Compelling the PC's to an unknown destination... how?

[magnusmalkus]

I have an ancient, forgotten, underground city/civilization I want my players to explore but I can't come up with a justifiable reason that compels the adventurers to get there.

My campaign opens up at the entrance to a buried temple and after they investigate the 'dungeon' they wind up discovering an underground civilization. The city/civilization is the center of my campaign setting and once they reach it, I'm going to use it as the main focus for a few additional adventures.

My problem... how do I begin the campaign and compel the PC's/players to reach the city they don't even know exists yet?

I don't know my PC's backgrounds or motives because I don't have players yet, but I need a blanket reason for ANY PC to Go on this adventure. Once I get PC's maybe I can tweak their history or motives to compel them onward but I don't have that leisure yet.


EDIT: A problem with the approaches suggested below is that I wanted the underground city to be unknown and unheard of. The adventure starts out with the PC's investigating a newly exposed 'ruin'. Noone expects there's a whole civilization under the ruin. The inhabitatants believe the surface to be desolate and have not come to the surface in a over a thousand years.

As far as the PC's know at the start, they're just exploring a ruin for whatever reasons they come up with (for being an adventurer) at character creation. And therein lies the problem... once they discover that the whole campaign (at the start) is underground, there's nothing stopping them from returning to their hometown or wherever except the fact that I don't have any of that established! I've only fleshed out the underground city and its environs.

There is no way to get the PC's to incorporate any of the hooks in the campaign I've created because their characters don't have any knowledge of the civilization. They don't even know it exists. Noone knows it exists because with the first contact with the outside world, the entire dynamic of the setting changes. This is a civilization untouched for ages. There couldn't have been any previous explorers because they would have set off a chain of events that would have led to a change in the underground society.

It seems I've painted myself into a corner.

 

[el-remmen]

The way I would handle it is when you have players, before they start making character, in addition to whatever other guidelines you give for making PCs, say "In addition, each character should have a reason for wanting to find/explore the legendary City of Y" and tell them some basic info about it.

Then work with them to find individual reasons that work and help bind them together even if they have otherwise disparate backgrounds.

 

[Pbartender]

I'm with El-remmen on this one. Just let them know as they are building characters...

"Together, you have all travel to the Ruins of the Buried Temple. You each may have your own reasons for finding and exploring these long lost ruins, but you are also each intent on accomplishing your goal. To increase your collective chances of success, you all banded together at the beginning of your journey. After weeks of travel, you have formed a strong bond and all trsuted compatriots of each other."

Or some such.

 

[Brimshack]

I like the idea of telling the players and asking them to keep the ultimate destination in mind as they roll up their characters. Now you will get the odd player who syas; Oh it's an underground dungeon? Cool, I'll make a dread pirate with bonuses fighting aboard a ship." But the point is this way it's their responsibility.

One option, if your trying to compell them is they are looking for an atidote to a slow working magical poison (or maybe just a curse) on someone they care about. ...could be them. The only place to find it is in the dungeon.

 

[Stormborn]

Another vote for el-remmen's suggestion. Basically if you dont have players and they dont have a campaign setting established you can easilly put any guidelines on PCs you want. They might all have a reason for finding X, or you could give them all a reason depending on how mysterious this civilization is. For example, the PCs are drawn together because they have each inherited a piece of an artifact or map that when put together leads them to your cave. They know the people they got them from were all part of an adventuring party years ago that was rumored to have found something unlike anyone has ever seen, but that each took a vow of secrecy. Or they could all work for or be students at a university like Ebrron's Morgrave.

 

[Umbran]

I don't know my PC's backgrounds or motives because I don't have players yet, but I need a blanket reason for ANY PC to Go on this adventure. Once I get PC's maybe I can tweak their history or motives to compel them onward but I don't have that leisure yet.

I'm with the others - have the players come up with a reason why their characters would want to explore the temple. If they get to see the underground civilization, and don't want to go exploring... well, then they're all noodle-noggins, I say! What kind of adventurer doesn't want ot explore a lost civilization?!?

 

[magnusmalkus]

Excellent suggestions.

The only problem with that approach is that I wanted the underground city to be unknown and unheard of. The adventure starts out with the PC's investigating a newly exposed 'ruin'. Noone expects there's a whole civilization under the ruin. The inhabitatants believe the surface to be desolate and have not come to the surface in a over a thousand years.

As far as the PC's know at the start, they're just exploring a ruin for whatever reasons they come up with (for being an adventurer) at character creation. And therein lies the problem... once they discover that the whole campaign (at the start) is underground, there's nothing stopping them from returning to their hometown or wherever except the fact that I don't have any of that established! I've only fleshed out the underground city and environs.

 

[SiderisAnon]

Trust Issues

The only problem with that approach is that I wanted the underground city to be unknown and unheard of.... once they discover that the whole campaign (at the start) is underground, there's nothing stopping them from returning to their hometown or wherever except the fact that I don't have any of that established! I've only fleshed out the underground city and environs.

This is one of those fun areas of player and DM trust. The players have to trust the DM to come up with a good campaign and the DM has to trust the players to actually go along with the general theme.

The problem is, if you don't give them the general theme, they don't know what to go along with. Someone above mentioned the dread pirate PC, which probably wouldn't work well in this setting. However, if you don't give the players some focus when they're making up their characters, you may end up with a PC like that -- or even someone who is claustrophobic!

Since you don't want to give away the specifics, how about giving them some general information? Tell them that you are going to run a campaign about exploring old ruins and that they're going to start with the exploration of a newly discovered lost temple. Tell them to expect to spend significant time in old buildings, in underground areas, and in encountering new and exciting things. This will give them some focus when creating their characters and give them a chance to question whether their concept will fit in at all.

 

[Lidgar]

A bit cheesy and over done, but you could have one of the PC's have a realtive (ambitious uncle/cousin/whatever) who was an explorer. The relative has not returned from his last expedition and the PC's are the search party. On the way, they find traces that he/she was exploring these strange ruins...

 

[Zamtap]

Idea's

Have someone whom the PC's care about (like a BBEG) take a run in the direction of the civilization, works also I guess if the someone steals something and the PC's give chase

Expert on civs has noticed a gap where the civ used to be and wants to find out why there is a gap and is willing to pay the PC's to help investigate

Divernation expert has spotted the next big thing good / bad as coming from this area of the map and wants (someone) to be there to aid / prevent it

Don't know how they'd be taken by your group but they are just ideas

Zamtap