Council of Thieves AP (Spoilers)

Lwaxy · Feb 24, 2012

I'll try that next time.

Crothian · Feb 25, 2012

I have no idea what the chase deck is. I never use those types of things for gaming.

Crothian · Feb 26, 2012

In prepping the first book it seems pretty straight forward enough. I still need to figure out what I'm going to foreshadow from the other adventures. I will be starting with an introduction adventure but I'm going to wait until character creation to really figure out what that will be. I'm going to use that to tie the group together before they get recruited by the Children of Westcrown.

So, what in the first adventure did you change? What looking back on it should you have changed?

Crothian · Feb 29, 2012

Time to look at some aspects of the campaign a little closer. The largest piece that looms over the city and PCs and that the PCs can do something about is the curse and the shadow creatures that haunt the night. I want to emphasize that and showcase the horror. All the players are being required to watch Pitch Black.

Because of the shadow creatures I'm showing that there is no homeless population because they would be killed off fast. Also, there are no wild cats, dogs, or other stray animals around the city. The port city also does not have a rodent problem. Because of the lack of animals diseases are rarer in the city and with no homeless and the nights being so dangerous the crime rate is really low. That is slowly changing as gangs are learning how to adapt to the situation.

What other things would this do to a city? How else can I show the city is a changed place because of the shadow creatures?

I've also introduced a history of attempts to rid the city of the shadow creatures. I'm demonstrating that even after three decades people really don't have a good idea of what the creatures are. There are a few monuments to the guards and adventurers that tried to take back the night in the first few months but ultimately lost. The city did a month long day search of every building, basement, sewer, and other potential hiding place to try to locate the creatures liar. After about a decade a group of Clerics of Asmodeus came to the city and they had some success but were eventually picked off one at a time. The last attempt was more passive and by a small group of Wizards. They invested money into many continual light spells and cast about 10 a day and that brightened up parts of the city for a while. But then something dispelled them and the wizards didn't have the resources to keep replacing them.

I don't want it to seem like the problem has never been tried to solve. There is also the secret guild that hunts the creatures and pays a bounty for any killed. I'm not sure what to do with them or how to expand them to make them part of the campaign past book one. Any ideas?

BobROE · Feb 29, 2012

Crothian said:
What other things would this do to a city? How else can I show the city is a changed place because of the shadow creatures?

I think one of the larger changes, which is mentioned in some of the books, is that any sort of activity that would occur at night now occurs during the day or involves sleeping at the location of the event.

So things that the players may expect to take place at night now doesn't.

Crothian · Mar 1, 2012

Ya, plays take place during the daytime hours, people that eat dinner out do so earlier. I've got a few places of business that have an open all night lock the customer in business model. Anything else?

Crothian · Mar 10, 2012

Characters are mostly made. We have a Human rogue who is also and actress, a human Bard Opera singer, a Tiefling Urban Ranger, and probably a human Inquisitor.

I encouraged everyone to go with more skill oriented classes as I'm running this to focus on skills a bit more. It is going to be very interesting to see how this works out.

MerricB · Mar 12, 2012

G'day, Crothian!

It looks like my very first Pathfinder experience will start this weekend - with us running through Council of Thieves. I'll blog (separately) about it, but I'm going to be very interested in what happens in your game.

I think for the first session I'll begin it in media res, with them facing a group of Hellknights in the sewers (being somewhat winded after a chase), loop back to explain how they got there (the meeting), and then immediately go to the hideout scenes.

Good luck with your game!

Cheers,
Merric

Crothian · Mar 13, 2012

That sounds cool. I need for the players to complete their characters and then decide if they are going to all know each other or if I'm going to bring them together like the module does.

Either way the first small adventure they are going to do is go after the goblinking Whitechin. I'm moving that from an option near the end to the beginning to space out dealing with gangs. There they will rescue the Pathfinder from book 2 allowing them to meet up with her earlier and learn about the Pathfinders issues with Cheilax and some history that they are not aware of.

Then I've got some piecemeal encounters that I'll use to set the tone and show some of the major players in Westcrown. I tailor a lot of things for the PCs and I've already got a few additional NPC then the books to introduce at some point.

I hope things go well for you and I look forward to reading about your groups exploits.

Crothian · Apr 14, 2012

Anyone have a better idea for an opening scene then what the AP presents. Or perhaps not an opening scene but I would like to resent the horrors and some of the bad guys of Westcrown early on. It's one thing to tell the players what is going on in the city, but I prefer to show them. I'm not sure what though. I might do something with the Council of Thieves to show they are around and that they are really up to no good. It could allow the PCs to run into some of their members earlier in the campaign and have something to go towards. So much of the campaign is very A leads to B leads to C that I want to have more for the PCs to do and investigate around the cities.

There are no bad ideas for this, I'm just brain storming out loud and looking for any input from people that have ran, played, or just read the AP. Thanks.