As written, the starting NPC performers become obsolete very quickly, leaving the heroes to pull of shows by themselves together with any new recruits they find during their adventures.
If that's not a problem for you, cool. Then this thread isn't for you :)
But if you're asking yourself "why do these low-level NPCs stick around even though they contribute so little to show successes?" or "why wouldn't the players want their shows to be performed by high-level performers?" you might consider options that keep existing NPCs relevant (for circus purposes).
Myself, I approached this dilemma by asking each player to pick one NPC as a "relation" (anything from drinking buddy or rival to spouse or relative), and then have that NPC level up with the heroes.
Meaning that now that the heroes are level 4, Elizia and Mr Tickles are an level 4 circus act too. And so is The Flamboni Sisters. (You get the point).
But soon the campaign will reach book 2 and beyond. Assuming you're still reading because you agree NPCs should not be simply discarded, how do you think these new recruits should be handled?
Two questions:
a) with four players, there are currently four "selected" NPCs. Should I maybe extend this selection (so that eventually there are twice as many "special" NPCs as PCs) or would that be a bad idea?
b) what are your thoughts on the simple fact that the circus cannot accommodate more than seven performers? You might want to keep a sub or two "on the bench", but other than that, what use do you see for "surplus" NPCs.
By this time, I assume you too think it's callous to just let people go that the characters might have known for months.
Maybe the best option is just to hand-wave it, perhaps saying "the circus does extra performances too, where lesser known performers can act"...
If you've read all the way down to the end, I am sure you share some of my sentiments, and that your thoughts would be appreciated :)
Thanks
Personally I'm toying with the idea that for every new recruit they find (and accept) that NPC needs a bond to one player character.
Let's say they choose two out of every six potential recruits. By the end of book 2 two players would then have two "relations". By the end of book 3 all four players would have that.
There would be four PCs that starts book 4 at level 12. There would also be eight NPCs that are available for circus shows at that time.
And by that time it might be much more okay to start asking players to let go of old friends, meaning that if they recruit two more performers in book 4, they can replace either of the two "relations" they currently have.
After all, there's nothing wrong with NPCs not leveling up with the heroes of the story.
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Basically what I'm saying is each hero has two (2) "slots" for "Circus NPC" relations. As always, it's entirely voluntary for a player to fill them, and it's entirely up to them how they switch NPCs around.
It's all made for the story and immersion.
That said, I will however be generous and allow each player/hero to "train" one NPC relation into filling a "non-performer role".
Partially to alleviate the issue "what to do with all these people", partially because it feels like a logical thing to allow, and partially to give players a tangible benefit for "bothering" to roleplay ;)
That is, with four players, there can also be four NPCs that break the rule that says non-performing roles can only be filled by PCs.
Honestly, I plan to just play it straight. If older Book 1 NPCs fade into the background, then so be it. I do suspect they'll cease to be used in the circus, but then be persistent in the camp RP due to familiarity. Some will fade into the background (the dwarf throwers did, HARD), but some are more relevant (Axel has a decent amount of scorn due to his child-like crush of the eldest of the Featherfall Five coming off as creepy, while the Featherfall Five and Flamboni Sisters get some enjoyment). I'm still playing slight DM favourites with the head of the clowns Pagliacci who I've been RPing as kind of a burnt out clown with a tendency for puns (e.g. he commented to an orc "at least you're not green with envy, just green with orcish blood") before honking his nose twice. Really plays into my tendency to slide puns into my DMing.
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My plan is to let them use Payout GP to level up the NPC performers (to a max of the PCs level) so that if they have a specific NPC they like they can keep them relevant. I haven't nailed down precisely how much it'll cost, but they were open to the idea when I pitched it. My first pass is 5GP per level (as in, level 2 is 10GP, level 3 is 15, so going from 1 to 3 costs 25).
My idea was for the lower level NPCs to get better at their act, but not to officially level up, thus keeping the DC the same. So eventually they become more of a sure shot for a smaller amount of Excitement. My hope would be that they’d have some use. For example, maybe by the finale of a high level circus show, the Excitement is already really close to the Anticipation, so they throw in 3 of their original level 1 NPC performers who have improved over the campaign because they have a higher chance of success, but with much lower Excitement potential. And maybe NPC acts only improve if they’re actually used in the circus, giving the PCs incentive to spread the love and not always default to the new hotness.
Another thing I considered was having the low level NPCs join the higher level NPC tricks. Maybe the ratfolk juggler can use the Flamboni sisters in his act, for example.
Isn't the DC of the trick always based off the level of the performer? From what I can tell, the level 15 NPCs have just about as much of a chance of success as the level 1 NPCs. So you should be free to use whatever performers are most interesting to you and your players.
I like this, but it makes me wonder why they bothered giving them levels at all. Or why they're all not level 1.
TheCraiggers wrote: Isn't the DC of the trick always based off the level of the performer? From what I can tell, the level 15 NPCs have just about as much of a chance of success as the level 1 NPCs. So you should be free to use whatever performers are most interesting to you and your players.
I like this, but it makes me wonder why they bothered giving them levels at all. Or why they're all not level 1.
Indeed, your chance of succeeding stays relatively constant regardless of level.
It makes sense that a level 1 performer has about the same chance at pulling off a level 1 trick as a level 18 performer pulling of a level 18 trick. Of course, what the rules don't allow is to allow a performer to decide his trick's level himself. About the only reason I can see why this isn't allowed is if the dev team thought it would make it "too easy" to score a critical success ("we only need two more Excitement to reach the Anticipation level, so I'm going to do a level 2 trick").
But if you say the levels of the tricks must be locked in before the show starts, I don't see this as a major concern. (I don't think an Olympic gymnast or ice-skater would be comfortable completely changing up her routine just prior to entering the floor either)
So a level 2 NPC could try for a level 4 trick, or your level 11 PC could coast by performing a level 7 trick.
Of course, you'd want to keep track of people consistently performing below their level. That would likely lower morale and/or star quality, so it would be easy to discourage players from gaming it (too much).
Thing is, Paizo promised us reasons to perform at high levels (=why go for ever-higher Excitement results). However, as of installment #5 we haven't seen this in practice.
I strongly recommend giving your high-level circus heroes reasons to accumulate lots of Excitement, and so I strongly suggest you add minimum Anticipation thresholds to your adventures.
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I am planning on leveling up long-time circus members, likely coinciding with critical successes (and will be looking at this thread to do so), but I am also considering a lower-level noon show for some of the acts to stay relevant, still earn money for their upkeep, and still be fishing for crits (both success and failure) to affect their story. This would happen at some point when the circus is pretty big, but I haven't broken down all the math details yet. If I can get the numbers to work, I would like to add an upkeep on circus members, to encourage the adventurers to keep everyone working. I am already looking at some of the others ideas, like combining acts, to keep old performers relevant.
In my case, I'll ask the players if they would consider splitting up the circus at the end of installment #2, Legacy of Lost God.
That is, have some performers stay around in Escadar to supply that city with entertainment in the wake of the Celestial Menagerie's downfall.
That way, fewer existing circus performers need become "surplus", NPCs forgotten about.
(It's possible there might be a story reason to feature a second such split, perhaps after installment #4, but I haven't even prepared that module yet.)
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