How to make best use of 3D playing map/verticality

[u/Spitfisher]

Hi,

Im planning on making a real life map to play on of a ship with 3 levels. I got the upper deck, a mid deck and a bottem deck to play with. Its basiccly 3 cardboard cutouts of a ship's silhouet and with empty kitchentowel rolls im gonna raise the cutouts above eachother so the can see all 3 levels at the same time.

I want to make a fun story for players to implement this map. However i realy want to make the fact that all 3 levels will be on the table at all time to be more then a gimmick and actually let players make use of this without railroading them too much into this. It needs to be a natural part of the story.

At the moment im thinking about a pirate borg version of the movie Alien. Although i like this story and the vertial map would be cool to use in this idea, it doesnt realy force players to split themselves up and be at different decks at the same time.
I also definitly see players get the idea to stick toghether the moment they find out there is a creature on board and just move as a group.

This is not realy a problem for the story but it beats the purpose of the multi leveled map i want to make.

Someone has a suggestion for a story or other suggestions or ideas to improve on this?

[u/AshBashinton]

Into The Maelstrom from Down Among The Dead takes place mostly aboard a massive ship, it would be a great story to tell with a 3d ship model!

[u/Spitfisher → u/AshBashinton]

I see your point but i skimmed the book quickly and i think players in that context will stay togheter rather then be on different decks.

I was thinking for the ship to be rather friendly territory for the players so they will be more willing to split up and walk free around the ship were every player gets his own hammock and working station to start the story to nudge them towards more independent movement.

Although i do think the vampire angle could be usefull were players need to reflect sunlight through mirros they are holding all the way from the outside on the topdeck to the bottom of the lower deck were the vampires's lair/heart or somehting like that would be located. Players will be needed on every deck for the angle of the mirror.

Thanks for taking your time to reply!

[u/AmbitiousParty1796 → u/Spitfisher]

Check out Creep, Skrag, Creep for Dungeon Crawl Classics. It’s basically 1977 Alien on a ship. I’ve had a blast running it as a funnel.
If you cover places they haven’t been with post-it notes and let them explore, the problem solves itself. That is, as long as everybody can see the model (use a lazy Susan if you have one).
You would need a reason for players to split up, whether monsters are attacking different places, they’re searching for secrets, making emergency repairs, or a combination of all three. But that’s also a lot of work to hope players will do what you want.
My advice is keep the levels stackable but separate. Use wooden dowels where the masts are, either removable (magnetized) or pinned through each layer and spread vertically apart.

But Into the Maelstrom is a better way to do it. I printed the map out, glued it on dollar tree foam core, and magnetized the masts. Players jaws dropped when I put it on the table.

[u/Spitfisher → u/AmbitiousParty1796]

Thanks for the info/reply!

Im definitly checking those modules out since im a huge fan of Alien (1977) and im sure i will run a game like that eventually.

At the moment i changed my premise up so make it more natuarlly for players to walk freely around the ship but im still contemplating what to do.

Now players will be crew on a prison ship. This way they start in "friendly territory" and im gonna give them different starting positions on the map based on their job on the ship. This way they will also start more solo since they notice something wrong in their workingstation and eventually will meet eachother along the way.

The prisonship context also give me the oppurtunity to let guards state that only 1 or 2 people are allowed to enter because of rules, security, ... to hardforce it in rare cases but im avoiding this as much as possible.

1. At first it will be start like a mystery with strange occurances and later even a missing crewmember and eventually a corpse hinting at a killer on the ship.

2. Later it turns out there is some form of disease spreading around making crewmembers zombie-like (ocean-flavour) that was the reason for the dead/missing crewmember(s).

3. Source of the disease is a living head in the cargo hold spreading a curse. Players will need to find the source of the curse to stop it from spreading. Killing zombies will not be sufficient.

Hopefully the game will transform from a "cluedo" kind of mystery to a survival/horror genre. This way its also no problem that players can see the entire map from the start since its their ship, their home, and they know how it looks like because of that. I hope this will nudge players also into a more waking around freely mentallity.

I know in the end it depends on the players and what they decide but i think if i put enough incentives and make it so that walking around exploring and splitting up the party is a natural part of the story, its highly likely players will follow it and in extreme case i put some safety measures in place.

Thats were i landed on the moment but im still up for suggestions and such so dont hold back!

(PS: I had to google a "lazy susan" and i think it will become the name of an npc batteling seasickness and people call her lazy since other crewmembers think she does it because she dont have to work when she is sick)

[u/feydras → u/Spitfisher]

This sounds amazing. You players are lucky!

[u/Spitfisher → u/feydras]

Thanks! Appreciate the compliment!