Foreword: This text is an excerpt from a bigger document I am writing documenting about everything I'm doing and thinking about Curtain Call as I GM it to some friends. However, I personally thought this part worked well as a single text and that it rises some points I didn't see anyone else pointing. The full text with my thoughts are available in https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d96tnCkhG3loU24kL4EJGOaLg4XQPPbwbH7sOyR wuVE/edit?usp=sharing
Season 2 of Arcane made me go back and rethink lots of my ideas about writing (that somewhat organically, I didn't notice until today). I've been reading and discussing a lot about the qualities of the show, and that has given me some great insight and personal development in areas that don't really matter for the sake of this text. Together with that, my GM Prep has made me delve deep into Curtain Call and its qualities and failures as a text, together with talking a lot (passively and actively) with friends about Paizo APs (and TTRPG narratives in general, given the unique characteristics of the genre). At the end, seeing some criticism to Curtain Call and other APs, I ended up in a set of questions that I posted into the Pathfinder RPG discord (text directly copied from the message, incorrect use of the english language maintained on purpose):
“Dumb question that I got myself thinking about while on shower. Do all campaigns need like overarching story arcs from beginning to end? Does all the campaign need to serve to this plot or are more loose, seemingly "sidequests" acceptable or even prefered? Is it a problem if multiple independent story arcs happen without much or even any connection? Got myself questioning that cause its one of the criticisms I see the most about some APs but I cant get myself to think that those are all bad things”
The general response was that it was fine and not a problem, an example given was how loosely structured Rise of the Runelords is and how it was a perfect introduction to the Pathfinder Campaign Setting or how Carrion Crown has books themed around different types of horror as a genre. That caused another question of mine.
“Huh, just cause I saw some criticism for APs that I was reading like sky kings tomb or curtain call that x plot only is introduced later in the books or that x thing is a "filler", or that x things doesnt progress the plot or that two plots are not really intrinsically connected and just meet at some points and I never really got it as a problem.”
The general answer what that not all stories need to be complex 18 volume novels, or that fillers are fine in given situation and is more a sense of not being contradictory in-narrative e.g. the villain is amassing an army and players go to a beach vacation, and how fillers are useful as means of character progression. And that's the point I want to analyze.
I saw some complaints about the text of Curtain Call that, for the sake of my argument in this text, can be summarized as: how some parts felt that they don't progress the narrative e.g. Book 1 Chapter 2 and Book 2 Chapter 1 and 2; how the Norgorber plotline is only conveyed in late Book 2 and in Book 3 (as if the Norgorber plotline was the “main” plotline and the book was about Norgorber and not the opera); how the “opera plot” (I will later question this term) is “forgotten” after Book 3 Chapter 1; how some parts are "filler” or “skippable” e.g. Book 1 Chapter 1 and Book 2 Chapter 2; and how the “opera plot” and the “Norgorber plot” felt disjointed or disconnected. I want to tackle those arguments and how I, after some great thought, see them.
Initially these arguments didn't really vibe with me cause they didn't seem connected to my personal view of a TTRPG and some of my ideas of the qualities of the medium for storytelling. As it was my main introduction to a more “organized” and “systematic” mean of playing TTRPGs, actual plays (in opposition to free-form play between a bunch of teenage friends) formed a "character first” narrative that was what I mostly interfaced with and had in my mind about TTRPGs. I see Campaign 1 and 2 of Critical Role as prime examples of that. The plotlines of the Briarwoods, Chroma Conclave and Vecna work largely as independent narratives, with Vecna somewhat following the consequences of the Briarwood arc but loosely, and the Taryon Arc could be seen as just a “big filler”. Mighty Nein is an even crazier example, arcs 1 to 6 have next to nothing to do with each other, and the War of Ash and Light plot can be seen as just a background for the extremely personal and character-driven narrative that form, for me, one of my favorite pieces of media. That's what prompted me to post the aforementioned questions.
I know the writing of an “average” pre-written adventure can't account for this extremely personal, background-drive, character arcs, because for this type of text it needs generic enough to be played by any group as-written and can't account on writing character specific arcs that can vary from background to background from group to group. I find that Paizo already does a great job at that by providing comprehensive Player Guide's that serve as a type of “session 0” in which players are informed of the themes of the adventure and can create characters already woven into it.
One could say then that pre-written adventures are “story first” narratives, in which the “fun” of it is telling a compelling narrative that was mutually agreed upon, even as it can be a type of “railroad” compared to a more open “sandbox". But I kept thinking on how one of the most appraised Paizo APs seems the opposite of it, Kingmaker, and I kept coming back to my questions of what a narrative required and the idea of an overarching major plotline. I will come back to this point later.
After some long thought, and by watching and discussing Arcane, I landed on a single point that could give a compelling narrative. Change, a good narrative requires characterization of the characters and the world around it, and how they change (great simplification for the point of this text). A good character-driven narrative is perfect for it, but so are plot-driven ones by which the characters and the world change as the plot affects them.
This made me re-approach previous criticisms of Curtain Call and analyze it on those lenses. Curtain Call feels underwhelming as a book because it seems that the players both don't impact the world and are just watching the narrative progress without any stakes until Book 3, in which the “real plot” appears and change can happen, to the characters as they interact with literal gods and to the scenario in the form of Norgorber. The “opera plot” feels largely inconsequential and, in a way, "secondary” at best to the “real narrative", if not even “skippable” when seen through these lenses because there is nothing there to provide change. This could also justify the fact that I saw better reviews of Book 3 in general.
This thought seemed logical in my head for a total of 15 minutes while I was going to buy breakfast in the bakery at 6 AM.
Then I came to an unassuming conclusion that “happily” will provide some much needed context for my game as I GM Curtain Call. There is a widely known genre of fiction that uses the same structure as the “bad” part of Curtain Call, that I really love but simply saying, is basically not seen in TTRPGs. Slice of life.
Slice of life is the apex of character-driven narrative. A simply unassuming plot, with low stakes, focusing on the relationship of the characters as they flow in their everyday life. And I think that the “opera plot” of Curtain Call could be simply seen as the perfect background for a possible character-driven, simple quirky narrative that jokes about the tropes of fiction and the art world in a somewhat grim but fantastical tone. And I love it.
It finally came to my mind why I felt so attracted to Curtain Call as I read it. It seems like the perfect open-ended chassis to conduct a simple unassuming character-driven narrative that eventually gets higher stakes in a game that is usually so plot-driven. And this ties perfectly to my previous notion of how it would work best in a more comedy-like satirical tone. I understand that this is not the type of adventure most people are looking for when playing Pathfinder, and I'm fine with that,
I love it. It is perfect for what I was looking for: A lengthy set piece in which I can handle my players a big agency in a sandbox, let them roleplay by themselves without a tight schedule or sense of urgency in a somewhat episodic way, explore Kintargo and develop their relationships between them and NPCs. A plot that crosses with another concurrent thematic of Norgorber and eventually goes into higher stakes as the now-close group of friends influences a literal god to accept their humanity and deal with trauma.
However, this conclusion doesn't come as just a dream realized. This makes for me the failures of Curtain Call even more apparent. It seems that some of the writing staff didn't really get this while writing and tried to weave in a more heavy theme that quite literally falls flat for most of it. That or was a bad communication between editors and writers. It is possible to infer that production was somewhat conturbed and I'm fine with that, even though the final product suffers a bit.
I would never run Curtain Call 1 to 1 as written. The subsystems have really diminishing returns and can be frustrating (although some feedback I saw was that some players were loving specifically this part); the NPCs are shallow and uninspired for such open-ended campaign where they should get the spotlight; the characterization of Kintargo is minimal, and it depends too much on previous materials and APs for the city to feel minimally interesting, which should be a main point, and it is even worse for Vyre as next to no material is written about it (it really annoys me that the maps we have are the same from Hell's Rebels and Age of Ashes Book 3); the layout and the editing of the text also seem to provide a way more “railroady” approach in which things need to be followed in order, in opposition to what I think would work best as a systems of “main quests” that trigger story events and “side quests” that can be done in interludes to focus on the opera (more on that on #2. and #2.2).
Curtain Call definitely is a book that requires lots of extra work and input by the GM (which seems to be supported even by James Jacobs), and, more importantly, players that are very capable of guiding the narrative by themselves in opposition to being guided by an overarching narrative. I am fine with both of those needs, as I am up for doing some extra work, and my players are amazing roleplayers. It is a bit sad that the base material seems a bit “lost in sauce” to the point that it requires so much extra work, but I'll take what I can get.