If you’re a GM of a text-based roleplaying game, you will need to come up with decent story ideas for your players. This can be challenging because coming up with new ideas all the time is difficult, the professionals even struggle when making films, which is why you might see the same plot idea being used over and over again.
But don’t worry about copying someone else’s story idea, because as long as you’re playing it with different characters, it will be a totally different experience. In fact it can be a good idea to look at films as examples of good story ideas. Here is a collection of good scenarios from films that will make good story ideas in your roleplaying game
Aliens invade a planet, and you have to kill their Queen – from “Aliens”
For: Sci-fi or fantasy games
It’s easy to start a story where an infinite number of aliens invade a planet, but it’s sometimes difficult to end it, just because there is an endless amount of aliens and only a few of your characters. You could start writing about killing some, but then it gets boring. You need a way to finish off all of the aliens for good. You could create a virus that kills them all, or you could wipe them out at the source.
In the film Aliens, a planet has been taken over by aliens before our main characters get there. The characters have to fight their way through hundreds of the beasties until Ripley meets the Queen, and kills it. In the film all of the other aliens are killed off by a massive nuclear explosion, and the main characters escape.
In your story however you might not want this kind of ending, for example if the aliens have invaded Earth, a massive nuclear explosion might cause more problems than it solves. So you’ll have to think of another way to get rid of all the aliens. It could be that they’re all being controlled by one source, the Queen, so if you kill the Queen, all others will drop dead (this is handy for robot monsters).
The bombing run – in “Star Wars”
For: Sci-fi games
Your characters are given a plan to achieve a goal. Make sure all writers are informed of the plan, and likewise all characters are informed of the plan too.
The goal at the finale in Star Wars IV: A new hope was to fire a missile into a very small target on the humongous Death Star. This involved flying close to the Death star, dogfighting with enemy spaceships, getting into the trench, avoiding and shooting more enemy spaceships, and then one character will launch the missile when they’re close enough.
In your story the goal might be an enemy spaceship or spacestation that you have to destroy. Getting close to the spaceship will be difficult, as you first have to dogfight with some enemy fighters. There’s more for other characters to do here, by having them figure out a way to turn off the enemy spaceship’s protective shielding or defensive turrets before they can get close, which might involve getting aboard the base to sabotage it first.
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