NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jayoungr" data-source="post: 6677131" data-attributes="member: 6702445">Having just wrapped up chapter 4, I thought I'd share some of my suggestions and experiences in running it.  Here, for what they're worth, are my thoughts on handling the large numbers of NPCs:Introduce the NPCs a few at a time. My group met some of them in a tavern in Baldur's Gate where they were looking for Harper contacts, before the caravan even formed. Several more new characters joined the caravan at the first major roadhouse, and a few more joined at Daggerford along with Jamna Gleamsilver and Azbara Jos.Make a list of NPC roleplaying traits for quick reference.  I divided the caravan NPCs into four sections:  merchants, teamsters, travelers, and guards.  I tried to keep my roleplaying notes to three words for each character.  Just thinking about which words to use helped me to fix the characters firmly in my head.  In the case of the merchants, I also added a note on what they were hauling.Keep a "cheat sheet" of who's with each wagon. At minimum, be sure you know which PCs are with which wagon owner, as well as any other guards, teamsters, or travelers who are in the same group.Don't neglect the cultists.  Figure out how many cultist wagons are in the caravan and what they're ostensibly hauling. An idea I borrowed from the Begging for XP podcast that greatly amused  my group was to have two of the cultists posing as newlyweds setting  out to start a new life in Waterdeep, with the wagon supposedly holding  their household possessions. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRMH8zOSrmuYg5LR5FjQysA" target="_blank">Another group</a> had one  of the cult wagons pretending to carry artworks to an exhibit hall in  Waterdeep--great cover for hauling treasure.  Also, it's easy to miss in the book, but there are supposed to be nine cultists posing as guards and travelers.  Have names and roleplaying notes ready for at least a few of them--especially the wagon drivers, who are most likely to attract attention.  You may find the <a href="http://detectmagic.blogspot.com/2014/08/hoard-of-dragon-queen-cultist-generator.html" target="_blank">Cultist Generator</a> handy for this purpose. One of the caravan cultists could be Larion Keenblade, the thief mentioned in chapter 5. Also, be sure that you introduce the female veteran who is going to challenge a PC to a duel in chapter 5.Give each PC an NPC who targets him/her for interaction. This will give you ready-made material for roleplaying interludes and suggest things that can happen during the planned encounters. It also means that if some characters have little to do in a given session, you can give them some spotlight time by bringing in their designated NPCs.  If you're having any inter-party romance or UST, having NPCs hit on one or both halves of the couple can create some drama.  (We had two PCs go from awkward flirtation to official couple in this way.)Be very careful in introducing Jamna Gleamsilver. A lot of groups really seem to hate her; I think it's because they know she's not telling them everything.  It's difficult to play her convincingly as a master of manipulation/misdirection, unless the DM is good at that sort of thing IRL.  I had some success by having her stress, "Hey, I'm on your side, even if I can't tell you who I work for," but I might just have her spill the beans if I were to run this again. Alternatively, just be prepared for the possibility that your players may dislike her and may even attack her if they catch her manipulating them.</blockquote>

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