How did people run this event? Any comments, concerns?
And one more thing: why is a "Riot, Mob of Humans" listed with an alignment of Lawful Neutral? A riot never seemed very Lawful to me...
How did people run this event? Any comments, concerns?
And one more thing: why is a "Riot, Mob of Humans" listed with an alignment of Lawful Neutral? A riot never seemed very Lawful to me...
here are a couple from me:
* It helped me to draw up an initiative table. I rolled for intiative for each of the npcs. I put them in an ecxel sheet, with all the npc's in order of initiative (the rows) and initiative number (inculding surprise rounds) in coloms. I put all their actions into the respective cells.
* Running this encounter is all about cinematics. Especially the mob's reaction. I made the mistake of treating the mob as a creature rather than... well a mob. For example. the wizard cast 'evards black tentacles' to hold off the mob. A mob (as a gargantuan creature) has no problem defeating the grapple score. On the other hand, a hundreds of medium-sized level 1 humans could be in trouble. Description makes all the difference. I just said that the tentacles were unable to hold on to the mob. A far more effective description would have been 'each tentacle grabs on to one of the rioters. Unfortunately, the rioters far outnumber the tentacles you created'.
* Use props. It's a difficult encounter even if you use mini's to figure out where all of the pc's are. I imagine it's even harder when you have nothing to go on but your words.
* The mob's best tactic is to grapple. Make sure you're familiar with the rules.
* it may be too late, but make sure the pc's are emotionally involved with sgt. Crewis and Maavu. In other words, introduce them before this encounter, and makes sure the PC's see them as the good guys.
I used sgt. Crewis in several encounter, including the first one in the campaign. Hhe was a private that responded to Ruphus' call for help. He arrived a few rounds after the PC's where at the scene. sgt Crewis also showed up during the umber hulk's rampage.
I introduced Maavu during the heroes banquet and postioned him as one of the patron's of the pc's.
* take your time. It too me about 4 hours to run the encounter, including prequel and aftermath. It's a fun encounter. don't rush it.
* regarding the mobs' alignent I believe that's the town's overall alignment. since the mob *is* made up of citizens of cauldron, I suppose it makes sense. You are right, though. The mob is in no way acting rational and lawfull.
* it may be too late, but make sure the pc's are emotionally involved with sgt. Crewis and Maavu. In other words, introduce them before this encounter, and makes sure the PC's see them as the good guys.
I introduced Maavu early on during the campaign, as a businessman who could exchange the coins the PCs found during their dungeon delves into Cauldron coinage. For example, the Jzaridune coins are all shaped like gears. Also, the counterfeit Last Laugh coins. So they dealt with him on a regular basis.
Krewis is sort of a casual acquaintance of theirs. He basically provides the mop-up for whatever the PCs miss. He found the link between Patches the half-orc janitor at the orphanage and the Last Laugh, for instance. He earned the promotion to Sgt. because of that case.
So hopefully this will provide a good reason to save these two during the riot.
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I am running this Saturday night. I am replacing Krewis with a former players PC, so that they know him. He was town watch.
I am using pennies to symbolise people. I really want this to be the highlight of the campaign so far, so I am taking my time and reading and rereading it.
Anyone else care to chime in their experiences?
Pat