Savage Tide Additions / Conversions

[Kryptonitedragon]

I'm looking a mods for my upcoming STAP game, I really like Sasserine and was looking at making the PC's stay there longer, any adventures that are wellsuited for this that anyone has used. One adventure I was thinking about was "Wreck Ashore" I think it came out of the Wizards Free adventure download area.

Also I've contemplated converting it over to Iron Heroes, any suggestions or advice on this.

[lin_fusan]

I'm using primarily Dungeon mag adventures to lighten the cognitive load in running this campaign.

I'm using "Pandemonium in the Veins" in Dungeon #96 to simulate the PCs joining the Horn's affiliation via Arena matches.

I have "Mad God's Key" in Dungeon #114 and "Salvage Operation" in Dungeon #123 as back-up port city adventures.

I'm using "Seige of the Spider Eaters" in Dungeon #137 as an optional Seeker quest.

Strangely enough, there seems to be a lot of pirate-themed adventures in Dungeon mag so I'm porting those adventures over as I need them.

[DMaple]

Rather than converting to Iron Heroes, I've just tried to add action zones (from Mastering Iron Heroes) to key combat areas. Converting to Iron Heroes would probably be a lot of work, and the main reason for using the Adventure Path for me it to save on prep time.

So for example I placed buckets of water (for throwing or knocking over to make the deck slippy), barrels (for rolling or throwing) and ropes (for swinging across the deck) all over the Blue Nixie when I staged the combat there.

[ronin]

Can you give a brief explanation as to what "action zones" are exactly? It sounds like it could possibly be a good addition to the campaign. I do not own Iron Heroes however but I could be convinced to pick it up if it would add to the game.

Thanks.

[Haelis]

I have been running the Savage Tide using Iron Heroes and so far, it has been a blast.
Of course, at lower levels there isn't much to adapt, just a few changes like Defense bonuses, and armor DR.

What is really great though are how IH adds to the game. The thief of the group has a ton of connections all over Sasserine thanks to his political mastermind 1&2 feats for example.
In the Blue Nixie scene, the Weapon Master used a skill challenge to intimidate three of the thugs at once to the point where none of them acted in the fight.
The executioner built up tokens before the fight with Soler Vark too.
To bypass the DR on the Iron Cobra, they used attack challenges too.

Everyone is having fun so far and I can't wait to get further. Some of the flying monsters have me worried for later on in the game, but I will find a way to deal with that.

[Haelis]

Here is a link to a sneak peak of Mastering Iron Heroes
http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?mpress_MasterIL_preview1

That should help you decide if it is something you like.

[Earthbeard]

I started the game off with "Salvage Operation", then followed with "Urban Decay".

As my players where travelling to Sasserine, I like to foreshadow and if players are new arrivals to the city, it helps them with lack of knowledge etc!

Players had a blast with those adventures. I heavily modified "urban Decay" to fit more in the background of one of my players who bears the mark of finding, it was typical missign person affair, with smugglers and pirates involved and finally the female wererat, a few players were bitten and the fear of lycanthropy, we are playing in Eberron, has made them race against time to gfet to the nearest Jorasco or Church, which are cunningly located in Port Regal "sasserine"

[DMaple]

ronin wrote:

Can you give a brief explanation as to what "action zones" are exactly? It sounds like it could possibly be a good addition to the campaign. I do not own Iron Heroes however but I could be convinced to pick it up if it would add to the game.

Thanks.

If you are a DM just looking to add to core D&D rather than run Iron Heroes itself then I would recommend Mastering Iron Heroes over the Iron Heroes alternative players guide. Much more of that book is easier to integrate to D&D with little or no changes. The link given earlier has some example actions zones.

[Kryptonitedragon]

All great ideas, thanks. I do realize that the "lack" of magic in IH would cause either a lot of problems or a lot of conversion work. I would be curious to hear more.

I too had thought about "Mad God's Key", there is also an adventure, I can't remember the name or issue, but it is an adventure set in Freeport, which I also thought was good.

[Haelis]

Kryptonitedragon wrote:

All great ideas, thanks. I do realize that the "lack" of magic in IH would cause either a lot of problems or a lot of conversion work. I would be curious to hear more.

As far as the first adventure, there are 3 casters I believe as far as foes.

Without using names, I simply converted the undead cleric to a dreaded sorcerer (villain class from Mastering Iron Heroes; great, easy to make foes).
The Illusionist got transformed into an expert because he wasn’t exactly a challenge anyway. Any IH character could cut him down in a few seconds.
The last one, Rogue 3/Bard 2 gave me the most problems. I decided to cut the magic and replace it with a more challenging multiclassed Thief 2/Harrier 3. Now I need more space for this encounter to use the abilities and it should be fun seeing the PC’s try to hit ‘it’.

The second adventure again does not have many magical elements but I am going to be wary of the ‘disease’ feature. IH pc even with their great saves may be in trouble otherwise.
Harliss Javell will likely become a Harrier or a Champion (villain class from the Iron Heroes bestiary). She could also remain as she is and it wouldn’t hurt.
Diamondback also seems like a good qualifier for either a Harrier or Executioner.
Bullywug casters would become dreaded sorcerers.

Both of the first adventures are really simple to convert. Haven’t looked too much at the others so far, but I think only the latest might be difficult and since it is a dungeon crawl, I may end up changing it anyway. Dungeons are not too much fun in play by post games anyway. Not much social swashbuckling action compared to the rest of the campaign.