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Sometimes, scenes just drag on too damned long as players insist on searching for non-existent clues, questioning suspects who don’t know anything, and focusing on throwaway details that don’t mean anything. Usually, the best way to deal with this is to have something happen that the characters have to deal with right away, but after a while “NINJAS ATTACK!” gets stale. Here are some variations.
- That Was Trippy: Something truly bizarre happens. For example, a time slip, an alien abduction, or mass hallucination.
- Falling Objects: Something falls from above. A meteor, frozen sewage from an airplane, a piece of the ceiling, etc.
- It’s Personal: A PC gets word of a family emergency or other personal crisis.
- Fight: The characters find themselves in the middle of a fistfight.
- Firefight: The characters find themselves in the middle of a gunfight or other battle to the death.
- Accident: Something crashes, falls, sinks, etc.
- Local Color: Characters are harassed by someone unconnected with the current adventure (gang members, neighborhood watch, internal affairs, etc.)
- Distress Call: Someone asks the characters for help–a passerby, a GMC, that guy running from the zombies, etc.
- Weather/Natural Disaster: Characters find themselves caught in a rainstorm, earthquake, volcanic eruption, etc.
- Fire: A fire breaks out.
- VIP: Someone important shows up, probably ruining the character’s plans in the process.
- Medical Emergency: One of the characters involved in the scene has a heart attack, appendicitis, or sudden bout of projectile vomiting.
- Security Breach: A known enemy attacks the characters (even if they thought they were somewhere safe).
- Chase Scene: A very exciting chase scene passes through the area where the characters are. It might be important, but it might not.
- Mass Panic: Something (news of terrorist activity, alien invasion, soccer riot) causes people to lose their damn minds.
- Lockdown: Nobody is permitted to enter or leave the area where the scene takes place due to a criminal investigation, hostage situation, biohazard, etc.
- All Hands On Deck: The organization that the PCs work for experiences a major crisis, or the PCs must help deal with a situation in order to insure their own survival.
- It’s Coming Right For Us!: An animal or monster attacks.
- Special Bulletin: Characters receive news of a potentially world-changing event (act of war, natural disaster, assassination, etc.)
- Cataclysm: An event powerful enough to change the very face of the game world (nuclear war, extinction-level event, armageddon, etc.) occurs. Or GM’s choice.
