The Mad Minstrel
Mongoose
I just read the first part of the adventure "Moonlight On The Ocean" (form "Adventures in the Hyborian Age") and I wonder how to run it.
It has kind of a detective-plot and it really sounds interesting.
But I think could be really complicated to get it right due to the necessary requirements.
For example:
The captain of the ship is one of the PCs.
Oke. Why not.
The other PCs are serving on the ship with no special relationships to the captain. Hmmm.
The plot wants the PCs to sympathize with the captain (and other way round) to help each other not beeing accused and sentenced because of murdering the quartermaster who in fact has been killed by his old enemy De Devante.
The "storyline" provides the PCs (plus the capitain) to investigate and the interrogation of the differnt crew-members.
Bit by bit the PCs find out some hints given by the NPCs, about the NPCs attitude, their personal feelings for the victim and so on.
What makes me feel a little uncomfortable is:
1) Why should the PCs help the captain and other way round?
Oke - this point can be answered with the old "PCs are heroes and
just know what is right and what to do" 8)
2) If the Captain-PC is beeing accused for the crime (depends on how the
story developes) it wouldn´t be wise for him to take part acitvely in
the investigation. If one of the crey-member-PCs is accused, the captain
shouldn´t take part too eagerly too, I think.
He should maintain discipline and in the end he is the one who judges,
neh? He can not afford taking side.
Either way round a very tricky situation.
Plus: The accused person should be kept under control, maybe locked
under "light" conditions.
What if it´s the capitain?
3) This is the hardest part:
If the PCs are serving on the ship, why do they have to interrogate the
different crew-members about their attitude? Shouldn´t they know their
comrades at least a bit?
4) One more:
The Quartermaster is killed. There storyline doesn´t indicate that the
crew is going to find/vote/determine a substitute.
Wouldn´t they do this in the first place?
Wouldn´t the capitain want an immediate substitute for the
quartermaster?
Hmmm.
I know: Every question/problem can be solved with some adjustments and plot-work.
Is there anyone who has run this adventure yet?
How did it work?
Basically I like the idea of having the PCs isolated with some lurking threat. They can´t just leave the scene, they have to handle it somehow.
Mingeled with some investiation and detective-work (instead of just fighting) I think it can be a really atmospheric setting.
Adventures like this are hard to find (and hard to create I think) an even harder to run!
Input highly appreciated!