Help, please! (Need some ideas)

[jswa]

So here's the deal:

The players recovered an ancient artifact from some planet out in the middle of nowhere. It was just a disk with some strange properties; the specifics don't matter too much.

They trucked it on over to this space station that's sort of the trade hub for the subsector and sold it off to a shady looking fellow for a handsome sum.

We ended last session with a bit of a cliffhanger. Suddenly, the PCs were seeing their faces on the holoscreens with something akin to "WANTED" underneath them.

And that's where we are. Trouble is, I'm having trouble figuring on what's gunna happen next. I do know that the "authorities" will try to hire the PCs to steal the artifact back. Some kind of sketchy deal's going down on a nearby planet (with a pop in the billions and a super high tech level; the capital of the subsector), so I thought that maybe they'd get involved with that somehow.

I'm not sure about any of the details, however.

Got anything?

 

[IanBruntlett]

It was just a disk with some strange properties; the specifics don't matter too much.

You could have a lot of fun with this! You can stretch things out by having the "strange properties" manifest themselves. Hostile self-aware Psionic device? a Wikipedia type encyclopedia for a long lost ancient culture? A long forgotten AI system that will transfer its consciousness into the PC's ship's computer?

I do know that the "authorities" will try to hire the PCs to steal the artifact back.

More fun. Have a race between different factions, all wanting to own the strange disk.

HTH


Ian

 

[AndrewW]

It's likely several parties are interested in the item. Perhaps the player characters are contacted by other parties as well as the authorities, some might make a better offer.

The one they sold it to might not even know what he's got, or could be a buyer for an interested party and all set to hand it over, the players need to act fast before this happens or they may have a long chase across space on their hands.

The "authorities" that hire the player characters could turn out to be a criminal element or just on their payroll.

Perhaps the item is the key to unlocking some great power or treasure. Some would be after it for knowledge, others for treasure. Maybe a researcher manages to get his/her hands on it and is off to some old alien base that few know the location of, leaving the players to discover the location before they can even get there.

 

[alex_greene]

So here's the deal:

The players recovered an ancient artifact from some planet out in the middle of nowhere. It was just a disk with some strange properties; the specifics don't matter too much.

Got anything?

The specifics never need to be defined at all. What you're describing is the classic McGuffin.

The point of a McGuffin is that it has no point. It is a Pearl of Great Price; an Apple of Discord. Everybody wants it; everybody knows exactly what it does; and if the Bad Guys get it, things could get Very Bad Indeed for the Good Guys, or just for Good Guy Space as a whole.

The only people who don't know what it does are the player characters. All they know - all they need to know - is that this thing's presence just draws out the homicidal greed in just about everybody whose path it crosses.

And they don't need to steal the damned thing back. It'll just find its way back to them. Of its own accord, or just through sheer accident. Perhaps it likes them. Perhaps the characters amuse it.

God, Duke Norris and Empress Arbellatra help them when it decides to choose a new set of pets.

Two inspirations for you:-

The Maltese Falcon

Wikipedia definition of McGuffin

 

[towerwarlock]

A Rubic's Cube that is manipulated psionically, created by a race even older than the ancients.

 

[Gee4orce]

Indeed, not only do the characters not need to know what the item does, they should never actually find out for definite - because what they imagine it might do is always going to be more entertaining that whatever it is you come up with.

Having NPC treat the item exactly the opposite to the way the characters have treated it is amusing too : if the PCs have been tossing it into a backpack carelessly, have NPCs don cotton gloves and break out into a sweat when gingerly moving it; or if the PCs have been treating it carefully, have an NPC bang it on a desk to demonstrate that it's actually nigh-on indestructible.

 

[Hoplite]

You could also use it to mess with the players -

For example - they have retrieved the item and are in hiding from a searching, heavily armoured security squad. Just as the squad is passing close by the device decides to emit a piercingly high whistle and begin flashing through a sequence of colours.

or

As the players hold the device, figures start to flicker across it surface. Although they can't be read, it is obviously a count down. To what doesn't matter - it may be the time until the teas is ready - but it'll get the players moving!

 

[Dietrich hault-Rauln]

Having rival groups trying to heavy the players for the device is always amusing - especially if the players hadn't thought about its value beyond the bag of cash they got from the buyer.

If the Govt agencies insist that the players clean up the mess they made, and the buyer turns up deceased, you can have fun in a '24' sort of way as the players have to track down the buyer's contacts, and the contacts of the contacts under a time limit (maybe the Govt thinks the thing is a bio weapon that's set to blow in x amount of time?). Alternatively, the device could have the equivalent of Tutankhamun's Curse - everyone who comes in contact with it has unfortuante accidents until they're rid of it.

Throw in heavies working for unscrupleless collectors, rival Govt agencies falling over each other, foreign agents, the idlely curious, a tenacious reporter and a dotty little old lady detective (a la Miss Marple), simmer and serve :lol:

 

[kristof65]

Oooh, everyone's already posted some great ideas - rather than add to them, I'll give my advice of actual GM work you should take upon yourself IMO to make those ideas work well.

1. Create two or more Library Data entries for this disk. The entries should be full of all sorts of contradictory information upon what it does and it's history.

2. Work up profiles and short summaries on a few NPCs (and/or their organizations) who are interested in the device and why - possibly based upon your Library Data entries, or for their own, hidden reasons. For each NPC/Organization, you should note the following info:
- what they think the device does?
- why they want it?
- how many lengths are they willing to go to to get it?

Once you've done all that, I think you'll find a few different adventure seeds to go on there as you analyze the possible conflicts of interest and interactions between the NPCs.