I'm about to run the Edge of Night boxed set over a weekend long annual marathon session. This is a solid group of 5 players, excellent at roleplaying. A Trollslayer, Grey Wizard, Sigmar Priest, Thief and Wood Elf. We've successfully run a weekend marathon session already with Edge of Night and a number side quests to build a small sand box campaign. We're all older in our 30's, professionals.

so, I come to you with this. There's a LOT of junk in this little book, that if one thing goes kind of wrong it can derail the whole boxed set. So, other than "DON'T RUN THIS ON", what are your experiences with it. There just doesn't seem to be enough tools to help run this one. It's been a real challenge and I've had to fill in the gaps with a lot of augmented story.

A full size map would've been nice for starters...and at the end, some kind of resolution with the nobles. There are so many characters to keep track of. I guess what I'm really asking for is if anyone's has or used some cheat sheets they could lend me?? I feel like I need a GM Screen for this one adventure. Anyone got MAPS or CHEAT SHEETS??

Any other advice??

GalaxyUC said:

My players had a bit of a rough time in EoN. They thought there were too many NPCs, but in reality only 11 of them are relevant. It's a big sand box scenario, but on its own it's a bit weak. For my players their goal was to get to Ubersreich and gain support from a noble, so they could claim a piece of land (long story). This gave them a very personal motivation to attend the party and gain favor with the nobles.

That said they missed 75% of the info and only visited one of the locations with noble affiliation. The GM events gave them their invitation though, but it's never as satisfactory to achieve something that way instead of by your own actions.

If you're running it as a one shot I'd give you the following advice

1. Make it very clear that the goal is to get an invitation from one of the three noble families and to gain patronage.

2. Make sure you forshadow the ratman attack, so they don't miss it during the party.

3. Make sure you explain to them that the other people comming to the party have most likely planned for the political arena for some time. They need info and to make some sort of plan as to how they handle the party.

4. I used the small NPC cards and put a token on whenever a NPC was influenced. The other factions also made one check each every round, plus saponatheim had a few aces up his sleeve. If an npc was influenced by one faction, then I would put the matching noble crest token on the card. Each card could have more than one token from a family. When a NPC was influenced who already had tokens from a family, these would be removed, one for each time influenced. If that makes sense. But that way a good check could mean there was 2-3 tokens on someone and they would be safe at least one round from being converted.

5. If your players were to get a guest list (bribing) for instance they could find out which 11 NPCs who are relevant.

6. Play up the costumes part... they need it. My players used all their money (2gp) and got some half decent second hand costumes. Your players could also steal them or borrow money to buy them.

But it's a rather tough adventure for the players, but the only way to run it is as a completely free form sand box adventure with just the goals set in stone. The rest has to be up to the players. Don't worry if they miss half the info, I think that's by design.

EoN wasn't the best adventure we've played from a player viewpoint I think. Personally I love it, because it demands action from the players. It requires the players to take initiative and come up with solutions, much more than other scenarios. This also means that the players may miss a lot and not take initiative, but I like it. My players felt (or at least 2 of them), that there were too many NPCs, but out of the 27 NPCs presented only 11 mattered. The players could have discovered that by aquiring the guest list. I think it's important to tell your players the premise of the adventure. Tell them that THEY must take initiative and that they can't just sit back and wait for the story to move along. THEY need to move it along. After playing it, I wish I had stressed this to my players, so they knew they had to be very active and take initiative. Then make sure the players simply don't get an invitation until they have gotten enough information. I regret giving them the invitation when they got it, I should have cheated a bit and let them sweat a bit longer so that they might have taken initiative to seek out some locations and info. Then I wish I had also made a handout. This handout would detail the preparation a random noble had done for the evening, stressing that preparing and stacking your deck is important. To make the players come up with a plan. One person fast talks, one person keeps an eye on the other nobles to see whom talks with whom etc.

All in all my players got what they came for, but the evening ended with the political struggle undecided, but their patron in the lead as several guests started mutating. Perhaps my players are just too used to success and took the mutations as a faliure. Personally I never see player actions as a failure, unless players on purpose do stupid crap. I see it as their story told, with success, failure, struggles and nobles mutating at a fancy party is a great story

If you search GM forum you'll find a fair amount of talk about it and play reports, mine with my GM notes interpersed here:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=165&efcid=3&efidt=460642

E.g., setting up the town as location cards to emphasize places to go; adding preludes that lead directly into the various "events" beforehand rather than calling for checks out the blue, with a tracking meter for rumours to come out as town tensions rise. My notes on how I handled the Ball also included.

Overall this box has lots of info to use in a campaign and roleplaying (the role part) and fun set piece (who doesn't love a ball of scheming nobles + ratmen) but needs lots of work to make work.

Rob

I read your sessions reports, I think they help quite a bit. The First thing I would ask you is if I can get a copy of those "homemade" location cards. I want to do that, but I don't have the skill in photoshop. How about it, still have them?

Also, anyone have an enlarged version of the mansion?

The locations were all pretty much standard ones such as Busy Street, Noble Mansion, Wharf District, Sewer Entrance, Back Alley, Rowdy Tavern, Dwarf Bridge, Magnus Tower, Marketstrasses, Inns etc. I just wrote the others like Costume Shop on the back of an old business card and put it on table, nothing fancy (I'm no photoshop expert, scan and insert some text is about my speed).

I did simply scan and print off larger the mansion but played it very abstract (just put standup in room, running around more than one room a time is fatigue).