Where to take the party next?

[RandomCitizenX]

The title is pretty much the question for this post, but before we get to that some setup is needed. In my 4E game, my players are passengers on a multiverse traveling train which is basically a rolling metropolis. Due to a rotating cast of player each game session is meant, with the exception of a few over arching plots, to be a standalonge episode either taking place on the train or on one of the many worlds it stops in. The first session had the players all striving to get tickets to board the train after it had been wrecked in Eberron (and incidently caused the Day of Mourning). The second session brought them to an Arabian themed city, just before a strange meteorite landed in the heart of the city. The third session involved a swampy wasteland with a very New Orleans like tree city (halfling cajuns and all), a very voodoo themed orc and goblin camp, and a big evil ziggurata devoted to Tharizdun. I am now trying to figure out where they should stop for the fourth session. The only plots which are currently brewing involves a cult trying to free Tharizdun and a conspiracy to assassinate one of the Wind Dukes who is riding on the train. Just wondering, if you guys were in my position with a second level party, what world or type of world would you stop in next?

 

[carborundum]

Oh, it's just like Dr. Who! Where will he appear for this episode? What a great campaign - I wish I was playing in something like that!

How about it stopping inside a bigger train, or on a big ship? Titanic-style?
The train door lets everyone exit via an oven in a bakery in Waterdeep? Second level parties always have fun with city adventures with a lot of dirty unshaven thougs and one boss thug who's a were-hamster/pigeon/tortoise/pig.
Maybe they get their first taste of Sigil? Or stay on the train (read Murder on the Orient Express)


So many ideas, I'll go get some coffee first!

 

[Herobizkit]

A cult trying to free Tharizdun forces me to suggest running the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, but that would derail your train campaign entirely. That said, there's no law that says your train can't stop into various areas of it from time to time...

I'm a role-player first, and NPC interaction is a huge focus when I play. I'd start to view the train as my second home. As such, I would purchase and/or start personalizing my own car, get to know the conductor and staff (especially the bartender in the restaurant car, if there is one), and try and 'recruit' folks to join me on my madcap adventures.

The biggest obstacle you might face is to resist the temptation to try and top your previous session, every session. Seeing the fantastic around every corner makes it LESS fantastic, in a way. Encourage players to return to similar areas rather than trying to have a new one each and every session. In fact, since your players aren't the same group every session, you can create adventures where the splintered party member(s) act as a kind of 'away team' that can set up help for the active players!

As to where to stop next, nothing will mess them up more than stopping on either a Dark Sun or Ravenloft-type area. Or even better, a Dark Sun/Western area versus a Ravenloft/Steampunk area.

 

[The Green Adam]

I love this idea!

AWESOME!

As a dyed in the wool SF fan I'm going to suggest their next stop (or one of them) is the transgalactic hub of Omnicron Tetrious V, the best place to buy a replacement for the trains aged Interplanar Pulse Wave PhaseField Generator. Aliens, spacecraft, laser guns...I would go with a mix of old school 50s-60s SciFi and some modern stuff just to create a sense of cohesion and detail.

I once run a campaign where the PCs entered an inn and ended up winning it in a riddle game in the first or second adventure. Each time you open and close the front door of the place it travels to another dimension in a fashion similar to your train. The PCs had to travel across time and space, find the lost Keys to Reality and unlock the secrets of the inn to get back home. While it sounds really metaphoric I mean it quick literally...one key unlocked the attic, one unlocked the cellar, etc. In each hidden room was a clue to getting home again.

Who are the PCs in your game? Anyone every get out and not get back on? Any new characters board at one of the stops?

AD

 

[RandomCitizenX]

My party started with a prison convert tiefling paladin(MC feat into rogue) of Avandra who had been a prisoner on the train when it crashed, a half-elf starlock who was once a notorious space pirate, and a house Sivis eladrin artificer who was hiding out from his house by getting a job helping fix the train. The second session saw the addition of a genesai swordmage trying to figure out who or what he is (had been a human who changed when left for dead in the elements) and an eladrin fighter who is on the run after angering fellow members of a multiverse spanning aristocracy. The swampy voodoo session left the artifier out, but added in a warforged warlord who had once been a cook on the train (he uses a mordenkrad which was his meat tenderizer) and is looking for meaning in his new found sentience.

The game definitely has a very sci-fi feel since the concept is mainly based off of the sci-fi anime Galaxy Express, although as a Doctor Who fan there will definitely be nods to that and Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion series. I am saving the murder on the orient express game for when they hit about level 6 or 7 since I want to tie that into the beginning of the paragon plot and want the pc's to care about the Wind Duke.

 

[roguerouge]

Run Murder on the Orient Express. Just don't tell them that that's the plot. Change some of the clues around, magic up some things, but basically, a murder mystery on the train.

 

[RandomCitizenX]

I think I have finally settled on this upcoming session as being more set up to the murder mystery. I'm going to introduce the Wind Duke, who I need a name for incidentally, while the train makes a stop in a traditional village with a secret.