I’d been getting ready to run Savage Tide for my gaming group when they mentioned an interest in playing in Eberron. Now, we’re all pretty Eberron ignorant, but I’m willing and looked at converting the STAP over to that setting.
The conversion guide got me started and it seems like Lhazaar is a great place to put Sasserine. Plus, because it’s on the fringe of Eberron, we won’t be overloaded with Eberronisms right from the get-go.
Unfortunately, the STAP starts on the fringes and moves off the map from there. I anticipate some grumblings or dissatisfaction when the campaign takes them further and further away from the core Eberron elements. By level 10 I expect to hear “We wanna go to Sharn” or “we wanna ride a skyship” or “who at my pizza rolls?”
So I was thinking of, instead of patching the Isle of Dread into the Sea of Rage, I’d put Farshore on the southern tip of Xen’drik and allow the players to think they’re exploring that core continent of the setting rather than an adapted element that was pasted on.
As far as I can tell, the adventures could be run the same, from the shipwreck to the now-not-so-central plateau. There doesn’t seem to be any need to be on an island, only three months away from civilization, right? The only true alterations I’d need to make would be to ‘Sea Wyvern’s Wake’, because a voyage to Farshore on Xen’drik would be all open see and then the coastal adventures.
The one big thing I’m still unsure about, though, is the natives of Xen’drik. Are there any aboriginal humans on Xen’drik to fill the role of the Olman tribes?
The only true alterations I’d need to make would be to ‘Sea Wyvern’s Wake’, because a voyage to Farshore on Xen’drik would be all open see and then the coastal adventures.
Not necessarily. Check out this route map I drew up some time ago. It starts from Sasserine's recommended starting placement, is exactly the same full distance as the greyhawk version, and allows room for all the mainland encounters before the route deviates from Khorvaire (I can link you to a list of suggested encounter placements if that's of interest). Your route would be just slightly longer, since it goes all the way to mainland Xen'drik, rather than stopping just off the coast, but that shouldn't be a problem.
The one big thing I’m still unsure about, though, is the natives of Xen’drik. Are there any aboriginal humans on Xen’drik to fill the role of the Olman tribes?
Check out the conversion notes for Here There Be Monsters in the downloads area. You'll see that the Olmans in Eberron are replaced with a regional empire from the continent of Sarlona, which collapsed during a turbulent time in that nation's history, at around the same time that the original Savage Tide wiped out their offshore assets.
To get something closer to what you need, you can just rearrange the dates a little - have the empire in Sarlona being defeated, and its last heirs and citizens forced into exile, undertaking the dangerous journey to start a new life - and a new empire - on the continent of Xen'drik. There, their empire thrived for centuries, until the Savage Tide wiped them out and left behind only a few scattered tribes.
To help keep such an empire contained, and also to explain why the original Savage Tide didn't have further-reaching effects in Xen'drik, I suggest having the region you're using be cut off from the rest of the continent, by terrain features such as mountain ranges or deserts, or even by some more unnatural forces - remnants of the original cataclysm that still linger, somewhat like the Dead-Gray Mists around the Mournland.
It starts from Sasserine's recommended starting placement, is exactly the same full distance as the greyhawk version, and allows room for all the mainland encounters before the route deviates from Khorvaire (I can link you to a list of suggested encounter placements if that's of interest). Your route would be just slightly longer, since it goes all the way to mainland Xen'drik, rather than stopping just off the coast, but that shouldn't be a problem.
Have you done any work to adapt the shore encounters to Khorvaire? My Eberron social geography is a bit shaky, but I don’t think there’s anything corresponding to tribal villages or Tamoachan-like shrines on eastern Khorvaire or Elflandia. I was thinking of running them as-is, but along the coast of Xen’drik, but I’d be very interested in how you included established Eberron cultures into your adventure.