Strength of Thousands Masterpost

Strength of Thousands is an incredible adventure past. We've had an absolute blast so far, and I'm excited for what's to come! But in addition to my full remixes, I've made a number of smaller changes throughout that I want to capture. I am also looking ahead to Book 5, where I might make some substantive changes, so I figured it makes sense to put everything in one place!

First off, here are some Collected Links about Strength of Thousands from across the internet. I'll specifically shout out SoT Expanded and this Koride re-write as very worth reading before running your game. The rest of this post will be a mix of breakdowns of how I handled things and links to my more in-depth writeups.

Note that we used Milestone levelling, so they levelled up when they moved on to the next chapter! This meant that players aren't screwed for skipping content through clever or judicious play, and if things balloon into larger scenarios they won't be over-levelled. I usually like XP a lot, but I think it worked well at 1. not making them exhaustively do everything and 2. keeping things balanced, as they were always the expected level.

Book 1 - Kindled Magic

If I recall correctly (as of writing this, I started Strength of Thousands over two years ago!), I didn't change a whole lot about this book. It works fairly well as written!

We started with character introductions, watching our PCs leave their homes and set off on their long journey to the Magaambya. We watched their travel montage, introduced the city, and jumped on in!

In Chapter 1: Orientation, I gave several of the tasks at once, and let them decide the order. This let them strategize a bit, and worked pretty well! Though obviously the Uzunjati task should be separate and last.

Chapter 2: First of Many had a lot of great moments! One thing I wish I had done is worked to bring out the School vibes better by detailing classes/etc. Here's a solid take on that to get you started if you want to do the same!

Chapter 3: Stone-Cast Shadows I more or less ran as written, except for the fight with the Griffons which I moved to the beginning of Book 2 (mostly this makes the fight easier, but it also serves as a better introduction to Book 2 than a conclusion to Book 1 in my opinion).

I'll go more into how I handled Downtime and Studying at the end.

Book 2 - Spoken on the Song Wind

This is the book that I changed the most, but just to be super clear, the changes were primarily to bring out the awesome content present in the book in a more evocative way, as well as put the players in the drivers seat rather than just reacting to tasks one by one (just as with Book 1 Chapter 1).

I mostly ran Chapter 1: The Learned One Returns as written, though looking back I might honestly scrap Janatimo as a character, or at least work harder to make him feel distinct from Teacher Ot. I eventually just dropped him, because the PCs liked Teacher Ot better and they filled a very similar role.

Chapter 2: Service to the City got a complete remix, and while Chapter 3: The Flooded Mansion remained mostly unchanged on its own, there are a lot of placed where I brought in elements of Chapter 3 early. I would have 100% allowed my players to try some other plan to take out Salathiss (such as ambushing him in Asanda's office or while travelling), I just would've had to come up with some alternate obstacles (the city guards or response teams that are nearby to help).

• Part 1: Introduction & Structure
• Part 2A: Finding Froglegs
• Part 2B: Froglegs' Faction Outpost and Response Teams
• Part 3A: Sussing Out Salathiss
• Part 3B: Serpentfolk Response Teams & Related Quests
• Part 3C: Magistrate's Manor Adversity Roster
• Part 4: Quest Breakdown (fitting in all the book quests)

As detailed in my Actual Play Update: Mid Chapter 2, my players ended up going pretty off the rails in an AWESOME way! Before they could do many of the service tasks, they killed some Bellringers that worked for Froglegs (but who were planning to kill the PCs on the orders of Salathiss), and fled the city to the hometown of the Anadi character, Strings-On-The-River. I had the town taken over by the Aspis Consortium, and the players had to liberate it!

You don't have let things get as off the rails as I did (though it can be a lot of fun if you do!), but I do recommend trying to set up the Aspis Consortium as antagonists early on, to make Book 4 feel more satisfying.

At the end of the book, the players identified lots of structural problems in Nantambu that allowed this to happen, and spent months working to improve things! It was, honestly really heartwarming to see. There was a beautiful send off to Froglegs, who decided that her time was past, and the world had moved on; one player worked really hard to rehabilitate many of the thieves working for her; another player started a discworld style thieves guild for everyone who preferred that live; a lot of thought and care was put into the systems of government, elections, power of recall, etc. If you let it, this chapter can be a great way to engage with deep political and philosophical questions, and it has a lot more impact for it!

Book 3 - Hurricane's Howl

 I barely changed this book! I think it's great, honestly. Definitely a bit out of left field regarding the bug plot, so feel free to follow this advice if you want more continuity there, but honestly I think my players appreciated the break. I forget exactly when, but I did have Koride head north to near where the Iobane were as per that advice.

Chapter 1: The Missing Student I ran as written, but gave a lot of freedom to the players in how the semester went (they are teachers after all!) I also played Thiarvo and co. as smart antagonists, and they ended up being an ABSOLUTE pain for my players to deal with (including attacking the camp while the players were in town a day away!). Highly recommend, it lead to some really great dilemmas with very little extra work. I similarly recommend getting into the RP of the characters in Bloodsalt as much as possible (my players ended up LOVING Vyrina).

Chapter 2: Vanished Villagers had the biggest changes. I implemented a prototype version of my Wilderness Travel rules, and allowed them to try to catch up to the Knights at risk of Fatigue! The players were so close to catching up, but decided to rest and make a plan before attacking, and ultimately lost their chance due to an untimely poor navigation check. They ended up skipping the Orchard, but there was other stuff to make up the time. I originally wrote up a big post about how it went, but ultimately the first draft of the rules were a bit too finicky in actual play to feel good about posting so I didn't bother.

Chapter 3: Prison of the Vacant Eye I ran with no changes. The players smartly scouted the area (I made sure they were fully aware of how dangerous this area was) and attacked at night by going in on the water level. Several of the fights strung together (usually due to bad guys fleeing to get help), but that was counterbalanced by the actions spent to get up / grab weapons / etc. as well as several of the sleeping guards not being in armor. I did also have 5 players, and did not adjust the dungeon accordingly.

Chapter 4: Jula's Plight I also ran straight, though a lot of really rad character stuff happened (especially with Father Heveril, but the thieves Guild came back in a big way with Grinning Lex and my oracle found out her patron was Walkena!! Spooky).

If you didn't introduce the Aspis Consortium already, you could have them funding or otherwise working with the Knights.

Overall, maybe the strongest stand-alone book as written? I really love how well each chapter fits together, but how distinct they are as well.

Book 4 - Secrets of the Temple City

Chapter 1: Words for the Dead was pretty disappointing. It's an incredible concept, and ended up working out, but it took like 6 sessions for just the negotiation, because we were trying to bring things to life and not just roll dice for 3 hours, plus a session travelling there and 2 1/2 sessions of our finale (2 sessions dealing with the Aspis Consortium, half a session chatting with Walkena). In total the party was level 12 for 10 sessions, which is too long.

I wrote up several pretty long posts on how to make this chapter better. Learn from my mistakes! Do better than I did!

• Part 1: Review & Recap goes into the problems with the chapters structure, and introduces our Main Antagonists: The Aspis Consortium. This is why I recommended setting them up early, so this can really land.
• Part 2: Towards better Negotiation outlines a comprehensive approach for turning this chapter into a tug of war between the PCs and the Aspis Consortium to see which faction can win over the city, adding a lot more tension and drama while removing a lot of the tedium by reducing the number of rolls required and adding more direct impact for failures.
• Part 3: A Grand Finale is my take on the final conversation with Walkena. In a chapter about negotiating with his city, this final conversation should be epic! At the very least, it needs better presentation than the book gives it, but I also really like the idea of this conversation potentially impacting what deal Walkena offers as well.

Chapter 2: Raising the Sun needed very little work. It's a solid dungeon, and a really cool example of using linear design in an intentional way! Here's a writeup meant mostly to praise that aspect, as well as make a few suggestions both for running it broadly for for turning it into a more Jaquaysed/exploration focused experience. I definitely recommend reading "Advice for GMs", which has some broader thoughts to help bring out the best in this chapter, but I think the dungeon is otherwise 100% fine to run as is!

Chapter 3: Guardians of the Golden City has felt a bit weird to some folks for a while, because you go from working your ass off in Chapter 1 to kiss buts and make friends in Mzali, and then they immediately go do an imperialism and you have to fight them off! I actually think grappling with Imperialism here is great, but wouldn't it be even better with some proper colonizers in the mix? That's right baby, we're bringing back the Aspis Consortium! Here's the full writeup!

Book 5 - Doorway to the Red Star

I've started flipping through, and I anticipate making minor changes to open up the situation with the Iobane and the process of getting to the King of Biting Ants. Plus, of course, changing the Iobane conflict so that they're annoyed that Koride is now there with the egg messing with wildlife, rather than because she stole from them initially. Though maybe she did steal it and they just didn't realize what they were guarding? Idk. Need to give this one more thought.

I already wrote up my framing for Chapter 1 Preparations, and will be moving on to the rest soon ish!

I just finished a section on the Iobane as well - I'll re-write this section to better capture all that when I have more time.

I am hoping I can mostly leave Chapter 2 alone, though we'll see, and I anticipate potentially adding some support to finding the King of Biting Ants in Chapter 3 (that thread feels a little bit fragile right now, but I don't think I mind any of the things that are there).

Book 6 - Shadows of the Ancients

I have only skimmed this one. I think the broad strokes seem fuckin rad!

I will likely take a look at the negotiation section of chapter 1, which seems like a cool idea but as mentioned before I don't love influence, and some of the rewards feel a little random ("Now that we like you enough, we'll build this school!" Were the players asking for that? Were the teachers? Might not need a total rework, and I might just be missing things, but I think it could use some reframing).

I also might beef up the sandbox in chapter 2 a bit (making it more dynamic) and adjust the timing-based stuff in Chapter 3 a bit... maybe not though! I'll have to take a closer look.

Downtime and Studying

As mentioned in the book 1 section, I do wish I'd done a better job bringing the School aspect to life early on. Once we got into it, though, the studying system mostly worked pretty well! The one big thing is that there isn't really advice on how things ought to time out, though there's the implication its over years.

As I talked about in Book 2, I basically gave them downtime that they could choose to use on Studying (or other stuff!) and told them that, ideally, they really want to be caught up with their level. I modulated how much downtime, as well as what activities were available, depending on where they were in their adventuring career (less in Book 1, more in Book 2, different things available in the start of Book 3, etc.). If you want more concrete advice, Expanded Magaambya and Strength of Thousands Expanded have some neat advice!

I think the one thing I'd change if I were to do it again is I'd make everything take longer. They were only students for about two and a half years (and they were fugitives for several months of that). They took about 6 months off to visit home, taught for about 6 months before I'boko fled, like 3 months on the adventure parts of Chapter 2, and then 6 more months of teaching before starting book 4. This means that by the end of the Mzali Negotiations, it's been 5 years - that's alright, but I think 7-8 would feel better. I'm definitely going to be stretching things out further moving forward.

Were I to do this again, I'd stretch school out to take, about 4 years? This would probably mean giving them less downtime per month, as the amount of downtime actually felt pretty good. Maybe instead of 1 action per month they get 1 per semester? Or maybe there are more competing downtime options? Idk! I'd also have them teach for longer before Book 4 starts, so their students are more than a year in.

Oracular Visions

I had an Oracle in my game, and have never been more happy for an excuse to do weird god shit. I stole a mechanic from monster of the week and, the night before any big chunk of campaign (a new dungeon, big location shift, or major event), I had my player roll a Secret Religion check against a standard DC of her level. She has a vision that is varyingly useful depending on how well she rolls:

• Critical Success. As success, but instead of vague hints I give specific details, names, passphrases, etc.
• Success. I give vague hints about what might come, especially when it's critical for the party to know or unclear in the text.
• Failure. I give vague cryptic hints that have nothing to do with the upcoming adventure. I often recycled past bad guys or had images of statues, since those were things she was predisposed to be worried about and easy to improvise details about.
• Critical Failure. Dreams of fire, blood, vengeance. Fortitude save (same DC) not to be Fatigued for the day ahead!

She was also an oracle who didn't know who she was an oracle for! This was great. It led to a thrilling multi-year process of discovery that was often very scary (in Book 2 she killed the wood golem by setting herself on fire, as per the Major curse for Fire Oracles, but she couldn't willingly suppress it because she wasn't high enough level to get it normally), always creepy (see critical failure), and a great source of tension between her and her Witch sister.

It also let me make her an oracle of Walkena, and give her a choice in Book 4 between 1. keeping Walkena, but with some variant of the kineticists Extract Elements, 2. letting Dajermube replace Walkena, allowing Fire Ray to do cold damage and opening up some other cool spell options, or 3. rejecting divinity and becoming an elemental fire sorcerer. She hasn't chosen yet, excited to see what happens!

Even if you don't have an oracle in your game, I highly recommend you come up with a few ways to share backstory info with players. Part of the way APs are written means that there's not a built in way to share a lot of that info with players, and when there is it's often "this NPC tells you." The backstories are often pretty important to SoT, as a more RP-focused adventure, so these visions worked really well for my group.

As I write more SoT articles, I'll add them here, but otherwise that's all for now!