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I was just thinking on this the other day. I Think that a good setting for at least the first part of this would be in Taldor. The main setting of the first few stories Diamond Lake could be in the foot hills of the worlds edge mountains and the free city could be Oppara. This would put the Whispering Cairn in the same said foothills in the south. I would put the Swamp south east of the Foothills near the headwaters of the River. I think it is called the Porthmos.
But this is just me.
It's the same for me. We played (and finished) SCAP with D&D3.5 and now I like to start AoW with Pathfinder rules in the Forgotten Realms. The conversion to the Realms is clear for me but I cannot estimate the conversion of the NSC and combat stats to Pathfinder.
To keep it simple I'm planning to let the PC be one level less than the suggested level of the adventures and therefore keep the enemy stats unchanged. Do you think that will work? Are there any experiences or are there conversions to Pathfinder anywhere?
It's the same for me. We played (and finished) SCAP with D&D3.5 and now I like to start AoW with Pathfinder rules in the Forgotten Realms. The conversion to the Realms is clear for me but I cannot estimate the conversion of the NSC and combat stats to Pathfinder.
To keep it simple I'm planning to let the PC be one level less than the suggested level of the adventures and therefore keep the enemy stats unchanged. Do you think that will work? Are there any experiences or are there conversions to Pathfinder anywhere?
Personally I would increase enemies' power instead of reducing PC levels. Why? Well, your approach would work in the first levels of play, but as adventures move into the mid- and high level tiers, the ability to cast some spells seems to be assumed (things like Teleport, Word of Recall, Break Enchantment, later on Mind Blank, etc) or at least implied to keep difficulty on the right settings. A party without those is going to be at a gross disadvantage at certain encounters and situations, so 8th Lvl PF PCs would be worse off than 9th lvl 3.5 ones, even if they are of the same power overall.
I took that same route when running Rise of the Runelords with PF rules... In the first 3 adventures (levels 1-9 as per 3.5 advancement) it went fine, but the fourth adventure had the party pretty overwhelmed!For balance without major tinkering, you can consider applying some simple templates, like Advanced Creature, to "bosses", and increasing the number of creatures for rank-and-file enemies. I just did that with SC for Pathfinder and the power level seems to be flowing right (all the way to City of Broken Idols, we are in a hyatus right now).
I would also be interested in the continuation of this thread, especially regarding adjustment of AoW to Golarion... I've been considering some ideas, but it is quite hard to make a nice fit, as there is quite a bit of world-hopping involved. My preliminary notes are:
1) Diamond Lake: I was considering a small community in the Island of Kortos, close to Absalom. I would have to alter a bit the geography, but Absalom sounds good as the Great City, especially with the vast underground network somehow connected to the Siege Castles.
2) For a more twisted vision, Egorian would work fine... just making the gladiatorial games a bit grimmer.
3) River Kingdoms are the perfect match for the later stages, as others have said.
4) Ebon Triad: hard to come up with... I was wondering if Zon-Kuthon, Urgathoa and Rovagug would work, or perhaps Zon-Kuthon, Norgober and Rovagug... I would definitely leave Asmodeus out of it, he does not "fit right"... Probably he would take over any cult of that kind...
Personally I would increase enemies' power instead of reducing PC levels. Why? Well, your approach would work in the first levels of play, but as adventures move into the mid- and high level tiers, the ability to cast some spells seems to be assumed (things like Teleport, Word of Recall, Break Enchantment, later on Mind Blank, etc) or at least implied to keep difficulty on the right settings. A party without those is going to be at a gross disadvantage at certain encounters and situations...
I'll try to keep this in mind. Thanks for that.
I´m DMing AoW in Golarion. We´re at "Library of the last resort" (16th level) Here my conversions; I like world-hopping:
- Diamond Lake set in River Kingdoms, near Sodden Lands (so there is a swamp where the lizardfolk are atacking an old tower, builded years ago by colonists from Brevoy)
- Ebon Tryad: Zon Kuthon, Urgathoa and Lamashtu. The labyrinth of Urgathoa was the birthplace of Vecna*, many years ago
- Loris Raknian arena set in Tymon. He is the First Gladiator.
- Free City is Absalom. They go there because Allustan was a teacher in the Arcanomirium. Elligos remains in Absalom. Zyrxog had an obelisk dedicated to Kyuss inside his sanctasanctorum
- I introduce "river to darkness" and "crucible of chaos", in Mwangui, because inside the tomb, in Diamond Lake, they discovered a compass pointing there. The flying citadel from crucible of chaos was a ruin from Dukes of Aaqa, and the Chaos Stone instead was an old obelisk dedicated to Kyuss. A piece of the rod of seven parts is hidden there. Now is their base.
- Alhaster in Cheliax, near Corentyn. There, Prince Zeech, a retired Hellknight, rules a city dedicated to himself.
- Tilagos Island is located inside the Eye of Abendego, so nobody knows about this island.
- The city of giants, probably, will be in the Worldwound.
*In my world Vecna was a priestess of Pharasma. Later she adored Urgathoa. Finally she reached lichdom, laughting at Pharasma and Urgathoa faith. Her history is written in the walls of the Vecna´s labyrinth.