Hi All,
I know it's an old forum, but I hope enough people might look here.
I've found that the first few levels are the most fun in a campaign. They take forever as the party wants to explore all the side quests and intrigue and all that. It's great! I really enjoy this part.
What did you use in your campaign for intrigue around town? There is enough of it with the various mine managers and crazy NPCs. What tactics did you try and what curveballs did you throw at them?
When the party hits lvl 4, they get brought in to the Rusty Bucket to talk taking Balabar Smenk down a notch. What missions did you guys use?
Did you ever play out the repercussions of what happens in the town after The Three Faces of Evil? Did it become public that there were evil cults? Did the garrison get invovled? Was Dourstone arrested? Smenk? I would assume that the other mine managers would gang up and try to take down the other two. There might not be enough on Smenk to get him arrested, though.
When I first ran the campaign, I didn't use any of it. However, I am about to run the campaign again, and I recently wrapped up running Temple of Elemental Evil (3.5 conversion).
I based the ToEE conversion on the computer game, which has tons of sidetreks with the various NPCs. They are short and relatively simple, and I plan on incorporating things from that into my AoW game. The adventures in the Village of Hommlet could be converted to Diamond Lake easily enough.
Some examples:
- Uncovering a spy from the Ebon Triad in town
- Being hired by a mine manager to clear out some low-level monsters from one of his mines.
- Uncover a patron cheating at cards or dice in a pub to get free bed and board.
I'm planning on using the house building from Dragon Magazine to give benefits and further adventure opportunities. I think a steady income stream and some of the sidetreks from the second chapter of Pathfinder AP "War for the Crown" could be useful here, as they can get benefits by undertaking certain tasks to improve their house and the town.