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| #1ArwenOfRivendelDec 29, 2014 4:49:49 | My family and I are playing LMOF from the starter set my son got for Christmas, with me as DM. My daughter is playing the pre-generated halfing rogue who used to be a Redbrand, and has an aunt in town (who doesn't know her history).
Our group of heroes will be entering Phandalin for the first time the next time we play, and I'm trying to figure out whether or not most of the Phandalin NPCs should recognize Kithri (as my daughter named her). The other players/characters don't know Kithri's histroy.
Obviously, Quelline Alderlead, Kithri's aunt, will recognize her. And presumably so will the Redbrands, at least some of them. But what about other townspeople?
I'm leaning toward the idea that Kithri mainly did "stealth" ops for the Rebrands: burglarizing shops of those who didn't cave in to Redbrad demands, spying on citizens, etc., and wasn't part of the public bullying of the townspeople. My reasoning here is two-fold: 1) Quelline doesn't know Kithri was a Redbrand; if the general population knew, wouldn't word have reachied Quelline? 2) If the townspeople NPCs DO recognize Kithri, they will not be interested in helping a party she is part of.
And, as a related question, doesn't Kithri's history imply that she would know the layout of the hideout under the manor? Maybe not the secret doors, but some of the other details? I'm wondering if I should give her a modified map. One complication there is that my daughter is actually running two PCs. Her second PC doesn't/shouldn't have that knowledge. While new to D&D, she's committed to playing her PCs true to character, so just because she knows the layout doesn't mean that she'll share that knowledge with the rest of the crew.
Obviously my daughter and I need to work out some of the specifics together before they enter Phandalin.
As someone who dabbled with D&D 30+ years ago, I appreciate the thoroughness of the starter set, and the encouragement to make the game about the story as much as possible. But I do wish the DM "guide" had given me some pointers in this area, and a heads up. It didn't occur to me to read through the player's backgrounds on their sheets before we started play. If Kithri had managed to convince the team to go to Phandalin first after defeating the goblins on the road, I wouldn't have had a clue about her background and it's impact on their visit there.
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| #2DM_HEEGZDec 29, 2014 5:25:10 | I have DM'd the starter set with three different groups now. In each case I limited the halfling's prior knowledge of the Redbrands. He did not know the hideout, nor did he know most of the Redbrands. I ran it that the halfling knew a few of the members from a different town (Neverwinter) just to make the adventure as fresh as possible. For a bit of randomness, next time I will probably roll a d20 for each Redbrand in an encounter, with a result of 1-5 meaning that the NPC knew the halfling from before. Sounds like you know what you are doing though, so have fun! It's an excellent adventure to start 5e with. All of my groups rolled new PCs after finishing the starter set, though you can keep going with the pregens. |
| #3iserithDec 29, 2014 6:34:37 |
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| #4ArwenOfRivendelDec 29, 2014 9:08:02 |
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| #5iserithDec 29, 2014 9:13:16 |
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| #6BRJNDec 29, 2014 9:27:54 | I like the "modified map" idea. Maybe Kithri wasn't important enough to be let in past the front door? Kept "cooling her heels" in the hallway while the important people went into the other room to discuss business? If nobody told her "Stay Right Here" she poked around a bit, looking for the kitchen.
Also note that giving a player a map is not quite the same as giving a character a map. The character knows by memory what your daughter has to take a look at. She can - but doesn't have to - share with her other character.
Is Kithri proud of her past? Ashamed? Sees it as a necessary evil ("gotta do what you gotta do; gotta eat")? If it's going to make your daughter squirm, don't call out Kithra in front of family. (pun and scrambled identities intended) Maybe some other relative can come up later, "I know where you've been. Let's not upset Old Auntie Quel in front of everybody..." |
| #7ArwenOfRivendelDec 31, 2014 11:58:50 | Thanks for all the suggestions! My daughter sat down and worked out some specifics of Kirthri's back story, specifying that she did "stealth ops" for the Redbrands and wasn't publicly part of the bullying force. So townspeople won't recognize her (at least not as a Redbrand), although her Aunt will, and many of the Redbrands are likely to. I'm working on a modified map for her to use, not as a paper map Kithri has, but to give her a sense of Kithri's memories. She'll know about 1 secret door, and about half the hideout's layout, along the lines of BJRN's suggestion that she wouldn't have been trusted enough to have been allowed in "sensitive" areas.
We played for an hour or so the other night, and they explored Phandalin some. Kithri tried to sneak away to meet with Halia on her own, but failed her stealth role. When the other players noticed, she said she wanted to check in with a contact for more info and made a good argument for going alone, so they let her go. We handled that encounter out of earshot of the rest of the players.
My plan is to set up a Redbrands encounter as soon as the group is together again, and have someone call her out. They haven't visited Qelline's farm yet, so that will also be interesting, if/when it happens.
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| #8iserithDec 31, 2014 21:40:59 | She should totally be called out when she's at her aunt's farm. Awk-ward! |