ZEITGEIST Starting the 4th Book soon, any tips?

[Hunter0441]

Also the meeting in Vendreicce (sp) is supposed to be on the 20th of Winter, however they clearly start the meeting almost as soon as the train arrives. Is the plan changed due to the parties actions or did I miss something?

 

[RangerWickett]

Also the meeting in Vendreicce (sp) is supposed to be on the 20th of Winter, however they clearly start the meeting almost as soon as the train arrives. Is the plan changed due to the parties actions or did I miss something?

There's a more important meeting that has more VIPs and planning. The arrival in Vendricce is just to welcome Luc, and invite him to join the conspiracy. But there's no discussion of formal business until later.

 

[arkwright]

Might be worth checking out my Zeitvice.

 

[Echolocation]

100% check out arkwright's Zeitvice.

Beware including all the red herring NPCs. PCs may spend too many resources trying to investigate them.

The book provides a description of each major stop, but also consider how the terrain changes between each stop. It can give a feel for each nation. If the PCs argue with an NPC whilst the train is travelling through the Malice Lands, perhaps the air itself becomes more humid and uncomfortable. Some NPCs may literally give PCs a cold shoulder.

If you have a technologist NPC, you may wish to prime them for a train-ridden escape from Vendreicce. If you do, perhaps Xorin offers the technologist a chance to talk to the driver, or even better, an opportunity to drive the train.

Have NPCs talk with each other to flesh them out. My players enjoyed NPCs arguing, telling each other jokes, drinking, sharing their woes, etc.

As mentioned in Zeitvice, some groups may need a bit more of a moral push to slaughter Damata's creditors. The story I ran with was that Sly had conducted this business without the higher-ups approval. The party figured The Family would kill Sly for his treachery, so they would just be expediting things. The players gave Sly's underlings a chance to escape, under the condition they told The Family that Sly had just stolen the money, not loaned it.

There is closure to some storylines, but not all. Your players may enjoy knowing the truth/endings for some of the NPCs. At the end of the adventure I gave my players a montage of different NPCs journeys after departing the Avery Coast Railroad.

 

[Andrew Moreton]

You have to think about the Red Herrings but I added more and it worked for my group.
The thing I remember as not working smoothly was the luck power of the dwarf bodyguard, in pathfinder is it actually fairly weak and underwhelming but the encounter where it is first seen working on an npc makes it look powerful and cool . My players worried about it excessivly and as a result when they confronted the dwarf it seemed underwhelming so I recomend either playing it down from the description in the book when first encounted or boosting it to make it as impressive as it looks.

The players also don't need to kill Damata's creditors be careful about framing the situation in such a way as to railroad them into violence. My group talked them around with references to their good freind Cipriano and persuaded everyone present to reach a satisfactory business deal. Let the players be creative

If you can either have on screen or in person a complete map of the train with the locations of all the interesting NPC's and Red Herrings marked on to help them plan their activities. The only problem we had with this was the printed out train was longer than the room was wide.

I really should write up my own advice while I still vaguely remember things

 

[tragicThaumaturge]

I would advice you to deviate a bit from the Nem encounter as written. My players did not enjoy it. They found it frustrating having to make their way through the entire length of the train, getting very far only to be teleported back to the start whenever they got hit.
Other than that, try to make your players like the other passengers if you can, especially the Ob. The end of the adventure is much better if they actually feel bad about fighting these people. Both the dwarf and Bree were well liked by the group, so once they realized they were with the Ob it hurt.

 

[RangerWickett]

I would advice you to deviate a bit from the Nem encounter as written. My players did not enjoy it. They found it frustrating having to make their way through the entire length of the train, getting very far only to be teleported back to the start whenever they got hit.

Hm? They only get sent back to the beginning if they fall off the train. Unless something was changed in the 5e version.

 

[tragicThaumaturge]

Hm? They only get sent back to the beginning if they fall off the train. Unless something was changed in the 5e version.

4e, the enemies slid them off the train. Particularly the last one I believe, the big wraith.

 

[Andrew Moreton]

4e, the enemies slid them off the train. Particularly the last one I believe, the big wraith.

The GM Chose to have the enemies slide them off the train. Unless 4th ed is even less flexible than I thought. In PF i don't remember any special abilities which really encouraged me to do that to the players , and with anything in a scenario if it does not work for your players change it. Knocking someone of the train sounds like it may be interesting once or twice but no reason for the mindless undead to do it repeatedly.

 

[RangerWickett]

No, the whole point of that boss wraith in the 4e version was to frustrate PCs without killing them. It's not mindless. The hope was that after one PC got blipped back to the start that way, the party would be able to rejigger their tactics to avoid being thrown off.

I thought that perhaps they'd misunderstood and had EVERY monster auto-teleport anyone they hit.