Papering over the big crack in Power Behind The Throne [spoilers]

[Hidden Letterbox]

Discussion of main story points of Power Behind The Throne follow

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.

[Braddoc]

Heh...if PBtT is something, wait until you've read Empire in Ruins; GM roleplays himself for 3 long stretches of the book while the PCs listen and do nothing, or get midly distracted by random NPCs for no reason than for them to do something other than listening..

But onto PBtT..

Spoiler

I never saw like that; mostly that the first part is just your usual social-oriented scenario, whle the Skavens showing up at that Inn and being with a ragdoll from the missing girl, the PCs have no way to know who's that girl and why is she so important...feel more like the missing child and the whole running-around-for-the-last-hour-of-the-Canaval to add some tension to an otherwise rather unexcited scenario (little opportunities for combat, short of the numerous "supervised" duels and events happening) I think the missing Niece is there only to loop the loop and give the PCs a shock, as Wasmeier was the only one who was openly against the Tax (which also can raises his suspicion, but without evidence, can't do much).

The Doppleganger was always in the works, if you read the conlcusion (minus the PC's intervention, and IIRC as well) the tax would have been cancelled shortly after the Carnival, The fake Todbringer get some new names in his counsil, Wasmeier would ahve gotten a promotion and from there the rot will spread.

Two tones, but the same deal, at least from my view.

[Zisse]

I suggest reading Theo's great ideas on solving exactly this issue.

https://theenemywithinremixed.wordpress ... s-written/

Would be great to read, if anyone followed this. My group is at beginning of the end of DotR. I am strongly considering to adopt Theo's approach.

[FasterThanJesus]

In addition, I can't remember if Gideon discusses this in his unofficial TEW Companion, but it could also be worth a look (well, it is anyway).

I'll post a link later (blocked from where I am (work))

edit: https://awesomeliesblog.wordpress.com/2 ... ters-aids/

[Theo]

I suggest reading Theo's great ideas on solving exactly this issue.

https://theenemywithinremixed.wordpress ... s-written/

Would be great to read, if anyone followed this. My group is at beginning of the end of DotR. I am strongly considering to adopt Theo's approach.

Thanks for the shout-out. I tried it myself in my own run, it worked fairly well but not perfectly. I've got some further commentary on it in my GM's notes for the last few sessions of 'Season 3', and I'm working on a longer post evaluating my rewrite of PBtT in general.