Apologies if the has already been discussed, but I find the difficulties for a lot of the investigation stuff to be very high - a lot of 3d and 4d difficulties. This seems inappropriate to me, or at least not they way I prefer to run investigations. Has anyone else had this same experience?

I looked through Book One and there are a sprinking of 3D and 4D checks but I don't think they dominate.

They're most noticeable to me in the Menagerie scene (which I rewrote in part due to this) where they arise about the smell etc - that part is bad design to me, heroes aren't supposed to get anywhere with success on that check at that point so rather than make it hard (a small chance of frustrating outcome) I would move it later.  It is important information but it is not important to that Episode so I put it in the last Act of Episode as it leads to the next one.

I don't mind harder checks on things that aren't required to move main plot ahead (discerning Knakk's intentions, catching arsonists, not suffering ill effects from smoke, bargaining up what you get selling off loot, finding extra clues not what the Trail system calls "core clues", the minimum required to keep moving along in story).  E.G., on page 45 it takes a Hard Success to find the robber camp and get the loot and stuff there.  All the plot-information needed is really gotten from the robbers/bodies on page 44 so this is "gravy" in terms of getting more money - in the camp the Hard check re box is difference of 25 or 50 shillings in gain.

A key investigative check is Page 61, Average 2D to connect smell from menagerie with tanneries.  In the menagerie scene there is a 4D and 2D set of checks to have smelled it there (this actually connects theft to tanneries not abductions but it does "all come together").  Those are the ones I would fiddle a bit, I would make smelling something bad automatic (core clue concept) but in my version I have that "post the theft investigation" not "pre the theft" stuff.

I haven't played through it so maybe there are other "d'oh" issues with some checks - I didn't really see all the issues with menagerie scene until silentarcheroo's post of his experience running it made be look harder.

The classic for this sort of "wonky difficulty" in game theory was an adventure in another system where the entire adventure required making a spot check to see some riders, if you didn't make the check the whole adventure would not happen.  Classic example of "what should not be a check".

Any suggestions on making a certain countess from Averheim into you-know-who, just for the added bit of what-the-holy-f*ck-is-going-on-here?

I've found that giving them a clue later to go back can be handy if they miss something, but you have to have a group that doesn't think in limited style. 

jh

Crazy Aido said:

I assume you mean Iron Countess Marlene von Alptraum (age 57 or so is using Realm of Sorcery material, which works generally as daughter of Ludmilla etc.) as the Black Cowl?

To keep same structure, she would need to "become a 4th" or "displace" one of the recurring patrons from with the PC's get tasks and to which, as time goes on, they may go for help etc. 

So I suggest looking over the roles the 3 play over course of adventure and consider which most easily swaps with her.  Von Kaufman would make sense.  Do the von Alptraums own interest in coaching line, fund expedition or example?  However, I find a problem in that it makess more sense for lower tier folks like Kaufman or Baerfast to engage indendent help (the PCs) than an estabished "major player" who presumably already has more official and back-channel "aides, step and fetch it lads and thugs if need be" than you can shake a nurling at.  To "square that circle", perhaps she has been frozen out of the von Alptraum family as a political liability due to her mother with shinier younger generation like Chlotilde coming forward and that explains her need for "unusual resources".

Sorry for some typos above, auto correct guessing.

Here's the list of stuff I've done that folks can pm me their email address for:

- Agitator Handout (sidebar references and outlines content, this puts it more 'in game/at table')

- Crude wharfrat note (text references)

- Averheim Table aid - summarizes the shopping modifiers and some other information about Averheim and in another section the North Bank slum, the idea is to gather it togehter in one place for GM and players alike (that is what I mean as a 'table aid')

- Dockside Regulars - suitable to cut up and use as markers with descriptions so intead of "do you talk to Ute" it's "do you talk to busking teenage girl" etc. and allows players to choose who they approach more organically etc., also includes where they are (some are in taverns, some about and about etc.), this works best with a blow up of the dockside map card as a "table map".

- Time Track - adapted Change of Winds timeclock to use to allocate actions during the days on dock to ensure social actions, recharge etc. can all be used as rules intend.

- Strange Eons-made cards for the Menagerie scene for the NPC's, cages, a Marquee location card, couple of others like a card for blackpowder charges (combining Witch's Song rules about using blackpowder, costs/weights from core rules etc., then a bit my own thinking)

- Timeline of events in years leading up to the adventure working back from ages given for NPC's etc.

- Timeline of the events in adventure putting them into days of month for 2522 using the calendar in the Enemy Within and coordinating with jackdays Storm of Chaos material (e.g., Sigmarzeit 18 is day 1).

- A revised Part Two Menagerie scene that puts the heroes more "in the action" not as "observers to it" etc. (silentarcheroo's experience inspires)

- Mostly drafty, my own working notes for adventure including the "Brotherhood of the Black Cowl" as a "criminal empire" (group card) and how adventure events can fit into the group card rules for advancing agenda/destabilizing group if Players end up pursuing that as an interest, the wider conspiracy as "free thinkers" etc.

Love to see others' material and also hope people post their play reports so we can all learn from each other etc.

Today I start my campaign and I'm thrilled already. On thing I find lacking in the adventure is a good description of the expedition into the southlands. Especially about the participants returning to Averheim.

Yup, more about the expedition survivors can be fleshed out.

My notes include a few things.

- All of the Southlands expedition members got a Dolphin tattoo in a show of camaraderie at one point (so they can be id'd).

- menagerie scene rewrite includes the expedition artist (no photographers so you bring an artist).

- fleshing out of Black Cowl's organization includes Bischoff, the new enforcer who is a veteran soldier and was on expedition (and is the only surviving one of the two mercenaries last seen with Templemann).  A cultist of Tzeentch moved to eliminate those the Changer of the Ways needs to see vanish from the chessboard, when not being imaginative about tormenting and killing people for the fun of it.

- the von Kragsburg guard mercenaries (Imperial Heraldry book) provided expedition security and some of them are met at start of my menagerie scene.

- the map they used is actually a copy of the Arabyan explorer's who penetrated the Southlands over 1000 years ago (Lizardman army book).

Rob

Me!

I want it all! :)

PM send.

Any chance you put it on  a Dropbox or the Liber Fanatica site?

I have been thinking about doing a dropbox account but not getting around to it.  I think "general sharing" may wait until I have actually run sessions and have used stuff as that may change it a bit.  We do character creation Feb 28 and start play thereafter, which I will post in new thread. 

I will also have to do an "IP" review to make sure everything is shareable.  For the things really not shareable others can  do same thing (scan the small maps and print them off large size to use as table-top maps - put your stand-up at the Upright Pig if you're there etc.).

I'm still mulling "who is the BC", thinking "we will see as play evolves and PC's develop attitudes to NPCs" but I can see Graf K and Luminary K before Captain Baerfast just because I see the BC as getting involved in the underworld for grey not evil reasons (Graf K needs money and needs to influence rackets away from targeting his business, Luminary K is ever alert to signs of Chaos to be hunted and the underside of society needs policing ~ and of course he looks for his sister…).  Whether or not Luminary K is BC, his sister is too "nice" a figure to not include so she will be in the mix regardless. 

That said, I can see Captain B. starting to try to control underworld in an attempt to get the out of control criminal world under some control (since policing is underfunded) as the Elector-vacancy drags on and needing the money because the political undercertainty means many lesser nobles aren't remitting taxes as they should and the coffers are running low in the Averburg.  Captain Baerfast's troops must be paid.  His anger at the noble corruption and shenanigans that cost so many good men their lives, including his brother, and then won't even make sure they are consistently paid and have boots to wear runs very deep (about as deep as mine does as a civil servant who sees stupidity every day) so I can actually see him turning to the dark side very easily (it's just a little close to home to think it through….)

Rob

valvorik said:

Hey Val, I'd love copies of that stuff but can't send a PM for some reason. My email address is thecolumbiabeet@gmail.com. Thanks in advance!

Started this campaign on Friday with 4 players (the criminal, battle-scarred, gently born, and academic), Thought I would give some general impressions:

• Love the Character cards. Began the game with a go-round where we worked out the connections between the characters, NPCs, and their different class and racial perspectives ( like the Halfling criminal who knows the noble character has a taste for "moot lovin'", and has previously had a fight with the battle-scarred for his role in putting down the Halfling rebellion). We had a blast working that all out then were up and running in such a rooted way. I have never seen a commercial adventure create such a sense of place and interconnectedness  - even though the characters are a bit at odds, I loved this conflict between those united in common cause, which  leads to lots of " we ain't brothers, we ain't partners, and we aint' friends and if Gross get's away with my money you're gonna be sorry you ever met me!" type interactions.
• As long as you can remember the dramatis personae and their motivations, the oppurtunities to go "off book" and completely improvise scenes and alter the plot and character introductions is pretty incredible and pretty fun. I thought the first chapter intro might play flat, but it was classic.  I already have so many open ways to introduce major characters that are much  more natural than the flow of the book. And that is because the adventure is wriiten to start with character motivations and interconnections as the place to build from.

 - Thanks for the handy handouts and other material Valorick - dead handy!

Lot of great ideas here. The one I really dig was some hints of theater showing how people who do slightly evil things, eventually falls completely from grace.

I decided to have each book start with the party wieving a theater troup entertain the crowd with a play which relates to what the BC is doing in the book.

So as a "prelude" to Book One, the party (who have just arrived to the town) will all be watching the theater troup perform "Lucious Favre, the Greedy Farmer".

Will portray Lucious being unhappy with his Liege. Lucious really leads a happy life, with a loving wife and 5 strong kids, and a large glass flask which portrays his soul (being a good man).

Lucious then get the idea that if he amazes enough wealth he can be rid of the control his liege has, due to high taxes and all (this mirrors the BC being unhappy of how the Emperor can control all by levying taxes or troops).

Lucious quickly finds, that the fastest way to accumulate wealth is by becomming master of others, and have them pay him. So he forces out other farmers, by bribing officials, threats etc… and then lets them rent their old land, now paying tithe to him.

In the play, each time a farmer pays Lucious gold, we see Lucious give a animal faced horned figure a small glass flask which portrays part of his soul, each time making the water level of the large flask smaller.

The play ends with Lucious being rich, sitting in a gold throne. Next to him is the now empty flask. Opposite stands the horned figure, with his family in chains (indicating Lucious lost them to greed as well). The curtain falls as a farmer approaches Lucious to beg for his taxes being delayed.

Now the play does come near what is really happening, but shows the three main themes:

1) BC is unhappy with the Goverment, and sees them as oppressive.

2) BC goes about gathering powet to overthrow said goverment.

3) In the process BC becomes what he despises, both oppressive and, if he succeeds, his own form of goverment.

I am going to use the backgrounds, with each of my 4 players picking one background.

After this they keep drawing cards till they have 3 matching. Quite simple.

I've now run 2 (or is it 3?) campaigns where they had free choice, I'd like to shake them about a bit, and have them play something they might not inititally have prefered. So I think I'm entitled to be a bit old-fashion GM.

Hey Spivo, that's pretty much what I did - choose your background, they I sort out careers suited to it by trait (you can nominate one trait from background to be assured) of all the ones I sort out 3 are picked as the actual "ones to chose among". 

We have dwarf outcast trollslayer (dwarfhold tbd), high elf academic student, averland human noble pistolier (will spend CP's for affluenc and be noble), averland criminal forger and ostland foriegn messenger (has yet to tell me from where in Ostland, I don't think he knows Wolfenburg's fate though actually his backstory makes it more likely north on the coast).  Mostly comrades from BF pass with that as bond, the elf (who ended up fighting there purely through misadventure) having improbably saved the dwarf's life explaining that odd coexistence.

The little plays are fun.  Might use some of that as recurring background events.  Puppet shows one time, actors in Plenzerplatz putting on a "Scene" from a play to help sell tickets at Sulky Sun another time etc.

PS, I realized my materials mispell the Captain's name as Baerfast instead of Baerfaust.  I always explain such things in handouts etc. to players as simply being the fact the Old World has not developed standardized spelling (or grammar) so my handouts never have "errors' just "realistic effects" :)