One of the coolest things Paizo did w/ Dungeon was bringing some old adventures back to life. I loved the Bargle stuff they did and the Lost City prequel. Among my friends, the only real D&D was AD&D stuff, but I was a fan of the OD&D modules and it's great seeing that I wasn't alone in that affection.
One of my favorite modules is Master of the Desert Nomads. As sort of a give-back to the community here, I thought it'd be interesting to share my work as I create a PF version of this old classic. If there's any interest, I'd be happy to share my progress as I work on this.
One of the coolest things Paizo did w/ Dungeon was bringing some old adventures back to life. I loved the Bargle stuff they did and the Lost City prequel. Among my friends, the only real D&D was AD&D stuff, but I was a fan of the OD&D modules and it's great seeing that I wasn't alone in that affection.
One of my favorite modules is Master of the Desert Nomads. As sort of a give-back to the community here, I thought it'd be interesting to share my work as I create a PF version of this old classic. If there's any interest, I'd be happy to share my progress as I work on this.
I'd love to see it.
Those old modules were often a lot of fun.
Palace of the Silver Princess could be an interesting conversion...
And of course, both Castle Amber adventures...
One of the coolest things Paizo did w/ Dungeon was bringing some old adventures back to life. I loved the Bargle stuff they did and the Lost City prequel. Among my friends, the only real D&D was AD&D stuff, but I was a fan of the OD&D modules and it's great seeing that I wasn't alone in that affection.
One of my favorite modules is Master of the Desert Nomads. As sort of a give-back to the community here, I thought it'd be interesting to share my work as I create a PF version of this old classic. If there's any interest, I'd be happy to share my progress as I work on this.
I'd love to see it.
Those old modules were often a lot of fun.
Palace of the Silver Princess could be an interesting conversion...
And of course, both Castle Amber adventures...
I guess the only downside is trying to keep your players away from this forum. Instead of a straight-forward conversion, what I'd like to do is re-imagine or flesh out some additional details in bringing this adventure over to PF. So, with that in mind, here's the background I wrote up today:
Three thousand years ago, during the height of the Sindan Empire, the lands that would much later become the Republic of the Free Peoples were little more than a collection of small baronies, bullied and terrorized by their more much more powerful neighbor in the west. The Emporer of the Sindan Empire, Chratholim arka Ulindan, ruled for centuries. As both ruler and high priest, he was revered as a god and had delved deep within the mysteries of the Sindan deities, findng arcane ways to vastly lengthen his life.
At last however, Chratholim's physical form failed, and with it, his empire quickly followed, swallowed by the dust of the unforgiving Sind Desert. The fierce warrior-nations he once commanded descended into civil war and barbarism, in time becoming little more than nomadic herdsmen and simple villagers with a distant memory of a more storied past. Where once was the Twelve Sindan Tribes, each bound to the other by a powerful relic from Chratholim, now there was a simple folk who still revered their now-silent artifacts, their purpose long forgotten.
Meanwhile, the small towns and rustic villages to the Empire's east evolved into the self-styled 'Republic of the Free Peoples', a collection of independent nations with a shared devotion to law, trade, and stability. The Republic has been fortunate to avoid many foreign entanglements during its ascendency, but of late, troubling news is coming from the west.
Due to treasure hunters digging into a forbidden tomb, Chratholim's soul was able to latch upon a new corporal form. The nightmarish gods worshipped during the Sindan's era are tired of their diminished stature in this plane, and long desired for their servant to begin anew the work he forged those many thousands of years ago. Beyond the Black Mountains, Chratholim rebuilt his ancient temple complex and reawakened the memory of his rule in his new subjects. Aided by special servants from the nightmarish realm where his gods dwell, Chratholim's arm quickly reached beyond the Mountains as his armies marched into the Sind Desert.
But, his reach was not limited by strength of sword arms or alien beings. To Chratholim's pleasure, the twelve relics were still revered, and re-awakening them was but a minor effort. Guided by their newly enlightened shamans, the desert tribesmen dropped their petty squabbles with one another and redidicated themselves to their black master. The Sindan nomads were quickly re-organized, the Twelve Tribes remade, and Chratholim now eyes the rich lands to the east, eager to make this new 'Republic' part of his domain once more.
If there's any interest, I'd be happy to share my progress as I work on this.
I started my most recent campaign off of the red box adventure with Bargle. Several years later, they're still chasing him.
Id love to see what you come up with.
I would also love to see this come about.
My Labyrinth Lord crew could play more Pathfinder and this would be an excellent reason to!
I would also love to see this come about.
My Labyrinth Lord crew could play more Pathfinder and this would be an excellent reason to!
Cool beans!! Maybe this will start a trend: re-interpreting all those old Mystara modules into a PF ruleset.
The thing I find fun about these modules is that they're rich in ideas while at the same time being maddeningly vague about details. They paint in very broad brushstrokes, leaving you, the DM, to figure out the fine print. So, in the case of this module, it's interesting to try to explain why some dude on the other side of a near-impassable mountain range commands unquestioned allegiance among nomadic desert peoples.
I seem to remember the PCs told to follow 'Sign of the Fish' or that kind of thing, as far as them locating the Great Pass. What the heck is that all about? Well, maybe each of the Sindan tribes had a special religious symbol from long ago, and those symbols are placed in such a manner to point to the Pass ... I dunno.
I also loved the settings ... the vast desert, the sudden cold from the Black Mountains, the tiresome salt swamp. And, one encounter that can be especially spooky .. the Malakaz!! There was a play-by-post campaign years ago for MoDM that was published on the Net and this DM's description of that encounter was fantastic.
But, what exactly is the relationship between the Malakaz and the Black Master? How do the 2 go together? Could there be a connection between the Lost Temple (with the half-scorption guy) and the Master's gods?
I'm just thinking out loud. But, for those of you familiar w/ the module, please feel free to toss me any ideas you've got.
Note that ENworld has forums specifically for old, converted modules. And their forums are likely a better place to put such things than here (no way to upload a file here at all!).
At some point, I'll have a file, but I'm actually more interested in having a discussion about how all things Pathfinder can add to the characters & setting described in Master of the Desert Nomads. Is the ENworld site the only suitable place for this conversation? I looked around there, and their conversion forum looked rather dated, focused on 3.5, and not on PF.
One interesting thing I noticed in the latest Kingmaker AP was a soul-eater, which looks exactly like the creature of the same name from MoDMs. I guess the authors were inspired by this old module?
One big question I have is how should this conversion have its encounters? Should they be fixed to a specific hex, like in Kingmaker? Or, should they "float", so that the encounters happen no matter which path through the Sind Desert the party takes?
One encounter that really stood out, the Malakaz, was just awesome, but I never really liked how the PCs were supposed to beat it, which I think was by casting a specific spell, Dispel Evil. How are they supposed to know this? I like the idea of multiple resolutions being available. One idea that came to mind was that one of the party members has to volunteer to stay behind, which is essentially a death sentence. But, instead of being killed outright, the PC's mind is peeled like an onion by a disembodied presence, the Master, who examines the PC's thoughts for all he knows. Then, a day later, the PC returns to the party, then the next day, come his mundane belongings, then the next, his mount, then the next, his armor, then his weapons, etc. So, the Malakaz becomes sort of an initial encounter w/ the BBG, and is an opportunity for the party to find out some tidbits as well.
I would have encounters that float, but then that is how I run games.
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One interesting thing I noticed in the latest Kingmaker AP was a soul-eater, which looks exactly like the creature of the same name from MoDMs. I guess the authors were inspired by this old module?
It's the same creature - sort of.
The creature became open content when Necro put it in their Tome of Horrors during the early 3.0 days. The creature was drawn from MotDN/ToD so even if the stats are different from the Expert format it's supposed to be the same creature.The stat write-up in Kingmaker started me thinking about converting some of those incredible monsters from the MotDN/ToD mods.
One big question I have is how should this conversion have its encounters? Should they be fixed to a specific hex, like in Kingmaker? Or, should they "float", so that the encounters happen no matter which path through the Sind Desert the party takes?
IMO -just mine, I think you should do both.
Having fixed encounter sites with the enemy forces, agents and possibly adding other locations - ruins, weird locales (with some clues to direct them those places) gives the players a wilderness they would need to navigate. The pay-off for the PCS for their effort could some helpful magic, or some insights about the Master or the Temple.And of course some encounters should be events or float just to move the story along.
Maybe the party is sent challenges or they could be forces who may seek them out to aid them. They could even be small non-combat encounters showing the effects and impact of the Master/Temple on good people - as a point to drive the players forward and stay focused.
The only problem I see with fixed encounters is that too many may detract from the story. If they add something to the plot or feel or if they are a side-trek with the potential to help out the PC in the main story then it will work. If it's just random ruins and fixed combat encounters which are unrelated it may take away from the sense of urgency in finishing the mission and dealing with main threat.