[GM] Intro

In our last scene of our Hell’s Rebels solo campaign, our heroes freed the Prisoners of Salt. Normally, this would be something they did after organizing the beginnings of the Silver Raven resistance, but since we mixed things up in this campaign the first public act of the Silver Ravens happens before there are any actual Silver Ravens!

We’re going to actually get this rebellion up and running now, beginning with our PCs’ returning to their base and dealing with the Tengu Sisters, and them going to a higher level of abstraction as we begin dealing with our strategic layer.

[GM] Mythic Bookkeeping

There will be enough bookkeeping in this scene for me to worry about Mythic. Chaos factor stays at 5 because I say so. There are no alterations because I say so.

We resolved Prisoners of Salt, and removed Kossrani & Friends from the board.

Threads

  • The Path **
  • Find the Missing Elves (Arcturus)
  • Find Shensen (Rosalia)
  • Contacting Ms. Docur (Jania)
  • Get Organized (Jade) *

Characters

  • The Dottari
  • The Chelish Citizens Group
  • The Red Jills
  • The Asmodeans
  • The Three-Legged Devil (location)
  • The Livery Grimples
  • The Tengu Sisters
  • Nan Comerivos & Friends

[GM] Preparation

Before we start, here’s our quick-and-dirty rules conversion.

Quick and Dirty Rebellion Rules Conversion

I’m gonna skip the GURPS books on organizations for now, and base myself only on the Pathfinder rules. I’ll read those and make changes later.

  • Security, Loyalty, and Secrety all start at 10. For now let’s add the focsued and unfocused skill bonuses on p. 22 of the Player’s Guide to each skill. So the focused one starts at 12 and goes to 22, and the unfocused one starts at 10 and goes to 16. I might change this later on.

  • Check Difficulties: DC 10 checks translate into unmodified skill tests. Each +5 DC over 10 translates into a -2 penalty. So a DC 30 check, the hardest possible for end-game actions, would be at -8. Complementary bonuses are important, particularly to unfocused tests.

  • Level-up awards:
    • As usual, multiply all gp amounts by 5 for the amount in GURPS dollars.
    • XP awards gift a flat 15 character points.
    • Training awards let you put 4 character points towards any skill.
    • Each title grants one level of Reputation (all the time, everyone but Thrune supporters) valued at 3 points/level.
  • Officers:

    • Officers can use some of their skills as Complementary Skills for organization tests. If you have more than one of the listed skills you can test them all.

    • Multiple people can occupy the same post, but only one gets to roll their skills for a given action.

    • Demagogue:
      • May use complimentary skills on Loyalty checks.
      • Skills: Propaganda, Public Speaking, Leadership.
    • Partisan:
      • May use complimentary skills on Security checks.
      • Skills: Strategy, Leadership, Tactics.
    • Recruiter:
      • May use complimentary skills on checks for recruiting supporters.
      • Adds rebellion rank to the number of recruited supporters, and this stacks with multiple recruiters.
      • Skills: Public Speaking, Streetwise, Diplomacy.
    • Sentinel:
      • Occupying this post gives a +1 to the rebellion’s non-focused skills.
      • May use complimentary skills on any check used to resolve an Event.
      • Skills: any of the ones listed for the appropriate category.
    • Spymaster:
      • Spymaster: May use complimentary skills on Secrecy checks.
      • Skills: Intelligence Analysis, Streetwise, Administration.
    • Strategist:
      • Occupying this position grants a bonus action. May use its complimentary skills on the bonus action.
      • Skills: Strategy, Tactics, Administration.
    • Strategy Turn:
      • Each turn represents a week of game time. The phases are as described in the books.
    • Actions:
      • Actions are performed by teams. Each team can perform the actions in its description, using the appropriate Org Skill for it. Teams give a bonus to the Org Skill equal to their tier (this replaces the Team Manager mechanic).
      • Action List:
        • Recruit Supporters: Roll Loyalty. Success recruits 2d6 + Recruiter Bonuses supporters. Critical failure raises notoriety by 1d6.

[PC] Building the Rebellion

As a reminder, last scene’s raid means the rebellion will start with an extra 2 Notoriety. Quieting the lulzers and fascists all the way back at the Scene 01 riot also means they start with 6 supporters.

Let’s just say they manage to recruit the sisters, since I want to know how that plays out. They’re a bonus Tier 1 team. We also get Rexus and Laria as allies.

Officer job time!

Rosalia will be our Demagogue, as that’s right in her wheelhouse. She has 2 unspent points, so let’s put 1 each towards Propaganda and Leadership to prepare her for the role.

Let’s put Laria to work as our Partisan. Her Leadership-12 will have to do for now.

Arthur unfortunately can’t do much in this layer of the game yet, but he can work as a Recruiter just fine as long as someone else also takes on this role. And that someone else will be Urist with his Public Speaking-13.

Jade will be our Sentinel. Just having her there gives us a bonus, and she has skills that are widely applicable to a variety of situations. We’ll spend 2 of her 3 banked points to get her Administration and round her out even more.

Jania is our Spymaster, obviously. She has 5 unspent points so we’ll spend 4 of those to get her Intelligence Analysis, and 1 to get Leadership.

Finally, Rexus will be our Strategist. Just having him there gives us an extra strategic action, and he can help with Administration. Jade can still use her Strategy here as the Sentinel.

To top it off, Jania and Rosalia decide do dedicate the gold they’re carrying to the rebellion’s coffers, as they got it while tracking down Nan Comerivos in the first place. That’s 24 gold coins, or $9600, which should last them a while!

Initial Rebellion Sheet

  • Rank: 1/5
  • Focus: Secrecy
  • Members: 10
  • Supporters: 6
  • Population: 11900
  • Treasury: $9650
  • Min. Treasury: $50
  • Notoriety: 2
  • Org Skills:
    • Loyalty: 10
    • Secrecy: 12
    • Security: 10
  • Actions: 1
  • Max Teams: 2+1
  • Danger Rating: 20
  • Active Events:
  • Teams:
    • Crow Sisters (bonus team)
      • Tier: 1
      • Members: 3
      • Actions: Earn Money, Gather Information
  • Allies:
    • Laria Longroad
      • +2 to Recruit Supporters as long as she’s a member.
      • Leadership-12, Streetwise-12
    • Rexus Victocora
      • -1 Notoriety per Upkeep phase as long as he’s a member.
      • Administration-12, Public Speaking-12
  • Officers:
    • Demagogue: Rosalia
      • May use complimentary skills on Loyalty checks.
      • Skills: Propaganda, Public Speaking, Leadership.
    • Partisan: Laria Longroad
      • May use complimentary skills on Security checks.
      • Skills: Strategy, Leadership, Tactics.
    • Recruiters: Urist; Arthur
      • May use complimentary skills on checks for recruiting supporters.
      • Adds rebellion rank to the number of recruited supporters, and this stacks with multiple recruiters.
      • Skills: Public Speaking, Streetwise, Savoir-Faire.
    • Sentinel: Jade
      • Occupying this post gives a +1 to the rebellion’s non-focused skills.
      • May use complimentary skills on any check used to resolve an Event.
      • Skills: any of the ones listed for the appropriate category.
    • Spymaster: Jania
      • Spymaster: May use complimentary skills on Secrecy checks.
      • Skills: Intelligence Analysis, Streetwise, Administration.
    • Strategist: Rexus
      • Occupying this position grants a bonus action. May use its complimentary skills on the bonus action.
      • Skills: Strategy, Tactics, Administration.

[PC] Strategy Layer, Week 1

As our PCs get settled on the Rat’s Nest and begin their operations as a formal rebel movement, we zoom out a bit to our strategy layer. Let’s run the first week to get a feel for the rules.

Upkeep Phase

The very first thing that happens is that we gain 1d6 supporters from our successful completion of Prisoners of Salt. The roll is 2, so we’re at 8 now. Not quite enough to level up. Dang it.

[GM] I decide there's no need to roll for supporter attrition in our very
first strategic turn.

Rexus reduces our Notoriety by 1, to 1. We can also say that initial deposit of $9600 to the org’s treasury happens here.

Stat changes: +2 supporters, -1 Notoriety.

Activity Phase

We get 1 action from our rank, and 1 bonus action from having a Strategist.

Our first action has to be Recruit Team, since we’re going to get an automatic success to recruit the people we rescued in Prisoners of Salt as a freedom fighter team:

  • Freedom Fighters
    • Tier: 1
    • Members: 6
    • Actions: Reduce Danger

Our bonus action is going to be Recruit Supporters. This is a Loyalty Check. Laria gives +2 from her very presence. Urist, out chief recruiter, will use Public Speaking and Savoir-Faire to boost it, and Rexus will use Administration. With 2 successes and 1 failure, our final bonus is +3. Our roll is a success.

This lets us recruit 2d6+2 supporters because Arcturus is also there. The roll comes up 6. We might be able to level up next week!

Stat changes: +1 team, +6 members, +6 supporters.

Event Phase

Now we roll a percentage chance based on Kintargo’s current danger rating + our Notoriety: 21%. No event this week! However, the chance will double during the next week.

Turn End!

Well, that was quick. Here’s our new rebellion sheet:

The Silver Ravens

  • Rank: 1/5
  • Focus: Secrecy
  • Members: 16
  • Supporters: 14
  • Population: 11900
  • Treasury: $9650
  • Min. Treasury: $50
  • Notoriety: 1
  • Org Skills:
    • Loyalty: 10
    • Secrecy: 12
    • Security: 10
  • Actions: 1
  • Max Teams: 2+1
  • Danger Rating: 20
  • Active Events:
  • Teams:
    • Crow Sisters (bonus team)
      • Tier: 1
      • Members: 3
      • Actions: Earn Money, Gather Information
    • Freedom Fighters
      • Tier: 1
      • Members: 6
      • Actions: Reduce Danger
  • Allies:
    • Laria Longroad
      • +2 to Recruit Supporters as long as she’s a member.
      • Leadership-12, Streetwise-12
    • Rexus Victocora
      • -1 Notoriety per Upkeep phase as long as he’s a member.
      • Administration-12, Public Speaking-12
  • Officers:
    • Demagogue: Rosalia
      • May use complimentary skills on Loyalty checks.
      • Skills: Propaganda, Public Speaking, Leadership.
    • Partisan: Laria Longroad
      • May use complimentary skills on Security checks.
      • Skills: Strategy, Leadership, Tactics.
    • Recruiters: Urist; Arthur
      • May use complimentary skills on checks for recruiting supporters.
      • Adds rebellion rank to the number of recruited supporters, and this stacks with multiple recruiters.
      • Skills: Public Speaking, Streetwise, Savoir-Faire.
    • Sentinel: Jade
      • Occupying this post gives a +1 to the rebellion’s non-focused skills.
      • May use complimentary skills on any check used to resolve an Event.
      • Skills: any of the ones listed for the appropriate category.
    • Spymaster: Jania
      • Spymaster: May use complimentary skills on Secrecy checks.
      • Skills: Intelligence Analysis, Streetwise, Administration.
    • Strategist: Rexus
      • Occupying this position grants a bonus action. May use its complimentary skills on the bonus action.
      • Skills: Strategy, Tactics, Administration.

[GM] How did that feel?

Good enough for now, I think. I might rethink these rules as the need arises. I initially wanted to play through more than one turn at a time, since this one took relatively little time to play through, but I think I’m going to do something different.

We do one strategy turn, as above, and then one “tactical” mission, and that’s a week in game. “Tactical” here means it happens at a more granular level than the strategic stuff. It does not necessarily require a map.

[Player] Mission Time!

We currently have two missions before us, provided by the book. There’s decoding the documents retrieved from the Livery stash, and there’s investigating the fires from the so-called Night of Ashes.

Rexus is working with the documents, and he will take seven weeks to decode them by himself. None of the PCs really have the skills necessary to help him out.

He does however really want the PCs to investigate the fires from the Night of Ashes. As of the start of this turn it’s only been a little over a week since the fires, so there might still be clues in there somewhere… they should look into this earlier rather than later.

We have three locations to check:

  • The Victocora estate, where Rexus’ family lived. As we already know they were members of the Sacred Order of Archivists.

  • A music store called The Silver Star, which was owned by the missing Shensen and hid a shrine to Sarenrae in its basement.

    (GM: Rosalia succeeded at her Current Affairs test here)

  • And a pub known as the Thrashing Badger. No idea why this one burned but there must have been something.

    (GM: And she failed this one.)

The PCs spend a day quickly scouting each location. They’re all free of patrolling dottari, since those left after the first few days. The pub has burned down to its foundations, there’s nothing there. Rexus says he spent several nights searching the estate ruins, and an additional night spent by the PCs confirms there’s nothing of interest there.

Which leaves us the music shop, which has turned into a huge rubble-filled sinkhole as the shop collapsed into the hidden basement shrine.

[GM] There's a box of scrolls and potions here that can be found with a
successful Perception or Observation roll at -4. Each PC can make one
roll. This represents an hour of searching.

After one hour, a random PC triggers a shift in the rubble and must make a
Dodge roll or take 3d cr damage (wide area). There is also a 30% chance to
trigger an encounter from the book.

I make our rolls, and both Rosalia and Urist get a success. They find the box!

[GM] Let's roll 1d to see who needs to dodge ruble. It's Jania!

Unfortunately, as Jania was searching her assigned area, the rubble around her shifts and falls on top of her! She fails to dodge, unfortunately, and so is hit for 13 crushing damage! This is Large Area Injury, which means she has an effective DR 0 against it. Ouch! Jania is now at -3 HP.

[GM] Let's just say she's unconscious from this, which is reasonable.

The party spends a few minutes digging the unconscious wizard out of the rubble. Jade administers 3 minor healing potions to her - one from Jania’s own pouch, one from hers, and one from Art’s. This gets her back to top form.

[GM] Do we get an encounter? 63, nope.

Deciding they had enough and there is nothing more to be found here, the group departs back to base.

[GM] Treasure Time!

According to the original adventure we have the following scrolls:

  • Cure Moderate Wounds
  • Daylight
  • Remove Blindness/Deafness
  • Remove Disease

And the following potions:

  • 3 x Lesser Restoration
  • 4 x Cure Light Wounds

As of this writing it’s getting a bit late, so I’ll convert these next time.

…

It’s next time. Onbly one day has passed, which is kind of a record for me. I figure it’s better to a bit of this every day than to spend months idle.

The potions of Cure Light Wounds are easy: Minor Healing potions.

In Pathfinder, the Lesser Restoration spell cures effects that reduce ability scores, partially heals temporary ability damage, and either removes the fatigued condition or improves exhausted to fatigued.

Since most of that stuff at low levels will come from poisons, I think we can replace this with 2 Universal Antidote potions and 2 vials of Paut.

Just the scrolls left!

Daylight is easy. It’s a Sunlight spell with a 3-meter radius. Divine charged scroll.

Remove Blindness/Deafness becomes Restoration, which does the same thing.

Remove Disease = Cure Disease.

The Scroll of CMW becomes a healing stone.

Additionally, the group gains 1 Character Point for surviving this challenge.

Final Treasure Pile

I already transferred this to the PCs file.

  • 4 x Healing Potion, Minor: Heals 1d HP. $120, 0.25kg
  • 2 x Universal Antidote: Instantly cures all poisons. $750, 0.25kg
  • 2 x Paut: Restores 4 FP lost to magic. $135, 0.25kg
  • 1 x Scroll of Sunlight: Divine, charged, 3m radius. $300, 0kg
  • 1 x Scroll of Restoration: Universal, Charged. $1500, 0kg
  • 1 x Scroll of Cure Disease: Universal, Charged. $400, 0kg
  • 1 x Healing Gem: heals 8 HP when crushed. $400, 0kg