ZEITGEIST [Zeitgeist] Inverting the order of module 1 with module 2

[mirtexxan]

As the title. What do you think about inverting the order of the first two modules?
I personally feel that this would be a great improvement to the overall immersion into the setting.
Knowing Flint, its NPCs and starting an actual investigation as the opening act of the campaign, is much better than immediately being involved in high-profile international politics (and the sabotage being conducted by level 1 goons seems way off, given what it is at stake).

What do you think?
Is there any pitfall or shortcomings that I may fall into by changing the order of the modules?

 

[amethal]

That's an interesting idea. I can't see any reason why it wouldn't work. (I'm only familiar with the Pathfinder version of the campaign, but hopefully the same applies to the other versions as well.)

I seem to remember one of the dockers at the start of the first adventure might be encountered later in a pub in the second one (so you'd be reversing the order of meeting him) but the scene on the docks might actually work better if they were already acquainted with him.

The only issue I can think of is that after investigating a mysterious death, and maybe getting involved in all sorts of cool encounters and city-changing events, the PCs might think it is a bit of a comedown to be part of a humdrum harbour security detail afterwards, and later play second fiddle to the infiltrators, but I don't think it's that big of a deal.

(If I ever get a chance to run it, I'm planning to have the infiltrators be Risur special forces rather than RHC constables anyway - the "marines" are expected to do the commando stuff and the PCs are there to do the follow-up police work once the site has been secured.)

 

[Tormyr]

It would even fit nicely with what the PCs are doing when Saxby takes them off the Macbannin case. A few people higher up specifically ask for the PCs to run security and attend the launch, so Saxby's hands are tied. She'll be more pissed off after the additional publicity they get.

For difficulty, I would suggest starting the PCs at level 4 so they line up with the adventure 2, and then keep them at level 4 for adventure 1. Increasing all of the adventure 1 encounters by 25% (e.g. if there are 4 enemies, add 1) should have the difficulty about right.

 

[mirtexxan]

Thanks for the suggestions.

@amethal the docker in question, can be simply met in the reverse order, it does not matter that much
IMO it's not a menial security details, if they are ensuring the safety of the king, his sister and the prime minister Moreover, I could simply remove the "A team" or substitute it with a marine special ops team as you suggested.

@Tormyr exactly! I was thinking the same regarding the weird downtime between module 2 and 3, that did not work properly in my previous zeitgeist campaign (we stopped at module 3)
I'm using Pathfinder 2, so I'm rewriting the encounters: I would like to start at level 1, finish module 2 at level 3, and then move to level 4 during the events of module1.

In general i believe that fighting against bandits, arsonist and some minor shadow is an appropriate task for level 1-2, while defusing a potential devastating explosion set up by an elite conspiration should be more high level

 

[skotothalamos]

I did this with one of my campaigns and it worked great until the group fell apart. Actually, I mixed them together a bit. I started with some "random" cases to get them used to the Zeitgeist/RHC mindset, using some of the threads from adventure 2, then had them get assigned to the Coaltongue launch, then had the events at the Embassy. As soon as they made progress investigating that, Saxby sent them to Axis Island.

Unfortunately, the group fell apart for non-game-related reasons, but it seemed to be working great up until then!

 

[comanderbeef]

(The Great Change Players GTFO. dont read) I'm dm'ing zeitgeist in pf2e. took your advice and running adventure 2 first. We're nearing the end of the dying skyseer adventure. Fun other timeline change, the Coaltongue is still in construction and the players started heavily looking for Macbannin's "project". So some heavy improvisation on my part, they ended up finding the coaltonge construction site heavily guarded by Risuri military and i decided to place it in between parity lake and cauldron hill.