So, in my spare time, when not creating cities, NPCs, and adventures for my homebrew D&D world I have yet to run, or my Urban Arcana campaign, I've considered converting the Savage Tide AP to d20 Past. It will be set in the "Age of Adventure" setting, and will include most of the races and monsters from Urban Arcana. If anyone has had experience doing this, or running the STAP in general and would like to contribute suggestions, warnings, or other ideas, please feel free. My greatest concern if I ever get around to running this AP is what to do when the PCs need to travel to the Abyss. Should I find a suitable wrap-up point before that, or should I treat it like World's End or Davy Jones' Locker in Pirates and just go with it? Thanks in advance!
So, one of my first concerns is where to place Sasserine. I read a suggestion that Singapore could easily replace it, but I think that may be too exotic. I need a place that is both cosmopolitan and on the fringes of civilization. I'm perfectly willing to just place Sasserine on the coast of a particular country where it would fit in, but I would like suggestions of possible locales. As far as converting characters, I've taken the suggestion from Urban Arcana and run with it. I'll tac on 3 or 4 levels of an appropriate base class or classes to the recommended "modern" version of the class listed in the module (Barbarian=Tough/Thrasher, Fighter=Strong/Archaic Weaponsmaster or Strong/Soldier, Cleric=Dedicated/Acolyte, Druid=Dedicated/Shaman, etc). I'll be using the Renaissance firearms from the DMG in place of those listed in d20 Past.
So, one of my first concerns is where to place Sasserine. I read a suggestion that Singapore could easily replace it, but I think that may be too exotic. I need a place that is both cosmopolitan and on the fringes of civilization. I'm perfectly willing to just place Sasserine on the coast of a particular country where it would fit in, but I would like suggestions of possible locales. As far as converting characters, I've taken the suggestion from Urban Arcana and run with it. I'll tac on 3 or 4 levels of an appropriate base class or classes to the recommended "modern" version of the class listed in the module (Barbarian=Tough/Thrasher, Fighter=Strong/Archaic Weaponsmaster or Strong/Soldier, Cleric=Dedicated/Acolyte, Druid=Dedicated/Shaman, etc). I'll be using the Renaissance firearms from the DMG in place of those listed in d20 Past.
The Carribean.
The Polynesian isles.If you use the carribean, then you can use south america for the 'isle' of dread. The landmass was huge in the adventures as it was. You can get the Incas and Aztecs for the Olman civilisations. Lost temple of Tamoachan was Aztec inspired, as were the Olmans if you read their dieties.
Polynesian gives you the island chains, the tropical cultures, and the indigant tribal peoples. also volcanoes. yay volcanoes!
You could also use Africa. I seem to remember reading somewhere that Sasserine was roughly based on Casablanca.
I'm really liking the idea of Sasserine being somewhere in the Mediterranean, so I think I'll brush up on my geography of that area. I saw a thing on the travel channel about Lisbon, Portugal...hmmm.
Also, I just had this thought as I was pondering how to work in the wake portal and traveling to the Abyss. What if the Bermuda Triangle was a portal through Shadow to the Abyss? In this case, the Abyss is kind of like the Dark World in Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past in that it is a dark reflection of our world, and instead of the Central and South America we know, they become the areas of the Abyss in the modules? Perhaps an appropriate incantation, such as can be found in the Urban Arcana CS, could activate the portal. Like Barbossa said in At World's End: to find a place that can't be found, you have to get good an lost. What better place to get lost than the Bermuda Triangle?
I'm really liking the idea of Sasserine being somewhere in the Mediterranean, so I think I'll brush up on my geography of that area. I saw a thing on the travel channel about Lisbon, Portugal...hmmm.
Also, I just had this thought as I was pondering how to work in the wake portal and traveling to the Abyss. What if the Bermuda Triangle was a portal through Shadow to the Abyss? In this case, the Abyss is kind of like the Dark World in Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past in that it is a dark reflection of our world, and instead of the Central and South America we know, they become the areas of the Abyss in the modules? Perhaps an appropriate incantation, such as can be found in the Urban Arcana CS, could activate the portal. Like Barbossa said in At World's End: to find a place that can't be found, you have to get good an lost. What better place to get lost than the Bermuda Triangle?
Oh man can I be a player in this game....?
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Lisbon or Casablanca could make good fits for Sasserine. It puts you a fairly long way from South America though, if you use the Isle of Dread / Olman / Aztec tie in. I'm not sure how the voyage time / distance between Sasserine and the Isle would compare to Lisbon to South America - maybe it would work. If it doesn't work for you, you could consider giving the culture on the Isle of Dread more of an African than Aztec theme.
What year will your game be set? (I'm not that familiar with d20 Modern or Past, but I'm guessing the Age of Adventure is somewhere between the 1600s and 1700s?)
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Africa would be cool - if you start with Casablance you could travel across Algeria instead of a sea voyage then use Mali for the Isle of Dread and throw in those freaky/ awesome mosques like Djenné and use the Dogon People instead of aztec types.
What year will your game be set? (I'm not that familiar with d20 Modern or Past, but I'm guessing the Age of Adventure is somewhere between the 1600s and 1700s?)
The campaign will be set somewhere from the mid 1600s to the mid 1700s, which is the time of the Age of Adventure. I was thinking of keeping the Caribbean, Central and South America as the focal area of the campaign. I read up on St. Augustine, Florida. It was named for a Catholic saint, Augustine of Hippo, as it was first sighted on his feast day on August 28, 1565. I could potentially draw parallels between this and the founding of Sasserine by its namesake, Sasserine, a cleric of Wee Jas. In place of Sasserine slaying a dragon to found the city, perhaps the founder, Admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and his crew of adventurers slew a beast that made its home in the lands around St. Augustine.
I haven't been working on this for a couple weeks as I'm trying to get my Urban Arcana campaign running again. Its been on pause for about 4 years, but I ran a refresher adventure and my group wants to see it to completion. If anyone has had any ideas about the Savage Tide d20 Past conversion, please post them. Thanks in advance!
Hey, I'm actually in the process of converting my current running campaign into a more modern/realistic setting. I've pretty much ported elements from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie wholesale (18th century Spanish main)
My Sasserine is now Port Royal. I have also wrestled with the thought of making South America into the Isle of Dread, but there are several problems. Why would colonists place Farshore at the southern tip of S. America when all the trade routes are criss-crossing the Spanish Main (which touch the northern part of S. America)
I would like to hear more of how your conversions are going. Thanks!
Hey, I'm actually in the process of converting my current running campaign into a more modern/realistic setting. I've pretty much ported elements from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie wholesale (18th century Spanish main)
My Sasserine is now Port Royal. I have also wrestled with the thought of making South America into the Isle of Dread, but there are several problems. Why would colonists place Farshore at the southern tip of S. America when all the trade routes are criss-crossing the Spanish Main (which touch the northern part of S. America)
I would like to hear more of how your conversions are going. Thanks!
These are actually on hold, or stopped as of right now as I'm working on converting it to the Star Wars Revised Core Rules. Thanks for the interest, though, and good luck with your game!
We have played up until Tides of Dread under a very loose Eberron campaign setting. However, our group decided that it would be neat if we ported our current campaign to a more "realistic," slightly more modern setting. Thus, I gladly accepted the burden of transferring everything over.
My biggest questions are: geography, time period magic, and demons
One of the above posters suggested making the Isle of Dread, South America. I want to keep the whole Aztec/Inca feel, so I am inclined to go with this. If this is the case, where would Farshore be located? I was thinking about making Sasserine Port Royal, but I am starting to like the idea of having it be in Lisbon or Casablanca like some previous posters have suggested. (This justifies their long journey to the Isle of Dread). Additionally, what country should Farshore be a colony of? It would make sense to make it a Spanish colony, but I would like to hear everyone's thoughts.
With the above being said, what time period should this game be set in? My wife loves her dual flintlock wielding fighter (six pistols strapped to her body like Blackbeard ;D) and I am loathe to turn back the clock too much. Likewise, I want this campaign to be set in a time where most of the world was still a mystery (I need South America to be almost untouched by civilized hands)
Magic is very minimal in this world. However, we are playing with a modified form of PFRPG rules (my players did not want to learn a whole new rule system), so I have been taking some creative liberties to tone down magic, without nerfing their characters too much. Most of them were fighter or rogue types, so it made my job easy. Thankfully, there were no arcane spellcasters in the group - I haven't decided what to do with them yet. My main concern is the cleric. She has been essential to the group's survival thus far so I decided to let her keep her powers, with one caveat: she is a wanted woman. A rusted, pitted iron cross hangs around her neck. Unbeknownst to her, the cross around her neck was fashioned from one of the nails on the True Cross. While I haven't quite figured out how such a holy relic fell into her hands (any ideas?), I do know that the Vatican has gotten wind that one of their most precious relics lie in the hands of a teenage girl on the other side of the ocean. They will stop at nothing to recover the item and have dispatched their best agents (I'm thinking about playtesting the PF Inquisitor base class here) to track her down. What do you think? Is this too much of a stretch? Also, how should I deal with arcane magic?
Finally, demons. I like the whole Bermuda Triangle as a gateway to a Dark World/Abyss idea mentioned above. I also like the idea of the PCs traversing through the Underworld Dante's Inferno style. So far, I've made Olangru a demonic spirit brought from the dark heart of Africa to the New World by slaves (I'm borrowing the whole American Gods angle here). Still, I would like some input on how I should treat the other demons that appear later on in the module. I've read somewhere that the Great Old Ones make a great substitute for Demogorgon, but I am not that familiar with the Cthulu mythos. Any suggestions?
Phew, that was long. I know that was a lot to digest, but any suggestions or feedback would be greatly appreciated. Moreover, I look forward to being able to post my experiences up and bounce ideas back and forth on this thread.
Thanks.
This sounds like a lot of fun. If anyone has any updates, I would appreciate hearing them.