Kidnapping game...

As some of you miscreants might know, I have a penchant for coming up with unorthodox scenarios for games.  One of my favourites, which I haven't had the opportunity to run yet, is a fantasy game in which each PC is a daemon summoned by a sorcerer and all bound schizophrenically (a la Legion) to the same host body.  In this case to the body of a young boy.

So the gist of it is: one physical form, several personalities. Thus all players attempt to vie for control of the host.  Each daemon has its own triggers which may at particular times make it more powerful and more able to dominate the other daemons and control the host.  But I'm not gong to talk about that here.  That's for another post.

The game idea I want to discuss here, revolves around a kidnapping.

Now, this should be a great idea for a quick, one-off game, maybe lasting a day (perhaps two).  And shouldn't take (relatively) too much prep.

Each player plays a character who is an ex-con of some sort.  Let them within reason decide who they want to be.  With the only real caveat that they must have all spent time in the same prison.  Prison is how they know each other.  Shortly after release, they decide to commit a kidnapping to get some money.  Why they need the money should ideally be explored - comments welcome, I've only just come up with this idea.

These PCs are on the whole a pretty bad bunch, as they need to be the sort of people that would realistically commit a kidnapping, and thus inflict such a horrible experience on another human being.

The beginning of the game involves the ex-cons meeting up and discussing the initial planning of the kidnapping.  Everything is important about this phase, right down to where they are when they're first discussing the plans.  The game can then evolve into target selection, safehouse selection, whom amongst them are performing which roles.

The bulk of the work in defining the 'adventure' will be by the players.  As the GM, you'll need to know what sort of things can likely go wrong.  What sort of things can tie people together, link people to scenes, etc.  A list of these 'trigger points' should be defined prior to the game, and the GM should make notes on possible trigger points as they arise from player discussion.

There should also be a few key scenes that the GM should 'pull out of the bag' should the players' situation lead to them.  Police chases etc.  A list of these potential scenes should be defined by the GM prior to the game also - and any that may arise mid-game should also be noted.

Lastly, some of the players should have hidden agendas.  These should be worked out with a few key players beforehand, and kept very secret.