Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 jaanos1 Aug 24, 2008 22:22:11	OK, so using some of the fan material about the world of K'ydon (a cold version of athas) this is what i was thinking of as an adventure hook: The PC's are members of an independent city-state on the far side of K'ydon, away from the prying eyes of the Warden-Queen Hu. Having just come of age, they are serving in the militia. Whilst the city is nominally independent, the reality is that Queen Hu's operatives can effectively strike anywhere on the planet of K'ydon. The PC's are on a routine patrol to an outlying farm when they are attacked by a very well organised and heavily armed group of soldiers from the Warden-Queen's elite attack group, led by a Templar. They incapacitate the PC's and then kidnap a very beautiful female member of the PC's party (not sure weather this should be an NPC or one of the PC's themselves) leaving the PC's tied up, in the freezing cold, to die. The PC's somehow survive, and quickly realise that their companion was kidnapped as a potential candidate for the Warden-Queen's annual life-draining process during which she assumes the face of her beautiful female victim. Subsequent research will reveal that they have 2 months to rescue their companion from the city ruled by the Warden-Queen before the ritual takes place, and even if their friend is not selected, she will be killed in any case. How is that for a hook? I'm hoping it leads them on an awesome adventure: first off wilderness to get to the Warden-Queen's city, then subterfuge to get in, then cunning and planning to free their companion - any ideas of sub-plots, obstacles, prison design etc?
#2 jaid Aug 25, 2008 0:05:48	unless k'ydon is very different from dark sun, the most probable choice is for the PCs to just shrug their shoulders, wash their hands of the whole affair, and let the warden-queen kill the beautiful girl. life is kinda cheap in dark sun, if you hadn't noticed. furthermore, if it's anything like dark sun, you don't attack the warden-queen (who i assume is like a sorceror-king). not just "you don't attack her without good reason" or "you don't attack her without preparing carefully" but rather a very simple, straightforward, "you don't attack her or draw her attention because if she feels like it she can squish you like the insignificant little bug that you are" that being said, i don't know anything about k'ydon really, just making observations that unless a whole heck of a lot more has changed from dark sun, i don't necessarily see the PCs choosing to go across the world to their highly probable death at the hands of an extremely powerful epic level being just because some girl (who, i hasten to add, has not had a chance to become a real person to the players yet by virtue of the game having just started when this happens) got kidnapped. now, on the other hand, if you make this girl more significant to the players first, that might change things somewhat. or if your players will choose to act completely out of character just for the sake of being nice to their DM who spent time creating this adventure, i guess. if you have nice players who will go on a quest for absolutely no reason other than that's what the DM planned, then it could work too. [edit] oh, and don't ever kidnap a PC as the hook for the adventure unless you're planning the kidnapping to be short term. you may as well not even bother having them make a character if they aren't going to play that character beyond the first encounter. as written, if it was a PC, it's basically everyone else in the group getting together while the PC sits there and waits for 2 months of in-game time (who knows how long OOC, since the group presumably has to get up to epic tier to realistically have a shot at doing anything about a sorceror-king equivalent). then when the character is finally rescued, she'll be level 1, and everyone else will be level 21 or more... which i think you'll agree isn't going to work so good. so, to sum up: get the PCs attached to little miss plot hook first, and don't use a PC as the kidnapping victim. [/edit]
#3 the_ubbergeek Aug 25, 2008 0:15:41	Hum... Sorry to ask, but where can I read about this K'ydon? sounds interesting...
#4 jaanos1 Aug 25, 2008 0:23:25	http://www.spelljammer.org/worlds/CrimsonSphere/ Whilst i agree that life is cheap on Athas, I think you may have missed the key point of the hook: someone they care about is kidnapped. Whilst life may be cheap, you'll note from the various darksun novels etc that the characters presented on that world do care for one another, do risk their lives for one another - maybe not strangers or acquaintances, but certainly family or close friends. As for taking on the Warden-Queen, yeah, that is suicide, but they don't have to do that - they just have to free the girl and get away, much like freeing an individual slave from Kalak's slave pens for example.... maybe a bit harder! :D I have one player who'd be happy to play the to-be-kidnapped PC, then switch to a secondary character for the purpose of the hook. He's cool like that!
#5 jaid Aug 25, 2008 16:01:46	like i said, get them to care about the plot hook first, *then* kidnap them. really, it might work for the characters to tell them the girl is their best friend from when they were kids, but it likely won't work on the players. but let's suppose that this NPC (or PC) is someone they've known for a while, maybe even someone they've already put some effort into helping. not just in their background, but in-game. this would also mean that by the time the ploot hook gets kidnapped, the characters are already at least somewhat experienced adventurers, and it suddenly makes more sense why they would go to the other side of the world to challenge the warden-queen's authority. if they're already a somewhat established adventuring party, then they're used to taking on challenges that are likely to kill them. maybe the girl is a local healer's apprentice who helped them recover from a fight from a dangerous animal, or something, but basically, make it someone they don't just have written into their background. make it a real person to them first, then kidnap her. heck, you could even just have them stop the first attempt, and then a later attempt (perhaps while they're away) captures the plot hook and takes her away... at least the players (as well as the characters) should have some attachment to your intended plot hook imo. unless, like i said, your group is willing to just metagame their way through the plot. also, realistically if someone is being kidnapped and rescuing them is the focal point of the campaign, that character is pretty much retired from the group unless everyone is going to restart from lower levels. even challenging the warden-queen's agents is no small matter, particularly if as you say there is no safe place you can hide from them, so by the time the group rescues a captured PC, there will be a huge level disparity (and if not, then why couldn't the group stop the capture from happening in the first place? but regardless, it's your game. i'm telling you i don't think it's going to work, and why i don't think it's going to work, but if you don't like my advice, you're free to ignore it.
#6 jaanos1 Aug 25, 2008 16:36:07	All good points, I had always intended to 'build' the relationship prior to the kidnap, sorry if i gave the impression that the kid-knap was the starting point. I think a foiled first attempt is a great idea *yoink* consider it stolen! :D