Heroes,
How intergrated is the Rebellion Mini-Game into the Story of Hell's Rebels?
Is it possible to run the Rebellion in the background?
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I would say yes, you can 100% ignore the mechanics. I would probably still include stuff like naming officers, recruiting members and sometimes sending teams on missions, but just for flavour.
So if e.g. they recruit some thieves into the silver ravens, have them supply the party with minor potions once or twice that they stole from some dottari warehouse. Or when they ask for rumours, habe them be told by some guy in the SR.
As for the rewards that can be earned through the rebellion subsystem: I wouldn't bother. If the PCs are built with a lot of firepower, they shouldn't need it. If you figure they do need a boost, just give it to them similar to ABP.
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Other than using it as inspiration for events and a rough idea of how many people were in the rebellion I didn't use the mini-game system at all.
For the numbers, I didn't track anything, only used it based on what seemed to be about right.
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Heroes,
How intergrated is the Rebellion Mini-Game into the Story of Hell's Rebels?
Is it possible to run the Rebellion in the background?
You can also ignore the narrative aspect of it too, the entire effort ultimately comes down to the PCs assassinating most of the government.
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You can also ignore the narrative aspect of it too, the entire effort ultimately comes down to the PCs assassinating most of the government.
Or, you know, you can have your PCs interact with the rebellion...
"[insert any AP here] ultimately comes down the to PCs killing the bad guys"
WHAT?!? Really?
WHO KNEW?!
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Why? There's no point to it.
No point to interacting with a massive group of NPCs that you're meant to be leading?
That's.... an opinion.Alternatively, it's fun to use teams from the rebellion rules to cause distractions or events, which is something you're able to do even if you're not using the rules or tracking anything.
Unless, you know, if your group simply wanted to go through and kill everything without paying any attention to NPCs.
Why? There's no point to it.No point to interacting with a massive group of NPCs that you're meant to be leading?
That's.... an opinion.Alternatively, it's fun to use teams from the rebellion rules to cause distractions or events, which is something you're able to do even if you're not using the rules or tracking anything.
Unless, you know, if your group simply wanted to go through and kill everything without paying any attention to NPCs.
That's not the problem. My group just doesn't like the extra paperwork from some of Paizo's mini-games.
That's not the problem. My group just doesn't like the extra paperwork from some of Paizo's mini-games.
My group went into Hell's Rebels right after finishing Kingmaker.
There was NO WAY we were going to track anything for the rebellion, but looking at the rules for inspiration for NPCs and things the rebellion could do lead to some fun sessions.Yes, you can completely ignore the rebellion, as Zimmerwald suggests, but for my group that would've taken away a lot of the fun of this particular AP.
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No point to interacting with a massive group of NPCs that you're meant to be leading?
That's.... an opinion.
"Massive" is not apt. Including base teams, bonus teams, unique allies, and the PCs the rebellion is supposed to have something like a hundred cadre members at most. The five thousand or so supporters it's supposed to have by the end of its advancement track is more apt, considering Kintargo only has about twelve thousand people in it.
But neither supporters nor members (whether allies or team members) are actually invested in the organization—they don't support it with dues (no, pooling funds to make gifts to the leadership is not the same!); they have no input on decision-making or on who's leading the organization (the PCs are unassailable in this); they don't organize internal factions that push agendas and need to be managed (and if some allies come with preexisting factions attached, like the Rose of Kintargo or the Order of the Torrent or the Lacunafex, nothing is made of this); and they do nothing mechanically that the PCs can't do (indeed, don't end up doing) themselves. At all times, the rebellion is a completely passive extension of, and a slush fund for, the PCs.
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But neither supporters nor members (whether allies or team members) are actually invested in the organization—they don't support it with dues (no, pooling funds to make gifts to the leadership is not the same!); they have no input on decision-making or on who's leading the organization (the PCs are unassailable in this); they don't organize internal factions that push agendas and need to be managed (and if some allies come with preexisting factions attached, like the Rose of Kintargo or the Order of the Torrent or the Lacunafex, nothing is made of this); and they do nothing mechanically that the PCs can't do (indeed, don't end up doing) themselves. At all times, the rebellion is a completely passive extension of, and a slush fund for, the PCs.
If that's how you choose to run the NPCs and teams of the rebellion, then that's on you.
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I could easily see altering the Rebellion rules to something a little simpler to reduce the paperwork, and simplify the downtime actions for the PCs.
Back of the napkin:
Rebellion Level - Always equals the player level.
Each week the PCs can make a check against the Rebellion level DC using a skill appropriate to the team they're working with:
Advisers - Bluff, Performance
Outlaws - Disguise, Stealth
Rebels - Intimidate, Perception
Traders - Appraise, Sense Motive
On a success the character gains 2 Preparation points for the week. If they beat the DC by more than 5 they gain 3 preparation points. On a failure they gain 1 preparation point (but increase Notoriety by 1d4), and if they roll a natural 1 they increase notoriety by 2d4 and gain no preparation points.
A PC may spend preparation points during the week in the following ways:
- Make a Diplomacy check to gather information as if they had performed the action during their downtime about a subject they come across while adventuring.
- Secure a cache of useful items near an adventuring location (as the secure a cache action)
- Have a team provide a distraction so the party can escape pursuers.
- Extract a character from an adventuring location to a safe-house (to rescue an unconscious player character, or extract an NPC so the PCs can keep adventuring)
- Call on an important Rebellion NPC to adventure with the party.
- Pull a non-magical item with a value of no greater than 25 gp x Rebellion level from their pack as if they had prepared it earlier.
- Reduce danger by 1d6 + Charisma
- Add rebellion level to one non-combat skill check to represent practice, study or preparation for a particular task.
Spending these points should be narrated with a flashback similar to a heist movie to represent the characters' planning, investigation and rebellion actions as they work with the teams and NPCs they've recruited through the adventure.