I will be starting this campaign soon and since we have started with making characters some questions have come up.
What should the PC's already know about the Last Laugh?
I have one player who wants to play an Urban Ranger, with the Last Laugh as his Favored Enemy Organization, this being the main reason for the question.
Also, how much shuold they know about the Alleybashers?
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Depends if they grew up in Cauldron or not, if so how cloistered? If he grew up on the streets than he'll probably been confronted with the Last Laugh once or a few times but more so with the Alleybashers. Think of it irl terms where the alleybashers are glorified street thugs//gangs and the Last Laugh is more like the mob//maffia. The Last Laugh is a bit more specialized and mostly have ties into every major organization, subtle, almost not noticeable. Having grown up on the street he'll know that they are all around like a disease. If he hasn't grown up on the streets than he knows that they are thieves and rumoured assassins.
But then again, not growing up in Cauldron he'll know close to nothing, except from hearing from the guards that they are a quite good organized thieves guild
Maybe you can start by having the player (or players) have some of their starting gold (roll d100%) be the minted 'Last Laugh coins' that are going around. Then some shopkeepers refuse the coins, or exchange them for lesser value when they buy their starting equipment. That should get the PCs pretty annoyed at the guild from the start.
And for the Urban Ranger, I agree with what's already been said... It depends if he's from Cauldron. Even if not, make a KNOWLEDGE (local) table with what could be known about the guild starting with just the name ad DC5, then the fact that they're minting coins at DC10, and up to the approximate location of their hideout (DC40), and so on.
Ultradan
Ultradan
Thanks for the advice.
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In my campaign a player wants to join the 'Last Laugh', in order to find a shrine to his deity. This will give the group a bit of an inside scoop, but I will not reveal anything more. Jil will be his leading officer, and he will get some additional small jobs to do in between the adventures, as well as providing information on the group. He is also an urban ranger, but his favored enemies are humans, and Alleybashers...that is bad news for Triel.
I have made a connection between several things...
a) Triel Eldurast and Skylar Krewis were betrothed. When she was accused of murder, the relationship turned sour. He was part of the group of guards trying to apprehend her, but was left alive by her, every other former friend of hers was killed. That was nine years ago. If the party knows Skylar by then, he will give them the story about her (and his) past, to show how dangerous she is.
b) The Alleybashers are a new organization hiring very aggressively in order to pull of the stunt at the "Lucky Monkey" and to establish a power base against the Last Laugh. So Triel is seen recruiting new members in the town. One rogue she is approaching is the halfling thief Maple, just rescued from the Malachite Fortress. Since one of my party members became romantically invovled with her, he was able to watch the discussion between those two. Since Maple was declining the offer and the party member started peppering Triel with arrows, she took one swing with her weapon, and Maple was down and dying. triel left the alley. I gave the player three chances to stop the bleeding with a Heal check. Maple died. This encounter showed how ruthless and powerful this woman is.
c) In my campaign the players stay at the "Rolling Barrel" the tavern of the town guards. The proprietor is Hadamar Skellerang, brother of the Captain of the Guard. Good food, good connections to the guards, made friends very early with Skylar Krewis and his fellows Helge and Gunnar. What they do not know is, that Hadamar Skellerang is one of the Jesters of the Last Laugh. This is a secret, that they will learn of very late in the campaign... when my Ranger will rise further in the organization of the guild.
d) Since some buildings where newly introduced in the hardcover, it took some hard thinking to caome up with a way to bring those buildings (i.e. the Academy) into the game as late as the Flood Festival. But since it is a festival and cauldron has nobles, there are some Grand Balls during the festivities. Most famous are the Ball of Lord Vhalantru at the beginning of the festival (well, three days after the opening ceremony, in order to give some time for organizing such an event) and the festival of the Lord Mayor. This serves several causes. First to familiarize the players with the whole nobility of cauldron, second to bring Lord Vhalantru into the fold as a benevolent power in the city (a mask he invests really much to maintain, to be able to wrest the reigns of the city, once the Lord Mayor is gone), third to give the players a glimpse of the mansion before hand (in order to do that and not tip them off, I copied the map by hand), fourth to bring the rivalry with the Stormblades further along (they are invited as well, and an event like this is really their turf), fifth to let the light of being a showoff fall on Vhalantru, he organized three events after the feast in the dining room. The Fountain of Sehanine Moonbow (filled with champaign to start the dancing in the main hall), the Academy was given to Lady Knowlern as a present for her library (and to get access to the books about transforming himself into the Tarterian version of himself), the Aviary (a host of singin birds chirping in tune and harmonics, a brilliant display of an array of specialized Rary's telpathic bonds between the birds).
