Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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I have put together all the maps from all the adventures, and a lot of the hexes "in between" modules are missing encounters. Hell, a lot of the hexes, in general, are missing encounters. While I don't want to fill every single one, I do want to put more stuff in for my group. I think the few hexes they came across in Stolen Land that had nothing in them were actually a let down for the group.
They are a good mix of old and new players from all eras of the game, and a couple of them have been playing since the late 70s. After reading in another thread about an Easter egg encounter in Rivers Run Red against the mad hermit and his pet cougar, I decided that I wanted to pursue this idea a little more and give those old school guys something to be nostalgic about.
So, I dug out some of my (super) old adventures, and went looking through them for ideas. The problem: everything that resonates with me has no real application to Kingmaker. I fondly remember the Against the Slave Lord modules, Descent into the Depths of the Earth, and The Vault of the Drow. There are some things in Against the Giants that may be able to be imported, but it's kind of hard coming up with stuff that wouldn't be either out of place or overly high in level at this point (they're only just about to take on the Stag Lord). I guess I just don't have any strong memories of the lower level stuff from back then (Ghost Tower of Inverness, Keep on the Borderlands, Village of Homlet, etc.) While I do want some higher level stuff (I plan on hiding these eggs throughout the entire path), I still want some to come up sooner than later. Baba Yaga's Hut would be a little extreme, right now...
At any rate, I thought I would ask all of you about your own memories. What encounters really resonated with you from those old 1E modules? More to the point, which ones do you think would fit into a hex in Kingmaker?
Alternatively, if you know of other easter eggs in the AP, point them out for this old school player who only seems to remember levels 10+ from his junior high days.
The Village of Hommet might work once they start building their kingdom as a location for them to find, though probably scaled down a little in size to fit the idea that the Stolen Lands are pretty sparsely populated. I've heard good things about The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, The Secret of Bone Hill, and White Plume Mountain but never played any of those.
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If you want old school mods:
Tomb of the Lizard King
Keep on the Borderlands
Both are good for these.
Also if you don't need to specifically cater nostalgically to old-school gamer memories of games, but just looking for the feel, I reccommend looking at some of the Dungeon Crawl Classics module line by Goodman Games.
Robert
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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I'm sorry about this thread appearing twice. I tried to create a second thread in the general forum asking for old timers' memories. Apparently mentioning the word Kingmaker gets you moved. I'll be more circumspect in the future and keep you from having to waste your time with duplication.
I think taking bits from the Village of Homlett (or, as we used to call it, the Hamlet of Omelette) would work well. The ?2ed? Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil also had the village of ?Nulb? which was full of varous ne'er-do-wells. Both villages could easily be used as a basis for some side quests. At the very least you would have some ready made maps of small villages of the type your party would be likely to encounter as they explore and develop their kingdom.
Some of the NPC characters in the module could be used to flesh out potential recurring NPCs. For example, if you turn Oleg's into a town you could use the NPCs from Homlet to add life to the developing community.
Steading of the Hill Giant Chief could also be useful at high levels. I've always wanted to take on the Against the Giants series in 3.5 or Pathfinder. I assume someone has done a conversion of it.
Old school modules in Kingmaker, nice.
Against the Slavelords A2-A3 (and possibly A4) would fit into late chapter 2 or as part of VV with some conversion as a recurring kingdom event/sidequest. Thwart the slavers before they abduct too many and cause too much unrest ...
S1 fits in the bowels of the Slough nicely.
S2 fits on the far SE corner of the VV map. They get a rumor you see ...
S3 with upgunning goes to the NW corner of chapter 5 I'd guess.
S4 in a hilly area of your choosing. Vampire nymph fighter anyone?
WG4 (Temple of Tharizdun), using the Great Old Ones, goes under Candlemere. Trigger as a kingdom event ...
G1 can fit in the forested hills of the SW area of the first map. Kingdom event between chapters 3 and 4. G2 and beyond won't work though. Stage as a rumor, some years pass, then marauding giants menace the kingdom.
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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Tying the Slave Lord Modules to either Quadiran or Cheliax slavers vs Andoran liberators, would go over nicely in this setting.
Yeah, these are favorites of mine, in a big way. I've run them twice, and have always contemplated doing a conversion. Not sure if I want to tackle that much work, yet.
But the recurring event idea that Cyclopean Geometry brings up is a way of getting around that...
I think taking bits from the Village of Homlett (or, as we used to call it, the Hamlet of Omelette) would work well. The ?2ed? Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil also had the village of ?Nulb? which was full of varous ne'er-do-wells. Both villages could easily be used as a basis for some side quests. At the very least you would have some ready made maps of small villages of the type your party would be likely to encounter as they explore and develop their kingdom.
Some of the NPC characters in the module could be used to flesh out potential recurring NPCs. For example, if you turn Oleg's into a town you could use the NPCs from Homlet to add life to the developing community.
These are excellent ideas. I had "encounters" on the brain, but just using NPCs is a phenomenal way of bringing in the nostalgia factor.
Which makes this idea (from my other, ill-advised, thread) just as fun:
You don't need encounters from same level of the modules, just references....If you meet a 2nd level wizard named Acerak, isn't your first thought, "I'd better take him out *now* before he becomes trouble"?
That is an awesome idea.
I'm consolidating, here, so I don't lose the ideas to time in the other thread, so one more comment:
White Plume Mountain has some more-recognizable bits, such as the log-flume ride, the greased spinning cylinder, and the dangling disks, any of which could be adjusted for low levels.
Also a good point.
And more what I was originally after. I was thinking of single encounters (like the Mad Hermit and his cougar), so throwing in scenes would work. Doesn't have to be the same creatures.
Thanks, everyone, for the ideas. If anyone else comes along and has more, I'd love to hear them.
Just for a pure reference, have the players see a statue of a devil's face with a wide open mouth that is eerily dark. Cue player terror and/or nostalgia for anyone who went through the Tomb of Horrors.
It's mid-level, and it's been done by others, but it seems to me White Plume Mountain just begs to be dropped down in the middle of nowhere. Besides that, Wizards updated it for 3.5, and it's still available for free to download, so just a few tweaks and you're golden.
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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It's mid-level, and it's been done by others, but it seems to me White Plume Mountain just begs to be dropped down in the middle of nowhere. Besides that, Wizards updated it for 3.5, and it's still available for free to download, so just a few tweaks and you're golden.
Really? You wouldn't happen to have a link, would you? I've never been any good at navigating Wizards' website.
