You set up a story of a crime. You can be an old lady looking for her kidnapped daughter or a gangster looking for the thief who stole his truck of drugs. The important thing is that there is a culprit to find - i.e. an inactive player. Then you give some vague information about him, say, part of his name, his code, his rank, his job, whatever. The object for the participants is finding him, attacking and winning (leaving him, mugging him, or hospitalizing him it's up to the request). Who does it first wins the competition.
You can do it easier (directly give information about the culprit) or more difficult (give information of somebody who knows about the culprit - then, once that somebody is attacked you would msg additional information to the attacker). If you have some other buddies helping, you can also let them to give information conditional of some requirement (e.g. sending him a beer).
I also like the idea of TheDarkLegacy [1712562] above, it may give some nice twists.
The thread then will take life, you can decide to release more info if you see that it was too difficult, or let the players exchange information about who they attacked.
p.s. It is possibly a format already used. If it is, sorry my bad.
Example: Mrs. Parrol: Sigh! I can't believe I lost my son. He was just coming back home from work! The car was found sunk in the sea few miles from the docks. The police found traces of tyres on the ground, as if he tried to avoid something in the middle of the street. I know there is a bar close by, frequented by people from the army. They get dead drunk there every night. The police also found a few bottles of whiskey shattered on the ground, and a combat boot, as if somebody was desperately running away. On the sole, few numbers of a serial were found: "11...62", the rest was illegible. Please help me find the responsible for my son's death! I'll pay you 1,000,000 for any information you can provide!
Mrs. Parrol: My son had a wife. She's destroyed, inconsolable, poor thing. She may know something but she doesn't want to talk to me. Our relation was... difficult, so to say. Please, be kind, send her a bouquet of flowers and maybe a box of chocolate. She may be willing to talk to you then. Her phone number is: 926317.
Few hours ago I bought 23 lion plushies in SA, but when I flew back to torn they were not in my inventory. I am pretty sure I bought them, and I am sure I had enough money with me. Anyone can help?
You were sent the item Dodge Charger from Torn with the message: sometimes you feel like a nut..sometimes you dont....other times you want to drive-hot_tub-win
You were sent the item Dahlia from Torn with the message: and other times stop to smellt he flowers-hot_Tub-win
R+ for the new travelrun, altho I miss the possibility to look at the graphs for specific items (other than flowers).
I think it would be very nice if in addition to the flower run you could have also the graph of the plushie(s) as the default graph below the list of items. Then a link on top to look for other specific items.
You were sent the item Rusty Sword from arya101 with the message: winnerr in hot_tub You were sent the item Box of Medical Supplies from arya101 with the message: winnerrr in hot_tub