The background
I was super keen to run a game again, but I knew I didn’t have the time or energy to do a homebrew one. My husband convinced me to run a Pathfinder AP, and looking them over, I actually though Council of Thieves would be similar to an aborted Thieves’ guild game. The opposite was true, but I had free access to the books through a friend, so I figured the most I could lose was a few evenings.
From Paizo’s website:
The city of Westcrown is dying. Since being stripped of its station as the capital of Cheliax, the wealth and prestige of the city has gradually slipped away, leaving the desperate people to fend for themselves in a city beset by criminals, a corrupt nobility, and a shadowy curse. Can the PCs fight back against champions of both the law and the criminal world?
What I changed
For this book, I was getting used to running an AP, so I changed very little. The one thing that did change due to players actions was that they allowed Palaveen to live. As of book two, I haven’t brought him up again and they haven’t sought him out. At the moment, he’s in hiding in the burnt out part of the city, mostly because he doesn’t have the funds or connections to leave town.
I also accidentally left out the Thesing horse drama, but thankfully, one of the PCs belonged to a theater. I simply moved Thesing’s performance there (saying the other theater was closed due to an outbreak of some kind of flu) and made sure that Thesing was embarrassed and blamed the PCs for it.
What I made
For the sewer chase scene, I decided that I didn’t want to roll on a bunch of tables while trying to run my first session in years. Instead, I made a Python script to do it for me.
I drew out each map in advance, then hit enter for each junction. The script would tell me how hard it was to find the waymarker and if there was any event, and if so, what event was it.
I also made a dice roller (because of course the world needs another one!):
It’s function is basically to give me a roll with only one or two key presses. All dice types are rolled at once, and if I enter a number, it automatically adds it to the rolls. I used this script throughout the first book, but stopped using it with book two for most combats. For super secret rolls, however, I still keep it up.
If I had to do it over again…
The book advises you to tell the players before the start that they should have some reason to want to better the city of Westcrown. I trusted that my players would follow whatever plot hook was laid out (since that’s our nature). They didn’t exactly fight me… but there were several sessions where they repeatedly asked each other why they were doing this. So, if I run it again, I would probably lay that out during session zero.
Also, the opening scene didn’t play well with the players, role play-wise. It took them a long time to see Janiven and the rebel organization as competent or, frankly, worth their time. Also, they weren’t exactly happy that they’d been brought together under false pretenses. If I run this sort of thing again, I would probably be more overt about the fact that this is about joining the rebels.
Honestly, what I would probably do instead is let them say yes to joining, then have them found out during a second meeting (maybe they’re setting up the bar that Janiven and Areal bought as a proper safe house).
As for the sewers, I think I would up the encounter rate, up the difficulty of the monsters, and write out the ‘special’ events in advance.
For the final battle, I went easy on the PCs, with battles not alerting anyone else. Looking back, I think they could have taken a bit more pressure.
Final thoughts
I feel like this was a good book with which to start GM’ing again. The plot is pretty straightforward, the scenarios are well laid out, and it has enough room for creativity without forcing the GM to write up huge sections for themselves. I do wish that the background was more explicit about who will be important in the future, since the background has almost nothing to do with what the players are encountering.
Katie Plays Games 