Philip Holmes's page

Not that these things aren't easy to modify, but just as a note to other GM's the Bleakbridge Toll hike feels overly aggressive to me for this phase of the game.

5sp per crossing when a standard untrained commoner earns 1sp per day and even an average trained person earns 3sp is going to effectively cut the city in half at this early stage. Given how the districts are laid out, this means an effective collapse of city life, probably followed quickly by rioting.

I'm going with 1sp, which is nasty enough but still allows the city to operate. Your mileage may vary, of course.

They have not indicated that they want to. I did not plan to let them. If they decided they really wanted to, I'd probably add a cost to it. Maybe for one week all the teams would need to be in retraining, so they couldn't take any actions that required teams.

Same here, that was one of my first tweaks on the rebellion ruleset.

I have yet another question, but this one has to do with the Rebellion Rules. I've got them understood for the most part, but one thing has been brought to my attention:

The Disguise skill. How does it interact with Notoriety, especially in the later books when players are assumed to be recognized from time to time?

I have a few players in my Hell's Rebels campaign that are going to be using the skill extensively (especially since three of them are well respected nobles or well-off citizens that don't want to damage their reputation or, in the case of an Aulomaxa, piss off their parents).

My best guess is to apply the notoriety score to their disguised aliases. But I'm not sure. I've never had to use the disguise sklil before >.>

Oh and can a player make a disguise check for another player? Help them apply makeup and whatnot? Kinda vague about that.

I'd tend to go with a penalty of something like Notoriety/5 or /10, depending on the uniqueness and profile of the player in question.

For example, one of my players is essentially playing 'The Punisher'. He's a low CHA Ranger who acts as the groups enforcer and assassin. So although the group as a whole may have a high notoriety, he tends to keep to the shadows and I wouldn't penalise him too heavily. Our Oracle on the other hand is a much more unique and noted figure inside the group and would find it harder to go unnoticed.

Personally I've never had a problem with people using skills like Disguise on each other, there's no reason it has to be self only if you have the time and the resources. In fact I'd usually give them a +2 because it's much easier to do makeup and create a 360 degree disguise on someone else than it is to do it on yourself.

Philip, if you haven't already, take a look at the conclusion to Dance of the Damned. If you have sympathetic Dottari locals conflicted with their role in Kintargo, that particular event is something you can build that relationship between the PCs and the dottari toward. It is a great moment for those dottari to "win the night" for the PCs and make the PCs see their investments of time and energy in working with them pay off big time.

Yes, I was looking at that one. It may take some groundwork from the players, but having some of the Dottari rebel against the massacre would be a great payoff. One of my players is looking to have some connections to the authorities, so this would be his area.

I'm also toying with doing something with the previous Duxotas, who was replaced by Barzillai. My game has expanded gunpowder rules and my players have already indicated they want to try and salt away a cache of simple guns as well as secretly train up some locals so that when they finally take back the streets it's a less one-sided fight than the regime might expect.
A bitter former Dottari commander who was pushed out of their role for one of Thrune's favourites could work well here as an ally and underground militia commander.

Thanks James, that's great info.

I'm going to play (some of) the lower ranking Dottari as being a bit more conflicted.

I have plenty faceless, irredeemable Stormtrooper types with the CCG, Church and the higher ups in the Guard. The lower ranking Dottari have family and friends in the city, so some of the ones at the 'beat cop' level will show a bit more nuance in terms of the Martial Law setup.

It should help add a layer to things and make the rebellion seem less black and white, and make my players think twice about taking a scorched earth approach to cleaning up the city.

It'll also add another layer of intrigue for any of my players who want to try and lever open another avenue of information, or even support. There are plenty historical examples of the rank and file joining the rebels when push came to shove.

A few minor questions about the Greens, if James or any of the others is around.

How hard is it to get into the Greens? Are the gates heavily guarded, do they tend to turn away people seeking entrance without good reason?
I notice there's a marketplace in there so I'm assuming it's not totally restricted, and that there's a few more wealthy residents beyond the Estates which take up most of the district map.

And apropos of that, how high are the walls? Are they patrolled?
And does any of this change significantly with the imposition of martial law?

Finally, a separate question. The original (as in pre-martial law) Dottari, what happened to them? They seem to have very suddenly vanished and/or been purged, based on the short timeline running up to the start of the AP.

I was taking the view that the pre-existing Dottari were probably a bit more relaxed and moderate, given Kintargo's Lord Mayor and general attitude and alignment.
So I've stretched out the initial timeline slightly to give time for them to be shuffled out and replaced by a new commander and ranking officers. Which has also given me several nice NPC hooks as I now have some 'friendly' Dottari who have been pushed out of their posts and don't like the new regime much, who are somewhat sympathetic to the PCs and can give them a few rumours and tip-offs.

Or if you don't want the family complications, age Rexus up a little bit and make him the trusted family retainer who was out on a mission during the Night of Ashes, and is now seeking out the lost (and last) son of Victocora, both to warn him of the danger and also to beg him to carry on his parent's legacy...

Either way I think you've got a great hook going on for the AP.

Yes that is a very nasty situation the players are expected to put their head into. Hats of disguise - probably useless, perfect armour for that job... have it on time and be aware that it is needed ? Nevermind dancing with a two handed sword strapped to your back. Or a brace of pistols - disguised or not.

Any players going to a public function/obvious trap who don't have (and make use of) extradimensional storage by this point in their careers probably deserve everything they get.

Even if they don't habitually carry bags of holding, gloves of storing and the like, I would hope that any party walking open-eyed into something like this would go out and acquire same. Even under Martial Law, Bag of Holding I is under the city purchase limit.

Given the urban nature of the adventure, I expect a lot of the more subtle but generally ignored items and enchants (like Glamoured armour) will be a lot more useful in this AP.

Very happy with the Adventure Path so far.

I'm running it in a 'Flintlock Fantasy' version of Pathfinder, which is basically the same game, but a little further down the timeline in terms of gunpowder technology (roughly Pirates of the Carribean level).
I'm portraying Cheliax as an infernal version of the British Empire, and giving the whole thing a little bit of an American War of Independence feel.

No Gunslingers, and gunpowder weapons that are harder hitting but still slow to fire and load, so you get more of an opening pistol skirmish that quickly devolves into swordplay.

Adding in a few custom skills to flesh out the social side of things (Streetwise, Leadership), making some of the more obvious feats baseline, adding Reserve Hit Points etc. Basically most of my houserules from our recent Rise of the Runelords campaign.

This AP has a really nice feel to it. It's got the sandbox elements you want, but it keeps a fairly solid direction. The rebellion mechanics are nice, especially with a few tweaks, and the Banquet/Masquerade mechanic is very well thought out. (I do agree with Yakman about the exploration part. May need to tweak that a bit.)

Running it for an Alchemist, Swashbuckler, Arcane Archer (Gunpowder variant) and a Ranger, with one more to join.

One thing I have added is letting the party find a 'Manual of Golems' early on which lets them build a Junk Golem, both to guard the hideout and for them to upgrade and customise as the campaign progresses. Their very own Jarvis, essentially.

Certainly one of the best AP's that Paizo have brought out so far for me, subject to how the ending shapes up.

There are two maps of Cheliax in the book. One, on the inside front cover, shows a detailed map of the nation with lots of named locations. The other is a barebones map that shows the archduchies.

In addition, there are four city maps in the book - Bastlewark, Hinji, Ostenso, and Remesiana.

Awesome, thanks. That's me popped an order in, Kintargo was feeling a bit abstracted without some more surrounding detail.

Any maps in this thing?

Sorely missing a map of Cheliax in general, and Ravounel in particular.

What about adding proclamations?

I only have the first 2 scenarios, but after the initial rush of edicts I don't see any more coming out. I'd like it continue to add in more of my own ones, maybe one a month of game time, basically to keep prodding and irking the players and give the growing impression that he's just not going to stop doing this unless they eventually put a stop to him once and for all.

Essentially playing up on the concept of ultra-Lawful restrictions chafing the essentially Chaotic nature of the city and the PC's.

Will this mess up future scenarios?

I was thinking things like :
1) Now that he's put the ban on mint and tea, combined with the trade restrictions, coffee starts to run short; so he puts a 'cup tax' on every drink served (upsetting Liara and a great many caffeine addicted citizens).
2) All sellers of magical potions have to take the names of their clients and any sales must be registered with the Dottari. (Annoying my Alchemist PC and making the players focus more on smuggling in potion supplies).

Very much enjoying the path by the way, I feel it's going to run well with my group.