Adding a Musketeer era feel to CotCT?

[Steel_Wind]

In preparation for the release of the revised CotCT next month and our new AP campaign of CotCT, I have been reading the older 3.5 versions of this classic AP.

One thing I am concerned about is differentiating the campaign in a tangible way from the many other PF APs we have played (or are playing). We have played (or are playing) 14 of Paizo APs so far. That is a LOT of Adventure Path play over the years. One of the major problems we have run into is that there is an emerging "sameness" that had been developing after playing so many of them. So we have gone the extra distance over the past few years to try to address that emerging sameness issue. Most of our attempts have been working rather well, actually.

In that regard, my thought for this AP to change the feel of the campaign is to strive for a Musketeer Era feel to the game in terms of promoting derring-do, acrobatics and swashbuckling play styles during combat -- and for cultural assumptions out of combat during roleplay and court intrigue. The PCs would all be drawn from an elite Kingsguard Unit, (an imagined offshoot of Sable Company) dedicated to protecting the life of the King.

The Grey Maidens, as a nascent Queensguard will therefore become the arch-enemies of the disbanded and soon-to-be-outlawed Kingsguard.

More controversially, gunpowder would be introduced to the campaign at all levels. The intention is not to turn this into the Wild West, but a late 17th Century France take on Korvosa.

Each of the PCs would start at 2nd level, each having their 1st level as either Gunslingers or Swashblucklers (Players can spcifiy an archetype within that if they wish) they then move into the regular chosen class at 2nd level for the rest of the campaign as play begins.

We would not level up any PC until that point in the AP when the PCs are intended to "ding" 3rd level. We went with a very similar approach in our All Dwarven Giantslayer run (all PCs were dwarves and started as 2nd level with their 1st level as a fighter or ranger) and this has worked out extremely well. To the extent that any of the early encounters are underpowered against 2nd level PCs, that's trivial to tweak encounters in an upwards direction.

I am still reading through CotCT and my opinion on the viability of a Musketeer take on the AP will be informed by reading as we go on, but does this sound particularly wise or unwise to any of you at first blush, given what is to follow later in the campaign?

I am greatly interested in your thoughts and opinions on this spin on CotCT.

[Shaun]

Personally, instead of restricting the class choices so much for level 1, I'd recommend giving every character the amateur gunslinger or amateur swashbuckler feat for free at first level. Also, encourage archetypes for other classes that fit your vision, like musketeer cavalier, dragoon fighter or holy gun paladin. Sometimes, I encourage taking the "preferred" archetypes by letting PCs who take them have 16 point buy instead of 15.

This way, you just restrict way less and don't force a PC into a concept the player doesn't want. They could ignore their free feat if they don't care to play that way. In my experience no players like restrictions, especially one that would basically choose how their character begins.

Also, with your plan, every PC who didn't continue in swashbuckler or gunslinger wouldn't be getting his favored class bonus for all levels taken outside of those classes unless he was a half-elf. If you do go this way, have the 2nd level be the required class.

[Steel_Wind]

That's just it - it's not a concept the players do not want. If they want a Wizard character -- they make one. This just gives them all a common united touchstone.

We did this in Gianstslayer with everyone rolling a Dwarf from the same clan, each a brother of the other. (Speaking in Dwarven at the table became an exercise in the players speaking with their best fake Scottish brogue). The Wizard was 1st lvl ranger/1st level Wizard and leveled as Wizard from there. Same with the Cleric, Rogue, Paladin, Monk (unchained) and Ranger.

The fact that they could not reach a theoretical capstone 20th level is neither here nor there in an AP than tops at 16th level or so anyways. So it's really not a limitation, as such - not at all.

I considered (but dismissed) the idea of Amateur Gunslinger as it does not equip the PCs with the same baseline of acrobatics and combat maneuvers I am deliberately trying to emphasize here. The idea is to heavily promote and reward Grit/Panache from the beginning throughout all aspects of early play. Trying to move away from stereotypical heavy armors and towards swashbuckling stunts from the get-go by everybody is the idea.

One of the problems of doing this, however, is that to be moderately good as even a low level Gunslinger or Swashbuckler requires an emphasis on stats that other classes often do not emphasize or use. I have decided to go with a 25 point High Fantasy build to improve this and ratchet up the cinematic feel. (We usually use 15 or 20 point builds for PCs at our table). All the PCs will be human with some claim to a pretense of an aristocratic background in Kervosa (whether as nere-do-wells or bastards is another matter; but at least good enough to get them into the Kingsguard.)

You are choosing to see it as a "restriction". In practice, it isn't and my players who have all gone through on the Dwarven side of this all understand that it is focused instead on giving the PCs a common identity and sense of belonging as a group in order to change the AP and make it its own thing.

This was extremely successful in Giantslayer -- so much so that it was no longer the Giantslayer AP -- it became our Dwarven Delve. The AP was about the PCs Dwarven identity -- not the identity of the foes they faced. It has been remarkably successful, exceeding my wildest hopes and expectations, frankly.

If I can be even HALF as successful as that here, I would be happy. But make no mistake, this is about changing the fundamental nature of the AP so that is is all about the PCs as the Heroic Kingsguard of Korvosa and changing the tactical approach by each player to the battlefield (at least in its early stages) to go full blown swashbuckling in terms of maneuvers. That's the goal. It's not about running an AP where the emphasis is on who their foes are, or even about their individual classes they choose to play through the campaign and level up as they go. It's about the PCs as a group.

I know it can work extremely well as I've seen it firsthand. The question is whether this particular schtick will work in this particular AP.

[Bill Dunn]

Another thing to look into might be ways to tailor equipment. Get rid of the heavier armors and weapons of a heavy-armor age in favor of rapiers, cutlasses, and lighter and piecemeal armors. You may need to come up with more ways to increase the ACs of PCs that might otherwise be well-armored as they level, but I think it'll help preserve the feel of a musketeer atmosphere.

[Steel_Wind]

Bill Dunn wrote:

Another thing to look into might be ways to tailor equipment. Get rid of the heavier armors and weapons of a heavy-armor age in favor of rapiers, cutlasses, and lighter and piecemeal armors. You may need to come up with more ways to increase the ACs of PCs that might otherwise be well-armored as they level, but I think it'll help preserve the feel of a musketeer atmosphere.

Agreed; I do need to make some more armor bonuses available from non traditional sources; however, I am hesitant to do too much to overtly force such a choice upon a player. Then it really IS a restriction and that's not terribly cool. It's s#*@ty to face that in a game. Players rebel from it and that understandably leaves a bad taste in a player's mouth.

At the same time, I can also grant bonuses to PCs maneuvers and acrobatic choices, perhaps through the use of the Harrow Point bonuses that can be applied to Swashbuckler Derring-Do skills. Spend a Harrow Point for an automatic 6 result (roll again to get the second die bonus, say) on the Derring Do class ability will strongly entice the PCs to stay in light armor, rather than punish them for not doing so. I think that's preferred course in the first Volume or two of the AP.

Of course, when the bad guys are frequently armed with pistols and the occasional musket, the benefits of Plate Armor in a touch AC world diminish rapidly, depending on the range the bad guys are engaged at.

That said, I really do NOT like the high reload possibility of black powder weapons in PFRPG as it breaks historical reality for me too much. I'm okay with that on the PC side and perhaps with exceptional NPCs for play balance reasons. I get it. Still, I just can't have warriors and mooks reloading and firing cartridge based pistols every round though; it galls me. So I will do some work on this to limit reload times on the bad guys in order to retain a Flashing Blades & Musketeers feel to the game and avoid a Six Guns n Sorcery feel which comes with rapidly reloaded pistols which are supposedly "black powder". Then instead of D'Artagnan vs. Blackbeard, you end up facing Billy the Kid and his Colt .45. No thank-you.