Help building trumanshow or hidden camera game plot.

[redfeline]

The sounds of a baby's cry fills the air, and you slowly regain consciousness. As you open your eyes you see a familiar blue sky above you, like any other sky. You sit up your muscles ache with the pain of heavy labor, but it is fast to dull. Lowering your head you see the tops of gargantuan pine trees and then building and then gaze upon 7 distinct individuals, one of which holds a tightly bundled baby, the source of the noise. You are uncertain how you got here, nor are you certain who you are.

Okay so I have mechanics that don't belong here but that isn't part of this forum, is my understanding. That said the players will start as commoners.

So the players will not know it but the plot here is going to end up in high tech and space ships. The players are extra's for an advanced races space tv program. They plot will grow from traditional pathfinder into starfinder basically.

Spoiler: World Description

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As such all the npcs in this world, which will be 18- the # pcs, have no memory. This small starting world consists of 2 villages, a couple of traders, a road between them, and what will turn out to be a crashed space ship. The entire starting area is surrounded by very steep cliff like mountains, the one lake having no adjoining river. These are my current thoughts in any case.

Current plot
Chapter 1:So each player starts with a unique twist, such as one player having bound hands, another waking holding a crying baby, etc. The players will hopefully explore the surrounding buildings and try and figure out why they have no memories. On the first night a distant set of wolf howls will be heard, the next night it is less distant, the 3rd night fairly close with an attack that morning. They survive and gain a real class level.

Chapter 2: A trader shows up the next day, with much needed food supplies. He likewise has no memory and woke up with the wagon and all its supplies on the road to this town. He will trade for goods found around in the village, turn about and head the other direction. At this point the game will become free form and sand-boxy for a while. This is where I need help I am looking to crowd source some interesting things for the players to do between this and chapter 3. What are some interesting things players can encounter in a very small world, that you could see a movie extra doing to build tension between scenes with the hero?

Chapter 3: The players switch from being 'extras' to main characters. They find the 'protagonist' injured in the woods, come back to town and the villain is there. 'Protagonist' dies viewership switches to the player characters and the story goes from there. Ideally I want the players to feel a switch in the games pace here, so it is important that in the last chapter that the players feel a build in suspense and dramatic tension but not heroic, and definitely not board.

Chapter 4: Find a spaceship. We can talk about this after fleshing out the first three chapters.

[the_david]

Oooh, this is good. I'll have to think about this a bit more. It has a bit of an X-men Mojo/Arcade theme that I like.

[redfeline]

The idea was originally going to be a bunch of AI space ships, that are *****, kidnap people and make them fight to the death. I think I had been playing to much mass effect. I am actually going to try gestalting this between pathfinder and spacefinder, but the mechanics are not what I am needing help with.

Thank you for the reply, any and all thoughts are welcome and helpful.

[the_david]

Honestly, I'd go with Beholders instead. (Check out the Eye King template.)
I'm kinda puzzled by the traveling merchant. That's not how I imagine someone would react in that situation. I'd also just go for Pathfinder and the Technology Guide, instead of switching from Pathfinder to Starfinder. That's mostly because the players might not like switching mid-campaign. Ofcourse, you know your players better than I so, it's your call.

[redfeline]

The merchant is meant to be a clue of sorts. His behavior does not seem natural, especially if asked about the wolves which he basically followed to the town.