what sorts of missions do you want to go on?

Let’s see….
1) Moderate. There should definitely be tension, but not so much as to derail the mod and have the session drag out due to arguing/debating.
2) I think both are appropriate. Making it part of the main thrust of the mod helps build interest and investment. However, having separate orders can be fun, also. Especially ones that put a crunch on players to either have to ditch their companions for a short period of time or that push for time to complete both SS goals and mod goals. (Dont make it impossible, just difficult….e.g. making a SS drop and then having to run across town to make the mod “meeting”. So, starting a scene off Exhausted from the run, etc.)
3) Absolutely. PCs have a responsibility to the goals of their SS. Waiting for orders is just lazy. SS are another aspect of the Hero they should be aware of all the time.

Eric,

Good question. In terms of tension I’m ok with a range, but it shouldn’t be higher than moderate. Specifically, the key objectives of the mod should be able to be completed regardless of the outcome of any secret society missions. I’m perfectly fine if secret society missions are at odds or could be accomplished mutually with some thought (such as the example you described). I recall sitting at a few tables in the first arc where one or a couple players completely screwed over the rest of the party because of mission objectives with no in character recourse to follow avoiding PVP. It leaves a really bad taste in the mouth of the rest of the players.

2) I’m ok if the mission objective ties in strongly with the plot, as long as again the mod can be completed regardless of what happens with a mission. Consider if one of the mod’s primary objectives is the recovery of the journal containing important information. Maybe one or more of the secret society’s missions is to recover the body for proper honors and burial. Lugging the body around could certainly be problematic – slow the party down, lost time in combat dealing with it etc.

3) I agree with the notion that folks should be proactive where it makes sense, not just reactive on missions. One thing to consider would be to add a list of secret societies to each AR and adjust a value for impact of the character’s actions on each secret society. Characters may come to the attention of a secret society good or bad, whether they’re aware of it or not. This could represent someone constantly being a thorn in the side or someone who might be ripe for contact and recruitment.

With a sweep of his…

Hat

I know that some Secret Societies have paths, but I don’t know if it’s ever been stated explicitly: Do you need to take the path to be a member? Or can you just say “I’m a member of “?

The reason I ask is for recruitment of other players/NPC’s to a society. That should be worth fame even if it’s not in the module.

John
You do not need to take a SS path to be a part of that society.

A SS path simply means you are a shining member of that (secret) community.
Or you haveadopt ed their weird fighting style.

A SS path simply means you are a shining member of that (secret) community.
Or you haveadopt ed their weird fighting style.

SS’s have Fighting Styles?!

*waves hand* No, John, they don’t. These are not the Fighting Styles you are looking for.
*waves hand* You don’t want to ask about Secret Society Fighting Styles. You want to go home and re-think your character build.

Title sort of sums it up. But there are a few specific wrinkles I’ll toss out to cover:

1) How much inter party tension do you want your missions to create? None? A little? More? What about one object that two or more societies want? What about the illusion that two societies want one object but that the object can be shared if the PCs are clever enough? (Real mission from the living arcanis days: Emerald Society & Azure Way both sent after the same necklace … ES wants the inscription in the necklace. AW wants the pendant of the necklace because it used to go with something else. This gets mentioned in “fluff” of orders, but the basic reading says get the necklace. On the surface it looks like the 2 societies are in conflict but several table I ran worked it out).

Party tension is a good thing. What is not a good thing is when a SS mission is to derail the primary goal of the mod. I don’t want to see that in a campaign again. If it does show up it should never be in a Hard Point or BI or multiple part mod.

2) How connected the main plot of the mod do you want missions to be? Do you care if secret missions are essentially surpurfulous to the main thrust of the mod…or should there be some overlap? In a delve bring something back. In a roll playing mod talk to someone and persuade them to do X.

I like it for the most part but see answer to 1.

3) What about modules that reward PCs that do things that help their society…but never formally give you a mission? You encounter or hear something about agents of Ymandragore and investigate\report to the Hawk and Shield.

Mixed feeling since the greedy part says yes getting rewarded for stuff I do naturally. The other part of me says that why should the player be rewarded for just playing his character within the parameters he has set for himself.
There are also some secrete societies that by their nature limit themselves to specific mods. If you are doing a simple rescue op then the followers of the E.S. or A.W may be stretched to find things of historical nature. H&S would be extremely limited to mods where the Yamandagor show up.
Other societies have much more opportunities like there is always room in a mod for a CofTSC to be noble and heroic. Usually room for MoS to mess with the religion and for the Orthodoxy to protect it. (Oh Ya using the two of them gave me an awesome idea for a character. Build a Psionic Inquisitor who is secretly a plant for the MoS)

So follow up question. Would it be appropriate for some secrete society to be more open then others. Everyone knows of the Free Masons or many other Fraternal orders versus everyone hearing rumors of the Illuminati but no one can prove it exist. I imagine the Arcanis secret societies are something like that.

I see it as

Mourners of Silence and the Feather Men sort of being like the Illuminati because they are just whispered about with no “proof of their existence”
When it comes to secrecy versus public knowledge I would next put the Laerestri & the Sanctorum of the Arcane because everyone knows they exist but unless you have personal dealing with the former you don’t actually know anyone in them. I would also put the Champions of the Silver Chalice in their not because of their love for secrecy but because of the newness of the order. In a hundred years I see them being more like the Free Masons which brings me to . . .
the Orthodoxy which I see on or near the same level as the or nearly as secretive as the Free Masons.
Finally I would put the Followers of the Azure Way and Emerald Society being like a highly respected Educational society or Fraternity.
Comments; agree, disagree, where might I be off in my assessment?

I remember that I definitely enjoyed the previous way Secret Societies were handled in Living Arcanis. IIRC, they were difficult and some were tied into the story, and other times they were superfluous. I didn’t experience any intra-party issues, probably because we were all members of the Murder of Crows (Josh Elliott and Lindsay Elliott will remember…*cawww* *cawww*).

One thing I would caution against would be making the missions worth something tied into character functionality. If any of you have played Pathfinder Society, you know there is was a Prestige system with Factions that eventually went away because it wasn’t working. Prestige with your Faction tied into magic item purchase limits and it got to the point where a lot of my players got pretty upset about missing ‘their’ Prestige Points.

I don’t think Living Arcanis or Legends of Arcanis had/is going to adopt this system but I wanted to share my experiences anyway. I like the way they were handled previously by LA.