Things have recently come together that have allowed me to begin running and converting Curse of the Crimson Throne. Accordingly, I'm going to give it the same treatment I've given Rise of the Runelords (which is, of course, still ongoing). It will have its own blog with a format very similar to Tales from the Rusty Dragon.
My group finished character creation this past weekend, so the adventure will begin in earnest in a week, which is when I'll begin posting conversion notes.
The barebones of the blog are up at Long Live Korvosa. I like this layout a touch better than I do the one I'm using at Tales from the Rusty Dragon, so I may switch that over, too.
Feel free to chime in here with suggestions and comments, as usual.
The first posts have started going up. More will follow later tonight (hopefully the entirety of Part 1 of the adventure).
The first posts have started going up. More will follow later tonight (hopefully the entirety of Part 1 of the adventure).
Interesting stuff so far. I'm a little surprised that you decided not to combine some of the encounters. For example, you've got five encounters in All the World's Meat, but I really wouldn't have expected more than two, especially with how close together some of the encounters are.
Interesting stuff so far. I'm a little surprised that you decided not to combine some of the encounters. For example, you've got five encounters in All the World's Meat, but I really wouldn't have expected more than two, especially with how close together some of the encounters are.The first posts have started going up. More will follow later tonight (hopefully the entirety of Part 1 of the adventure).
Frankly, this is done largely because of the size of the adventure - it's a little tougher to squeeze four levels out of Edge of Anarchy than it was for, say, Burnt Offerings. If you're worried about the physical proximity of the encounters, though, simply make All the World's Meat bigger. It's simple enough to justify the other guards staying put in the rest of the building; given that they're handing out free meat to the public, they probably get angry "customers" demanding more meat all the time. A ruckus at the front of the store shouldn't really surprise any of them.
Frankly, this is done largely because of the size of the adventure - it's a little tougher to squeeze four levels out of Edge of Anarchy than it was for, say, Burnt Offerings. If you're worried about the physical proximity of the encounters, though, simply make All the World's Meat bigger. It's simple enough to justify the other guards staying put in the rest of the building; given that they're handing out free meat to the public, they probably get angry "customers" demanding more meat all the time. A ruckus at the front of the store shouldn't really surprise any of them.
What level range are you hoping for? I mean, I think it'd be more than fair to just get three levels out of it instead of four. You could also have more combats that are difficult (~n+2) instead of easy (~n). For example, the Lamm fight is currently 475 xp, which is an easy level 1 combat, and I'd expect a lot of people would be expecting a fight more in the level 3/750 xp ballpark there.
Fwiw, I wouldn't aim to finish the series at higher than 20th level. It only went up to 15th level in 3e, and it's really not a very epic tier module: no planar travel, no gods, not even other kingdoms, etc. If they get 4 levels per module and finish at 24th-25th level, the 'Gameover' threat of an Ancient Blue Dragon may just be 'umm, okay, we fight it, no problem'.
Frankly, this is done largely because of the size of the adventure - it's a little tougher to squeeze four levels out of Edge of Anarchy than it was for, say, Burnt Offerings. If you're worried about the physical proximity of the encounters, though, simply make All the World's Meat bigger. It's simple enough to justify the other guards staying put in the rest of the building; given that they're handing out free meat to the public, they probably get angry "customers" demanding more meat all the time. A ruckus at the front of the store shouldn't really surprise any of them.What level range are you hoping for? I mean, I think it'd be more than fair to just get three levels out of it instead of four. You could also have more combats that are difficult (~n+2) instead of easy (~n). For example, the Lamm fight is currently 475 xp, which is an easy level 1 combat, and I'd expect a lot of people would be expecting a fight more in the level 3/750 xp ballpark there.
Fwiw, I wouldn't aim to finish the series at higher than 20th level. It only went up to 15th level in 3e, and it's really not a very epic tier module: no planar travel, no gods, not even other kingdoms, etc. If they get 4 levels per module and finish at 24th-25th level, the 'Gameover' threat of an Ancient Blue Dragon may just be 'umm, okay, we fight it, no problem'.
Hmm, you might be right here.
I'll have to look closely at the rest of the campaign, and may end up deciding to scale back the leveling goals. I do agree that, at first blush, the campaign doesn't appear to quite fit the flavor of "epic" in the same way that Scales of War or even Rise of the Runelords eventually does.
I'm going to have to agree on this one. Age of Worms and Savage Tide are also 2 good examples of epic level campaigns. Even though Age of Worms doesn't specifically involve plane hopping, you do fight a demigod at the end of it, so....yeah.
Curse of the Crimson throne, while definitely playable past 16th level, probably shouldn't go any further than 20th.
It's going to be interesting to see how this campaign turns out. The fourth session (we'll have been playing for a month) is tomorrow, and they'll hit level 3 at some point midway through it. At two levels a month, they'll be finished with the campaign in another nine months. Lightning fast, compared to the two+ years it's going to take to finish my RotR campaign.
Hmm, you might be right here.I'll have to look closely at the rest of the campaign, and may end up deciding to scale back the leveling goals. I do agree that, at first blush, the campaign doesn't appear to quite fit the flavor of "epic" in the same way that Scales of War or even Rise of the Runelords eventually does.
Aim for 20 - that makes it easy for a DM that gets there to either move on to new things or pick up the action with the beginning of some epic campaign arc.
Also it makes much more sense to squeeze extra levels out of A History of Ashes, Skeletons of Scarwall and Crown of Fangs then the first three. You just have a lot more space to work with and are far less constrained with insuring that the story makes sense and is well paced.
Okay, here we go. Tremendous update, both today and over the past week or two. Pretty much all of Edge of Anarchy is done. I'll be running my group through the final couple of encounters tomorrow. In the meantime, everything up through the last bits of the Dead Warrens is converted and up on the blog. Check it out and let me know what you think!
Enjoy!
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Enjoy!
Definitely am! I had DMed through the initial parts of "7 Days" using Pathfinder RPG Alpha and then Beta, but various factors--including a major influx of players and then an abrupt exodus--stopped the campaign's momentum.
In the meantime, I've really taken a shine to the things that 4E does better than most fantasy RPG systems I've played, and am toying with starting the campaign anew using those rules.
This will be a great resource.
I have a DDI subscription and many of the 4E rulebooks, so would be happy to chat about critter and gear "conversions" but it definitely seems that you have more 4E experience than I.
Thanks for sharing your ideas with us, Scott.
Enjoy!
Definitely am! I had DMed through the initial parts of "7 Days" using Pathfinder RPG Alpha and then Beta, but various factors--including a major influx of players and then an abrupt exodus--stopped the campaign's momentum.
In the meantime, I've really taken a shine to the things that 4E does better than most fantasy RPG systems I've played, and am toying with starting the campaign anew using those rules.
This will be a great resource.
I have a DDI subscription and many of the 4E rulebooks, so would be happy to chat about critter and gear "conversions" but it definitely seems that you have more 4E experience than I.
Thanks for sharing your ideas with us, Scott.
You're welcome!
I'm hoping to find time this holiday break to bring both my projects up-to-date, as well as publish the compiled PDF conversion for Edge of Anarchy. I'm already about a third of the way through Seven Days to the Grave, though the campaign is on hold until January.
If you do decide to make use of the conversion, by all means let me know how it goes!
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Hey there Scott,
Hope you enjoyed the holidays. I spent a good part of it and my little free time in the weeks since then gearing up for our 4E CotCT campaign. We are finishing up characters tomorrow and starting in early February.
Can you update us on the status of your conversion? I was able to thoroughly read through your previous stuff (and visited "Three Rings Tavern" too) and feel that they'll be THE source for helping me along the way, and look forward to whatever's to come.
Thank you again for sharing your work with us.
Hey there Scott,
Hope you enjoyed the holidays. I spent a good part of it and my little free time in the weeks since then gearing up for our 4E CotCT campaign. We are finishing up characters tomorrow and starting in early February.
Can you update us on the status of your conversion? I was able to thoroughly read through your previous stuff (and visited "Three Rings Tavern" too) and feel that they'll be THE source for helping me along the way, and look forward to whatever's to come.
Thank you again for sharing your work with us.
Hi there!
Funny you should ask today. I just finished posting the last bits of Edge of Anarchy to the blog, and have started putting together the compiled conversion document.
I'm in the process of doing a bit of "rebranding" so that the stuff I'm putting out is organized a little more logically. The conversions continue full-speed ahead, despite how far behind I am on the blog itself. My players are most of the way through Seven Days to the Grave, currently.
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Great to hear that things are moving ahead for your campaign. Really dig all of "Seven Days" but especially the finale. You guys should be in for some crazy times as you wrap it up.
Thanks for posting the rest of the Dead Warrens. I especially like Vreeg as you reinvisioned him. One of the most memorable combats I've DMed involved 3.5 chuul--ice critters that explode into a blast of frozen air and shards when they're felled. I'll have fun describing how necromantic energy seeps out of Vreeg with every new wound they inflict. Run away!
I feel like this is as good a place to post this as any ...
I am converting CotCT to 4e and recently made up my own Havero Tentacles (as seen in History of Ashes). I figured I'd post the write up here (no formatting, I'm not that savvy) and let others critique, use, etc. to their hearts' content:
Havero Tentacles (325 xp)
- level 17 minion (lurker)
- huge aberrant magical beast
- Initiative +13
- Senses Perception +13
- HP 1; a miss never damages a minion
- AC 27; Fortitude 29, Reflex 25, Will –
- Immune Attacks vs. Will, cold, poison
- Resist 15 acid, fire
- Speed 6
- (M) Tentacle (standard; at-will)
--- Reach 4; +22 vs. AC; 10 damage
- M Tentacle Grab (standard; at-will)
--- Reach 4; +20 vs. Reflex; 10 damage and target is grabbed. At the beginning of a grabbed target’s turn it takes 10 damage and -2 to attack (until escape).
- M Pull (standard; at-will)
--- grabbed target only; +20 vs. Fortitude; pull target 3 squares toward the center of the pool
- M Engulf (standard; at-will)
--- grabbed target that is being held above the pool's surface only; +20 vs. Fortitude; target is pulled into the Havero’s space and restrained (save ends). While the target is restrained, no creature has line of sight or line of effect to it. At the start of the havero’s turn each round the enveloped target takes 20 points of damage. When the target makes its save, it reappears in a square of its choice on top of the havero (difficult terrain).
- Str 28 (+17), Con 20 (+13), Dex 12 (+9), Int --, Wis 20 (+13), Cha 10 (+8)
And, a mere three months after I actually completed the adventure, the compiled PDF of the conversion finally makes its way online! Hopefully the Seven Days to the Grave conversion will be up in short order, too, since I'm done with that one as well.
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Fantastic!
We played our first game a little over a week ago. I had previously hand-drawn and inked scale maps for the first three adventures, and don't have the will or the time to recreate them. Definitely agree with your suggestions to enlarge areas. The cramped walkways in the Fishery were a major obstacle, especially when the "Lambs" revolted and swarmed the baddies.
I'd scaled back the encounters for our three-hero group (Paladin with Leader leanings, non-optimized Rogue with lots of social skill focus, and a Striker-esque Tempest Fighter) by spreading out the baddies a bit, but they caught the attention of Yargin and Bloo while attempting to break in from the side, then chased him through the Fishery to where the others were. A crit from Giggles (moved away from Lamm to lighten up the finale) using his Brutal Strike with the longbow as a readied action was... well, brutal. They were one round away from a TPK when one of the Lamms rolled an open-table 20 to bring down Hookshanks, heheh.
Again, confined areas were a real challenge. Scott's right in with his advised adjustments.
Thanks, Scott.
Fantastic!
We played our first game a little over a week ago. I had previously hand-drawn and inked scale maps for the first three adventures, and don't have the will or the time to recreate them. Definitely agree with your suggestions to enlarge areas. The cramped walkways in the Fishery were a major obstacle, especially when the "Lambs" revolted and swarmed the baddies.
I'd scaled back the encounters for our three-hero group (Paladin with Leader leanings, non-optimized Rogue with lots of social skill focus, and a Striker-esque Tempest Fighter) by spreading out the baddies a bit, but they caught the attention of Yargin and Bloo while attempting to break in from the side, then chased him through the Fishery to where the others were. A crit from Giggles (moved away from Lamm to lighten up the finale) using his Brutal Strike with the longbow as a readied action was... well, brutal. They were one round away from a TPK when one of the Lamms rolled an open-table 20 to bring down Hookshanks, heheh.
Again, confined areas were a real challenge. Scott's right in with his advised adjustments.
Thanks, Scott.
The advice about confined spaces should be considered blanket advice for all such conversions. 4th Edition encounters simply need more space to run smoothly. 3rd Edition combat tends to be fairly static - once the participants are "in position", they have very little reason to change. This means you can get away with cramped hallways some of the time. A dynamic battlefield is one of the hallmarks of 4th Edition, though. The opportunity for repositioning should always be present. To accomplish that, open up encounter areas by doubling (or tripling) the width of hallways, and significantly expanding the dimensions of small rooms.
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My "Crimson Throne" is cursed.
After two promising starts, player move-aways and life changes have now brought to games to a halt.
*sad panda*
I think I'm going to do some shorter adventures for awhile once I can round up a good number of players once more. Won't be the same, though; the people I've been playing with and who've moved or had other things intercede were all friends, not just fellow gamers.