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Rakshaka Jan 6, 2012, 10:17 PM

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Part 1

After about two years of playing time, we just completed our "Council of Thieves" campaign. While I have DM'd about 6 APs now, this will be the third one that actually saw its way from start to finish. In order to help the developers of these modules perfect the art of module design, I have decided to list off our group's impressions of the campaign overall, each chapter, specific moments that were really awesome or really weak, and so forth.

-Overall Campaign, Story, and Mood-:

This was the first campaign that I ran as the modules were released, and so a lot of plot points and NPCs for me weren't really available until certain points of running the campaign. For instance, I would loved to have foreshadowed Vuiper Ghivel, The Mhartises and Ciuccis, and some of the other major families that appear in the sixth part. This is sort of the inherent danger of running an AP as the modules are released: there may be a disconnect between modules in what occurred in a group's story versus what is written in the module. It's a lot harder to wander off the railroad if you don't have all the pieces present to build the sandbox. The only thing I wish would be an extra page maybe in the Campaign Summary in the first module that lists off key NPCs (with whatever class levels are envisioned for that NPC, even if they are changed by the end) and what events they have to play in the campaign.
Overall, this seemed to be a very event driven campaign, with the majority of the campaign taking place in one city. This worked very well for my group, as all of them were interested in role-playing with the various citizens of Westcrown and forming relationships within. It helped to raise the importance of cetain events if NPCs such as Janiven, Arael, Calseinica,and Paralictor Chard were taking place in them. For instance, in the final module, when the Bearded Devils mounted on Hellcats are terrifying the nobility, I had their current victim be the Paralictor, valiantly fighting off the legion and giving the PCs a chance to join swords with him again, possibly saving his life.
At any rate, I feel that the over-arching story of the campaign is strong as a whole, its just the disconnection between the various modules that weakens it and makes it not as strong as other APs (like RotR and KM). Players who reclaimed the Marrowfall in part 3 may not understand why they're going after a Pit Fiend in Part 4 or going into the woods in part 5. I made it work, but I can easily see how other groups lose their motivation to react to certain events. Individually, the modules (with one exception) are written very well. My players all loved the idea of reclaiming a benighted city and eventually controlling it, and the elements of theater, nobility, and shadow conspiracies are done quite well. Overall, this campaign lends itself quite easily to the Gothic mood, with the presence of the dangerous night, vampires, and Faustian contracts reinforcing this feel . Its important for DMs not to forget this: Westcrown starts out not as an ordinary city but a center of decay suffering under the intangible horror of the shadow curse.

-The PCs- :

This campaign, we used a 'roll 4d6 and drop the lowest result' six times, resulting in heroic stat builds. At the time, this seemed like a time honored tradition for campaigns and thus a good idea. In hindsight, I now realize that most APs and even Bestiary monsters to a degree utilize an assumption that the PCs will have a 15 point build. As the sixth module began, we calculated our point buys, and they were about 40 point builds. This might be why I find some disparity between the power levels of the PCs and the modules as written, especially at higher levels. Without getting into the current argument about what sort of point buy is best, I WISH PAIZO HAD SOME GUIDELINES FOR RUNNING THEIR APS WITH HIGHER POINT BUILDS. I feel like this is different than having more players, as higher stats means higher DCs, better saves, more HPs, and the extreme viability of many of the MAD classes like Paladin or (as in our campaign), Monk. However, since at the time I only had three players for the AP, I considered adding my own NPC to the party to add survivability.. Three was the fewest number I'd ever ran, and felt like the party wouldn't be balanced enough without 4 players. [Again, Pathfinder had just come out when we began the AP, and since I had run Age of Worms twice and Runelords by then, I expected a deadly path that would be brutal with just 3 PCs]. Thus, I added my own NPC, who I thought would be relatively easy to run and able to springboard story events due to his abilities. Anyways.we start with a variant of the classic four:

-Blaustein Aalfanger: Dwarf Monk
-Fiamma Diosa: Half Elf Cleric (Calistra)
-Alario Jeggare: Human Rogue
-Elias Lucca: Human Wizard (Diviner)

My NPC is the Wizard, whose background I loosely tied to Rance Lucca but also made him a former colleague of Sandor the Strange (added later). Blaustein's background was fairly neutral and easy to tie in as well. Alario and Fiamma had very extensive backgrounds that eventually influenced how the remainder of the path played out, especially the fifith and sixth modules; This deserves a bit of explanation. While Fiamma's adopted name is Diosa, her half elf status makes that name inherited rather than her true bloodline. This is due to some minor events written to tie the PC backgrounds in that I created:

-In 4681, An ancient elfgate was discovered in the depths of the catacombs of Westcrown, a portal that connected the city to a clearing outside of the capital of Kyonin.

-A diplomatic envoy consisting of Alario's father (Volaire Jeggare), Fiamma's real father (Meggare Thrune), Sidonnai Drovenge, and Andreo Diosa was sent to Iadara. Over the course of a year, the group convinced the xenophobic elves to trade a powerful magical relic (The Maleficus Spike from 'A Memory of Darkness') for a large amount of Evil-Outsider Bane Weapons, tools normally used to hold the devils of the empire in check, re-purposed for the conflict against the Tanglebrair.

-During these meetings, an elven maiden (Shuraneen Thurwyn) had a dalliance with Meggare Thrune, resulting in the birth of Fiamma. However, to protect to the good name of Thrune, the offspring was neither claimed by the maiden (also a priestess of Calistra) nor by Meggare Thrune, whose family name would be tarnished by the presence of the offspring. Rather than do the unthinkable, the child was passed onto Andreo Diosa by Meggare Thrune (for the price of the ownership of a lucrative brothel.)

-In the end, Andreo grew bolder with the knowledge and possession off this bastard, so eventually he was silenced by the Council of Thieves (specifically Maglin from part 5).

-As a side-clause of the contract between Meggare and Andreo, possession of the brothel reverted to Fiamma upon her coming of age. Thus, at the start of the campaign, Fiamma was a Half-Elven Cleric of Calistra who owned a brothel, using it as a cover for her outlawed religion.

-As for house Jeggare, I set Alario up with a two-story manor house owned by his family (in the crown sector). I liked the idea of a home-base, but felt like the safehouse to Aroden was a little impersonal and I wanted somewhere that really was a player's home. I must admit, some of what follows got inspired by a combination of Assassin's Creed and Batman. I gave the manor its own secret vault whose contents weren't made immediately accessible (due to be completely hidden in plain sight) until later in the path. Eventually, a poster-map version of the manor was created so I could send assassination attempts against the PC and run assaults on his manor with a tactical map. Storywise, Alario's father became involved with the Pathfinders in the years following the Kyonin excursion. Eventually, the power of the Maleficus Spike became a focal point of a power struggle between the Pathfinders and agents of Thrune. Coupled with events in Delvehaven, Volaire Jeggare took possession of the Spike and hid it in the depths of manor's vault. After this, he is presumed to have disappeared (player's knowledge for first four modules) while in fact was he assailed by the same purge that took the other pathfinders, petrified into a statue and stored inside the vaults of Walcourt.

-As the campaign began, Alario's family fortunes had begun to run out and tax collectors began growing bolder and bolder in attempts to extort what little funds Alario possessed. This setup a couple minor villains in the employ of the Council that I could use later.

(1) The Bastards of Erebus::

-Negatives-

A) Janiven's Speech: The biggest criticism that has been voiced about this module is the largely anti-Thrune sentiment that sets sort of the wrong tone about the events to come. I tried to mitigate Janiven's speech a little bit about taking back the city from Thrune and instead utilized the idea that only those with the courage to stand against the night could help lift the city, and Arael was one of those. There's already been threads about this, and they are relevant.

-Fix: Tempering her speech with the themes mentioned above.

B) Hellknight Interactions: As it is, the Hellknights are setup as the bad guys, stomping on freedom of speech and wronglfully incarcerating the good priest of Iomedae, Arael. I do like the idea that the PCs get an extra Fame point for not killing any of them, though the module gives the PCs no indication of this as written (in a way, rewarding actions based on alignment and in some ways, circumstance). Also, I've heard of many groups (not mine) that butchered the Armigers and dared any pursuers to go after them into the sewers. As written, there's nothing that suggests what the Hellknights will do if the PCs slaughter the entire platoon of them, escalating the conflict. Indeed, after the firebrand political speech of Janiven, I could see unscrupulous PCs leaving dead Hellknights as messages. At any rate, the heart of the module isn't about fighting the Hellknights, yet the first part makes fighting them somewhat of a red herring. Indeed, as far as an organization, they are completely silent until module 6, despite any actions the PCs may or may not take against them, which at the very least involves defeating a small group of them to rescue Arael. I and a lot of other players were disappointed that despite the excellent side articles published in the later modules, very little was used with them in the actual modules themselves.

-Fix: Wish I'd done more with this. I'd take some work, but Hellknights could be used as a more interactive force of law that supplements the Dottari. In a way, the PCs powers will eventually eclipse that of the guards. That's where the Hellknights come in, the least of which is a 5th level fighter/ Hellknight 1. I would show them as a force that hounds the PCs efforts in modules 1-3, and then tries to maintain order in the city in parts 4-6. This makes the schism all the more dramatic in part 6, especially when it becomes clear that all the efforts against the PC are being directed by a Hellknight in the pocket of the Council of Thieves (Signifer Verennie). This allows her and the Paralictor to be introduced far earlier and make them more memorable.

C)Great Backstories... Why are they left on the shelf??: As written, you've got 11 pseudo-PCs in the Children of Westcrown, one for each core class, all of whom have interesting backstories. Unfortunately, after this module, little is done with them as a whole. I know its up to the DM to utilize these extras in their own way, but little is given in any other module as to how to use these NPCs. This is also the case with almost all of the nobility presented in the 'Westcrown' article, leaving it up to the DM to expand upon these. Personally, I think it would have added a lot of depth if one of them had turned out to be a mole for the council, forcing the PCs to investigate the backgrounds and events surrounding their allies.

-Fix: DMs should consider using the Children for a lot of the errand work that the PCs might normally do, such as gathering information, sending and spreading messages, buying mundane items, and so forth. This allows them to be used as a way to gauge the 'word on the street' for purposes of events and rumors. Also, I utilized the Children heaviliy in part 6 where the expenditure of Fame Points reflected the Children of Westcrown "spreading the word" about the PCs deeds.

D) Shadowcurse: There is a fundamental lack of menace to the shadowcurse as written. The main thing that people need to fear on the darkened streets of Westcrown are the lowly Shadowgarms and the outrageously powerful Shadow Mastiffs, two creatures with a great disparity of power levels. Also, the Mastiffs bay constantly, which is not mentioned anywhere in the description of Westcrown despite the fact that something like that would be very noticeable and disturbing. At any rate, with only these two creatures (and possibly the even deadlier Shadow), its unclear what the true menace of the Shadow Curse is other than the fact that sometimes you might cross paths with a weird shadow creature that gets staggered in any kind of light (which every non-darkvision using PC is going to carry). There's just not enough shadow creatures in all of the modules to give that feeling of wonder and menace that the PCs might very well be swallowed up by the night.

-Fix: Well, at least the newer Bestiarys have some interesting Shadow based critters, like the Gloomwing, Tenebrous Worm, and Dark Slayer, so this helps a little. I would honestly consider giving the Totemrix a special power that causes the ambient light within a mile to grow one step darker as long as the sun isn't shining. Also, having areas of the deepest shadow be areas where the boundaries between the Material Plane and the Plane of Shadow are thin is also an idea... alleyways where its always colder and a little bit darker. This makes finding a Shadowgarm to kill for a fame point more of a memorable and dangerous task. Perhaps the PCs have to shore up the light in certain places to lessen the chances of leaks from the Plane of Shadow. Just a couple tips to help increase the menace of what has caused an entire city to decline artistically and spiritually. I'm sure this has been said before, but it'd be awesome if the Bestiaries in the back of the modules actually used most of their monsters in the adventure. I don't buy the APs for more monsters, I buy them for cool encounters which sometimes utilize new and unknown menaces. This has gotten better with the Carrion Crown AP, so others words are being taken to heart.

-Positives-:

A) Good Rescue Encounter: Despite the above critique, rescuing Arael is a pretty good part of the module and well written as an encounter.

B) Well designed mini-dungeon: The final lair where the Bastards live is well thought out, being slightly sand-boxy as far as how the PCs can approach it, and the way the enemies respond is completely dynamic based on the PCs actions. These are my favorite kind of fights, especially when they have flavor (like the fake mummy tieflings and the dog). It reminds me of the another well-written encounter, the final one of the 'Stolen Lands' from KM as far as encounter flexibility.

C)Well designed city!: Everyone loved the feel and flavor of Westcrown as presented. The waterways and alleyways, curfews and decadence, and secret organizations all give the city a gritty, realistic feel. Well done. Also, a lot of information on the noble lines and city sectors, which is very flavorful, if underused in the rest of the path.

-PC Advancement-
No character deaths in this module. Overall, no specific encounter was really hard, though I remember that the group got lucky against Palaveen. PCs advanced as follows: [Monk 3, Wizard 3, Rogue 2/Fighter 1, Cleric 2/Rogue 1]

-Encounter Assessment-
Good Encounters: Arael's Rescue, Tieflings, Scabby, Wolf Skeletons, Giant Rot Grub, Ostengo, Hell dogs,Dravano, Palaveen
Bad Encounters: Hellknight Armigers, Sewer Goblins, Shadowgarms
Toughest fight: Palaveen
Weakest fight: Shadowgarms

(2) The Sixfold Trial::

-Negatives-

A)Trickiness of "Become Actors to Get into the Mayor's party" Hook: This completely worked for my group, but I would warn other GMs to gauge their groups motivations and use those to get them to perform the play. If its going after the girl, use Calseinica as a hook, or if its safeguarding an actor using clerical magic, PCs need a good motivation to be actors beyond what's given in the module. My group had no problem playing actors (the player of Fiamma even cross-classed into rogue so she could have Perform as a class skill), but I could see other groups rebelling against the idea of performing a play with not only extremely infernal overtones but also the possibility of being killed. Not necessarily a negative, just a caution for other DMs.

B) Room of Endless Shadows: Really?? No one saw the possible problem with this one? You either have the potential for an XP farm or a TPK for unwary players. Somehow, I was able to use the threat of this room to herd my PCs deeper into the Asmodean Knot, but I think it's only because of my group's build that they were able to survive without too much damage (Basically, buff the monk's AC as high as possible then make him the target of the shadows while everyone else runs by). There could be a huge potential problem here for some groups.

Fix: Either enforce an XP cap on the encounter as a whole (treating the Shadows almost like summoned monsters from a trap) for stronger groups, or lessen the number of rounds that pass between shadows appearing (even requiring a Shadow to take a full-round to materialize) for weaker groups.

C) Need more dinner guests!: Not really a weakness considered the space allowed by the module, its just an excellent place to introduce any future NPCs that have parts to play in the coming adventures, specifically parts 4 and 6. Considering how pervasive the Council of Thieves is supposed to be with the city's nobility, I was hoping for another dinner guest besides Chammady. This is a weakness of the AP as a whole: there isn't enough of the actual members of the Council of Thieves developed to present a clear picture of who they are and how they influence the city.

Fix: Use the dinner party to fill out with any NPCs that seem important to the future of the path, and allow more checks per PC to talk to the various dinner guests. This might make the dinner party itself an entire session (a la Prince of Redhand), but allows the DM to flush out whatever aspects of the city and nobility that they want to represent and at the same time serve mock-up version of the food presented in the module (though probably without as much alcohol).

-Positives-

A) The Six Trials...: Outstanding. Just absolutely brilliant. The whole idea of having the PCs perform a play, experience dangerous trials onstage, and possibly even act out lines if they wish is just a phenomenal idea, and this is brilliantly executed.

B) Asmodean Knot: This is a well thought out dungeon, with enough unique enemies and strange dungeon features to make it memorable. My group won't forget the endless staircases or infinite maze-like rooms, nor the insane bearded devil or imp with its various trials. Every monster within the dungeon had a unique backstory, which I absolutely loved.

C) Sian Daemodus: I completely love it when the writers give you a unique villian with lots of tools sent to wreck havoc on the party. Sian became a recurring villain, eventually a dark reflection of Alario's character. By the fifth module, she became a vampire under Ilnerik's control. I wish they would do this in every module: a unique villain with enough powers and gear to tax the PCs as they go about their other goals.

D) Dinner Party!: Well, I must admit that after 'Prince of Redhand', I have a soft spot for this sort of thing. I love this idea of impressing the nobility and other power players in a massive social setting. While sort of a lighter version of the aforementioned adventure, this was still good.

E)Runecurse: Wish this was used again in the AP, as the idea was brilliant. The only downside was that since I was playing the NPC with with highest Intelligence and Knowledge skills, it was hard to fudge the effectiveness of the runecurse. Still, the trap's potency was not lost on the PCs, and in the end, the item was gifted to the insane Imp. Again, I love the whole idea of this and wish it had been used again.

-PC Advancement-
No deaths again, but there was at one point an extreme potential for some character deaths. The party had just fought the mummy, bearded devil, and had tangled with Sian, besides suffering ability damage. I believe in the fight with the mummy, Rot was contracted. My solution was to have an extremely curious Calseinica Nymmis find the hidden cache of priestly gear in the spare room (which unless your PCs are the unscrupulous sort, there's no way they are going to find this huge cache of treasure), wander through the maze, and show up with 6 strength damage from the shadows but also a scroll of Remove Curse. This was the beginning of many acts that endeared Cal to the PCs, eventually setting her up to become a cohort with leadership.
PCs: [Wizard 5, Monk 5, Rogue 3/Fighter 2, Cleric 4/Rogue 1]

-Encounter Assessment-
Good Encounters: All but Shadow Room
Toughest Fight: Shadow Room
Weakest Fight: Nothing too bad here.. Maybe Troll Skeletons, but that's only because the Monk destroyed them in two breaths.

3)What Lies in Dust::

-Negatives:

A)Chained Quest Sequence:Getting the intelligence from the vanquished pathfinders feels too much like a chain-quest sequence. The items in the wave door, while extremely helpful aren't necessary for completing the path. What's more, a lot of the background information about the vanquished pathfinders isn't available for the PCs to recover unless they ask specific questions with the grave candles. Also, too much plot point hinges on a failed will save, which while statistically likely, might cause some problems for groups. Missing out on all this backstory due to hot rolling on the DM seems problematic. Also, some groups resent the idea of chained-quest sequences.

Fix: Not sure, except not giving a will save (or fudging roll) on grave candles. Or maybe instead, having some personal memento of the deceased imparting a -5 on the will save. Also, the riddle solution is kind of clunky so that even if the PCs solve the mystery with the candles, they might not interpret what they're supposed to do.

B)Devildrome: For a module written for 5th level PCs, the power level in the first part of the module (chained quest sequence) is horribly low, and the Devil Drome is the best case of this. If the PCs aren't playing a Summoner or Arcane Caster, they throw in their champion... except any 5th level fighter type is going to make mincemeat of any Summon Monster critter of 4th level or less, especially lots of low powered mooks. The dretches are no threat whatsoever, and this fight turned into a comedy. Even when Thrax attacked, it was treated as a joke as the Monk quickly beat and humiliated him. The other problem is that the rules for how the combat itself works aren't very clear, so many interpretations of what is or is not allowed in the arena can get thrown in.

Fix: Rewrite Thrax as a Summoner and up his levels by 2-3. This will give him more dangerous summons and make the fight more memorable. Also, make sure the rules of the Devildrome are clear. When Thrax attacked the monk with direct spells, it took a moment for the PCs to realize that he had broken the rules.

C)Imbalance in encounters: The fights in this module go from being ridiculously easy at points to downright deadly in others, with no warning given in either case. Some of the encounters, like the Sisters of Eiseth and the Evil Dolls, while very flavorful, have no potential to be challenging at all. I'm aware of the point build of my group, yet I think the Sisters would have just as hard a time hitting a 15 pt buy, 5th level Human Fighter. At any rate, this is imbalanced by ridiculous monsters like the Shadowy Triceratops and the Vampires.

D) Marrowfall Powers Inconsistency: Bisby eventually goes insane from possessing the Marrowfall, yet there is absolutely nothing in the description of its powers or abilities. From Bisby's fate, one might assume that the artifact has an ego, intelligence, or at least a curse, yet there's nothing written for it. This just doesn't seem to make sense, especially when there's a haunt present illustrating his insane demise. My PCs were initially afraid of touching the thing because of the flavor surrounding it. At any rate, I felt there should have been some drawback to the thing since its almost too good of an item against the path's enemies (vampires, shadow things).

Fix: Give the thing either an Ego or something similar to the point system that the Totemrix utilizes, having insanity instead of death being the end result.

E) Unnecessary Traps: While most of the traps in Delvehaven were pretty cool, the ones in the hallways (Transposition traps) are not only located in places the party is unlikely to encounter them but are also ineffective in terms of doing anything. It suggests using the dolls simultaneously with the traps, but since they are so weak on their own, neither is a challenge and just eats up game time.

-Positives:

A)Pathfinder Lodge: Everyone liked the feel and the flavor of the abandoned lodge. The flavorful treasure, paintings, and haunts all helped convey the dark ambiance of the lodge. Good use of descriptive text. Other than the encounter imbalance issues and the traps, the lodge is pretty solid.

B)Vampires!: This was a good introduction to PF Vampires, and the three presented here are all awesome. They all have interesting backstories (especially the former vampire-hunter) and each of them was fun to run. Again, I liked the versatility of their usage: I could use any of them in any combination in any room, depending on where I felt that they fit best thematically.

C)Cool Treasure: Marrowfall issues notwithstanding, the unique treasure presented in this path was pretty good. Grave Candles, the Chelish Crux and the head of the Erinyes were all nce bits of flavorful loot. I especially loved role-playing the crazy devil head, made for some fun RP.

-Added Stuff: We were all tired of Shadows at that point, so instead of using them again at the Wave Door, I created a monster I called "The Black Water", a homemade hybrid of a gray ooze and a shadow. I also began realizing the lack of shadow monsters in general and began taking the Shadowgarms and advancing them, giving them a few new powers and less of a weakness towards light.

-PC Advancement: First real death of the campaign with Fiamma perishing against the monstrosity that is the Shadowy Triceratops. This sort of stopped the module for a session as a sidequest was enacted to get her raised. Basically, we all felt it inappropriate for a Cleric of Calistra to be raised by a Cleric of Asmodeus, so a number of other means and Arael were utilized to bring her back. As far as leveling, it pretty much stays singular class for everyone except Alario. Again inspired by Assassin's Creed and Batman, his character begins developing fighting styles that utilize an enemy's weapons against them. He also wanted to keep a theme of 'no magical abilities, all mundane gear' with the character, an aesthetic I thought fit itself quite nicely to the feel of the city. [Monk 7, Wizard 7, Cleric 6/Rogue 1, Fighter 2/Monk 2/ Rogue 3]

-Encounter Assessment-
-Good Encounters: Shadow Mastiffs, Shadowy Triceratops, Water Elemental, Haunts, Hellcat, Vampires
-Bad Encounters:Devildrome, Sisters of Eiseth, Shadows, Evil Dolls, Will-o-Wisp,
-Toughest Fight: Shadowy Triceratops
-Weakest Fight: Evil Dolls

Continued...

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