Request for assistance with designing a side-quest.

[Sejs]

Heya all. My situation and plea:

My current campaign is taking place in the Forgotten Realms. I've got the course of the next 'block' of campaign already taken care of - the PCs get back to Calimport from their expedition into the desert to find the two members of their cadre that stayed behind to do background NPC stuff got captured by the Rundeen and their secret yuan-ti bosses. They'll go and get them back. They've also got a side quest to travel to one of the character's (now fallen and infested with undead) monastery to the north, clean it out and make it a suitable home for the 'child' of a hivemind of scarab beetles that retain knowledge from anything they've eatten. That's all scripted and in motion, and frankly should last a good half-dozen sessions easy. It's what comes after that, that I'm working with now.

So one of the things the stay-behind NPC types did while the party was off adventuring, fighting brigands and scouring ancient ruins in the sands, was to secure the services of a new ship and crew to continue their journey. The previous one was just a ride that was sort of a 'going my way' kinda deal, and they couldn't be persuaded to wait around for the PCs to return as they had other cargos to run. I've got the new crew already in mind, and plan for them to be a recurring set of NPCs for the campaign as a whole, so that's already done. However, what I'm thinking is once they're out at sea and traveling once again I'd like for another non-central plot related side quest to crop up and sweep them away.

To wit: Shipwrecked on an uncharted island toward Chult that's full of cannibal headhunters and some kind of mysterious pseudo-mayan temple kinda deal. Escape from Cannibal Island, let's call it.

My plea to you all is thus - any and all suggestions, ideas, input, and the like that you could offer to help me flesh out the scenario.


If it'll be of any assistance, the current group consists of the following PCs and NPCs:
-Catfolk Ranger
-Human Spellthief
-Shifter Druid
-Kiloren Spirit Shaman
-Gravelorn (kind of half-undead, based on the warforged) Cleric/Monk
-(NPC) Human Hexblade (former bandit chief, now sort of a retainer of the Ranger)
-(NPC) Human Fighter (back-up muscle, set to assist with more 'background' missions in future)
-(NPC) Human Rogue (a background mission NPC; a social-type rogue and fixer)
-(NPC) Human Diviner/Loremaster (the project manager; the information guy and bankroll. Another background guy.)
-(NPC) Janni (formerly bound outsider 'librarian' at the ruins the pcs just came from; has been alone for a very long time and gone kind of loopy as a result. Picked up recently, will become a background person.)

You'll note there are a lot of NPCs. This is intentional. They're there to represent other members in this organization/startup that the campaign is focused around getting rolling. Mostly they're the guys that do legwork off camera while the heroes go about their heroing, and also serve to help the players feel like they're part of something bigger that just themselves against the world. As time progresses, more NPCs will jump on the bandwagon but they'll likewise be off-camera and supporting character types. To draw an analogy for those familiar with the game: think sort of like the original Suikoden.



Anyway, thank you in advance for your assistance with Escape from Cannibal Island!

 

[dvvega]

What you are talking about sounds like you should have a look at the old X1 module Isle of Dread.

It would fit what you seem to want with a bit of tweaking/modifying, but the basic structure would be there for you.

D

 

[shilsen]

That setup just screams Skull Island. Bring out the colossal dire ape of legend!

 

[jdrakeh]

What you are talking about sounds like you should have a look at the old X1 module Isle of Dread.

It would fit what you seem to want with a bit of tweaking/modifying, but the basic structure would be there for you.

D

Seconded. X1 isn't the only Expert Set D&D module that I've retained through the years without reason. The Isle of Dread is the best 'lost world' RPG supplement ever written, IMHO. I've used it for everything from Expert Set D&D and D&D 3.0 to Adventure and Risus. When I need pulpy, lost world, adventure it's X1 or nothing!

 

[Mark CMG]

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=1115&SRC=EnWorld

 

[Haltherrion]

Anyway, thank you in advance for your assistance with Escape from Cannibal Island!

Well... six sessions seems kind of far to be planning ahead. Planning ahead is good, especially for the main plotline but side plots are kind of useful for working shorter duration themes and sometimes it is better to plan them closer to the time they are going to run so you can develop whatever seems of interest at the moment.

However, per your request, I'd suggest turning the cannibals on their head. Cannibals can be somewhat expected so make it look like that but flip it to something else. To steal a page from Anne Rice, you could have the cannibalism be some sort of ritual to pass knowledge from the dead back to the living. (Maybe the cannibals are the good guys but the PCs see the ritual cannibalism and it takes them a while to figure it out.)

Or if you are going with headhunter imagery, maybe there are a bunch of shrunken heads around but they are wards against a greater evil.

Anyway, for side quests, my experience as both ref and player, is that the memorable ones are the ones that really surprise the players and the cannibalism thing is well enough known it should be suitable for a good fake-and-surprise.

Side plots have their place but unless you run a lot of sessions, sometimes it is better to just find a way to work the concept so that it is part of the main plotline. Unless you are one of the lucky groups that can play weekly, players can forget an aweful lot over the course of a side plot if it takes 3 sessions and 6 to 12 weeks (for those of us playing every two to four weeks ) It can make it hard to have a true main plotline, if that is your desire.

 

[EdL]

To wit: Shipwrecked on an uncharted island toward Chult that's full of cannibal headhunters and some kind of mysterious pseudo-mayan temple kinda deal. Escape from Cannibal Island, let's call it.

This is why none of my characters will ever get on a ship unless dragged on. You know the instant you set foot on board that you're going to get shipwrecked and/or attacked by pirates. Every single time!