Ched Greyfell |
"Deep red faux leather cover debossed with gold ...."
Frills not desired.
Will this item be released with standard binding?
Or has it already, and I've missed it?
The frills you mention are on the limited special edition.
Cole Deschain |
Council of Thieves is staged in a single location and with a little doctoring makes for a cool Urban Intrigue Mystery Thriller campaign.
This module looks interesting. Can somebody who's run it compare and contrast it? I am considering it.
I found Curse leaps and bounds better than Council. The stakes are both clearer and feel higher to me, and the insurrection aspects last a bit longer...
zimmerwald1915 |
I found Curse leaps and bounds better than Council. The stakes are both clearer and feel higher to me, and the insurrection aspects last a bit longer...
In neither AP does the insurrection aspect last very long at all.
Point is, if you want insurrection, play Hell's Rebels. Curse's selling points lie elsewhere. Being used for so long and then betrayed by the BBEG means the players will love to hate her. Plus, her tyrannies are actual maneuvers to increase her control over the city, as opposed to Barzillai's, which outside his initial purge are mostly fits of pique motivated by deep-seated emotional problems. The NPCs are creations of beauty, as is Scarwall. The connections to the history of the setting are deeper.
Deadmanwalking |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
In neither AP does the insurrection aspect last very long at all.
I can't speak to Council, but that's a gross mischaracterization of what happens in CotCT.
You also have the opportunity to hide dissidents, aid in the rescue of people from the Crown's 'justice' and in Chapter 3 actively work to bring about said Crown's downfall. Which is also the entire goal of Chapters 4 and 5, just in a 'must acquire this item/information to do it' kinda way.
Chapter 6 has a bit of actual revolutionary group stuff, as noted, but really, is a couple of linked dungeon crawls as much as anything. Most of the 'secret rebels' stuff gets done in the first three chapters.
Now, I don't disagree that Hell's Rebels is better for playing out the actual organization of a revolution (that being the entire point of that AP). CotCT is much more about finding out the monarch is a usurper and executing them (which is a different thing thematically), but it's not quite as portrayed in that spoiler either.
zimmerwald1915 |
I can't speak to Council, but that's a gross mischaracterization of what happens in CotCT.
Throughout the AP, including in Book 6, your aim is the restoration of "legitimate" authority. Your first priority is always the protection of the existing order of things, which is why your first targets are always the same class of people Ileosa's targeting as threats to her new order. You put down rioters in book 1, then smash every center of resistance in Old Korovsa in book 3. Granted, Swastel and the Arkonas aren't the most savory bunch, but that begs two questions. First, what kind of alternative are you offering (trick question, you're offering more of the same), and second, where do you get off coming into a shattered, fragile community and breaking any semblance of self-organization it had? I bet if the iron workers came out on strike (they're organized, per the Guide to Korvosa) the plot would have you go and break it up too like the good little thugs these PCs are, but they don't, because heaven forbid we get class struggle in our insurrection. Hell's Rebels has the same problem, incidentally.
Your actual insurrection, again, is about restoring the existing order of things. You're not storming the Bastille, no, you're William and effing Mary. One of the only two people you've actually managed to "save from the Queen's justice," you see, is the key to the legal transfer of power, and you care about the legality of bursting into Castle Korvosa to lop Ileosa's head off with a sword because that's Just How Things Are Done.
It's not insurrection. It's coup and countercoup, and while that makes a perfectly fine story, let's not try and pretend it's something that it's not.
CotCT is much more about finding out the monarch is a usurper and executing them (which is a different thing thematically), but it's not quite as portrayed in that spoiler either.
I believe I said as much.
Cole Deschain |
Hm, don't know that I would have bought the Limited Edition sight unseen...
I mean, I bought the LE, but that's because until Hell's Rebels came along, Curse was my hands-down, no competition favorite AP... but your money, your call!
Cole Deschain |
I think Hell's Rebels is as good and situationally better depending on the story you want to tell (Pedantic tone aside, Zimmerwald is correct in stating that Rebels is the genuine "insurrection" AP). It also has a slightly more cohesive narrative than Curse, due in no small part to Paizo having a few more years to refine things (see: Shoanti Field Trip and a threatened war that doesn't really seem to be in the cards-something this collected edition tunes up a bit)
Thus, it's the first AP to give Curse a run for its money. I love them both, and their shared traits are a big part of why:
1. Villain you know as a character from day one and whose defeat pays off baggage from the very first adventure.
2. NPCs and a setting you invest in. Korvosa and Kintargo both feel worth fighting for.
3. Scope for both head-cracking and nonviolent conflict resolution.