| Darkmind |
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Currently running this. Only 2 long sessions into it so far. I am doing my best to ratchet up the tension and paranoia and so far it's working. It feels more like a survival horror story than anything else. I made a back story of my own that forced the PC's to flee their home town and hop on the first ship at the dock to escape. Back story was un-related to SS.
Best moment so far : After a couple of days on the ship, they sat down with the captain for dinner. I decided to have one of the crew step in and say to the captain, " Captain, we are approaching Desperation Bay". Of course, this provokes the PC's to ask what that means. The captain looks at them in surprise that they are clueless about it. He looks at them and asks, " Desperation Bay ? You have no knowledge of it ? Well surely you have heard of Smugglers Shiv ?". Of course they all ask what this is too ( keep in mind that until now, they have NO IDEA what adventure they are in, they have no handouts, nothing, going in totally blind). I then have the captain read ( in my best pirate voice) the text on page 6 starting with "They say". At the end, I have him say "Those my friends, are the last recorded words of the notorious pirate Captian Lortch Quellig".
I decided that Quelligs words just had to be inserted somewhere. They were too good and ominous to omit and I could not see anywhere else where the PC's found them ( maybe I missed that).
As soon as the Captain finishes speaking this, I have them roll perception checks. Someone makes the roll. Me: " You notice that while you have all been eating, the captain has yet to take one bite of his food. You also notice that it's getting very hard to keep your vision straight and your eyelids are getting heavy. You are struggling to keep your head up and your faces drop into your plates. You distinctly hear the captain speak ( and I used a very serious and ominous tone " Set a course for Smugglers Shiv" The crew member replies" but captain..." . The captain cuts him off " DO IT !" It is the last thing you hear.
So it might not be the way the module was intended to start, but I felt that them knowing where they were going after hearing those words would be much more intense and it worked. The PC's were totally you- know -what-ing in their pants and helpless to do anything about it. After that, I had them awake on the beach and go on from there. Figured I would throw this out there after seeing the looks on my groups faces.
Core book 49.99
Adventure path 19.99
Seeing my group's faces after finding out they are headed to SS and totally helpless to do anything about it = PRICELESS.
This has to be one of the best 1st level adventures I have ever seen.