Getting the PCs back to base

[hymer]

In my recent sandbox campaign (inspired by Westmarches), it was imperative to get players to go back to the starting point (a fort in the wilderness) between sessions. The PCs attending any mission depended on which players were invited by the mission caller, and which of those signed up for it. So the 'party' was not expected to be the same two sessions in a row.
This felt natural, as the fort was the place where food and safety could be had, and NPCs with useful skills, services and resources could be consulted. Once they got access to teleportation and such, it got less of a worry exactly where they were, of course. They could meet back up easily.

Now, in my coming campaign, I'd like to make an E6 sandbox that includes civilized cities, but I'd also like to have the capacity for many players and PCs to get together in varying groups to do what they want.
Can anyone come up with a device that would achieve this? In the former campaign, the fort was often compared to the Foreign Legion, in that many kinds of character could have a reason to come there. I'd like to give the PCs as much freedom as I can, but strangely, I can give them more freedom if I can sort out some groundrules for them to adhere to. Like the place they go back to between adventures.

I've been thinking about something like a travelling circus, so the PCs can move this base in directions they prefer. Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing? Suggestions, thoughts?

[J-H]

How about a trade network? Several large cities and a number of medium-sized cities (with varying geography and economies) with regular caravans and/or barges traveling between them. Need to move part of the party halfway across the continent? Advance the timeline by 6 months and just say that they came along with the next scheduled caravan.

[Blightedmarsh]

Mobile base?

Ship/airship/wagon train/Train/Giant transformable golem/s?

[hymer]

@ J-H: Definitely a thought. There's still a bit of a communication problem, though. Perhaps a worry about a very different time flow, but I can just make the distances less.

@ Blightedmarsh: I'm leaning towards a ship at the moment. Everybody goes back to the ship after the session, and the ship can be pretty much anywhere next session. Main problem there is that one guy in our group is planning a pirate campaign, and I don' want to be stepping on his campaign's toes too much.

[Cikomyr]

Take a page from Quest for Glory; the Adventurer's Guild.

[nedz]

You can use guilds, with different guild houses in different towns. Churches and Monasteries can be made to work this way also.

Really though, in a sandbox, this should be up to the players. If the players choose to play classes like Druid, Ranger or Barbarian then they might wish to be independent, and thus without any base.

[Cikomyr]

You can use guilds, with different guild houses in different towns. Churches and Monasteries can be made to work this way also.

Really though, in a sandbox, this should be up to the players. If the players choose to play classes like Druid, Ranger or Barbarian then they might wish to be independent, and thus without any base.

That is why I like the idea of Adventurer's guild. It's just a place where you can go if you need dough, or help, or contacts, etc...

Even loner-type characters might go there once in a while to get anything, be it job, reinforcement, etc... But it's not like the Guild can actually order them around.

[hymer]

@ Cikomyr: How does that work? I don't know the game. I'm not even sure it is a game. :)

@ nedz: I'm afraid I need to give them some guidance to start with. At some point they may decide to leave whatever 'base' I end up providing, but there are social RL reasons they should have one to start with.
I'm a little hazy on how the guild houses would work. Is there a teleporter in them? Message system?

[Blightedmarsh]

I think the idea is that each chapter house acts as a local base.

[hymer]

Ah, well, if PCs 1-4 are in base A, PCs 5-8 have gone to Base B, and PCs 9-10 are still back at base C, it doesn't make gathering them together very natural, if it turns out the players want PCs 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 for their next mission.

[Blightedmarsh]

But if these chapter houses are in close contact with each other then the players can agree to rendezvous at the mission site.

[hymer]

Yeah, that makes sense. They'd need some really fast method of communication. Pigeons, perhaps. Could be doable.

[J-H]

There's always magic. Got Palantiri or a fixed audio-only equivalent?

[hymer]

I try to keep that sort of thing to a minimum. The palantíri were major strategic considerations in the wars of Arnor. I think I'll stick to pidgeons for now, it's got that E6 feel to it. :)

[J-H]

That's because the palantiri could be used to see more than just the other stones. How strategically important is having a single MagicVideoChat in each major city that only connects to the other major cities?

You could also have a Pony Express type service (plot hook) or semaphore towers (flags in daytime, 9 lanterns at night that are covered in different patterns for different words/characters). All those require is a sufficient investment.

[hymer]

Pony express yes. Semaphore no. You're thinking Eberron and Discworld, I'm thinking Middle-Earth and the 200 BC Mediterranean. :)

[J-H]

It's technologically possible in both - the Romans could have done it if they had thought of it and decided to invest the resources.

[hymer]

It's as good a way of blowing up the mood and atmosphere as quoting Monty Python. Whether it's practical, I think we disagree there, but that's not really the problem.

[Water_Bear]

It's as good a way of blowing up the mood and atmosphere as quoting Monty Python. Whether it's practical, I think we disagree there, but that's not really the problem.

Well, Roman frontier watchtowers actually did use flag-codes and torches to send messages, so it's not historically inaccurate. And if you remember the Return of the King's badass torch-lighting montage, it can be pretty dramatic.

Obviously taste is going to vary, but if you're keeping stuff like Gnomes, Beholders and the Bigsby's Hand spells this kind of thing seems fairly minor in terms of breaking the serious tone.

[hymer]

As much as I worry about this thread degenerating into this discussion...

Yes, military posts, which were maintained at great cost for a very good reason, could do this. Having a semaphore system spanning the continent (at astronomic cost compared to sending pigeons, and huge practical difficulties) would change the world in ways we can barely imagine.
As mentioned, it's an E6 campaign I'm planning, so I'm not worried about Bigby's hands nor the eyes of the beholder. And I actually don't put gnomes in my campaigns.
I may have PCs capable of casting fireball, and they may run into a strange creature such as a manticore though (and a system of watch towers and border forts are very likely to have some method for signalling). But these will be local rarities, and none of them will be pervading the world like a system as the one described would.

[Excession]

Pony express yes. Semaphore no. You're thinking Eberron and Discworld, I'm thinking Middle-Earth and the 200 BC Mediterranean. :)

Well, advanced semaphore systems like a hydraulic telegraph were used in 400 BC Greece. Simple stuff like smoke signals require even less tech. Continent spanning not so much (though Sicily to Carthage is damned impressive), but just because it was a long time ago doesn't mean people were stupid, or unable to see the advantages of long distance communication.

The problem with a pony express is that it's going to be extremely expensive to maintain. You need to feed and house a lot of horses and riders, and that isn't nearly as cheap as most people think. Pigeons are perhaps cheaper, but you still need to ship the birds back manually afterwards, assuming they even survive the trip. I'm also not sure how long a pigeon can be kept in one place and still think of the intended destination as "home".

[Jerthanis]

You could also have all of the Adventures hosted out of a single specific location, but which can take the party out to other centers of culture sometimes, but the Adventurers' home is in the one specific city, and it is where the adventure is to be found...

Perhaps a frontier town, with an untamed wild nearby, perhaps corrupted by Fae magics or an Undead Blight. Outside the frontier are cities that have more resources and experts, and some places to go for additional Adventuring but if they want to do the Cool Stuff of the game, they'll make their way back to that town eventually.

[snikrept]

Consider accelerating the passage of world time.

Missions take place months apart instead of days. Plots move on the scale of years. Pigeons / couriers / caravans / ships etc now easily have time to summon PCs from other places to do the next mission.

Secondary advantage: level progress isn't as crazy as normal. Avoids "we came to this city at planting time as clueless commonfolk; we are back here at harvest time as world-renowned demigods..."

Tertiary advantage: Evil bosses can legitimately be scaled in power level to the PCs. When the story starts they're still youths with a gang of toughs; by the time the PCs are high level, if they've not yet been dealt with they've amassed money and power and threaten the kingdom. A process which might take decades.

[hymer]

@ Excession: Impressive, but local - and again military. I wonder whether Polybius was right on Sicily-Carthage. Sounds like the initial prompting (for one thing) would make this difficult.
The adventurer's guild would use the pigeons by having adventurers going to a nearby city take a bunch of pigeons with them when they go (or send them along with merchants they usually work with). The pigeons would stay most of their time at home base, and only go to the next town or city. If you want to send a few cities away, you send it in steps. And yes, some pigeons might not make it, though this worry hasn't stopped them from being used for military purposes. Fortunately, pigeons are relatively inexpensive, and you can send more than one.
And the fear of interception helps too.

@ Jerthanis: Certainly worth consideration. Especially in conjunction with something of snikrept's suggestion.

@ snikrept: Good thinking! It would set a different mood from what we usually see, and crafters would probably have it too good unless I find some other way of getting a handle on them. I'd also need to take into consideration that the 'adventurer' might turn into a shopkeeper to make the most of the downtime.

[Friv]

If you want something that's E6 magical, as opposed to over-the-top magical, you could also use druid-trained peregrine falcons. They move a bit faster than pigeons and are a lot harder to easily intercept, and Animal Messenger is only a Level 2 spell, so 3rd-level druids could put together a few specialized magic items for an adventurer's guild that would allow them to send falcons all over the place without having to have individual ones for each chapterhouse route.

It is something that makes the guild impressive, without having an actual telegraph network in place to do things over the top.

[hymer]

Good point. If the players are ok with it, they may actually cooperate with a network of druids from the beginning. Such a group should have no trouble keeping contact with that.

[Blightedmarsh]

If your talking about endurance flight then falcons aren't the fastest; not even close. You want ducks; geese are a close second.

[J-H]

I think you should go with an African swallow for speed. I hear they are very fast when unladen.

[nedz]

Owlpigs, that's what you want. Much more intelligent and stealthy, well, at least if anyone does report them — they are not likely to be believed.

[Blightedmarsh]

But not crows; they're smart enough to stab you in the back when the going gets tough.