I'm big into preplanning for problems since my set of players never tends to do anything 'by the book'.
My group is about to begin their voyage on the Sea Wyvern. After a fight about not taking colonists, I have no idea what to do if someone dies along the way. I've tested the combat and it seems likely we'll lose at least one character (I don't have the smartest group of players). Given the lack of other characters to take over, what has anyone else done when someone dies and has to make a new character?
The ideas I'm tossing around are giving my players the option of becoming one of the non-essential NPC's on the crew, like Skald or Lirith. Another idea is having the new character at one of the ports. Problem with that is when they're past the ports. Any other ideas or suggestions?
I hadn't thought about finding survivors. That's probably how we'll do it.
I'm not entirely sure on why they are all anti-colonists. They're afraid that Farshore will have failed in the whole month or so it's been on it's own, not including their time to get there. And for some reason it's a bad idea to bring new ones if they aren't sure what shape the colony is in?
What's weirder is they said no colonists, but they want to bring a blacksmith and some clerics to build a temple. Even though we have two clerics in the group.. They're all just insane.
The party doesn't know how ofen a ship needs to stop to get supplies. To accomodate a new player, I invented a subplot about a dire rat infestation that ate through most of the food on the Sea Wyvern. After quelling the dire rat invasion, the party went ashore to do some hunting and gathering and ran into a marooned sailor.
El Skootro
I'm not exactly sure of the dates but it seems to me Farshore is at least a couple of years old and if the player need proof of it's continued survival perhaps amongst Lavinia's parent's paper work there are some letters from Farshore reporting progress and asking for supplies and provisions. Just a thought.
I already ran the scene and from what I had understood from the AP it was a new colony but it seemed well stocked and well fortified. Nothing I say tends to get through to them though.
Their other issue with even going was that they're afraid Vanthus will be there, not that they have any reason to be afraid of him (not to their knowledge anyway).
hmm, we had a pretty detailed group of colonists and paying passengers, but I also forewarned players that they might have to "do" with playing an NPC character for a while until I could believably rig an introductory scene for the "new guy/gal".
Since our only PC death occured at the finish of the Sargasso, the new guy was introduced smack-off the coast of the Isle, rowing panically away from a shipwreck caused by Emraag in a leaking dinghy (some GM-foreshadowing to be gotten out of the scene as well). The player controlled Amellia in the meantime
As for other spectacular "introductions" to campaigns in mid oceans, we once had a guy being pushed of a flying carpet a mile or two up by his erstwhile partners in crime (it was a fun freeport campaign), certain that even Feather Fall would not help him once he splashed into the middle of the ocean.... *grin*
As for barbaric characters, these should be adequately placed along the jungle coast, perhaps on a vision quest, running from their tribes or eager to catch a ride on the "sailing clouds" (aka ships) perhaps.
But I really hate those "you look like a trustworthy stranger" scenes...