![]() ![]() Trying to maintain narrative consistency throughout six books, with each written by a separate author is difficult to pull off, and unfortunately, the Council of Thieves struggles somewhat in this regard. In essence, Books 4 and 5 are narratively in the "wrong order", and force players to be "jump tracks" back and forth between plotlines and villains, rather than letting them follow a train of investigation through to its natural conclusion before continuing on to the second. The crux of the issue is that Book 3 "What Lies in Dust" is entirely focused on leading the heroes toward Sivanshin and ending the shadow curse (Plot A), but the Adventure Path doesn't do so until Book 5 "Mother of Flies", whereas Book 4 "The Infernal Syndrome" is not only lodged in-between, but is entirely focused on the mayhem being caused by the Drovenges (Plot B), which narratively leads to the culmination of their scheme in Book 6 "Twice-Damned Prince". In essence, the adventure path feels like the books are "out of sequence", which is a common comment from GMs and players, (though I would strongly dispute the common suggestion that Book 4 "The Infernal Syndrome", is actually best served being played last, as while it is dramatic, narratively Liebdaga is not that important). This is actually much harder to pull off than the more traditional sequential method, and requires a much tighter control of plot hooks and reveals than the Council of Thieves manages, unfortunately. ![]() Staged antagonists are fairly classic, and as such the intent is understandable, however the adventure path also tries to have the party fight them in parallel, weaving back and forth between the two opposed groups and facing the antagonists at the end of books 5 and 6, respectively. The intent of the adventure path is to have two antagonists, with Sivanshin's shadow curse being a primary motivator for the PCs to take action and the first target, while the second and initially unknown antagonist, Eccardian, works behind the scenes to perpetrate an even greater evil the heroes must face. Running the campaign as-published can work, depending on your group, but to really bring this adventure home requires a fair amount of work on the part of the GM, though I personally feel this AP is worth it. The Council of Thieves is an extremely ambitious project, but also one that has been created under duress - office relocations, release of Pathfinder as a system and so on - and the result I consider both daringly brilliant. honestly you might want to consider running something else. If your PCs are particularly craven or mercenary. If you have heroic PCs, this adventure path is excellent. But some assembly is required.Ī slightly longer (and hopefully useful) explanation is that your mileage may vary with the Council of Thieves, as the adventure path hangs its hat on the PCs being heroic. ![]() Indeed, the fact that the Council of Thieves inspired me to write over 200 pages of campaign notes, and this very (very) extensive dissertation speaks more of how much I loved the thing than the fact that I may pick fault from time to time.įor the sake of legibility, I'll be making heavy use of both formatting tools and spoiler tags to try and make this a little more manageable, as it is freaking huge.īut, without further ado, let's go on to the Council of Thieves. ![]() I should also go on to say that, although I may at times be a bit critical of some of the content of the published modules, this isn't intended as a mud-slinging exercise - on the whole I love the Pathfinder Adventure Paths and recognize that in the real world of professional publishing there are such things as time, budget and page limits, which all serve as constraints, especially for ambitious projects. Lots of them.įoreword: This is not a blow-by-blow account of our run-through of the adventure path, and instead a combination of review, experiences in play and from that recommendations for others (and myself, if I run it again, which I may well do). ![]()
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