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athelindSongs and song titles make great adventure seeds. In the past, I've had GMs who constructed entire campaigns around albums by Jethro Tull or King Crimson.
It's especially appropriate for comic book games -- Stan Lee loved to play on pop music for his story titles. The right combination of words and the songs they describe can suggest entire, baroque scenarios. It's kind of like the way Silver Age DC (and Golden Age Pulp SF) editors would commission a cover, hand it to a writer, and say, "I need a story to go with this."
The questions to ask when you try this:
So, LiveJournal HiveMind, Your Obedient Serpent has the request lines open: give me song titles that you think would make good adventures, particularly superhero adventures.
Don't feel like you have to be obvious, but don't feel like you have to be obscure, either. "Eve of Destruction" is obvious; "Winds of Change", a bit less; "I Don't Like Mondays" sounds like a Garfield punchline unless you know the song and the story behind it.
Give me titles; if you feel like it, give me the scenarios that come to mind when YOU hear them -- or just toss them down as a challenge.
My players all read this, so I'm screening replies!
*"But that trick never works!"
It's especially appropriate for comic book games -- Stan Lee loved to play on pop music for his story titles. The right combination of words and the songs they describe can suggest entire, baroque scenarios. It's kind of like the way Silver Age DC (and Golden Age Pulp SF) editors would commission a cover, hand it to a writer, and say, "I need a story to go with this."
The questions to ask when you try this:
- What kind of scenario does the title suggest?
- Does it describe an event? An adversary? An ally or a victim? Just a general mood or theme?
- How much of the song itself can I lift to help flesh out the adventure?
So, LiveJournal HiveMind, Your Obedient Serpent has the request lines open: give me song titles that you think would make good adventures, particularly superhero adventures.
Don't feel like you have to be obvious, but don't feel like you have to be obscure, either. "Eve of Destruction" is obvious; "Winds of Change", a bit less; "I Don't Like Mondays" sounds like a Garfield punchline unless you know the song and the story behind it.
Give me titles; if you feel like it, give me the scenarios that come to mind when YOU hear them -- or just toss them down as a challenge.
My players all read this, so I'm screening replies!
*"But that trick never works!"
no subject
Date: 2012-03-09 01:47 am (UTC)The premise I came up with was that an ancient alien mad scientist (of course) had invented a spaceborne virus that caused junk DNA to activate, with some controls, which tended to transform people into animal-like versions of themselves. The virus was rolling across the Milky Way, and was dominant in the Andromeda galaxy as well. Primarily, it was an excuse to run a humans-and-furries campaign.
The scientist (who might be dead, or maybe preserved in some form, but obviously couldn't have lived as long as the virus has existed) had intended to "teach them all a lesson", but the nature of his lesson was not exactly known, as he had issued a written press release and then retired, vanishing to never be seen by the intergalactic public thereafter. So part of the campaign would have revolved around dealing with the virus (if the players want to) and maybe tracking down the guy who made it to get a cure (if one exists).
It was basically an open-form plan, with lots of opportunity to just go have adventures and even ignore the obvious Main Plot and go screw around on a backwater planet or join a spaceship race around a solar system, or play politics, or whatever.