RangerWickett
Legend
If you plan to run at least the first five adventures, I honestly think you should get the NPC cards. http://www.rpgnow.com/product/133041/ZEITGEIST-The-Gears-of-Revolution-NPC-Cards--Act-I
Having a map of Flint helps. I wish RPGNow sold posters, but the next best thing is the Act One handouts. http://www.rpgnow.com/product/13976...Act-One?src=also_purchased&coverSizeTest=true
Also, are you running from the stand-alone adventures, or the Act One compilation? http://www.rpgnow.com/product/13893...hfinder?src=also_purchased&coverSizeTest=true The compilation has some revisions and clarifications, and it makes the climax battle with Macbannin more interesting by letting him use blood magic to stay alive even if the PCs swarm him and ignore his minions.
Also, maybe check out some of the threads of GMs who've run the adventure. http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...gulars/page2&p=6154226&viewfull=1#post6154226
(Roadtoad's group is also only the second one I know of to finish the entire campaign!)
The main thing to keep in mind for running The Dying Skyseer is narrow-wide-narrow. The adventure starts at the narrow point (investigate a murder at the consulate), then gets wide and has tons of options (smugglers, Gale, the doctor), but through it all your job as GM is to make sure the players can draw conclusions that get them to the narrow finale (Macbannin's manor). My suggestion is to keep a sense of how frustrated your players are, and be willing to throw them a bone if they have finished two scenes -- the "Defend Nevard from flayed panthers" scene and the "Weight of Crumbling Stone" scene -- and still seem confused. I also suggest mentioning to the players that this adventure by itself is almost like a whole half-season arc of a TV show. Prime them to expect it to take a while to solve the mystery.
For the first session, though, it should be fairly straight-forward. Go the consulate, look for evidence, and pick a couple leads to investigate -- Nilasa's old criminal contacts at the Goodson Estuarial Reformatory, or the gnomes who made the drugs she put in the food, or the trail of Dr. von Recklinghausen who took the documents, or the Thinking Man Tavern. I'd definitely recommend that, if possible, you steer the PCs to talk to Heward Sechim before the end of the first session. He points the PCs at skyseer Nevard, who he thinks might be able to help them find Gale, which sort of sets the through-line of the adventure's plot. If necessary, Delft could meet with the party and order them to interview Nilasa's adopted father.
Read through the key NPC descriptions and make sure you understand their motivations and role in the adventure:
If you have any questions, just ask. It might help you to draw a story map (maybe we should have done this), with the murder branching out to different scenes, with lines connecting scenes. Honestly the plot is kind of linear: as you find evidence, it leads you to more evidence. It's just that there are multiple threads at once that you can pursue in different orders, so it feels more open. Again, keep a sense of how confused the players are, and maybe give them a heads-up that this is a longer adventure, and solving the mystery might take a while.
Good luck.
Having a map of Flint helps. I wish RPGNow sold posters, but the next best thing is the Act One handouts. http://www.rpgnow.com/product/13976...Act-One?src=also_purchased&coverSizeTest=true
Also, are you running from the stand-alone adventures, or the Act One compilation? http://www.rpgnow.com/product/13893...hfinder?src=also_purchased&coverSizeTest=true The compilation has some revisions and clarifications, and it makes the climax battle with Macbannin more interesting by letting him use blood magic to stay alive even if the PCs swarm him and ignore his minions.
Also, maybe check out some of the threads of GMs who've run the adventure. http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...gulars/page2&p=6154226&viewfull=1#post6154226
(Roadtoad's group is also only the second one I know of to finish the entire campaign!)
The main thing to keep in mind for running The Dying Skyseer is narrow-wide-narrow. The adventure starts at the narrow point (investigate a murder at the consulate), then gets wide and has tons of options (smugglers, Gale, the doctor), but through it all your job as GM is to make sure the players can draw conclusions that get them to the narrow finale (Macbannin's manor). My suggestion is to keep a sense of how frustrated your players are, and be willing to throw them a bone if they have finished two scenes -- the "Defend Nevard from flayed panthers" scene and the "Weight of Crumbling Stone" scene -- and still seem confused. I also suggest mentioning to the players that this adventure by itself is almost like a whole half-season arc of a TV show. Prime them to expect it to take a while to solve the mystery.
For the first session, though, it should be fairly straight-forward. Go the consulate, look for evidence, and pick a couple leads to investigate -- Nilasa's old criminal contacts at the Goodson Estuarial Reformatory, or the gnomes who made the drugs she put in the food, or the trail of Dr. von Recklinghausen who took the documents, or the Thinking Man Tavern. I'd definitely recommend that, if possible, you steer the PCs to talk to Heward Sechim before the end of the first session. He points the PCs at skyseer Nevard, who he thinks might be able to help them find Gale, which sort of sets the through-line of the adventure's plot. If necessary, Delft could meet with the party and order them to interview Nilasa's adopted father.
Read through the key NPC descriptions and make sure you understand their motivations and role in the adventure:
- Julian LeBrix is security chief at the Danoran consulate, where Nilasa died. He is mostly loyal to his country, but if given evidence bad things are afoot, he'll be willing to help the party.
- The authorities assume Gale, the fey terrorist, should be the focus of the investigation, but she's really more of a potential ally.
- Heward Sechim took care of Nilasa. His uncle Nevard is a dying skyseer, who is respected by Gale. Nevard will get them a meeting with Gale if they'll help him go up atop Cauldron Hill to have a vision. That requires permission from Macbannin, who agrees, but secretly sends his henchman to try to kill the party atop the mountain.
- Macbannin is the well-meaning big bad. Cillian Creed is his henchman, who relays messages to other allies like crime boss Lorcan Kell and the arsonist twins Eberardo and Valando. But those allies don't know about the bigger picture, and so won't relay information up to Macbannin.
- Dr. Wolfgang von Recklinghausen is a bystander, who turns to Lorcan Kell for help and ends up hiding in The Nettles. Eventually the PCs should find him. (The doctor is linked to Mr. Mapple, a character in adventure 4.)
- Leone Quital, who recurs as a villain in adventures 5 and 7, interrupts the PCs' meeting with the good doctor, and tries to crush them in an underground church.
- Morgan Cippiano is head of the local branch of the Mafia-esque Family. He's a crook, but wants to make mutually beneficial deals with the PCs. He's a rival to Lorcan Kell, at least through adventure 5 when the PCs will likely take Kell down.
- When the party first goes to Macbannin's manor, they should have a brief, seemingly pointless meeting with a courier who smokes 'Leaf of Nicodemus' (i.e., cigarettes). He waxes philosophical, gets a brief measure of the PCs, then leaves. This is actually the main villain of the entire campaign, so think of how you want to roleplay him and set him up early. I always imagined him as being played by George Clooney.
If you have any questions, just ask. It might help you to draw a story map (maybe we should have done this), with the murder branching out to different scenes, with lines connecting scenes. Honestly the plot is kind of linear: as you find evidence, it leads you to more evidence. It's just that there are multiple threads at once that you can pursue in different orders, so it feels more open. Again, keep a sense of how confused the players are, and maybe give them a heads-up that this is a longer adventure, and solving the mystery might take a while.
Good luck.
