Goodman Games

I'm getting ready to run the adventure Intrigue at the Court of Chaos for my group upcoming this weekend and I wanted to know from those who have run the module in past if there was any advice on running it? Part of me is excited about it, giving the players free run to back stab if they desire - which I'm sure they will! But I'm looking over it and wondering as to anything to keep in mind.

We just got through with Sailors on the Starless Sea and they all enjoyed that, the look of terror as their characters dwindled. It felt more like an adventure than past games we'd played. But regardless, they wound up on a ship, rocketing down an underground river.

I was contemplating their group finding their way to a small fishing town before going onward where they encounter the Court, but part of me also thought about them just transitioning right into the Court, as a delusion while in the darkness, spending so long in sheer darkness losing track of the days that they descend into madness.

While on the subject, has anyone worked up the Court members as patrons? I can't help but think it's going to come up.

I played through this module. I absolutely hated it. It was the worst experience of our DCC campaign. One player tried his best to kill another player's character. He failed to get the kill, but managed to inflict severe, permanent damage. Another player had their character steal all of the rewards from the party. The module permanently caused a huge amount of distrust and bad blood between the players in our group. It caused so much distrust that we couldn't function as a team afterwards. It ultimately led to the group disbanding.

My advice is to be cautious. It's not a module that everyone will enjoy. If you decide to run it, make sure that all of the players know that it's a player vs. player module before you run it and give them the chance to opt out.

I played through this module (as a chaotic thief). The party actually functioned together very well until the end. I can't speak to the other players' motives, but my character sold out to Chaos without reservation. I played it cool, supporting the mission (aside from a little side-looting) and biding my time. Then it was grab the maguffin and run. A couple of party members tried to stop me, but I burned all the luck and pulled off the selfish personal victory.

It was glorious, and I don't really have regrets. I feel like I played the thief rationally and consistently. That character was lost, and eventually became a recurring NPC villain. We moved on. I'm not sure how events would have unfolded if my guy hadn't made his gambit, though. Intraparty conflict, for sure, and I think he probably would have ended up leaving.

You may not be able to predict what your players will do. DCC is a game where they can make interesting choices, and you should trust them. They might lose characters, but sometimes players lose characters. It's only a game. I thought the whole module was fun, btw, and we had a great time with all the tasks.

For anyone else who might trip over this thread:

1) I've seen others online use play-doh for the creation challenge and am looking forward to doing it myself in January.

2) If you don't know already, all of the members of The Court Of Chaos are fully fleshed out as patrons in The DCC Annual!

Will report back after I run this myself. For now I'm just going through the module with highlighters, making an index card with the main NPC's listed on it in brief, and I've printed out each of the court member pages on different coloured paper with plans to hang them over my GM screen. Would love to read more about people's experiences running this module - anything at all, not just navigating the potentially prickly part of player v player action.

I'll tell you my experience, my players went straight from starless sea to ICC and it was at times incredibly fun and at times disasterous, The players struggled with a lack of agency, and the puzzles were often frustrating for everyone involved, everyone worked together, I don't think any betrayal was ever gonna happen, but I'm not sure because they were all killed by their reflections, they were very short with me about it, one girl left furious because she was way too attached to her character, in other words, make sure you have a mature group because this module will not fly with the 5e crowd.

now I have a question of my own what modules would make good penance for failing to steal the yokeless egg? I was going to create a sort of sequel called Order in the Court of Law and have it be a sort of reverse of this module, but I don't know if that's a good idea.

I'm struggling with the author's intent regarding rewards: If the party assists a particular member of the court, the handout lists a handful of possible rewards. Is the party supposed to get one of these items, a couple, or all of them? I wouldn't think all of them since they are all pretty powerful, but I'd like to hear anyone's thoughts on this please. I'm running the module Saturday night. thanks!

jjciacc3 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 31, 2021 7:30 am I'm struggling with the author's intent regarding rewards: If the party assists a particular member of the court, the handout lists a handful of possible rewards. Is the party supposed to get one of these items, a couple, or all of them? I wouldn't think all of them since they are all pretty powerful, but I'd like to hear anyone's thoughts on this please. I'm running the module Saturday night. thanks!

My reading is that these are things that can be used to tempt the PCs. It is doubtful that any PC would get all of them, but two is not out of the question if the PC bargains hard!

Hello,

I'm reopening this topic that was discussed a while ago because it's a module that I immediately wanted to play when I read it. And...

I'm also thinking of playing this module soon and another question comes to mind : would it be possible, in your opinion, to play this adventure with a smaller group of players than the recommended six (four) ? As for the possible betrayals and dirty tricks, we'll see !

Thank you in advance for your advices !

And I have another little question for those who have already played this module : p18 reads " Careful observation also reveals Lexaliah watching from the shadows cast by the broken stele. " I don't understand what this description refers to. Which broken stele is it ?