hello folks--
This is actually a question for the creators of the STAP, because i have different locations than the ones listed in the adventure path. first off, i do have an "isle of dread" location on my campaign world, but it is infested with the ruins of a mind flayer civilization, as well as horrid beasts from the Far Realms and the possible tombs of one of the Great Old Ones.
I know the campaign starts in a city named sasserine, but there really is no area in my campaign world that i can place it. i'm sure i could change the name of the city to one in my campaign world, but that would probably undo a lot of history that i have written. i really want to DM this adventure path, so i have two options i guess.
1. run it as a stand alone adventure path, with no relation to the events in my own home brew campaign. the only thing wrong about this is that i know my world. i've DMed it for over 25+ years, and it would be difficult for me to actually do this. is there a way to just run the adventure as written without going through this process? i really don't want to have to change gods, locations, etc, just to run the adventures.
2. change the city names, the god names, and take about 2 or 3 hours of time to change the names in every adventure before running it. i work two jobs and have little time other than one night every couple of weeks to plan and run adventures for my group. right now they are involved in a plot to stop the summoning of a greater demon lord, Fraz-Urb-Lu, and i see little way to get them involved in this plot. the only thing i can think is that i would stop the current campaign and start this one up. alternatively, i could get new players and start a new group.
i'm at a loss. from what i have read this AP is going to be the best of the three, and i'm really excited about it. my sister is giving me a subscription to Dungeon for my birthday, and it just so happens that the STAP will be over near the end of my subscription run. i really want to run this but i am having problems with this. also, my players come here often and read. i don't want them hitting any spoilers so i can't really wait until i have every one of them to run it in a year for fear that they will metagame.
am i being paranoid or OCD about this? what should i do? suggestions are welcome.
I think you should be able to run Savage Tide in a "generic" setting without changing anything, based on my experience with the Age of Worms. The AP as written is compatible with Greyhawk, the entire AP takes place outside the well-documented areas of the campaign world, so it can be run, more or less as a self-contained campaign without the DM having to learn Greyhawk. Tying the campaign to Greyhawk, or a homebrew world, or whatever, provides a bit more flavor and makes it easier to work in sidequests, but it may be more trouble than it's worth to a busy DM.
If you don't want your players reading the AP, just hide those issues until you're done with them.
The STAP has very little that is "setting-specific," so it should be easy to tie in to a campaign world. For one thing, its mentioned that the city of Sasserine was hidden from the world by the former rulers (the Sea Princes), so adding it to your world should be easy, as it has only recently become known again.
I don't see why adding a new island far out to sea would be a problem, but if would really upset your geography, say the Isle of Dread is magically hidden until it is found by someone who knows the way or has the proper map (sort of like Pirates of the Carribean).