Ran into an interesting situation last weekend that almost ended our Savage Tide AP but opened up allot of role-playing opportunities.
Just a little background, my players characters are evil not “were going to take over the world or torture the prisoners for fun evil” just were looking out what’s best for us and who will pay us the most i.e. they have already stolen gold from their employer Lavinia several times when the opportunity presented itself.
While confronting Rowyn at the Lotus Dragon’s Guild Hall the group wasted no time turning on Lavina when Rowyn offered them a bribe of 2,000 gold, half now half later if they turned over the information they had learned on the guilds plans for taking over the cities docks and if they kept out of the guilds business.
Ironically, after they were escorted out of the guilds base they became overwhelmed with paranoia that Rowyn was going to send wave after wave of assassins after them to “tie up loose ends”.
They quickly fled town, sending a note to Lavinia that were leaving the city to follow up on a lead regarding her brother. After several weeks greed overcame fear and they tried to contact Rowyn to inquire about when they could expect to receive the rest of their money.
Surprisingly, no message was forthcoming, realizing that Rowyn had no intention of paying them (since they fled Rowyn had executed her plan and successfully taken over the docks putting the Dragons in charge of commerce for the city). They decided to flee to another city and Rowyn and Lavinia be damned.
The group eventually decided to return (that’s another story) to find that Lavinia was becoming suspicious of their actions but that with the “information” they learned about Vanthus’s involvement with the Dragons that she would speak with the Lord Mayor during the ball given by Rowyn’s family (can’t think of the family name) due to their recent economic successes.
Of course Rowyn was in attendance and arranged a private meeting between the party and herself. The party was put out by the fact they still hadn’t been paid for their neutrality. But another agreement was made (money upfront) as Vanthus was still missing and they were to go to Kraken Cove and learn his fate for Rowyn and keep quite at the meeting with the Mayor or discourage any direct action against or investigation of the Lotus Dragons.
At the meeting with the Lord Mayor and Rowyn very little was resolved, the Mayor could not do anything until Vanthus was found but one of the players slipped the Mayor information about the Lotus Dragon’s movements before they took over the docks (the info was copied from the notes they had looked over during their initial attack on the guild hall).
So their you have it, the party wants to play both sides against each other and reap the rewards. Problem is the AP really involves the Lotus Dragons for the first couple of adventures but this presents an interesting role-playing opportunity that I wish to explore but don’t want to get to side tracked from the main story arc.
BTW the Mayor was attended by an influential noble woman with connections to the Lotus Dragons but also happens to be a thrall of Malchentat (sp).
Let the chaos ensue, anyone have any fun ideas before my players carefully constructed plans come crashing down on their heads?
You could basically have one or the other faction succeed, thus paving a slight railroad via Bully Gambit. In other words, if Rowyn comes out at the parties patron (which I would give her a level or two, and maybe some more powerful underlings, maybe a half drow from the Arabani household, sort of an alliance between Arabani and Kellani houses, just to keep the party from a coup) then they would still go after Vanthus,and instead of saving Lavinia, they're ordered to take her alive (thus still having to protect the manor...of course they would probably toast the Jade Ravens at that point...)
Then Rowyn learns of the colony and wants them to take it for the Lotus. Lavinia escapes thus becoming the "Rowyn" in SWW.
just from the hip! My PC's are pretty much in the realm of good, and they just escaped Parrot Island so I guess I'll see soon.
The first session we were way off in uncharted territory, Visting Keltar Islaran and a whole host of strange things that I never considered (ie planned for) they would want to do..look at shipping manifests etc...it was a true seat of the pants affair but everyone seemed to have a good time...just role with it, it'll work out
Sounds like you have a cool campaign going but it does not sound like its really heading in the direction that one presumes for Savage Tides. I suggest you might just want to abort STAP and play a game of intrigue in Sasserine.
I see the classic "Fistful of Dollars" scenario : player characters are the Clint Eastwood character, with the Vanderboren family on one side of town and the Lotus Dragons/Kellani family on the other side of town. ^_^ Sounds like fun!
Ideally, the NPCs would figure it out - barring truly masterful performances by the PC group - and harry them out of town on a scruffy pair of merchantmen sailing on a total gamble of an expedition to parts unknown for some place called the "Isle of Dread"...
Since Malcanthet wants the PC's to go on the trip to Tamoachan to find the bat idol, you could use the thrall of Malcanthet to instigate an attack on the Lotus Dragons via the mayor (preferably not officially, but under cover and at night). If you want, you can use the PCs for this under cover action, but if you think they will not fall for the trick, the mayor recruits another group of adventurers (The Jade Ravens?? - a nice way to make the two groups competitors or even enemies). The Lotus Dragons are almost destroyed, but Rowyn manages to flee. Then Heldrath Kellani starts sending assassins after the PCs, so much that they do not feel safe in Sasserine anymore. So when Lavinia is recruiting them for the Sea Wyvern they are probably very glad to leave the city, and Malcanthet will be pleased. And you have a reason to add Rowyn as a stowaway.
If you want to up the stakes and add to the confusion, you let one assassin pose as a crewman on one of the two ships.
My group is partly evil and they also got involved in intrigue in Sasserine, also siding with the Lotus Dragons at one point. I added a lot of events to make Sasserine more and more dangerous to them, so they jumped at the chance of going to Farshore with Lavinia.
My group is partly evil and they also got involved in intrigue in Sasserine, also siding with the Lotus Dragons at one point. I added a lot of events to make Sasserine more and more dangerous to them, so they jumped at the chance of going to Farshore with Lavinia.
My biggest concern here would be that you move dramatically into a different style of game. Savage Tide is a major rail road. A game of intrigue in Sasserine is a very open ended campaign. If the players are having a great time in an open ended campaign they might find it particularly restrictive to suddenly be in a game were going off the beaten path has issues.
It depends.
To begin with, I always consult with my players before starting an adventure path and roughly tell them what they may expect. If they do not like it, they can tell me what they like instead. I do not literally use their ideas, but I try to adapt the campaign to their preferences and playing style.
Secondly, I expect a background story for every PC and use this in the campaign. If possible I link it to the main plot. I have decided to put in a small piece of background story for each PC in every adventure of the STAP. So far this works fine and it keeps the PCs interested.
Secondly, there are a lot of opportunities to introduce intrigue on the sea voyage. I added NPCs to the ships, encounters with other ships and longer stops in the ports. So far this works very well.
Then I added the whole module of Tamoachan and added some subplots related to the background stories of some of the PCs. They are in Tamoachan now and the last playing session was very memorable.
Probably I will add some extra NPCs to Here there be monsters, for the same reason.
When they get to Farshore, there are also opportunities enough to introduce intrigue again, e.g. with the elections. Same goes for Scuttlecove. And even for the abyss. For evil PCs there are lots of possibilities for interaction with demons.
I guess basically what I am doing is making the railroad seem more open-ended, so that it looks less like a railroad.
By the way, my players have a great time being the captain and officers of the Sea Wyvern and bossing everyone around.
Some very interesting ideas, spoke to my group out of session and they indicated to me that they were more interested in pursing the AP then getting too heavily involved in the politics of the city.
Were only about 20% thru the second adventure so I will use this time to set a final confrontation with Rowyn and the Lotus Dragons. Once they return from Kraken’s Cove I can use the encounter of the performer assassins to break the working relationship with Rowyn.
I like Luna’s suggestion of using Malchanet’s thrall to convince the Mayor to attack the dragons but this will occur while the party is in Kraken’s Cove and with the connections to the Dragons the thrall has she could show the evidence the PC’s gave the Mayor as a clear sign of betrayal. So when they return from Kraken’s Cove they get jumped by the performer’s and Rowyn has cleared out until they can regroup and slide back into power.
In the meantime I can put pressure on the party with allot of people starting to ask questions regarding their involvement leaving following Lavina and her gold to Farport as their best option, while Rowyn sneaks on board the Sea Wyvern to deal with PC’s herself since her golden parachute with the Dragons and her own family hasn’t gone according to plan and she needs to show that she is still a capable leader.
It depends.
To begin with, I always consult with my players before starting an adventure path and roughly tell them what they may expect. If they do not like it, they can tell me what they like instead. I do not literally use their ideas, but I try to adapt the campaign to their preferences and playing style.
Secondly, I expect a background story for every PC and use this in the campaign. If possible I link it to the main plot. I have decided to put in a small piece of background story for each PC in every adventure of the STAP. So far this works fine and it keeps the PCs interested.
Secondly, there are a lot of opportunities to introduce intrigue on the sea voyage. I added NPCs to the ships, encounters with other ships and longer stops in the ports. So far this works very well.
Then I added the whole module of Tamoachan and added some subplots related to the background stories of some of the PCs. They are in Tamoachan now and the last playing session was very memorable.
Probably I will add some extra NPCs to Here there be monsters, for the same reason.
When they get to Farshore, there are also opportunities enough to introduce intrigue again, e.g. with the elections. Same goes for Scuttlecove. And even for the abyss. For evil PCs there are lots of possibilities for interaction with demons.
All of this is true but its still a railroad. You can have intrigue in the elections and such however, in the end, you can't stay in Farshore - everything is actually transitory. To follow the plot line means constantly biting the DMs hook and leaving everything you have done behind.
In STAP that essentially means forever. If they leave for the Isle of Dread then everything they have done in Sasserine - all the contacts they have made, all the plans they have, everything is suddenly irrelevant. The players are never coming back - well maybe they'll teleport in to pick something up or some such but thats it.
Even if you choose to bring them back it'd not work unless they came back more or less after every level. You can't just pick up were you left off if you've gone up four levels because the balance of power in the intrigue or whatever your involved in has completely changed. The con game you where going to set up is now worth chump change and all the opposition could probably be killed without breaking a sweat by your now much more powerful and far richer PC.
Your description of the stuff you do for your players is not free form gaming. Ultimately, its actually dungeon dressing - really elaborate dungeon dressing to be sure. Essentially you have spruced up the adventure to a major degree by adding intrigue to the ocean crossing and adding culture and politics to the the Olmec's etc. but what you have really done is made these places look and feel more authentic and realistic for your players - however they are still just passing through.
Thats a different kettle of Fish from a game where the players can choose to take their sailing ship anywhere.
Yes, that is quite true. But it is dungeon dressing that creates atmosphere, so that the railroad feels less of a railroad (but it is still a railroad of course, sort of camouflaged).
As I wrote elsewhere, something is expected from the PC's when they play an adventure path, namely that they go along with the railroad. It is best to inform them beforehand. If they had not wanted it at all, I probably would not have chosen to play the STAP with them.