CoT with 5 Players

[BobROE]

Are there are changes (major or minor) that I need to make to make Council of Theives "compatable" with 5 players?

Should I adjust the story rewards to account for the 5th player (ie multiply them all by 5/4)?

Should I be trying to add addional creatures/enemies to most encounters? Or should I just look into adding addition content to make the XP counts work out? (or some of both? :) )

Has anyone run this with 5 players and had any major problems?

[sozin]

I'm playing with 5. I usually just add 1 (or 2, depending on how "hot" the players are that night) to the mix.

I also don't award XP. They level when the level, according to the guide presented by the AP. Much easier that way.

[Scharlata]

I'm running CoT with 6 players. I multiply the story award XP by 6/4 (3/2), adding 1 or 2 minion-type enemies (tieflings, thieves, etc.), and adding an extra level for boss-type enemies (both alterations giving some extra XP).

Have fun

[Enlight_Bystand]

Yeah adding a couple of mooks to big group fights should do.

Also, make some effort to intergrate the extra limnes for the play that are somewhere on the boards, and think how the extra person will interact with the challenges. I din't, and play wasn't quite as awesome as it should have been because of it.

[Kolokotroni]

Take a good look at the second part of the AP, the Six Fold Trial. A really great adventure, and one of the most fun I have seen. But depending on how deep you want to get into the play part of the adventure, you definately may want to look into elaborating on one of the extra roles they mention. There are only 4 speaking roles as well as 2 extra non-speaking roles, and if you want to actually go through the whole play with lines and all, who ever is the odd man out might not have as much fun.

[Scharlata]

Good point Enlight and Kolokotroni. I did the two extra lines in german, too. Was worth the effort, really.

[tbug]

I'm also running this for five players. I would love to see the changes that you made to the script.

[kacey3]

Our fifth player hammed it up playing a non-speaking part. He became good friends with Millec and played his "role" as trumped up stage dressing.

As for the added difficulty, I use the simplified advancement rules in the Bestiary, however, the +4 to AC is way too high, so I use all the advancement and reduce the AC bonus to +2 instead.

[Are]

I'm also currently running it with 5 players. In my game, I had the "extra" player play the part of Ilsandra, and omitted Calseinica Nymmis from the cast.

[tbug]

I really like the idea of someone other than the DM playing Ilsandra, particularly given the fact that I'll already be performing Haanderthan (who has more lines than anyone else). I just hate to lose the backstage melodrama between Calseinica and Her Grace.

Maybe I could assign one PC to the role of understudy for Ilsandra, then have things blow up and Calseinica resign? That seems like it would make a better third-person story than second-person, though (not to mention predictable as all get out).

Are, did you do anything with her story or just drop her from the adventure?

Also: kacey3, was your fifth player always the same part of the set? Was he a super? Part of the chorus? I'd love to hear more!

[Are]

No, I just dropped Calseinica entirely. I like her story, but there was really no good way to keep her in it once I decided to make Ilsandra a PC role.

[tbug]

So did you drop the Visbaronetess as well? The only reason she consented to singing in the chorus was to arrange nastiness for Calseinica.

[Cyoticus1]

I personally tell the players when they can level. I have found the xp thing a hassle. I am running it with 5 players and increase encounters by ratios. If the monster are 2 to 1, I add 2 creatures to the fight. Boss mobs I usually add a couple of points to their primary stat and con. Makes them do a little better in their assigned class and makes them tougher to kill.

[Are]

tbug wrote:

So did you drop the Visbaronetess as well? The only reason she consented to singing in the chorus was to arrange nastiness for Calseinica.

No, I kept the visbaronetess. Her motivation was changed to playing the role as a personal favor to the director.

In any case, NPC-PC interactions and PC-PC interactions are far more interesting than NPC-NPC interactions :)

[tbug]

What did you use for the audition process for Ilsandra? Seems only fair that she has a chance to get the +1 Popularity bonus for getting a 20 or higher.

[Jam Falcon]

I also ran it with five players, with one playing Ilsandra. I had Calseinica play a new character, Larazod's sister, who had had her tongue cut out and thus had no lines. I added a couple here and there to mention her, and no one was any the wiser.

As for the audition, I had her cast last. Since the idea is that her and Larazod have good chemistry, and I had the player cast as Larazod deliver his first line from "I carry no assassin's blade" onward (I established who would play him before announcing all of the others so that I could do this). After that, Ilsandra reads her whole line. They both make preform checks, and the totals are combined to determine who gets the role.

It's not the perfect solution, but it worked well for my group.

[tbug]

I like it! Thank-you, Jam. I'm using your idea.