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This is an attempt at paying homage to this thread that helped me prepare for running this module, because I had kept it bookmarked for a looooong time.
I’ve dreamt of running The House on Hook Street as a GM for a few years now, the book sitting in my shelf, but life kept getting in the way, and my Pathfinder group eventually drifted apart (physically, as in different cities)
Now I have taken the opportunity to present this awesome adventure to a group of my colleagues. Two of them are complete newcomers to tabletop RPGs in general, and the two others have some small experience as players in DnD 5E.
I have thus decided to run The House on Hook Street, adapted for 5E. (“Boo, hiss”, I know ; but it was easier for player recruitment, and for me as a GM who hadn’t played Pathfinder for years). My goal is to respect the story, events and atmosphere of the module as best I can, and introduce my players to what makes Golarion unique, even if that means re-skinning most monsters.
I’ve also decided to change the “spider” motif into a “snake” motif, because I own a lot of hand-painted serpent-themed miniatures that I wanted to use/showcase, and no spider-themed ones. I hope Mr Hodge (author of the module) forgives me for this liberty I took…
So without further ado…
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Presentation of the PCs
Other than proposing that some PCs come from Bridgefront as the module suggests, I had very few restrictions for PC creation. The premise given was that the group already knew each other, being an adventuring party coming back to Korvosa.
Felaël : male elf wizard (transmuter) with the sage background. The player was very interested in the “forlorn elf” concept and wanted to be an orphan, whose parents had died accidentally in Korvosa, to explain why he was raised by humans. I thought this wouldn’t really work with Korvosa having an elven district, so I suggested his parents had died in Riddleport instead. His interest in transmutation (that also came from the player) gives me an opportunity to introduce future hooks for Karzoug’s legacy, Thassilon, etc.
Arya : female human rogue (swashbuckler) with the criminal (thief) background. As I did not have time to discuss her background with her player, she took me by surprise during the presentations in the first session… The original story went that Arya was born in Bridgefront to a very poor family, so poor that she was sold into slavery, along with one of her brothers. She escaped and resorted to thievery, eventually joining the party. She is on a personal quest to find her missing brother.
Of course, the player didn’t know that slavery is illegal in Korvosa. Also, since my opening featured the party returning to Korvosa after their “off-screen” previous adventures, the “missing brother” thread made little sense : why would Arya leave the city to go adventuring for a few years, then return to the city where she was initially, then keep searching for her lost brother there ? I didn’t say anything, but took mental note to re-work Arya’s background with her player before the next session.
Jean-Charles : male half-elf paladin with the oath of redemption and the soldier background. Once a soldier assigned to protect a village, he grew disgusted with the pointless bloodshed between the monster tribes and his unit. Opting for diplomacy instead of violence, he succeeded in halting attacks against the village, which led to him becoming a paladin. I suggested Sarenrae as the obvious choice for worship, but Jean-Charles’ player preferred to commit to the cause of Good and not to any particular deity. He nonetheless included a vision from Sarenrae in his background, that the character chose to ignore because he “hadn’t heard of this lady” (low Intelligence and no proficiency in Religion…)
(if anyone understands the reference of the “nice to everyone” character being called Jean-Charles, you gain 5 internet points)
Gus : male halfling ranger (swarmkeeper) with the sailor background. His father was a boat captain living in Bridgefront, who died and his mother had to re-marry. Hating his new step-dad, Gus left home early and initially got work on the halfling boats of Korvosa, dreaming of one day buying back his father’s ship (which gave me a nice hook to bring the PC’s back to Bridgefront after their “off-screen” adventures). The player asked if the swarmkeeper concept was too cartoonish for the game ; I thought about the Korvosan house drakes and we settled on that as his swarm (I even suggested that he had learned his ranger spells from them).