Adventure Planning Help [Action]

[A Ladder]

Originally Posted by khorboth

Some quick ideas:

How hidden is the dock? How well guarded? Is this a quiet night approach? Do the PCs drop anchor somewhere else and swim/climb to get in? SCUBA to the beach?
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Bunkers: Lots of abandoned WWII bunkers dot the Pacific. Throw one in. Give a machine gun nest. Maybe even make it abandoned or completely collapsed but not readily apparent from the front. Watch the PCs approach with extreme caution.

I like the idea of giving as much player agency as I can. So I was thinking of having a normal dock/beach area that is obviously guarded. (Perhaps I'll stick that abandoned machine gun nest up there!) But then I would also like to give the option of players doing a swim/climb approach.

Originally Posted by khorboth

(how cinematic are we? Sharks with friggen lazers?)
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Support staff: If there's an island fortress, is there a retired pirate/thief who is now the cook? Missing a leg, but great with knives? (machine gun crutch)

Not quite Sharks With Lazers cinematic. But I do run games that rely on the Rule of Cool. So I'll allow Quick Gadgeteer but machine modified animals is a bit much.

So, a machine gun crutch is a little over the top. But a missing leg chef who sits next to a machine gun...awesome idea!

Originally Posted by khorboth

Are there captives on the island? Human trafficking is dark, but Thailand is a reasonable place for it. If you're willing to go dark, adding a few helpless folk can be a fun twist.

Bit too dark for my taste.

Originally Posted by khorboth

Maybe some dangerous critters?

Oh yeah!

Originally Posted by namada

It's Action - so there needs to be a chase scene - perhaps on the boat to the island?

A hidden group of smugglers unknown to the thieves, and their hideout?

I'm hoping to stick a chase scene in. But, it most likely will be when the PCs cause chaos at the hideout and then leave.
Maybe my gangsters could be smugglers?

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Parts of the coast of Thailand are marked by picturesque limestone formations including extraordinary steep hills and islands with cliffs all around, carved and undercut by the action of the water. Some of the islands offer very limited access, and if the sole beach is guarded Action heroes might need to get in by parachute or parawing, or swim up to a cliff and then free-climb it.

Sea-level caves under the towering cliffs are common, and these cry out to house hidden docks at which the incumbents unexpected vessels, such as powerful motor cruising yachts and even submarines.

If your players are not familiar with this landscape at least from pictures and movies I recommend googling some images to show them, because it really is spectacular.

The landscape is what drew me to running a game set there in the first place! I'll definitely print some pictures now that you mention it.
I really like have a sole beach that is guarded and then give the heroes the option of climbing or parachuting in.

Hidden dock in a cave? Sounds rad!

Originally Posted by Icelander

Yes, but why use the term Interpol at all?

Use an existing intelligence agency or invent a fictional multi-national one, but don't invite assumption clash by using the name of a real-world organization, but then having it assume a role in the campaign that bears no relation to its real world function.

It's like running a film noir investigative game, but specifying that the PCs must be employees of NASA, which in the campaign is inexplicably also a private investigative firm.

I'm going to have to agree with Icelander...might as well use Rainbow Six or make up your own agency.

[Kabufu]

Binge watch the anime Black Lagoon at your first opportunity. It's about a gang of pirates based in the south china sea, that are always chasing or transporting a McGuffin of some kind. You could easily mine it for an Action game.


The pirates have stolen evidence of some wildly illegal or unethical action of a major multinational company who can pull strings to have the players get it settled on the down low.

The pirates had employed a scientist/programmer/counterfitter and now they want out and have managed to summon the players to extract them.

Cinematic modern pirates are just begging for a squad of quirky mini-bosses with idiosyncratic weapons and personalities.


Seriously just watch Black Lagoon.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by A Ladder

I'm going to have to agree with Icelander...might as well use Rainbow Six or make up your own agency.

Pacific Emergency Responce Team (PERT), an international police (mostly SWAT-equivalent, but with a small Criminal Investigation Department) that operates within the signatory nations of the Jakarta Treaty to assist and coordinate law enforcement activities - basically, they're Action!-Interpol for a lot of nations that have coasts on the Pacific Ocean. The CID personnel are elite BAD-whatever-is-appropriate heroes, while the SWAT troops that come in as the cavalry have a lower individual BAD, but are far more numerous.

Huh. It looks interesting. Maybe I'll get to use it in something. They could exist in the same setting as the island of Bangbangduk, which is in that region, but I wasn't planning on having that sort of organization show up if I ever ran that game.

[A Ladder]

Originally Posted by Kabufu

Binge watch the anime Black Lagoon at your first opportunity. It's about a gang of pirates based in the south china sea, that are always chasing or transporting a McGuffin of some kind. You could easily mine it for an Action game.

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Seriously just watch Black Lagoon.

I loooooove Black Lagoon. Also another reason why I'm putting this game in Thailand waters.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Pacific Emergency Responce Team (PERT), an international police (mostly SWAT-equivalent, but with a small Criminal Investigation Department) that operates within the signatory nations of the Jakarta Treaty …

Or the SWAT team of the International Pepper Community.