Bane of the Tradeways tips?

[Caecafortuna]

I am running Bane of the Tradeways this week. Any tips/suggestions?

 

[MerricB]

The major one is to ask you how long you have to run the adventure. Bane tends to run a little long. If you are limited to 2 hours, there's a chase in it that you should probably cut short. (I didn't find the chase great anyway, but dice and DM may be a factor in my reading).

Bane is interesting as it gives you a choice of path...

Cheers!

 

[Caecafortuna]

Awesome, thanks. We have plenty of time - four hours, so we should not have a problem finishing it. I just DMd, The Occupation of Szith Morcane and Herald of the Moon the last two weeks. Unfortunately, no additional Expeditions are out yet for levels 5-10. I am enjoying the current season, the madness hook and the racism hook in Hillsfar has created some interesting table dynamics.

I like that this one gives the players choices, I think the table will find it enjoyable as they break in new characters.

 

[devlin1]

I liked Bane a lot, especially the chase section, so apparently you can expect some table variance.

[sblock]If you aren't running with minis, be prepared with some for the chase anyway; it'll make everything a lot clearer and tangible. Prep index cards or something to indicate the various positions in the chase (Behind, Ahead, Alongside, and Stopped) and have a cheat sheet of the various additional actions players can take during the chase for them to reference. If you don't, they're likely to be unaware of their options, and that'll make the chase less engaging.

Familiarize yourself with the special chase actions and have the Red Plumes take advantage of them. It'll show the players that this is a different sort of encounter.

We had a lot of movement between positions during the chase. At one point Ahead was empty, Alongside had a few occupants, Behind had the same, and one or two people were technically behind Behind, so I shifts the cards by position each -- Alongside became Ahead, etc. This may be obvious in hindsight, or even in foresight, but I think it's good to remember that the positions are mutable and relative. Stopped is still kinda weird, because no matter where you stop, you'll be in the same Stopped position, but don't worry about the details too much and it'll be fine. Or it was for me, anyway.

Our game had a number of cool events during the chase, IMO. The sorcerer witch bolted one of the wagon's wheels and managed to maintain it until the wagon was taken out, causing it to flip forward dramatically when it lost the wheel and throw the Red Plume driver. The fighter was a terror, leaping from horse to wagon to wagon successful throwing (shoving) drivers from their seats. She also tossed the guild mage, who survived the fall. When the paladin fell off his horse, the mage (some distance behind him) fire bolted him to unconsciousness, then took his horse and got back into the chase and had a a galloping firefight (literally) with the sorcerer.
[/sblock]

 

[Tyranthraxus]

My only running so far of Bane ran for 3.5 hours. (but I padded it out so it felt like it ran to almost the length of a normal scenario).

I flubbed up the Chase, but managed to make it look like I didnt and people seemed to have a good time. As Ive stated many times before Im definetly not a fan of chases.

[sblock]

Has anyone actually had a table that sided WITH the Red Plumes? A lot of people seem to metagame that they are really bad people and by this time most groups if they have been playing in order would have a foul view of them

[/sblock]

 

[devlin1]

When I played it...
[sblock]...I was playing a Trade Sheriff, and was the only one who was willing to consider that we should back the Red Plumes. That didn't last long, though. They're jerks. Everyone knows that.[/sblock]

 

[Tyranthraxus]

Paladins

[sblock]

I had a LG Paladin at my table who wanted to side with the legimitate authority. However he rolled very bad on init and didnt really get a vote as the Rogue essentially picked the team side.

I had one character who rolled abyssmally all session. A Ranger. He kept trying to pick off Red Plumes from 30 ft and missing. In fact he hit nothing that entire battle. I actually said 'It looks like the party has picked the side of the bandits, but Im not sure what side you have picked ! '

THe ONLY way I can see this going different is if the table is basically a bunch of like first timers and then they might side with the Red Plumes. I just cant see it happening otherwise based on whats happened in 3-1 and 3-2.

Its a shame really, that content takes up half the word count with them protecting the Caravan and fighting the bandits, but it may never really ever be used

[/sblock]

 

[Caecafortuna]

I liked Bane a lot, especially the chase section, so apparently you can expect some table variance.

[sblock]If you aren't running with minis, be prepared with some for the chase anyway; it'll make everything a lot clearer and tangible. Prep index cards or something to indicate the various positions in the chase (Behind, Ahead, Alongside, and Stopped) and have a cheat sheet of the various additional actions players can take during the chase for them to reference. If you don't, they're likely to be unaware of their options, and that'll make the chase less engaging.

Familiarize yourself with the special chase actions and have the Red Plumes take advantage of them. It'll show the players that this is a different sort of encounter.

We had a lot of movement between positions during the chase. At one point Ahead was empty, Alongside had a few occupants, Behind had the same, and one or two people were technically behind Behind, so I shifts the cards by position each -- Alongside became Ahead, etc. This may be obvious in hindsight, or even in foresight, but I think it's good to remember that the positions are mutable and relative. Stopped is still kinda weird, because no matter where you stop, you'll be in the same Stopped position, but don't worry about the details too much and it'll be fine. Or it was for me, anyway.

Our game had a number of cool events during the chase, IMO. The sorcerer witch bolted one of the wagon's wheels and managed to maintain it until the wagon was taken out, causing it to flip forward dramatically when it lost the wheel and throw the Red Plume driver. The fighter was a terror, leaping from horse to wagon to wagon successful throwing (shoving) drivers from their seats. She also tossed the guild mage, who survived the fall. When the paladin fell off his horse, the mage (some distance behind him) fire bolted him to unconsciousness, then took his horse and got back into the chase and had a a galloping firefight (literally) with the sorcerer.
[/sblock]

Very cool. Great suggestion on providing a reference sheet to the players so they know what actions are available to them. Thanks.

 

[Caecafortuna]

Paladins

[sblock]

I had a LG Paladin at my table who wanted to side with the legimitate authority. However he rolled very bad on init and didnt really get a vote as the Rogue essentially picked the team side.

I had one character who rolled abyssmally all session. A Ranger. He kept trying to pick off Red Plumes from 30 ft and missing. In fact he hit nothing that entire battle. I actually said 'It looks like the party has picked the side of the bandits, but Im not sure what side you have picked ! '

THe ONLY way I can see this going different is if the table is basically a bunch of like first timers and then they might side with the Red Plumes. I just cant see it happening otherwise based on whats happened in 3-1 and 3-2.

Its a shame really, that content takes up half the word count with them protecting the Caravan and fighting the bandits, but it may never really ever be used

[/sblock]

It will be interesting to see how my table responds. While the characters will be new, the players will be primarily the same ones that played The Occupation of Szith Morcane. In TOoSM, the Red Plumes were helpful and assisted the party to get into the Underdark.

 

[skerritthegreen]

Paladins

[sblock]

I had a LG Paladin at my table who wanted to side with the legimitate authority. However he rolled very bad on init and didnt really get a vote as the Rogue essentially picked the team side.

[/sblock]

Same thing happened when I ran a playtest.