Linking in the Characters

As I started on part three of the campaign, I suddenly found myself hitting a major snag - there's no really good reason for the PCs to go off exploring the other islands in the chain. Parts one and two are fairly straightforward in this manner, in that there are clearly some things that need to be done, and part four is the logical and obvious conclusion to it all. But part three is entirely, and indeed intentionally, skippable.

Which is something of a problem.

I have a partial solution, in that a couple of the elements in part two point to things in part three. But these are entirely skippable and besides, as I said, they're just a partial solution.

But, fortunately, there's a solution waiting for me to grab hold of.

Obviously, when the characters are created they'll generate a load of stuff: the usual ability scores, race, class, and so on; and the role-playing stuff as well, such as ideals, bonds, flaws, etc.

However, there are a couple of other things that can usefully be generated:

The players should, of course, be asked to come up with a name and a picture for their character.

They'll also be asked to come up with a reason why their character was on board the Far Horizon travelling to Equinox, and indeed why they were below decks immediately prior to the start of events.

But, finally, each character will be given a connection to the adventure - a lightweight hook to give them some interest in events beyond just "we happen to be here". This is similar to the personal quests I gave characters in the "Quest for Memory" campaign, albeit somewhat more lightweight. And, as an added bonus, they can all point to things in part three, thus giving the characters at least some reason to explore.

That's another partial solution, of course. But hopefully two such solutions should be enough.