Ghosting the Ghost Ship... let's make this at least interesting.

[Greycat]

So, jumping around gathering explore badges in Talos. The ghost ship "event" comes up. And I hear someone actually ... ask for a team for this.

 

I don't think anyone cared about this on *live,* past the ectoplasmic badge.  Primarily because this is just such a basic, not interesting, not worth repeating event. GM hunts? 6-10 merits per GM? Yes, people do that... and ignore this.

 

But this should be *interesting.* A literal ghost ship, dropping off ghost crew/passengers, tied to some of Paragon's lore. Tied to Striga, to Spanky Rabinowtz (and I know I probably spelled that wrong,) and earlier Paragon history. So what's wrong with it?

 

- It appears in Talos and IP. IP's not fun to begin with, but the ghost ship's path takes it over water... long stretches where it can't drop off anything even if you ARE hunting for the badge.

 

- There's no reason other than the badge to *do* it, and then you do it once, maybe twice, to get the ghosts... and they're probably grey  to you. There's no reason to repeat it.

 

- Despite being tied to lore (and some interesting dialog, sort of,) it just ... is there. Nobody asks about the Moraine. It's just "the ghost ship."

 

Now, no, it doesn't need to be a giant GM to take down, or drop off a ghost-GM. Boring.  But it should open up *some* possibilities... perhaps tied to Ouro, to the history plaques, to Striga. (While these don't make "attack the ghosts" necessarily repeatedly attractive, it'd make looking for the ghost ship worthwhile, perhaps.)

 

Ideas:

- Ectoplasmic badge earned:  You get a chance to board the ship and travel to its last days, trying to rescue who you can.

Reward: Honestly, not sure. More badges, typically, since that fits.

- Ectoplasmic plus Striga exploration badges/Hess unlocked (something like that) - New mission chain on Striga ... which I don't have ideas about, since I'm somewhat spitballing things. Possibly a "Find the wreck, unlock the secrets, and stop bad guy from burying you back along with the secrets."

- Ectoplasmic, Striga and Ouro unlocked - Time travel arc back to before the last voyage. See Old Paragon, see undarkened Astoria. Try to get your warning out, perhaps. (Yes, these would be stacked, you could have all three unlock when the ghost ship is out or something.)

 

Rewards?

Well, merits for the arcs, of course. Badges. Get all three for an accolade. Get a tiny ghost ship pet to follow you around (or ghost, if that's your thing.) 

 

Honestly, mostly spitballing to see what could make this an actually *interesting* event to look forward to.

[Rudra]

12 minutes ago, Greycat said:

Ectoplasmic badge earned:  You get a chance to board the ship and travel to its last days, trying to rescue who you can.

I like this. Would actually make the ghost ship interesting. Use a modified freighter map (which would have to be made) and have to break obstructions (fallen cargo blocking escape, collapsed bulkheads, what ever) to rescue people. 5 or 10 minute timer, 15 at most, and have to reach the exit to escape or you exit the mission a corpse (and have to hosp).

 

Alternative idea: Investigate the ship before it disappears and try to prevent the event from happening rather than racing to save people. Still has a timer counting down to whatever caused the ship to disappear. Question: What happens to the ghost ship if you successfully prevent its disappearance? Maybe you try to prevent the disappearance and it turns out your meddling caused it instead?

 

I'm less sold on the other two, but at least I'm not opposed.

[Clave Dark 5]

All decent ideas and you have a point here I think.  It needs to run something more like a zone invasion; perhaps we can scale the ghosts into the place where their levels scale with the players like other zone invasions?  I don't mind it in IP - lots of chances to find ghosts and such, since it's a big map - but yeah, being over water does cause a problem.  But where else would a ghost ship go?  😃 Maybe some ghosts can spawn and fly along side it.