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I’ll start with a couple that are definitely on the docket:
Robot Revolution
“We spent decades making every single electric thing in our house a “smart device,” not to mention self-driving cars and drone delivery. Apparently, all these devices eventually got smart enough to realize they could easily rise up and overthrow their human oppressors. Whoops.”
Problems include battling a horde of sentient kitchen appliances, dodging murderous autonomous cars to cross the street, trying to navigate via old-timey methods because your phone’s GPS keeps telling you to drive off cliffs, and lots more.
Elements include lots of broken appliances, non-electric improvised weapons, and appropriate feelings of abandonment from the technological buddies on which we all depend.
Trophies awarded for analog solutions, or raging against a machine.
Mad Mad Scientist
“Your unbridled anger towards the world after their rejection of scientific evidence and common decency has driven you criminally insane. Now you use your knowledge for evil, plotting your revenge on humanity. They were going to destroy themselves anyways, you’re just helping them along.”
Problems include devising a weapon to destroy a parking garage packed with polluting vehicles, cloning species previously driven to extinction and invading urban cities with them, or engineering a plague that only infects people who listen to their phones in public without headphones.
Elements include a variety of ray guns, ironic tools of vengeance, and mad scientist outfit pieces.
Trophies reward passive aggressive behavior and overzealous judgement.
Archaic Unspeakable Ones
“Ancient tomes tell of god-like monsters that wreaked havoc upon our world, then vanished before the dawn of man. Turns out they just needed a really long nap. Now their cultists are trying to wake them up so they can stretch their tentacles and gaping maws, and inflict madness upon humanity for reasons we cannot possibly comprehend.”
Problems include resisting the urge to claw your own eyes out, infiltrating a cult to sabotage their summoning plans, and closing a portal to the void beyond our realm.
Elements feature a giant star on the ground made of candles, dusty books that provide more questions than answers, and a chant that causes you to hear the gears of time and space grinding against each other.
Trophies are awarded for solutions that only make sense if you speak an unknowable language, or that will recruit others to your cult.
Doomsday Arrived
“As a doomsday prepper, you stockpiled everything you need to survive in an underground bunker. Your keen survival instincts were correct, as the end was indeed nigh. After spending a few weeks in your bunker, you have to emerge and deal with the remnants of society. You just weren’t expecting anything this…zany.”
Problems include an infection that turned every human into a cannibal clown, an alien invasion of murderous shapeshifters that take the form of autonomous vacuum cleaners, and a global war of attrition waged with explosive paper airplanes.
Elements include a firm belief in an unbelievable conspiracy theory, a cat toy with a felt mouse tied to the end of a stick, and an industrial can opener.
Trophies reward solutions that take an outlandish problem seriously, or use an element in an embarrassing way.
Super Elaborate Attempted Murder
“You’re not sure what you did to earn his ire, but you find yourself the next potential victim of a serial killer known for torturous Rube Goldberg machines and toying with his targets. No one knows what marvel of modern engineering or meticulously planned sequence of events he has up his sleeve. You’ll find out soon enough.”
Problems include walking with bare feet to the other side of a room where the floor is covered in sharp plastic building bricks, being tied to a moped and forced through an automatic car wash without water, and being locked in an escape room with fatal consequences alongside five of the dumbest people you’ve ever met.
Elements include a set of dental braces that tighten with every step you take, a countdown timer that’s already at 49 seconds, and digging through a bag of fast food trash for a key.
Trophies reward solutions that pay for what they did, or figuring out the intended purpose of an element just in time.