| RadTek |
Hi, folks.
I am to start to run some games again after a long break from RPG and I decided to start with Carrion Crown. Now… I have problems with first chapter, so I decided to rewrite some stuff. (Spoilers abound ahead.) I would appreciate some feedback.
First, all those informations about riot proceeding felt really superfluous for me, given that PCs most probably won’t have means to investigate much. Then, I also feel that town is really superflous as well. Players may do some research and find stash, but otherwise there’s nothing worth coming back for.
I plan on making town two gruff eldery ‘gentlemen’ (Gibs and Father Grimburrow) involved. Father Grimburrow would have served as a junior cleric-in-training in Harrowstone’s chapel and Gibs would have been serving as a prison guard before searching glory in the battlefield following the closure of Harrowstone.
Father Grimburrow would survive due to serving aboveground and fleeing burning building with rest of guardsmen. Gibs would become injured on lower levels – and be released on the orders of Splatter Men to convey demands convicts made during tense standoff. (Then he would be sent to Ravengro’s immediately due to his wounds.)
This alone doesn’t effect plot much aside from possibility to find their names in prison records and question them about happenings in Harrowstone. Then, they could probably e.g. inquire about prison layouts etc., albeit pretty strong trauma would prevent both men from speaking until much later. (Still, I think that would be nice touch – and exploits of Splatter Man would explain nicely both Gibs distrust of mages in general and give a more personal reason for his possession.)
Now, on to the real rewrite of the plot... Vesorianna and her husband never really struck me as ‘good’ types, seeing as they were in charge of cruel torture facility full of brutal guardsmen. I plan to give Vesorianna LE alignment – and making her driving force behind her husband’s brutal regime of burning jailed people in furnaces and lifelong imprisonments with daily tortures. I don’t mean to make her truly ‘abominable’ type of evil, but more of ‘deeds must be punished thousandfold!’ type. (Splatter Man’s hatred of women will then stem primarily from her perceived influence during final days of his life.)
Her motivation in unlife will mainly be the same as in basic AP. She still would love her late husband dearly and yearn to be reunited with him. One ‘minor’ point is that after Whispering Way’s intervention she will be totally uninterested in dispelling haunts of Harrowstone, aiming for revenge (i.e. torturing ghosts of Harrowstone for all eternity, using ghostly warden’s authority for this goal) instead.
This… would quite be problematic for Ravengro. While it would certainly forestall doom of town, it would also foment ghosts’ ire. Finally, it would reach tipping point. Vesorianna would lose control of all the empowered ghosts once again. This would spell Ravengro’s end. (Not that player characters would be affected, mind you!)
It… won’t really show up. I mean, torture is already all over the wall in this prison and official records won’t have any mention of Vesorianna’s role. Her facial expressions will be sometimes – for a fraction of seconds – like a grisly mask (Sense Motive Check to spot?), but isn’t this true about all the ghosts? She will also register as ‘evil’ for ‘detect evil’ purposes, but that could be just her anger and anguish, couldn’t it? I think it would require players first become suspicious, and then do some confirmations (whether through Spirit Planchette or asking living survivors).
Provided that players investigate – and I trust my players to investigate any matter to its death – I plan to suggest alternate way of dealing through resident specialist on arcane matters (e.g. Kendra).
Here, two gruff gentlemans tie in again. They are both the last living members of Harrowstone’s staff. Father Grimburrow is consumed by fear and guilt about his abandoment of duties said prison – that being reason he didn’t just waltz in as level seven cleric could – but he can be given push to make amends. He >is< strongest cleric of Pharasma in neighbourhood – and due to this and his connections with this place he may be sufficent to cleanse this place.
On the other hand, Gibs (provided he will survive) doesn’t have much left. He’s old and jaded. He’s piece of work, sure, but he also can be persuaded to get his ass to Harrowstone as a way to make him feel he made some difference after all. He may yet become next ghost guard of Harrowstone – and be strong enough to contain it, owing to one final act of courage. If only way to contain Harrowstone’s ghost would be through a ghostly guardian – then why not make another one?
In both cases – if PCs decide they should take one of other solutions (as it can be moral problem...) – I imagine pretty heroic showdown. Harrowstone becoming one big haunt as soon as someone of its former staff steps inside. PCs striving to keep up – and finally, after big sacrifice, Harrowstone’s walls going down.
What do you think? Would such ‘rewrite’ of Harrowstone work? Would it require too much ‘on the nose’ guesing? Wouldn’t it drag it too much?, etc. Should I deal with this in some other way?
| Thadyne |
Spoilers in my post as well....
Like you, I had some concerns with the first chapter- the background story was so interesting, I wanted more opportunity for story to come out, the Trust mechanic had lots of ways to lose but few ways to gain trust...
So the changes I made was I really boosted up the research stuff at the beginning- wrote out diary entries, newspaper clippings, prisoner transfer papers- all to really convey the story. I also used the opportunity to put in some nuggets about liches and Pharasma and the secret society. Basically, now my group expects that if there is a book, they will see an excerpt from it.
I scrapped the trust mechanic. Just had the locals be gruff and unhelpful with hints that if the PCs do a great service for the town they would be rewarded.
I also sped up the frequency of splatter man letters. In my game Gibs got caught early, so the next night Kendra was targeted- she made her will save, but now the PCs are super invested in protecting Kendra from being possessed.
I also wondered why a level 7 cleric had not been fixing the problem at Harrowstone this whole time, so made him a mostly lame elderly man who had moved to town 30 years ago. For him to go into Harrowstone he has to find someone willing to carry him- and his pride won't allow that often- he did it once to allow someone else to carry out the Professor's body, but he is not interested in doing that on a regular basis.
I know we are going in different directions with our fixes, but I think your fixes are interesting.
| RadTek |
Thanks for taking your time to reply!
I will scrap Trust mechanics as well, since it is rather pointless. I mean, idea is cool, but actual implementation… nah, not worth rewriting entire system – especially since Ravengro stays behind afterwards.
(I kind of wish writers would have stucked with it for remainder of AP. I mean, it would be cool if it represented PCs fame racing ahead of them – and allowing them to capitalize on the trust they built between themselves and people of Ustalav in general.)
as for the research stuff… I think I will just use professor’s diary to convey info about e.g. haunts instead. I am not biggest fan of this construct – and I am concerned that players won’t know their shit around them. so… Otherwise, I plan on doing a diary a little more justice so it wouldn’t feel like ‘I was being murdered by Whispering Way; oh, and by the way: do a little bit of gardening for Kendra on the next month, will you?’ I don’t really know about telling them about Harrowstone through them.