Freeport's later modules

[Mouseferatu]

Can you sell me on the module?

I can try, though it's been a while.

Gangs of Freeport was, essentially, my attempt to answer two specific questions.

1) What would happen if someone with real power made a concerted effort at dominating the criminal element of the city?

2) Whatever happened to (spoiler!!) [sblock]Dutch Tillinghast?[/sblock]

What worked, in your opinion?

Looking back, I'm still very happy at how I tied in many of the city's movers and shakers, without working them so heavily in that the PCs should wonder why they're the ones dealing with the plot. I'm very happy with the way (most of) the mystery turned out--I think it makes sense, and I think it's got the right combination of challenge and logical solution. I still grin at one or two of the "double blinds" in the mystery. Some of the encounter locations (such as the sideways ship) are really nifty. And I think it feels very Freeport.

What would you like a second crack at, now that you've got some distance on the project?

Hmm... Three things, none of which bother me too much, but I'd tweak 'em if I could.

I wish I'd provided more guidance for the DM in case the PCs get off-track when following up the mystery. I don't think bottlenecks are likely, but they're possible.

I wish I'd played up the swashbuckling aspect of combat a little more. I think many of the encounters are interesting, and there are a few really wild ones, but I wish I'd included one or two more truly bizarre/acrobatic combat settings.

And ultimately, I think the plot and story would have been better drawn out over a longer module. Given the size of the villains' plots and efforts, it feels little small to me in retrospect.

But note that none of those three are major regrets. I'm really quite happy with the way Gangs turned out.

Dunno if any of that helps or not, but I'm happy to answer additional questions.

 

[catsclaw227]

The misogynistic tone is wildly inconsistent with the rest of Freeport adventures. While I'm all for bad guys being bad, the adventure seems to harp on sexual abuse a bit too much. See for yourself:

I wish you had used the spoiler tags..... I was going to GM this module and one of my players happened by this thread.

 

[roguerouge]

To be fair, I did use the spoiler tags, even if the other poster who was expanding on my issue didn't. If they didn't turn away at that point.... they were going to look anyway.

 

[catsclaw227]

To be fair, I did use the spoiler tags, even if the other poster who was expanding on my issue didn't. If they didn't turn away at that point.... they were going to look anyway.

Yes, you did. Unfortunately, the player didn't see your spoiler warning...... I know, not your fault. He was beaten with a wet noodle (by his wife, another player).

 

[roguerouge]

How are/were you going to deal with the problematic content in your game? Just use it? Adapt it? Tune it down but keep it?

 

[catsclaw227]

I was just going to use it as it is. I have 3 female gamers in my group, but they're more raw than the male gamers. I don't think they'd get offended, but I will give them a disclaimer before the adventure, letting them know we may be entering R+ content, with some disturbing themes, and tone down if necessary.

There are ways to present the scenes without actually "seeing" it. Sorta like pre-slasher horror.

 

[roguerouge]

There are ways to present the scenes without actually "seeing" it. Sorta like pre-slasher horror.

That's what I'm interested in. What specific techniques are you referring to here?

 

[catsclaw227]

Well in this case:

[sblock]P. 10: "If the PCs don't help Lexi, a group of Cutthroats find her. They spend a few hours entertaining their lusts before cutting her throat and tossing her corpse onto the street."


If they find Lexi, I would tone it down to:


You find poor Lexi, dead, her body wounded in unspeakable ways.[/sblock]

If they are around to experience this:

[sblock]p. 34: "The pirates entertained their darkest lusts on the survivors, dragging the servants to the various rooms upstairs where their shrieks sounded for hours."


Then I would simply say:


"Cries of suffering emminate from upstairs, recalling fictional accounts of virtue despoiled."[/sblock]

It is not tasteless, yet it gets the idea across. If getting the idea across is still too much, then have "milder" forms of violence being committed.

Just my 2cp.

 

[DwarvenDog]

If Talien's list is comprehensive, I'd be inclined to just toss the sex/brutalization entirely. There is no one element among them that adds anything really necessary, unless you WANT to explore those themes.

(Thanks, Talien, BTW)

Seriously, you can get away with simply portraying servants as extremely timid and unwilling to help. You do not have to get into anybody's backstory here, and if it comes up you can always have the servant/victim/whatever start sobbing and be unable to continue. That hammers home the point without "going there."

In terms of "catching people in the act," well, just don't. Or if such a scene could be fun if done right, try for something tamer. Example, the "30% chance of pirate with servant" scene could be simply a chance for your heroine to stabbity-stab the naked, defenseless pirate. Perhaps servant sees that help has arrived and maneuvers the pirate so that his back is to the PC. Key point here is that servant becomes "capable" instead of "victimized" and that helps remove a level of ickiness from the encounter.

If the goal here is to beat up a lot of pirates, I'm pretty sure you can keep the level of detail to a minimum. If the goal is instead to rescue servants and captives from depraved sadists, then I think you're in for a more serious balancing act.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For what it's worth, those are some pretty historically accurate pirates, there. Even if this stuff isn't stated explicitly in the other modules, the assumption should be these are bad men.