mars1276's page

You might consider making it a house rule that would allow for a Concentration check of DC 30+spell level would allow someone to cast the spell without the verbal part. This way it would be like having the metamagic feat when you would actually be able to pull it off, and STILL make it an advantage to have that feat so you wouldn't have to even make the check.

Well, I figured for city guards and traveling merchant guards I would need House Deneith to be present. House Sivis for message stations (especially since exchange is limited). House Kundarak for handling the town as well as anybody's personal finances. I didn't find House Pharlagn to be of much use for me personally, I mean, with a flood season being part of the adventure, I thought that house was redundant. House Jorasco is there obviously for the taverns and inns, but I limited how many are actually affiliated with it. I'm having trouble thinking of all the houses right off the top of my head.
Basically if you feel a house would have a role in town, put them in. I didn't feel the houses that control weather or transportation had that big of a role in my game.

I elected to have the Church of the Silver Flame replace the main church in the game that the players will deal with. I replaced another with a church for the Sovereign Host, basically an open-house for the general public. I replaced We-Jas with an Order of the Undying Court. Y'know, to keep things mysterious and yet low-key at the same time. I figured if any of my players gave it some serious thought, the most they would lead to would probably be the big question, "what the hell is the undying court doing in the middle of Q'barra?" I figured I'd let that one work itself out.

But that's about it. I purposefully have few churches for the players to go to so as to keep NPC contacts to a minimum. So far I've found it to have been working well for the players. Less people to have to remember and easier for them to relate to someone when they need to. Although I DID place in there an herbal shop of a sorts. Just a dwarf selling anything and everything that might be needed for spell components, remedies, the occasional salve or ointment for something else here and there. I also eventually added a shop for an artificer to help my players with magical items. I put emphasis on making an artificer that can make magical items cheaply and quickly, but his items will be limited on effective caster level; hereby possibly encouraging the players to make something of their own that can be better.

Other than that, I have only tried to keep a few key NPCs in constant play and things seem to be running smoothly as far as player-NPC reactions go.

I myself placed Cauldron smack dab in the middle of Q'barra. To try to keep the PC's from wandering around outside the city and campaign environment too much I have attached the fiendish template to any creature they may find as a random encounter. Boosts up the ECL and makes sure the PCs stick close to the town. Also, it kinda emphasizes why people in Cauldron have such a big wall to fortify the city and when they send caravans enroute to trade, it is few and often heavily guarded. Helps explain why you don't see too many new faces within the city whereas if it was a portside city or local you would see all kinds of new people.
I have also introduced a FEW of the houses here but not all of them. I have changed the religions, but again, only one church happens to be of any importance in the early stages. As it happens that church was made to be the Silver Flame.

So far it's been pretty fun!

I have placed the city within the jungles of Q'barra. I introduced the players to the city by using a short narrative to explain what horrors and dangers they narrowly escaped before stumbling through the jungles upon the road that leads to the city. So far the players view their characters as too low-level to want to venture into the jungles and face those horrors anytime soon.

One thing I have noted in my game so far. To give it a complete Eberron-esque feel, I've had to change some names, add a few dragonmarked houses within the city (which you'll find some suggestions for doing on these boards as well), but I might suggest replacing the goblins and hobgoblins with their Eberron cousins the Dolgrims and other creatures and monsters from the ECS.

I would agree. I do not see House Cannith in Cauldron at all. But that might just be because I put mine in the northern half of Q'barra and it's just not SAFE to travel over or through Q'barra to warrant any kind of possible gain to be had by having a House located there. I have Terseon as a House Deneith heir who helps locate protection for the merchants and caravans when they actually NEED to travel through the Jungles of Q'barra or to the neighboring towns.

Something that I found coincided neatly with the history of Cauldron is Q'barra's own history as the fighting grounds between demons and dragons. Now although Q'barra isn't known for it's giants, who's to say there wasn't an occasional one or two stomping around in it's day?

I basically spent the beginning of the game introducing the players to Cauldron by explaining how they got there, introducing some scenarios as to WHY they set out for the Q'barra in the first place, and explained how dangerous and life-threatening the Jungles of Q'barra were as they got lost and eventually found their way to the city. Neatly speed-timing it into the beginning of Life's Bazaar.

I gave my players a nice run down of what the local officials look like, some common names that have been thrown about the town since they arrived, and one local rumor going around about kidnappings. This way the players could get the feel that their characters have been here for a short amount of time (roughly almost a week) and just about got the feel of the city before I started running the events of Life's Bazaar at them.

This way too, for players that rolled low on their starting gold, it justified a need and reason for them to have had to spend some money to make it to this point, and their starting gold is all they have left. It seems to be working out nicely so far.

Y'know, if there are people like you still reading this thread, perhaps we could get something going that explains how each person's game is going and point out what could have been done to make a particular point in the game a little smoother. If there is already this thread let me know.

While very good thought went into placing Cauldron into the Howling Peaks (as with your other conversions), did anyone notice that Cauldron has some smaller towns around it and while Cauldron is in a volcano (i.e., the mountainous terrain), the other towns are surrounded by JUNGLE.

Does the jungle terrain have that much impact on the adventure path itself, or is it just fluff for the environment?

Meaning of course, can it be changed without much impact (if any) on the adventure?