Howdy y'all! Very happy to be here. I just need a quick hand for something I've been making up. I have this one-shot where the characters are put on a cursed ship and need to solve what happened before they too die from the curse. I'd rather not reveal exactly how the mystery plays out right now because that goes into what i need help for; through the game, the players will be able to find a logbook and one by one, pages written by the previous captains of this vessel, to piece together the story. Last times I played, I gave them in a set order according to a roll table I quickly threw together, but now I,m wondering if it'd be possible to just give them entirely out of order and have the mystery still be solvable. That's where you come in!
Below is a link to a PDF file containing the logbook pages. Imagine you are a player and receiving them one-by-one, in the order presented. Do you think it'd be feasible to create a timeline of events? Is it a fun mystery? How would you reorganize the pages? Do you think you'd have a good idea what you need to do from there?
If you do help, first of all thank you very much. Afterwards, either leave a comment here, DM me or message me on discord at ross_thumps I'll see you much faster on Discord than the rest
ALSO if you help me, I'm currently working on putting the one-shot together as a module, so you could get yourself a copy of it if that's something that interests you! I'm not a pro DM or good at making modules but I think it's a fun lil adventure. Thanks a lot for taking the time to read this whole thing ^^
16 pages of text for a one-shot is a LOT. I feel like getting them one at a time would start to feel like a "Kill 10 rats" video game quest setup. Yeah it is easy to understand and do, but repeatedly doing the same cycle is numbing at times.
I may not know enough about your setup, but the base idea is fantastic (find and read the fates of those who did this before and failed). My concern is the grind.
That's a good point, the earning of them has never been a problem afaik because I am very permissive and my players rp well, which I always like to reward. They just need to investigate the ship and on a good roll or good rp they can find one more. It's also not necessary to find them all to win, which also makes me wonder, cuz if the one that has the answer comes out last it can be more difficult? But then it'd be even less railroady and let them choose their own path more effectively maybe. Plus, even as it is, the relevant page coming up last is still a possibility
During the day, the ship is normal, and at night every room they visit takes on the shape of an iteration of the ship chosen at random, which helps piece together the history. It,s really the order of pages I,m wondering about, so far players tell me it's pretty fun. More brainy game than number crunching, which is my personal style
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Howdy y'all! Very happy to be here. I just need a quick hand for something I've been making up. I have this one-shot where the characters are put on a cursed ship and need to solve what happened before they too die from the curse. I'd rather not reveal exactly how the mystery plays out right now because that goes into what i need help for; through the game, the players will be able to find a logbook and one by one, pages written by the previous captains of this vessel, to piece together the story. Last times I played, I gave them in a set order according to a roll table I quickly threw together, but now I,m wondering if it'd be possible to just give them entirely out of order and have the mystery still be solvable. That's where you come in!
Below is a link to a PDF file containing the logbook pages. Imagine you are a player and receiving them one-by-one, in the order presented. Do you think it'd be feasible to create a timeline of events? Is it a fun mystery? How would you reorganize the pages? Do you think you'd have a good idea what you need to do from there?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C_pd7tzjzZvHtyeyDxWocjHcbzvwSoWL/view?usp=sharing
If you do help, first of all thank you very much. Afterwards, either leave a comment here, DM me or message me on discord at ross_thumps I'll see you much faster on Discord than the rest
ALSO if you help me, I'm currently working on putting the one-shot together as a module, so you could get yourself a copy of it if that's something that interests you! I'm not a pro DM or good at making modules but I think it's a fun lil adventure. Thanks a lot for taking the time to read this whole thing ^^
16 pages of text for a one-shot is a LOT. I feel like getting them one at a time would start to feel like a "Kill 10 rats" video game quest setup. Yeah it is easy to understand and do, but repeatedly doing the same cycle is numbing at times.
I may not know enough about your setup, but the base idea is fantastic (find and read the fates of those who did this before and failed). My concern is the grind.
That's a good point, the earning of them has never been a problem afaik because I am very permissive and my players rp well, which I always like to reward. They just need to investigate the ship and on a good roll or good rp they can find one more. It's also not necessary to find them all to win, which also makes me wonder, cuz if the one that has the answer comes out last it can be more difficult? But then it'd be even less railroady and let them choose their own path more effectively maybe. Plus, even as it is, the relevant page coming up last is still a possibility
During the day, the ship is normal, and at night every room they visit takes on the shape of an iteration of the ship chosen at random, which helps piece together the history. It,s really the order of pages I,m wondering about, so far players tell me it's pretty fun. More brainy game than number crunching, which is my personal style