Exploration of the unknown... with social

[Aliquid]

I'm thinking of running an exploration campaign where the characters are supposed to explore and map a previously unexplored region. There are very few intelligent beings in this new world... so there is little opportunity for social interactions. So I thought... what about an exploration party that goes with them?

NPCs that fill out non-combat roles in the expedition. Maybe an official cartographer, porters, a cook... etc.

Now I'm trying to think of how to make that interesting. Some of my ideas so far:

- A grunt that often follows the PCs around to "help", but who ends up being more of a hinderance, and they have to figure out how to deal with that (bluntly tell them to get lost, politely dismiss them, help them get better... etc)

- Maybe there is a retired adventurer as a leader of the expidition, and the PCs aren't the only ones doing the exploring. Maybe there are 2 teams, one with PCs one with NPCs, and the leader sends them both off in different directions from home camp each morning. This gives the opportunity for rivalries, and for some authority challenges with the leader.

Any suggestions on how to expand this idea?

[PiperThePaladin]

I'm always a fan of unconventional adventure set-up! What if the party has to find each member of their exploring party separately? Like the beginning of a heist film, where the mastermind has to find their safe cracker, explosives expert, driver etc. one at a time and convince them to join the plot. That would prevent info dump and give your party a chance to get to know each NPC one at a time as the group slowly builds. You could have them pick up two or three of their exploring party in the barely-civilized furthest outskirts before the unexplored region, and find the rest as they get deeper into the wilderness. You could even give them choices of which NPC to bring. They need a cartographer, here's two people who both want the job and the party needs to pick the one they think will be better at the job/is not secretly a yuan-ti luring them into a trap.

[Aliquid]

I'm always a fan of unconventional adventure set-up! What if the party has to find each member of their exploring party separately? Like the beginning of a heist film, where the mastermind has to find their safe cracker, explosives expert, driver etc. one at a time and convince them to join the plot. That would prevent info dump and give your party a chance to get to know each NPC one at a time as the group slowly builds. You could have them pick up two or three of their exploring party in the barely-civilized furthest outskirts before the unexplored region, and find the rest as they get deeper into the wilderness. You could even give them choices of which NPC to bring. They need a cartographer, here's two people who both want the job and the party needs to pick the one they think will be better at the job/is not secretly a yuan-ti luring them into a trap.I hadn't thought of that route... yes, I like it. I can have profiles of the potential NPCs built ahead of time with the obvious benefits and challenges visible to the PCs, plus the less obvious ones hidden... until it is too late. (Not that I will make any of the NPCs totally suck, I don't want to make the players miserable... just make things interesting, and requiring social role playing

[Quarian Rex]

Be careful with the heist type thing. That scenario is only interesting because you get to see the mastermind draw upon the rogues gallery of friends/allies/rivals that he has formed throughout his career, hinting at a much larger history and many stories untold. Something like that would probably be much better later in an established campaign, when the PCs have lived through that larger history and now get to draw from it.

Perhaps a better way to look at it would be recruiting for a B-grade superhero team (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXFR1L_gOg8) (because NPCs) with applicants trying to talk themselves up. In this scenario The Shoveller ("I shovel well") would actually be an asset.

It may seem like I'm splitting hairs here but the tonal difference is pretty big. The first scenario implies competence and perhaps a shared history, both of which may not be present from the players perspective and thus seem like a disappointment thrust upon them by the DM. The second is them trying to find diamonds in the rough and being happy with the positives that emerge, or being able to cut ties without any implied historical considerations.

Just some thoughts.