Pirates of Drinax question about Sindal adventures

[Ottomancer]

Hi - I have just started running Pirates of Drinax for my group. It's started really well so we're hoping to have lots of fun ahead of us.

I have been looking at the Treasure of Sindal adventure within the Drinax campaign book, and also the separate Shadows of Sindal mini-campaign, and want to feature them in the campaign but I am unsure what order is best to play them? Can anyone offer me any advice? Thanks in advance.

 

[Endie]

Treasure of Sindal from the Companion book are nothing to do with the Shadows of Sindal at all. I'd try to drop one of them in first, to get the pyers used to the idea of Sindalian bounties to be found, but they're just examples of an extra area to add to your campaign. You should make up your own, with suitable investigation and the challenges that arise.

I adapted Gods of Marduk to be a search for a Sindalian base hidden in the deep oceans of Marduk. How to retrieve the contents from 1,500 metres depth of water was a real puzzler. I have a cache on Cordan that's buried under a cap of metamorphic rock (metamorphised in this case by the deliberate use of plasma weapons on the plug in question). That is frankly a bit mad and doesn't stand up to close inspection but neither did Sindalian policy in general and how the players obfuscate a major industrial mining operation will be a fun challenge.

Just drop in Secrets of Sindal as a little it of investigative change-of-pace sometimes. Run Shadows of Sindal in the order in the book.

 

[Grognardia]

Shadows of Sindal kinda side-railed my campaign so much it ended a few months later. It takes attention away from Drinax and introduces a lot of poorly detailed plots that can send the PC's on a wild goose chase. I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[Endie]

Shadows of Sindal kinda side-railed my campaign so much it ended a few months later. It takes attention away from Drinax and introduces a lot of poorly detailed plots that can send the PC's on a wild goose chase. I wouldn't recommend it.

A great example of "ymmv". To balance this, @Ottomancer, bear in mind that plenty of other people have the exact opposite experience with this mini-campaign.

For me, it's a cracker that certainly does, however, benefit from thoughtful handling by the GM. If you're unfortunate enough to be blessed with a certain sort of players then the potential rewards for the players can have very far-reaching consequences, but I really like it, and I know that folks like Andy Slack and Adzling posted positively about it, too. If you read some of their playthrough accounts you'll know if it's for you or not.

If your players are both genocidal maniacs and careless enough to get caught, then you can always change the macguffin.

 

[Ottomancer]

A great example of "ymmv". To balance this, @Ottomancer, bear in mind that plenty of other people have the exact opposite experience with this mini-campaign.

For me, it's a cracker that certainly does, however, benefit from thoughtful handling by the GM.

Thank you all for the replies and info - greatly appreciated!

I think my group might like it. During character generation, one of the characters lost an eye, then gained an alien artifact during a term as an asteroid miner, and me and the player both immediately said ALIEN EYE! So I think I am going to read the adventure and mini-campaign carefully and I think his eye is going to become an important macguffin that various factions will be after. :-D

 

[Anstett]

The Sea Witch Pirate Queen hunting them down....

"It won't cost much, just your eye"