Hi,
I don't like so much the middle parts of EoA (I find it very railroading and NPC-directed), and I think to make changes in that.
The idea is to make a investigation adventure in the palace and in the guard (and in extension in the entire city, making connections with the Eel's end part), to make the PC search the king's assasin (with false clues to inculpate Trinia).
Any idea or advice?
No ideas?
I can't believe that people prefers railroading to roleplaying...
Our game is following a path of trying to find where the Gray Maidens are taken for training and 'reprogramming' so that the PCs can bust it up if possible. This has some potential for intrigue.
My GM adapted the Demonskar Ball from SCAP as a ball held in the PCs' honor by the Queen. That sort of format is a good way to have the PCs interact with key NPCs (it really solidified their view of the Queen, in particular).
It's hard to give advice on an investigative approach to questions like "Where is Trinia?" because different parties would have such different approaches. Low-life types would probably be using their Old Korvosa contacts to try to trace her there; aristocrat types would be starting from the other side. Can you say something about your party?
Mary
I think the big problem with investigation in EoA is that the game may fall apart if the PCs find out too much. You're going to need a solid plan for limiting what they can discover, or you're very likely to see either PCs up against a foe they cannot possibly handle, or PCs who find the city too hot and leave, probably forever.
The sad truth is that if the PCs have access to the court, a method-motive-opportunity analysis is likely to point straight at the actual guilty party. But it's hard to see what game-enhancing use the PCs can make of this information. Lines where they, say, try to bring Ileosa down politically obviously aren't compatible with the rest of the AP unless they fail; and it's hard to continue the AP after such a failure either.
I think what's really needed is an intermediate foe, someone closer to the PCs' level, so that they can genuinely solve a mystery without finding out things that will rupture the plot. For our game, that'll be the person in charge of Gray Maiden recruitment. I don't know who it would be for yours.
Mary
I think the big problem with investigation in EoA is that the game may fall apart if the PCs find out too much. You're going to need a solid plan for limiting what they can discover, or you're very likely to see either PCs up against a foe they cannot possibly handle, or PCs who find the city too hot and leave, probably forever.
The sad truth is that if the PCs have access to the court, a method-motive-opportunity analysis is likely to point straight at the actual guilty party. But it's hard to see what game-enhancing use the PCs can make of this information. Lines where they, say, try to bring Ileosa down politically obviously aren't compatible with the rest of the AP unless they fail; and it's hard to continue the AP after such a failure either.
I think what's really needed is an intermediate foe, someone closer to the PCs' level, so that they can genuinely solve a mystery without finding out things that will rupture the plot. For our game, that'll be the person in charge of Gray Maiden recruitment. I don't know who it would be for yours.
Mary
I think you provide the solution to this problem in your first post on this thread. The PCs don't need to have a confrontation which they must loose. They need a mission they can reasonably accomplish. Information makes a perfectly legitimate reward (well that and some XP). Adding material like tracking down where the Grey Maidens are coming from sounds inspired.
Possibly navigating a court to find out who is positioned where would make a good, heavy on the role play, adventure as well. One would have to detail out the nobles and try and come up with how some of them might help or hinder things in future instalments.
Another option - for the hardcore.
Don't run the adventure as written exactly, just toss them into the story and know the city backward and forward. Stick the events on time lines and let the players run the adventure. Use the story in the AP as a framework for whats going on in this fantasy city but let the players drive the story.
You'll need to be on your toes and have something worked out with your players. Make a kind of game contract that says:
'I can stall you guys from any mission until next week and you have to help me explain this away for your characters so I have enough time to prep the adventure you guys just came up with'.
Make sure you know the city as well as possible. Go way beyond the AP in knowing this city. You need to know how the illegal underground works and what they think of the crap thats going down. You need to know how the peons of the various districts view things. How does the law react - how about the temples? Who are the movers and shakers for these organizations? What do they think of whats going on? What are they doing about it?
Your players are pinballs bouncing around this fantasy city as things slide from crisis to crisis. You need to be able to roll with it if they say they want to visit NPC X.
Use the adventures in the AP as some of the core themes. These adventures obvously outline the heart of whats going on most of the time. To run an adventure like this you may need to be willing to play the campaign for longer since PCs will engage in a lot of stories/missions which aren't directly related to the core themes of the AP. A slower XP rate would be a good idea here. You'll need to be willing to adjust adventure levels with this approach as well as the game does not work very well if the PCs are too high or low level for an adventure so the adventures need to reflect the level the PCs are when they get to them since your not directing them to the adventures - they are.
Thanks a lot!
This is my PC group:
-A paladin of Iomedae.
-A half-elf rogue (Though he assures that he is a locksmith)
-A gnome blacksmith (fighter).
-A elf sorcerer (with undead bloodline, the party thinks that he's a vampire).
Actually we finish the Lamm's part, and is the beginning of the revolts.
My idea is first, to investigate the instigator of the revolt inside the guard (instead of the part of the butchery) and mix it with contacts with the government to pass to the investigation of the king's death.
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You need to break down Queen Ileosa's conspiracy into its individual plots and determine how she did each one. Create the various NPCs involved. Then leave a few clues (hooks) that the PCs can possibly find and decide to involve themselves in.
Here is what I see as the individual elements in her conspiracy. Remember that her main objective is to transform Korvosa into her vision of what the city should be.
* Murder the king. She has a contact among the Red Mantis Cult who supplied her poison (whose symptons mimic disease, not poison) that killed King Eodred. The poison was subtly applied by his deformed stepbrother Venster, who is now dead himself at Ileosa's hand. The PC's would somehow need to learn the secret of Eodred's stepbrother (you mean he lives, where is he? Oh, he's dead now.), or somehow uncover the Red Mantis contact who supplied the poison.
* Blame the king's death on Trinia Sabor. This is essentially the plot of Part 6 in Edge of Anarchy. You should be able to create clues yourself that the PCs somehow see weird things that make sense only afterwards. In addition to this, is her hunting of seneschal Neolandus Kalepopolis. People may be asking themselves why hasn't he be seen, or have some clues surrounding his quick disappearance.
* Establish personal bodyguard of female warriors (Gray Maidens) loyal only to her, not Korvosa. Eliminate or discredit all other martial factions so there is no opposition to the Gray Maidens when they impose dictatorship. The plot would involve learning that Ileosa intended to establish the Gray Maidens way before any threats to the city, the bizarre means she has of controlling them, and the intention to eliminate the Hellknights, Sable Company, and Korvosan Guard.
* Eradicate the "undesirable elements" of Korvosa, which appears to be the masses of poor and anyone of non-Chelish blood (Varisian and Shoanti). This is basically the plot in Seven Days to the Grave. Perhaps you want to include some evidence that she is already in contact with Dr Davalaus way before the events in Seven Days to the Grave.
However, elements of this are also found in Edge of Anarchy, specifically Part 7: The Dead Warrens when we learn the Shoanti have been in talks with Korvosa for years on coexisting in peace, and the sudden murder of 100 Bones grandson Gaekhan and selling of his corpse to the necromancer Rolth. My interpretation of said event is that Ileosa had someone kill Gaekhan (who then paid "the simpleton Elkaris" to sell the body to Rolth) to sabotage the negotiations and create a future situation where Korvosa must slaughter any Shoanti to prevent an :upcoming invasion.". The PCs would need to uncover some kind of evidence. Who killed Gaekhan? Probably some NPC you created yourself with nebulous links to Sabina Merrin or someone else in Ileosa's circle.
* Increase the wealth of the Queen. Besides elements probably found in later AP issues, I suggest the Queen making pronouncements about "clarifying" inheritance laws and the like that will allow the Crown to inherit property probably left without heirs (due to riots, plagues, etc.)
* Preserve her beauty and youth forever. Again, this is probably done in future AP issues. However, you might want to set something up to show the Queen's immense vanity, perhaps an exorbant amount of money from the city treasury spent on cosmetics and perfumes for her. One of her vendors could be Vendra Loaggri who shows up in Seven Days to the Grave.
* Her association with the Red Mantis agents all over the city whose job is to kill inconvenient people. Have someone be the "control" over all these Red Mantis agents.
I think that covers most of the points found in the first three parts of the AP (I don't have the 4th one yet). In addition, here are some other ideas of plots that could also make sense:
* Queen Ileosa needs political allies, preferrably people not in power now who would benefit from a change in leadership. The old favorites of King Eodred are out, and they come in as the new courtiers. Perhaps disaffected minor nobles hoping to supplant the major houses, or second born sons and daughters on the major houses who could become heirs if something bad happened to their parents or first born siblings.
* The recent arrival of many new Chelish migrants whose job would be to repopulate the city with "pureblood" after the deaths intended in Seven Days to the Grave.
* Orders from the Queen that causes much movement of selected individuals from one part of the city to the other. These would either be people on an internal "enemies list" that she wants in unimportant places (or perhaps to be killed when the plague strikes), or simply positioning loyal people to key positions within the city (tax houses, city gates, castle guards, etc.) New rulers always shake things up somewhat, but the sheer size and scale (once known and discovered by the PCs) indicates something more like a silent coup de tat.
* Loyal agents begin to make contacts with select members of the hidden power brokers in the city (like the thieve's guild). Here the Queen is trying to find local allies willing to help her run the city by once again assisting in the killing of established powers who currently run the city. Many of these killings could be done during the initial riots in Edge of Anarchy, or using the cover of the plague in Seven Days. One of the people approached could be Devargo Barvasi who has ambitions to become a more important thug than he currently is.
In many of these cases, I would make sure there is a good buffer between Queen Ileosa and whoever actually carries out these individual plots. I wouldn't even have Sabina Merrin do them, although Sabina might be the one who hires/orders/finds the person who will "lead" the individual guy who "owns" implementation of plot X. I'd have my clues lead to that last guy. Then after enough guys are found, they have enough evidence that leads them to the person Sabina hired. Then if they investigate him/her, it leads them to Sabina and the trail stops.
So build some NPC's who can carry out these behind the scenes plots. Know how they connect to one another. Then simply have the PC's see one or more of them do something suspicious. When they follow up, they uncover one of the plots and all the attendant mystery. Then at the end, maybe they have clue(s) to someone else who leads them to another plot.
The goal is to give players a payoff to their investigation, but ultimately not allow them to point fingers at the Queen, which would be treason and cause them to get killed. They may suspect things, but not to the point of being able to convince people. This would lead in nicely to the events of Escape from Old Korvosa which leads them to allies who will confirm their suspicions.
Thank you very much,
this is what I'm searching for.
I don't want to implicate so much the queen in the suspicious clues, and to make links to the sub-plots with the PC's investigations.