1)

I designed a whole background story for a PC I created years ago, an archaeologist who gets his normal life destroyed by nefarious underground elements interested in an artifact he discovered in India. He enters the shadows to find proof to exonerate himself. I thought this would be a great way to get my PC involved in RPGA events long ago, but I ended up writing some modules, and couldn't play this thread because I knew too much! Oops.

- archaeologist Nathaniel Jones ('Professor' in the shadows) discovers ancient scroll telling of past times of magic and immortals
- art thief cousin, out of jealousy for archaeologist inheriting grandpa Jones' fedora, tells underground criminal lord of discovery
- criminal lord has scroll stolen, and grad students murdered, framing Jones for the crime.
- Jones gets off, but career is destroyed by the lies perpetrated by The Blind Man, an 'upstanding citizen of the world' who secretly runs guns, drugs, whatever.
- (The Blind Man is modeled after Richard Roper in John Le Carre's book The Night Manager)
- (The Blind Man ends up killing RPGA's Claudia!)
- the scroll turns out to be possessed by an unknown type of spirit, and is indestructible by magic or normal means
- various organizations and interests want it: Atlantean Foundation, IEs, Dragons, etc.
- some want to study the scroll, some want to find a way to destroy it
- up for sale to the highest bidder
- destroy faction wins the sale, and sets up to send the scroll into space and into the sun (Yeah, yeah, Mount Doom, I know.)
- Professor must get scroll and more evidence to prove his innocence
- factions don't want Professor to do so

2)

What if the Emerald Tablet, a founding document for alchemy, hermetic magic, etc., alleged to be written by Hermes Trismegistus, actually were an emerald tablet, and held in secret in the vaults of the Vatican (for obvious reasons)?

What power would it give?

How would one get it?

3)

??? Ball's in your court.

I'm not sure that I'm doing this right, but any mention of an archaeologist will perk my ears up. (Former archy here.)

3) Shadowrun Apocalypse

This was borne out of a time when people asked me to run an RPG based upon Hellgate: London (video game) and I realised that they knew far too much about the setting compared to myself. This is also a part of my "big campaign" that many a Shadowrun fan considers when buying into the meta-universe story with Earthdawn etc.

With that said, for those that know Hellgate: London the obvious idea is that there is a mana spike (or more than one) that prematurely brings forth a handful (or less) of lower-powered Horrors that come into create Horror creatures and generally make life miserable. Cities fall etc. People are driven into ersatz "kaers". Mages become batteries to power astral shields. Adepts become the Ravens that pick over the remains of civilisation.

The increased magic allows certain buffing of magical abilities for the Adepts. The ability to directly imbue weapons with temporary magical energy, which is useful given that Horror constructs are resistant to normal weapons (not immune, just resistant--images of full auto to bring down a construct while an Adept fires an arrow into the head etc.).

And so on.

4) The Swords/Keys of Solomon

I've always wanted to run an amalgam of the "Swords of Wayland" concept with the Keys of Solomon. The notion of 72 "demons" trapped in a box is just too juicy of a concept.

Me too.

I'm sorry.

Heh. Don't be!

Left a cool job in IT to follow what Joseph Campbell urged:

"Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls. The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are. If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it's not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take."

Froze my ass off test-pitting in springtime ice and snow.

Dodged thieves.

Had a satellite redirect and take photos for me.

Got taken in the night by bored teenagers with machine guns.

Nearly killed myself from exertion fighting through thick mud and thin air in the Andes.

.....

Best decision I ever made.

Given that description, you're right: I shouldn't be! That sounded like 007-level archy shenanigans!

My apologies for the diversion. Hopefully my contribution were sufficient for the thread but, if not, let me know and I'll try to be better!

It's all good.

#5 The Age of Misrule by Mark Chadbourn

If you haven't encountered these, a Shadowrun version would make an awesome "Run to End All Runs."

The basic gist of it is that the Firbolg of "celtic" legend come back. A bunch of heroes (the PCs, of course) are the Chosen Ones--People of the Dragon--that need to re-energise the "Blue Fire" of the leylines to bring back magic to England. They need to bring together the Five Treasures (Sword, Chalice etc.) and work with the Seelie Court to save England (and by default the world) from destruction.

Very cool use of mythology.

#6

A) The ancient Aztecs were right! Every 52 years, blood sacrifice must be made to save the world.
-- their view: re-energize the sun/gods

B) 52 years after the 6th World begins, the ritual is performed in Aztlan -- and fails! Not enough mojo in the blood sacrifice. Cataclysms ensue (Think the movie 2012) MUST find blood with more mojo!
-- immortal elf? dragon?
-- or : why did it fail this time? can the reason be rectified?

Ever Watched Blue Submarine No6?

I once thought of making a run losely based on that one.

An Avenger Toxic Shaman using possession spirits to raise and use WW2 Ships to attack cities and the such.

Remember that scene from Ghostbusters 2?
The Harbour?
Where the Titanic docks and one of the harbour workers goes:
"better late than never eh?"

Well, kinda like that but with more ZOMGWTFBBQ WHY IS THE YAMATO HERE?

I also came up with a MLP Grimdark Scenario.
DON'T JUDGE MEE! ò,Ó;,

There are awakened Horses.
There are Troll Sized Horses in germany.
Earth Ponies.

There are Unicorns and Pegasi.

Both of those are carnivorous predators.

Equestria is a Meta-Realm in the Astral Space.
And we know there are connections between the meta realms and the astral and even mundane realms of shadowrun.

So at some point, there is a connection and the ponies from MLP are a curious bunch.

So they come over. Without realizing that over here, they need flesh to survive.

Que stampedes of carnivorous magical horses.

Only the Earth Ponies of Germany are not carnivorous, but they are friends and so they fight on their side.


You could also make either rigger or AI or free spirit based Pony Express not quite as grimdark MLP Crossovers.

And i mean . .
The Ordo Maximus is a thing that exists ™ . .
And they even have Martin De Vrieß
So . . Hellsing (Ultimate [abridged more likely due to player shenanigans]) is a go?