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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 8098479" data-attributes="member: 63">Week two. No combat this time, just me inflicting a scenario on myself with eleven named NPCs in one place. I set up a 'map' in roll20 that just has the portraits and names of each of the NPCs, for roleplaying scenes.This might be a flaw in the adventure design, being too complicated, but so far the players are enjoying it.I apparently cannot do an Italian accent, so Crisillyiri people sound like they're from the US New England region, and Malicelanders are from the south. I like roleplaying Kvarti because it's easy for his 'Russian' accent to make him stand out from the other NPCs. I'd also scripted a three-line back-and-forth sniping conversation between a Danoran and a Risuri, but having the GM talk to himself is awkward. I might keep it just to give the GM a sense of the dynamic between the two NPCs, even if they don't use it verbatim.Some NPCs naturally got more interest than others, and unsurprisingly everyone wanted to talk to the character with the Healer feat who will restore their HP if they're friendly to him. But to my surprise nobody made friends with anyone else because they figured everyone had a political agenda, except for the cook, who won much praise for her interest in the party's dietary requirements. (Apparently the harimau elf is a vegan, despite being descended from weretigers.)Our dwarven naturalist PC asked about some books in the library on malice beast anatomy, which led to me making up on the spot that many books on that topic are conspicuously missing from the card catalog. That led to the PC rudely barging into the rooms of all the NPCs looking for those books, making him disliked by basically all the guests. I need to make sure there's some payoff when he finds where those books actually went. The rampage came to an end when he refused to be impressed by a wizardress acting as a VIP's bodyguard, so she cast charm person on him, and he rolled a 1.He proceeded to roll very well on his check to write a love poem to the wizardress, which he might recite over dinner next session.I think I did a good job providing enough detail about the manor that the "clues to secrets" blended in with the innocuous description. For maybe the first time in my entire D&D career, stonecunning revealed useful information, yet the PC didn't follow up. But the party did discover something I didn't expect, when the stealthy harimau elf eavesdropped on the right room while all the other NPCs were distracted. The person in that room was rehearsing a speech they intended to give over dinner, so the party knows one of the twists before it happens.So far we're 6 hours in and have only finished the first of five acts. I haven't even killed the person who's supposed to get murdered to kick off the plot! I was able to run Bonds of Forced Faith in one four-hour session, but this adventure is more complicated. I wonder if I should trim things out in the version we publish, or keep it complicated and trust GMs and players to handle the heft of a mansion murder mystery.The players are unsure if I'm doing Clue or Knives Out. Jokes on them: I'm doing And Then There Were None.</blockquote>

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