Scene Set Ideas
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Brainstorming Exercise:
Short scene sets that people can use as a jumping off place that aren't 'walks in' or 'sits on the couch when X walks in' or 'is at the bar hanging out'.
Action ideas! Any genre, any setting, public or private, whatever ideas you have. Games have different rules on plots and NPCs and things too, so go ahead and assume you have staff permission to do whatever:
- Neighbor's dog is loose, the neighbor's gone, and one character is midst trying to dog-catch when the other character arrives
- Everyone's been in the coffee shop for an hour already when the guy walks in to rob the place
- Character is in the middle of an angry business meeting, and the person they're arguing with happens to start storming out when the other character arrives (catching the tail end of the fight, of course!)
- And our tried and true favorite, of course: literally drop a pencil and have it roll under someone else's chair
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*Someone is sitting in the location and suddenly notices that they have a bug/spider on them. In that same vein, having a mouse run over someone's foot in a coffee shop/other establishment.
*One of the best scenes I ever had on my tow truck driver PC was when I was at a pick up scene at a diner and posed hooking up one of the other PCs' cars to my PC's tow truck (they could see this through the diner windows though it took them a little bit to catch on).
*Power outage at the location.
*play darts/spitball/some other projectile type of thing at a bar/similar location (this is especially good if you have a group of 2+ people and want to loop in a new arrival) and have the projectile hit on/near them/their stuff.
*Dine and dash (either look like you're trying to do it OR uh oh forgot my wallet/coin purse).
- be riding your bike/skateboard and get distracted by the person already there and ride into a lamppost/skip the curb and wipe out.
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walk into them on the street, obliviously lost in your phone (or be just about to)
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also tropey and cliche, but it still works: 'I think I'm being followed, pretend I know you?'
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rather than sitting in the corner buried in a sketch that is so fascinating, look up from that awful sketch you were doing, grumble, rip it out, crumple it up, and toss it across the room (similar applies to 'slamming the laptop shut on writing just at that moment', etc. -- make it obvious the character is craving a distraction, vs. not wanting one)
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I stand by the greatest opening line of a book that I have ever seen, which should work equally amazingly in mu setting:
The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault.
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@Jennkryst said in Scene Set Ideas:
I stand by the greatest opening line of a book that I have ever seen, which should work equally amazingly in mu setting:
The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault.
That particular Dresden Files opening line is in my top five favorites. I'm also fond of one that was like "To say I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband's dead body would not, strictly speaking, be accurate; Edward, it must be noted, was still twitching on the floor."
A good opening line can really set the stage for a story. In that spirit, I used to participate in a "first lines" writing game exercise, wherein you had to come up with a compelling first line that was also clearly from a speculative fiction story (i.e. science fiction or fantasy). I saved all my old entries to that thread; they're of mixed quality because it was years ago, but every so often I glance at it, get an idea from one of them, and cross it off the list as I go off to write it. Now I kind of wonder how many of them would make good scene prompts...
Maybe "Last Monday I learned two important lessons that every veterinarian should know: first, that werewolves exist, and second, that they don't have much of a sense of humor about any attempt to spay or neuter them." would work for a WoD game...
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@mietze said in Scene Set Ideas:
*Someone is sitting in the location and suddenly notices that they have a bug/spider on them. In that same vein, having a mouse run over someone's foot in a coffee shop/other establishment.
SOME OF US have had GIANT NYC RATS RUN OVER OUR FOOT IN REAL LIFE and would appreciate SENSITIVITY REGARDING THIS ISSUE, MIETZE
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So this sounds semi like something I was talking about recently with folks.
The idea might be to seed random 'scenes sets' into the grid itself.
Then idea came about descing an abandoned hotel. We have +rent code and the like already so it shouldnt be too hard to implement. You could set up a building/area/whatever and do your +rent or +explore or something and it makes you a temproom/brings you to a room. What that new room will have is a description of the area, and a small randomized lists of possible encounters to spark the imagination.
It is not something as complex as a full PRP, but a way to give certain areas some more flavor, to help lubricate imaginations, give some minor threats to urban exploration, find haunted areas, generally little things seeded in specific places to encourage RP and lighten the load for spontanius creativity.
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It's a good idea, Wretched, but I wonder if the work put into it will be worth the very short time period it would take for the majority of people to tune it out, not unlike weather code on most (not all) places I've played.
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Fort Weyr @ PernWorld had a verb people could type for a bit that gave random scene ideas. It got old after a while like all random generators did, but it was a lot of fun at first.
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A building/house/shop/church/grave is burning/destroyed by earthquake/flooded/swallowed by a sinkhole, time is running out, do we put out the fire/let Timmy burn alive/explore ancient ruins filled with unspeakable horrors/TS.
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I'm totally uncreative when it comes to chance encounters and scene sets so I stole the best of this list from tumblr. Credit to that person, whoever you are.
- A storm is delaying our flight/drive/travel. Let's talk while we wait.
- We're both in small claims court and you totally stopped me from catching a charge by holding me back from punching the guy I'm in court with.
- Minor vehicle collision. Gotta exchange that info.
- I just drove X hours to the last store with Y item and there you are with MY thing in checkout.
- I just bought that thing you were selling online and we met and you are kinda cool.
- We both decided to take this (Yoga/Cooking/Whatever) class but we aren't taking it seriously and we're cracking up and everyone kinda hates us.
- You want me to sign your petition but I have no idea what the hell you are going on about.
- I'm wasted at this festival/public event and before I cracked my head on something, you helped me out. What a bro.
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@Apollonius said in Scene Set Ideas:
A building/house/shop/church/grave is burning/destroyed by earthquake/flooded/swallowed by a sinkhole, time is running out, do we put out the fire/let Timmy burn alive/explore ancient ruins filled with unspeakable horrors/TS.
I put out the fire by vigorously TSing on Timmy's burning corpse in the ancient ruins filled with unspeakable horrors, which I am clearly TSing.
How is this even a prompt? It's like, Tuesday.
