I recently purchased D2: The Seven Swords of Sin through Paizo's 7-7-7 sale (along with a bunch of other things), figuring it was cheap enough that if for some reason it didn't strike me as worthwhile I wouldn't have lost much. I've looked it over a couple times and I've decided to convert it to 4th Edition, in the same vein as my ongoing Rise of the Runelords conversion project over at Tales from the Rusty Dragon. The adventure ties in closely with some of the plot elements touched on in the Rise of the Runelords AP.
I'm going to convert it as a paragon tier adventure (beginning at 11th level). I will do my best to make sure that all the material is playtested before it is published, but I can't make any guarantees at this point. The finished product will be compiled into a PDF document designed to mirror the original adventure (very similar to the compiled conversion PDFs for Burnt Offerings and The Skinsaw Murders I've made).
I don't have an estimated date for when this will kick off, or whether I'll even be posting the conversion encounter-by-encounter. Updates will be posted here, though.
If you own the adventure and have suggestions for how to convert specific encounters, or general advice, please share it with me here.
I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the results of your efforts Scott. :D
Going over the first couple of encounters, they involve a gang of human thugs. In the original adventure, each is mechanically identical - they're all fighter/rogues. This won't do.
Although the original adventure describes their gang as made up of humans, I see no real reason this can't be changed to a mixed-species gang given the nature of Kaer Maga. I'm considering throwing a handful of more "monstrous" humanoids into the encounter mix, along with human gang members. I think this will make the encounters more exciting. Fighting a pack of human thugs at paragon tier is a little underwhelming.
Good decision, or bad decision?
Haven't read the adventure, but I think a human gang could be made pretty interesting.
Make them specialists. MM2 offers some interesting variations on ways to use humans. For adding oddness, and if you wanted to tie in with something that comes later, maybe add a few of the powers you'd associate with another type of creature.
I'm actually thinking here of kobolds and humans picking up tricks from each other, but obviously with paragon level you'd have to beef the whole thing up a bit.
Going over the first couple of encounters, they involve a gang of human thugs. In the original adventure, each is mechanically identical - they're all fighter/rogues. This won't do.
Although the original adventure describes their gang as made up of humans, I see no real reason this can't be changed to a mixed-species gang given the nature of Kaer Maga. I'm considering throwing a handful of more "monstrous" humanoids into the encounter mix, along with human gang members. I think this will make the encounters more exciting. Fighting a pack of human thugs at paragon tier is a little underwhelming.
Good decision, or bad decision?
One idea might be to tie the thugs into something similar to the Bloodghost Syndicate from Dragon #366 (August 08). At the very least you might be able to appropriate some ideas from that article.
Haven't read the adventure, but I think a human gang could be made pretty interesting.
Make them specialists. MM2 offers some interesting variations on ways to use humans. For adding oddness, and if you wanted to tie in with something that comes later, maybe add a few of the powers you'd associate with another type of creature.
I'm actually thinking here of kobolds and humans picking up tricks from each other, but obviously with paragon level you'd have to beef the whole thing up a bit.
That's the main issue - while MM2 adds plenty of human foes across all tiers, there are only one or two suitable for any given level range (in this case, the Human Pirate Captain).
I'm not really looking to add oddness, but mixing up the races lets me create varied combat encounters without resorting to creating a half dozen custom monster statblocks.
One idea might be to tie the thugs into something similar to the Bloodghost Syndicate from Dragon #366 (August 08). At the very least you might be able to appropriate some ideas from that article.Going over the first couple of encounters, they involve a gang of human thugs. In the original adventure, each is mechanically identical - they're all fighter/rogues. This won't do.
Although the original adventure describes their gang as made up of humans, I see no real reason this can't be changed to a mixed-species gang given the nature of Kaer Maga. I'm considering throwing a handful of more "monstrous" humanoids into the encounter mix, along with human gang members. I think this will make the encounters more exciting. Fighting a pack of human thugs at paragon tier is a little underwhelming.
Good decision, or bad decision?
I'm a big fan of that article. If I do end up having to create custom gang members, I'll look to it for power ideas.
Hi Scott - how is the conversion working out?
It's on the backburner for right now while I get some things hammered out for my Rise of the Runelords conversion, but I've finished the first floor of the dungeon (minus a handful of revisions I need to do since running it). I'm not sure if continuing to run this as a playtest will be feasible, but even if it isn't I'll publish the conversion and do my best to ensure that it runs smoothly.