Confused how to run a "Quest"

[SMac8988]

So my group is currently on a mission to drop off a royal girl to be wed to maintain ties between two kingdoms. They knew this was the mission from the start but have started to catch on that she is in a romantic relationship with a crew member of the ship.

The girl coming along is the only reason the king of this land is willing to actually meet with the party, which has information they need.

I want to turn it into a morality issue. I want to have the girl and crew member run off, and the group have to chase them down. And then make the choice of benefiting themselves or leave the lovers alone.

My issue is I don't know what kind of checks and all to put it more to it then just a chase. They just finished a big fight so I'd love this tk be a major role play situation.

Suggestions please! :)

[SilverStud]

So the princess is supposed to be shipped off to an arranged marriage, but she falls for a deck hand along the way. What are the stakes here? You said "to maintain ties," but what will happen if ties aren't maintained?

Here's the thing. If you want to make the players feel bad about bringing her in, you'll have to minimize the potential fallout if she never arrives at the marriage. Because when people play D&D, they almost invariably become super utilitarian. So unless you have absolutely top-notch roleplayers who built bleeding-heart characters, the party will always say "tough luck princess, you'll cause war if you run away like this" and carry her away.

So minimize the fallout between the kingdoms.

Then next thing to do is to start dropping rumors about her arranged husband being abusive, or a drunk, or super ugly, or bad in some way. Have NPCs comment that they've never seen the princess so happy as they have recently. Have other crew members speak highly of the deck hand, saying that they'll probably live very happy lives together.

In my experience, if a normal person would feel like 100% human trash scum for, in this case, taking the princess away from her lover, then the players/PCs will feel kinda bad have a tougher decision.

[SMac8988]

The king of where they are going is kinda a nut. Basically if they don't sway him he is going total war on another part of the world. This is to get the party a court and possibly buy a bit of time.

The prince I was tthink it would make it harder, to make him a good person as well. He will not like his father, but instead a very kind and understanding man, but is mentally abused by his father.

My group is, as odd as it is to say, much better at role playing into their characters then they are fighting at tines. The 3 who are lawful good, are very very big on sticking in character the whole time. Hell I have a kenku who has pages of quotes he uses to talk.

I want it to feel like a catch 22 and they need to almost force the decission.

I decided to add in a cleric and paladin of Sune goddess of love that has been brought in for the wedding but is also arranging a marriage for the couple underground. Whom may turn into the boss fight if the group try to end the marriage of the deck Hand and princess.

[Vogonjeltz]

So my group is currently on a mission to drop off a royal girl to be wed to maintain ties between two kingdoms. They knew this was the mission from the start but have started to catch on that she is in a romantic relationship with a crew member of the ship.

The girl coming along is the only reason the king of this land is willing to actually meet with the party, which has information they need.

I want to turn it into a morality issue. I want to have the girl and crew member run off, and the group have to chase them down. And then make the choice of benefiting themselves or leave the lovers alone.

My issue is I don't know what kind of checks and all to put it more to it then just a chase. They just finished a big fight so I'd love this tk be a major role play situation.

Suggestions please! :)

Decide on the motives of each NPC. First, are they truly in love or just in lust? Is the princess manipulating her erstwhile lover or is he a cad who has seduced a sheltered girl and plans to blackmail her father for riches to leave her and secure peace?

For the players, do they like the crewman? Is he nice enough that they have qualms about simply killing him for the abduction? If not, there's little tension.

It's a cheap ploy to make the betrothed a bad person, instead it might be more compelling if the players know he's a good person, and either the princess is awful or both lovers are awful. (I.e. There could be potential to save the prince from a unhappy political alliance).

If our players characters are obsessed with duty, the path is clear. Retrieve the princess and if the crewman interferes, kill him.

[SMac8988]

Decide on the motives of each NPC. First, are they truly in love or just in lust? Is the princess manipulating her erstwhile lover or is he a cad who has seduced a sheltered girl and plans to blackmail her father for riches to leave her and secure peace?

For the players, do they like the crewman? Is he nice enough that they have qualms about simply killing him for the abduction? If not, there's little tension.

It's a cheap ploy to make the betrothed a bad person, instead it might be more compelling if the players know he's a good person, and either the princess is awful or both lovers are awful. (I.e. There could be potential to save the prince from a unhappy political alliance).

If our players characters are obsessed with duty, the path is clear. Retrieve the princess and if the crewman interferes, kill him.

I have them as of now in love, but we're hiding it. The crew member has long hair and one of the players noticed he had the same elegant braid that the princess had. And they really like the npc, he is young and was very interested in the group and friends like seemed attached when he was badly hurt during the last session.

I haven't given them much on the Prince. But I was planing for him to be very kind hearted and soft, contrast to his father. The princess is very snobbish and the group kinda aren't fans of her... lol.

I want it to cause conflict, I want thrm to argue between themselves and the npcs. I want to have then have to hunt around for them some, just don't know how to go about that.

[Thrudd]

Use the three clue rule to give them ideas about where to go. Each clue they get will point them to a different location, where they can find clues that point them to the other locations. At each location, have something happen that is fun

The locations should be interesting, exotic places with potential for danger - because that's what D&D is about. So maybe they go missing when the ship is ashore at a cool place, like a jungle island with pirates and cannibal tribes, or a multicultural bazaar at an ancient Egypt sort of place with lurking assassins and snake cults and booby trapped pyramids.
When the players come up with ideas to find them, decide what sort of check makes the most sense and let them roll it. Then use the three-clue rule to point them to different locations where the lovers may have gone. To add more tension and conflict, you should make it so the lovers ran off, but were noticed and the princess kidnapped by bad guys of some kind. So they first find where they two went together, and then find the crew member who tells them that they were attacked and she's gone. Then they track down the kidnappers at different locations. When they get to one location, they find clues to the other places. At each location, there should be some kind of fun dangerous conflict - a hideout of kidnappers where they need to learn who they work for, tracking them through a jungle path where carnivorous plants and giant insects attack them, tracking them through a sewer or crypt complex under a city, where there are monsters or booby traps. Eventually, they catch up with the kidnappers and fight them - maybe they find out who hired them, maybe they don't. After, the princess and crew member are reunited and they learn that they are in love, and she doesn't want her arranged marriage. Now they can debate amongst themselves whether to let her go, and say they couldn't find her, or bring her back.

[solidork]

If I was in your game, I would move heaven and earth to try and resolve this problem with the healing love of polyamory.

I'm not sure how pleased Sune would be if one of her priests is calling her up via-Commune to find out if the prince is into boys as well as girls.

[SilverStud]

So far you've got this setup

In favor of the arranged marriage:

The king will start a war if the marriage doesn't happen.
The party needs to deliver the princess to get what they need.
The prince is actually a really great guy.


Against the arranged marriage:

The Princess and the Deck Hand are in love
The Deck Hand is a friend of the party
?

[SMac8988]

So far you've got this setup

In favor of the arranged marriage:

The king will start a war if the marriage doesn't happen.
The party needs to deliver the princess to get what they need.
The prince is actually a really great guy.


Against the arranged marriage:

The Princess and the Deck Hand are in love
The Deck Hand is a friend of the party
?


That first point with my group is gonna be a big point against the arrangement.

I want it to cause conflict, so I may give them a run around.

This could be a way to get them to explore the new city they are entering and get their first run in with the thieves guild of the area.

Use the suggestion above. Give them come clues of a few location that by standard heard or something. Have them bounce around some, and eventually learn from a guard or someone that the girl was grabbed and the boy was tossed, and have them find the deck Hand badly wounded in an ally someplace.

Then it turns into a hunt for the thieves guild and a high stacks rp encounter which can turn ugly for the girls freedom.

And then after all that they will make the choice whom she will marry.

Through in the followers of Sune at one of the location, to give some insight of their beliefs and introduce the priestess as a almost st valentine character whom marries people of the city against the kings wishes since she has arrived.