Since the Wild Hunt were responsible for capturing Azure in the first place, they know a great deal about the gnome's history. However, the hunters' tendency to bicker makes them unreliable informants. An imaginative GM could invent one or two alternate backstories for Azure, so that different members of the Wild Hunt could offer details from both or all of the versions.
Alternatively, when asked nicely, Azure can provide their own true account, amid sobs and sniffles (or more joyously, once they have been reunited with their colours).
1) How did Jamila use plane shift to arrive before the party? The spell drops you off an average of 257 miles from your target. Unless she just spent several days doing it and/or got EXTREMELY lucky that seems like a very dangerous/inefficient way to travel.
She enjoys gambling. She got lucky.
Stephen Trone wrote:
2) Reading through the briefing the venture captain simply asked them to explore the phenomenon, not to actually stop it. What motivation does the party have to intervene when the alternative is to study the situation?
The phenomenon is spreading, and threatens to overtake Bellis within the next few days. These stakes are not terribly clear in the scenario, but Jamila or Falbin can point them out if the PCs seem disinclined to help.
Stephen Trone wrote:
3) Azure states that the rift will remain so long as they remain bleached. What happens if the players go full murder hobo and just kill them? Have to be honest that does seem like the easiest solution to the problem, especially when the gnome was cursed by what is essentially a demi-god and helping them requires you to steal from said demi-god. I can easily see players balking at this prospect.
Murdering Azure won't seal the breach. Reuniting them with their colours will.
Stephen Trone wrote:
4) Are the other hunters not upset that the players may have killed their friend? I understand that death is not permanent in the first world but the negative levels they take are (and don't tell me that every fey creature has sacks full of gold to pay high level casters for a restoration every time they die) so at the very least the players have permanently crippled their friend.
Due to their curse, the hunters generally hate each other. And yes, death in the First World is an inconvenience, like breaking a leg.
Stephen Trone wrote:
5) Lastly, how are players collecting frozen samples? As soon as they leave the frozen area they should simply thaw out. And if the area makes things permanently frozen even after being removed, wouldn't access to that be more important than closing the portal?
Good question. The frozen items do thaw out over time, but they retain a residue of elemental magic which Ashasar would like to study.
Oh, here's an easy one for you, Scott. We have three events that occur in sequence based on how far out the party is from Bellis:
2 miles out from Bellis: wagering begins (page 6)
As you approach the disturbance: the party can find clues (page 6-7)
2 miles out from Bellis: The seasons change as you arrive on the scene! (page 7)
It's easy enough to make up a number for a table, but I'm making a handout I'm going to upload to PFSprep for everyone, so I'd like to get things "right" if I can. Do you have a substitute number to replace one of those two with?
Yeah, I obviously failed my Knowledge (geography) check here. My original distances differed from the edited version, so Linda is the final authority on this.
But if you need an answer in a hurry, I'd say change the last distance (when Fall Turns to Summer) to "5 miles south of Bellis." This would line up with the next statement ("1 mile closer than Falbin expected"), which serves to establish the rate of the verdant zone's expansion.
Hey Scott, do you happen to have a motivation in mind for Falbin's apparent change in scenery? It seemed like he had a pretty good situation in Wispil--unless it's canon that his garden burned down? (Heck, it has almost every time I've run it.)
Falbin still resides in Wispil, but each season he makes at least one trip to a different part of the Verduran, to collect herbs that only grow in particular regions. He is well-known in Bellis because he stays there every autumn while gathering pokeroot (he alludes to this on p.5).
As you say, it's more likely that the outcome of the betting will favour Jamila (and anyone betting with her against Falbin), because she happens to be correct. However, I wanted to create a balanced system that allowed for the possibility of either side winning.
Note on p.10: "If the PCs found all three clues supporting Falbin’s theory first and have already settled bets, the NPCs agree it best to honor those payments, even after learning the truth from Azure."
Kwinten Koëter wrote:
...are the rewards supposed to be used in this scenario only, or are they permanent, and can be used in later adventures?
All the items which the PCs can obtain through betting appear on the chronicle sheet, so they can be reused.
Kwinten Koëter wrote:
The weather effects on page 14. Is that supposed to happen during all combats in the First World?
Good question. The Whirlwood seasonal effects do NOT apply to encounters in Area B (Frozen Lake), but they DO apply to Area C (Heartgrove) encounters.
My hope is that PCs who struggle against the first Heartgrove encounter (vs. the assassin vine or basidirond) will factor the environmental hazards into their response when the wild hunt approaches. In other words, if the plant nearly kicked your butts, maybe slow down and talk to the hunters, instead of attacking them on their favoured ground.
Kwinten Koëter wrote:
...the checks to influence the Wild Hunt seem disconnected from their results. At least, at first glance.
This was intentional. The wild hunt are otherworldly creatures from a capricious, unpredictable environment, so their reactions to tactics like diplomacy or intimidation won't be predictable. I hope most players find this unorthodox roleplaying fresh and enjoyable, not frustrating, but as with so many things about our favourite hobby, YMMV.
Good luck with your prep and your game, Kwinten! Let me know how it goes!
I'm a big fan of all things fey, but I agree that by Volumes 4 or 5, a lot of parties are starting to suffer campaign fatigue. It's a particular risk in this AP, since the PCs will be reaching power levels high enough to make them think they can charge right in and defeat their adversary.
Volumes 5 and 6:
I don't have the modules in front of me, but I believe Vol. 5 is a fetch-quest to obtain the Sardonyx Shard, which PCs will need in order to access the Vault in Volume 6.
You might need to modify the end of Volume 4 to give them something equivalent to the Shard. Make sure they still need to return to Phaendar before they access the Vault, though -- it's immensely satisfying for PCs to return to their hometown after all this time.
Maybe then all you need to do is drop them into the Vault at a much more distant point, and have their "Volume 5" experience involve fighting their way up to the Onyx Citadel? Or else -- as you suggest -- just adjust the CRs in the Citadel down a few levels, so they stand a chance of winning at 15th level.
M Post-Human Thespian 8/Wright 13/Academic 7/Geek 12
That's everyone heard from except Esdras, who unfortunately has to withdraw from the game for the time being.
It sounds like most of the remaining players are on board, though many are struggling with issues related to time and/or to the format. I'm going to recommend a break -- this seems like a narratively suitable point, so I'd rather do it now than wait till we're in the middle of combat or something. I'll spend some time reading other PbPs, to pick up ideas about how to streamline and compartmentalize information.
How would it suit the rest of you to try again in May? I'd suggest earlier, but I know that I'm going to get extremely busy in April.
Shortly I'll post a wrap-up/teaser over on the Gameplay thread.
Esdras: Jominda sharply declines to get involved with the hearing. However, you were able to observe her alchemy enough to identify the potion as a flask of vitus. The DC to craft this concoction is usually 25; however, now that you've observed the process closely, the DC drops to 20.
End of Chapter Two
I will post some status quo info shortly, over on the discussion thread. In the meantime, you may advance your characters to Level 2. Congratulations on surviving your first few days in Ravengro!
Ivan and Alec's conversation may continue. In the meantime, I encourage the rest of you to consider how you will respond to tomorrow's interrogations. I don't intend to role-play all the way through each interview with Sheriff Caellar; instead, I'll provide some questions, and you can submit your answers, assuming that each of you is being interviewed separately.
Once we've run through all the questions (3 or 4), I'll provide the conclusion of each interview, and then we'll skip to another group scene. Picture it like a montage of intercut questions and replies. It's okay if don't end up getting every PC's response to every question.
Sheriff Caellar toys with the wide brim of his hat while he sits across from you in the dusty clerk's chambers of the Ravengro town hall. The only other person in the room is a fresh-faced secretary who diligently records the conversation in a heavy ledger.
"Now then," Drawls the Sheriff, "Our business is an inquest into the death of Riff Trestleman. But as the details of the crime itself are well-established and reported on by numerous witnesses, I'd prefer to establish a measure of context, instead of dwelling on minutiae. To begin with, maybe you can tell me about your relationship with the dear, departed Professor Lorrimor?"
M Post-Human Thespian 8/Wright 13/Academic 7/Geek 12
Behind the Screen: yes, Harrowstone is very important. Tomorrow, you are all obliged to visit the Town Hall for interviews with the Sheriff -- assuming you want to stay on good terms with the law in Ravengro. But otherwise, any interest in Lorrimor's death, or in the strange goings-on in town, should involve a foray to the abandoned prison.
M Post-Human Thespian 8/Wright 13/Academic 7/Geek 12
No worries, Dmitry. Life happens.
Here are some thoughts, suggestions, and questions as we wrap up Day One of RavenCrown. It's been an eventful 24 hours or so!
I've enjoyed everyone's contributions to the Gothic style so far. The internal monologues have been useful in providing exposition, and in helping PCs to sort out what matters to them, and how they will react in various situations. I especially liked how everyone took seriously Professor Lorrimor's funeral rites, and how you described your horror at seeing his corpse in its current state. That shows great commitment to role-playing, considering you only cared about the Professor because I told you to. :)
As we move forward, I'd suggest we all try to ease off the inner lives, flashbacks, and internal monologues a little bit. Don't axe them completely, by any means. But when the action begins to pick up and the narrative needs to move forward, there's a genuine risk that we will all withdraw into six separate stories, instead of working together to build a single strong one.
One suggestion to help this transition: here on the Discussion thread, I encourage each of you to post your impressions of the other characters so far. Single-sentence descriptions are fine. Those posts will help the other players to tell if they're playing their traits accurately. But more importantly, it forces you to think about the relationships as they begin to solidify.
If you'd rather not do this publicly, that's fine, but maybe do it for yourself. And if your impression of another PC is "???" then it means your character ought to make an effort to engage with that mystery PC sometime during the next chapter. You're stuck in the same house for 2 weeks, after all.
Ask each other questions that relate to the current situation (see the lists below for suggestions). Or, keeping your personal goal in mind, suss out the other PCs to see if they are allies or obstacles.
Speaking of goals, one last piece of advice: play the long game. I hope that, like me, you're settling in for an epic story. If we get to the end of Volume One of Carrion Crown, there will be plenty of surprises and twists in store -- and that's only Vol. 1 of 6! Your personal goals are not going to get resolved overnight, so pace yourselves. If every single thing you post is an obsessive diatribe on how badly you need X, then even you will get bored of the idea, long before it pays off.
Now, to help get everybody on the same page before we start Chapter 2 (not Volume 2 -- like I said, it's a long game), I'm going to provide two lists: What You Know and What You Don't Know. But before I do that, let me put an open question to the rest of you: how do you like the game so far? What would you like to see more/less of? Please be honest -- or, if brutal honesty seems inappropriate here, PM me instead.
What You Know So Far:
The Ravengro townsfolk shunned Professor Lorrimor –- some think he’s a necromancer -- although this behaviour may have begun only recently, since Kendra seems surprised by it. (Magdalen knows a bit more about Gibs Hephenus in particular).
During the graveyard scrap, Dmitry mortally wounded a villager, positioning the townsfolk (especially Sheriff Caellar) against you.
Out of concern for his daughter, the Professor has asked you to guard her for two weeks, and then to transport a chest of “dangerous tomes” to the University at Lepistadt.
Supernatural occurrences seem to be happening frequently in House Lorrimor (Wictor is receiving visits from a mystical hare; Ivan and now Alec know that ghosts from Ivan’s past are haunting him; Dmitry has observed Esdras’s limited shapeshifting powers).
What You Don't Know Yet (hint, hint):
Why did the Professor name all of you in his will?
How did the Professor die?
What are the “dangerous tomes” kept in Lorrimor’s office? (Esdras has the key, in case you weren’t keeping track.)
Will Riff Trestleman die from Dmitry’s wound?
Who is the Sczarni man who visited Kendra’s window at night?
A couple more points of business: First, I know that some of you are still waiting for prearranged objects or prompts that will clarify your characters' arcs. Wictor just received his spellbook, but if you're asking yourself, "What about MY thing?" then don't panic. They should be coming your way very shortly.
Also, I hope I haven't been remiss in handing out Fate Points. I'll distribute another round of them at the start of each chapter, and/or when you go up a level (not just yet for that; sorry). So add a Fate Point to your tally now, and don't forget what they can do for you:
Heal yourself, or another PC or NPC, 1d6+your level hp.
Remove one basic condition from yourself or another PC, such as shaken, dazzled, or prone. Major conditions like frightened, blinded, or unconscious do not apply.
Remove 1d4 points of ability damage from yourself or another PC.
Reroll any single d20 roll you just made.
If you're stuck, you can spend a Fate Point to get a hint from the GM.
Finally, I realized I accidentally locked the title of our Gameplay thread as "Chapter One: The Last Will etc." Rest assured, despite appearances, we're moving on to...
In lieu of the common room, Kendra sends Wictor up to sleep in the library, where the cot is already set up, presumably to accommodate late nights of study.
Now we’ll try a bit of split-party role-playing. I won’t keep it behind spoilers, since everyone’s doing a fine job of avoiding metagaming so far. This sequence begins late at night, although not everything described in the cross-cutting is necessarily happening at exactly the same time.
Dmitry/Esdras: In the narrow guest bed shared by the two former partners in crime, one small movement may be enough to wake both sleepers. However, it is not a motion but a sound that wakes Dmitry from his hectic dreams. Something is moving across the grass beneath your window. You crane your neck to look out, just in time to see the tail of something large and dark moving steadily east. Esdras does not stir at this faint sound.
Magdalen: After an exchange of stiff and awkward condolences and good-nights, you squeeze in alongside Kendra in her bed and pretend to sleep. The fatigue of travel and the day's events have almost overwhelmed you into slumber when you feel Kendra rise from the bed. You crack your eyes open and watch as she crosses the dark room to her window, which overlooks the eastern path. With deliberate slowness, she unhooks the window and throws open the sash.
Ivan/Alec: Despite the tension between these rivals, both men are fast asleep at this hour. Ivan is dreaming yet again of the day his friends fell beneath the talons of the living dead -- in particular, a moment when he stumbled and nearly fell into the campfire. Alec is also dreaming of fire. In his dreams, a beautiful, dark-eyed woman embraces him, and then suddenly bursts aflame, but refuses to release him. Both men toss and turn, feeling the heat spread uncomfortably across their bodies...
Since Alec and Ivan both rolled low, they don't get any actions yet. But feel free to post responses to the dreams.
Wictor: After the upheavals of the day, Wictor is truly spent. He is deep asleep upon the cot when the yellow hare begins to whisper in his ear. Even when it crawls atop his chest, perched upon him like an incubus, he does not stir. And so the creature slaps one paw across his mouth -- to keep him from screaming -- then with the other forepaw, smacks him across the brow. "Are you resolved," It hisses, inches from his eyes, "to squander the most important night of your life in mere sleep?"
Sitting alone in the common room, Wictor feels the weight of the day, the heat of the hearth, and now the soporific euphoria of the brandy combine to send his thoughts adrift upon a heady fog. The voices upstairs, already distant, now recede completely, eclipsed by the crackles and snaps of the fire. Shadows dance in your peripheral vision, until the entire room seems to be in motion.
"He lied to you," Comes a soft voice, startling you halfway out of your dream. You would arise completely, but your arms and legs feel leaden and soft. The old scars on your face pulse with blood. "Trust one who knew him better than he knew himself. He lied to everyone, and he will lie again, very soon."
You struggle to pinpoint the speaker. There is no one in the room, yet the voice sounds very close at hand. Finally, with paralyzed dread, you move your eyes towards the fireplace. The flames continue to dance and waver, but in the heart of the fire, you can make out a stable shape. A golden hare seems to glower out at you from the fire's depths.
"Petros Lorrimor was less than what they accused him of, and also more," Whispers the hare. "He knew things -- about this world and the next -- that would make the ignorant peasants of Ravengro chew through the sinews of their tongues in terror. He could have had the world in the palm of his wrinkled hand, but he was a sentimental fool. But you, Wictor..." The hare gestures to you again, as it did in the graveyard -- "You and I, together, we could go much farther than Petros ever dared."
M Post-Human Thespian 8/Wright 13/Academic 7/Geek 12
I'm delighted by everyone's commitment so far to the tone of the campaign. Psychological realism is hard to write at the best of times, and it can get easily undermined amongst RPG mechanics that, in many ways, dehumanize characters and especially combat encounters.
Gothic fiction came of age in the Enlightenment, when proclamations like Descartes's "I think, therefore I am" changed the way people understood themselves and their relationships. Early Gothic novels place a lot of import on the relationship between interiority -- the inner world that Freud would eventually call the unconscious -- and the exterior landscape.
So far, everyone is doing an impressive job of bringing those two elements into their posts. Your characters all bring with them goals, secrets, traumas, and private relationships, and those are already resonating with the present-day event in interesting ways. To show you what I mean, I'm going to quote Dmitry's last post (I gave him a Fate point for it):
Dmitry Pavlovich wrote:
He notices around him the other pallbearers pummeling the belligerents with fists and elbows. Dmitry has half a mind to batter the man's pitchfork to the ground and leave it at that, but upon turning sideways, Kendra Lorrimor is put neatly in his peripheral vision. The woman's distraught look over the situation, her sadness at her father spilled out at her feet, conjures up the aggressive image of a young girl, a young girl who sobs into Dmitry's inner-self, a young girl who fades away in a sudden streak of black.
His fingers tighten around the cane, knuckles paling at the tension. When his eyes refocus solely on the man before him, the pitchfork finishing its deflected arc, they are sharp and clear and bare the soul of something darker than the clerk to whom they belong. A coldness burns deep within them, a coldness that forces Dmitry's hand.
I respect the way Dmitry intertwines his observations (Kendra) with his inner life (missing daughter) to produce a psychologically plausible action.
There's also a lot of emphasis on outward imagery, like his paling knuckles and his sharp, clear eyes. Whenever you're in doubt about how to portray the movement from inner emotion to outward action, think about the body's autonomic responses: breath, heartbeat, changes in the skin and eyes, etc. Those can be powerful and revealing images.
Thanks to Dmitry’s keen eye and quick warning, the procession grows cautious as you approach the end of the Dreamwake.
The grey shapes resolve themselves into twelve villagers. Half of the crowd takes shelter from the rain beneath the overhanging roof of a large mausoleum carved with a faded, circular sigil composed of intertwining wolves and ravens. The other six are deliberately blocking your path. They are mostly farmers and fisherfolk, judging by their garb and by the implements they bear – some of which are being brandished like weapons.
Kendra halts and, squaring her shoulders, addresses the man in front. He is old but hale, with a wiry stature that could mark him as a former soldier.
“Gibs Hephenus,” says Kendra, “Did you spearhead this little intrusion?”
“That’s far enough,” says Hephenus, ignoring the lady’s query, “We been talking, and we don’t want Lorrimor buried in the Restlands. You can take him upriver and bury him there if you want, but he ain’t goin’ to ground here!”
You can hear in Kendra’s voice the effort she expends in keeping calm in the face of this outrage. “Father Grimburrow has approved it,” she replies, “He’s waiting for us now--”
“You don’t get it, girl,” snarls Hephenus, “We won’t have a necromancer sullying the soil of our kin.”
Other voices in the mob throw their support behind Gibs. “We know he was sneaking around here.” “And up at Harrowstone!” “He’s cursed us. Every soul in town.”
Kendra is speechless. She turns from the mob and beseeches your aid with her eyes.
Sense Motive DC 15:
Only about six of the twelve men in this mob look as if they’re spoiling for a fight. The remaining half dozen have hangdog expressions that suggest they’d just as soon be home in warm beds.
NOTE: Dmitry has already succeeded at this check.
Knowledge (local) DC 10:
The “Harrowstone” to which Hephenus refers is a nearby landmark of ill repute. It was a notorious prison until 50 years ago, when it burned to the ground. Locals shun the site, calling it haunted or cursed.
The heavens weep for Petros Lorrimor. A curtain of rain, dark and heavy as Lethe water, falls upon the town of Ravengro, making midday into dusk and pounding the Restlands’ earthen paths until they seethe with treacherous muck.
You stand at the southwestern entrance to the Restlands, Ravengro’s cemetery. Moss-eaten granite walls flank two rusted iron gates, now standing open like a crimson ribcage, cracked wide.
As Kendra has explained, the local burial tradition involves sending the priest on ahead, to greet the coffin at its final resting site. Apart from the mortal remains of your esteemed friend and mentor, the Professor, the only person present besides the six of you is Kendra Lorrimor, Petros’s daughter.
Dark-eyed and bedraggled, the twenty-nine-year-old orphan has met you at the Restlands, so you cannot judge if the wetness on her cheeks is bred from tears, or merely rain. She casts a doleful look at the assembly and heaves a sigh.
Based upon the submissions I've received, we'll be running RavenCrown with the following party of adventurers:
Alex du Chevrou -- male human slayer
Dmitry Pavlovich -- male human investigator
Esdras Martalen -- male skinwalker fighter
Ivan Fabulanov -- male human medium
Sapphyria/(Name TBA) -- female changeling psychic
Wictor Lugaulle -- male human wizard
I am supremely pleased; not only do we have a balanced and varied group, but you've also demonstrated your investment and dedication by developing detailed backstories, either on this thread or through PMs. They will serve us well in the months to come.
Over the next few days, please confirm your involvement by posting your character stats, along with a brief (<50 words) physical description. I'll look them over, but I won't suggest changes unless I spot an error.
Shortly, I'll also post again on this thread about character relationships. In my experience, it jump-starts role-playing, and provides rare opportunities for drama, when the characters in a party have some pre-existing relationships. To make them work, it may be necessary to modify some details of your backstories -- hopefully everyone is amenable and flexible.
The campaign will officially begin on Monday, October 10. Welcome aboard!
I'd like to submit a dhampir gunslinger/slayer, eventually angling for a sword-and-pistol "monster hunter" build. Any restrictions on character builds? Also how "low magic" are we talking?
I'm flexible, but my idea for "low-magic" is that the characters come from a land where magic is considered superstitious nonsense, and only gradually realize its presence in the world. That may involve some house-ruling, especially where healing is concerned; in the short-term, it just means no magic items are allowed in your initial purchases.
Otherwise: Standard-fantasy point buy, 2 traits (one from CC player's guide), I'll consider alternate racial abilities. I'll work closely with players to develop backstories, so story feats are useful.
The gunslinger/slayer combo sounds cool, but I'd recommend a human, and then we can build his/her vampirism into the narrative as a corruption (see Horror Adventures p.36).
Nohwear wrote:
I am tempted to submit an actual Occultist. I would also appreciate character creation details.
An occultist would be lovely. What details are you after, besides what I mentioned above?
As the scenario's author, I approve of waynemarkstubbs's suggestion to have Lady Berrylover or Hippy Organic Market Woman offer to pay for Restoration spells for low-tier parties.
I also approve of calling Lady Qualstair and Zeeva Foxglove "Lady Berrylover" and "Hippy Organic Market Woman," respectively. :)
Hi, author here. Thanks for everyone's contributions to this thread. Every bit of feedback helps me to improve my work. Your parties' deaths shall not be in vain! :)
Regarding the daemon fight, I second everything Linda writes above. Here are some other points for GMs to bear in mind:
1) The daemons are not expecting a fight, so they do not have to act with coordination or strategy.
2) Entering the hallowed area disturbs and enrages them, which will throw them even further off their game.
3) If you see the PCs are really suffering, have one or more of the daemons focus on the NPC who runs into the midst of the fight. Her death would prohibit one of the secondary success conditions, but that's preferable to a TPK.
Regarding Dave's cradle question:
Dave Baker wrote:
Regardless of if the NPCs are there or not, the PCs are bound to immediately know that it's a fake, as the candle does not turn blue. The Appraise check is irrelevant. There is no reason for them to not begin interrogating the townsfolk, or if not the town , then the two main NPCs as to the fakeness of the cradle.
This is true. However, the NPC who hid the true cradle has no reason to reveal its whereabouts yet. He may even present that as an ultimatum to the PCs -- help my village, or prove that you're divine, and I'll give back the relic.
If the PCs use something like <i>zone of truth</i>, or just search every inch of the dam until they find the cradle, fine. They can still inspect the true cradle without triggering the dam breach. Hopefully they will still feel morally obliged to save the villagers from the daemons.
If the dam bursts prior to the daemon fight, have the villagers relocate all the relics in the stupa to someplace in the village. Assume they still radiate the hallowed effect, despite having been moved. Then the PCs can still benefit from the hallowed effect during the combat.
The dam breach was conceived as a cinematic climax to the fight, but I'm well aware it won't play out that way at every table. Simply surviving the battle might be plenty cinematic for most groups of players.
Thanks for playing! I hope you'll check out Larry's sequel when it comes out at the end of this month.
Kingmaker. Although the "Path" part of "Adventure Path" starts out as an "Impassible Forest" which the PCs must hew their way through, it remains so jam-packed with fabulous jumping-off points, it gets my vote as #1.
I also love Carrion Crown, although it feels more like guilty pleasure than genuine respect.
This has been an insightful thread. Here are my takeaways so far:
1) Be flexible, especially if you are a GM working with new players. Some posters came across as a bit dismissive of CapeCodRPGer's special needs, specifically because s/he already has a gaming group who accommodates their needs, so why should we have to care?
But EVERYONE has special or specific needs, so it pays to be flexible, and to communicate with your fellow gamers to arrive at a table style that ensures comfort and enjoyment.
2) Some players emphasize the "RP" and others emphasize the "G." Balance is best, but fun trumps everything. If a table of gamers can go through a session without rolling a single die and still have a great time, ain't nothing wrong with that. Likewise, if everyone at the table agrees that the dreaded "diplomance" approach is copacetic, fine.
Find a group of like-minded weirdos and do what comes naturally.
I really enjoyed the scenario, but while playing it I didn't realize that unlike the other characters, Caught is "3D" - the rest are basically caricatures, but he's a real person.
I haven't read the scenario yet, but I'm interested in how a GM might convey that Caught is actually "real"?
That's a very interesting question (says the author, who of course finds all questions about his work interesting). I have a suggestion that concerns motivations.
All the "riddlekin" characters have singular motivations: the gathlains want to fish, the grodair wants her prisoner back, Gormandelle wants teeth, etc. But Caught can afford to be a bit more complex in his motives. He is obsessed with the riddle that imprisoned him, so most of his scripted actions involve trying to confront the First World fey who posed the riddle in the first place. But he has also just escaped from centuries of imprisonment, so he may want to savour his freedom for awhile. Even just talking to the PCs is probably a treat, after putting up with the scripted simpletons in the scroll. He could even try to recruit the PCs to his cause.
Caught is also volatile. Other NPCs in this scenario will either leap right into combat, or else follow the PCs' lead. But Caught might get bored of talking and decide to surprise the PCs by attacking -- or he might call a halt in the midst of combat just to swap riddles for a few rounds. Remember, he recently "befriended" (ie. fascinated) Virml, but then a few minutes later, he left him in a cage to be tortured and drowned. Even he doesn't know which way he'll leap next.
GMs should make decisions about how to play Caught based partly on the amount of time remaining. He could be a font of secrets and lore, or an elaborate flatterer and liar...but if you're pressed for time, then it's OK to reduce him to his narrative role as the PCs' quarry.
Here, unbidden, is the scenario author's tongue-in-cheek explanation of why Caught can adopt Shaine's elven appearance.
As a master riddler with a high Bluff score, Caught is keenly interested in finding and exploiting any loopholes he can. As the scroll that contained his prison wandered from library to library throughout the centuries, Caught found himself shelved next to many philosophical and legal texts...and also, quite improbably, a copy of the Advanced Race Guide.
Much like many users upon the Paizoforums, Caught noticed the ambiguous language in the "Realistic Likeness" feat, and decided that, until an opponent can prove conclusively that users of the feat cannot adopt elven form, he will go right ahead and do so when it pleases him (or delights the PCs).
Rules lawyers at the table who object to his form should therefore attempt a Diplomacy or Intimidate check, opposed by Caught's Bluff skill. If they succeed, the kitsune will accept the ruling gracefully, and adopt the most common RAI.
It is fascinating to watch this thread wend its way around the original topic. I think that the tangents have been every bit as revealing as the direct replies.
Although some people might use the term "privilege" as a weapon, it is merely a tool, helping to measure how much we might tend to assume that "labels" (ie. differences of race, class, sex, gender, etc.) matter to us, at the gaming table or beyond.
The OP asked us to think about the composition of our gaming groups. Gamers with non-normative identities -- that is, LGBTQ, people of colour, etc. -- probably think about this issue a LOT. In life, they frequently have their differences used against them, and so when they sit down to have fun at the table, they are likely more sensitive to potential divisions or conflicts.
If you have never thought about these issues -- if, indeed, all gamers are just "people" to you no matter what -- then you are probably not in a position where you have to check in constantly, to see if you are surrounded by males, or straight males, or straight cis males.
In short, you are probably gaming from a position of privilege. It's not an insult; it just means you have now been measured, like everybody else.
Forgive the phrasing on this, but it does seem like a lot of this as been done before in other settings in one form or another (elemental affinities, flat world, steampunk-ish technology, etc).
However, I like the concept of better established fastplay rules and a faster paced game (and a setting designed to accept them). If you could elaborate on that bit more I'd love to hear more about it.
That is exactly our developmental focus right now. Orion is developing a fast-play multiple attack template for upper-level martial characters, and we're working on an easy bonus system that rewards cinematic role-playing, instead of punishing players when they try to step outside the RAW.
Scott_UAT wrote:
Seems like you guys have bigger idea out there that you were not able to convey in your video.
Absolutely! That video was shot in August, and a lot has changed even since then! I'll msg you as soon as we post the rules for death and reincarnation on our home page.
Scott_UAT wrote:
So I got Larry's background in Pathfinder, but out of curiosity, have you had any published works Scott or worked with other publishers?
Larry and I collaborated on two chapters of Headless Hydra's "Viridian Legacy" AP, but the project got shelved, so I'm not sure if they'll ever see print. Otherwise, my publishing credits are all in playwriting (which is a bit like writing adventures, but with a slightly more predictable outcome)!
In my campaign, Kendra came to Lepidstadt, where she stayed at the university in order to research methods of contacting the dead. She became obsessed with speaking to her father, to find out the identity of his killer. She convinced the witch PC to help her perform a dangerous ritual (adapted from Zombie Press's "Incantations From the Other Side"). When the PCs got into the trial, they sort of forgot about Kendra, which had been my plan.
During Chapter 2, the PCs also met Avidion Adrissant. He was a jerk to them, and Kendra implied that he'd had a falling-out with Petros shortly before his death.
After returning from Schloss Caromac, the PCs checked in, but Kendra had disappeared after trashing her dormitory room. Some witnesses saw her leaving town with the Crooked Kin (with whom my PCs were not on good terms...a long story). The need to assure Kendra's safety became a B-plot motivation for the PCs, and they inquired after her at each stop in Chapters 3 and 4.
Written on the wall in blood was "Vrood" -- the first time my PCs had seen the name.
Enroute to Caliphas from Illmarsh, the PCs met the Kin again. Caleb told them they'd dropped Kendra off at the Haraday Theatre, where she said friends of her father hung out. When the PCs entered the theatre, they encountered two figures fencing on the stage. They remove their masks and greet the PCs: Kendra and her fiance, Avidion.
That's as far as the campaign has gone, and I'm of two minds about where to go next. The easiest route would be to substitute Kendra for Count Galdana, but I loathe the damsel in distress trope. Plus the PCs are suspicious of Avidion, so I'd rather go with the unexpected.
Thus Kendra could be the mastermind, having deceived the PCs by feigning madness in order to stay close enough to observe them. And Avidion could be her pawn, and/or even the last heir of Tar-Baphon.
Or perhaps Petros Lorrimor is the BBEG -- Avidion's former master in the Whispering Way, he was betrayed by AA and murdered by Vrood. Now, he has corrupted Kendra's mind and steered her close to AA in order to get revenge...and somehow find a way to bring himself back to the material plane, to make a final claim upon the Carrion Crown.
This second option still makes Kendra something of a victim, but it affords more chances for autonomy (or, failing that, at least some juicy psychodrama).
As my CC campaign nears the half-way mark, my thoughts turn to "Wake of the Watcher." Initially, I thought I'd run this adventure more or less as written, but so far I've managed to maintain a strong gothic feel to our version of Ustalav, and I'm anxious about the effect that Lovecraftian horror will have upon it.
So I've decided to make some radical alterations -- keeping the same locations and (mostly) structure to the module, but changing the story and threats to fit a high-gothic, low(er)-magic campaign. To do this, I have incorporated three elements, most of which come from Victorian Gothic fiction. Since this writing is contemporaneous with early sci-fi (H.G. Wells and Jules Verne), there is still a slightly fantastical element to my version of events, but no unspeakable terrors from between the stars.
The elements I used as inspiration are:
1) Devil worship
2) Creepy children
3) Orientalism (Note: creating bad guys from foreign lands sometimes smacks of racism, but in my case it's mitigated somewhat by the fact that one character is a Tian monk. His connection to the plot was also important, but I've left him out of my summary below, in case anyone else wants to adapt this narrative).
With those things in mind, I welcome any suggestions to help fill in the details of my revised WotW. I'm especially shaky with math, so suggestions on ways to match the CR ratings of WotW encounters would be a big help.
Background:
Horatius Croon met Taian Zhu in Minata, where they shared accommodations at Jiaolung Academy. Young Croon had travelled from the far side of the world, having come of age in Ustalav. He crossed the globe to study Tian engineering, but Taian was a different breed of genius: a polyglot historian, he dabbled in dozens of esoteric subjects, but his secret obsession was diabolism. Drawn together despite their vast differences, the two became friends, and proceeded to travel the Dragon Empires together...until their friendship was split, and for the oldest of reasons.
Lai Feng was Taian’s betrothed, but her heart was only for Horatius. The lovers eloped, narrowly escaping Taian’s wrath; Croon left his dear friend a letter of apology, but he was careful to omit any clue to where he and Lai Feng might hide. And, indeed, he chose the most unlikely honeymoon in the world, taking his lovely bride to live in Illmarsh. He knew it as place to which no one ever goes, and from which no word chances to emerge.
But Croon slipped up. He forgot that, years earlier, he’d chanced to mention Illmarsh to Taian Zhu, while they were discussing the construction of pagan stone circles. Croon had recalled reading of a seven-stone menhir on Tern Rock near Illmarsh; he speculated it was similar to a wayang stone circle on one of Minata’s Wandering Isles. Somehow, Taian’s dredged this reference up from memory, and one day, he arrived in Illmarsh, purchased the property on Tern Rock, and stole Lai Feng back through wicked enchantments.
That was thirty years ago. Croon still lives near Illmarsh, pathetically hoping his bride will return to him; but neither he nor any of the villagers have seen Lai Feng or Taian Zhu for decades. No one knows the dark secrets of Undiomede House, the manor built around the stone circle generations before. The locals know it as a foster home for girls, supported by the temple of Gozreh as a mercy for the impoverished and overpopulated village. They suspect that the girls are eventually sent to the Neighbours Down Bay, but they do not ask questions. There is no one to ask.
In fact, shortly after arriving in Illmarsh, Taian used the menhir to summon a contract named Valefar. The mad genius exchanged his soul for three simple wishes: first, the undying love of Lai Feng; second, an army at his command; and third, the secret of eternal youth. In payment, the devil awakened an “army” of skum from hibernation deep beneath the earth. Furthermore, he activated the skums’ long-dormant mental powers, including the bizarre ability to transfer consciousness from one body to another. This is how Taian stays young; he has recently transferred his mind into the body of an eight-year-old foster child named Mara. But his new, less imposing form has caused skum morale to falter, so Taian/Mara made a deal with the Whispering Way, in order to obtain an ancient idol worshipped by the skum.
Adventure Summary:
The PCs ride from Feldgrau to Thrushmoor, where their defeat of a Whispering Way assassin leads them to Illmarsh. After an initial run-in with Horace Croon, the PCs explore the town, but find only xenophobia and fear. One drunken sailor complains to them about the recent theft of his boat (it was stolen by WW agent Gaster Lucas to transport the Seasage Effigy to Undiomede House). Then a frantic ten-year-old girl begs the PCs to rescue her infant sister, whose parents have just “fostered” her to the Temple of Gozreh.
The PCs discover that the Temple is a front for aspiring devil worshippers. They rescue six girls from the clerics’ clutches, but learn that a far greater threat awaits those children who have already been sent to Undiomede House, on Tern Rock. Using Croon’s trawler (or stealing a boat for themselves), the PCs cross Avalon Bay and arrive at Undiomede House, where they are greeted coldly by Matron Jessop, who seems to be the only ward for thirteen girls.
Undiomede House is haunted, both by daemons drawn by past atrocities, and by the devils that serve Taian (in fact, Matron Jessop herself is a disguise shared by a trio of polymorphed Greater Host Devils). As the PCs investigate the House’s strange goings-on, they discover that one of the girls now houses Taian’s mind—but even as they learn this, the skum attack the manor, absconding with the other children. Now the PCs must trust Taian/Mara to guide them to their underwater complex—or else brave the dark waters themselves.
Deep below Tern Rock, the PCs fight their way past a monstrous sea creature and in-fighting skum before rescuing the kidnapped children. Here, they learn the fate of Gaster Lucas, the WW’s contact whom Taian betrayed (keeping the Raven’s Head mace here for himself). They also discover Lai Feng, the once-lovely subject of Croon and Taian’s feud, now mutated and driven mad by exposure to the skum’s psychic energies. The PCs’ final confrontation is with Valefar, the Contract Devil who awakened the skum, and who rallies the grotesque beasts to defend him. What role Taian (or Croon) takes in this battle depends on how the PCs treat Lai Feng. Regardless, the PCs must escape from the aquatic nightmare with the Raven’s Head mace, their key to defeating the plot of the Whispering Way.
I agree with Trinite, the layout of the chapter was my biggest source of frustration.
My party was off the rails before they even got through the front gates of the Lodge, so it's hard for me to judge its playability as written.
I think it's supposed to feel like a claustrophobic (ie. "crammed") murder mystery, with the twist that the werewolf is really a ghost, and the ghost is being controlled by a wizard (and he would've got away with it too, if it weren't for you nosy kids!). And I think it could succeed if a GM played up the atmosphere (for instance, I set mine during a howling hurricane which, coincidentally, kept the PCs trapped inside the Lodge), and the PCs acknowledged the needs of the genre and accepted a bit less control in the early stages.
But all in all, I'm glad to be past it and on to the werewolf jamboree.
Hmm, it's hard to summarize, and it may depend upon the preferences of your players and your own style as a GM.
Kingmaker is a sandbox, which means the GM constantly needs to have a handle on many different possible encounters, because the PCs can go just about any direction at any time. In "Stolen Land," this means brushing up on ALL the hex-based encounters (maybe prepare recipe cards?), as well as the timeline of events that result from the bandits' attacks on Oleg's Trading Post.
Many GMs also make liberal use of the wandering monsters table, to compensate for the phenomenon of the "15-minute adventuring day" (ie. one encounter per hex = one encounter per day, so PCs are ALWAYS well rested and topped up on spells). If you plan to use this table, you may also need to prepare cards or sheets for any of the monsters they may encounter. Some wandering encounters are very high-powered, so you may wish to introduce them more subtly (eg. trolls sighted from a distance, thereby giving the PCs the choice not to engage).
Kingmaker introduces new rules systems gradually, so you needn't worry about them all at once. But when you get to Book 2, you'll need to become conversant with the kingdom building rules. I highly recommend you use one of the Excel-based worksheets to keep track of this. Or maybe your PCs don't care about Build Points, and you can just let their kingdom grow in the background.
One of the biggest challenges (and rewards) for me as a GM has been the number of NPCs both within and beyond the borders of the PCs' nation. If you allow it to expand in all directions (ie. River Nations to the west, Galt to the south, internecine political craziness in Brevoy to the north), you could easily end up with a George R.R. Martin-sized list of players and pawns. Maintain lists, charts, family trees, and try to stay one step ahead of the players -- since, even in a high-magic game, word of political developments may take time to make its way into the hinterlands.
As far as game-breakers go, some players have complained that the Stag Lord encounter is too tough, and the Dancing Lady in the tower (Book 2) is a potential TPK as well. Several encounters in Book 3's dungeon crawl are quite deadly -- but by then, you'll know more about your party's power balance, and can adjust accordingly.
I hope you find some of that helpful! KM is a masterpiece, and I'm sure you will have a blast running it. Stay in touch!
My gamers just started Broken Moon this week. To spice up the journey through the Shudderwood, and to provide some teasers and clues concerning all the werewolf clans, I designed a mostly-flavour encounter in the haunted ruins of an inn. It did a good job of intriguing (and creeping out) my players, so I thought I'd share it with the boards.
The timing of the encounter presumes that PCs are taking the Silent Path to Ascanor Lodge, and that the journey takes more than a day (it's over 50 miles from Lepidstadt, which I decided was two days by horseback).
"As twilight tightens its grip upon the Shudderwood, all sounds of nature fall away. But through the gloaming, your ears pick up the faintest sound of music. Distant torchlight flickers through the trees, beckoning you from just beyond the path. As you draw near its source, you are surprised to find the first sign of hospitality since you entered the forest: a two-storey building made of sturdy stone, adjoined by stables and other well-kept outbuildings. Above the main door, a sign depicts a peaceful deer at rest, with the name 'The Slumbering Hart' curled around it like a blanket."
The Truth:
In fact, the Slumbering Hart has not been inhabited for centuries. The lights and music are part of an elaborate Haunt that also involves the spirits of those who stayed at the Hart in better days. Most of the phantom NPCs awaiting within have ties to the forest's various werewolf packs, although this may not become clear to the PCs until later in the game.
In my game, I did not provide any initial opportunity to detect or resist the haunt. But my players quickly suspected something was amiss, based on a few clues. For example, an Appraise or Know(History) check might reveal that the bartender's coinage is over 200 years old; or a Know(Religion) check might suggest that Padre Mordrin's (see below) clerical robes have not been used by Desnan priests for generations. My PCs initially thought they'd traveled back in time!
The Szcarni:
The most boisterous guests are a quartet of Szcarni hunters who call themselves the Prince's Men. They are playing poker in the inn's common room, and will allow PCs to join the game, but will try to cheat them (Bluff checks etc.). If accused of cheating, the Szcarni defend their honour verbally, but do not engage in violence. One of them will show the PCs a bronze medallion depicting a crowned wolf; he says, "When you meet the Szarni of the Prince's Men, you do not challenge them. You bend your head and say, 'your honour, sir.'"
This clue may help the PCs when they need to establish an alliance with the Prince's Wolves in Part Three. Perception checks will reveal that Rhakis Szadro wears a similar medallion; if they show the proper respect for him, they will gain his respect and support more quickly.
Padre Mordrin:
In the corner of the common room, a silver-haired Desnan priest sits alone, wringing his hands and muttering to himself. This is the original cleric whose son first brought the curse of lycanthropy to the Shudderwood, during the reign of the Whispering Tyrant. The priest concealed his son and experimented upon him, ultimately infecting his own congregation with the curse (as described Part Three).
If PCs approach Mordrin and win his trust, he will reveal some of his sins to them, but his confession is fragmented and cryptic. For instance: "It was all for the good of the boy. He was so sick, he was so hungry ... I didn't mean to infect them all. My poor flock ... I thought he would be safe, in the adytum ... I never meant for it to come to this."
The word "adytum" is odd enough that it may stick in PCs' memories. A clever PC might even think to look the word up while researching in Ascanor. Alternatively, you could offer them a Know(religion) check to define it. In any case, this provides a clue for the PCs while they are searching the Stairs of the Moon in Part Three.
The demon child:
Cries from upstairs suggest a young woman is in pain. A raven-haired midwife descends the stairs, demanding food and water from the barkeep. If any of the PCs are arcane spellcasters (especially witches) or evil clerics, the midwife might ask them for help. Her ward appears to be a bedridden young woman, very pregnant and utterly ravenous.
In fact, both of these women are hags who worship Jezelda, the Mistress of the Hungry Moon. Jezelda spitefully answered the hags' requests for power by infecting one of them with a demonic parasite; her insatiable hunger is a result of the demon's swift gestation.
This encounter could play out in many different ways; in my case, I used it as a hook for a sub-quest (the widwife asked our party's witch to retrieve some "herbal remedies" from Ascanor). If the PCs attempt to help or cure the pregnant hag, they may trigger the demon's violent birth. The demon is a coal-furred wolf-child -- foreshadowing the Demon Wolves whom the PCs encounter in Feldgrau.
Credit: this encounter was partly inspired by the adventure "Call of the Spider Crone" by Tim Connors, in "Tales of the Old Margreve."
Dorzhev the Woodcutter:
A short, russet-haired woodsman sits at the bar, sweating profusely. He orders water by the gallon, and complains about the heat (though the PCs do not feel hot). A Heal check or an appropriate spell reveals Dorzhev is running a high fever, but he refuses to accept treatment. When the other encounters have run their course, Dorzhev will suddenly leap from his stool, screaming in pain and tearing at his clothes.
Since this will be the first lycanthrope the PCs encounter, I chose to make his transformation particularly sinister and weird. The PCs witness Dorzhev transform into a "Broken One" -- but in my campaign, I decided to change this tribe to "Burnt Ones," and to make Dorzhev's metamorphosis appear like spontaneous combustion; his skin erupts in boils and burns, and finally he bursts into flames. When the flames subside, his hybrid werewolf appears charred and skinless, and he howls in pain as well as rage. This flavour need not affect the stats of later Dorzhanevs, although I suppose one could easily slap fire resistance and/or cold vulnerability on them.
After he transforms, Dorzhev will attack the nearest targets. At this point, I gave my PCs Perception checks to detect the Haunt; if they fail, they are vulnerable to damage from the wolf's attacks (although not to the curse of lycanthropy). After 1 round, Padre Mordrin will throw himself into the fray, demanding that Dorzhev devour him, as penance for the priest's blasphemies. If the PCs do not intervene, Dorzhev will disembowel Mordrin; meanwhile, the flames from his transformation will spread to engulf the inn.
Aftermath:
I did not intend for this to be a combat-focused encounter, so I ended the Haunt two rounds after Dorzhev's transformation. Your mileage may vary; but I feel it's better to reveal the phantom nature of the inn and its inhabitants quickly after violence erupts. Once the Haunt ends, the inn becomes an abandoned ruin, but a few scorch marks and ancient bloodstains attest to the historical veracity of what the PCs witnessed.
These mini-encounters, supplemented with research or conversations at the Lodge, can help the PCs understand the various werewolf tribes that war for dominance in Shudderwood. Note that my encounters do not include any references to the Vollensag or Primals; I would love for someone to suggest another NPC or encounter to remedy this omission.
I'm going with the general trend here, ie. replacing Galdana with Kendra. I also made her adopted, and replaced her class levels with Oracle, giving her the clouded vision affliction. My explanation for her semi-blindness:
Spoiler:
When Kendra was a girl, she snuck a glance at one of Lorrimor's evil tomes, and it instantly struck her blind. The Professor knew that this could only have happened to someone with Tar-Baphon's blood, so he retired and moved to Ravengro, to keep her out of the (whispering) way.
In my game, during Trial of the Beast, Kendra was in Lepidstadt, researching the runes the PCs found at Harrowstone, trying to find out who murdered her father. She became increasingly obsessed, trying to convince the PCs to help her perform incantations to question the spirit of her dead father. My long-term plan involves sending her to Caliphas and joining the Palatine Eye.
In my campaign, I used Jack on the journey to Lepidstadt.
Spoiler:
He basically replaced the Feaster in Watery Shadows. One of the Crooked Kin had wandered off into the woods near Cortaud and stumbled upon Jack's unhallowed grove.
I tried to describe the grove in very evocative terms, with mist and strange lights and large stones that looked like tortured, petrified human figures. I also described Jack in an ambiguous way--as if he might be a normal human wearing a devil's mask (at least, until they got a close look at his feet).
I absolutely gave him Spring Attack.
The encounter was suitably freaky. The party was especially fascinated with Jack's knife, but they lost interest after discovering that it's not magical.
The citizens of Lepistadt want blood for blood. They couldn't care less about the disappearance of an obscure relic from the university's stuffy old museum.
Besides, if he's found guilty of theft, breaking & entering, property damage, etc., what will the sentence be? Community service? I think everyone in the city, from the mob on up to the Chief Justice, would like to see the Beast either die or get the hell out of Dodge.
I had the Crooked Kin decide to profit from the Beast-mania in Lepistadt by staging their own version of the Beast's story. They quizzed locals to get the most popular accounts of the Beast's creation and all his major crimes. They even tried to recruit one of the PCs (a 7-ft half-orc monk) to play the Beast.
The PCs were mostly too busy investigating Morast etc. to even stop and wonder who created the Beast. But as soon as they saw (and participated in) the performance, they began taking copious notes about "this Caromac guy." Right now, they still think V&G are prime suspects (they haven't entered the Chymic Works yet), but they plan to investigate Schloss Caromac when they have time. So, basically, perfect.
(Incidentally, the half-orc performer broke from his script to tell a more sympathetic version of events in Hergstag and Sanctuary. This infuriated the Crooked Kin, but I let it benefit them in the fight against the mob, since he managed to convince a few citizens that the Beast might not be such a villain.)
Hello all, I'm planning to start running CC this weekend. My group just wrapped Crimson Throne, and I'm hoping to accentuate the contrast between the two APs by making Carrion Crown a lot less focused on magic. This is mostly because solving problems using magic seems out of keeping with the AP's gothic feel; I don't want my players to feel helpless, but I'd rather reward them for solving problems creatively and resourcefully, in the tradition of plucky gothic heroines.
Here are the rules changes I've decided to adopt. For those of you who have run chapters of CC so far (or anyone else who has an opinion), can you identify any serious problems here? Are there any points in the AP that I'll have to make significant changes to?
1) Superstition and Myth
This Golarion will be substantially different. The PCs will enter Ustalav from other, more "civilized" regions where magic is no longer practiced. Like the English characters in Dracula, they will consider magic to be mere superstition, until they start to encounter it directly.
Obviously, this restricts the PCs' class options considerably. I have allowed an Alchemist (science, not magic) and a Monk (physical training, not magic). One PC wants to play a Witch, but I've told her that (a) she doesn't understand her powers, and (b) she'll need to keep them well hidden, or face persecution or worse.
2) Monotheism
To more closely parallel gothic literature, I've amalgamated the major churches into one "All-Father" religion. Its clerics do not practice magic (see Healing below). Old cults still exist here and there, but they are considered demon-worship.
3) Spell Acquisition
I'm going to control spell acquisition, deciding when & how my Witch character will gain access to spells. This will allow us to use only spells that stay faithful to the gothic atmosphere of the game. To compensate for this handicap, I'm allowing her to cast spells spontaneously, like a sorcerer.
4) Magic Items
Few. Rare. But early on, I plan to give each character a Legacy item (maybe hidden in the Restlands crypt), which they can tailor to suit their own needs throughout the game. Otherwise, I plan to convert most of the magic item treasure into mundane items or gold. Cursed items are also a distinct possibility.
5) Healing
With no clerics and few magic items, PCs will need some alternate means of staying alive. Besides the long-term healing options from the Core Rulebook, I figure their Legacy items may be able to provide magical healing.
Also, they can perform triage by using the Heal skill, as follows:
--Full-round action: gain 1d6 temporary hit points per level (DC 10)
--Standard action: gain 1d6 temporary hit points per level (DC 15)
--Move action: gain 1d6 temporary hit points per level (DC 20)
PCs can only perform triage once per encounter (either on themselves or another). 1d4 rounds after the encounter ends, all temporary hp disappear; if this reduces a PC to less than zero hp, she falls unconscious but remains stable until healed.
6) Other Bonuses
To give them some extra boosts and advantages, I'm offering a 20-pt ability score buy; 2 traits per character; and a system of "Hero Dice" with the following rules:
Every level, and whenever you perform heroic or innovative actions, they will receive bonus d6 dice called Hero Dice. These provide an extra game mechanic that allows PCs to give themselves various boosts when needed. Hero Dice can be used as follows:
--Before any roll, declare a number of Hero Dice and roll them along with your normal dice. The results will be added together, and the Hero Dice expended.
--You may expend a single Hero Die to perform an extra move-equivalent action in a single round of combat, even if you are performing a full-attack action.
--If you propose a specific heroic action that would normally contravene the rules as written, I may consider allowing it in exchange for one or more Power Dice.
I realize that's a lot of stuff to change at once, but it makes more sense to me to introduce it all at the outset than to change things as I go along. Any feedback you have would be most helpful.
First, some background. I've been running and playing in Paizo campaigns for many years now: Shackled City, then Rise of the Runelords, and now Crimson Throne and Kingmaker in alternating sessions.
But Crimson Throne was the first game I started after moving to a new part of the country, and with a new group of players. It was a substantial risk; if the game had gone sour, I could have alienated my players, leaving me without a gaming group in my new (very small) hometown.
The risk paid off, for the most part. CotCT is far from perfect, but it suffers more from the sin of hubris than from any inherent design flaws. That hubris, or over-ambition, caused the AP to stumble under the weight of its own ideas. But for me, playing with a fresh group, it was a great way to illustrate what Pathfinder is capable of. Even on a bad day, the game is big, bold, and rife with exciting possibilities.
Here follows a lot of spoiler-iffic observations, mostly intended for those who might be thinking of GMing the campaign.
General Observations:
The setting is rich with detail. Korvosa is a fully-fleshed out high-fantasy urban environment, with loads of NPCs, organizations, and locales for PCs to explore. Since the campaign's ultimate goal is to save the city from its own despotic tyrant, it's important that the PCs have a genuine affection for the city -- if they don't love it, then they won't feel invested in saving it from itself.
As written, the character hooks listed in the CotCT Players' Guide do NOT provide this connection, so a GM needs to work a bit harder with her players at the start to establish good, clear reasons for them to care about Korvosa. If this works, Chapters 1-3 can show the city at its best and worst -- or, at least, what the PCs THINK is "worst" (see Chapter 6 below). The city can begin to feel like a character unto itself. Saving Korvosa = saving the princess.
A savvy GM will listen & watch carefully during early sessions, to see which aspects of the city intrigue the PCs the most. She can tailor future encounters to involve specific settings, NPCs, etc., to give them more weight and importance.
One simple example is the range of law enforcement agencies in Korvosa: the City Guard, the Sable Company, the Hellknights, and in Ch. 2, the Gray Maidens. You don't need all these different groups, but you should keep them all around anyway, to see which ones your PCs consider "good" or "bad." By Ch.6, some of the less relevant groups can simply disappear, while the ones which the PCs care about can be repositioned to form the "allies" and "axis" of the AP's final confrontations.
Chapter 1:
This is a splendid kick-off adventure, but be careful not to place too much weight upon the first encounter with Gaedren Lamm, or it will seem like too much of a cake-walk. In my game, I made the mistake of using the Lamm-related player hooks (from the Players' Guide), and as a result, my players almost couldn't believe how easy it was to defeat their "nemesis." (As a result, I decided that the WASN'T defeated, and eventually merged him with several other evil NPCs...but you can save yourself some work by simply changing up the hooks).
Instead, focus more on Zellara and the Harrow Deck, since her involvement can infuse the first chapter with a useful sense of destiny. When the PCs see their city in anarchy, Zellara can be used to give them the added nudge they might need, to step up and be heroes. From there, Chapter 1 is a nicely designed semi-sandbox romp through a rough-and-tumble cityscape, with a pretty decent mini-dungeon crawl to round it off.
Meeting the Queen is important. She shouldn't seem like a big bad right from the start, but it's nice if the meeting can somehow foreshadow the troubles to come. In my game, I had the Harrow Deck fall out of a PCs' backpack as they were leaving, with the "Tyrant" card face up. This made Ileosa suspicious of the PCs, but it also gave the PCs a reason to keep a close eye on the Queen.
Last bit of advice: if there are no Shoanti characters in your PCs' group, make sure to use Thousand Bones to fill in the history between Korvosa and the Shoanti. Other instances of anti-Shoanti violence might help as well.
Chapter 2:
"Seven Days to the Grave" is about as close to perfect as any Adventure Path installment is ever likely to get. I made a number of changes to suit my PCs, but they weren't fixes, just adjustments. It's a brutal, high-stakes race against time. With vampires! What's not to love?
For the introduction, I rearranged the order of events (while keeping a close eye on the timeline). In my case, it made more sense to open with Trinia, then deal with Ishani and Brienna; then I delayed them outside the city for a couple of days to let the outbreak get into full swing.
I also set the events during Abadar's Taxfest, so that the circulation of tainted gold became a bigger plot point. I also made the Bank of Abadar a central locale (one of my PCs was a Paladin of Abadar); before the adventure began, the plague conspirators hired a quintet of thieves to break in to the Bank and install a death's head coffer in the Taxfest vault, infecting all the redistributed gold. Four of these thieves were then turned into vampire spawn (in Racker's Alley); the fifth, Vendra's brother, stole a wand of remove disease from the Bank and escaped. Lots of backstory, but they helped seed the different events with clues that led the PCs back to the Hospice.
I didn't use the Direption encounter, since it didn't seem like it provided any necessary information. In retrospect, it would have been a lovely atmospheric encounter -- harder to run than the wererat chapter, but maybe more in keeping with the tone of the chapter.
In any case, GMs should ensure that the PCs get breadcrumbs, so they feel like they're getting somewhere as they search for the source of the plague. And it's even better if you can give them the sense that there might be a *cure* for the plague out there. You want the PCs to end the chapter feeling like they've SAVED lives, as opposed to just preventing more deaths -- it's a fine distinction, but a useful one.
And yet, I'm not sure I agree with the "Saviors of the City" ending (p.56). If the PCs have broken any laws during their quest, and especially if they killed the Gray Maidens guarding the Hospice (and they probably will), Queen Ileosa should greet them with cold gratitude and a strong suggestion that the PCs should consider relocating...soon. If this isn't strong enough, Ileosa could come right out and banish them.
Banishing the PCs will create frustration ("we just saved your city, and now you're kicking us out?"), but it's the only reliable way to get them to leave at the end of Chapter 3. It also positions Ileosa as a bad guy -- in my game, I gave them a glimpse of a "fang" tattoo on her arm as she issued the banishment (they didn't learn what it meant till later, but in meta-gaming terms, it was an instant tip-off that she's evil). Best of all, it makes their rivalry personal.
Chapter 3:
I had a lot of problems with this chapter, but in some cases they came from changes I tried to make -- many of them attempts to extend the grim & ghoulish tone of Chapter 2 -- so here, I won't list the changes, but instead just talk about the adventure as written.
Anarchy is a difficult foe to role-play. PCs won't know how to fight it. In addition, PCs around this level (6-8) receive a power bump that leaves them (a) unsure of how much damage they're capable of, and (b) eager to find out. The bottom line? If the goal of Chapter 3 is to quell anarchy, PCs can easily become part of the problem, not the solution.
The greatest difficulty came when confronting Pilts's mobs, and to a lesser extent Pilts himself. If you see your PCs are tempted to behave in ways that promote chaos or evil, consider making Laori *more* evil, *more* unstable, to show the PCs what they could become if they're not careful.
Alternatively, they might be able to enjoy the crazy, pig-flinging underworld a bit more if they mobs, and Pilts himself, are down-played somewhat -- ie. not presented as genuine threats at all, but mere pathetic parodies of real tyranny. I generally don't advise making encounters seem too easy; but it's more than made up for in the second half of the chapter.
I found the Arkona dungeon to be a bit out of character with the rest of the AP, but it's well designed, and has a nice range of potential outcomes, depending on the PCs' luck and bravado.
But as I said earlier, it's not enough for the PCs to have Neolandus (a PC they've only just met & rescued) tell them they need to leave Korvosa. They need to NEED to leave Korvosa. This is a potential "break point" in the campaign, so it has to be handled very carefully.
Chapter 4:
For all the wonderful world-building Michael Kortes et al. did in this chapter, it runs the risk of feeling like a runaround if the PCs aren't invested. The Shoanti are fascinating creatures -- neither enemies nor allies, they are a culture-puzzle for the PCs to untangle in order to get what they need to move on.
But what DO they need? They don't really know...the "cut scene" from Chapter 3 only tells them that Ileosa is immortal, apparently. Lots of nudging from the NPCs at Blackbird Ranch sent them up to the Cinderlands, but they still didn't really know what they were after. And, after a looong series of chain-quests, they get...sent along to Chapter 5, with instructions to collect a sword. Not much payoff.
My suggestion: make the Shoanti themselves the payoff. Instead of having the Shoanti already mustering for war against Korvosa, use the Blackbird NPCs to convince the PCs that they need the Shoanti as military allies if they’re going to usurp the Queen (maybe this directive can come from Neolandus, or it could be Zellara ex machina). They may not relish the idea of waging war on their own city, but they WILL love the idea of getting their own army.
If you don’t want to make the Shoanti army into a prize, then see if you can find something else to provide the PCs as story awards for their long trek through the desert. Physical objects work best; only one PC will be able to wield Serithial, so the other party members will appreciate any relic-y swag you can toss them in this Chapter.
Once you’ve overcome these conceptual problems, there’s plenty to love in this chapter. I played up Shadowcount Sial a bit more than the other factions, but Cinnabar, Krojun, and the Cinderlander are all terrific recurring NPCs, providing both flavour and challenges aplenty. I changed the “Totems” challenge up, and instead created a big, juicy rumble in the desert, with Red Mantises and gargoyles galore, and the PCs trying to save Akram (their only ticket into the Sun Shaman’s tent). In a long chapter without a lot of combat, it let the PCs vent a lot of steam.
Chapter 5:
If it were adjusted to serve as a standalone module, “Scarwall” might just outpace “Seven Days to the Grave.” It is, pound for pound, the most satisfying dungeon crawl I’ve run in a long time. Some of my PCs complained about the number of save-or-die encounters, but that’s the nature of the beast at this level, and especially when dealing with undead.
Did I say undead? Make that undead, and devils, and a dragon. There’s so much juicy gothic goodness in Scarwall, it’s as if Ravenloft made a house call to Golarian. Even if the PCs only explore a fraction of the castle, they’re guaranteed to get their money’s worth.
And yet...and yet “Scarwall” is NOT a standalone module. It’s part of a long quest, and unfortunately that makes almost all of its atmosphere irrelevant. The goal is Serithial; from what I can tell, PCs have no real reason to purge the castle of its ancient curse, and especially with time running out in Korvosa, the rest of Scarwall’s encounters become flavour at best, distractions at worst.
The solution is simple, if inelegant; make ending the curse a necessary step towards accessing Serithial. There are probably lots of ways to do this; my first thought is to have a struggle between Mithrodar and Zon-Kuthon’s curate, such that the curate won’t help the PCs until they’ve dealt with the Chained Spirit. Maybe your PCs won’t need this sort of overt urging; but if they’re feeling any “campaign fatigue” at this point, it’s best to give everything they do a reason.
Role-playing Sial and Laori’s deceptions and rivalries was fun (albeit challenging for me, with a paladin in the party). Make sure they both get their comeuppance by the end of the adventure (becoming curate should NOT seem fun), unless you want the Brotherhood of Bones to play a role in Chapter 6. But that chapter has a LOT of twisted bad guys, so it may be cleaner to write them out here.
Chapter 6:
In general, I tend to speed up and streamline the final chapters of adventure paths. Once the PCs have Serithial, they will want to get their hands on the Queen as soon as possible. But there’s a risk in letting them off the leash, as well; in my case, I let the PCs return to Korvosa, described the changes, and then said “What next?” Several sessions of dithering ensued.
So, linger on the changes—remind them of why they loved Korvosa, and how much of that has been tainted by the Queen. Put some of their beloved NPCs in minor jeopardy, so they can be big damn heroes to the citizens for awhile before they charge on in to the castle. I didn’t use the Rebellion Points system (p.46) – I generally don’t use the scoring systems in Paizo APs – but it would be nice to give the PCs a chance to raise a resistance.
Depending on where the PCs decide to enter the castle, rearrange the encounters as you see fit, to throw whatever bad guys you think will satisfy them the most. After they defeat the fake Ileosa, give them what they need to find the Everdawn Pool quickly and directly. I cut the Sunken Maiden entirely, and put the Pool on a demiplane, with a gateway underneath the castle (the Queen laid a few traps at the door, of course).
I loved the Harrow Deck of Many Things idea, so I made sure the PCs got a chance to access these powers. But then, of course, the cards they drew threw enormous wrenches into the campaign.
In my case: one of my players drew “The Marriage,” and was immediately courted by a powerful Efreet. She rejected him, and so he opened up a gate to the Plane of Fire and began invading the city with azer and fire giants. After killing the Queen, the PCs allied with the Shoanti army (arriving in the nick of time!) to defeat the fire armies – I used the whole encounter as a test drive of the Kingmaker Mass Combat mechanics (verdict: meh). It was kinda fun, but Korvosa ended up getting trashed in the process, which sort of defeated the purpose of the campaign (ie. saving Korvosa). In retrospect, I would have held the Deck of Many Things back until after they dealt with the Queen. That way, the cards they drew could serve as just rewards...or else open up the doors to new adventure possibilities.
I'm just wrapping up the AP this weekend. I'll probably post a more detailed review soon, but for now...
The Highlights:
1. Strong NPCs and a richly detailed high-fantasy urban setting, which provides a great sandbox for Chapters 1, 2, and 6.
2. A clearly defined antagonist whom the players will love to hate.
3. The grim flavour and desperate detective work in Chapter 2.
4. Room after room of PC-chewing undead monstrosities in Chapter 5.
5. Returning to Korvosa in Chapter 6, catching up with NPCs, seeing what's changed and how the (high-powered) PCs fit into their old stomping grounds.
The Lowlights:
1. Weak hooks. I ended up giving Lamm a much larger role in the campaign (merging him with Rolph, and to some extent with Togomor), so that the players' backstories paid off past the first encounter of the AP.
2. Because of the weak hooks, some PCs didn't feel much investment in the city's plight, and either wanted to leave it too early, or didn't want to bother going back in Chapter 6. Meanwhile, other PCs resented being told they HAD to leave by some NPCs whose lives they had just saved. In short: railroad headaches.
3. The Emperor Pilts plot in Chapter 3 played out very badly in my game. PCs don't know how to deal with angry mobs or raving tyrants; when faced with anarchy, their knee-jerk reaction is usually to add to it.
4. Chapter 4, with its endless series of chain quests. The atmosphere is lovely, and some of the encounters are well crafted, but it's too much runaround for too little reward. Who put this railroad in the middle of the desert?
Hey folks, I ran Dudemeister's two troll-tastic encounters in my game over the last two sessions. They went extraordinarily well, and they have left my PCs convinced that Hargulka is a truly kingdom-threatening foe. They're quaking in their boots, expecting a troll invasion any day! Just the way I like it...
Spoiler:
I ran the kobold encounter pretty much as DM wrote it up. I had to change the second encounter because Perlivash was already dead in my campaign (long story). So I had the trolls take Tiressia hostage, and send Falchos out to unlock the barns and enclosures in mid-winter, so that hungry wolves and bears could get them. (This led to an amusing red herring about eyewitness sightings of a "were-goat.")
Having a single troll keep Tiressia hostage strains credulity a bit, since she is more powerful than Tyg-Tigger-Tut. But since I already introduced her as a flighty pacifist, it didn't strike my PCs as odd.
Now my PCs are scrambling to raise an army before confronting the trolls in their lair. I may have to borrow a page from RabeiUsura's book, or else they will probably find the lair anti-climactic.
Before starting to run "Seven Days to the Grave," I noticed that the events leading up to the outbreak seemed random and awkwardly spaced (maybe to allow time for the plague to spread). Here is the order of events as printed, with my best guess as to chronology:
Night 1: Direption sunk, coffers float ashore (PCs can't do anything)
Day 2: Brienna Soldado finds coffer, gets sick (PCs are oblivious)
Night 2: Brienna gets sicker (PCs still sitting on their thumbs)
Day 3: Grau asks PCs to help cure Brienna
Night 3: Tayce treats PCs to a feast; Harrow reading
Day 4: Venclaro asks PCs to smuggle Trinia out of city
Day 5: Outbreak begins; Ishani summons PCs to Bank of Abadar
I knew my PCs would spent the first few days either trying to explore the Direption's wreck (since it was the only story point they'd been given), or possibly hunting for Trinia (because of the bounty on her head). So I rearranged things a bit, and added a few details:
Day 1: Taxfest! In this version of events, the tainted silver has already been placed in the Vault of Abadar, so it's already being actively circulated to Korvosa's poor (ie. those who get returns on their taxes). This celebration also gives the PCs a reason to lay low (since their recent good fortunes have bumped them into a new tax bracket).
Night 1: Direption sunk
Day 2: Before the PCs can investigate, Venclaro contacts them for help with Trinia. Putting this event earlier ties this chapter more directly to the events in "Anarchy." Also, I had Trinia's horseman waiting at Trail's End, so as soon as they finished this task...
...Grau spots PCs, asks for their help. Brienna is just starting to show signs of infection (less than 1 day, I know, but at this point the mechanics of the plague aren't going to matter to the PCs).
The PCs sent for Ishani, and paid him to cure Brienna. They also found out what infected her, and I had them go on a side quest to recover the death's head coffer, which the children had buried in the woods (I tossed in a wyrmling green dragon, because there won't be any good fights for awhile).
Tayce feted the heroes for two nights, so by the time they headed back to Korvosa, it was Day 4, and the outbreak had begun. The PCs headed straight for the Bank of Abadar (to see if the Archbanker could remove the curse on the coffer), so I didn't even need to have Ishani seek them out upon arrival.
As a result, I think the events felt much more streamlined and logical. Any thoughts? Are there any upcoming segments that others have rearranged like this?
I just starting running CotCT, and like some others on these boards, I ran into trouble almost immediately. I'd be happy for advice.
Because the characters' traits were so focused upon Gaedren Lamm, they expected him to be a fearsome opponent, and although they did take some serious knocks (especially the fighter who fell into the croc pit), they seemed surprised that Lamm went down so easily.
I stopped the session just after they defeated Lamm and discovered Zellara's secret, but I already get the impression that the PCs lack the motivation to stay together. The paladin will probably want to protect the orphans, but the other characters don't care -- they feel their job here is done.
Accustomed as I am to taking adventure paths off the rails, I immediately began dreaming up ways of turning the Lamm chapter into a hook for later encounters. I think I'd like to re-envision Lamm as a genuine crimelord (more like what the character traits describe him as), and reveal the man they killed as an imposter. I have an image of the corpse turning into a wax construct and melting away (inspired by the Waxworks card in the Harrow deck).
I haven't had a chance to read all the way through the adventure path, so I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions about (a) who could be responsible for creating a Lamm simulacrum, and (b) where/when Lamm might turn up later in the game.
Alternatively, if anyone has tried a different approach to keeping Lamm alive, or having him come back from the dead, please let me know. Thanks!
