CASTAWAYS: How do I get my PCs hooked without RAILROADING them??

[Milommiel]

Hi guys,
I'm starting a new campaing for a group of 4 players; I did a couple of sessions.
I'll do a quick and simple review to get to the point faster:

The players are either fugitives or travellers in a mercant sailing ship called the Firefly.
They get lost in the sea as the captain takes another route and they are attacked by a Kraken.
They wake up in a lost island.

The point:
How do I get my player hooked to the plot instead of just trying to build another ship withouth railroading them??
How do I get them enter in the jungle?

I wonder if its enough to remind them they dont know how to build a ship, the sea is damn dangerous, they are lost, they have no supplies nor water...?
I suspect that once they encounter the least of the threats, common sense says: dont go deep into the jungle.
Maybe if the captain disappears, they have to find him as he is the only one able to reapir/build a ship?

Thoughts?
Thanks so much in advance!

[ULTRAGEEK]

Milommiel wrote:

Hi guys,

Maybe if the captain disappears, they have to find him as he is the only one able to repair/build a ship?

If there are other peoples besides the characters, what about this:

The captain and most of the crew disappears, and a note is left imploring the pcs to come find them.

[Indagare]

1) What's gone on in the previous sessions? Shouldn't you know if they are fugitives or not by those?

2) What level and classes are they? The adventure hook for going into the jungle's interior could vary. Druids and Rangers might be interested in learning more about their location and finding supplies.

3) Besides the captain, who else was on board the ship? Unless they were part of the crew there are going to be other people involved.

4) Don't stop them from making another ship, but if the adventure is in the jungle then make there be a good reason to find them. Ultrageek's idea would work well, as would that of the captain.

5) Having more people around presents a different and interesting challenge, especially if people start mysteriously disappearing. The PCs would have a double challenge: find the missing crew (and, possibly, captain) and keep the remaining passengers and crew safe. If you really want them to go to the interior have there be some sensible way that the people the PC leave behind will be safe.

[Pizza Lord]

Quote:

How do I get my PCs hooked without RAILROADING them??

That is, and almost always will be, the wrong question. It should be 'How do I get my PCs hooked without them knowing I'm railroading them?'

Quote:

How do I get my players hooked to the plot instead of just trying to build another ship without railroading them?

Like I said above, you don't. You ARE railroading them. That doesn't make it a bad thing. You have a plot, you have a story, you have an adventure, it can't happen if they choose (either purposefully or accidently) to go somewhere that you aren't ready for. Not everyone can improvise on the fly and that's perfectly fine. You could always just say 'Hey guys, the adventure is about being stranded on a mysterious island and exploring it to find the way off (adventurously and with some extra treasure).' but that will definitely take away from their sense of making choices. It could work if you absolutely have to use it.

What you really want to know is how to make them believe they chose to explore the island and that they had the option to just try and build a boat and leave immediately. That is all done by making one option more logical, attractive, or exciting than the other (without making it seem like you're barricading the other choice).

Quote:

How do I get them to enter the jungle?

Naturally, you put something they want/need in the jungle or someplace they need to pass through the jungle to reach.

You use the "You don't know how to build/repair a ship." "You need more crew (some were kidnapped or went looking for supplies before the PCs regained consciousness)" or "You need a [something] before you could sail/reach civilization safely," if they bring up doing an action. Preferably you do it through an NPC who is believably knowledgeable, like the Captain or (if the Captain is missing) a grizzled old sailor who normally they saw mending nets on the deck at night, he's only has one hand but is wise and friendly (though superstitious as any sailor).

Here's an example of the flow (I don't know how much of your intro is interact-able and how much is just speech box): Players are sailing, suddenly ship is attacked by a Kraken or other beast, crew and PC fight bravely, ship is damaged so even if they slay the beast (they don't) won't matter. A huge wave fortuitously knocks the ship a good distance away from the tentacles (just sheer, natural coincidence? A sailor's fervent prayer to the sea god? Maybe one of the players is a divine caster and you hint that maybe someone was watching. but only ever hint why.) and the captain seizes the opportunity to put full sail/row hard. If this happens at night, you could use a sudden fog bank rolling in as well, which works way better for why the ship is off-course hits the unknown island.)

Ship hits the reef around the island, tears a huge hole in the hull. Any PCs on deck are flung overboard into the surf, any PCs below-deck are flung to the floor. Basically either blacking out from the impact or the just seeing a dark wave overtake them while hearing the sound of waves on a shore if in the water. Cut to the morning, PCs are all okay (soggy), Captain and a few sailors carried them to shore if they were on the ship. The ship is torn apart a good distance (hard swim) on the surrounding reefs (the crew have some supplies and barrels that wash on shore, exploring the ship will just find numerous dead sailors (drowned, having been stunned by the wreck and dying in just a foot of water). Over the next days or so the wreckage is torn apart by waves and tide (you can always have a 'missing' crate of supplies wash ashore if the PCs get desperate for food.

That's the story, now how do you get things moving? Well, anyone can tell that launching a ship of any size over a canoe is not feasible from this part of the island (rough currents, the reef, a giant tentacle that shot up and yanked down the first raft or canoe of sailors that tried to launch from here to maybe explore the other side of the island, etc.) So the Captain (if there) or someone suggests several courses of action (giving your PCs a sense of choice). A group should scout the island looking for a suitable launch sight (don't want to have to build a boat someplace and then carry it through the jungle or along the beach). It should sound safer, it's not all a walk on the beach, there will be rocks and cliffs that either have to be swum around, climbed, or avoided by going just a little bit into the jungle. Another requirement is that a group should go looking for food and water, obviously inland (in the jungle) is the best place to seek fresh water and fruits or game. If the PCs choose one option, a group of sailors is sent to do the other (or head in the opposite direction on the island scouting). If the PCs seem reluctant, they aren't just allowed to sit around, they are put to work building a signal fire just in case, or burying the dead sailors that are washing up on the beach (bad for morale and also not a good situation to have corpses laying around rotting and possibly attracting predators and scavengers.)

Once the PCs make a choice, do whatever you have planned, but while they are gone a group of 'natives' attacks the sailors (either the base group or one of the scouting parties) and a survivor tells that the natives came suddenly and maybe a few had kraken-like tattoos or a symbol on their weapons, maybe a leftover spear is found with a crude kraken on it. If the PCs don't think maybe there's a connection (whether there is or not) between the beast attack and this island have a sailor suggest one. Either way, mention that almost all the sailors taken were alive. This is where you have some sailors mutter about fiend-worshipping savages that sacrifice honest sailors to pagan gods and that no man deserves such an end.

If you want the Captain gone, then he was taken, either at the base site or he was leading the other scouting party. If not, then the savages made off with some vital charts, a compass, or somesuch.

Basically, you need to make the PCs want/need to go into the jungle by 'opening' apparent options and opportunities that just seem more logical and a lot of that is guessing what they might say so you have a reasonable sounding answer.
"No," they say? "We should just build a smaller boat. Without those lost sailors we need less room and less supplies?" "Well," replies a sailor "We already know this beach isn't safe, they've attacked here once. We can't reasoably launch here because of the rip currents and the reef. Even if we wanted to, we'd be even more vulnerable to attack because we'd be building a boat. So then we'd need to build defenses, which means we'd be using all our timber and supplies for stockade walls and we'd still need to go find fresh water even if we fished (or decided to become cannibals and eat salty sailor corpses, though create water is probably available to PCs.)" Even if they do try it and just build a boat without exploring the island (to find the Kraken figurehead of a lost ship that will appease the beast off the island's coast/to retrieve the charts/the appease the island's goddess for safe passage/to discover a secret treasure/etc.) stage another attack by the natives, they get driven off, but a torch/flaming spear/etc. sets part of the boat construction aflame and damages it. Don't say they destroy it completely (which is an obvious DM foil) instead just remark that is has set back the construction timetable.

Also, make things seem more desperate and make references to time passing. Initially the moon is half-full, remark on it growing to bright fullness, occasionally note the drums sounds from the jungle (are they getting a bit more fevered?) note bonfires appearing on the island's central mountain/volcano (there's always a volcano in the middle of the island, right?). Are the natives planning a ceremony or sacrifice soon? Will it be the missing sailors? You just need to throw options into the player's perception and let them choose.

You will almost always be railroading them somehow, the trick is to let them enjoy the ride and still have plenty of options and excitement. You may be stuck on a train, but that doesn't mean you can't do things: visit the Smoking Car and spy on a foreign diplomat, share a brandy in the Dining Car with a mysterious stranger, listen in on the coal stokers' gossip, search through and pilfer some things from the Baggage Car, etc.

[Blake's Tiger]

Couple ideas off the top of my head:

1. Quality lumber (I.e. the right trees) can only be found deeper in the jungle. On their search for those trees, they encounter X.

2. Chopping down trees, building ships, etc. takes time and X comes to them while they're cutting trees, hauling trees, looking for fresh water, fashioning lumber on the beach...

If the things that interfere with their build/repair the ship plan are interesting to them, they'll chase them down the rabbit hole.

[John Napier 698]

Also remind them that it takes a very long time for even a skilled team to build a ship. The relevant skill is Craft (Shipbuilding). Seagoing vessels would qualify as Complex items with a DC of 20. The cheapest seagoing vessel is the Keelboat and costs 3,000 Gp. And that assumes that all of the required materials are available, such as pre-cut lumber, ropes, sails, and brass fittings. If any of these are unavailable, then they must also be fabricated using Craft (Lumber), Craft (Brassworking), Craft (Ropemaking), and Craft (Sailmaking), all of which are of Simple complexity with a DC of 10.

And, given that it will take a long time to construct a ship without adequate facilities ( such as a shipyard ), constructing a fortified village should be a priority. Unless the party thinks that random attacks by animals and natives are fun. Hope these points help make your arguments valid.

[JohnHawkins]

Unless they have someone with create water, then just don't put a fresh water source on the beach that will force them to go inland to look and as other people have said building or even repairing an ocean going ship is not easy it needs tools and manpower as well as skills. How many pc;s have craft carpentry and similar skills, which means that while the crew try to rebuild the ship the players are the ones who have to get fresh water, food , defeat the evil cannibal tribe that sort of think.

[Mysterious Stranger]

Since the players have been shipwrecked they probably don’t have a lot of equipment. Building a boat without any equipment is very difficult even if you have the required skills, which they do not. Also building a boat requires a lot of lumber and without going into the jungle they cannot get it. Just have the supply of suitable lumber near the beach be limited.

They are also probably lacking a lot of supplies so they may need to find food and shelter. They will need fresh water and food or they are going to die. Depending on the level of the characters this may not be a problem. If they have a cleric then fresh water is not really a problem, but food may be. If they have a 5th level cleric with them he can create food, but if not they are going to need to figure out a way of feeding themselves. After a few days they will probably need to go deeper into the jungle to find food. All the close fruit will be harvested, and the game will be scared away.

You could also have them find signs of inhabitants on the island. If there are inhabitants that use fire they will probably smell the smoke. They would have to be pretty stupid not to investigate something like that. If they need more of a blatant reason have them smell the scent of cooking meat.

[Selvaxri]

have other shipwrecks visible from their vantage point on the beach; and a few accessible at low tides for them to possibly explore for salvaged weapons, gear, or even treasure.
These shipwrecks point to a possible (abandoned?) pirate fort on the island.

[Dastis]

I recommend stealing from them and then letting them know whoever stole from them is in the jungle. Its not a railroad but has a 100% success rate for me so far in directing player travel. Use sparingly :)

[GM Rednal]

There are a few basic ways of encouraging players to get into a situation.

1) Rewards. Treasure, magic items, that sort of thing. If they know something valuable is there, they'll usually jump at it.

2) Trouble. The PCs are actively in danger, and need to do something about it. This usually works well with some sort of time pressure so they can't simply ignore the problem.

[DrDeth]

Talking parrot flies out of the jungle and tells them about cool stuff there.

[MageHunter]

I figure a trail of bones tends to intrigue most parties. And hey! You get to reward the player with ranks in survival for tracking. Maybe add something esoteric so it isn't dismissed as some animal.

If they're low on supplies, other inhabitants on the island would totally be a reason you could leverage. Say you have a small Halfling fishing colony or something. Unfortunately their food supply is cut off from [insert plot hook here]

[Matt2VK]

I've found that if you request skill checks and then provide clues leading into the direction you want them to go works.

Something like "You spot smoke raising up above the jungle." "Found a trail leading into the jungle." Traps and possible guards blocking the way you want the party heading usually works wonders for getting them to head the correct way.