Let’s briefly discuss Chapter 2: Trollskull Alley. This remix is largely not going to be discussing this chapter of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist because it is mostly unimpeachable and almost certainly the best part of the published campaign. To briefly review:
- The PCs are awarded with Trollskull Manor, which they can “refurnish, rebuild, rename, and otherwise personalize.”
- The expectation is that they will reopen the tavern on the first floor, and a number of encounters and mechanics are given for doing so.
- During this time, their recent notoriety also results in them being approached by one or more factions who would be interested in having them join up.
- The factions ask the PCs to perform a series of missions for them, spanning from the time the PCs are 2nd level until they are 5th level.
The faction missions, it should be noted, are clearly intended to be interwoven with the ongoing events of what we’re referring to as the Grand Game, but this is one place where the campaign kind of glitches because the heavily compressed timeframe of the primary plot doesn’t really leave a lot of breathing room for integrating these missions (or running their new tavern for that matter).
This remix should help address this problem simply by virtue of decompressing the events of the Grand Game: Investigating the Faction Outposts (Part 3) and performing the Eye Heists (Part 4) will expand the timeline and give a little more room for integrating the faction missions.
Beyond that, there are only two tweaks I would suggest for Chapter 2: Trollskull Alley:
- Add 1-3 additional urban adventures that overlap with setting up the tavern and running the early faction missions.
- Review the Running the Game: Tavern Time essay here at the Alexandrian and use it to bring Trollskull Tavern to life. (UPDATE: I ended up doing a customized version of this for Dragon Heist. You can find it here.)
You might also consider fleshing out the faction missions and putting a little more meat on their bones, but I think you’ll largely find that unnecessary: As designed the faction missions will take up perhaps one-quarter or one-third of a session. As such, they’ll integrate with everything else that’s going on to create a dynamic, multi-faceted session that draws the players ever deeper into the rich life of Waterdeep. If the faction missions expand to take up a full session on their own, some of that effect will be lost.
On the other hand, giving each faction one meaty mission as a diversion or counterpoint to the Grand Game might make for a good change of pace. (That’s going to be beyond the scope of this remix, however.)
ALLIES IN THE GRAND GAME
Once the PCs have joined a faction, however, the PCs themselves become a vector by which those factions can become involved with the Grand Game.
The PCs can ask for help. Factions can provide assistance, particularly when it comes to intelligence gathering. If the PCs need help locating a faction outpost or lair, for example, their faction can probably help them with that. Of course, they might ask the PCs to do them a favor (in the form of a faction mission) first.
Have the factions push them for information. “How have you been spending your time?” “We heard you were involved in that fracas at the Gralhund Villa. What was up with that?” “We’ve noticed you haven’t been around a lot lately. We’ve got a vested interest in you now, and we need to know how to find you.”
Intermingle the factions. You can also have a PC’s faction become engaged with a faction of the Grand Game from a completely different direction. For example, maybe the Harpers are interested in exotic poisons which were shipped into Waterdeep (and are destined for the Cassalanters’ ritual). Or the Order of the Gauntlet might be interested in targeting Xanatharian slavers.
If these factions discover the Grand Game and/or the PCs’ role in it, they are likely to bring their own agenda to bear.
Bregan D’Aerthe is, of course, Jarlaxle’s faction and their agenda should be obvious. Look at areas of the campaign where Jarlaxle’s agents are present and consider simply making the PCs those agents (perhaps even giving them a small force of drow to command).
The Emerald Enclave actually has no interest in the Grand Game or Neverember’s ill-gotten dragons. They’ll assist PCs who have proven loyal to the faction, but, perhaps refreshingly, will make no demands upon them for the Vault or its contents.
Force Grey is allied to the Open Lord. If members of the Grey Hands or Force Grey bring the Grand Game to their attention, the Open Lord will quickly figure out what actually happened to the missing 500,000 gold dragons and she’s going to want the money back.
The Harpers know that the Cassalanters are actually demon-worshippers and, if they realize the PCs have gotten tangled up with them, will quickly warn them of the fact. The Harpers are more than happy to let the PCs keep the gold (although they will encourage them to “do the right thing” and return the money to the citizens of Waterdeep), but they want the Stone of Golorr, which they believe contains vital intelligence that can help them in their struggle with the Abolethic Sovereignty. It should be noted that the Harpers of Waterdeep are riddled with Zhentarim double-agents, and anything the Harpers learn about the PCs and their activities can very easily fall into Manshoon’s hands.
The Lords’ Alliance actually works directly for the Open Lord. If Jalester Silvermane becomes aware of what the PCs have gotten themselves tangled up in, he’ll arrange a discreet meeting with Laeral Silverhand as quickly as possible.
The Order of the Gauntlet will expect the PCs to tithe at least 25% of the horde.
The non-Manshoonian Zhentarim will see an enormous opportunity in the gold: Efforts are under way to reclaim and repair Zhentil Keep, and that money could be used to buy them a seat on the Zhentarim Council that’s forming to do so. This could really raise the profile of the local Zhentarim network, and the PCs would basically be buying their way into the local leadership of the Black Network. (Or they could pursue this thread all the way to the ruins of Zhentil Keep if that’s their predilection.)
DESIGN NOTE
These interactions serve to tie the material in Chapter 2 more tightly to the wider events of the campaign spine. Using the PCs’ factions to demonstrate the wider scope of how the factions involved with the Grand Game are integrated into the life of the city will deepen the scenario, while also providing the opportunity for creative players to find unique vectors for targeting their enemies. Finally, forcing the PCs to make some tough choices between the advantages and obligations of their faction allegiance will make those relationships more meaningful.
Great post! Definitely integrating this into my campaign. Any idea how many more posts you have planned in the series?
I love where this is going and really looking forward to the rest of the posts! I was wanting to find a way to make all of the villains in play, and make the PC’s actions in Chapter 2 be the prime determinate on who became their ultimate opponent at the end. The best villains are the ones who the PCs feel responsible for putting into power in the first place. Can’t wait to see what’s next!
MOOOOAAAArrrrrrrr. Please.
I am struggling with how to keep the Lords Alliance, Force Grey, and Order of the Gauntlet separate and distinct from one another. PCs who aren’t that well versed in FR lore might struggle to tell them apart. One obvious solution is to simply omit or combine them into one. This is probably what I’ll do, as I think you only need 1-2 faction missions to keep the story focused.
But to go in the opposite direction, one other take would be for Force Grey and the Lord’s Alliance to be at odds with one another. The novel “Death Masks” paints Vajra Safahr, the head of the Watchful Order and Force Grey, as inherently distrustful of Laeral Silverhand. Her reasons for doing so are flawed (the novel was kinda silly), but it could be another layer of intrigue for the story. A good DM could spin it in such a way that the PCs decide the politicians can’t be trusted to handle Neverwinter’s Enigma, and they better “deal with it” themselves.
Looking forward to the next entry!
Xanu, I only have a passing familiarity with the Realms myself, but from what I’ve gathered by reading their capsule descriptions online, I don’t think they’re that hard to distinguish. In particular, I’m not sure why you think the Order of the Gauntlet is similar to the other two, since they’re explicitly described as a religious organization, whereas the other two are secular and political in nature.
As for the others, Force Grey’s allegiance is specifically to Waterdeep, while the Lords Alliance is multinational, yes? I’d say a good analogy to help players grasp the distinction is that Force Grey is like the IMF (as portrayed in the recent movies, where they’re funded by the U.S. government) while the Lords Alliance is like UNCLE. They may have the same goals in many cases, but they’re beholden to different masters.
Is there going to more of this soon? I’m starting our Dragon Heist game next Monday. I’d love what you’ve started here but I won’t risk using it in my game if I’m quickly going to move beyond what you’ve released so far.
Really looking forward to seeing your future parts for this remix. I’m planning to run the adventure for my group in the future and this looks like it’ll put the heist back into the module. Thank you for taking the time to do this and can’t wait to see what else you have in store.
This is awesome. I looked at the module and was excited for the first couple of chapters, then severely disappointed when I read the Benny Hill chapter. I tried to shuffle things about but didn’t get anywhere. I’m really looking forward to seeing what the next parts hold.
Your write-up so far already gave me a ton of ideas to improve the flow of the adventure that I’m about to start running with my group. Really looking forward to the remaining parts especially after you wrote on Twitter about them! 🙂
This post is probably going to be the most useful to me in my remix (of the remix). Sigil (from Planescape) has fifteen different player factions, which means that the interplay will be a lot more complicated. Gonna play with the player’s loyalties as much as I can, for sure.
Thanks for the remix, I will definitely make use of it running this adventure shortly.
Like Xanu, I will limit the factions, probably to Lords’ Alliance and the Harpers, unless the players take interest in one of the others. There’s so much going on, no real need to further complicate things.
One quibble I have is I really don’t see how the factions could/should take active notice of PCs after recovering Floon. It is in no one’s interest to publicize this fact. Floon will want to keep a low profile, as would Renaer, and it would be bad for it to get out that the PCs raided a Xanathar gang lair.
In a busy city, Floon is small potatoes in the grand scheme (and the Grand Game). Now, agents tailing Renaer might take notice of his sudden association with the PCs, but he doesn’t know anything and no longer has the eye so he’s low value (until Chap. 3 anyway… sorta).
If this is a true Heist, the PCs might want to avoid faction entanglements of all kinds. As a DM, I will wait until PC actions garner attention of the Harpers and Alliance in Chap. 3. If they have no idea where the money is, there’s no reason to bother with the PCs until they do something noteworthy (or suspicious).
The subject of factions – should the whole party be agents of one faction, or should they be allowed to join different ones?
I think its not so much a “join the faction” and more like being in good, neutral or bad terms with each, or something more akin to that. Unless of course the players want to explicitly join the Harpers or any of the others.
Personally, as a fairly new DM I’ve found Chapter 2 to actually be the least helpful part of the RAW book. It assumes that the players will be interested in joining any of the factions as a matter of course, and only provides small outlines for missions rather than anything substantial. Furthermore, none of what’s in the book directly advances the main plot in any way. So for this chapter the burden is placed entirely on the DM’s shoulders to make it work. That might be great for experienced DMs, but if you’re new to the role and still finding your feet, this chapter gives almost no help whatsoever.
Just to post a differing opinion. I’m only running my second 5e campaign, after DM’ing for a few years way back in high school. We just finished Chapter 2 (running the remix), and I think it’s been extremely helpful in making the city a rich environment for RP, and setting up various chess pieces for the rest of the campaign.
1) First, I had the party visited in their manor by the guild leaders, to make it clear how much money they’d need to get the tavern operational. Then they were visited by various faction representatives, so they could pick the factions they wanted to work for. This let me learn more about the PCs and what they’re interested in. (The sorcerer wanted to work for Blackstaff, the criminal barbarian wants to work for the Zhentarim.) Later on, I’ll focus on those NPCs more (i.e. Vajra will bail them out rather than Laeral Silverhand, and Davil and Yagra will help them out with future heists or battles.)
2) Because the missions are so small and barely outlined, nothing precludes you from using them for whatever factions you want, or throwing them in as “random” encounters. E.g. I threw in the Harper 3rd level mission (the monster in the bookstore) as they were walking with Renaer to his mansion, and had them meet Sir Ambrose and fight skeletons (Emerald Enclave 3rd level) while accompanying Renaer to visit his mother’s tomb in the Brandath Crypts. They did not join the Harpers, and I didn’t even bother to introduce the Emerald Enclave.
3) Because most of the missions occur in the city, you can use them to guide the party into collisions with other significant locations or people. E.g. they went and somehow took down Soluun Xibrindas (Zhentarim 2nd level), and now Jarlaxle is trying to figure out who killed his trusted lieutenant. They met Zelifarn in the harbor (Gray Hands 3rd level), who asked them about the submersible, and now they’re working undercover as performers at the Sea Maidens Faire. They heard the rumor about the Black Viper being Ammalia Cassalanter’s twin sister (Order of the Gauntlet 3rd level), and now they have another reason to snoop around the Cassalanter family estate when I introduce them in the next session or two.
I intend to continue throwing in faction missions where time and space permit. But first, my crew has a fireball to investigate.