After almost 2 years in real life, we finished our Hell's Rebels campaign yesterday. It probably took us about 200-250 hours over ~50 sessions. That's the sixth AP we finish, at least partially (after half of Rise of the Runelords, Legacy of Fire, Kingmaker, Shattered Star, the first four books of Mummy's Mask), and it's always the same long-term commitment and the same enjoyment to build a long story together with a group of friends!
As usual, it was a lot of fun and both the GM (me) and the players had a lot of fun dealing with Barzillai Thrune. Thank you Crystal Frasier, Mike Shel, Richard Pett, James Jacobs, Jim Groves, and Amber Scott for writing these 6 parts to the AP, and most certainly to James Jacobs for designing and developing the whole AP! It's interesting that Paizo can still be more and more daring in their APs. This one was particularly well crafted, with the different parts echoing each other. It's really obvious here that the campaign was developed as a whole and that it's larger than the sum of its parts.
We particularly appreciated the (mainly) single location, Kintargo, and it makes it so much easier to care about the story and freeing the city from the madman Barzillai. It also means that the AP has a very prominent cast of non-player characters who stay around and provide a solid background for the life in the city (Laria, Rexus, Lictor Octavio, Jilia Bainilius, Shensen, Captain Sargeta, Molly Mayapple, etc). The Lucky Bones are also pretty neat and help the PCs feel home… never mind the fact that it's one of those "secret" hideout everyone seems to know about!
Barzillai Thrune is a very adequate Evil Bad Guy™️ and the fact that he's present from day one of session one is quite a change from the usual AP. What I found surprising is the ability of the campaign to not make him feel stale after being the BBEG for the whole campaign. It certainly helps that he's dealt with at the end of book 3 (at least it looks that way at first), 4, and 6. It's as if he'll never keel over! The rhythm of these encounters with Barzillai is really balanced and works well with the overall flow.
Overall, the campaign was really nice and among the best I've GM'd for Pathfinder. There were quite a few tensed and difficult moments, but not quite insurmountable for our group of 3 very experienced players. In the end, we ended up with 4-5 deaths, but at levels for which it's more a hassle than game breaking. The group (cleric of Milani, swashbuckler, and unchained summoner) was quite powerful and ended the AP at level 16 and 1 mythic tier. Unfortunately, the final Barzillai went down in 6 seconds with a whimper. That would have been frustrating for another campaign, but since it was the third time they were encountering him or someone pretending to be him, it wasn't as problematic as it could been. I very much feel this AP is more about the journey than the destination. It's funny but I never felt that GM'ing any other Paizo campaign that all tend to build towards a final, epic clash, and I'm not quite sure where it comes from. Maybe from staying in Kintargo for so long that it kind of feels home, maybe because Barzillai has been around since the beginning and changed about as much as the PCs during the period of the AP.
There's a few things I would do differently if I were to play it again (not many) but there were mainly a lot of enjoyable parts to this AP. So here goes for the pros and cons list…
Cons:
• The rebellion rules. As usual with the Paizo subsystems, they are fun for a little while but after a book or so, they feel cumbersome and it's hard to find much use for them as they are quite gamey and it's very hard for the PCs to fail a check. We dropped them after book 2.
• The final Barzillai, who died in a single round. The problem when the whole campaign is about fighting devils is that the PCs are quite prepared by level 16 (and they should be). If I had to redo it, I would make Barzillai more powerful (I used the mythic version of him already) and more surprising (basically, not a devil).
• The whole Mangvhune story in books 2 and 5 felt out of place and really not well connected to the rest. It felt like a waste of time, especially in book 5 when the finale is getting closer.
Pros:
• Kintargo and it's a big plus. Hell's Rebels is the city campaign and it's really well done. The PCs care about the place, about the people, and they feel like they are doing something about it.
• The cast of NPCs. It's about the right size to be manageable by the GM and they all have a specific role/character, which makes it much easier for the PCs to care about them.
• Barzillai who comes back, and back, and back. It's like the guy will never die!
• The trips to Hell and, in particular, the interaction with Odexidie. It's great, for once, to have Hell have an agenda as opposed to simply being a caricature full of things to fight. It's much more scary that way!
• The battle for Kintargo, commando style.
• The battle of the Temple of Asmodeus, which was by far the most difficult battle of the full AP. The PCs won by a thread (and, on top of that, they were only one day away from the end of the ritual to Asmodeus that would have likely meant a premature end to the campaign!) but they won, and that felt special.
• Freeing Kintargo at the end of book 4, which means that the PCs have two other books to deal with "after." That's quite rare if you think about it!
• The diplomatic negotiations with Cheliax at the beginning of book 6. That was a very nice change of pace, especially so far into the campaign. Quite risky but very well done. It certainly helps that the assassin also killed the head of the Chelaxian delegation and threatened to cancel the discussions!
As for the specific volumes, here's what I thought as the GM:
In Hell's Bright Shadow: Really fun start, great start with the riot, great NPCs with Laria and Rexus. Very nice set pieces that give a good idea of what it's like to live under Barzillai's rule. Maybe a little too dungeony towards the end with the Hocum's Fantasmagorium and the Many-Steps Monastery.
Turn of the Torrents: The PCs are ready to get things done and this AP gives them the opportunity to do so and to start building their base. Great fun! The Lucky Bones is completely unrelated, plot-wise, but that's a nice change of pace and it's so the PCs can do something for themselves.
Dance of the Damned: The PCs are becoming real movers and rallying support left and right. The banquet with the Queen of Delights was very enjoyable and quite hilarious at time given how unprepared the PCs were for it. The Ruby Massacre is great fun and very brutal. It's probably best focused entirely on the ball and not on exploring the opera. That's really just a distraction but, luckily, my group didn't explore too much and focussed on the ball.
A Song of Silver: The real gem of this campaign. The proverbial s*** hits the proverbial fan and it's brutal. It feels that the PCs have to fight for it all and it's far from being obvious how the final showdown will unfold. A massive battle against Barzillai and, later, the final battle in the nave of the Temple were the most tensed moments of the campaign. When your players decide to bypass encounters so they can preserve resources for the finale, you know things are just as tense as they should!
The Kintargo Contract: Getting to play through the aftermath of the rebellion and secure the future of Kintargo was refreshing. The Kintargo Contract is a piece of genius and getting the players to realize how they can use it to their benefit is priceless. The rest of the book feels more like a distraction and filler. I think it requires a bit more work than I put in to avoid giving the impression that every part of the duchy of Ravounel wants the PCs to do a quest before signing up on their new rulership of the region. I found it hard to care much about Mangvhune.
Breaking the Bones of Hell: Surprisingly, the best part of this book is the diplomatic meeting. The part in Hell is fine and nicely builds up to the final encounter but, since this one was over in a round, it doesn't quite feel like the finale it might have been. In fact, it feels that the whole part in Hell is about as or more dangerous than Barzillai. Maybe a lack of balance, or simply luck. But it's a nice close to the full campaign and it certainly feels scary going to Hell, as it should. Discovering more about Barzillai's psyche only made the PCs hate him more.
So that's for the last two years of GMing. Soon we'll likely relocate to Nirmathas and my players will face the advance of the Ironfang Invasion. That should remind us of our past Kingmaker campaign!
Thanks for the summary. Very interesting. I had no idea that Barzillai was faced in 3, 4 and 6. I only knew of 4 and 6
I quite like this as it means that there are some sensible jumping off points
Hell's Rebels is one of a choice of 3 AP's I have narrowed to for my group, the others being Rise of the Runelords and Carrion Crown
I am still unsure of what to pick but from what little I know it is my person choice (I am attracted by the setting and that it is one primary location)
The rebellion rules are a potentially off-putting point. Does it all work fine without them?
During the Ruby Massacre, at the end of book 3, a disguised bone devil pretends to be Barzillai. So it's not really him, but the PCs can think it is until it's revealed it's a mere devil. That scene also nicely segues into the final liberation of Kintargo.
As for the rebellion rules, yes, you can easily do without them. I still assumed the PCs mounted a rebellion but just didn't use the mechanics after a while. There's only a couple of places with requires rebellion checks in game and they are easily replaced by PC skills (Diplomacy to gather information, Stealth, etc).
Regarding your choice, I'd recommend Hell's Rebels over the two others. :)
To me, Rise of the Runelords is nice but too dungeon focused and somewhat disconnected between modules (it's the first AP after all, despite the revision). That's why we stopped after book 3 all those years ago. And Carrion Crown, which I haven't GM's or played, feels way too episodic and gimmicky with its "one horror trope per book" premise. On the other hand, Hell's Rebels is crafted as one single story and campaign, which I feel isn't the case with the other two you mention.
Very much so!
Nice review! We're one session from finishing the AP. Good point on the rebellion, also dropped it early, the players found it boring.
Mangvhune though in the end of book 5 was one of the better sessions. After book four it started feeling like a slump and the interest was going down the drain. He kinda revived the campaign, hes irrelevant but at least he fires things up. Your players didnt care? Or you found him irrelevant?
Thanks for the nice write-up! I only recently started running HR for my group and have taken time reading through people's opinions that have finished the campaign.
I'm happy to say that I think I'm avoiding your cons. I decided to not use the rebellion rules (but kind of have them running in the background), and I plan on having the effects of the Soul Anchor be more obvious, which I'll be using Mangvhune for. (I've already hinted that something's up by using Blosodriette at she kind of remembers her life and I've made it so that she, herself, isn't evil even though she has the evil sub-type.)
Mangvhune though in the end of book 5 was one of the better sessions. After book four it started feeling like a slump and the interest was going down the drain. He kinda revived the campaign, hes irrelevant but at least he fires things up. Your players didnt care? Or you found him irrelevant?
I found him irrelevant. I don't think the players grasped all the background about Mangvhune but they seemed happy to follow the bread crumbs and eventually fight him (he escaped in the end).
I'm happy to say that I think I'm avoiding your cons. I decided to not use the rebellion rules (but kind of have them running in the background), and I plan on having the effects of the Soul Anchor be more obvious, which I'll be using Mangvhune for. (I've already hinted that something's up by using Blosodriette at she kind of remembers her life and I've made it so that she, herself, isn't evil even though she has the evil sub-type.)
That may just work! I must admit that there is so much going on in this AP, sometimes, that I didn't pay much attention to the Soul Anchor until the final book.
Interesting about the rebellion rules. If i run this I was thinking of only using them at the start out of choice - mainly to push the idea that the players need to be influencing and looking for recruits
It looks like a variant of kingdom building. I haven’t them yet but hope and assume they will be less complex
I don’t think the final Barzillai is something I have to worry about any time soon, if ever
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Yes, the rebellion rules are simpler than the kingdom rules but I find they suffer from the same problem. Namely that you'd want to use them in-game so you can more easily mesh them with roleplaying, playing through the random events, but, at the same time, they correspond to so many "boring" rolls, they are so abstract, that they don't bring much to the table and you're much better off doing them offline between session. I still haven't found a way to reconcile these two facts.
Just finished and since I'm not much of a reviewer I'll just use your review if you dont mind :)
In Hell's Bright Shadow: Really fun start, great start with the riot, great NPCs with Laria and Rexus. Very nice set pieces that give a good idea of what it's like to live under Barzillai's rule. Maybe a little too dungeony towards the end with the Hocum's Fantasmagorium and the Many-Steps Monastery.
Turn of the Torrents: The PCs are ready to get things done and this AP gives them the opportunity to do so and to start building their base. Great fun! The Lucky Bones is completely unrelated, plot-wise, but that's a nice change of pace and it's so the PCs can do something for themselves.
Dance of the Damned: The PCs are becoming real movers and rallying support left and right. The banquet with the Queen of Delights was very enjoyable and quite hilarious at time given how unprepared the PCs were for it. The Ruby Massacre is great fun and very brutal. It's probably best focused entirely on the ball and not on exploring the opera. That's really just a distraction but, luckily, my group didn't explore too much and focussed on the ball.
My players skipped the ball but still much fun!
A Song of Silver: The real gem of this campaign. The proverbial s*** hits the proverbial fan and it's brutal. It feels that the PCs have to fight for it all and it's far from being obvious how the final showdown will unfold. A massive battle against Barzillai and, later, the final battle in the nave of the Temple were the most tensed moments of the campaign. When your players decide to bypass encounters so they can preserve resources for the finale, you know things are just as tense as they should!
The Temple of Asmodeus was the best part indeed. My party also bypassed some encounters but they loved it. It was probably the high point of the campaign.
The Kintargo Contract: Getting to play through the aftermath of the rebellion and secure the future of Kintargo was refreshing. The Kintargo Contract is a piece of genius and getting the players to realize how they can use it to their benefit is priceless. The rest of the book feels more like a distraction and filler. I think it requires a bit more work than I put in to avoid giving the impression that every part of the duchy of Ravounel wants the PCs to do a quest before signing up on their new rulership of the region. I found it hard to care much about Mangvhune.
Spot on on this. Loved Odexide but after that I got told "Its slumping. It just feels like we got nothing really important to do."
Breaking the Bones of Hell: Surprisingly, the best part of this book is the diplomatic meeting. The part in Hell is fine and nicely builds up to the final encounter but, since this one was over in a round, it doesn't quite feel like the finale it might have been. In fact, it feels that the whole part in Hell is about as or more dangerous than Barzillai. Maybe a lack of balance, or simply luck. But it's a nice close to the full campaign and it certainly feels scary going to Hell, as it should. Discovering more about Barzillai's psyche only made the PCs hate him more.
Agree there too. Diplomatic meeting was great. Barzillai went down in 3 rounds for us. In the first round my party wasn't even hitting him just trash talk. A bit too easy. Didnt use the mythic cause they'd weakened him but still, the whole tower was "too easy" the party said