As title says.
I played SCAP up to Zenith Trajectory as it was published in Dungeon magazines as a player and it was probably the best experience I had till now.
Then I had to move to another city so I left the game. And here I am now DMing an experienced 3.5 party that needed a DM. We finished some parts of Rappan Athuk in the last session but the players told me it was too much of hack n slash for them and they wanted something else.
So I decided to run SCAP for the first time as DM. And the problems started before even our first session.
- SCAP is Greyhawk and I have extensive knowledge of Forgotten Realms. I decided to put it in FR but I can't find any finished conversion for it as opposed to Eberron. Just posts and threads about basic stuff like Cauldron's location and Deities conversions. But a stting conversion is much more than this in my oppinion.
- This is an Adventure Path even able to get you to epic levels so it's something that'll take a LOT of time playing through it. As such it should be as memorable as it gets roleplaying/storywise. For this reason I'm thinking to import several stuff from other published books and/or from magazines that I have no idea if they would work good for it (only read the books never played them let alone DM them).
- 3-3.5 conversion. Planning to buy the hardcover version in the next weeks (when I find the money for it) but till then I have to convert anything from monsters to NPCs to treasures.
These are the main problems I'm facing right now and the first session will be in 5 days from now so I could use some help for it.
Outside the problems I'm making a blog or a website or something for Dungeons and Dragons pen and paper and this'll be the first adventure I'll start uploading in the form of a diary or chapters of how it goes. Everything will be written down in a form of fantasy book or something from a spectator's view. Something like the bard's that keeps following the party at Journey Quest videos epic tale.
What I want from you is ideas of what I can add/change/foreshadow as well as successfull NPC backgrounds you may have made for it as I want it to feel like a real world. Every NPC should have a personality etc.
I want my players to remember that this fat dwarf with long red hair and no beard (unusual for dwarves) is the innkeeper of Slippery Eel if they see him walking in a street in Cauldron. I want 'em to remember that he will probably start trolling them the moment he sees them because that's his personality without them needing to write everything down for OOC to IC info even if they haven't seen him for the last 2 modules.
Books I'm considering using:
- All WotC published books except Tome of Battle/Unearthed Arcana/Specific setting books outside FR
- All source books from Alderac Entertainment Group (Haven't read the others yet)
- Esoteric Libraries and Festivals, Fairs, And Holy Days from Athenaeum Arcane
- Alchemy & Herbalists
- Riddle Rooms 1&2
- The Book of Curses
- PoisonCraft-The Dark Art
- Forbidden Arcana - A Collection Of Arcane Options
- Several ideas from Dungeons and Dragons magazines to make stuff as realistic as possible
Stuff I'll houserule.
- You get addicted to potions
- Max hp each level (same for monsters)
- Cross-class skills at 1/1 ratio
- Number of PrC<= Number of classes *Unless you finish a whole PrC line*
Stuff I'll homebrew.
- Reading stuff in libraries grands you a permanent bonus to a equivalent Knowledge skill depending on reading time (somehow will work like Handle animal on checks etc)
- Casters can make custom spells (read rules for it somewhere in a 3rd party group but not sure where)
- Greater gp cost at crafting but no exp cost
- I'll find a way to make Character Proffesions meaningfull