Arrgh! A new adventure

[shamgar001]

I'm starting up a new PbP game. Since I've never run a game with a seafaring component, I thought I'd try that.

This is what I have planned so far:
The party starts in a large port city celebrating the new year. The festival is interrupted by a pirate raid. After the battle is over, the local captain of the guard will thank the party for their brave actions and offer to buy them a drink. He drugs the drinks beforehand and the bard playing in the tavern (who's in on it) plays a sleep song. The PCs are knocked out and shanghaied. When they wake up, they are informed that a self-styled pirate emperor has been raiding aggressively recently and that its their patriotic duty to fight for the crown. Eventually they will discover that the emperor wants an ancient artifact, and needs the pieces of a map to find it, hence the raiding. The PCs will get to decide whether to fight with the navy, with the emperor, or become independent.

Questions for the board:

Has anyone run a seafaring adventure before? What are some pitfalls to avoid or brilliant ideas I can steal?
One of my players is a warforged. I'm not sure how to knock him out, but I don't want to rewrite the beginning. I was thinking maybe an artificer in cahoots with the navy might have been brought in to disable the warforged.

[mathewt]

Why not have the drug be some form of magical potion instead? It doesn't have to be a potion available to players...just say that for those it doesn't knock unconscious, it paralyzes...and maybe add in sensory deprivation. Might actually make it more horrifying for the warforged, which could be interesting roleplay.

[shamgar001]

I had assumed that Warforged don't eat or drink. I suppose there's no reason the bard's music wouldn't work on him.

[LimeSkeleton]

I'm currently running a sea campaign, so I have a few ideas/bits of advice.

1. Be aware that the party will likely constantly be attempting to get a seafaring vessel of some kind, and that once they get it, they're very difficult to pin down for any particular adventure. However, a ship can be even better than a beloved NPC if you want your villains to keep something hostage as a bargaining chip.

2. Dragons that actually live underwater can make for very fun opponents, especially when the party is aboard a ship, trying to defend it. Giving a normal dragon a swim speed and a penchant for hoarding treasure in its underwater lair can make for a memorable encounter.

3. Maneuvering a ship through a really rough (or perhaps even magical) storm is a fun skill challenge that creates interesting results on a success or a failure.

[Arkhosia]

Very interesting idea.
If you're doing an Ebberon campaign, the artificer could be member of house Cannith. It could make for some interesting sidequests, such as a mission to stop the Emperor's minions from stealing a secret scroll full containing the designs of warforged, which could grant him the ability to control the warforged and gain a powerful addition to his forces. This could also result in confrontation with house Cannith.

[shamgar001]

I'm not too familiar with the Eberron setting; I just poach game mechanics from it. I'll take a look at the Cannis thing.

I'm expecting that they will get their own ship at some point. I'm going to try a more sandbox-style play that I've done in the past (roughly as open as Knights of the Old Republic), where there are a few factions interacting as an integral part of the setting and the party can throw their loyalties wherever.

The factions I have so far include:
-A self-proclaimed Emperor of the sea (inspired by Ublaz Madeyes from Redwall if anyone knows about that). I haven't yet decided what treasure he's seeking ... maybe the fountain of youth or another classic like that. That search is going to drive the action. He commands a large number of "loyal" pirate captains to enforce his rule and controls most of the pirate port cities.

- The rest of the pirates who resent the emperor, but have no choice but to submit to his taxes and rules.

- The Royal Navy and the Admiral who shanghais the PCs. I like the idea that he is very vocal about his own loyalty, but it ultimately looking for personal power.

If it's going to be sandbox, I need to make up a list of large and medium port cities with some other drama prepared. I also like the idea of a floating monastery of Melora that may give aid, depending on the PCs reputation on the sea.

I do plan to run a storm skill challenge, as well as a kraken attack. Rather than use the kraken in the MM, I want to make each of its tentacles a monster, and have it be a race to destroy all of them while the ship is being slowly torn apart.

No particular theme for this post, just dumping my ideas out there.

[Arkhosia]

House Cannith, if you're interested
http://http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/House_Cannith
You could reskin it as the noble family ruling one of the various cities if you don't wish to do an Ebberon setting, which is basically a world where people have somewhat advanced using magic instead of technology, with elemental powered airships, the whole warforged origin, and Artificers.
If you do switch to the setting, there's some great real estate... (http://http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Lhazaar_Principalities)

[shamgar001]

I've had some time to think about it, and this is what I have:

The pirate-king's goal is to rule the sea by summoning and controlling a powerful sea-demon (such as Dagon sans fluff). The last empire that controlled the demon used an artifact. When the empire was destroyed by their own demon, the artifact was lost, along with tons of treasure, and the demon returned to sleep at the bottom of the ocean.

The pirate-king wants either the artifact or the fabled treasure hidden along with it. I'm thinking he might just be looking for the artifact because he thinks it's the ultimate fashion accessory, unaware of its power. The admiral in whose service the PCs will be press-ganged is aware of the artifact's true power, but he only ever indicates noble-sounding goals (like finding the treasure for national prestige or sharing it with the citizens or whatever).

As for the execution, I like having multi-stage MacGuffin hunts, since it offers options to the party. I'm worried that I'll have too many stages. This is one option:

The treasure is on another plane, and a special chart is required to safely navigate the plane.
The plane charts are broken up and distributed across multiple uncharted islands across the sea.
The only way to find these islads with with a special navigation tool, like Jack Sparrow's compass.


I'm worried that this might lead to the players going "Oh, another thing we have to find before we get to the treasure." Or maybe that's an unfounded fear.