PDiddy's page

Actually I ran them pretty much as is, however, I changed the saving throws to attribute checks. Also, I stole an idea from these forums and preprinted the descriptions for the haunts and placed them in envelopes. When a haunt was triggered I would hand the player the envelope, they could read the description inside, and role-play how they interacted with the haunt.

The group I DM just finished Rise of the Runelords using 2nd edition and it worked great.

The conversion process was a little more involved as there are a few encounters with creatures that aren't in 2nd edition.

I found the biggest challenge was deciding how to handle XP and the pacing of level advancement. I finally decided that I wanted the campaign to end at 12th level which meant leveling twice per book. So I just awarded XP to keep on that pace. I was pleasantly surprised at how well this worked. I was really worried about moving from the 3rd book to the 4th book and having the encounter difficulty jump from Ogres to Stone Giants as the characters went from about 6th level to 7th level. There were some rough moments but with some smart play and a few henchmen, the party made it through.

The other issue was treasure, particularly magic-items. Both the quantity and converting some of the types.

Next up is Age of Worms also using 2nd edition. It is going to be epic!

Nearly two years after my last post to this thread my players have defeated the lamias in the Reliquary and are trying to figure out how to use the lens to enter the Eye of Avarice. They will battle Karzoug next week.

The party is made up of six characters 2nd edition characters from levels 10 to 14 and I have stated up Karzoug as an 18th level Transmuter (I wanted to make sure he had access to 9th level spells). I am also considering having two or three Hounds of Tindalos to support him.

I will try to post some thoughts about the campaign, the conversion to 2nd edition, and the final combat when we are done.

I have placed Diamond Lake in Cheliax near the coast in the hills, about 200 miles East of Westcrown.

The Free City is obviously Absalom. The fact that it is not nearby but is available via short trip by ship is neither here nor there.

This is pretty close to what I'm thinking but I'm struggling with where to put blackwall.

1. I feel that 1985 to 1995 were the glory days for D&D. Late 1st edition/early 2nd edition and lots of support for basic/expert D&D. My favourites are the Moldvay Basic/Cook & Marsh Expert and 2nd edition.

2. Temple of Elemental Evil, Keep on the Borderlands, Night's Dark Terror, The Lost City...

I am hoping to run Serpent Skull at some point so I don't want to cannibalize it for Second Darkness.

Also, I would prefer to let the players play whatever characters they want to so I don't want to limit them to elves & half-elves.

One option I have been considering is adapting the old basic adventure Rahasia and replacing the Rahib and the sisters with Depora. This brings rescuing elves to the fore right from the start but it would miss the great final battle scene on the Cyphergate.

Any other suggestions?

I have read in a number of places that one of the issues with the Second Darkness is that the campaign starts the PCs out as shady mercenaries involved in the seedy underbelly of a pirate haven and then asks them the be selfless heroes.

Do you feel that swapping out Shadow in the Sky would fix this issue? If I were to swap out Shadow in the Sky, can anyone recommend another adventure to take its place? What are the key elements/pieces of info from Shadow in the Sky that would have to be carried over to the new adventure?

Thanks in advance for any input.

Hi,
Please cancel my subscriptions to:
Pathfinder Player Companion
Pathfinder Modules
Pathfinder Campaign Setting

but please leave my Pathfinder Adventure Path subscription active.

Thanks.
Patrick

I am DMing Rise of the Runelords using 2nd edition. We just finished Hook Mountain. It is fantastic.

I believe that in Dragon #243 there is a Battlecaster class that was made using the class creation rules from the 2E DMG.

I ran A Pound of Flesh from 0One Games. It worked really well.

If you trust your players with having out-of-character knowledge, one of the things I have done is to run cut scenes where the players get to play the role of various NPCs.

In my Rise of the Runelords campaign we had a cut scene where the players got to play various NPC memebers of the Black Arrows hunting down some ogres. It was very rules light and each character received an index card with some of the NPCs background, personality, etc. described on it. Later, when they met the Black Arrows in Hook Mountain Massacre, they instantly had some out-of-character knowledge and feel for who the Black Arrows are. It was fun to watch the player who played Kaven have his character interact with him while keeping the OOC knowledge to himself and not allowing it to influence how his PC reacted.

There is also the Falcon's Hollow series:
Hollow's Last Hope
Crown of the Kobold King
Carnival of Tears
Revenge of the Kobold King
Hungry are the Dead

They are for 3.5.

You could also roll in Pathfinder Society Scenario #43 The Pallid Plague

Not too sure I can put an order to them:

- 2nd edition AD&D
- B/X D&D (the Moldvay/Cook version)
- Savage Worlds
- Castles & Crusades
- RISUS
- 4th Edition D&D

I ran Mad God's Key in Sandpoint which will led into a sidetrek in Magnimar using 0One's Pound of Flesh.

I finally finished typing up my notes to convert Burnt Offerings to 2nd Edition.

Played Master of the Fallen Fortress with it just the other day.

I like C&C and like some of the changes with the 4th printing but I think I prefer the illusionist and barbarian from the 3rd printing.

A few of my goals/philosophies while I work on my conversions are:

1. Thematic instead of direct mechanical conversions. I am not trying to figure out how a d20 prestige class or magic item might work exactly the same way while using 2nd edition. Instead I am trying to develop a "feeling" and the make things fun. For example, if I am trying to develop a kit that is a conversion of a Golarion prestige class I am trying to have the kit fill the same role and have the same feeling as opposed to trying to find mechanical equivalents for all of the prestige class' abilities.

2. Use existing 2nd edition materials as much as possible. I am married, have kids and am pursuing a career. I need to save as much time as possible.

3. I am not worried too much about "balance". Balance in 2nd edition AD&D was a minor concern. However, I do try to make sure all of my players are having fun so I try to be sure that any conversions aren't too far out there.

4. I am using a wide variety of 2nd edition AD&D materials. For my campaign, I am drawing from nearly the entire 2nd edition product roster where required. However, most of the rules are prior to the "2.5" Player's Option books. But that is not 100% set in stone as I am using such things as the spell spheres and schools as given in Player's Options: Spells & Magic as well as a slightly modified Channeller class.

=================================

NPC Conversion
I typically use a very simple conversion process for NPCs to adapt a 3.5E adventure for my 2E campaign.

At low levels I keep the hit points as given in the published adventure. I higher levels I take between 50% and 75% of the given hit points.
I determined Hit Dice by dividing the hit points by 5. I then round up or down depending on how things are going.
Thaco was calculated as 20-Hit Dice
AC = 20 - 3.5E AC
And special abilities were approximated.

For example, one of the sidetreks I have used is Mad God's Key from Dungeon 114. The final encounter in that adventure is against Cyrathas, an elven mulitclassed rogue 1/sorcerer 2. So I wanted him to have some thief abilities and be able to cast magic-user spells.
He had 13 hp as given in the adventure

HD = 13 / 5 rounded up = 3
Thaco = 20-3 = 17
His AC was given as 15 so I used 20-15=5

Special abilities:
I used the base thieve abilities for a 1st level thief as printed on my 2E DM screen and didn't worry about making any adjustments.

For spells, in the adventure he has Burning Hands, Shield and a bunch of 0-level spells. So I just kept both of the spells as they have 2E equivalents and used Cantrip to replace the 0-level spells.

For magic items, I used the 2E equivalents for what he had in the published adventure.

Did all of this add up to a 1st level thief / 2nd level magic-user? Not exactly but he used a magic wand (Grease) to great effect, lost his Burning Hands spell when he was hit while trying to cast it, lit a pool of lantern oil on fire by knocking over a torch using Cantrip, drank a potion of healing and generally made for a fun encounter.

======================================
Monster Conversion
Typically I just replace the monsters given in the adventure with their 2E equivalents. However, I do make frequent use of the rules from “Altering Monsters the Easy Way” from Dungeon Master Option: High Level Campaigns.

I will try to type up my conversion of Burnt Offerings and post it here.

@ XperimentalDM

RE: Experience Points

Honestly, I always found the XP rules in 2nd edition to be so flexible that I don't have a problem keeping the PC's exactly where I want them in terms of level. Before we started I decided that I would base XP awards based on what level I wanted a Fighter to be. I did a quick table that looked like:

start……….……..1st level - 0 XP
Mid book one…..2nd level - 2,000 XP (between Catacombs of Wrath and Thistletop)
End book one…..3rd level - 4,000 XP (after Nualia)
Mid book two…..4th level - 8,000 XP (before they went to Magnimar)
End book two…..5th level - 16,000 XP (after the Shadow Clock; where the fighter with the swashbuckler kit currently is)
Mid book three…6th level - 32,000 XP
End book three…7th level - 64,000 XP
Mid book four…..8th level - 125,000 XP
End book four…..9th level - 250,000 XP
Mid book five….10th level - 500,000 XP
End book five….11th level - 750,000 XP
Mid book six…..12th level - 1,000,000 XP
Prior to the final battle…13th level - 1,250,000 XP

I then award enough XP to keep the fighter on track and all the other classes vary slightly from that. Between story based XP, roleplaying XP, etc I have no problem fudging it to keeping them on pace. We have also been doing a bunch of sidetreks but I just adjust the XP.

In other words, I just use XP as a pacing mechanic instead of a reward mechanic.

@ baron

Let me see what I can put together. Most of them are just hand written.

After just over a year, my 2nd edition AD&D Rise of the Runelords campaign is still going strong.

Light spoilers...
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
After a number of side-treks we have just finished the battle in the Shadow Clock and it is nearly as tough in 2nd edition as 3rd. She lost her last HP as the last PC was down to their last couple of HPs. It was a close call. One PC with a couple of hit points, one PC turned to stone and the rest were unconscious.

The party did lose one of their front line fighters just prior to the fight as the bell trap collapsed a large chunk of the stairs and the fighter in plate mail tried to jump the open span after tying himself off to a rickety beam poorly mortared into the wall. Check to make the jump – failed, check to see if the beam held – failed, give him a last gasp saving throw to grab hold of something – failed. Down, down down…splat.

The party now consists of:
6th level thief that put most of his % points into climbing and hiding.
5th level dual-wielding fighter with the swashbuckler kit
3rd level channeller (from the Players Options books to fill in for a sorcerer) that loves to upcharge their magic missile and then fall down exhausted
3rd level specialty priest of Desna henchman (which is a reskinned version of the specialty priests of Selune from Faith & Avatars)
4th level bard with the blade kit (the replacement PC for the pancaked fighter)
And maybe a 3rd level magic-user henchman (the one turned to stone).

It has been great. The group is really looking forward to the next chapter.

I don't have a map for you but I wanted to say that it was a great idea having the 3D map in the dam control room. I love reading how different DMs have imparted background information to their players.

Not to Derail but...
Black Dougal - I have tried a couple of time to get a PFS table going at the D&D meetup at the Sentry Box without success. I would be very interested in participating in Calgary.

Can anyone suggest another adventure that could be used as a sequel to MGK? I don't have the RPGA sequel and would like to find a published adventure from Dungeon or other sources. Any suggestions?

I've been thinking about making the ET an offshoot of the Whispering Way.

Hello,
Could I please cancel my subscriptions for the Pathfinder Campaign Setting and Pathfinder Player Companion lines? Please leave my Adventure Path and Module subscriptions intact.
Thank you very much.

I love 2E. I am currently DMing a 2E Rise of the Runelords campaign and it is fantastic. It is fast-paced and story-oriented.

A few reasons why 2E really works for me:

- the rules can be as simple or as complex as you want. So many of the rules are listed as optional that you can really tweak it to your preference.

- Combat is fast and narrative. My personal preference is to have a fast 10 minute combat where there are 3 or 4 meaningful decisions to make rather than a 45 minute combat with numerous micro decisions.

- Character customization without numerous exception based rules.

- I am good at math and find THAC0 to be fast and easy. For my players that don't get it as easily I can make a small table for each of them in about 2 minutes so that they can cross reference their dice roll and tell me what AC they hit. I can then quickly apply the necessary modifiers and tell them the result in about 2 seconds.

- The intiative and saving throw systems keep fighters, etc relevant with magic-users.

- The art work in the books. The 2E art is second only to Pathfinder.

- I just love the feel that you can get when you use the core rulebooks + all of the complete books. It is such a wonderful goulash of stuff.

I am currently running 0One Games' A Pound of Flesh set in Magnimar. You can get the pdf from Paizo.

I previously ran Mad God's Key and I am connecting the pages torn from the book recovered in MGK to the pages with the bad ritual found in APoF.

Please cancel my Gamemastery Cards and Planet Stories subscriptions. However, please leave my other subscriptions ongoing.

Thanks,
Patrick

Is there any chance of getting another print run of this flip-mat? Having hexes on one side would be very helpful, especially with the Kingmaker AP.

The player's wanted some extra downtime before we started the next adventure, so I'm just throwing in some quick sidequests.

One of our main players is going to be absent so I figured it would be a good time to focus on the histories of the other players. I'm hoping that some of these ideas will mesh with their backgrounds.

What are their backgrounds?

I am at the same point in my campaign. However, I also ran Mad God's Key during Burnt Offerings. The party has bought the old mansion that was used by the Green Daggers and is in the process of setting up the "Sandpoint Frontiersmen Guild". I am currently using Green Ronin's Bleeding Edge Adventures #2: Beyond the Towers. I set the pyramid in the Mushfens and made it another ancient Thassilionian ruin. Brodert hired the fledgling guild due to a shared background with one of the PCs.

I know that most here play Pathfinder or 3rd edition but I wanted you to know that some of us "old-schoolers" really enjoy the Paizo adventure paths.

My group has finished 10 session of Rise of the Runelords using 2nd edition AD&D. We are done Burnt Offerings with some side treks using Mad God's Key and some other stuff. I am posting session summaries and some conversion notes on Dragonsfoot. Feedback from my players has been rave reviews so far.

So kudos to Paizo from a bunch of grognards.

The original module never mentioned them cooperating...

Actually it did mention which groups cooperate and which don't.

TRIBAL ALLIANCES AND WARFARE: You might allow player characters to somehow become aware that there is a constant fighting going on between the goblins and hobgoblins on one side and the orcs, sometimes with gnoll allies, on the other - with the koboids hoping to be forgotten by all, and the bugbears picking off any stragglers who happen by. With this knowledge, they might be able to set tribes to fighting one another, and then the adventurers can take advantage of the weakened state of the feuding humanoids. Be careful to handle this whole thing properly; it is a device you may use to aid players who are few in number but with a high level of playing skill. It will make it too easy if there are many players, or if players do not actually use wits instead of force when the opportunity presents itself.

Several weeks ago we began Rise of the Runelords adventure path using 2nd edition AD&D. The group is made up of two players that I have been playing with for some time now and three new players. I have to admit that I am quite happy with how the group has meshed. So far this has been the funnest group I have had in a while.

Rules
For rules we are using:
2E Core
+ some of the Optional rules in the PHB
+ the Complete Handbooks (all material used from these must be vetted first)
+ some house rules

The house rules are basically:
- Humans gain two additional nonweapon proficiencies
- Ambidexterity, Blind-fighting and Two-Weapon fighting (and maybe a few more) can only be taken as Weapon Proficiencies instead of Nonweapon proficiencies
- Material components for spells are abstracted. Arcane materials have been added to the equipment list. They are the catchall for material components for spells. If your wizard casts a spell that requires a 100 gp pearl, I am not going to make sure you have it on your equipment list but I do want you to make sure you have at least 100 gp of Arcane Materials on your character sheet which can be used. If no cost is given for material components the cost will be 10 times the spell level in gps.
- and a few more.

Character Generation
We used 4d6, drop lowest and each player rolled two arrays. The player then got to choose which array they wanted to use. The resulting PCs are:

- Kobb One-Tusk, a half-orc fighter with the sell-sword kit and specialization with a spear.

- Goalrath Shadowmoon, an elven cleric of Sarenrae (using the Sun specialty priest from Complete Priest with a few adjustments including being allowed to use a scimitar).

- Vardinil, an elven fighter/magic-user. I allowed him to spend a couple of weapon proficiencies to be able to cast spells while wearing chainmail. He still has to make an INT check with a penalty equal to the spell level. If he fails he loses the spell. The player has also been warned that I reserve the right to screw with his character if he rolls a "1".

- Asreal Nom, a human (Shoanti) ranger.

- Toran Stargazer, a human thief from Magnimar focused on breaking and entering instead of traps and combat.

I don't have any helpful tips but it sounds awesome. Take pics when you are done!

@ Tom - that is really cool. However, I want to tie the flashback to the PCs background as well.

@ damnitall - I like that.

I am running a 2E Rise of the Runelords campaign that has been going great.

One of the PCs is a multiclassed Fghter/M-U elf. He came to me with a rough outline for his background and from there we fleshed it out together. He is from the the Mierani Forest and had just joined a certain mercenary group there when said mercenary group raided his families dwelling and killed his family and abducted his brother. Fearing for his life he fled to the south and eventually joined the Black Arrows in protecting Varisia. Eventually though he decided to seek his own way and try to discover the fate of his brother.

I want to run a cut scene of a flashback involving the PC, Lamatar, Kaven, and other Black Arrows before we get too close to HMM.

I have been tossing around a few ideas but wanted to pick the collective brains around here.

So, any ideas for a flash back involving the Black Arrows?

Sorry, enough ridiculously old references.

Despite the clearness of the rules about what a PC can or can't do, I don't think it's good to bind yourself to those options. If you want to try to trip someone, I suggest saying that that is what you are attempting to do. A good dm will allow you to try even though it's not clearly laid out in the rules. If one of my players did it, I'd probably have him roll a basic melee attack and against the target's reflex or maybe Fort. If the target was big thing that seemed hard to trip I'd probably give the PC a penalty otherwise I'd just say go for it. The dmg does encourage dms to say yes to players as in "yes you can try it". The problem with 4E is it becomes too easy to become confined by your powers and the rules and not to think outside them. If you can free yourself up from that mind block then the game can open up and be just as free as any other system.

One nice thing about 4E is that matching up an attribute, attack or skill vs a defense it becomes pretty easy to try all sorts of crazy stuff - reminiscent of Tunnels & Trolls saving rolls.

The "gamist" approach took me a while to get my head around, but once I did I really appreciated 4e.

I think this is where the "4E is like Basic D&D" comes from.

Hi,
Following the shipment of Pathfinder Module S1, please cancel my subscription to the Pathfinder Modules series but leave my Adventure Path and Planet Stories subscriptions ongoing.
Thanks.
Patrick

I've used a couple of them in my Castles & Crusades campaign. They work well for a one night side trek.

More Leigh Brackett!!!
Oh Yeaaaaah!!!
(a big red pitcher of kool-aid with arms and legs comes crashing through the wall)

Valegrim's right; I would appreciate clarification. I didn't start playing until 2nd Edition AD&D; I know there was an Original D&D and a 1st Edition, but I'm reading terms other than those. (Unless they're typos like BD&D?)

TS

Original Dungeons and Dragons (OD&D)published in 1974, which included three booklets: Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure, and The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures. There were also various rules supplements released for OD&D, including Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Eldritch Wizardy, and Gods, Demi-gods, & Heroes. If you used all of the supplements it was pretty close to 1E AD&D. Most of the tables in the first 3 books stop well short of 20th level. The supplements go higher but I don't remember how high - likely around 20th level.

Holmes Basic published in 1979 that was a close relative to OD&D not withstading the references to the then-yet-to-be-released AD&D. This went up to 3rd level.

Basic / Expert D&D (B/X) published in 1981. The basic set was edited by Tom Moldvay and the expert book was edited by Cook and Marsh. The covers were done by Erol Otus. The basic book went to 3rd level and the expert book went to 14th level.

BECMI the basic, expert, companion, masters and immortals boxed sets by Frank Mentzer which started in 1983 and somewhat redone in the Rules Compendium. Once again the basic set went up the 3rd level, the expert set to 14th, and the Companion set took it to 36th (I believe) with the Masters set covering the pursuit of godhood and the immortals set detailing whet you did when you got there (once again, I believe. I haven't read this set in years)

Congratulations!

Please cancel my subscriptions for Pathfinder Chronicles and Pathfinder Companion.

Please leave my remaining subscriptions intact. Thanks.

Stupid double posts ;)
Thanks Cos!

Hi folks,
Could you please cancel my preorders for the 4E Gift Set (part of order #888294) and the Keep on the Shadowfell (part of order #920464)?

That will pay for a good number of the novels that will be part of my NEW Planet Stories subscription!!! yeah!!!

Thanks a bunch,
Patrick

-

Thank David!
Any other comments about how the session went? ie feel, mechanics, pace etc?

Gnomes are in the Monster Manual with advice on running them as PCs. They are in 4E.

Forgot about that - but does their fluff and abilities fit with Golarion gnomes?