Whoa, this is a big post, so I’ll thank you in advance for reading it. The topic is, changing Savage Tide so it takes place entirely on the planet Earth and never goes to the outer planes.
I began running Savage Tide after watching the Pirates of the Caribbean movies thinking it would be a good setting for a low magic game. I removed most of the magic items from the game and inserted a social stigma about spell casters, then I adjusted the gold and treasures to reflect the fact that you can’t just go to the local armory and buy a magic sword.
The second decision I made was to set the game in a sort of real world pseudo historical setting. I told everyone that I am making enough changes that I won’t be allowing any rules lawyering with a history book though, I’m mostly just using the map of the real world and what history I remember from high school right off the top of my head. I have out right refused to commit to a year, its just circa 16th to 18th century, its still a fantasy world after all.
So far, so good, everyone is having a blast with this game. We just finished chapter 1 and I have read up through chapter 3 in detail. I only recently read through the rest of the adventure, skimmed is more like it. I didn’t realize at first where the adventure path went at higher levels. Its actually a really cool module as far as planescape games are concerned, but I would like this game to remain on the planet earth.
So I need to do some rewrites. I figured Enemy of my Enemies would be a good one to begin with because it has the most diverse locations (I haven’t actually read Dungeon 150 yet, I need to get a copy). I wrote up some possible changes I can make, I would really love some help with this, does anyone has any suggestions as to how I could make it better, keep it in the real world while getting as much of the adventure’s flavor as possible?
Demogorgon is a demon in human form, there was a mysterious catastrophe (just a story device, I have no idea what might have caused this), many demons and angels have fallen to the earth where they were born into mortal bodies. Once they reached adulthood they found that they could do incredible things.
Rather than giving them class levels I am just going to stick with the stats given for them except change all of their sizes to medium and give them a human (appearing) form (the ranger with human as a fav enemy doesn’t get a bonus), then I just have to make alterations to some things, for example Demogorgon will be very similar to the Batman villain Two-Face, but he will have all the same abilities, just translated into human form.
In real world time I have a ways to go before they ever reach this point (a few months probably) so I have plenty of time to rework every one of these adventures. In Chapter 7 instead of meeting a horrific monster on the island, Demogorgon will be in his human form. Although I don't know exactly what he is doing there (cause I’ve only skimmed the mod and haven’t gotten into the details yet).
When they get to Scuttle Cove they will learn more about some of these locations, like New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Haiti, Jamaica and the Bermuda Triangle. I think I am going to replace the city of Cauldron with the city of Havana, but I actually don't know much about either city. What other locations on the planes am I going to need to recreate on earth? And do you have any suggestions as to where they might go?
I have some specific ideas for some specific characters. In general my plan is to have the demons in the campaign either be in human form, in which case there will be something mysterious and sinister about them, or I will present the demon as some sort of abominable monster to be destroyed. I am toying with the idea of letting them seeing glimpses of Black Jack’s demonic side.
Some of my notes so far;
Charon; he is the ghost of the Mississippi rather than an actual person, he is probably not changed much at all except for the river he traverses, he is only encountered at night. when ever the PCs enter the Mississippi looking for a ride he will arrive within 2d20 rounds. when he teleports he takes his whole boat, he uses this ability to traverse the entire river. The actual teleportation is slow and steady so they don't even notice it, but he could take you from New Orleans to Lake Michigan in less than an hour, the passengers on his boat would never notice.
He doesn't talk much, except to negotiate fare, if confronted violently he only uses enough force to protect himself and his boat, if he actually kills someone he walks over and waves a hand over them and they come back to life. he can be met in New Orleans and he will have information about the witches in Baton Rouge.
The Witch Queen lives on the outskirts of Baton Rouge, her house looks like a tiny little shack along the river banks, once inside however it is revealed to be a glorious mansion. The Arcanaloths are actually other witches, all old hags but using the same stats. Unlike her haggard covey she appears young and beautiful.
Malcanthet (she needs another name, I don't want the PCs to be able to figure out tat she’s a fiend from her name, even if it is meta game information); She is a powerful sorceress and the madam of the largest brothel and casino in New Orleans. Her establishment (needs a name) is a virtual paradise, every luxury money can buy is lavished on the high rollers, while the people with no money to spend are directed to the street. The place is right on the water and has its own dock where you can pull up your boat, the other side of the building is on the street, not far from the regular festivities of the city. The main floor is a casino with a large bar on one side and a dance floor with a stage on the other, sometimes there are bards performing here, sometimes they get Dixie land jazz bands to pack the place with dancers, but more often than not, burlesque shows are what bring in the patrons. Upstairs the finest prostitutes in the new world display their wares and each one has her own private room, these are the same girls who perform in the burlesque show downstairs.
Orcus is actually a mysterious necromancer. deep in the jungles of Haiti dwell a tribe of vile cannibals too wicked to speak of. they are led by a powerful brute named Orgonus, who is said to command the powers of death itself. this tribe can be found by traveling up river for many miles and searching the jungle. Orgonus appears as a 9ft tall Darfellan with solid black skin, he is cloaked in a robe that hides his features and he carries a massive staff carved from a single piece of drift wood, adorned with human skulls of various sizes and stained dark red with blood.
Morwel is an Elven queen who lives in the Caribbean. there is a community that live on an island chain in the Caribbean, under the lagoon there is a small town of aquatic creatures living together, Merfolk, Aventi, Aquatic Elves and halflings as well as a handful of aquatic fey. there is a big island to the south east and a lot of little islands curving around the lagoon. the largest island holds a small city of its own, most of the people here are elves, though there are a few halflings and a visible population of fey. The name of the island chain is Arborea, every location is technically part of the city, just different districts.
Up until now its been a human dominated world with some glimpse of a few elves and dwarves, when they come here they will be shocked to see Satyrs and Pixies walking around in an elven dominated community, every tree is a Treant and the most beautiful women on the island are actually Nymphs. It will be a fun session just playing out their character’s reactions to the place. They pretty much step out of Pirates of the Caribbean and discover Narnia, albeit on a tiny island chain, not more than 30 miles across altogether.
The Crimson Fleet has an outpost on a small island in the Bermuda Triangle where they have a hidden cove with a small cave that is full of traps (perhaps this is Gaping Maw?). the Bermuda triangle is full of bad weather and hungry sea serpents, the coral reefs are jagged and well hidden beneath the choppy waves. The fearless pirates take advantage of the cursed waters of the Bermuda Triangle to escape justice.
Demogorgon: (before anyone accuses me of ripping off Jack Sparrow I’d like to point out that Captain Jack was based on the same traditional iconic pirate that Black Jack is based on, the similar name is purely coincidental)
He truly is a fiend, his true name is Demogorgon, in his human form he is known as Captain Jonathan "Black Jack" Gordon, the Butcher of Bloody Britain, he is known to be two faced and unpredictable, his mind changes as often as the wind.
Black Jack stands about 6'5, a human, appearing to be roughly 40 to 50 years of age. he has a scruffy short grey beard and a greasy grey loose pony tail protruding from under his wide brimmed hat. He wears an eye patch over his left eye and there is a massive scar that dominates the left side of his face and turns up his lip in an eternal snarl. His other eye has a glassy cat like appearance highlighted with dark eye liner and a tear drop tattoo, he wears a single earring in his right ear.
The left side of his mouth appears to be damaged severely from what ever that scar is, when he speaks only the right side of his face moves, he has a refined British accent colored with pirate terminology and a hacking cough that always brings up a little flem. When he is not in a fight (which is actually quite rare) he often holds a long stem pipe in his teeth, puffing with the right side of his mouth.
He wears a leather coat over a dirty and tattered nobles outfit, the ruffles that stick out of the coat's sleeves are brown and tattered. He carries a cutlass at his hip and a dagger beside it, the pistol on his other hip is never more than a few inches from his right hand, he keeps his coat pulled back when in the presence of any but his most trusted commanders.
In battle he deftly fires his pistol with his right hand, it’s a magic pistol that never needs reloading, in his left hand he savagely swings a Keen Vorpal Cutlass. His left hand is always ready to do some violence, but his right hand prefers more refined and civilized actions.
Story has it, he grew up on the streets of London as a pick pocket, when he was a bit older he learned to use a sword and took up with a regular gang. At this point piracy was on the rise and there were posters all about town announcing that they wanted to hire swords to serve as marines to fight pirates.
He hired on for the great pay, but in the midst of his first battle with pirates, he turned on his fellow crew mates, some of whom had been in his gang. He then turned to the pirates, about to fight for his life, and they welcomed him into their ranks. He learned about sailing and a lot more about fighting. Together they sailed the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
Finally, they returned to England, in pursuit of a ship that got away. The pirate captain really thought they could catch the ship and loot them before dawn. He was wrong, just as the sun came up they realized they were too close to the harbor, the navy came out to attack. The ship's mage aboard the navy vessel set the pirate ship's sails on fire, then a round of musket fire took out the helmsman.
The ship, now out of control and at full speed ahead, plowed into the rocks. Jack leapt from the boat along with several other pirates and swam to shore. they were sneaking quite successfully for a few minutes, but then they were found out by the city watch. A fight ensued and Jack killed every living thing that came in reach of his sword, his friends didn't last very long, a few of them were cut down by Jack in his fury.
Most of them were shot, but not Jack, he some how managed to dodge every bullet, some even seemed to hit him, but they must have been close misses because he never bled a single drop that day. Every single person he saw that day, he killed, this is where he got the name “Butcher of Bloody Britain”, this being a nick name given by his American pirate friends as a term of endearment.
He was later captured and locked away in a dark hole on an island far out in the Atlantic (ala Count of Monte Cristo). This is when he discovered his demonic side and developed his powers. By concentrating he discovered that he could teleport to places he knew well, he first went to his happy place, a beautiful island in the Mediterranean he had discovered in some of his early sea voyages.
He returned to the prison to take revenge of the prison warden who tortured him daily. Then he visited his home in London because he hadn't been there in a while, he stopped in to collect money from someone who owed, killed them and took all of it, then he went to the sea and sought out another pirate ship.
From there he worked his way up in the (dis)organization, only about 20 years ago he finally established himself as the pirate king after 30 years of treachery, what has really done a lot to help is his apparent ability to be in two places at once, everyone assumes that he either has the fastest ships in the world, or that a lot of people lie about having seen him.
When he is in a fight he seems to have some kind of supernatural powers, there are rumors about his demonic heritage, people speak in hushed tones about his blinding speed in battle and his ability to turn a man insane or command his absolute fealty with a single look.
Some rumors hold that he can infect people with disease with a touch, some say he can fly, some say he can breath underwater and all rumors agree that he can kill everyone in the room simply with his evil intentions alone.
Truly, the most frightening rumor of all is the idea that he can call forth demons from the great abyss to serve his nefarious desires. Of course, these are only the tales sailors tell after too much rum and they are not to be taken seriously.
This is all from one night’s work, I know I have a lot more to do. Mostly I’m just looking for answers to some of the questions mentioned above, and I’m looking for any suggestions and advice you may have for me.
Some more specific questions: What other characters, in what chapters, do I need to consider? And do you have any ideas for what I could do with them?
What other mysterious locations from that era and that part of the world could you suggest that I use?
I am already planning on having them go to New Orleans, are there any source books based on old new Orleans that you could recommend?
I was also thinking of having them sail down the coast to Brazil and explore the Amazon a little, though I don't know what part of the AP that would fit.
Wow! that sounds amazing and like a lot of fun!
Who's Olangru going to be represented by?
I'd simply set the IOD in South America. You may need to change the names of the gods depending upon your location, but otherwise that area is rich for IODish experiences.
Thanks
I'm not sure who Olangru is, which issue is that from? Do you have any ideas?
I think I'm going to keep all the gods, we have been using the standard gods of the players handbook so far.
I'm planning to run the entire adventure as written until the end of chapter 7, when they will meet Black Jack in the ancient city instead of meeting the aspect of demogorgon, although I will use the same stats. Though I'm not sure exactly what his entire plot is and why he is on the island. I plan to have him teleport away at the end of the final fight, if they kill him he will morph into his beast form and come back to life, then teleport away. the next time they see him he will be a pirate again, and they will have been the first people to ever defeat him in a fight.
Wow! that sounds amazing and like a lot of fun!
Who's Olangru going to be represented by?
I'd simply set the IOD in South America. You may need to change the names of the gods depending upon your location, but otherwise that area is rich for IODish experiences.
Olangru is a Bar-Igura demon on the Isle of dread with teleportation abilities and such. He is the villain of issue 142. Since he is an ape, maybe he was accidentally reincarnated in ape form.
As to the actual Savage tide, perhaps Demogorgon initiated the fall of the angels and demons by activating the Savage tide, but this time his plan will cause the gods to fall to hell and the demons to ascend to heaven?
Olangru is a Bar-Igura demon on the Isle of dread with teleportation abilities and such. He is the villain of issue 142. Since he is an ape, maybe he was accidentally reincarnated in ape form.
As to the actual Savage tide, perhaps Demogorgon initiated the fall of the angels and demons by activating the Savage tide, but this time his plan will cause the gods to fall to hell and the demons to ascend to heaven?
For that I will probably just run it as written, its just a big fiendish ape afterall.
there are 3 things I really need to change1. adventure locations, once the adventure goes to the outer planes I need to have a replacement for each location.
2. non monstrous enemies, dealing with monstrous demons is fine in a planescape game, but this game has a different feel to it. so the main NPCs need to be human or at least humanoid enough to relate to, their divine nature isn't apparent at first. In the example of Olangru I think that works as a monstous encounter.
3. Magic Items are a lot harder to come by, so most of the people listed with them do not have them, most high level NPCs will have plenty of masterwork items, but no magic items unless they are directly related to the plot.
other than that the only issue that might come up is motives, once I have changed Demogorgon into Captain Black Jack Gordon will his motives and plot remain the same?
I was thinking that maybe Black Jack doesn't know his true nature, he finds the cult of Demogorgon and he feels strongly drawn to it. He quickly gains a level of priesthood in the cult and becomes the leader, he finds that making human sacrifices makes him stronger, so he does it as often as possible. This will explain why he is only a CR16 at Chapter 7 but a CR23 in Chapter 12, it takes a lot of human sacrifices to get him up to that level of power.
Very nice overall, I quite like it.
I'd suggest going with your idea about Black Jack not knowing his true destiny--it will make it all the more startling to everyone when it happens. One of the weaknesses of D&D is that after a while everyone knows who everyone is--surprises are wonderful.
I'd suggest giving Malcanthet a french name--how about something like "Madame Delice"?
Very nice overall, I quite like it.
I'd suggest going with your idea about Black Jack not knowing his true destiny--it will make it all the more startling to everyone when it happens. One of the weaknesses of D&D is that after a while everyone knows who everyone is--surprises are wonderful.
I'd suggest giving Malcanthet a french name--how about something like "Madame Delice"?
Thanks
I do need a good french name for Malcanthet, I need something that has a nice ring to it, something that rolls off the tongue easily and sensually. for the time being I am refering to her as Madame Canthette, if I don't come up with anything better by the time I need to drop that name thats what I will go with.
yes, Black Jack doesn't know his true nature. I'm thinking that maybe his ultimate goal is to acheive some kind of immortality or something.
Given that I am including some other demons and angels I'm wondering how far I should go. Should I make up a humanoid version of every demon or angel who could possibly get involved? I already wrote up a little something about Graz'zt being an Apache Warchief was was excommunicated from the tribe for being too violent.
I also considered making outsiders available as PCs, if I did that I would probably limit it to Ghaele and Astral Deva. I'm afraid that might remove some of the mystery though, if the PCs knwo that their friend here can do all these amazing things it wont be as mysterious when Black Jack does it. any thoughts?
I am still searching for infomation about New Orleans, I have read up on some of the history of the city, but I would love to find a third party source book that has some D20 related info about the city at that point in history.
I'm also wondering how much side quest material I should plan. I would like to stay on track with the story line, but I also want to explore some of these locations a little too, maybe I will extend chapter 11 into a longer quest, where they have to make a long voyage between each person on their list.
can anyone suggest a good resource of information for some of the locations I have mentioned? I have been using google and wikipedia but I would really like to get something that is more D20 oriented, or at least something that talks of myths and legends and 16th through 18th century history.
so, I need to write up or otherwise acquire info about the following places:
New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Havanna (and Cuba in general), Haiti, Jamaica, Arborea (I'm thinking this shoudl be somewhere in the south eastern Caribbean, perhaps in the Virgin Islands), The Bermuda Triangle (perhaps Gaping Maw is an island at the center of the triangle?)
Didn't GURPS come up with a pirate concept? Also I don't know if you're aware of these as films to watch for inspiration but "Pirates" and "Cutthroat Island" have a good background feel for what you're doing; the latter is a little silly in some parts but generally fun.
ok, I had another spontaneous burst of creativity and wrote this up. Just some backstory to explain a few things. Its kind of convoluted, only because it all came from a single brainstorm, I need to break it up and expand on every idea individually.
I’m sure this kind of thing has been done before, playing with the Romans and the Illuminati this way.
This is meant to explain 3 things, 1. why are there demons on earth in human form? 2. why is there such a stigma about magic in this culture? 3. How do wizards keep the magic alive?
Here goes:
• _ Two thousand years ago there was a great cataclysm.
• _ a cult of demon worshippers conquered the land and ruled most of Europe and Asia with an iron fist.
• _ they had been in charge for a thousand years, the ruler of the cult sought to bring the demon lords to earth and to replace them himself.
• _ His name was Lucifer
• _ He was successful, he became the Lord of Hell and the previous rulers of hell were deposed. they were sent to earth where they were incarnated into humanoid bodies, their memories erased.
• _ there were a few angels who were also effected by this (perhaps they were in battling demons in hell when it happened? Or perhaps his epic spell somehow reached beyond hell to bring many outsiders to earth?)
• _ they have lived many lives here on earth, with each life they made a little more progress towards regaining their previous might. Demogorgon has made the most progress, even though he does not remember his previous lives, in every life he has lived he has come to be the high priest in the cult of Demogorgon. This time he has discovered human sacrifice and is very close to regaining his previous demonic power.
• _ shortly after the disappearance of the Emperor his governors were scrambling for power. the empire was eventually broken up into factions that fought a devastating world war. after less than a century of war the empire was reformed under the name Rome and a new capitol was built on the Italian peninsula.
• _ the city of Rome was founded by twin brothers, they were lawful good, a paladin and a cleric, they had trust worthy friends who adventured with them, a wizard and a ranger. They attempted to found a new empire, this time of peace and freedom.
• _ the heroes truly did have good intentions, but now the people feared magic. when the good wizard tried to set himself up as Archmage an angry mob showed up at his tower with torches. When the cleric set up a grand church and set about healing people and providing other magical services the people accused him of being demonic.
• _ the heroes were driven out of the city and exiled to Africa and were never heard from again.
• _ meanwhile, the people elected a new government, soon a new emperor rose to power and the historic Roman Empire was born.
• _ they burned scrolls and spell books, they destroyed magic items when they could, or threw them into volcanoes or deep ocean trenches.
• _ the most powerful artifacts were hidden away by wizards who knew that this era of fear would pass and that magic would once again be embraced someday
• _ there is an ancient cabal of spell casters founded by Illumians who keep the tradition alive, a secret society calling themselves the Illuminati. (Alignment – Neutral Good)
• _ The Illuminati have two major enemies, one they are aware of and one they are not aware of.
• _ They know that there is a race of creatures called Illithids that live deep below the earth and that they have intentions on the surface world.
• _ What they don't know is that a small handful of their members are also members of another secret organization far older than the Illuminati or even the empire that once ruled the known world, they call themselves the Lords of Dust and every one of them is a Rakshasa.