ZEITGEIST Zeitgeist Advice Wanted: Cauldron Born

[EpicLurker]

Hi all!

My players are about a session or two from entering the Bleak Gate and it is looking very likely that they'll be using the King's method of transportation. This means they'll have an extra thirty guards with them plus Asrabey and Grappa. I'm looking for advice on how other GMs may have managed this - do you just have the Allied Officers head to the barracks to deal with the Obscurati there? Do you keep them with the group and just up the number of combatants (I would have them fighting "off-camera" with Obscurati defenders if this is the case so I dont have to roll the dice).

Any advice/tips would be appreciated!

 

[RangerWickett]

I've found that I prefer to have large groups of NPCs work as background narrative elements, with the PCs actually having maybe one or two as actual minis in combat who help them, while you ad hoc what the rest accomplish.

 

[Andrew Moreton]

I would go with the NPC's actions in the background with perhaps some dice rolls by the players to see if they do well or badly. However what they achieve would depend on the players plan for what they do, have them try and achieve that plan. Maybe give them information which suggests that the best use of the soldiers is preventing the Ob garrison from intefering as the players go for the leaders in the command center as that keeps them off screen for the confrontation with the steelshaper and Bourne. (Or if you want to make clear the steelshaper is a badass have a group of soldiers encounter him while the pc's are too far away to intervene and kill all the soldiers).

The big thing for me would be make sure the soldiers serve the plot by helping fulfil the pc's plan and trying to make sure that the pc's end up confronting the Ob elite