Spoiler
It's always seemed to me (and I'm sure, others) that the two halves of Power Behind The Throne don't really join together very well.
The first half is concerned with finding who has influence with the Graf, why they are voting for the taxes, etc. and is generally a sort-of investigation, but once the niece has been rescued it all turns into a much more linear "catch the baddie" set up.
The reasons for this are documented - it actually *was* two stories with two different authors, one brought in at the end to bolt on an exciting denouement.
While planning to run the scenario, I'm wondering what can be done to make it all make a bit more sense. I don't want the players to get the to end and think "Wait a minute! All we had to do was rescue that girl. Why did we spend all that time worrying about the love lives of priests and de-hypnotising strange men?"
I think the crux of it is the doppelganger - if Wasmeier has got a doppelganger why does he need to craft such a complicated plan of influence, black mail and drug dealing? Once the doppelganger is able to meet the Graf privately, all of that previous stuff is of absolutely no consequence.
One idea I had was to keep the two plots (because they really are two different plots) separate - Wasmeier can keep the complicated, slow, careful votes/taxes one, while the second, wham-bam kill-the-Graf plot can be masterminded by someone else. Gotthard von Wittgenstein (and his friends in the Jade Sceptre) seem like a good choice.
This needs more thinking through.
Comments and suggestions welcome.
The first half is concerned with finding who has influence with the Graf, why they are voting for the taxes, etc. and is generally a sort-of investigation, but once the niece has been rescued it all turns into a much more linear "catch the baddie" set up.
The reasons for this are documented - it actually *was* two stories with two different authors, one brought in at the end to bolt on an exciting denouement.
While planning to run the scenario, I'm wondering what can be done to make it all make a bit more sense. I don't want the players to get the to end and think "Wait a minute! All we had to do was rescue that girl. Why did we spend all that time worrying about the love lives of priests and de-hypnotising strange men?"
I think the crux of it is the doppelganger - if Wasmeier has got a doppelganger why does he need to craft such a complicated plan of influence, black mail and drug dealing? Once the doppelganger is able to meet the Graf privately, all of that previous stuff is of absolutely no consequence.
One idea I had was to keep the two plots (because they really are two different plots) separate - Wasmeier can keep the complicated, slow, careful votes/taxes one, while the second, wham-bam kill-the-Graf plot can be masterminded by someone else. Gotthard von Wittgenstein (and his friends in the Jade Sceptre) seem like a good choice.
This needs more thinking through.
Comments and suggestions welcome.