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RE: [DL] Plot Help



> -----Original Message-----
> You see the posse will head for a Private Museum guarded by the Agency
> and I want to make it a bit quirky or even downright strange, any ideas
> would be brilliant.

Rely on the theory of Cognitive Dissonance (Given a random set of
information and occurrences, the human brain will come up with a
connection).  First, map the museum and mark the display areas.  Vary them
in size and make sure to include some paintings and wall hangings.  ID
sculptures and jewelry and artifacts as well, if you like. Just make sure
you determine the size of the objects.

Find a set of encyclopedias and some method of randomizing them (20
dictionaries, 1d20.  25 dictionaries, d100 with a=1, 26, 51, 76, etc.).
Don't worry about being too exact -- after all, you are going with a random
set of information.  Roll for each object and then open the book at random.
Read whatever is on that page and make it fit to the display area.  This is
where things can get creepy.  Say you have a small display case and you roll
up a squid.  You have a handful of options.  The first is easy -- a squid
statuette or flute from the South Pacific or from an ancient Viking site
(Your party will start to wonder if it's a relic of some sort -- especially
those who have played Call of Cthulhu).  Perhaps you want to make it a
tentacle, preserved in formaldehyde, which bobs up and down disturbingly as
the posse creeps around the dark room (One botched Cognition roll and it's
beckoning to you).  Maybe it's a small aquarium with squid swimming in it.
Perhaps it's just a normal squid, marked and labeled.

Using this, paintings and tapestries will be of strange objects.  Cases will
have no relation to one another in a single room -- something which will be
very wrong in a museum and violate the posse's sense of order (Or, perhaps,
the random list will spark some sinister plot in your imagination).  The
only thing left to do is get a creepy caretaker (I love the blind man
looking at the pictures Ghoull dreamed up) and place the entire thing in
shadows and you're all set to run.

No matter which option you choose, your posse will try to place some
significance on it if the Pinkertons are watching the museum (After all, it
might just be an easy place to meet contacts, make drops, and shuffle
paper....).

Matt