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Long time, no stop by these parts!
After being overwhelmed by all the prep work I felt I'd had to do to GM a successful "Pathfinder" campaign, I'm thinking of giving a third try to "Crimson Throne" sometime down the road. My previous two games lost their steam due to player exit through a variety of circumstances, especially a few moving out of the area or moving on from gaming--hoping the campaign itself isn't cursed!
In reading through the editorials and introductions in the books again, I've been thinking a lot about what James said about the Cinderlander in the "History of Ashes" intro--how he wished they'd known of him earlier so they could better foreshadow him.
I love that sort of thing.
I'm wondering if and how others have done this. Only thing that's come to mind is to do so through conversations in Thieves' Camp while helping the Soldados or with random Shoanti in taverns and such. Maybe have one of Lamm's Lambs be an orphan from one of the Cinderlander's attacks.
Any other foreshadowing you might've used for other characters? Pilts, etc.?
Long time, no stop by these parts!
After being overwhelmed by all the prep work I felt I'd had to do to GM a successful "Pathfinder" campaign, I'm thinking of giving a third try to "Crimson Throne" sometime down the road. My previous two games lost their steam due to player exit through a variety of circumstances, especially a few moving out of the area or moving on from gaming--hoping the campaign itself isn't cursed!
In reading through the editorials and introductions in the books again, I've been thinking a lot about what James said about the Cinderlander in the "History of Ashes" intro--how he wished they'd known of him earlier so they could better foreshadow him.
I love that sort of thing.
I'm wondering if and how others have done this. Only thing that's come to mind is to do so through conversations in Thieves' Camp while helping the Soldados or with random Shoanti in taverns and such. Maybe have one of Lamm's Lambs be an orphan from one of the Cinderlander's attacks.
Any other foreshadowing you might've used for other characters? Pilts, etc.?
The Cinderlander was fun. My party had been harassed by him with his hit and run tactics until they caught up with him (so no appearance for the big battle). He's a got very cowboy western feel to him (I did the drawl and spitting noises) and everyone seemed to love to hate him.
As for foreshadowing;
-If you have a Shoanti character that helps enormously.
-Thousand Bones can make an offhand reference to him in the very first adventure.
-Really the best place is the ranch at the beginning of History of Ashes. My party spent a lot of downtime hiding out there. Stories swapped by the fireside help.
-Lastly Zellara is always handy for visions, omens and such.
-While I don't like it I know some DMs do cutaway scenes and it would be fairly easy to describe a lone man in the desert tracking his prey. Coming onto a camp of Shoanti warriors shooting the place up, cutting off heads and placing them on pikes.
-Which reminds me coming across Shoanti heads on pikes also helps.
As for other characters and aspects one of the great things about this campaign is its very easy to weave in references throughout to the peoples and places of the city. This AP I felt gave me the DM a lot of tools and ability to give the campaign that living, breathing world feel. The Guide to Korvosa is invaluable in this regard and whenever you need to create an NPC try to think of one that is mentioned or comes up later.
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I like the idea of the Cinderlander being first mentioned in the meeting with Cressida and Thousand Bones!
I'm willing to take on the conversion chore; I'd previously done a lot of conversion to 4E for the second go-'round (with a lot of support/guidance from Scott Betts' work) for the first two adventures, so I'm no stranger to the material, that's for sure. One of the people in our gaming group was at one time going to run "Council of Thieves" so I think that's a no-go.
Biggest thing is that I already have fully half the maps for the AP hand-drawn to scale, notes on minis and music to use, and every piece of art made into a cardstock handout... so most of the "work" is done!
Second biggest thing is that I think "Crimson Throne" is the most solid AP from start to finish. It tickles all of my GM bones--urban campaigning, some wilderness survival/exploration (I would do a whole lot more with the Cinderlands), a big gothic castle (Ravenloft was my favorite 2E stuff). Just really dig the story and supporting cast.
Thanks for the ideas so far!
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The best way to foreshadow the cinderlander is a shoanti player as was mentioned earlier. When starting you just slip the cinderlander tales into the characters background.
Thousand Bounds could drop the name to. It would be hard to drop the name or story before AHOA as it is not really relevant to Korvosa.
My standard tool for forshadowing minor NPC like the Cinderlander, he actually only makes 1 or 2 on screen appearances is via my newsletter. For my CoCT campaign (and my previous Shackled City and AOW) it is named the Korvosa Chronicle. It is written and published "in game" by an author, has its own print shop, reporters etc. I try to get one per adventure into circulation but usually its at least two or three.
I use it to introduce history and background, read hearings, local color, and of course red hearings to keep the PC's honest. I also have write up's on the PC's so can they can read about themselves as they grow in noteriety, be it good or ill.
Finally, I use it to introduce new game mechanics such as spells, equipment etc from sources outside the core material.
So far, in the previous two campaigns it has worked out wonderful. I already have an article for the cinderlander planned for sometime during Escape from Korvosa or 7 days.