I was thinking of converting STAP to D20 Past, leaning more away from traditional D&D and going more for a Cthuhluesque horror, the story has always screamed "Cthulhu" to me with the mutating pearls and such. Even so much as to switch out the DP in the final to another more suitable DP like Dagon.
Has anyone done anything similar with this or any of the other AP's?
Have not, but I do see the Lovecraftian elements. The Bullywogs worship Dagon, after all! I’d swap out Bullywogs for Deep Ones (Kuo-Toa or Sahaugin). I would also point you towards THIS LINK, an adventure journal by a player clearly inspired by Lovecraft. The Lidu Diaries incorporate many such elements not originally in the STAP. I have also seen others on this board posit the idea of substituting Cthulhu for Demogorgon. If you go that route THIS FIGURE would be great to pull out for the dénouement battle.
Oh, and if you are going with D20 Past, you might also find THIS BOOK helpful, as well.
I know others have talked about this before. Could anyone point us towards one of those threads?
Oh, and a copy of Dragon #324 for it’s article “The Shadow Over D&D” would probably also be very helpful to you.
Also, you might consider working Illithids in somewhere, given their obvious similarities to The star-spawn of Cthulhu, or Cthulhi.. I don’t know, maybe they are behind the Scarlet Brotherhood or something.
The later stages of the AP would need some work if you're planning to go by this route. The Lovecraftian ethos isn't really compatible with, for example, PCs allying themselves with Tsathoggua and Nyarlathotep in order to take down Cthulhu. and that's basically the entire structure of the last three modules. Orcus, Azahu and Malcanthet are mind-numbingly malevolent and evil, but they can be bargained with. Great Old Ones - not so much.
Other than that - yeah, it could work very nicely. Replace Sasserine with colonial Hong Kong or Singapore or something - far away from the cultural and technological centre of civilisation but thriving in its own lawless way, plus there's a cool mix of 'old' (pirates and swordplay etc) along with the new (telegraphs and muskets and early steamships). Isle of Dread can be some South Pacific atoll. Scuttlecove is on some lost South China Sea island, within striking distance of the shipping lanes.
All good ideas, true about the later episodes...I hadn't gotten that far with my idea...I could nix the whole axis of evil, seems alot of extra work in the adventures to get the enimies of Demogorgon to fight him, I haven't delved too deep into whether that is super-integral to the plot of the whole AP.
I too thought I had seen a post similar to this but couldn't locate it.
Setting it in the tail end of the 1890's, keeps the tech down but also compensates for the lower magic mentality, I want to keep magic around but lesson it or make it more dangerous to use, similar to the D20 Cthulhu book, Yes I have that as well, as well as the Dragon issue with the the Cthulhu stuff. For people interested...The Fiendish Codex 1 has a good write-up on Dagon and some of his minions.
Good ideas on setting in the South seas...easily accomplished, I had also thought of an anartic hot spot similar to the "Savage Land" from Marvel comics for the seeting of the IoD modules...
All in all good thoughts thanks for being my sounding board.
Good ideas on setting in the South seas...easily accomplished, I had also thought of an anartic hot spot similar to the "Savage Land" from Marvel comics for the seeting of the IoD modules...
Here's a thought: Have the island located at 34°57′S 150°30′W / -34.95, -150.5 about 2,500 km east of New Zealand. (the location of Jules Verne's "Mysterious Island"). It's a nice little "tip of the hat," and it gives you a chance to see how clever your plyers are (i.e. will they figure out the reference?)
Wasn't the island in "Call of Cthulhu" (the short story)out in that neck of the water as well?
Here's a thought: Have the island located at 34°57′S 150°30′W 5about 2,500 km east of New Zealand. (the location of Jules Verne's "Mysterious Island"). It's a nice little "tip of the hat," and it gives you a chance to see how clever your plyers are (i.e. will they figure out the reference?)
Wasn't the island in "Call of Cthulhu" (the short story)out in that neck of the water as well?
Roughly
“Then, driven ahead by curiosity in their captured yacht under Johansen's command, the men sight a great stone pillar sticking out of the sea, and in S. Latitude 47°9', W. Longitude 123°43', come upon a coastline of mingled mud, ooze, and weedy Cyclopean masonry which can be nothing less than the tangible substance of earth's supreme terror - the nightmare corpse-city of R'lyeh…” - "The Call of Cthulhu" H. P. Lovecraft (1926)
For more on the location of R’lyeh, see this link. You’ll notice that this link here and the one listed above for The Mysterious Island both, in turn, have links to Map Source so you can see exactly where in the world those coordinates refer to.
In fact, you inspired me to create this picture on our blog showing the relation of these two famous fictional islands (or ARE they fictional??)