Alternate start

[cibet44]

To all the experienced CC GMs out there, I have not read through the entire AP yet but I have read part 1 thoroughly.

My Question: If I completely eliminate Kendra from the first part and come up with an alternate beginning to tie the PCs to the professor is that something that will cause a ripple effect throughout the rest of the AP for me to account for? Thanks in advance.

[KaeYoss]

Eliminating Kendra will have consequences, because Kendra is actually

Spoiler:

not important at all. So you can do it easily enough. They still might need an "in" for Ravengro, since those villagers are a suspicious lot.

[Dave the Barbarian]

I wouldn't eliminate her. She is the reason they are hanging around town, they try to protect her, and it is one of the only things that keeps them from going nuts in the town. She can be very helpful to the campaign during this book. She keeps them grounded in a way.

[Tobias]

Spoiler:

Removing Kendra makes the first adventure harder to run. Not only does it make dealing with the townsfolk harder but it also removes the main impetus to ensure they stay in the town to deal with Harrowstone. Without her, it's quite possible the players will just decide to deliver the books and come back to deal with stuff, or maybe even just abandon Ravensgro together.

Without her being there it's extremely difficult to justify why the players have to remain in a town where they clearly aren't welcome for an entire month.

[cibet44]

Thanks for all the replies. From what I see, assuming I can come up with an alternate reason to keep the PCs in town, making this change does not impact the AP later down the road.

Spoiler:

I assume she does NOT have a recurring role in the AP beyond part 1 that I'll constantly need to account for.

[Erik Freund]

As written, she never shows up or is referenced ever again.

In my campaign, I'm having her sell the house in Ravengro and move to Caliphas, so she can show up in Book 5.

However, the reason she's important is because she's a PC-advocate. As written, the townsfolk of Ravengro are incredibly bigoted and hateful towards the PCs. If it wasn't for Kendra sticking up for the PCs or otherwise being friendly, I think my party would have just torched the town and stopped having fun, believing "the game is just there to screw us." But having Kendra there soothed all those feelings and gave them great solice "that at least one person appreciates us."

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UNRELATEDLY, if you're starting CC soon, and haven't read the rest of the AP, I strongly suggest you check out this or this thread before running book 1. (Warning: massive spoilers for book 6)

[Biobeast]

Yep, same thing in my campaign, protecting her influenced the party’s choices. I also made her very likeable and helpful to the PC’s. I don't think the party cared much about the rest of the town, but they did care about protecting her.

One of my PC's picked her up as a cohort (I have a rule only NPC's met in the adventure can be used as a cohort), but she bit the bullet when the party encountered Auren at the end of the 3rd AP.

[HappyDaze]

You could also have the party arrive a week or two after the funeral. The town is in chaos, the dead walk the streets, and the bloody letters have almost spelled out a name...

The truly heroic party will now try to do what's right to save the town on the brink of disaster from whatever is happening.