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Rorrik
2012-08-04, 12:06 PM
I'm currently toying with the idea of a campaign where I provide the players with a superb tracker and they spend the entire campaign tracking the BBEG through the wilderness. The BBEG will have specific goals, like visiting certain sites (think dungeons) to retrieve artifacts. I also imagine that he will become aware of them before too long and have his mooks set up ambushes.

My question is this. Since the tracking will probably be done by an NPC, what ideas can the playground come up with to make the campaign about the PCs?

Hyena
2012-08-04, 12:10 PM
Replace tracker with an oracle and make the players search rare magic components for him AND try to interpret his words so they make some sort of sense. Or simply make party ranger the tracker.

NikitaDarkstar
2012-08-05, 12:30 PM
First of all try to avoid the use of an npc. Or if you end up with a party that can't really track on their own make sure the npc really isn't to good at anything else. And if your players pick up and divination spells see if you can't get rid of the npc after a while. (If the BBEG picks up something to protect him against divinations after a while you and the group might have to think of something else.)

As for making the tracking itself fun... To be honest I'm struggling with seeing how you could. I mean you could lead them through some scenic areas and some random/fun/quirky (non-combat) encounters, but in the end you're following a guy through the wilderness, and to be honest, even if you use terrain rules and nature and weather to spice things up, you're still just following some random guy through the wilderness.

TheStranger
2012-08-05, 06:06 PM
The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed?

I think there's some potential in the idea; the PCs are usually reacting to the BBEG anyway, so a long-term pursuit is as good a framework for a campaign as any (and the above is an all-time great story hook). However, the players need to do the heavy lifting on this one; having an NPC do all the actual tracking (or any other plot-crucial task) is usually a bad idea. Nor should the "tracking" be limited to survival checks. There should be a variety of ways that the PCs get the information on where the BBEG is going next; social encounters, hidden clues, whatever you can come up with. Ideally, there are a few different ways the players can figure out where they need to go next, so they're not more railroaded than they need to be (and so they have a backup option if they screw up their first plan).

A lot is going to depend on the players; this is a very specific type of campaign, so if the players want to be pirates or something, they'll be disappointed. But if they're up for it, and willing to take the initiative to do the tracking, it sounds like it could be fun.

Kelb_Panthera
2012-08-05, 06:38 PM
I'll second having the party directed by an oracle that doesn't go with them. I love wierds for this. They have a mechanical excuse to know pretty much any info you want the players to have, thanks to their prescience ability.

Have the wierd task them with aquiring something for her, such as say the BBEG's head, and have her give them an aspect mirror (CS). She tells them where the next area is, in as concise or confusing a manner as you choose, then they go and do.

Rorrik
2012-08-05, 10:22 PM
I have to confess, the main motivation for me to make this campaign is because I really like the idea of tracking and my players never have a ranger in the party, making it hard to add tracking elements to normal campaigns. I also want to experiment with tracking rules I homebrewed with inspiration from 2e.

That said, I agree that the PCs need to bear the bulk of the burden. I was thinking of making the tracker nothing but a tracker, and not a very bright one at that. He basically be capable of following a trail, but then be at a loss of what to do next if he lost the trail. This is where the PCs would come in, picking up the trail again and trying to work out the BBEG's plan.

I guess I realize this is a hard concept to pull off well. Thanks for the advice so far.

CET
2012-08-06, 08:35 AM
As far as the 'pursuing the BBEG' campaign, I think would definitely think of tracking beyond just the literal act.

When the PCs come to a new city, hot on the trail of the BBEG, there are plenty of intrigue opportunities. Maybe they can use some earlier clues to ID his local allies, and kidnap one of them or steal correspondence or plans to get more info on the BBEG. Or they could meet his local victims and learn new clues about his identity or long-term motivation, etc.

In the wilderness, they could come across a caravan that is being scavenged by humanoids. By examining the wreckage, they realize that the BBEG destroyed the caravan, and that there were survivors that they might be able to rescue from the humanoids for clues.

But, if the goal is to test your tracking rules, could you just give one of the PCs a couple bonus ranks in tracking (maybe through a magical item?). I would advise against anything that involves the PCs following an NPC along a predetermined path for long periods of time.

Oracle_Hunter
2012-08-06, 09:23 AM
I have to confess, the main motivation for me to make this campaign is because I really like the idea of tracking and my players never have a ranger in the party, making it hard to add tracking elements to normal campaigns. I also want to experiment with tracking rules I homebrewed with inspiration from 2e.

That said, I agree that the PCs need to bear the bulk of the burden. I was thinking of making the tracker nothing but a tracker, and not a very bright one at that. He basically be capable of following a trail, but then be at a loss of what to do next if he lost the trail. This is where the PCs would come in, picking up the trail again and trying to work out the BBEG's plan.

I guess I realize this is a hard concept to pull off well. Thanks for the advice so far.
So... the first step is not to make the ultimate drive of the campaign be using your homebrew tracking rules. If you want to do that, ask your Players "hey, would you like to play a campaign where tracking is big thing? I have these homebrew rules I want to try out." If they say yes, then go right ahead; otherwise they are just unwitting (and unwilling) pawns in your experiments and Things Will Not End Well.

That said, you can have a normal campaign where tracking is a reoccurring issue.
In the first adventure, introduce a NPC Tracker that can help them find a "short-cut" through the adventure -- if the quest is Race For The Artifact, have situations where successful tracking can lead the PCs to rival questors who have helpful clues, for example. Whatever you do, make sure two things are included:
(1) Successful Tracking is not necessary for the success of the adventure and
(2) Give the PCs complete control of the NPC Tracker.

#2 is essential to keep your Players engaged in tracking. If they have no say in when they track or even how they track, the Players will never get interested in trying out your tracking rules -- and if you're making all those decisions, there's no reason to bore your Players by having them around. This way even if they hate Tracking, they'll be happy to have an extra "asset" in the game so no harm, no foul.

After that first adventure, see how the Players felt about tracking.

If they liked it, have the NPC Tracker join them on their next adventure and give them opportunities to use tracking in the future but never where it is essential. In the end, you can have the NPC Tracker get murdered by the BBEG and having "tracking down his killer" occupy the rest of the campaign -- giving the PCs opportunities to invest in tracking, or hire another Tracker if that's what they prefer.

If they didn't like it, ask them directly what they didn't like about it, and tweak your rules. An adventure or two later, reintroduce a tracking subplot (much like the first time) and see if they like it better. There is a non-trivial chance that your Players will never like tracking -- but do it this way and you'll be able to test your Tracking Rules without alienating your Players.

NichG
2012-08-06, 11:23 AM
I think the big thing with tracking is that there's not much line between 'well we lost him' and 'we caught him' to make things drag on. In some sense, if you're successfully tracking him, you need some motivation to not close in for the kill as soon as possible (this is assuming a target who is doing more than just flat out running away as fast as is possible in the setting).

Also if the BBEG has any sort of access to teleportation, or even anything that gives them Pass Without Trace or Overland Flight, it really messes things up for a mundane tracker.

My advice would be to make it so that the BBEG's location isn't known because of these things. Instead, the party has to follow the BBEG's henchmen back to the lair basically. The henchmen should be rare, and generally would have a long mission to complete. The result is: the party has to follow the henchman until their mission is done, but not let the henchman know that he's being followed or he won't head back to the lair. There's even some conflict here: does the party try to thwart the henchman's mission, even if that risks him finding out or not returning to the lair? Those are potentially interesting decisions depending on the mission. If you chose the right mission, you could have three 'success' outcomes at least:

- Mission is allowed to succeed with negative consequences, but the party can track him to the lair
- Mission is thwarted or set back and the henchman returns for reinforcements, party can track him to the lair
- Mission is thwarted or set back, and the henchman is cued off. Party confronts the henchman and may or may not be able to find the lair based on interrogation, and may need to search out another henchman or camp the mission site and wait for reinforcements to check what happened to the one they killed.

Rorrik
2012-08-06, 03:28 PM
Instead, the party has to follow the BBEG's henchmen back to the lair basically. The henchmen should be rare, and generally would have a long mission to complete. The result is: the party has to follow the henchman until their mission is done, but not let the henchman know that he's being followed or he won't head back to the lair. There's even some conflict here: does the party try to thwart the henchman's mission, even if that risks him finding out or not returning to the lair? Those are potentially interesting decisions depending on the mission. If you chose the right mission, you could have three 'success' outcomes at least:

- Mission is allowed to succeed with negative consequences, but the party can track him to the lair
- Mission is thwarted or set back and the henchman returns for reinforcements, party can track him to the lair
- Mission is thwarted or set back, and the henchman is cued off. Party confronts the henchman and may or may not be able to find the lair based on interrogation, and may need to search out another henchman or camp the mission site and wait for reinforcements to check what happened to the one they killed.

I really like this idea. The way I'm thinking of setting the campaign is having the BBEG be a necromancer who they're tasked to defeat. However, he is an agent of the smaller kingdom in the area. If he can be tied to this kingdom, the kingdom the PCs represent can put political pressure on the evil kingdom to hand him over, or avow they are not associated with him, making him an easier target for the PCs.

If they track his henchmen or him well enough, this could provide sufficient evidence that the enemy kingdom is forced to hand him over(or go to war). If they do it slightly less well, the enemy kingdom claims they have no ties and quietly banishes the necromancer while apparently helping to search for him. In the second case the PCs continue their search, but for an opponent with fewer resources and political ties.

A third alternative is to accrue enough evidence(or let the necromancer do enough damage) that their kingdom decides to declare war on the evil kingdom, even though they can't pin it on them enough to put political pressure.

Lvl45DM!
2012-08-06, 09:11 PM
If this is 3.X you use 'Tracking' to find footprints and stuff but use search and spot to find clues and let them deduce what they mean. Establish patterns for your BBEG so your players can gain ground or get ahead of him and lay an ambush. Award clever deductions but allow them to just do basic tracking if they are dumb. Social encounters are also a good idea, or even interrogation of henchman.

The idea of following a henchman would be very interesting especially if he's going to get a virgin heart or something. Can your PC's stand and watch that happen? Maybe its for the best? Who knows?

Finding documents/messages would be fun. Maybe the mage can develop a spell to intercept magical messages? Or a magic item that does the same?

Does the BBEG know the party is tracking him? Is he laying down false clues or sending out henchman to distract the party? Will he burn down a village just to make the party waste time saving them so he can put a few miles on them?

The important thing to keep track of would be WHERE the BBEG is in relation to the party and HOW LONG ago he was there.

Rorrik
2012-08-07, 10:20 AM
@Lvl45DM!
Those are all great ideas. The mage player especially likes developing his own spells, so if I can hint to him that it would help I bet he'd get right on a message interception spell.

This is starting to shape up pretty well in my head. Thanks for all the advice. I talked to the players and they're willing to give it a try. One of them is going ranger.