I would like a conversion guide, too. I also own a lot of PF/3.5/3.0 material, which I still use a lot. So I would appreciate a conversion guide from PF2 to PF.
If conversion would become very complex or even impossible, that would be a reason for me not to buy adventures anymore, since it would be easier and less time consuming to run the older adventures and adventure paths.
I have already decided not to buy Starfinder since I will probably never run these adventures, even though the quality is probably very good.
I played up the parts having to do with Kostchtchie, since I will be running The Witch War Legacy at the end of the campaign. I played this up as a conflict between male and female forces and reinforced all the elements related to this conflict. In this way disconnected combat encounters suddenly did not seem so very disconnected, and Marislova got even more interesting. (For a while my players even feared their (male) characters would also become female.)
I will thoroughly rewrite WWL. I have put this under a spoiler button just in case.
Spoiler:
First of all I am going to add an extra faction (which they will meet later in an adventure I am going to write myself). Further, it is now Elvanna's granddaughter and not Elvanna who has sent the patrols, and joined them, because she fears what Baba Yaga might do to her now Elvanna has been defeated and hopes to find something that she can use as a bargaining chip, such as Kostchtchie's torc. The PCs are going to receive a warning from Princess Cassisoche, with whom they are more or less friendly and who wants to flee south with her friend Ilya in order to avoid Baba Yaga's wrath.
Nazhena not only occurs in the encounter with Thora Petska, but Radosek Pavril also works for her. The players hear about her several times in the first adventure. I also had the villagers of Waldsby tell about hear and fearing her (including Nadya, who is married to one of the PCs in my campaign). I also made it very clear (via NPCs) that Nazhena was spying on the group via the mirrors. So when they met her at last, they really wanted to kill her.
I partly rewrote the second book by adding some encounters and adapting some others. However, I usually do this, because I have more than 4 players and also adapt a lot to their backstories. I also added quite a bit of stuff to the third book.
We are playing this campaign with 5 players and I run most of the encounters as written. Sometimes I add some monsters. The campaign has been dangerous enough so far, with a number of near-deaths and 2 deaths. We are in the 6th book now and we have had a blast so far. Rasputin must die was a great success. It was one of the reasons I chose to DM this campaign.
Please note that the players will have an easier time if they have a lot of fire attacks/spells and that a wilderness oriented pc is really useful, especially in the first two books.
We have recently started on The witch queen's revenge. However, our campaign does not end with this adventure, since I am going to add The witch war legacy to it (and some home-made stuff tailored to the PCs).
So we will be busy for a while.
And then we will see. I have a slight preference for Strange aeons, but my players will have a say in it as well.
Perhaps replace the human legs with shoes? You can make it magical shoes. Or boots.
It brings to mind some fairytales, such as puss-in-boots, Cinderella and the red shoes (from Hans Christian Andersen).
Perhaps they have to find a cobbler who makes special shoes. Then the cobbler needs special leather, which is the hide of some monster, and special nails (e.g. the stings or nails of some animal/monster). And special shoelaces (the hair of a nymph, a korred or some other creature with lots of hair). Of course the ingredients come in threes, as fairytales go.
I understand why they were freaked out by the little cabin. My players mistrust all cabins since seeing Cabin in the Woods :-)
All in all it was a pretty atmospheric first session.
Yes, that would work. Especially because the sorcerer also is the character with leadership and a high diplomacy check. His sister might see that as "he gets everything, just by talking. And I get nothing at all."
I am going to add cold sisters as well to book 3. Extra detail: one of the sisters is the sister of one of the PCs. They had conflicting loyalties in the past and the sister left her family and they have not seen or heard from her since.
I'll include that in Nan's journal. Given she's been cooking kids, the PCs are going to kill her outright. They'd shove her into her own oven except that animated and ate the party leader (though seeing he had 5 points of fire resistance up, he was more bothered by the chewing than the fire).
The trope that's changed is "not a helpless pathetic lump that does nothing" to "active protagonist of her own tale who has tried to save herself and is now stuck where she is to save a child. The clothing thing was actually based off of a story I read once where the character's clothes were taken to try and keep that character from escaping. (Didn't work well.) I can easily drop that aspect though.
I basically had Bella talk on and on and on (in an Italian accent) and hugging everyone because she was so glad to be freed. But I let her cry a little when she heard about what happened to the children. Then she was vey helpful in giving them information about Logrivich, and in the end singing a revolutionary song on the roof when one of the PCs asked if she would do this.
Bella will have to miss Solveig a little while longer, since one of the PCs convinced Solveig to become his cohort. He was so very convincing (both by roleplaying and with a diplomacy check) that she could not say no. They offered to take Bella along as well, but Solveig would not risk the life of her lover.
My group defeated Logrivich last night. It was a truly heroic fight. I especially liked the location, which both the dragon and the PCs put to good use. No dead PCs, though some PCs were severely wounded and the fire sorcerer got frustrated because the dragon kept succeeding at his reflex save against his fireballs. It was one of those nights where the dice rolled in favor of the GM.
Afterwards they shot the fire rocket into the air as a signal for the revolution. Subsequently, Vladimir the fire sorcerer invited Bella to the roof and asked her to sing a revolutionary song, which she did. He used illusion spells to create a lovely light and sound spectacle, and Aleksej the bard accompanied her on his musical instrument. It was a memorable performance.
I had another fun moment in my campaign as well. The group is approaching the troll bridge and has spotted the merrows. They are running towards the bridge and shooting. Vladimir the sorcerer remains behind with Nadya near the dogsleds. They cuddle together under a warm blanket on a dogsled (they have a thing going).
Vladimir sees the merrows.
"One moment, Nadya!"
Casts fireball. Merrows die.
"OK, where was I?"
Starts cuddling again.
I used Challenge of the fang for gaining the rimepelt. I made Czerwonya one of the children from Waldsby and then had the village threatened by wolves led by a winter wolf. Then Kashka (if I have the name right; it is Nadya's neighbour who takes care of the children) remembered an old prophecy about the prey, the predator and the hunter and told the group that the black rider sometimes was the hunter. I added some symbolism about the maiden (Czerwonya), the mother (her mother, who asked the group to go search her daughter) and the crone (grandma), so this is a nice link to the next adventure. So when Czerwonya disappeared in the forest, the group tracked her and found the gateway to the Margreve (as in the adventure; I made it an enclosed part of the first world, not Irrisen). There I ran all the tests as written, and when they returned, they could track Czerwonya to the tree house, where they could save her and grandma from the wolf (for which I used a winter wolf of course). My players immensely enjoyed the adventure.
As for Emil: my group intimidated him during their first visit to the inn. They were in an intimidating mood, since they had just quarreled with Birgit Holorova. Then Katrina tried to soothe the matter by offering them tea, and tried to poison Vladimir the sorcerer (who acted as the group's leader at the moment). This failed spectacularly. Vladimir of course got very angry, which made the situation even worse, but instead of attacking, he berated Katrina for her behavior and the bard Aleksej talked to Emil in the kitchen and sympathized with his plight and told him his friends were only pretending (or some such story; it has been quite a while ago). He also showed interest in his crossbow and praised his shooting. So basically they were driving a wedge between Emil and Katrina.
Much later they were asking for volunteers for attacking the pale tower, and Emil (and a few others) volunteered. During the raid on the pale tower (which sort of went like a commando action) Emil had a lot of lucky dice rolls and the PCs were very impressed with his shooting and kept complimenting him. Also Vladimir managed to use diplomacy to convince some of the guards to leave the pale tower and join their cause (which Vladimir, who is a member of the Heralds, is calling 'the revolution'). Emil got more and more inspired, and they ended up with a group of guards, Emil, and a group of villagers all wanting to introduce the revolution to Waldsby.
When they successfully completed Challenge of the fang I ruled that Waldsby according to the ancient pact was now under the protection of the winter wolves, and that Baba Yaga would honor that pact (Elvanna would not, of course). So they left the village defended by winter wolves and ex pale tower soldiers. Emil volunteered as leader, together with Birgit Holorova and the owner of the saw mill (I forgot his name). The PCs organized an election and of course supported Emil, and he won. Katrina was not pleased of course, but then a female PC (Anastacia) began to flirt with Emil, so that Katrina would get al jealous and protective and suddenly started supporting Emil again.
This made Waldsby a really fun part of the campaign, which the players enjoyed very much, and had the added advantage of breaking the linearity of the campaign a bit, since the players really had the feeling they could take their fate in their own hands.
Does anybody know more about the longevity of the jadwiga? Are Baba Yaga's daughters basically immortal? Or do they just age very slowly? And what about subsequent generations? Do they retain this immortality/longevity? Or are they more like humans? Another question I have is that when Baba Yaga picks up a daughter after 100 years of rule, sometimes reference is made to children and grandchildren leaving with her. What happens to those children and grandchildren?
If you use 3.5 rules, consider making Rowyn a thrall of Malcathet (from Dragon 353).
Rowyn remained a recurring presence in my campaign until the very end.
Spoiler:
She tried to steal Demogorgon's throne from under the PCs' noses, but failed in the end. However, it was quite a surprise for the players that she turned up in the end.
My players are interested in solving the Baba Yaga problem. It might be that they will try to attack and kill her, but it might also be that they will try to negotiate with her about another route to immortality without having to kill her daughters (they do not know about killing the daughters yet, but they suspect things and I think I know how my players will react). The Dutch Wikipedia had an item on Baba Yaga where she makes tea from the leaves of blue roses, with which she can prolong her life. My idea was to run a double adventure at the end: first Witchwar legacy, in which they find a reference to blue roses. Then they have to use the hut to return to this world and travel to a monastery in Tibet, the Sera monastery in Lhasa. This will consist of a trek through the Himalaya searching for the monastery, followed by enemy parties (I do not know yet who or what they are, but they will probably have modern weaponry) and fighting yetis and other monsters. They can find the roses in the Sera monastery (the name is derived from se ra, which is Tibetan for wild rose). Or perhaps in the monastery they can find the wisdom to discover the roses. Since the PCs have a lot of very intense personal plotlines running (mostly childhood traumas), these can also be resolved in the monastery (and they can find personal enlightenment here).
This is still all mere conjecture, as we are at the end of The snows of summer at the moment, but I am already brainstorming.
There is another thread already about music, so I am not going to advise any music here (just check out Russian composers), but I would like to add one inspiring book series to the list, which I hope is still in print:
C.J Cherryh:
- Rusalka
- Chernevog
- Yvgenie
This series perfectly captures the atmosphere of this campaign.
I am adding some fairy tales to the campaign, e.g. the adventure "Challenge of the fang" from "Tales of the old Margreve" (from Open Design/Kobold Games), which is a Russian/Slavic version of Little Red Riding Hood.
I am using this adventure in Waldsby, and the PCs can earn the rimepelt here (instead of just killing a winter wolf with two different eyes).
I have to share this one with you. It is a Dutch song which my players immediately associated with this campaign. As it is in Dutch, I have added a link to an English translation:
Aleksej: NG human bard (basically a Russian ballet dancer)
Anastacia: N human rogue (plans to be a ranger/rogue), Aleksej's twin sister
K'wanda B'nana: NE human rogue (plans to be a fighter/rogue)
Vladimir Volshebnin: CG human sorcerer (with an ermine familiar called Medvedev)
Zikimo Talib: N human druid (with his wolf Chikuk)
Last weekend we had our second Reign of Winter session. My players did something I never expected and I want to share it, because it was so surprising and may perhaps inspire you.
As this is for DMs only, I will put it under a spoiler button.
Spoiler:
They met with the three winter-touched sprites, which was a tough fight, but they managed. They even managed to capture one of the sprites. Now one of my players is playing a druid who is interested in the workings of the body. So he was wondering whether the fey really had an ice shard in their hearts, as told by Yuln Oerstag. So they decided to pummel the sprite unsconscious. Then they cut it open to see its heart. So I told them: "Are you sure? Since this will probably kill it." Yes, they were sure. So I rolled damage for cutting open the sprite. It survived the damage (I rolled a 1). So they saw the ice shard in its heart and then decided to remove it. Again I rolled for damage, and again I rolled a 1. So I told them: "the sprite is bleeding to death. You will need to stabilize it, but since it is its heart, you will need needle and thread!" Then one of the other players, the bard (basically a gay Russian ballet dancer), said: "I have needle and thread". He had indeed bought needle and thread. I then let them roll a heal check, and rolled very high, with aid another. In other words, they saved the sprite's life, and it no longer had an ice shard in its heart. Later that evening they managed the same procedure again (and again successfully, now using cure spells as well) with Fawfein (he almost died). This means they now have two no longer winter-touched fey accompany them, who are very grateful for saving them from the Jadwiga witches.
If I want to give my players clues, I just let them roll an appropriate knowledge check if they have one. Then if they roll high enough (and usually there is one player who does), I give them the relevant information. This usually works.
If they do not have knowledge, just let them roll intelligence checks and tell them: "You remember..."
And if they have forgotten something, just let them roll the same knowledge check the next playing session. Chances are they do not even remember the previous one.
I was already beginning to wonder whether I was the only one to notice the parallel. I have a number of Doctor Who fans in my group (at least two, excluding me), so there will certainly be Tardis comments I guess. I was also toying with the idea of using the Tardis noise when the group is switching from one adventure to another. It is surely appropriate.
TBA, of course I will be watching this forum and commenting when I have ideas.
Carborundum, I hope you will get to finish the campaign one day. When the children are older, you will have more time, and hopefully new players :-)
My daughter is 15 years old and will be playing in Reign of Winter.
I also DM for her and 3 other teenagers. We have played Crown of the Kobold King and Revenge of the Kobold King and they will be starting Hungry are the Dead soon. I like DM-ing for teenagers. For them all is new, so it reminds me of the days of First Edition.
Last night my PCs finally did it: defeat Demogorgon and once and for all end the threat of the Shadow Pearls.
One of the PCs has claimed the throne of the Abyss.
This was a great campaign. We had a lot of fun, and a great final evening with some memorable fights, especially against St. Kargoth, and the final one against the Prince of Demons, which was still tough after all the PCs had done to weaken him.
However, they won, with some very clever manoeuvring and some very tactical use of spells.
We will be starting a different campaign soon. I have had my PCs choose one from several campaigns and they have chosen Reign of Winter. Very apt, with the Olympic Winter Games going on in Russia at the moment. And something very different from the Savage Tide!
PC : Maegara (21th level LE ranger/blackguard/death knight)
Adventure : Prince of Demons
Location : Wat Dagon
Catalyst : St. Kargoth the Betrayer
The two death Knights could not resist dueling, LE against CE. It was actually a quite honorable and fair fight. At first it seemed Maegara would win, as she had gained initiative. But later on Kargoth was the stronger of the two. She lost the duel and died.
The other PCs were waiting to intervene. She had told them that she would say a codeword when she had had enough. But in the end she decided to fight all the way to the end...
When she was dead, the other PCs finally intervened and killed St. Kargoth. This was one of the memorable fights of a great campaign.
This happened in my savage tide campaign. The group is trying to free Shami-Amourae from the wells of darkness and has already acquired the key from Ahazu (a book of infinite spells).
The wizards goes on to tell Shami that she will be freed, saying:
I like the idea of Ahazu kidnapping whole planets, and starting with layers of the abyss. Perhaps the PCs can even prevent such a kidnapping.
The plot has gotten more complex, as it seems Orgosh will become involved with Ahazu and end up either imprisoned in one of the wells, or as a kind of avatar or aspect of Ahazu. This is all the result of one of my players messing around with miracles. High-level campaigns are such fun ! :-)
Ghosts might be a good idea, yes. Especially because I have the kinds of players who always try to communicate with ghosts.
The scuttlecove thugs do not have the lemorian template to begin with, so I do not need to add it. (Anyway, it is only given to chosen Crimson Fleet members in a special ritual, not to mere thugs.)
In the module it is suggested that Vanthus can command the undead because he is a death knight, so it does not really matter whether the ghosts blame him or not, they just have no choice but to do his bidding. Perhaps it is even more fun if they do blame him, but cannot do anything about it.
I also like the "battle for control of the undead" between Vanthus and Orgosh and would like to keep that aspect intact. Especially because one of the PCs is a blackguard, who can rebuke undead, which makes this even more interesting :-)
Or he could escape via the water. He can have some allies on a boat outside Kraken's cove, so that he can swim there. Perhaps you could give him a potion of swimming or a potion of water breathing.
I like your idea, since it involves the PCs more in the Crimson Fleet plot.
But before you use this plot, please remember that Vanthus will be a member of the Crimson Fleet again when they attack Farshore. Though even though he is not trusted now, he turns up later as a member (and then even has the Lemorian template, so he will be a half-demon). So perhaps you should think about what you intend to do with that. Perhaps the Crimson Fleet is only marginally involved with the demonic plot now and later gets deeper into it, so that Vanthus can consolidate his position when the demonic members gain more power. It would give Harliss a better reason for leaving as well.
You could also consider giving the Crimson Fleet two factions, of which one cooperates with the demons.
My group successfully negotiated with Emraag. They managed to keep one of Lavinia's tribute chests (and handed it back to Lavinia). Instead they proposed to Emraag to build an enormous Emraag statue in Farshore. Of course he agreed. It will have a continual flame in its mouth. When the statue is finished, there will be a celebration and this will become a yearly Farshore holiday (when Emraag gets new tribute of course!)
I think this was so clever and original a solution that I had to put it here!
If you want to lure them out of the fortress, you can make them really desperate by staging more and more night attacks, so that the chances of characters getting a good night's rest become slimmer and slimmer. No need to take away cleric powers then.
Also when reading your post instantly 2 adventure titles sprang to mind:
1) The siege of Kratys Freehold (dungeon 33)
2) Tammeraut's fate (dungeon 106)
I was DM-ing the adventure Dead Man's Quest (from Polyhedron) as an introduction to the Freeport campaign. At one point the PCs hand over the "eye of the sea dragon" to the priest of the sea god, who brings it inside the cellar of the temple, where he places it into the dragon turtle statue that was there. Then he goes upstairs in order to reward the PCs, and in the meantime the villains (yellow sign cult members) are supposed to passwall into the cellar and steal the gem again. The PCs then have to track them to an abandoned warehouse and there to fight the cultists and a horrible monster.
One of my players was playing a rogue who was rather opportunistic as far as religion was concerned, since he was only praying to gods who relate directly to the adventure. At the exact moment the priest arrives from the cellar, the players states: "I am going down in order to pray to the sea god." The incredible thing was that all the other players thought that he was planning on stealing the gems, but he was really going to pray to the sea gos. And of course nobody knew about the passwall.
I hesitated for a moment and at first wanted to delay the theft by the yellow cultists, but then decided it was too beautiful a coincidence and I let it go. So the rogue suddenly saw the hole in the wall appearing, and I changed the whole adventure into a chase adventure (which was luckily still quite exciting, mostly since nearly all the PCs slipped in the grease spell one of the cultists threw at them). Of course they finally captured the cultists.
