We have our background info, our regional map, and our factions ready. We also have a general motivation for the PCs to engage with the game: it’s a land of opportunities, after all. But what it lacks, for now, is opposition.
In a game about exploration, opposition comes in many forms. Dangerous terrain, random encounters, navigation checks, all of this makes exploring a chore. But those are, by design, indifferent forces. Nature doesn’t really care if you survive or not during the lightning storm. Now, you can have a narrative where the struggle between man and nature is the central focus. Prime examples include Cast Away (2000), 127 Hours (2010) or my favorite of the genre, Alive (1993). In fact, during this module we hope to create situations where the simple fact of coming back alive will feel like a major victory.
However, if surviving is your only story, the game can grind to a halt once the players come back to safety. The main objective was accomplished. The movie is over. What is left for the PCs to do?
To solve this conundrum, let’s take a look at a different movie: in The Revenant (2015) Hugh Glass is left to die during the harsh winter on the American frontier. However, surviving isn’t his only motivation; he wants to take revenge at his son’s murderer. Thus, surviving becomes a means to an end. This does not diminish his struggle to survive, instead elevating its importance.
Taking a lesson from Paizo, we also know that a good Adventure Path installment tells a story by itself. So the first part will feature a self contained story that, while also part of the larger picture, will have its conclusion in this module.
While considering which elements of the adventure that would satisfy this requirement, I remembered the Blackmaw tribe. I like the image of it: a tribe of orcs that paint their lower jaw black, a symbol that evokes the devouring nature of the Shoggoth (even if the orcs are not aware of this). They had a base in Winter Valley that was destroyed by the Company of Dawn. But they endured, and now roam the valley, eventually finding their way into the plains below.
The orc tribe also lived close to an orichalcum deposit, so we know they used to receive whispers from the Shoggoth. The orcs knew the place that is now Thir was important to it. Maybe a prophecy fuelled by an oracle’s feverish dreams sparked the orcs’ belief that by conquering the village a powerful chief will rise to power, leading them to form an unparalleled empire.
Bottom line is: the orcs want to take the village of Thir.
The Optimal Narrative
Tabletop RPGs are a unique media form, where the players, constrained only by their character abilities, can tackle problems in an infinite number of ways and take the reins of their destiny into their own hands.
That said, 90% of published adventures presume that the players will take a predetermined sequence of events. In other words, they present plot points for the GM to guide the players through.
A plot point refers to an event in a story that drives the characters in a different direction that they were previously going. I’ll link to this article if you want to read a bit more about it, but for now, this definition should suffice. This is easy to do in a novel, after all, the author has full control over the characters; if they want the knight to be valiant and noble, braving the forest in search of the kidnapped princess, they can write it out and it will all go according to plan.
A GM has no such power. The player might think his knight is more concerned with the monetary reward for saving the lost princess. Or that the princess is a boring NPC, and they would rather spend their time in the tavern drinking and planning for the next incursion in the doomsday caves. Or maybe they spent the previous night in the princess’s chambers, and now the GM has no idea how to have the damn NPC kidnapped in the first place.
So what we need are simple, yet strong turning points in our story. Events that will grind the players’ plan to a halt, and make them deal with whatever we throw at them.
Thus, this arc will have three major events: The Attack on the Tower of Vigil, the Kidnapping and the Invasion. Only three plot points. And even though we’ll make these three events compelling, the players can still miss them. If so, we’ll give the GM some guidelines on how to deal with that.
How to win friends and influence factions
As we discussed, plot points redirect the narrative. So what’s the narrative that’s being disturbed in the first place? Well, that’s where the sandbox portion of the adventure happens. Let’s take a look at our factions diagram:
Looking at PF2e encounter building rules, they’re somewhat unfit for our purposes. Normally, the GM has to look at the Encounter Budget table (Core, Table 10-1) to check each monster’s level relative to the party’s (Table 10-2). You also need to adjust the difficulty (but not the XP reward) if the party has more or fewer than 4 characters. When the party reaches 1000 XP, they level up and subtract a thousand from their total, thus carrying any extra XP to the next level.
But for an open ended sandbox, we do not know exactly when the party will tackle any adventure. So we’ll talk about Quest Level instead.
The Quest Level is the earliest expected level the party will be when presented with a hook to take it on. Of course, since the game is a sandbox, the party can stumble on an adventure by accident. That’s part of the game. We’ll put soft locks, not hard ones.
Those quests are, by definition, optional. The party will have full agency in choosing what mission to engage with or ignore. And if we do our job right, this will also tell you what your group (both the PCs and the players) cares about.
Faction Reputation
Pathfinder 2e has official rules for Reputation. However, that system presumes that the party has independent affiliations with each faction. What we want is a system where the reputation with one faction can impact the relationship with another. So we’ll tweak things up a bit.
As the party goes on adventures, they’ll have a chance to leave marks on the world around them. In our system, this can be either positive or negative. Each faction has a Reputation Tracker that looks something like this:
When the players clear a quest that was given by a faction, they get Positive Points. Accordingly, when the players get in their way, they’ll receive Negative Points.
The GM only applies the effects of the highest reputation. For example, if the Party has 3 Positive and 2 Negative Reputation with the Government, they’re considered to have an overall positive reputation, thus you only apply the Positive effect. A tie cancels each other out.
For each two Positive Points with a Faction, the Party gains a boon. This can be a one-time gift, discount on some items, and so on. We’ll figure out what the specifics are later. For now, we know that we need FOUR BOONS for each faction.
At the same time, each two Negative Points give the party a setback. They can range from overpricing services, harder social encounters, or even having faction agents on their tail. Just as with boons, we’ll need FOUR SETBACKS for each faction.
In order to gain Positive Reputation, the party will need to complete Quests that push the faction interests forward. These are called Regular Quests, and completing one gives a Positive Point with a given faction.
But we’ll also have Quests that involve moral dilemmas. Instead of focusing on one faction, they’ll be built around the conflict between two opposing ideals. These are Dilemma Quests, and they provide a Positive Point with a faction, but also a Negative Point with another, based on the choices made by the players.
In addition to that, when the party reaches a positive milestone (two positive points), they also gain a Negative Point with both opposing factions. So looking at our Faction Diagram, if the party gets two positive points with the Shadow Dragons, they gain a Negative Point with both The Government and the Burning Gauntlet.
This is how the players will take control of the narrative. And that’s what the main plot points will disturb. As it should be.
Planning for the trip
For the first module, we’ll need to write 2 Regular Quests for each faction, and five Dilemma Quests, one for each moral conflict (for example, Pragmatism vs. Idealism). The Regular Quests should be Level 1 and 2 adventures, while the Dilemma Quests will be 3rd level adventures. Finally, we’ll have the three Main Quests, at 1st, 2nd and 4th levels. So to recap:
Each faction will have a 1st and 2nd level Regular Quests. Each completed Regular Quest gives a positive point with it. That’s 10 adventures.
We’ll have 5 Dilemma Quests, each focused on a moral conflict. Dilemma Quests give both a positive and a negative point, depending on the players’ choices during the adventure. Those are 3rd level adventures.
Last of all, we’ll have three Main Quests. One to kick out the adventure, one to disturb the sandbox feel and remind the players that the world is alive and one to wrap it all up.
That’s 18 individual adventures. There's a lot of work to be done. So we’ll start off with a bang. Next week, I’ll show you our very first adventure, the Attack on the Tower of Vigil. See you next time!