Hey Storytellers,

We explore the concept of dual timelines but in a post-apocalyptic world. You have your players roll up two sets of characters: one is before the apocalypse and one is after the apocalypse (maybe even a hundred years or so).

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In this episode, you will have the post-apocalyptic characters doing most of the work. They will be trying to survive, fight off bandits, and trying to build a better life, while also trying to figure out what happened. How did the world get like this?

When they find a clue then they will switch to their other characters who don't need any stats in fighting but could be scientists or engineers working on clean power or some other great technological breakthrough. They will tell the story of the object the current day players will find.

The big reveal along the way is that the players in the past accidentally caused the apocalypse and it is up to you to give the current players a way to build a safe city or maybe the campaign ends in hopelessness, I will leave that up to you.

Give this episode a listen as it could be used in a high fantasy campaign, but instead of science, it is magic that caused the apocalypse. 

Hey Storytellers,

Today we will talk about how to run a game using two or more different timelines that your players will play through with two or more different sets of characters.

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Kenneth Hite in his Dracula Dossier for Nights Black Agents (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/195799/The-Dracula-Dossier-Core-BUNDLE) had a cool concept of playing a game that took place in the late 1800s during the time of the book Dracula from Bram Stoker, 1970's mole hunt spy operation and modern-day spy thriller. The characters could progress from one timeline to the other.

If you are up for it though you could have your characters roll up two sets of characters and have them only play in modern times until they come across a McGuffin (plot device). Then they would pull out their other characters and play out the creation / discovery / theft of the McGuffin.

Remind the players that these flashbacks are not in chronological order. This allows you to do a total party kill (of the old characters) and still keep them around if you want.

Listen to the episode for more ideas.

Hey Storytellers,

We are still taking ideas and turning them on their head and today is no different. How do you do a haunted house story in a realm where ghosts may not be real? We explore that today.

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This begins with a mystery of people going missing in a house. Once the players start to go into the house, the house itself starts to attack the players.

The house wants to keep you trapped. There could be clues from other people about aspects of the house that they were able to figure out hidden throughout.

The house is a rogue AI so it could be reasoned with, beat down, or maybe a series of buttons and levers could be pushed in a certain order (like the elevator game we covered days ago) to unlock a safe way out or just disable the AI entirely.

Give this episode a listen as it could be adapted to D20 modern or even a Dungeons and Dragons mad wizard tower adventure.

Hey Storytellers,

Today's episode is about building up to a pivotal event that your players need to be at. Then you ask yourself (as the game master) what if the players were betrayed and no longer in the picture? This is another pivot from our elevator internet game.

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The idea here is if you have a peace talk coming up or something that is important for the players to be a part of.

Then a secret agent will send the players on a side quest to obtain more leverage for that meeting, but in reality they are sending them to a place that will move them to a different dimension (or plane if you wish).

We explore this concept more in this episode.

Hey Storytellers,

Playing off of the elevator game from yesterday's episode, we will talk about turning that concept on its head. Imagine a sci-fi / cyberpunk / shadowrun world where the players find out that one of their nieces / nephews / friend's kid ends up in a coma. That is your hook.

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In the episode we talk about what is causing the kids to go into a comma. The game has kids go through a set of challenges and somewhere in the game is a cool side mission that if done properly causes the user to disable the safety protocols on the VR unit that has neuro connections.

Later on the kids (and some adults) will be given a command from the AI behind the game. For those that work they are under the control (for a little while) of the AI. If something short circuts then the person goes into a coma.

Listen to the episode to see what the AI may want. 

Hey Storytellers,
  
 I personally don’t take any stock in the idea that any elevator with 10 floors can take you to an alternate dimension that seemingly has no one in it. That said it makes good idea fodder for games.

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In today’s episode we will look at two internet stories and how they can be incorporated into your game no matter the system or genre.

To read the “rules” of the Elevator challenge go to https://skullrpg.com/resources 

Hey Storytellers,
  
 Your players just took out a major figure in a local street gang. Now what? Well the gang turns on itself to elect the new leader and as the game master you get to figure out who that is and how long that takes.

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Unless your players are able to hunt down every last member of a street gang or corporation chances are there will be enough people left to rebuild or fill the power vacuum they just created.

The question is how long will that take, who will now fill that role and how did that group change?

History lesson: The European’s both lost and won the Crusades against Islam. They lost because every piece of land they took they lost again sometimes in just a month of them holding it. However, they won because Islam started to view all knowledge outside of the Koran as alien and from those that were trying to kill them. So they started to burn the knowledge of Aristotle and others from the West.

Why does this matter? Because your players may take out the 8 ruling members of a street gang or corporation in their area. Then the new leadership learns a lesson from that assassination. They start to hunt those that hurt them and more importantly hunt the family, friends, business associates of those that hurt them. 

This would be another form of burning the characters, but they are burned because their organization is now crippled and they have to figure out how to rebuild it.

Listen for more ideas.

Hey Storytellers,
  
 Sometimes you are staring about a blank piece of paper and wondering what should I do in my next RPG campaign? Well you can look to historical / fictional sources for inspiration. 

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Can you run Jack the Ripper in cyberpunk / shadowrun? Absolutely you can and you might want to. It is filled with mystery and intrigue and not just your heist genre.

What about election fraud or the accusation of election fraud? Sure, if your players aren’t sick of it in real life.

Same with a global pandemic.

But you could look into true crimes podcasts or YouTube channels to get ideas for a grisly murder or serial killer.

I was reading a book that was talking about some internet “games” teens were playing and adapted one of the monsters for an ancient Greek campaign.

Seriously the sky is the limit here. You could take one of these internet games and twist is for your 2077 world where the internet really is making this thing a reality and a rogue AI is capturing people’s bodies in the process, but for what purpose and who will be caught up that the player’s know and love into it?

Listen for more ideas.

Hey Storytellers,
  
 Too many times in our TTRPG’s the players get away with murder (literally, many times they would be classified as serial killers) with absolutely no consequences. What if you changed that? 

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Consequences for actions are probably best seen in the video game Witcher III from my experience (if you know of another game let us know – you can contact us on https://skullrpg.com/).

There are consequences normally played out in the moment and I am not disregarding that, but what about the consequences months later?

What happens if the players put down one of the city’s gangs?

What happens if they take out one of the main corps VP of Security?

What good and bad consequences affect the world they are playing in?

We will explore this in today’s episode.

Hey Storytellers,
  
 In many spy flicks the hero is framed and is kicked out of the organization. Now they have to find the person that burned them and get revenge and clear their name.

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This is an old trope but a good one.

There are several different ways to burn your players from their current organizational affiliations.

1)     Burn them on the first mission – the advantage of this is you set the stage. They have no friends / no allies right now. How will they make it? It is your path if you choose a corporation in Cyberpunk 2077 the video game.

2)     Burn them halfway through your campaign – this is nice because you have set the characters and stage for maybe 3 different people that could have burned them. Choose the one they wouldn’t suspect or the one that is maybe still helping them. If you do the latter then make sure that many jobs something goes very wrong, almost like they have a leak.

3)     Burn them at the end of the campaign – this is a great way to leave the entire campaign on a cliffhanger, whether or not you intend to come back to it.

Listen to the episode for more tips and hacks.

Oh the game was Wing Commander with Mark Hamil.