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Hi all,
I'm going to be running Hell's Rebels in the new year and was hoping I might get some help with the rebellion system. I really like what I've read so far but I am a little confused. Specifically with regards to the Missions and Events.
1) Are the Missions listed in the AP (Investigating the Fires, for example) Actions that the party takes as one of the weekly Rebellion Actions in a given week, or are they tracked separately?
2) Are the Events listed in the AP (such as the stuff with the Imp, or the bouquet of roses) things that trigger only when an Event occurs during that phase, or do they occur separately?
If someone would be willing to give me a quick breakdown of an example week or two, that would be absolutely killer.
Thanks!
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1) Are the Missions listed in the AP (Investigating the Fires, for example) Actions that the party takes as one of the weekly Rebellion Actions in a given week, or are they tracked separately?
2) Are the Events listed in the AP (such as the stuff with the Imp, or the bouquet of roses) things that trigger only when an Event occurs during that phase, or do they occur separately?
Both the missions and events that appear in the AP are meant to occur without reference to the rebellion mechanics. "The Silver Ravens' rebellion actions happen regardless of your character's day-to-day activities." James Jacobs, Pathfinder Adventure Path: Hell's Rebels Player's Guide, 26 (2015).
That being said, you can certainly integrate rebellion actions into the missions, or use rebellion actions to learn about or prepare for or gain an advantage going into missions, or replace options on the event table with printed events.
If someone would be willing to give me a quick breakdown of an example week or two, that would be absolutely killer.
In play, you're meant to "take a quick break at the end of every week to maintain and lead the rebellion." Id. While there's nothing preventing you from running missions in rapid succession, the first three books seem to assume a fairly diffuse timeline, with missions breaking up long periods of downtime notionally spent managing the rebellion. In Hell's Bright Shadow, for instance, gives Rexus seven weeks to translate the Silver Ravens documents and doesn't make the final dungeon available until they're translated, though PCs can shorten this timeline if they're trained in Linguistics and know the right languages. The AP also really wants the rebellion to hit its advancement caps before the ends of each book, so it behooves the players to take their time and recruit supporters, which can only be done once per week. A good rule of thumb therefore might be one mission per week, give or take depending on whether you're using the rebellion rules (if you're not using them, you can of course advance the rebellion by fiat), player preference, and so forth.
In terms of what this looks like in play, consider the following:
Spend the first days or two of the week roleplaying the fallout of the previous week's Events. The Event itself, as well as the rebellion's action in response, were rolled at the end of the previous rebellion action, but flesh that out a bit. If a team was disabled, maybe the team cleric spends some time nursing the injured members back to health. If the rebellion experienced a surge of support, maybe one of the PCs takes some time to educate the new supporters about the Silver Ravens' political priorities - or to learn how the organization can best respond to their concerns. Take the opportunity to expand the NPC cast, especially if your players want to latch on to someone other than the default NPCs, and then to deepen those characters.
Follow that up with a mission. Ideally, the players should have some sense of direction for how they want to build their rebellion's power,* and the mission should serve that. Vary how they learn about the missions. The AP places a lot of weight on Laria to tell them leads she knows, and augments that with the Kintargo Rumor Mill (use this especially if the PCs are proactive about investigating opportunities, and to cut down on random NPCs walking up and asking for help!), but you can go further. A newly-recruited supporter might have news. The Chelish Citizens' Group or the Red Jills might have attacked the PCs, team members, allies, or supporters, and prompt retaliation. Be creative.
Follow the mission up with more fleshing-out of the consequences. There are missions that reward players with additional supporters or team members; how do these people gel with the established cast? Someone like Forvian might join because he's grateful for being rescued, but his band is established as mercenary. What does that mean for their commitment to a cause?
Finally, at the end of the week, play out the rebellion actions, setting up for the next week.
* Really emphasize this point. There are missions in the AP that feel like they're there because they're Things Writers Imagine Rebels Do (there's a lot of jailbreaking over the first two books), rather than because they're directed to some goal. Part of your preparation as a GM should be brainstorming how you might sell each mission as building the Silver Ravens' power or disrupting the regime's. For example, Confronting the Red Jills might seem to be about eliminating [politically unreliable] competition, or about integrating a preexisting group. Prisoners of Salt might be about rescuing unjustly-confined sympathizers, or it might be about disrupting an important industry. And so on.