RangerWickett
Legend
In my campaign (which starts tomorrow), the PCs are part of a large expedition being funded by rich, corrupt merchant families. Their ultimate goal is secret, but their immediate goals include recovering various relics from around the nation.
I want the game to be more about the interplay among the different groups of adventurers and their patrons than about the hunt for loot. Like in LOST, sure you've got a mysterious island with monsters and gun fights, but the focus is on the characters and how they conflict with each other.
So I need to come up with several groups of adventurers who can be part of this expedition. The tone I'm going for is vaguely Mummy-esque, with humor in the face of horrible ancient magic. And a persistent theme is eschatology: the study of the end of the world.
In addition to specific NPCs, I also want some general groups of adventurers -- different parties who all work as part of the same expedition.
So far I've come up with these NPCs:
D, the leader of the group, a cleric whose two daughters are being taken care of by one of the nobles funding this trip. D's going to die at some point when the expedition is close to completing its goal, which will leave things chaotic.
J, the guitar player, who has come along to help aggrandize the adventurers' quests into memorable songs, which will be performed when they get back to civilized lands. J's going to guide the PCs toward a mystery involving a magic song.
K and his wife L, two daring adventurers who are having marital strife. They're thrill-seekers, but L is worried that K isn't pulling his weight anymore, and K is worried that his wife will never want to settle down.
M, the funny one. He's dying of cancer, and he knows it, so he comes along to be part of the adventures he always heard about when he was younger. He loves scatological humor, and is vulgar, crass, and sarcastic. He's willing to risk his life for others; in fact, he desperately hopes he'll die saving someone's life.
S, the scholar, who will chatter on and on about any sort of topic and make it interesting. If ever you're in need of exposition, he's your guy. He's not an adventurer, and doesn't go into tombs, which means that of course at some point I'm going to have to have him tag along with the PCs.
B, the hero, who is like Indiana Jones in his confidence and style, capable of the pulpiest sort of action. He always gets the treasure, but he tends to lose one or two hirelings in each outing. Bad luck, I guess.
And for the other groups of adventurers:
The Dungeonpunks. These guys are decked out with all sorts of fiddly items in case of any extreme danger that comes their way. They all have spiked armor, alchemical thrown items, bladed gauntlets, potion belts, and wicked looking swords. Most of them dress in black, and have the attitude of a skate-boarding street samurai.
The Grognards. These experienced adventurers go in prepared too, but prefer slow and steady. 10-foot poles and 100 ft. of rope for everybody, with a mule and a bag of mice just in case. Most of them are former soldiers, and few of them have a full head of hair.
The Debutantes. These beautiful young woman are treating the expedition like a vacation, and are rebelling against their rich families by participating. They have no idea what they're doing, and the only reason they're not going to die right away is that they're too skittish to actually go that far into any tomb.
The Tribesmen. These men are natives to the next nation over, which is poor and primitive. They've signed on because they're getting paid a ridiculous amount compared to what they'd make in their homeland, and they treat every outing like a party beforehand. During the mission, though, they're very serious and reliable.
There'd maybe be five to a dozen people in each group, and I want a total of fifty to a hundred people. So does anyone have any ideas I can add in?
I want the game to be more about the interplay among the different groups of adventurers and their patrons than about the hunt for loot. Like in LOST, sure you've got a mysterious island with monsters and gun fights, but the focus is on the characters and how they conflict with each other.
So I need to come up with several groups of adventurers who can be part of this expedition. The tone I'm going for is vaguely Mummy-esque, with humor in the face of horrible ancient magic. And a persistent theme is eschatology: the study of the end of the world.
In addition to specific NPCs, I also want some general groups of adventurers -- different parties who all work as part of the same expedition.
So far I've come up with these NPCs:
D, the leader of the group, a cleric whose two daughters are being taken care of by one of the nobles funding this trip. D's going to die at some point when the expedition is close to completing its goal, which will leave things chaotic.
J, the guitar player, who has come along to help aggrandize the adventurers' quests into memorable songs, which will be performed when they get back to civilized lands. J's going to guide the PCs toward a mystery involving a magic song.
K and his wife L, two daring adventurers who are having marital strife. They're thrill-seekers, but L is worried that K isn't pulling his weight anymore, and K is worried that his wife will never want to settle down.
M, the funny one. He's dying of cancer, and he knows it, so he comes along to be part of the adventures he always heard about when he was younger. He loves scatological humor, and is vulgar, crass, and sarcastic. He's willing to risk his life for others; in fact, he desperately hopes he'll die saving someone's life.
S, the scholar, who will chatter on and on about any sort of topic and make it interesting. If ever you're in need of exposition, he's your guy. He's not an adventurer, and doesn't go into tombs, which means that of course at some point I'm going to have to have him tag along with the PCs.
B, the hero, who is like Indiana Jones in his confidence and style, capable of the pulpiest sort of action. He always gets the treasure, but he tends to lose one or two hirelings in each outing. Bad luck, I guess.
And for the other groups of adventurers:
The Dungeonpunks. These guys are decked out with all sorts of fiddly items in case of any extreme danger that comes their way. They all have spiked armor, alchemical thrown items, bladed gauntlets, potion belts, and wicked looking swords. Most of them dress in black, and have the attitude of a skate-boarding street samurai.
The Grognards. These experienced adventurers go in prepared too, but prefer slow and steady. 10-foot poles and 100 ft. of rope for everybody, with a mule and a bag of mice just in case. Most of them are former soldiers, and few of them have a full head of hair.
The Debutantes. These beautiful young woman are treating the expedition like a vacation, and are rebelling against their rich families by participating. They have no idea what they're doing, and the only reason they're not going to die right away is that they're too skittish to actually go that far into any tomb.
The Tribesmen. These men are natives to the next nation over, which is poor and primitive. They've signed on because they're getting paid a ridiculous amount compared to what they'd make in their homeland, and they treat every outing like a party beforehand. During the mission, though, they're very serious and reliable.
There'd maybe be five to a dozen people in each group, and I want a total of fifty to a hundred people. So does anyone have any ideas I can add in?
