Explosive Plots
Hello everyone and welcome to Grave Plots in EXPLOSIONS! week! As always, I’m here to bring you some good plot hooks and adventure ideas to get your game going in a pleasant direction. Below are some short and sweet hooks to get your game started with a bang.
The Random Explosion
This is one of my personal favorite hooks, because it gets the PCs straight to being involved with the action with only minimum work on the part of you, the DM. Fairly simple to execute, this hook basically consists of two parts: the EXPLOSION! and the aftermath, with the first being the hook and the latter the adventure. The real advantage of the random explosion hook lies in its versatility – you can use the random explosion hook to start any number of adventures. It all depends on the situation surrounding the explosion and the sort of aftermath you want. Here are some examples of how to use the random explosion hook.
The Market Bomb
The PCs are traveling through a crowded market when they pass a large lavish storefront which suddenly explodes with a tremendous force. From here it’s largely up to you to decide what kind of aftermath to include, but this hook is ideal for aftermath the PCs have to deal with immediately. Some ideas include: a pair of obviously opposing factions fighting it out in the ruins of the exploding building, a desperate looking saboteur attempting to flee the scene of the explosion, or even just a group of wounded who need immediate medical care while the authorities are on their way. Or perhaps the PCs could get blamed for the explosion and must now face trial for their crimes. Whatever you choose, though, it should have immediate consequences for the PCs. Farther reaching consequences are possible here, but they should be secondary to dealing with the primary aftermath. For example, local authorities might hire the PCs to discover what the source of the explosion was, or the opposing factions might choose to involve the PCs in their private little war.
The Explosion at Home
Just as the PCs return to their home base/stronghold/wherever they might be staying, their supposed sanctuary erupts in a sudden violent and fiery explosion, possibly causing injury to the PCs or just shaking them up a little bit. This use of the random explosion hook is well set up to allow you to make use of both immediate aftermath and secondary aftermath. For example, following the explosion a group of armed assassins might jump out from the shadows with a mind to finish the PCs off, or they may have to rush into their former home to deal with the injured. On the other hand, the explosion may have been meant as a warning to the PCs to stay out of someone’s business or else face the dire consequences, or it may have been a botched assassination attempt by a cowardly enemy who likes to slink around under the radar. Once again, this hook allows you to set up a wide variety of different adventures.
The Explosion at theRendezvous
For this version, the PCs are on their way to meet with one of their allies when, just as they are about to arrive at the proposed meeting site (a secret site will work better with this hook, though it isn’t strictly necessary), a massive explosion completely destroys the rendezvous site as well as the surrounding area. This use of the random explosion hook is best suited to delayed aftermath, unless the PCs decide to stick around the site of the explosion. If this is the case, given their connection to the site and the presumed victim(s) of the explosion, they will likely become subjects of a bombing investigation.
The best way to approach this adventure hook is to have interesting answers to questions the PCs are likely to have, such as: Who might have known about the meeting? Who has a motive to bomb the site? Did our contact have any enemies? Did our contact sell us out? Is our contact even still alive? As you determine the answers to these questions, you should be thinking about how you want the investigation to shape up and be sure to tailor your answers to lead the PCs down whatever line of thinking crossed your mind.
The Saboteur
This adventure idea can be approached from one of two ways and we will be briefly covering each. In the first scenario, the PCs must find and disarm an explosive device, whereas in the second the PCs must infiltrate an area to arm and plant an explosive device.
Disarm
A bomb has been planted somewhere in the capital city of the PCs’ homeland, and it is set to go off at any time. Luckily, the PCs are here to find and disable the device. There are a couple of ways to go about this adventure: first, you can make the bomb hard to find and/or make the bomb hard to reach. If you want to make the bomb hard to find, consider letting the PCs interrogate an uncooperative enemy agent and make the adventure being about getting him to tell you where the bomb is. Once the PCs have that crucial information it should be a simple matter to find and disarm the device, or alternatively, you could leave a series of breadcrumb-style clues leading to the bomb’s location. If you instead hope to make the bomb hard to get to, simply place the bomb in an inconvenient place, or surround it with plenty of security to keep the PCs from getting to it.
Set
If the PCs are out to set the bomb, the adventure is probably going to be pretty straightforward. Decide who or what the target will be, then have the PCs go and set their bomb. This could mean infiltrating enemy strongholds, having to evade or kill guards. It could also mean placing charges on siege weaponry or palisades while dealing with a tight time schedule, or finally, it might mean choosing a spot in the enemy’s city to plant their device where they think it won’t be found or disarmed. This last option is ideal for a night where you want to let the PCs have the general run of the adventure while you adjudicate outcomes.
Well, that’s it for another explosive Grave Plots. See you all next week, and until then I wish you all the best with your gaming endeavors.