The shadowy organisation that wants to give the UK billions
Summary
November 5, 2010: A member of the United Kingdom's House of Lords has come forward with a proposition from a secretive organization known as "Foundation X". Said Foundation is offering to give the nation at least £5bn, possibly as much as £12bn. That's a lot of pounds.
Supposedly, it is "completely genuine", with "no strings attached". However, they will only fork over the dough if 'contacted by someone equal to head of state status or someone with an international security rating equal to the top six people in the world'.
Source
Bibliography
Game and Story Use
- Sounds a bit sinister, doesn't it? The GM has full control of just how innocent (or not) such offers are in their setting.
- Don't Nigerian money transfer fraud emails follow this pattern? Just give us your bank account and ID #s, and we'll wire you tons of money. That probably won't go well for the Nation.
- A super-secret conspiracy or cabal is trying to buy influence (see bribery) over the government, or even making an attempt at turning the system into an open plutocracy.
- "Foundation X" sounds like the sort of global criminal organization that James Bond might go up against. I bet they've got a secret lair inside a volcano.
- Twenty minutes into the future, Megacorporations might routinely dangle such sums as bait for cash-strapped governments.
- It could just as easily be a legitimate offer of anonymous philanthropy, but for gaming purposes it's probably more fun to go with something far more conspiratorial and threatening.
- The money could be a smokescreen. Whoever is offering it just wants a phone call from the Queen.
- Maybe it's some sort of status thing (a bored billionaire playing games). This could make a red herring to keep the PCs busy, or might be a bit of characterization fluff for some ridiculous NPC. A practical joke that got way out of hand, perhaps?
- Given the right setting, the phone call could be an important part of some sympathetic magic ritual. Perhaps they have a way to hypnotize or enchant anyone who willingly contacts them. So the offer of money is just to provoke a willful connection that can be exploited supernaturally.
- If your system is crunchy enough, and features functional magic, the PCs may be able to guess what sort of spells could be unleashed across a phone call.
page revision: 1, last edited: 05 Nov 2010 16:17