erian_7's page

There is one puzzle in particular which seems to assume that the players are familiar with some standard D&D monsters. Nothing that hasn't been around since the 1st ed. AD&D Monster Manual, but I don't think that a group of entirely new players would be able to solve it without a Hint from God. (Fortunately, the scenario as written provides a vehicle for doing so.)

I actually won't be letting players use OOC knowledge to solve this one...they'll need ranks in appropriate Knowledge skills or must consult an expert...

I know a portion of the community has already started the Adventure Path and I didn't see an existing thread with this question: Is the Savage Tide campaign too difficult or nuanced to use as a first campaign for a new player?

Having read through the whole thing twice now, I'd say it's definitely suitable for a new player, being neither too diificult or subtle.

I'm starting a new group here at school and one of my friends is excited to start playing for the first time, the other two members have had experience with D&D. Is it more advisable to play them through a campaign a bit more "traditional" in flavor and perhaps a little less difficult than the adventure path or is it better just to start them off with the good stuff? I haven't yet gotten the first adventure, so I'm not exactly sure about difficulty. What are your suggestions?

This one's got dungeon crawls, traps/puzzles, and all the elements you'd find in a traditional D&D adventure. There are multiple solutions to most problems, and no time clock pushing the players (well, I guess if they took two months in game time that would be bad...)

So, I'd say go for it. If necessary, you can coach the new player along, but I'd advise that for any adventure.

I know that some links were posted earlier to the "official" conversions, but I have not been able to get onto that site for a long time (browser cannot "find" the domain), and still can't(still bookmarked out of optimism). Anyone know of a mirror or another site with descent 3E Mystara stuff?

Two sites I've found useful:

http://www.pandius.com/
(The Official Mystara Homepage - perhaps the site you reference as unreachable but it works great for me)

http://mystara.addr.com/
(it's got a French component)

I'll have to dig a little, but I recall a somewhat recent Dragon article with the 3e versions of the legacies, as well as others with the already referenced Lupin, and the Tortle (a personal favorite).

You can find a complete list of articles here:

http://www.pandius.com/dragon.html

The recent ones are:

315
Sundering Ka: describes the Defilers of Ka and the Ka-tainted template. Also contains synopsis on the creation of Hollow World.

Cinnabar, Red Steel, and the Red Curse: 3.5E rules for the red curse and legacies. Also contains synopsis on the creation of Red Steel. Finally, it has an entry for the Tortle race.

Guardians of the Docrae: a look at the halflings of the northern marches from the Blackmoor setting.

Return to the Lost City: a look at the Cynidiceans and the Lost City in 3.5E. Also contains synopsis on the creation of Mystara.

318
Children of Ka: The Dagger of the Dinosaur Sage. A look at the Malpheggi lizardfolk and the children of Ka.

323
Ecology of the Choker.

325
Winning Races: Lupins. Bringing Lupins into 3.5E.

327
Winning Races: Diaboli. Bringing Diaboli into 3.5E.

339
Creature Catalog IV: Campaign Classics. Conversions of the Dusanu, Nagpa and Phanaton.

343
Creature Catalog V. Conversions of the Nuckalavee and Malfera.

344
VOYAGE OF THE PRINCESS ARK 36: "Home and Away Again." 2001: Sulamir 14-17

Here you go with several options...

http://www.nirgal.com/games/rpg/greyhawk/calendar

http://www.modeemi.cs.tut.fi/~fey/DD3/calendar_GH.html

http://www.fief.org/ShackledCity/Greyhawk_Calendar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greyhawk_Calendar

http://www.canonfire.com/cfhtml/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdow nload&cid=16

Hey all!

Here's an edited version of Thibault Sarlat's map of Davania with seven possible locations for Sasserine. Which is the best location? I'm thinking 2, 3 and 4 are good. Numbers 1, 5, 6 and 7 are too far from the Isle of Dread IMHO, but could still be used.

Map of Davania

--Ray.

I used #1 exactly. It's actually the closest of the locations to the Isle of Dread (according to the map in the Poor Wizard's Almanac III). #2 and #3 would be on top of Raven Scarp and in the Hinterlands territory of Thyatis--I didn't want the city tied that closely to the empire. #4-7 would be in the Manacapuru (apparently Oltec descended, snake worshipping natives that repel all intruders) territories.

I'm with you on using mostly the older Mystara sources (I never even got the Rules Cyclopedia...). Specularum was my original candidate for the game's central city (as Karameikos is almost always my default starting point), but I later wanted to go with something that would require less re-work. I actually had been split between Davania (you can find some info on it in the old Dawn of the Emperors set) and the Minrothad Guilds until I got the magazine.

In Minrothad, the city of Harbortown seems like an excellent candidate--lots of mercantile and pirate flavor, an established location for trade in exotic spices and such, etc. It's also not documented much in any other sources, could pretty easily be morphed into the Sasserine map, and with the Guild Corser influence there even has a good reason for having a somewhat lawless atmosphere compared to other Minrothaddan cities. It's a really old city, too, and one could play off the Alphatians and Thyatians as the two powers fighting for it in the past.

In the end, Davania won out for me as such an open canvas, but Harbortown was a strong contender.

For most my players, they'll be from the Known World region so I'm still relying heavily on that material for their backgrounds--they all come to Sasserine therefore with little initial knowledge of the city. I'm not real keen on the "hired hands" hook in the first adventure and have done away with it in favor of another approach. Most of the characters traveled across the Sea of Dread on the same ship with Lavinia Vanderboren as she returns from her five years of study in Thyatis (versus the Thenalar Academy noted in the adventure). They will have had quite some time, then, to get to know her personally. She offers them hospitality on arriving at Sasserine and will later look to them for support as all the troubles come to light.

Been following this thread for a while now, waiting to get my magazine before settling on anything. I had always thought Davania would be a good location, and will be setting Sasserine there as an undiscovered city at the mouth of the river north of Glauqnor. This way I can import the material with almost no conversion.

Sasserine would have originally come from Thyatis around 300 AC. Gives the place ties to the Thyatian language which shold help with any non-local PCs. Also ties in the gladiator arena well. I'll replace the Scarlet Brotherhood references with Hule/Sind and the Sea Princes with Thyatis (trying to bring Sasserine into the Hinterlands). Aniphastus Knowlern will be a Minrothaddan water elf. I may modify the population a bit, i.e. half-elves replaced by perhaps Emerondi or Yav. Halflings could be natives left-over from the northern immigration. Elves would probably be descended from a few Vyalia tempted into exploring the south. Not sure on the dwarves yet.

The one thing I see as an immediate need before I can get this to players is for Immortals to replace the stated gods. I'm thinking along these lines and would like to hear any other thoughts/plans:

Azure (Osprem, Procan, Xerbo)– Protius (perhaps worshipped in three separate aspects)
Kord – Diulanna (not really sure on this one, could be Thor/Donar...)
St. Cuthbert – Tarastia
Fharlanghn – Asterius
Olidammara – Korotiku (who'd just love being St. Worgul...)
Pelor – Ixion
Wee Jas – Nyx
Vecna – Loki (as represented by Bozdogan-imported from Sind)
Nerull – Thanatos

This configuration has most of the Immortals allied to each other in some way (except Protius who just doesn't care). And Thanatos/Loki really hate a lot of these Immortals so would want to infiltrate the city. Nyx was the only fit I could really come up with for Wee Jas.

Probably going to rewrite the Sasserine Backdrop article for myself tomorrrow to encompass all this, and will do the same with the Player's Guide once it comes out as a PDF.