   Help with the main plot (sci-fi fantasy RPG)
  EDIT1 - The purpose of this thread has changed, so this beginning post has been edited to reflect, somewhat.EDIT2 - I am not a writer. I am NOT a writer. OK, now read on..Around the year 2150 or so, magic is discovered (harsh? Well, found, invented, created, something) by a scientist. He finds that the element which drives all living things is linked together through life on the earth (karma, energy, spirit, drive, something) and can be conjured up to do one's bidding by using one's own link to the element.Paley: "The great energies of nature are known to us only by their effects."Once he realizes what fame his discovery could bring him, he decides to keep it to himself until he learns enough about the element to ensure proper credit. One thing leads to another, and eventually he decides that he is the only one fit to control this kind of power.The rest of the world (country, government, whichever) soon learns of the discovery, and of the scientist's mad-driven plans to keep it to himself. And of course they want their share, and don't want a superpower taking over. What starts off as a simple assualt turns into a huge war. The battle rages on. Some of the attackers are convinced to cross to the scientists side, through promises of eternal life and supreme power. He soon realizes, however, that keeping such a massive force at bay is impossible. The scientist eventually snaps, and unleashes a terrible plague on his attackers, draining them of life, turning them into brainless, adrenaline pumped zombies.The plague spreads quickly, turning anyone with chemical contact into one of the dead. The brainless victoms, motivated with pure rage, attack anything and everything in sight. The virus continues it's path of death, first through the continent, then the world.Now, pretend there is some inspiring plot lines here about how most of the world's life was destroyed, but some survived.The game takes place LONG after this time (about 500 - 1000 years). Zombies still somewhat rule the earth, though their numbers have deminished drastically. The few groups of people who survived the plague had to wall themselves off from the rest of the world, and eventually grew into walled in cities, with somewhat reasonable size (10-50 people in each, then add 10 generations).The world has reverted to medieval / bronze age / cavemanish, with each new self-sustained culture being unique in it's mix-match keep of knowledge. The rest of the world is in ruins. Anything that would burn or rot is gone. Misleading skyscrapers still reach into the sky, with plant life braided around everything. The magic having been unbalanced, has changed some aspects of nature. Things that were once not possible have been given license.The scientist (who obviously doesn't have a name) and his lackies formed a new society for his followers, built to withstand the zombie attacks, and to allow them to live peacefully. This city will by far be the largest, and the most advanced. It will be very comercialized, but imperialist and corrupt.The ideas in my head are much more inspiring, but I haven't worked out enough details to complete it yet. The scientist is almost immortal, being able to semi-control life force energy, it's easy for him to keep himself and his lackies from aging. He does not, however, care or help the citizens of the city. He doesn't force them to live in hardship, but also wouldn't blink to save their lives. In other words: he doesn't give a damn.The story has TONS of holes, and is totally incomplete.Ideas are WELCOME, even if you have a one-liner.And ask away if more info is needed.To make sense of the first replies, the first purpose of the thread was to find a way to incorperate magic into items that exist in the world, without having the scientist create them.[edited by - Jiia on February 18, 2004 3:40:59 AM]
  How about this: a co-worker of him who helped to discover the secret of magic didn''t go mad and helped the goverments/U.N. to battle the evil scientist for a while, by creating magical items supporting them. However, the evil scientist had superior powers to  his good ex-co-worker and destroyed him. Or he might even have sacrificed himself to weaken the bad one or seomthing equally dramatic. ;  Or maybe the artifacts are weaker items of power that the scientist made and distributed to demonstrate his power before his turning mad. He could have done it to stay the hand of the U.N but it failed. ;  First off, how common do you want to make magic items?  Is it going to be like traditonal RPGs where you find a new full set of magic gear in every dungeon?  Or is going to be a more realistic approach where magic items are so rare that they are treasured and passed down through family lines.  Where a single magic pistol is enough of a power base for tribe to control all its thoughs around them?ideas for the source of magic items:1)When the scientist waged his war he created an army and armed them with mystical items. after 500 years all those items have been lost and spread out across the globe.2)When the scientist caused the Necro Pulse(created the zombies) It used some much magic that the entire area and everything in it was contaminated with mystical radiation.  Magic items are a byproduct of this incident since anything made from contaminated matrials possess magical powers.3)Mystical leaking. Since the scientist first discovered the source of magic it has been steadily leaking into the world. Over the  last few decades its built upt to a sufficent level that it effects  some people allowing them to work magic on an subconsious level. -----------------------------------------------------Writer, Programer, Cook, I''m a Jack of all TradesCurrent Design projectChaos Factor Design Document ;  Quite simple, really.  Some governments discover magic in the final days of the war, but it''s not advanced enough to save them, and they''re all exterminated.  The byproducts of this research are the items, which the scientist felt at the time were of too little importance to dispose of.Actually, one could generalize this and say that many people have rediscovered magic, over the years, but they''re all detected and executed before being able to mount a campaign against the scientist.Or, the scientist gives these artifacts to bodyguards, who guard him as he sleeps.  Over the years, some are stolen, some are taken off the bodies of dead (naturally and unnaturally so) guards.  Perhaps an organized resistence exists to smuggle small quantities of these out of the city. ;  You can have sci-fi, OR fantasy. Don''t mix genres if you don''t know what you are doing. Your proposal was a somewhat common sci-fi. Read books. Don''t abuse Shadowrun.;  TechnoGoth -> Wow. Those are great ideas. So great that I''m not sure which is best. The magically enchanted items will be rare, and most will be found exploring (although to be realistic, some people would have to already have some of them).I think I like your third idea. I want most of the magical items to be primitive or medieval. I''m not so much into the idea of enchanted guns and such. A lot of the game will take place outside of the city, and no one will really know the city exists. They just know of a large wall area where people die violently from spinning turrets.Anonymous -> Huh?"Don''t mix genres if you don''t know what you are doing."Is this some kind of rule? I was really looking forward to using race cars with magical elvin drivers racing against cavemen around a shopping mall. But the cavemen have Nitrous installed, and have a good chance."Your proposal was a somewhat common sci-fi."Then how am I mixing anything?"Don''t abuse Shadowrun"I''m totally lost. Shadowrun isn''t medieval. It''s mytholical. And how would that be abuse anyway? I love playing games similar to Shadowrun. Any fan would.Thanks for all of the help. I''m still trying to decide the most believable route for this.Jiia ;  A lot of good ideas have been put forth here.I, for one, would be hesitant to go balls-out with the bronze age scenario.  I''d envision something more along the lines of Fallout.  Surely the books and knowledge of metallurgy, engineering, and chemistry is still around enough for some kind of technological standard.  Gunpowder is easy to make, with the right know-how, and steel isn''t much tougher.  Electricity could be produced, and if you''re going the "mystical infusion" route that Technogoth suggested, you could have bizarre magical alloys and other things going on that would make for highly stylized technology.  But maybe you''re looking for a more D&D sort of setting.  Try this:In the DC universe, Star Man was a scientist who performed an experiment which brought astrological magic to Earth.  It had subtle effects on things.  For instance, a man who falls into a vat of radioactive goo might get eyeball lasers instead of bone cancer, or a misguided and empirically doomed physics experiment might yield the secret of teleportation, instead of wasting a few million tax dollars.  Little gizmos that shouldn''t have been worth the tin they were stamped out of would generate anti-gravity fields, and so superheroes and utility belts started to pop up all over the world.  Maybe you could do something like that.Here''s a quick example:  The magic that leaks into the world changes the metaphysical nature of existence.  Certain chemical processes no longer happen, so gunpowder doesn''t work as well, but at the same time, a pair of boots with shiny gold wings will make you run faster, and a mutated spider produces silk that, when collected and spun into clothing, renders the wearer invisible.  And so the science books are still around, but less useful, and new technology has to be developed.  Mysteriology is the new field, and the scientific method is used to learn about magic. A language of runes is the formulaic representation of their findings, and can be used to invoke magical events.This way, you''ve got your fantasy setting, and you can customize your world as you see fit.  Just have the whole shebang be modified by magic.  People that might have had cystic fibrosis in our world will turn out to have lycanthropy in this new one.  Sickle-cell anemia will manifest as gills, and muscular dystrophy turns into telekinesis.  These things are hereditary, and so you could have people with a congenital predisposition toward animal kinship, just as i have a congenital predisposition toward Diabetes. ;  Iron Chef Carnage said "I, for one, would be hesitant to go balls-out with the bronze age scenario"I can see where you're coming from. But there is also the fact that psychopathic zombies cover the majority of the earth. It's not that technology isn't out there, it's just really hard to reach. The people who have survived had to shut themselves off from the rest of the planet. Some people would of course keep trying to fight the dead to regain some freedom, so some mini-cultures would be more advanced in technology than others.The current thought is that there are very few groups of people left at all. Probably around 5-10 small towns / forts will exist in the game area. Those small areas will be extremely defended, day and night. Not like Fallout, where you can just walk outside.Anyways, as I was saying, each small culture will be unique in it's achievements. It's not hard for me to imagine that some will have had very bad luck. And given that so much time has passed, it seems possible that they would have reverted to chopping weapons, especially since these weapons are more effective against the dead.And thanks very much for your ideas, to everyone. The more options I have, the easier it will be to piece my mess together somehow.Jiia   [edited by - Jiia on February 14, 2004 3:37:44 PM];  Whoa, whoa, whoa.  5-10 small towns/forts?  How small?  Are we talking ghettos of the evil super-city?  Tribal villages?  Medieval cities?  What''s the world population, not including zombies?  You but a thousand people in each city, you''ve got a low population density.I suppose it could work, though.  But how do you explain the magilopolis?  Do people know where it is?  Is it a center of myth?  Are there bone-and-meat humans working for the bad guy?  Does he try to exterminate/capture the survivors?  How big is this game world?A quick note, I think you should try to make the zombie plague less virulent.  You''d need some hardcore defenses to keep the hordes from touching you, especially if you''re killing them with a bronze axe.It''s not a bad idea, all things considered, but you should probably put some more thought into it, and rennovate and refine the whole deal.  There''s lots of potential, but it''s still too nebulous for really helpful comments. 