Linking published adventures

[Morte]

How do you folks go about linking published adventures?

Say you want to play Kursis Charter then Cold Fuzion and Objects of the Mind (in either order). They're 10 to 20 jumps apart for my bunch of wandering traders/accidents, and the reward for any of them wouldn't pay for the fuel to travel between them. The PCs have no reason to go in any particular direction unless given one.

I've ruled out rolling new characters for each adventure, and ruled out saying "so you trade for a few months and eventually the cargos take you to..."

The player is happy to take the odd hint (he won't get two sessions a week any other way). All I need is excuses...

My PCs are former scout intel types who still do odd spook jobs (they're what all those other detached scouts are covering). I can have their controller move them along once in a while, but that'll get old.

 

[Psion]

I'm running

my own little adventure in the Outworld sector
-> Cold Fuzion
-> Stoner Express
-> Into the Glimmerdrift
-> Chimera

My plan: currently the players are crew on a survey cruiser. After the current adventure, they will be ordered back to the their port at Shamuus to report for conversion to anti-pirate duty. They will get involved in part 1 of cold fuzion there.

The captain is an NPC and will give the PC astrogator relative impunity, so when the scout sees the shape their ship is in, they will order them to Ohasset for refit, whereupon they will be discharged from the ship, but two of the PCs are from Kiikedia any I hope to entice them there for their next big job, whereupon they will get involved in Objects of the Mind.

After that, I'll have to figure a way to get them a ship and to the Glimmerdrift sector. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

 

[Morte]

Hmm. We'll probably finish Kursis Charter (Solomani bioweapon testing on Miip remix edition) on Thursday, and I'll need to point them at the next adventure.

Now Objects of the Mind (non-psionic remix) starts at Kiikkedia, but there's no special reason it couldn't start on Shangri La with a little adjustment, and that's where Bert the NPC astrogator/engineer/gunner hails from. Perhaps he'll need to get home in a hurry, which would be a challenge in itself for a J2 scout...

And after that Cold Fuzion doesn't really need to start on Shamuus, whichever world they happen to be on a few jumps later will do fine. So that gets them into Cold Fuzion. Then maybe I can work out some way into Keepers of the Gate and/or Stoner Express. If they live that long...

 

[Michael Taylor]

EPIC 4, Merchant cruiser starts on Shammus as well, so that could easily link in with other adventures in the area. This adventure should be available as PDF by next week.

 

[aramis]

I've found an easy way to get players where I want them, and make them want to go: Wealthy Passenger charters ship, putting them within 1Jx of the target system.

If the wealthy passenger is a well crafted NPC, I will do 1d6 vignettes per week as odd bits (read as: patron drops rumors).

I also will often have such passengers bring some staffers along, so the ship is mostly, but not completely, full.

Nothing quite like a captain wheedling a passenger/charterer for permission to bring aboard some more HP's...and sometimes this can be worked in advance, as part of the charter, by giving a slight break on passage, but being able to make up the difference with local fares. With the right passenger, these could be priceless encounters from the standpoint of the passengers, and worth a little extra. (Passengers like retired grand admirals, 30 year veterans of the scout service, Barons of worlds inside a county, significant courtiers of major ducal courts on assignment...)

And every so often, i put the end point past the adventure. (Exit Visa and Marooned work well...)