circumnavigation module interest?

[Meds]

This sounds like a fun adventure idea, alish2o. I'd definitely be interested.

One of my favorite adventure storylines involves a race (sort-of) by ship halfway across the world:
"Beyond the Mountains of Madness" from Chaosium spends a large part of the campaign planning the expedition, and then on board the ship. Lots of deep intrigue.

I love exploration of strange lands:
- X1 has already been mentioned.
- M1, "Into the Maelstrom" had a long voyage-into-the-unknown section heavily modeled on Homer's Odyssey. We had great fun with that one.
- "Voyage of the Princess Ark", a fiction series from Dragon magazine (also by Bruce Heard) was also a favorite. It apparently took some inspiration from Star Trek.

I do like the extra flavor that the race adds. Unless it's all on-board intrigue, you need solid hooks for the party to stop and explore/have adventures (as others have mentioned).
- Replenish food and water
- Sabotage from competitors
- Sabotage of competitors
- Rescue of crewmembers/competitors
- Repairing the ship/shipwreck
- Storms/calms/weather gods/bad winds force a temporary halt
- Secondary goals outside the race: trade, mapmaking, forging treaties, following rumors of treasure.
It's been a while since I read it, but the Car-Race-Across-America minigame in Polyhedron (can't remember its proper title) had a similar structure (i.e. adventures during a race) so it may contain some better ideas.

 

[KnowTheToe]

I really have enjoyed this thread. it is neat to see so many diverse but quality ideas come from one idea. My concern after reading through this is how to avoid the adventure of the week syndrome as mentioned above.

A main story arch is required to keep everything goingand I am not sure a race is strong enough motivation. Exploration is one idea, but can still lead to a bunch of one offs. I liked the idea of having several adventure plants that would take many game sessions is one idea, but the concept of the race may stop the players from getting involved. Any other ideas on how to break-up or enrich the adventure.

 

[Conaill]

Another word of caution: if this module is meant to take PCs all the way from 1st to 12th level, keep in mind that the goals and status of the adventurers will change *dramatically* over those 11 levels. The kind of prize that would attract a 1st level PC is small change for a 12th level one.

Perhaps the PCs could initially sign on as lowly crew members on a team that enters the race. By 12th level, they would probably *own* their own ship, if not more than one.

Similarly, you have to make sure you keep those high-level PC's interest on the race. Otherwise, by the time they reach lvl 10 they might just say "screw this race, we've got much more important stuff to do..."

 

[Saeviomagy]

Would it have to be all onboard a ship, or could you go more "around the world in 80 days" style, where the transport method is largely irrelevant (but the players still don't start out with anything like teleport).

 

[Storminator]

I really have enjoyed this thread. it is neat to see so many diverse but quality ideas come from one idea. My concern after reading through this is how to avoid the adventure of the week syndrome as mentioned above.

A main story arch is required to keep everything goingand I am not sure a race is strong enough motivation. Exploration is one idea, but can still lead to a bunch of one offs. I liked the idea of having several adventure plants that would take many game sessions is one idea, but the concept of the race may stop the players from getting involved. Any other ideas on how to break-up or enrich the adventure.

I think you could tie it all together. A race and scavanger hunt, with checkpoints.

Let's say the world has been circumnavigated, but many of the routes are the "safe routes." The powers that be want "fast routes." So the goal is to find short cuts between checkpoints. Since no one goes the routes the PCs will be taking, there's an exploration component, and a first contact component with any natives on the tough roads. If the scavanger hunt is open ended, i.e. "bring back the most fabulous treasure!" you can stick in all kinds of crazy adventures.

And finally, if all racers have to wait for the laggards at each checkpoint, you have a Tour de France thing going on. At the end of each leg you score all contestents, part on speed, part on repeatable route (including happy natives), part on treasure gathered. That way you can keep track of the score along the way, you can have witty banter with rivals at check points (and cheating!), and teams can change strategy along the way ("we really need to come in first this leg!").

Sounds rockin.

PS

 

[Sanackranib]

new mod

by all means. there is never enough good stuff out there. if its generic enough perhaps I will use part of it for my darakeene campaign

 

[Shadowdancer]

For inspiration, I suggest you read "Voyage of the Fox Rider" by Dennis L. McKiernan. It isn't about a race, but it is a fantasy story involving characters on a series of adventures as they sail all over the planet and back.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Would it have to be all onboard a ship, or could you go more "around the world in 80 days" style, where the transport method is largely irrelevant (but the players still don't start out with anything like teleport).

I just wanted to point out that you'd need nerves (or some other body part) of steel to use teleport to circumnavigate the globe. Take a look at the teleport spell description and the associated table. For destinations you've never seen, you have at best a 52% chance of arriving on target -- and that's with a description of the target site, which you might not have if parts of the globe are truly unknown.

For you smart-alecks thinking about teleport without error, the spell says, "The character must have a reliable description of the place to which the character is teleporting." (emphasis added) So not even teleport without error will get you somewhere neither you or anyone else you know has ever seen.