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View Full Version : DM Help Help, started an adventure without an adventure



deathbymanga
2016-09-16, 10:47 AM
So, the party and I had just finished a plot and I hadn't yet finished up making a new one, so I scrabbled together a loose concept with a 750 year old distress signal finally being picked up and they head over to this Swamp planet (The campaign is a science fiction space adventure ala Mass Effect and Star Trek). The planet is completely covered in a thin swamp that covers nothing but ocean (Not continents, just a layer of swamp over nothing but water).

I already had a concept of what this planet was like with Kuo-Toa populating it, so I had the players end up at a pyramid that after goofing around with some kuo-toa inspired traps and puzzles (A spiral the lead to a "gotcha" sign, a pressure-plate trap that actually opened a door, a glass pipe filled with squids that when broken lead way to the city below).

The city itself is described as being made entirely of glass and water, with glassblowing being the main commodity of the city. I described their society as having no written language and using music instead to record events, using glassblowing to form intricate pipes that tell stories. The players decided to go visit the King of the city, who's also the religious leader (Because Kuo-Toa) and I haven't been able to figure out a plot for them yet to get involved with. Does anyone have any idea?

kyoryu
2016-09-16, 11:41 AM
I don't have a specific answer, but two questions that might be useful prompts:

1) What does this king want?
2) Who doesn't want him to have that?

(If you don't want the kuo-toa king to be that central substitute another NPC for the king in question #1)

Slarg
2016-09-16, 03:01 PM
Cracks could "be forming" in the glass around the city, and the party could be responsible for figuring out who (or what) is doing that.

Contrast
2016-09-16, 05:30 PM
What materials do they use to make all this glass - could the source of those materials be under threat?

Were the Kua-Toaians the ones who sent the distress signal or the ones who caused the distress signal to be sent (and are they going to tell the players the truth)? A civil war with two morally ambiguous sides could set the players a conundrum.

Draconi Redfir
2016-09-16, 06:30 PM
Perhaps there is a large aquatic beast from the other side of the planet that has been roaming the area recently, or maybe they woke it up or otherwise angered it by mistake with their mining near the planet's core. The beast has been eating the kuo-toa or otherwise threatening them, and they ask the heroes to stop it.

possible plot twists from there.

1. The beast is a machine, and it is what sent out the distress signal.
2. the beast is being controlled by a rival faction of toa that beleive glass blowing is a dumb art.
3. the beast is itself sentiant and contains the intelligence (or within it lives a different sentiant species) and veiws to toa as encroaching on it's territory, maybe it's unaware of their presence or doesn't see them as intelligent.

deathbymanga
2016-09-17, 12:32 AM
What materials do they use to make all this glass - could the source of those materials be under threat?

Were the Kua-Toaians the ones who sent the distress signal or the ones who caused the distress signal to be sent (and are they going to tell the players the truth)? A civil war with two morally ambiguous sides could set the players a conundrum.

they use a mucus that they also use for making their signature sticky shields. hard to run out of a material your body makes. unless, hmm, a disease begins to spread that works like mass congestion?


Perhaps there is a large aquatic beast from the other side of the planet that has been roaming the area recently, or maybe they woke it up or otherwise angered it by mistake with their mining near the planet's core. The beast has been eating the kuo-toa or otherwise threatening them, and they ask the heroes to stop it.

possible plot twists from there.

1. The beast is a machine, and it is what sent out the distress signal.
2. the beast is being controlled by a rival faction of toa that beleive glass blowing is a dumb art.
3. the beast is itself sentiant and contains the intelligence (or within it lives a different sentiant species) and veiws to toa as encroaching on it's territory, maybe it's unaware of their presence or doesn't see them as intelligent.

hmm, a roaming aquatic beast that ate the distress signal, is responsible for a series of mass congestions that are crippling the city's industries. the players need to go find the beast, which is underwater, and kill it. hmm, this is well enough for me to work with. thank you

Excession
2016-09-17, 12:55 AM
hmm, a roaming aquatic beast that ate the distress signal, is responsible for a series of mass congestions that are crippling the city's industries. the players need to go find the beast, which is underwater, and kill it. hmm, this is well enough for me to work with. thank you

How about the beacon having previously been built into the king's symbol of office, a royal shield perhaps. The king fought the beast, but lost, losing his shield and left hand at the same time. The beast can obviously be tracked using the ticking of the beacon, a sound which haunts the king's nightmares.

There's also a time limit. Without the symbol of office certain rituals can't be completed, and the kingdom will fall to chaos.

Hopeless
2016-09-17, 06:35 AM
The distress signal is from a downed generation ship sunk somewhere beneath the swamp.

The crew mostly died on impact but the few survivors modified the low berth chambers to genetically alter the occupants to be able to adapt to the world's environment.

Over the generations since they first emerged they dismantled much of the ship barring a sealed chamber which they consider to be a holy relic.

They retained initially enough of their own language and technically ability to reverse engineer some of the information the ship's computer was able to provide explaining their current technology level, but its so alien that your pcs are unaware they're in a first contact situation with an alien race rather than what they use is a primitive amphibian species that evolved here.

However that sealed chamber holds the only surviving crewmember who if revived and interviewed will reveal the true nature of the inhabitants of this world.

So they will then learn the Kuo-Toa came from another world and was a thriving species before the accident that left them stranded on this world so even if they've died out that's quite a few worlds for them to search for...

Meanwhile the Kuo-Toa living on that world aren't aware they aren't native to this world so not only breaking into that chamber is a serious violation but they may well view the surviving crewmember as some kind of fraud or worse still a vile abomination after all they wasn't adapted to this world so look very different to the locals...

That enough of a game concept for you?

Mutazoia
2016-09-17, 08:10 AM
The distress signal is from a downed generation ship sunk somewhere beneath the swamp.

The crew mostly died on impact but the few survivors modified the low berth chambers to genetically alter the occupants to be able to adapt to the world's environment.

Over the generations since they first emerged they dismantled much of the ship barring a sealed chamber which they consider to be a holy relic.

They retained initially enough of their own language and technically ability to reverse engineer some of the information the ship's computer was able to provide explaining their current technology level, but its so alien that your pcs are unaware they're in a first contact situation with an alien race rather than what they use is a primitive amphibian species that evolved here.

However that sealed chamber holds the only surviving crewmember who if revived and interviewed will reveal the true nature of the inhabitants of this world.

So they will then learn the Kuo-Toa came from another world and was a thriving species before the accident that left them stranded on this world so even if they've died out that's quite a few worlds for them to search for...

Meanwhile the Kuo-Toa living on that world aren't aware they aren't native to this world so not only breaking into that chamber is a serious violation but they may well view the surviving crewmember as some kind of fraud or worse still a vile abomination after all they wasn't adapted to this world so look very different to the locals...

That enough of a game concept for you?

Or...as a modified version of this....

The ship that crashed was a cryogenics ship, that held thousands of men, women and children. For hundreds of years, the Kuo-Toa have been using the ship like a meat locker, eating the frozen (and still very much alive) passengers and crew, perhaps as the main course for royal banquets (much like in the middle ages, when only the king could eat deer meat). Naturally, the hapless passengers would be awoken, and then eaten alive...after all fish don't cook their food, but prefer it raw and still wiggling.

The distress beacon, is considered part of the royal treasury, for the "mystical music notes, that only those of royal blood can decipher" that it emits. The current royal family has been using the distress beacon as a "mystic McGuffin" to claim power. They don't know what it's "saying" any more than the rest of the Kuo-Toa, but they claim to.

Can our entrepid heroes unravel the mystery in time to save the remaining castaways from being royal lunch meat, or will they end up as horderves? Find out in our next thrilling adventure: "King Kou-Toa's Magical Mystery Meal" or "The fish fry's YOU!"

deathbymanga
2016-09-17, 11:07 AM
Or...as a modified version of this....

The ship that crashed was a cryogenics ship, that held thousands of men, women and children. For hundreds of years, the Kuo-Toa have been using the ship like a meat locker, eating the frozen (and still very much alive) passengers and crew, perhaps as the main course for royal banquets (much like in the middle ages, when only the king could eat deer meat). Naturally, the hapless passengers would be awoken, and then eaten alive...after all fish don't cook their food, but prefer it raw and still wiggling.

The distress beacon, is considered part of the royal treasury, for the "mystical music notes, that only those of royal blood can decipher" that it emits. The current royal family has been using the distress beacon as a "mystic McGuffin" to claim power. They don't know what it's "saying" any more than the rest of the Kuo-Toa, but they claim to.

Can our entrepid heroes unravel the mystery in time to save the remaining castaways from being royal lunch meat, or will they end up as horderves? Find out in our next thrilling adventure: "King Kou-Toa's Magical Mystery Meal" or "The fish fry's YOU!"

hmm, this is an awesome plot idea. i love it