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At the time I'm typing this, I'm going to be starting the AP on Saturday with a group of four. I have a quick question about the Freedom Town assassins. Would it be acceptable to have them attack the PCs in an alleyway, like the poisoned wolves do, instead of attacking them while they sleep? I doubt my players' characters will live together, and I don't want to have to run up to four separate combats in up to four separate maps.

PC death/PC being an important McGuffin is a bit of a concern, but other than that I think it's a great idea.

Thanks, though couldn't she just name an heir and go back to securing Ravounel after being appointed to the Board of Governors?

I'm about to start Book 5 in my Hell's Rebels campaign, and this is a question I've been meaning to ask for the better part of a year now. One of my PC's is the last living scion of a Chelish family that held land in the Archduchy of Ravounel, and a private subplot of that character's has been trying to figure out what happened to family after her father eloped with her Tiefling mother. I know that the Urvises are extinct by the events of Hell's Rebels, which means that the players would have to find the individual the last of the Urvis family bequeathed their lands and titles to in order to establish a full Board of Governors. Therefore, I was thinking of replacing the Urvises with the PC's family for the purpose of the quest. Could I get some feedback on that idea, please?

Warlock8 wrote:

zimmerwald1915 wrote:

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Change gear as appropriate for your game.

Thanks for this. Do you have stats for Laria?

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Change gear...

Thank you.

** spoiler omitted **

Change gear as appropriate for your game.

Thanks for this. Do you have stats for Laria?

Gratz wrote:

I have just reread all the comments in the thread, hoping to find some answers or inspiration, but the plan behind the ruby masquerade still feels thin. Even though Barzillai has a huge ego and probably a lot of faith in his plan, I still think he would design a more sophisticated plan, in case the PCs fare better than expected against his trap.

So my idea was to have a little contest, where the three (random number) best looking masks a rewarded. So just before the ending ceremony, where Barzillai is supposed to hold his speech, the three winners are called onto the stage (you could even include a PC, if one went through the trouble to craft or purchase a really nice one). The people on stage have to reveal their identities one after another, from third place to winner. The 2nd placed is a member of a noble family or another beloved citizen, who is loyal to Thrune. The winner is a devil disguised as one of the PCs and as he reveals his face, he draws a dagger to kill the Thrune loyalist right next to him. A moment later, fake Barzillai rushes into a staged fight with the disguised Silver Raven devil. All hell breaks loose, people rush out, some get out (maybe handpicked before the events to spread the word what started the whole mess), the Dottari close the doors and the rest happens pretty much like in the book.

This way Barzillai doesn't need to make sure everyone dies, but has spread enough misinformation about what happened that night, so that the rumors do favor his version. Besides, I really think Barzillai would enjoy the dramatic, theatrical version of the ruby masquerade, because he would finally infused Kintargo with some culture.

So I've just ran the Ruby Masquerade, with the little twist I proposed (the head of the house Sarini had to be the pawn sacrifice) and I added additional theatricals to make the PCs look bad in the public eye. Barzillai was trying to split the public opinion on the Silver Ravens and he was successful, as they did quite badly on...

Thank you so much for this idea, I think I might use it.

Michael Cummings wrote:

Just curious if anyone has modified the Negotiations with Nezera encounter?

I modified it in two ways: setting a "tone" and being "pushy."

By "tone," I mean that Nereza decided upon an approach to each of the negotiation stages, and the PCs had to do the same. This meant that they had to choose the order they would use their social skills to set the tone of the negotiation at each step.

* Bluff was the deceptive approach that sought to work in hidden clauses or fuzzy language.
* Diplomacy was the cooperative approach used to gain a favorable concessions.
* Intimidate was the aggressive approach that sought to strong-arm the opponent.

Mechanically, this meant that bluff countered diplomacy, intimidate countered bluff and diplomacy countered intimidate.

Countering or being countered affected the DC of the check, decreasing or increasing the DC by +4/-4 accordingly. Saybel and Emerlind, as assistants to Nereza, could alter a DC by +2 (each only once during a negotiation). The one exception was that Athtinia added a +2 to the DC any time PCs used bluff, and it could stack with another assistant.

PCs could do the same by having one PC contribute an aid another during each stage, but doing so meant that the assistant couldn't be (or have already been) a primary negotiator for another. Once my PCs understood this, they discussed their negotiation team and tactics, figuring out who would check and who would aid based on their approach to each topic.

Each negotiation still had up to three phases depending on how much players wanted to push for concessions. However, I also kept track of the overall "push" so that if PCs pushed too hard, they would be seen as contentious and DCs for later negotiations would increase as Nereza hardened the Queen's positions. Giving up concessions during another round could remove these increases, however.

By introducing this, players felt they had to decide which negotiations were the most important to Kintargo and...

I'm only the the third session of my Hell's Rebels campaign, but I want to ask this question now so I don't forget later. As of right now, the players with actual social skills only really put points into Diplomacy. I don't want them to suffer for something they couldn't have ever learned about, so I was wondering, if by the time they get to the negotiations and they're only able to beat the Diplomacy DC, may I rework the rule so that instead of having to beat a Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Bluff DC, they have to beat three Diplomacy DC's that increase by increments of two? Or would that make things too easy for them?