Author Topic: That music is evil... Story idea that needs some refinement  (Read 5767 times)

Offline Surfmonkey01

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 16
    • View Profile
That music is evil... Story idea that needs some refinement
« on: August 20, 2010, 12:47:37 PM »
My group is starting our game next week.  We did chargen last night, and we are all pumped to start.  For our first game, I plan on using a plot nugget I saw in another forum a few weeks back... A Rock Band that has somehow developed Oracular abilities.  1 in every 7 of their songs come true.  The problem is this: I'm not sure of the reason why this has happened, but even more importantly than that, I haven't been able to decide on a band.  I want it to be a real one, whose actual songs I can play during the game as their lyrics start coming true.  I just can't decide whose songs and lyrics to use... Anyone got any suggestions?

Oh, our game is set in the Cleveland area, and the supernatural is just beginning to rise to prominence.  Their are representatives of most of the major groups somewhere in the area, but no one has really risen to any great power yet.

Offline babel2uk

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 214
    • View Profile
Re: That music is evil... Story idea that needs some refinement
« Reply #1 on: August 20, 2010, 01:29:52 PM »
The 'why' is fairly easy. One member of the band has the Cassandra's tears power. Mostly they collaborate with another lyricist on their songs, but there's one song on every album for which they wrote the lyrics for alone and that's when their gift comes to the fore (gives you a way for the players to work out who it is too).

The who is more difficult. It depends what type of music you want them to play.

Offline Leatherneck

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 44
    • View Profile
Re: That music is evil... Story idea that needs some refinement
« Reply #2 on: August 20, 2010, 01:32:50 PM »
How about Jonathan Coulton?  Then his song Re: Your Brains could become real.  Then you can have real flesh eating zombies running around.  But that is the night they go to check out what is going on.  The previous night, several programmers are transform into monkeys because of the song, Code Monkey.

The cause is his new Guitar.  Poor Jonathan isn’t even aware it is doing it.

Offline Attercap

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 14
    • View Profile
    • Attercap.Net
Re: That music is evil... Story idea that needs some refinement
« Reply #3 on: August 20, 2010, 01:58:44 PM »
How about Jonathan Coulton?  Then his song Re: Your Brains could become real.  Then you can have real flesh eating zombies running around.  But that is the night they go to check out what is going on.  The previous night, several programmers are transform into monkeys because of the song, Code Monkey.

The cause is his new Guitar.  Poor Jonathan isn’t even aware it is doing it.
And if the game world's date is the First of May...
Attercap.Net | New comic every M-F
Liber Attercap | An In Nomine reference
Unholy Preyer | Non-Dresdenverse RPG using the Dresden Files RPG rules

Offline caul

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 12
    • View Profile
Re: That music is evil... Story idea that needs some refinement
« Reply #4 on: August 20, 2010, 02:24:44 PM »
The Cassandra's Tears angle might work, but if you want to go a different route (for fear that the players might too easily think that someone in or attached to the band has oracular abilities), why not play with the idea that it is not the lyrics that make the song come true, but a certain type of music, say snippets of the Song of Creation (pick your mythos) that have been written into the music that make the lyrics come true.

Just a thought.

Offline Surfmonkey01

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 16
    • View Profile
Re: That music is evil... Story idea that needs some refinement
« Reply #5 on: August 20, 2010, 03:24:52 PM »
Jonathon coulton is too much of a running gag amongst us, he'd completely take everyone out of the story.  Good out of the box thinking, though.  I'm trying to think of bands that are originally from the Cleveland area... So far I've come up with Nine inch Nails and Filter.

Hmm... One of those could work...

Offline Bruce Coulson

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 621
    • View Profile
Re: That music is evil... Story idea that needs some refinement
« Reply #6 on: August 20, 2010, 04:32:09 PM »
Not sure about the band; but as for the why...

Synergy. The group just got a new member, and they're accidentally doing bardic rituals/magic.  (It's one of those things where with the new guy/girl, everything clicks musically...and magically.)  Mundane rituals, so they don't even have to be clued-in or magical.  And the band is becoming a rising star, because everything is starting to work out right...

Sponsored.  One of the Fae got enamoured with the band, and is trying to help them out.  (Alternatively, there's some plot afoot with the band as pawns.)
You're the spirit of a nation, all right.  But it's NOT America.

Offline black omega

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 42
    • View Profile
Re: That music is evil... Story idea that needs some refinement
« Reply #7 on: August 20, 2010, 05:58:27 PM »
One idea might be the members of the band are all minor talents.  But their minor talents mesh so perfectly that the whole is much greater than the sum of the individuals.  So the few songs that they all collaborated on are the ones that come true.

Offline Arcteryx

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 357
  • "I comb my hair with a hand grenade."
    • View Profile
Re: That music is evil... Story idea that needs some refinement
« Reply #8 on: August 20, 2010, 07:47:30 PM »
I like the idea but the administration (finding a band, combing through their song list) would kill me... but if you could pull it off, it would be mighty leet.

Like that post's idea of the sum of the whole coming together in some inadverdent way - the red herring could be the newest band member to join, but really it was that addition that did it.

Perhaps one of them has bought a vintage instrument recently that channels power.

Maybe its the slightly tweaked logo that they have now.

Perhaps the singer adlibs on the fly but the band is so raw that nobody really notices or cares, and just assumes he's screaming out something on the spot, not realizing that he's really in a trance and that some oracular spirit has taken over his body and is dispensing divine truth.

It'd be cool too if that advice isn't general but is aimed at somebody in the crowd - somebody who knows that this power is happening is actually in the front row, shouting questions at the singer and getting their answers.

What if they aren't the only ones? What if a prog trance DJ is spinning medleys whose titles put some kind of message out?

That folk fiddler on the corner is throwing together reel sets that haven't been heard for a hundred years?

That child prodigy who was supposed to perform a Rachmaninoff at the Performing Centre feels compelled to play the a Hungarian folk dance that he hears everywhere, and he's hearing snippets of it from DJ's, folk fiddlers, that punk band that's opening next week... and it all weaves a tapestry that's directed by somebody, someone, somewhere, for some purpose...

Anyways. Off the top of my head. Hopefully some are helpful...

Offline Surfmonkey01

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 16
    • View Profile
Re: That music is evil... Story idea that needs some refinement
« Reply #9 on: August 21, 2010, 01:24:14 AM »
Hmm... Good ideas, all.  I'm getting closer to figuring out the "why" and "how.". As for the "who," I'm now strongly leaning towards Filter and the song "Hey Man Nice Shot," which could be the cause of increased suicides in the days following the show... Maybe all the deaths are sacrifices to power something big and nasty...

Offline mostlyawake

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 233
    • View Profile
Re: That music is evil... Story idea that needs some refinement
« Reply #10 on: August 21, 2010, 03:37:24 AM »
If you go with Cassandra's tears or the like, it could be fun to have that character make other random, hard to verify statements while performing... like "maybe one of you is going to get lucky tonight" (crowd cheers) "...and then get hit by an ambulance or some sh*t. I duuno" (crowd laughs).  Then months later a rumor pops up of a kid at the concert that night actually getting hit by an ambulance while leaving his girlfriend's house.

I think the musical instrument is a bit too easy of an explanation, and too easily solved/fixed (break it!).  A drug that the group regularly does that enhances precognition (like the 3-eye drug) is perhaps too close of a resden rip, but could be good for leading the PCs into something larger.

Or, as demons can't come into our world without an invite, perhaps they are somehow managing to invite demons in by music?  like a ritual: diabolery spell, but the words of the song form a binding that the demon must act in a certain manner.


Or, perhaps they have a lawbreaker wizard friend who travels time and is trying to use their songs to cause or prevent some future.  He tells them about his crazy dreams and they make some into songs...  

Offline ryanroyce

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 115
    • View Profile
Re: That music is evil... Story idea that needs some refinement
« Reply #11 on: August 21, 2010, 05:24:19 AM »
My group is starting our game next week.  We did chargen last night, and we are all pumped to start.  For our first game, I plan on using a plot nugget I saw in another forum a few weeks back... A Rock Band that has somehow developed Oracular abilities.  1 in every 7 of their songs come true.  The problem is this: I'm not sure of the reason why this has happened, but even more importantly than that, I haven't been able to decide on a band.  I want it to be a real one, whose actual songs I can play during the game as their lyrics start coming true.  I just can't decide whose songs and lyrics to use... Anyone got any suggestions?

Oh, our game is set in the Cleveland area, and the supernatural is just beginning to rise to prominence.  Their are representatives of most of the major groups somewhere in the area, but no one has really risen to any great power yet.

 You could save yourself some trouble and have the band be a local one that mostly plays cover songs with a few originals mixed in.  They pick their set list, either consciously or not, based on whatever oracular powers they have.  That way, you aren't stuck with just one band and you can play any song you like if its lyrics are appropriate.  Of course, it's their original songs that are really scary-accurate. <evil grin>
"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it." - Voltaire

Offline Surfmonkey01

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 16
    • View Profile
Re: That music is evil... Story idea that needs some refinement
« Reply #12 on: August 21, 2010, 05:11:58 PM »
I think we're getting somewhere now... I think I'm going to make it a local band, as suggested.  This makes it mire plausible that they'd be doing multiple shows, so a pattern can more easily start to emerge.  I think I'm going to have the whole band have Cassandra's Tears, and they all trigger at random, which is why it's never the same song it works on twice.  I think they won't even know they have it, but all the effects they cause are amassing power for the big nasty of my campaign (whatever I decide that to be... It's early, I can be vague).  Their songs will be almost entirely covers, which also lends to the random effects.  As for the songs themselves and their effects, I'm working on a list.  So far I've got...

Filter- Hey Man Nice Shot - increased suicides, gun murders
Offspring - Come Out and Play - increased youth crime
Nickelback - Never Again - increased domestic violence
Green Day - Having a Blast - suicide bombers
Metallica - One - soldiers returning from Iraq have lost their arms, legs, sight, hearing... This one is REALLY dark...


I need some more.  Anyone got any for me?
« Last Edit: August 21, 2010, 05:26:26 PM by Surfmonkey01 »

Offline Arcteryx

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 357
  • "I comb my hair with a hand grenade."
    • View Profile
Re: That music is evil... Story idea that needs some refinement
« Reply #13 on: August 21, 2010, 05:33:02 PM »
It doesn't have to be ALL bad. If they were predicting good stuff too, it casts the underlying power's morality into shades of grey.

Offline Surfmonkey01

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 16
    • View Profile
Re: That music is evil... Story idea that needs some refinement
« Reply #14 on: August 21, 2010, 05:35:22 PM »
Based on the kinds of music I normally listen to, I'm having a hard time with the "good"... Give me a few :)

Also, as noted above, it leans towards the bad because the source of the power is less than benign, and is amassing dark energy for something not good
« Last Edit: August 21, 2010, 05:38:06 PM by Surfmonkey01 »