of Crime. Xan escaped with Lily to his secret base, Xanadu,
which is partly in the Folds.

The Folds are a collection of realms that have different rules of
reality from our own. They include the Dreamlands, the Sidhe realms,
and other areas. Think of Xanadu as being like Xan's personal shadow,
in Amber terms. It's not exact, but it's not far wrong. So, the PCs
plan to raid this area, where the laws of reality may or may not
allow their toys to work.

Xanadu is also the Assassin Paradise. You know the old story about
Hassan i-Sabah, the Grandfather of Assassins? He gave his followers a
taste of paradise while they were alive. It is believed that he
drugged them, and put them in a garden which they believed was
paradise, where they indulged in various pleasures of the flesh.
This, he promised them, was but a taste of what awaited them after
death if they were loyal to him. It was a really good incentive for
loyalty to the point of being willing to jump off a cliff at his
word, just so he could demonstrate what he had to his enemies.

Xan may or may not have been Hassan, but that's irrelevant. The
important thing is I've got this Folds realm that doubles as a Garden
of Earthly Delights, and I can have weird plants and animals that can
drug even the undruggable at need. I've ideas about this, but that's
for later.

All right, so Xanadu has the Garden of Earthly Delights and various
deathtraps and things. I am considering it also having a prisoner, a
child boddhisattva who may be the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama or
the Panchen Lama. If so, there may be some Tibetan monks looking for
him, possibly accompanied by Conrad Applebaum, a guy who is repenting
for his part in the death of thousands of people in Boulder,
Colorado. He may have gotten captured by Xan and put in a death trap.
The PCs may or may not trust or want to help him.

Xanadu does not exactly have Lily, however. This gets to a second
plot thread.

Governor Carson of Florida is a Bad Man (TM). He is an important
board member of Disney, and the area is known informally to my
players as The Evil Disney Empire. It's often called Los Disneys. If
you've read Finder, I'd not mind making it more like the place in
King of the Cats. In any case, don't mess with The Mouse.

Governor Carson has two son, Peter and Randall. Young Randall really
believes in the magic of Disney, and saccharine goodness and light.
He's a nice kid.

For a time, Randall was the centerpiece of a magical experiment. He
was hooked to a technomagical machine (not physically) through which
he could control the thoughts -- loyalties and priorities, actually
-- of some people. These people had had their measures taken,
something which normally involves magical control over a physical
body. It can involve control over thoughts, sometimes -- taking a
baby's measure at birth is the best way of doing this. Trouble is,
you get someone who may be very loyal, but who's not very good at
taking initiative or thinking creatively.

With a measure taken and somehow linked to the machine, which is
linked to Randall, the results are different. The victims are
Randall's Special Friends, and want to help Randall and make him
happy. Now, this isn't as gut wrenchingly awful as it could be --
Randall is a nice kid. He doesn't tell his special friends to dance
attendence on him. He might tell a security guard to keep Los Disneys
safe. The guard would now want to do this, and would use his own
initiative and training to figure out how to do this.

Of course, the system is far from perfect. When Firemaker tried to
get someone under Randall's influence to spy for him, Randall told
the person to capture Firemaker (actually worked) and bring the
unconscious PC to him for interrogation. This was not a good idea,
but that's what Randall wanted.

In the course of events, the PCs figured out what was happening and
destroyed the machine. Randall's brother, Peter, learned the full
story from his friend Nicklaos, Firemaker's apprentice, and left Los
Disneys, with Randall.

This should have been the end of the problem. This machine was
created by an artistic technomage, Leona Quirm, or, more accurately,
the plans for it were. It can't be mass produced, and it can really
only work when you have someone like Randall, with a great purity of
vision. Or something.

Now, Lily, Xan's prisoner, is mentally retarded. She's also starting
to get memories of a previous life as a sorceress, so she has the
stirrings of magical potential. In her own way, she would make a
great focus for a new machine.

Xan has taken advantage of his control of Xanadu to brainwash Lily,
and she's been linked into such a machine and given to Governor
Carson as a present. Xan wants the governor as an ally, for reasons
the GM may not have completely worked out, but that's all right.

Now, the original weakness in the plot was that the PCs, who'd
already been screwed over by Xan had first to be screwed over by him
again, only to discover that Lily wasn't there and somehow figure out
where she was and go all over again. A bit repetitive, that. But I
can cut back on this by taking advantage of the fact that Xan's base
is in the Folds. There can be a shortcut to Los Disneys. Heck, the
part of Los Disneys where Lily is being held may be partly in the
Folds.

This is because the Governor, possibly at Xan's instigation -- yes,
this actually gives Xan a reason for the alliance that's almost
coherent -- is doing what Walt Disney tried to do. Disney made a
nightclub of some kind, a secret one, and wired all the tables so he
could spy on his guests. I'm not making this up.

Xan wants Governor Carson to do the same, allowing both of them to
blackmail influential guests. Carson has strong incentive to go along
with this, being in a precarious legal position to begin with. (See
shennanigans with measures and machines above.)

Lily discovered sex about two years ago, and she has none of the
typical repressions. Oh, sure, she understands certain things are
done behind closed doors and all, but she's easily convinced to sleep
with folks who want to sleep with her, and she can have been trained
to ask them certain questions, and maybe have Xan technomagical
implants recording things.

So, she can be like a torch singer type at this nightclub half in the
folds, seducing influential folks, some of whom have the measures
taken in their sleep and wind up linked to the machine, hence to
Lily, who cooperates with Xan and the Governor. Or at least, that's
the plan -- maybe by the time the PCs show up, it has been
implemented at least a little, as the GM takes shameless advantage of
the fact that, y'know, time passes differently in the Folds, so maybe
it's a month later. Or something.

So, the PCs escape deathtraps and either get guided by helpful NPCs
or stumble across clues, like maybe a room with some of Lily's stuff
and a lot of Disney paraphenalia. Regardless, they should wind up in
the nightclub where Lily's performing.

Yes, this is probably very silly. I think it will be fun, though.

There's another couple of threads out there. Remember Governor
Carson's sons? The governor tracked them down and talked to Peter. He
signed off by saying he respected Peter's decision, and Peter should
take care of Randall.

Then, Peter and Randall were grabbed by goons claiming to be from
their father. Peter assumes the governor lied to him. While asleep,
he visited the Dreamlands and asked the PCs to pass a message to his
friends. Said NPC friends visited the governor, who denied everything
and accused Firemaker. Firemaker denied everything, so the friends
assume the governor was lying. Firemaker sent his apprentice, Nick,
to help out, as Peter's friends are also Nick's friends. They start
off in Los Disneys.

The governor actually is innocent of this. Peter and Randall were
grabbed by supernaturals who know what the governor was trying to do
and want to modify it to create happy, pacified human herds. There
are a couple of hitches.

First, Peter's communicated with the outside via dreams. His captors
will probably figure this out and put a stop to it. Of course, Peter
and his friends are working for Hypnos, the god of dreams, and Hypnos
might not like that. Or might not care.

Second, Randall will Catch On. This means that his captors will have
to threaten, rather than cajole him. Randall will cooperate, because
he knows that if he doesn't, monsters will eat his brother. I'm
trying to figure out how this would change what got sent out by the
machine. That is, it'd pick up much fear and helplessness. The
supernaturals might wind up with cowed and fearful herds. That'd be
cool by them.

I presume they'd keep the brothers in separate locations, but I'm not
sure how to go from there. Probably Peter at least thinks he's at his
father's home, given enough illusion and stuff. Hm, yes, they could
be using Blake's portable illusion generator (Matt's PC).

Anyway, the point is that Nick and his friends are on a collision
course with the Governor, who is in the nightclub with Lily, and the
PCs show up. Or, at least, some of them do.

This is where we start getting into specifics, although there are
other factors to cover as well.

Xan has been soundly trounced by bands in the past, so now he has one
working for him. It's called The Elementals, and it has five members.
They have Cool Powers. The PCs know The Elementals work for Xan.
Someone should reveal that one of the "refugees" the submarine picked
up to its detriment last session is actually one of The Elementals.

One group of PCs is in or associated with the band Age of Consent. A
lot of Boston's vampire crowd likes them, as do a lot of the sidhe.

There is an NPC band called Maintain the Edge. And here's where I
could insert the Mai the Psychic Girl digression, but I think I'll
come back to that.

Either the submarine group asks the band group to help or not. If so,
fine. If not, the Elementals may attack or not, depending on whether
I think I've got too much going on or not. But I'm assuming that all
PCs are in Xanadu, for whatever reason.

Okay, death trap or whatever time. I want all of the submarine PCs
winding up in a cooperative death trap, an idea I got from a gamer's
website. Everyone is in some kind of death trap, but anyone can walk
out at any time. The catch is that if one person does it first, it
triggers the trap for all the rest. Everyone has to coordinate to do
it together, which calls for trust and precision. I can have helpful
NPCs intervene if needful, but we'll see what happens.

Dave told me about some anime where there's four people who can
barely hold up a large block. Three can hold it up for long enough
for someone else to hit the switch that will make the rock cease to
be a threat, but the switch triggers a rock that targets the switch
flipper. Only one of the four is fast enough to flip the switch in
time and dodge the rock, but he's the one they don't quite trust. I'm
not sure that's how I want it, but it's cool.

Other possibilities are the suggested multislot guillotine, or having
PCs in separate rooms, but with camera and / or intercom
communication.

The tricky thing may be to separate and/or capture the PCs.

Okay, now there's also Age of Consent. Honggong is the bodyguard. I'm
thinking the logical thing to do is to drug her and have her wake up
with Nick and A Mission.

Nick, you see, has been trying to play with the Governor's head for a
while, and the Governor's about figured this out. Nick winds up
getting hooked up to the machine, details a bit convoluted, but
that's the important bit. Nick's also dating Honggong. Both are good
fighters.

So, they wake up in a Jasmine scenario. That is, they feel fine.
Really, really good. And they know their mission is to protect Lily.
Oh, and have an orgy together with her, if opportunity presents.
(While I think Matt will be amused, given that we'd be starting as
everyone reaches the nightclub, PC sex really is at player's option.)

Laura, Avram's PC, who generates electricity, winds up facing
whichever of the Elementals can absorb it -- I think that's Earth.
Water's the one who generates EMPs. Anyway, Xan twirls his mustache
at her (he can make a speech about vivisection to find out how that
lightning bolt thing works, if it feels like over the top will
actually work here), and she either gets to be clever or gets
released with Xan's technogadgets in her. I'm thinking about setting
her to capture Jay, Beth's PC, depending on the situation. Or maybe
she joins the Jasmine scenario above.

Regina, Josh's PC, is crow shaman, death aspected. Xan is also death
aspected. I may be able to do something interesting there. Or have
Regina be the one to find the passage to the nightclub. That might be
best -- either cut there, and focus on Firemaker till everyone
catches up, or let Regina play until backup comes. Hey, she might go
back and get the others, like she did last session.

That leaves Jay, which gets kind of complicated, so I'll save that
till after considering two side issues.

Drugging Honggong: Norgroids aren't easy to drug, Honggong is young.
Xan has stuff she's not been exposed to, and hence has not built up
an immunity to. And I've been told that Fu Manchu used lots of
poisonous flowers and things. So, either Honggong shows up in the
Garden of Earthly Delights in Xanadu, and is given or surrounded by
these flowers and passes out, or Nick, possessed by a daemon or
something like that, takes her to the Garden -- no, we can leave that
out. It's overly convoluted. He brings her flowers. Same result.

Nick and Measures: Nick's an apprentice shaman, which means his
measure can't really be taken against his will. But, he can be
tricked into giving his consent. So, if approached by Lily and asked
if he will help her and do what she needs, he'd say yes. He knows who
Lily is and that she's Xan's prisoner.

I may make it more convoluted yet. Daemons are horned creatures from
another dimension who moved to ours because theirs was icky. They can
possess folks. One of these, Sleek Annie, is fairly nasty, trying to
stay one step ahead of the daemonic elders and the PCs, and is also
loosely allied with Governor Carson. She's powerful enough she can
read the memories of those she possesses, so she could do this to
Nick, making it really clear to the Governor how much Nick's been
trying to play him for a fool. Then, leave his body and have Nick see
Lily, either when they're both apparently (and, well, actually)
prisoners, or let Nick think he's somehow fought his way to
consciousness and freedom from possession for the moment, and have
Lily ask for his help as above.

The reason to go for the more convoluted method is to a) give the
governor more of a reason to agree to mess with Nick and b) work in a
clue about Annie still being around. But this may be an unnecessary
layer.

Jay, Beth's PC, is a genetic construct. Basically, she's Mai the
Psychic Girl, without the absurd powers. No, she's just got enhanced
senses, a gift for language, sorcerous talent, and a bit of TK. And
allergies. And some shamanic training. And, unknown to most, a weird
kind of MPD, and a powerful spirit inside her. Hm, what was I saying
about the absurd powers?

Someone is trying to kill Jay. She thinks it is someone from Purity,
the Nazi conspiriacy that helped create her, and she knows there must
be others like her, if not as successful. The primary scientist --
whom she liked despite herself -- on the project is dead. Most of
Purity is in jail -- as in, there may be half a dozen or so folks
left.

One of these is actually trying to protect Jay's kids. She donated
eggs to a lot of people about a year ago, not yet being ready to be a
mother herself. Anyway, this Purity guy isn't after her. None of them
are.

Nope, Turm Garten is trying to kill Mai. Er, I mean, musician
Barcleigh Garten, aka The Tuner, with band Maintain the Edge. She's
another result of the project, resentful of anyone who was more
successful. She's got math, perfect pitch, and a sense of, um,
spacial stuff.

She's highly protective of Arenel, from OTE's Friend or Foe. In
Cthpk, he's a failed Purity experiment. Autistic, but does
precognitive sketches. Maintain the Edge has adopted him.

Xan is highly interested in the results of Purity's experiments. He
acquired one, and I'm naming him after the Vietnamese Psychic Boy
from Mai. He does sonic screams.

Xan wants the others. He might wind up with Jay, Arenel, and
Barcleigh. In this case, Barcleigh will help Jay. She doesn't want
anyone else killing Jay.

If Jay mentions the assassination attempts, Barcleigh will claim to
have had some of those too. It may even be true.

I just read China Mieville's King Rat. There's a pied piper character
there who tries to affect a guy who's part rat. He can only affect
one kind of creature with his pipe. But recorded music works fine,
and he can lay down multiple tracks. So, he can command people and
rats at the same time. But this doesn't work on the half rat. He's
not just a + b.

Barcleigh and Windchyme have figured out a way to do this sort of
thing, using Windchyme's flute. It only works on folks who are pure
human -- or pure something else. Mongrels are safe.

I think this dovetails nicely with part of the Dark Inheritance RPG
that I'm stealing -- the idea that the "godgene" comes about when one
has the opposite of racial purity.

Anyway, so Maintain the Edge plays around with this and gets all
kinds of attention. There's folks from the book King Rat, who want to
stop the Piper from rising. There's folks who like the idea of
controlling people, and folks who like the idea of detecting purity.
So, Barcleigh may have had assassination attempts.

If Age of Consent doesn't try to help raid Xanadu, there might be a
huge battle of the bands -- the Elementals going against AoC and MtE,
with Jay, Barcleigh, and Arenel as the real targets. Probably happens
in Seattle.

Frostbite, a werewolf, knows that Arenel, Barcleigh, and Jay all
smell similar. Barcleigh tried to kill him with Windchyme's music for
having the nerve to be interested in Arenel. Frostbite tried to take
the kid off the island -- he could use a precog. He didn't raise a
fuss when stopped, and Arenel kind of likes him. That just enrages
Barcleigh the more.

Barcleigh might be satisfied if Jay acknowledges she's the best and
agrees to serve her. Not real likely to happen. Barcleigh might try
to kill folks Jay cares about. Like the FBI agent Jay's in love with,
Ron. I didn't mean to name Ron after Mai's puppy. Honest. It just
happened.

Maybe if Jay and Ron are in enough danger, their not happening
relationship will finally click. The players would all like that.

This doesn't begin to get into Nick being Prince of the Hyperoi, or
his and Peter's friends being the sons and daughters of influential
folks, or the Seminole, or anything like that, but it's enough for
now.

We'll see how it all actually goes.

[Lisa Padol]

Well, Dave found me some cool cooperative death traps. Let me know if anyone wants me to pass on his suggestions. These all require active player participation, but are not difficult in terms of figuring out what needs to be done. Whee!

[AnyaTheBlue]

Dunno how much time or interest you have, but the finest compendium of deathtraps, ever, is probably the Grimtooth's Traps line from Flying Buffalo.  I have no idea if these are still in print, but I know that my FLGS has one or two of them lying about still.

I didn't read through all the context posts, but I assume you're talking about Buckaroo Banzai's arch-nemesis, right?  One question:  are you my long lost twin sister or something?

I ran (for awhile, till my brother finished his postdoc and moved away) a pulp-inspired "lost/alternate world" SF game using homebrew CoC/BRP rules.  Parallel dimensions, a lost mad scientist, and "Paladins of Shambahla" who had jedi-like powers.  The PCs included a Farmer (neighbor of the aforementioned missing scientist), a US Senator (whose small plane had the misfortune of plowing into a field near the missing professor's farmhouse), and a Professor of Anthropology.

And B. Banzai is one of my favorite movies of all time...

Weird coincidence.

[Lisa Padol]

Dunno how much time or interest you have, but the finest compendium of deathtraps, ever, is probably the Grimtooth's Traps line from Flying Buffalo.  I have no idea if these are still in print, but I know that my FLGS has one or two of them lying about still.

I didn't read through all the context posts, but I assume you're talking about Buckaroo Banzai's arch-nemesis, right?  One question:  are you my long lost twin sister or something?

Huh. I don't know -- are you going to be at Origins or GenCon? We can check.

Grimtooth's Traps were challenging to use because they were often incredibly deadly and counterintuitive. I think I'm going for one particular trap Dave recommended to me that is not likely to be solved in 2 seconds, but not likely to frustrate the players unduly. My goal here is to give them a problem that they have fun with. Will give details after I run the session -- Dave told me to look at strategy guides for certain types of video / computer rpg games.

There was a great Buckaroo Banzai larp at GenCon Indy last year. The good guys got creamed -- I was Penny Banzai and I got killed by Hanoi Xan. It was a blast.