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Secrets of the Halmae: My Players Keep Out
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<blockquote data-quote="Spatzimaus" data-source="post: 2083190" data-attributes="member: 3051"><p>Well, I think the biggest hurdle you face is the knowledge part. The players have spent years getting to know these mages, so you can't really ask them to play the committee without leading to a lot of uncomfortable information gaps. You could have them play the archmages themselves, but I'm sure you don't WANT to let the players know the hidden agendas of these characters; plus, there are only four of them.</p><p></p><p>I think the better solution is to have the characters attached to the archmages as go-fers, local guides, translators, or even adjutants. Jericho's right that each might show up with an entourage, but how many would be familiar with Dar Pykos? Even if it's not an official requirement, the players are the only ones who fully understand both the culture of Dar Pykos and the cultures of the archmages' homelands. Plus, the PCs don't have a lot of hidden agendas, since they were under contract to the university in the first place, and are low enough in level that it's not a problem to use magic to verify their intentions. So, the PCs would summon the archmages when the committee needs them, show them around town, run errands, help clear up cultural confusions, that sort of thing.</p><p></p><p>This will force the PCs to split up, unfortunately. But, it provides a decent reason for them to be involved, lets them give information without any issues, and leads to the next step: if something unexpected were to happen to one of the archmages, the PCs would be directly in the middle of things, even if they normally wouldn't be involved in events that high-level. They'd help the university people and the archmages figure out what happened. I don't think this should be part of the plan; university bureaucracies are pretty stuffy, and things like an orchestrated "test" are just a bit too erratic for them. I'm sure they WANT a nice, long, drawn-out academic review of the four candidates, followed by a lengthy debate.</p><p></p><p>But you don't have to let that happen; ideally, this event would result in a clear "winner", even though it wasn't orchestrated by the university. For instance, let's call the archmages A, B, C, and D in descending order of competence. D does something nefarious to B, removing B from the competition. In the resulting investigation, D is found to be guilty, A clearly shows he's the best candidate for the job while C looks a bit ineffective, and it becomes a no-brainer when the committee picks A over C. There, you've picked a new Chancellor, the PCs were involved every step of the way, and no one had to sit through hours of recitations of events.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Spatzimaus, post: 2083190, member: 3051"] Well, I think the biggest hurdle you face is the knowledge part. The players have spent years getting to know these mages, so you can't really ask them to play the committee without leading to a lot of uncomfortable information gaps. You could have them play the archmages themselves, but I'm sure you don't WANT to let the players know the hidden agendas of these characters; plus, there are only four of them. I think the better solution is to have the characters attached to the archmages as go-fers, local guides, translators, or even adjutants. Jericho's right that each might show up with an entourage, but how many would be familiar with Dar Pykos? Even if it's not an official requirement, the players are the only ones who fully understand both the culture of Dar Pykos and the cultures of the archmages' homelands. Plus, the PCs don't have a lot of hidden agendas, since they were under contract to the university in the first place, and are low enough in level that it's not a problem to use magic to verify their intentions. So, the PCs would summon the archmages when the committee needs them, show them around town, run errands, help clear up cultural confusions, that sort of thing. This will force the PCs to split up, unfortunately. But, it provides a decent reason for them to be involved, lets them give information without any issues, and leads to the next step: if something unexpected were to happen to one of the archmages, the PCs would be directly in the middle of things, even if they normally wouldn't be involved in events that high-level. They'd help the university people and the archmages figure out what happened. I don't think this should be part of the plan; university bureaucracies are pretty stuffy, and things like an orchestrated "test" are just a bit too erratic for them. I'm sure they WANT a nice, long, drawn-out academic review of the four candidates, followed by a lengthy debate. But you don't have to let that happen; ideally, this event would result in a clear "winner", even though it wasn't orchestrated by the university. For instance, let's call the archmages A, B, C, and D in descending order of competence. D does something nefarious to B, removing B from the competition. In the resulting investigation, D is found to be guilty, A clearly shows he's the best candidate for the job while C looks a bit ineffective, and it becomes a no-brainer when the committee picks A over C. There, you've picked a new Chancellor, the PCs were involved every step of the way, and no one had to sit through hours of recitations of events. [/QUOTE]
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