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After reading The Worldwound Incursion a few times I find myself being very nervous about running it because of the prickly personalities of the NPCs.
Horgus and Aravashnial in particular seem to run the risk of alienating PCs very quickly with their overly antagonistic dialogue. I have a few players who I imagine would quickly decide Horgus intolerable and tell him to f*ck off because they're not going to put up with his bullsh*t. Aravashnial seems to be very difficult to get along with. The only one they may feel any sympathy for is Anevia because she doesn't speak to them in a scornful tone right from the get-go, and later on Irabeth who quickly becomes buddy-buddy with them partly thanks to Anevia.
There's no real indicator in-game that would tell the PCs that they should work together with these characters and befriend them, and I worry that mine will ultimately alienate them right from the get-go because of their attitudes. I know Horgus' snark is supposed to be a front to hide his guilt and insecurity, but my players are likely to jump to the conclusion that he's just another rich @sshole like Thesing in Council of Thieves, and dismiss him out of hand.
Maybe it's because I'm not the most adept at understanding social cues and interpretation, but it seems like the adventure gives very little prompting to the PCs to befriend various characters along the way, or indications of the positive and negative numerical effects their actions will take. They may have no idea they're supposed to make a Diplomacy check, and thus miss out on a large chunk of the early part of the adventure's XP because they just immediately latch on to Anevia and dismiss the other two NPCs as jerks.
Any advice in this regard?
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Yeah, but some of my players have exhibited very harsh behavior despite having good on their character sheet, such as by preparing to shoot an NPC that didn't stick to their plan with an arrow for their perceived cowardice to scare them into obedience next time (there was a miscommunication in the plan, and the PC thought the NPCs were going to actually fight, when all they were actually going to do was distract the enemy's guard and lead them on a wild goose chase, their plan still technically worked, but the player and PC believed the NPCs were being cowardly, something he loathes as a player and character). I fear he may view Horgus with the same contempt and threaten to kill him or at least beat the tar out of him if he talks back.
To any questions as to how this character is good, he loves playing Good Is Not Nice characters in the model of Clint Eastwood or Batman, characters who do heroic things but are also really cool because they scare the crap out of everyone around them. A big fan of using Intimidate and tough-love tactics. He doesn't expect NPCs to like him, but to respect him as a badass.
And while I agree that Anevia can be a big help, there are times when she and other NPCs are at odds, like when Horgus suggests ditching her. I fear that situation will make everyone hate Horgus as a result of immediately taking Anevia's side.
Make sure you remember to have Horgus offer the gold up front.
That is one of the few ways to get him to be tolerated by most neutral characters.
Most good characters should be willing to put up with him as long as he isn't putting anyone in danger.
While making sure you get off a bit of Araveshnial's need to be in charge, make it apparent that he is a quite helpless on his own.
As much as he hates it.
Anevia should be fine I think.
Creative Director
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One of the big themes of "Wrath of the Righteous" is that there needs to be challenges for good characters to be good. Of course, the "tempted by demons" section is covered, but that's pretty obvious and heavy-handed.
What I wanted to capture very early on in this adventure is the idea that being good means that you need to be good to disagreeable people—that's as tough a thing to do as anything, in my opinion. All three of the NPCs the characters get stuck with have the potential to become close friends and supporters and allies, and if they do, they grant boons for the rest of the adventure path. But making all three be super agreeable and nice and friendly would have been boring and not a challenge at all.
And so I asked Amber to build 3 variants—the friendly one (Anevia), the standoffish one who's a bit egotistical but needs help (Aravashnial), and the openly unfriendly jerk (Horgus). This more or less ensures at least 1 of the NPCs will end up being friends with the PCs, but means that if the Pcs want all three to be friends, they'll have to work for it.
An analogy would be combat: one combat is easy and no problem. Another is about what you'd expect for the PCs' level. And a third is a really tough one.
In the long run, not having one or two or three of these NPCs as allies will mean that the PCs lose out on some boons and plot points and the like... but NONE of these NPCs are load-bearing for the plot. The AP might get a little harder, but if Horgus or whoever doesn't end up surviving or doesn't like the PCs, that's not gonna make the adventure crash and burn. In fact, having a spurned NPC end up being recruited by the enemy so that the PCs can later meet that NPC in combat is a cool story element. And going even further, having that conflict end up being the PCs giving the NPC a chance at redemption is EVEN BETTER!
Presenting these three NPCs to the group is a challenge though, that's for sure.
Personally I'm going to give my best evil smile to the players, say "each of these NPCs has the potential to be useful for the campaign. It's up to you to open up that potential. If you fail? Oh well" and then each time someone complains about an NPC, start to smile evilly. ;)
That and remind them they can use Aid Other for Diplomacy checks.
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Yeah, after the NPC heavy Jade Regent I was hoping for a lighter load, but man... :p
BTW, just finished JR with one group today, detailed review coming up soon. :)
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One of the big themes of "Wrath of the Righteous" is that there needs to be challenges for good characters to be good. Of course, the "tempted by demons" section is covered, but that's pretty obvious and heavy-handed.
What I wanted to capture very early on in this adventure is the idea that being good means that you need to be good to disagreeable people—that's as tough a thing to do as anything, in my opinion. All three of the NPCs the characters get stuck with have the potential to become close friends and supporters and allies, and if they do, they grant boons for the rest of the adventure path. But making all three be super agreeable and nice and friendly would have been boring and not a challenge at all.
And so I asked Amber to build 3 variants—the friendly one (Anevia), the standoffish one who's a bit egotistical but needs help (Aravashnial), and the openly unfriendly jerk (Horgus). This more or less ensures at least 1 of the NPCs will end up being friends with the PCs, but means that if the Pcs want all three to be friends, they'll have to work for it.
An analogy would be combat: one combat is easy and no problem. Another is about what you'd expect for the PCs' level. And a third is a really tough one.
In the long run, not having one or two or three of these NPCs as allies will mean that the PCs lose out on some boons and plot points and the like... but NONE of these NPCs are load-bearing for the plot. The AP might get a little harder, but if Horgus or whoever doesn't end up surviving or doesn't like the PCs, that's not gonna make the adventure crash and burn. In fact, having a spurned NPC end up being recruited by the enemy so that the PCs can later meet that NPC in combat is a cool story element. And going even further, having that conflict end up being the PCs giving the NPC a chance at redemption is EVEN BETTER!
Presenting these three NPCs to the group is a challenge though, that's for sure.
That makes sense. I'm aware of the fact that there's not a major need for the PCs to befriend everyone, but I'm somewhat obsessive-completionist about any game I play. I feel like I missed out on some content if I failed the skill check to make someone like you or whatnot, and thus don't get the complete picture in the story. That's why I always buy guides for my video games so I can complete every sidequest and whatnot in a single playthrough. I'm a perfectionist that way.
Don't forget about "Aid Other" then. ;)
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Yeah, but some of my players have exhibited very harsh behavior despite having good on their character sheet, such as by preparing to shoot an NPC that didn't stick to their plan with an arrow for their perceived cowardice to scare them into obedience next time (there was a miscommunication in the plan, and the PC thought the NPCs were going to actually fight, when all they were actually going to do was distract the enemy's guard and lead them on a wild goose chase, their plan still technically worked, but the player and PC believed the NPCs were being cowardly, something he loathes as a player and character). I fear he may view Horgus with the same contempt and threaten to kill him or at least beat the tar out of him if he talks back.
To any questions as to how this character is good, he loves playing Good Is Not Nice characters in the model of Clint Eastwood or Batman, characters who do heroic things but are also really cool because they scare the crap out of everyone around them. A big fan of using Intimidate and tough-love tactics. He doesn't expect NPCs to like him, but to respect him as a badass.
And while I agree that Anevia can be a big help, there are times when she and other NPCs are at odds, like when Horgus suggests ditching her. I fear that situation will make everyone hate Horgus as a result of immediately taking Anevia's side.
This doesn't really sound like "good" in my books, but okay, let's see what you might be able to do...
One thing I might suggest, since "cowardice" and going against plans is such a big thing for this/these player(s) it to emphasize that these people aren't being cowards, or deliberately uncooperative out of some sort of hidden evil. They're scared and in many cases insecure people; they've just been faced with some really horrible stuff with little time to rest and mentally process it, and unlike the PCs, Anevia and Aravashnial came out of it with nasty injuries.
Emphasize that it's not exactly cowardly to say "I'm newly-blinded" or "I have just had my leg crushed by a large rock" and therefore "I can't be expected to charge into combat like you non-injured folks do".
Horgus is tougher. He's non-injured, so he doesn't really have that excuse, and as such I'd personally go with playing up the fact that he's an aristocrat. Emphasize him as not being heavily combat-trained like the PCs (who have levels in non NPC-classes) are, and then tie that in with the insecurity of his scary new situation. He tries to put on a brave face by hiding behind a jerkass facade, but behind it all, make it clear to your players that he's a whimpering noncombatant who is depending on them for help, and who feels the need to act like he does because it helps make him feel not-totally helpless. He wants to make his own plans and criticize everyone and be in charge because he's scared that not doing so will force him to admit to himself how helpless he really is in comparison to these non-nobles (helpless like the little servant boy he used to be, maybe? Might be a fine way to hint at his backstory, if you feel up to it.)
Aravashnial does that too, and likely for similar reasons of helplessness, but Anevia's a bit better off. She's likely to be friendly, and if your players don't pick up on the subtleties of why the other two are acting like such uncooperative jerks, then she might be able to help.
Anevia can't really help that well in combat, but she might be able to point out how scared the others are, and give tips on how to work with their insecurities rather than come to arms over them (She's likely smart enough to figure out "Aravashnial might feel a bit better about your leadership if you at least asked him his opinion" or "You might not want to do what Horgus wants all the time, but listening to him when it's less important might make him stop acting quite so harsh").
Really though, Wrath of the Righteous is generally assumed to be about good people, and the struggle with evil, like James said above. Emphasize that these people are scared, injured, and effectively noncombatants (and some of them are not used to being noncombatants) and that abandoning them to their fate for silly minor offenses, or for reasons like Good is not Nice, when they're depending on the PCs for help and when there's such horrible things going on in the city above isn't very heroic of the PCs. (Good isn't always nice, but the non-good alignments can also be not-nice, and there's a point at which killing all the NPCs because "I'm good but I'm not nice" changes into "Actually you're not really good any more. At best you're a neutral jerk.")
(When in doubt, call on good ol' Anevia to urge the group to "put aside minor disagreements in the face of a much greater enemy" or something along those lines". Make her big on repentance, too, since she's married to a paladin. "Yes, I was angry at Horgus, but I was out of line with how badly I reacted. We need to stick together, let's go after him before he suffers some terrible fate because we weren't there to help each other.")
Don't forget, he insists on being armed with a rapier. He's not a coward. He wants to show off, but he's not a coward.
Just invoking the "Good is not nice" trope shouldn't by any means give your players the perogative to go around threatening and bullying npcs left and right.
It's more of a gruff dwarf type thing than an I secretly want to play a chaotic evil anti-paladin but will just settle for a bullying good person.
Because he believes he knows better than the players and that one man alone can sneak past these things when multiple people would have to fight. And because his city was just attacked by a horde of demons. How can he trust these people? Especially as one of them is a conspiracy theorist who accused him of consorting with demons and the second is a thief who stole from him to get her lover's magic sword back. The PCs? Well they won't listen to him. Maybe they're in league with the demons. Maybe they'll sell them all out and just are keeping them alive because they want to sacrifice them at a specific moment....
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Yeah, after the NPC heavy Jade Regent I was hoping for a lighter load, but man... :p
BTW, just finished JR with one group today, detailed review coming up soon. :)
Mmmm. That's something I'll have to consider. JR is pushing the boundries on friendly NPCs I like to run or deal with. Worldwound wasn't one I was going to pick up because I have better plans for Mythic play. But...hmmm. Okay.
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My only problem with Horgus is, if he's so insecure and knows he's not in any shape to fight, why does he insist on running off on his own in a huge dark cavern of things that want to kill him?
I feel like, in addition to what Tangent said in response to this, that Horgus' running off is an attention grabbing move.
He runs away, in my viewing of it, perhaps at least partly because he wants the others to come after him and say 'no, wait, don't leave us'. It's an attempt to make himself feel useful through action, but because he knows he can't actually fight the things the group is running into underground, the best action he can think to do is to try and guilt the others into acknowledging him somehow.
It's a dumb plan, but hey, he's desperate and not used to being ignored.