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I've been brainstorming a bit about the flavour of the circus itself. It's such a unique setup with so many cool characters, it feels a waste not to use them to their full potential. Personally, as a GM I like to have prompts ready for NPC conversations. Nothing too intense, just putting slightly more thought in them than I'm capable of at the table. These are a bunch of mine, just to flesh out the circusfolk a bit more, so there's always something happening when the PCs come back to base camp.
As we know, there's little written about the performer NPCs, so I've given them some backstories. These are obviously non-canon, and I may have missed an important detail in the books somewhere.
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The Kanbali Family is Aihib, father; Dhelbi, mother; Odvi, daughter (19); Xondi, child (17); Sumesh, Aihib's brother; and Ukti, Aihib's mother, plus Tuoro (8)(named the Rahadoumi word for Thunder, after Myron), daughter who doesn't perform. Each of them could be a close friend of a PC who spends time with them in downtime. They were previously Rahadoumi nobles who fled a local coup.
-- Aihib might be someone's drinking buddy who gives (poor) adventuring advice and offers acrobatic training.
-- Dhelbi, a previous diplomat, offers advice to the PCs when they need to talk to someone important like a town mayor.
-- Ukti, too old to perform, demands perfection from the PCs in all aspects, chastising them after every adventure.
-- Odvi developes a crush on one of the PCs and tries to run away with them.
-- Tuoro demands detailed reports of every adventure.
Bardolph the grizzly bear is wandering around, looking for food (despite Ukti having already fed him, and is currently futilely pulling at his harness). He breaks into the Flamboni Sister's tent (well, barrels into it) and starts a small fire.
Elizia was a close friend of Myron's, and despite putting on a strong face, is devestated by his loss. Without her knowing, Mister Tickles actually approaches the PCs timidly, and sort of points at her wagon and tries to get them to follow. If they do, they find her sobbing quietly with a gift from Myron. Consoling her will pick up her spirits, and inspire her next performance with a +1 circumstance (in Myron's honour), and she can befriend any animal-loving PC.
Hod, Mordaine's assistant, is darting around the camp, possibly running into the PC's tent. He's panicing because Mordaine wrote a scathing letter to the dwarven throwers about their late-night festivities, but every time he gets close to them, they catapult away. If he can't find them, Mordaine's going to be furious!
Mordaine is berating a group of riggers for leaving extra slack in the ropes of her last performance, she could have DIED! One of the riggers mentions that the performance is rigged and the lid wasn't actually sealed, which makes her furious.
The Dwarven Throwers are big pranksters, and go around at night causing harmless mischief. Any time they're sneaking around and chuckling, there is bound to be something up. Depending on the night, the PCs awake to find their tents facing backwards; Tahala Roadwatcher's face has been drawn on with baudy illustrations in the style of her tattos; pack llamas have been given a wig and makeup in Mordaine's iconic style. If you're very unlucky, in the middle of the night you're shocked by a naked drunken dwarf catapulted through your tent. Occasionally, the biggest prank they pull is not pulling any prank at all, leaving everyone to wonder what's coming.
Bardolph and Cubby (who can understand Bardolph because why not, and not other bears, don't be silly) have a rivalry, which escalates to roaring at each other as best they can. This is scaring the townsfolk, and needs to be de-escalated by the PCs.
The Flamboni Sisters are secretly burglars and pickpockets. Once the rogue PC shows off his skills a bit, they come to him at night with a small burglary target - the stuffed owl in the mayor's office. To the right buyer, it's worth a fortune, and it's just sitting there, an affront to our elven heritage.
The Professor and Ukti have an on-again/off-again relationship. It becomes graphic, in whatever direction you'd prefer.
Godarron Elbus has tidbits about every city they approach, rarely of use. One town's wine vinegar is particularly good at removing blood stains. Another has a competitive harrow card game that many enjoy immensely. The next's brothel has better beds than the inn, and cheaper too if you don't indulge. He does also give out one rumour per town (including the Abberton Muggers on pg 19)
Once the PCs have spent time with the Kanbalis, Sumesh approaches them on route to the next town. There have been reports of agents of the group they are running from. He doesn't wish to scare his family, so he needs the PCs to distract them while he deals with the problem.
Dhelbi is pregnant! It is fantastic news, and the circus throws a party for her. She doesn't perform until the baby has arrived, so the Feather-Fall Five temporarily becomes Four.
I don't have anything for Tahala or the Unjoined Twins; they both seem awesome (though the Flamboni sisters make it a little confusing). Anybody else have any ideas to add to the pile?
Excellent stuff!
My own modest attempt at livening up the Circus:
https://paizo.com/threads/rzs42x9b?Zapps-Extended-Circus
PS. Since my version of the Circus is slightly less safe for work than Paizo's mods deem appropriate for this forum, that discussion links to an off-site post which I realize wasn't url-ified properly, so here goes:
https://www.enworld.org/threads/play-report-extinction-curse-spoilers.67019 9/#post-7914452
Should you have any feedback you can post in the linked Paizo thread. Or just reply here, I guess.
@IcedMik: love your ideas. Especially giving Mr Tickles a more active role is great. I'm now toying with restyling his personality into a Kaa/Baloo mix. Bardolph being clumsy and hungry works well too.
As for Tuoro and Ukti, making them former nobility is a great idea too. This would would explain their entitlement (in your write-up). Not so sure this works well at the game-table though. In my experience, PCs encountering entitled NPCs that a) play no heavy campaign role and b) have no compensating/mitigating factors for misplaced demands (such as monetary rewards) usually ignore such NPCs..
I'm thus thinking of means by which the PCs can find out that the siblings are former nobility (royalty even, perhaps), and means to capitalize on that - along the lines of
a) The Godfather ("My name is Michael Corleone. Many would pay a handsome price for that information. But then you'd lose a daughter instead of gaining a son-in-law.")
b) have a figure from their past show up like a faithful palace guard, along the lines of Kammamuri in Secret of the Black Jungle
Both lines would elevate minor characters to major character plots, so I guess something way more contained would work better. Any ideas welcome.
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Ah, I wasn't intending them to be entitled! I intended Ukti (Aihib's mother) to be moreso the no-nonsense old lady that is never impressed with you (but loves you dearly), and Tuoro is entitled because she's 8 and wants to hear every detail about daring escapades. Might be that she doesn't even know she's royalty. I definitely like having a palace guard show up at some point, a new face that seems to be stalking the circus, but really just trying to make sure he's found the right people.
I had a couple more ideas
Tahala and Cubby are having a spot of tea near the bonfire as the PCs pass by (Cubby's mug is actually a wooden bowl with a metal handle awkwardly pinned to the side, for his pride). They invite the PCs over for a quick warm mug before they leave, and Tahala offers to tell a fortune (explaining she's not exactly a famed oracle, but she knows of a few omens to be found in tea leaves). She explains something lost will be found, but Cubby speaks up saying he found his lost pipe earlier that day so the fortune must have been for him.
The Professor asks to see the PCs in the sideshow tent. He wants to hear about the part's latest exploits and wonders if they'd mind him sprucing it up a bit and including the story in his sideshow.
Hesper and Meitas Jaxis (who alternate sentences) are writing on parchment at an outdoor table. They are writing a poem for their show, and are trying to find a rhyme for hippogriff (or any word you think would work here).
Axel is terrified of snakes, but needs to deliver a message to Elizia from Mordaine (Hod pawned the task off to Axel before he could deny it).
Mordaine's water tank sprung a leak and made the ground muddy for about fifteen feet around her wagon. She'd be ever so appreciative if the PCs could help, especially before the dwarves get to mud wrestling again.
I'm going to look at Ch2 people next.
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So I've played a few of these in game. My party really picked up on Elizia's grief over Myron, and spent a surprising amount of effort cheering her up. While I don't want to influence my party to interact with NPCs when they don't want to, I was playing with the idea of giving some extra benefits for befriending the circusfolk.
I had played with them being trainers for uncommon skill feats, with precedent in Plaguestone, but I'm having trouble coming up with enough feats, and most of them are just variations on the regular skill feats.
Instead, I think everyone can give the party a boon +1 to a specific instance. Befriending Elizia gives a +1 on Nature checks against snakes. The Professor gives a +1 on Deception to tell grandiose stories. Cubby gives +1 on Diplomacy checks to make an impression by being adorable.
I'd prefer some kind of skill trainer system, but there's already so many skill feats it's hard to figure out what is useful and what's just better/worse at each level.
Anyway, some more Chapter 2 vignettes.
Fidget is having some trouble getting used to being in plain view, let alone an act in a circus. She lets up that she and her sisters stole from violent thieves in Escadar, and would really appreciate the town guard being at the next show.
The Flamboni Sisters become fast friends with Fidget, quickly coming up with a trick involving juggling both the fireworks AND Fidget. They ask for permission to practice in the big tent. This inevitably starts a fire. However, if it's put out and they're allowed to practice again, they combine tricks to level 6.
The party enters the tentgrounds and sees Elizia berating the newly-hired Aives. One of her snakes has weak lungs and has been sick ever since Aives used his poison breath on them. Depending on how the party intervenes, they may become friends or bitter rivals.
Aives and Tahala are comparing tattoos. Aives decided to give them to himself during his sailing days. Hod comes up, revealing he's also got a tattoo, and you'd never guess where.
Evora and Gigi have been a bit standoffish, having trouble accepting this as their new home. The Dwarven Throwers have been trying to make her feel more at home, but the Professor advises the PCs step in before she kills one of them.
Once Ufi has recouperated a bit, he befriends Mordaine. They teach each other swimming tricks, and Ufi's politeness is acceptable to Mordaine. After a brief dispute over the treatment of Hod, they may combine tricks to level (Ufi+1)
I'll have to come up with more of the NPCs my group haven't met yet at a later time.
I love these! I'll be using and altering all of them for my own campaign! I think I'll make the Unjoined Twins the same as the Flamboni sisters, as others have done.
I have a vignette for the clowns: as a prank, the Dwarven throwers loosen the wheels on the clowns' tiny tricycles, causing them to break during practice. The Dwarves also poke tiny holes in balloons, causing them to deflate while the clowns try to inflate them. The clowns get frustrated and sad and refuse to offer their help in the next performance unless the PCs can get the Dwarves to apologize.
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