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I am in my very early stages of prepping to run this AP and was wondering if any GMs out there have created a reference list for their prep work.
I'm not being lazy as I am more than willing to do the work myself, I was just looking for a base to work from if one is available. If not, no worries, I've already begun working on my own.
Thanks!
I am in my very early stages of prepping to run this AP and was wondering if any GMs out there have created a reference list for their prep work.
I'm not being lazy as I am more than willing to do the work myself, I was just looking for a base to work from if one is available. If not, no worries, I've already begun working on my own.
Thanks!
I don't have any list like that. I would advise you to go through this part of the message board with a fine tooth comb. There are many brilliant suggestions.
The top one being - Don't kill Lamb in the first session. Make him into a recurring villan, that the PCs gradually chip away at his empire of evil. I'm thinking of swapping him for Pilts Swastel in Escape from Old Korvosa, as I don't think they will leave town with him still alive.
I will be working on one soon, our Rise of the Runelords game is coming to a close probably sometime around beginning or mid-January. They are just about to finish off Mokmurian and enter Sins of the Savior, to which I have already prepared extended backstories and are now working on Spires. Once I'm done that I am going to work on Curse, but I've already did some class changes to the following:
Gray Maidens are predominently Cavaliers.
Queen's Physicians and Doctor Davaulus are Alchemists
Bahor is an Investigator [Mastermind] and intend to play him like Moriarty.
Vimanda I made a slayer simply because I felt Monk didn't quite fit the character.
I would be glad to share what I write up when I finish working on it.
I've got a couple notes jotted down for this AP, but I'm afraid I don't know what you mean by NPC reference list. So I must answer with a definitive "perhaps!" I'd be happy to share anything I've got, so if you want to explain to me what one is I'll get it to you. Although I must warn you that a lot of my notes are old school pen and paper so I can't guarantee timeliness.
As for
The top one being - Don't kill Lamb in the first session. Make him into a recurring villan, that the PCs gradually chip away at his empire of evil. I'm thinking of swapping him for Pilts Swastel in Escape from Old Korvosa, as I don't think they will leave town with him still alive.
Let me just caution that keeping Gaedren alive longer than Eodred can have serious ramifications upon the direction of your story. You are asking players to create characters that hate Gaedren to the point where they will join up with strangers, go to a place at the direction of another stranger (and a gypsy magician at that), and break into a property with the intent to murder him. Don't be surprised if their motivations drive them to ignore the overarching plot of the adventure to hunt down the guy who ruined their lives. Hell, they will probably think that IS the overarching plot of the adventure.
Now, I'm the first person to talk about how important it is to extend the opening, but not for the sake of Gaedren. I recommend it so that the players get to "meet" pre-anarchy Korvosa and know what they are going to spend the next six books fighting for. Without an extended opening, the AP as written is: meet up, kill Gaedren, Korvosa is on fire. Taking some time to let the players enjoy Korvosa before it all goes to hell allows you to set up several NPC relationships and build the party's attachment to the city.
If you would like some suggestions on ways to do all of this, you can find a ton of good ideas (and some of mine, too) on this forum.
Hope that inspires!
I very much like the idea of Gaedren being alive but I can completely see what you mean about the issues. I intend to have him reappear once, I would ideally like for him to fall into his crocodile and have the players expect him to be dead and have him show up again missing an arm at Pilts. My players really like reoccurring villains and characters.
I wasn't overly worried at them ignoring things due to Lamb still being around. I asked each player to come up with NPCs that they knew. About three fitted in so well they replaced NPCs in the Story Path. One took Trinia Sabor's place. One took the role of Ishani Dhatri, and one underworld contact ended up being held prisoner by Verik Vancercaskin.
Also stuff like a huge reward for the Queen's missing brooch helped keep things on track.
I also had Grau around a lot more, he became a valuable contact for the group.
I still think this is the best adventure path they have put out so far!
I will be working on one soon, our Rise of the Runelords game is coming to a close probably sometime around beginning or mid-January. They are just about to finish off Mokmurian and enter Sins of the Savior, to which I have already prepared extended backstories and are now working on Spires. Once I'm done that I am going to work on Curse, but I've already did some class changes to the following:
Gray Maidens are predominently Cavaliers.
Queen's Physicians and Doctor Davaulus are Alchemists
Bahor is an Investigator [Mastermind] and intend to play him like Moriarty.
Vimanda I made a slayer simply because I felt Monk didn't quite fit the character.I would be glad to share what I write up when I finish working on it.
I made the exact same changes to the Gray Maidens and the physicians/Dr. D. Slayer and Investigator were not available, but those are good choices.
I find it saddening that Cavaliers are so far and between, wanted an alternative to fighter though glad to hear someone else also did it. Also making Vencarlo a Swashbuckler rather then the current mishmash he is.
I've got a couple notes jotted down for this AP, but I'm afraid I don't know what you mean by NPC reference list.
Here is what I have come up with so far (please excuse the references to the PC's and their backgrounds). Basically just a list of the major NPCs involved in the adventure with a short blurb about their background.
Queen Ileosa Arabasti BBEG Originally from Cheliax. Left home for Korvosa, presented herself to the king and he fell for her immediately. Discovered secret door in castle treasury which lead her to discover and be possessed by the Fangs of Kazavon. Allied with the Red Mantis, but they refused to assassinate the king. Seduced Venster, the king’s deformed stepbrother, into slowly poisoning him. She murdered Venster and hid him away in the castle dungeons, and Neolandus Kalepopolis noticed and confronted the queen. She tried to have the RM assassinate him and he escaped into Old Korvosa.
Zellara Harrow deck was pickpocketed by one of Lamm’s Lambs. Son tried to retrieve it and was murdered. Zellara went to the guard, which couldn’t help. She went to his hideout and was captured and killed, fed to his alligator, her head kept as a prize. She is now a ghostly helper to the party.
Gaedren Lamm Lowly crimelord. Unifying presence for the PC's. One of his thugs killed Oliver’s wife, Gwendolyn Edge. Thugs supplied the shiver that Balthazar became addicted to (which ultimately came from Devargo Barvasi and the Arkona family). Enslaved Ernie and employed him as a cutpurse. Later had him beaten and left for dead on the door of his master’s manor. Will escape after the PC's defeat him, falling into the water and escaping to one of his skiffs.
Cressida Kroft Captain of the Korvosan Guard. Will recognize and not think too highly of Oliver. Asks party to escort Grau back to Citadel Volshyenek.
Varik Vancaskerkin Ex-Korvosan guard. Being manipulated by Vimanda Arkona to amass an army to one day overtake Ileosa and claim the throne. Currently runs All the Worlds Meat in Northgate. Employs the Cow Hammer Boys who run a mercenary operation on the side and use the butchery to get rid of the evidence.
Neolandus Kalepopolis Former castle seneschal. Learned of Ileosa’s dark deeds and confronted her on the matter. Escaped into Old Korvosa after escaping assassination by the Red Mantis.
Grau Soldado A drunken Korvosan guard. One of Vencarlo’s star pupils. Had feelings for Sebinga so he instigated a duel between Vencarlo and Sebina. Should recognize Oliver, asking if he’s still protecting the city.
Vencarlo Orisini Swordmaster and trainer, Blackjack. Trained Balthazar for a time. Attracted to Sebina. Grau instigated a duel between her and Vencarlo. Ven lost two fingers. Looking to train the next Blackjack.
Sebina Merrin Another of Vencarlo’s star pupils. Joined the Korvosan guard, her skill didn’t go unnoticed. Queen requested her as personal handmaiden, bodyguard, and leader of the army. Sebina worships the queen and is unaware of Kazavon’s influence on her or that she had Eodred killed.
Devargo Barvasi King of Spiders. Eel’s End base in Old Korvosa. Supplier of Shiver to the Arkona family. Currently blackmailing Darvayne Gios Amprei, ambassador to Cheliax with love letters to a Chelaxian nobleman’s wife that he stole from the Amprei manor.
Trinia Sabor Bard and painter suspected of killing the king. Sentenced to death. Saved by Blackjack (Vencarlo) and hidden away.
Again, this isn't complete since I haven't finished reading EoA yet, but I figured I would provide something for those of you prepping for this AP to work from.
The NPC who to this day is most hated by my players is Dr D and his troupe. Made them all alchemists and bombed the heck out of the pc's with no regard for the splash damage killing off or wounding helpless patients.
He managed to make it to the basement area. My groups heavily armored paladin hurled himself down the elevator shaft to catch and dispatch him.
Great Times!!
The spider guy is a great second. Devargo I belive.. My PC's took the diplomatic route at first, but the paladin couldn't live with that choice and went back on his own and challenged the dude and ends up a prisoner. The ensuring rescue mission was to say the least not a well planned and executed hostage rescue lol. It was however successful and big fun!!
I've got a couple notes jotted down for this AP, but I'm afraid I don't know what you mean by NPC reference list.Here is what I have come up with so far (please excuse the references to the PC's and their backgrounds). Basically just a list of the major NPCs involved in the adventure with a short blurb about their background.
** spoiler omitted **...
Oh, OK. As you can read around here, I don't know the meaning of "short blurb," at least not when it comes to major NPCs. My short blurb list starts the campaign as a list of generated names for people that I expand upon when I assign the name to an NPC during the game. The ones for my two CoCT games got pretty large since it is a big city and I really wanted to land that point with the players. I'm afraid that is only minor NPCs though, and none that are mentioned in the books (although the one group's favorite MPC of the campaign was a gargoyle in Kaer Maga that had NOTHING to do with the story).
Sorry.
If you're looking for a list of the major NPCs in Korvosa, your best shot is the appendix in the Guide to Korvosa on p. 62. But as Knick said, to make the city come alive, there will be a lot more NPCs than these, both from the modules and from your own creation. The only way to have a list of those is making your own, I am afraid.
Has anyone re-imagined Balko as an Alchemist? I'm working on him as such but am having a hard time coming up with extracts for him.
I also reworked the Queen's Physicians as Alchemists in my campaign with Dr. D being the Vivisectionist archetype (I just didn't see him as the bomb throwing type).
There were some people who talked about rewriting Yargin Balko as an alchemist, but I can't find stats anywhere. On the other hand, how hard can it be to make a level 1 or 2 NPC, right?
Has anyone re-imagined Balko as an Alchemist? I'm working on him as such but am having a hard time coming up with extracts for him.
I also reworked the Queen's Physicians as Alchemists in my campaign with Dr. D being the Vivisectionist archetype (I just didn't see him as the bomb throwing type).
Here's what I had in my notes.
Yargin Balko
LE Medium humanoid, male human alchemist 2
Init +6; Senses Perception +5
Defense
AC 14, touch 12, flat-footed 12(+2 armor, +2 Dex)
HP 18 (2d8+2)
Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +1
Offense
Spd 30ft
Melee dagger +1 (1d4/19-20)
Range Alchemy Bomb +4 (1d6+2 acid) or wand +2 (1d3)
SA 4/day bombs, Discovery (acid bomb), poison use, Mutagen
Extracts bombers eye, true strike
Statistics
Str 10, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 10
Base Atk +1; CMB +1; CMD 13
Feats Point Blank Shot, Brew Potion, Throw Anything, Improved Initiative
Skills Appraise +7, Craft (alchemy) +8, Disable Device +7, Knowledge (arcana) +7, Knowledge (nature) +7, Perception +5, Use Magic Device +6
Languages Common, Gnome
Gear wand of acid splash (8 charges), 3 x vials of acid, 2 x tanglefoot bags, thunderstone, leather armor, dagger, light crossbow, 10 bolts, formulae book, garnet amulet worth 100gp, keys to cabinet in A7, doors in/out of A6.
I've done the main 4 NPCs of Haunted Fortunes (Gaedren, Yargin, Hookshank and Giggles). I expanded their backstory with my own ideas and reworked the stats to Pathfinder, and also used Walters idea of making Yargin an Alchemist.
Here's what it looks like:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8c08q89op8gsep2/Haunted%20Fortunes%20NPCs.doc?dl= 0
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Please note that I play with a group that puts a lot of focus on roleplay but at the same time are power players and are very optimized. As such I need to keep the monsters on the touch side to keep them challenged.
Please note that I play with a group that puts a lot of focus on roleplay but at the same time are power players and are very optimized. As such I need to keep the monsters on the touch side to keep them challenged.
The exact same issue here. Though my guys/gals usually focus a bit more on the power part.
I really don't mind upping the power level to keep them challenged, I do most of my conversions at work anyways so it keeps me busy.
I really don't mind upping the power level to keep them challenged.
Playing with experienced players, I've been doing that for years. It helps that we only use the Core Rulebook and the APG to keep things manageable (I use PCgen which covers these handbooks). I give my players a 20 point buy and they get 75 % of their potential HP, but my NPCs are built with the same perks. I also adjust the competition at the table if necessary. During the last couple of sessions I've thrown extra opponents at the PCs once when things got too easy and I've also left out an opponent once when things got tricky. I even build some NPCs around 'loot', e.g. the greatsword wielding ranger PC is lagging in magical items, so I designed an extra bodyguard with a +1 greatsword for one of the upcoming sessions.
I do most of my conversions at work anyways so it keeps me busy.
I officially envy you.
Office job with lots of downtime. We roll our stats, 4d6 and get rid of the lowest value, do it 7 times. I usually just give raw gold to my group when they seem to be in need.
I've got some vets and some newbies, but since I'm only gming a party of four I let them roll gestalt with a very generous dice-rolling system and max starting wealth.
I want the game to be fun, yet challenging, so I am certainly pulling no punches. After the utter slaughter that our RotRL game was, ultimately I want them to succeed in this game, haha.