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Gears of Revolution: Notes on my campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="Colmarr" data-source="post: 5639533" data-attributes="member: 59182"><p><a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/story-hour/307949-gears-revolution-zeitgeist-campaign.html" target="_blank">Story hour</a> updated. The updates are still for Session 1, and cover the period after the docker brawl, but just before the PCs board the Coaltongue, which is where we ended our session.</p><p> </p><p>A <em>significant</em> number of NPCs are introduced in this part of the adventure, and it gives an opportunity for players to interract with the movers and shakers of Risuri society, even if only in a superficial way.</p><p> </p><p>Even for those players who aren't into this sort of scene, I like the message it sends: <em>this is an adventure path where NPCs will matter</em>. There's no one here who is standing around with a proverbial question mark over their head. I'm trying to reinforce that sense of richness by literally highlighting the NPCs in the story hour thread. Ideally, I'd like my players to begin wondering just how those NPCs are going to become relevant further into the AP, but if nothing else, hopefully it will help them to remember who is who.</p><p> </p><p><span style="color: darkorange">The good</span></p><p></p><p>I'm not sure whether it was intentional that Sokana Rell is the only attractive female among the cast of NPCs at the launch of the Coaltongue, but if it was then it's a masterstroke. Two of my players immediately took a schoolboy-like shine to her. </p><p>It's lucky we play online, because I don't think I could have hidden my devilish glee face-to-face. I can't wait to see how they react when she turns out to be a saboteur</p><p> </p><p><span style="color: darkorange">The bad</span></p><p></p><p>I think there might be a few too many NPCs in this section. RangerWickett voiced some concerns earlier on that there was too much of an infodump. When reading through the adventure, I disagreed. But having now played through it, I think my opinion has changed. </p><p> </p><p>The NPCs are intriguing characters. Every single one of them has a secret or a personality quirk that makes them fun to read. But introducing them to the PCs all at once can easily become didactic. </p><p> </p><p>If your group is likely to be bored by this sort of thing, I would say that Rutger Smith and Geoff Massarde are the most expendable of the PCs in this section. Smith is of course introduced in Act 2, so you don't really need him here, and according to the NPC roster on page 2, you might not need to physically introduce Massarde at all. If push came to shove, you could possibly even leave out Governor Stanfield.</p><p> </p><p>For my group, I included all of the NPCs. I think they handled it well, and I suspect some of them are keeping notes of who's who. That's pleasing and shows that they're interested in engaging with the AP rather than just trotting from combat to combat.</p><p> </p><p><span style="color: darkorange">The ugly</span></p><p> </p><p>Nothing really to report here, except a query.</p><p> </p><p>I've decided that the halfling chef on the docks is actually Ilton (the halfling assassin) in disguise. It's not clear from the text whether that was RangerWickett's intention, but it struck me just before the session began that it might be more than coincidence that there's a halfling chef wandering around on the docks just before a halfling assassin appears on the Coaltongue. After all, chefs are handy with knives, right?</p><p> </p><p>Hopefully, Ilton's duplicity will couple nicely with Sokana's betrayal to give the PCs a sense that Zeitgeist is going to be more than a vanilla D&D campaign.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Colmarr, post: 5639533, member: 59182"] [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/story-hour/307949-gears-revolution-zeitgeist-campaign.html"]Story hour[/URL] updated. The updates are still for Session 1, and cover the period after the docker brawl, but just before the PCs board the Coaltongue, which is where we ended our session. A [I]significant[/I] number of NPCs are introduced in this part of the adventure, and it gives an opportunity for players to interract with the movers and shakers of Risuri society, even if only in a superficial way. Even for those players who aren't into this sort of scene, I like the message it sends: [I]this is an adventure path where NPCs will matter[/I]. There's no one here who is standing around with a proverbial question mark over their head. I'm trying to reinforce that sense of richness by literally highlighting the NPCs in the story hour thread. Ideally, I'd like my players to begin wondering just how those NPCs are going to become relevant further into the AP, but if nothing else, hopefully it will help them to remember who is who. [COLOR=darkorange]The good[/COLOR] I'm not sure whether it was intentional that Sokana Rell is the only attractive female among the cast of NPCs at the launch of the Coaltongue, but if it was then it's a masterstroke. Two of my players immediately took a schoolboy-like shine to her. It's lucky we play online, because I don't think I could have hidden my devilish glee face-to-face. I can't wait to see how they react when she turns out to be a saboteur [COLOR=darkorange]The bad[/COLOR] I think there might be a few too many NPCs in this section. RangerWickett voiced some concerns earlier on that there was too much of an infodump. When reading through the adventure, I disagreed. But having now played through it, I think my opinion has changed. The NPCs are intriguing characters. Every single one of them has a secret or a personality quirk that makes them fun to read. But introducing them to the PCs all at once can easily become didactic. If your group is likely to be bored by this sort of thing, I would say that Rutger Smith and Geoff Massarde are the most expendable of the PCs in this section. Smith is of course introduced in Act 2, so you don't really need him here, and according to the NPC roster on page 2, you might not need to physically introduce Massarde at all. If push came to shove, you could possibly even leave out Governor Stanfield. For my group, I included all of the NPCs. I think they handled it well, and I suspect some of them are keeping notes of who's who. That's pleasing and shows that they're interested in engaging with the AP rather than just trotting from combat to combat. [COLOR=darkorange]The ugly[/COLOR] Nothing really to report here, except a query. I've decided that the halfling chef on the docks is actually Ilton (the halfling assassin) in disguise. It's not clear from the text whether that was RangerWickett's intention, but it struck me just before the session began that it might be more than coincidence that there's a halfling chef wandering around on the docks just before a halfling assassin appears on the Coaltongue. After all, chefs are handy with knives, right? Hopefully, Ilton's duplicity will couple nicely with Sokana's betrayal to give the PCs a sense that Zeitgeist is going to be more than a vanilla D&D campaign. [/QUOTE]
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