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Hi all,
I’ve started on a Pathfinder Conversion for G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King. It’s based on daemonslye's 3.5e version (the best starting point I could find) with a mass of my own personal story embellishments. After 15 pages I can see why it takes years for some people to complete a conversion and have a new found appreciation for daemonslye's skill at page layout and font selection. Anyhow, I’ve only got 4 weeks to get this done for my players so progress has been posted for comment and a looksee.
You can download it here G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King (Pathfinder Conversion).pdf
The first 15 pages are up. This URL won't change but the file will so if you download it later there will be progressively more content.
Cheers,
Silke
This is really cool - thanks and well done. My players are a long way off being able to tackle this, but I'll definitely be waiting on the remainder.
Phew, have updated the file in my opening post.
The complete module is now up but monsters are still 3.5e version.
A massive amount of formatting work has been completed (everything except for creature statics).
Pictures and Pathfinder conversion for creatures are still to be added.
Gems and jewellery value will be increased to more closely match the original module, as will creature numbers.
To get an idea of the finished result look at the opening and closing pages. The last encounter has been fully fleshed out for Pathfinder.
Please provide feedback at this early stage.
Hey, thanks for highlighting those map notes for the level transition points you made in orange. Reading the transition points on the original maps was always difficult for me. One issue I've run into when looking at this module for conversion to my home game was the number of trolls packed into (relatively) tiny spaces, which doesn't work too well for 3.5/pathfinder, with a Large creature taking up a 10 foot square. One thing I had considered was making them some of cave troll specifically bred by the giants/drow for living and fighting inside of cramped spaces. In game terms, these would have both the Advanced and Simple templates applied to them (so still remaining at the same CR but being small enough to be Medium sized).
The addition of the rune giant insurrection on the random encounter table is a particularly neat addition. Puts a whole new level of complication to the game; may be useful to the pcs if they're careful but likely to burn them if they're not.
I like the line on the first page. Although encounters range high as CR 22, it is not expected that the party will fight every fight and defeat every monster. Hehehehe! I've ran this 25 times across three editions of D&D, and all of the groups fought every monster that existed. Thanks, Silke, for taking the time to update this classic to Pathfinder. Is the entire series getting the same treatment?
UPDATED DOWNLOAD IS AVAILABLE - SEE OPENING POST
It's time for an update. I check the forum daily but am not posting often.
A lot more work has been done since the last post but this might not be obvious. I only recently became aware of "TSR 11413 - Against the Giants - The Liberation of Geoff" so I'm making sure G3 includes the best components of both module versions.
There is still so much to do. Thank you to the people that have provided feedback so far. I am taking your comments on board.
UPDATED DOWNLOAD IS AVAILABLE - SEE OPENING POST
Update time again. Yikes...I start DMing this module tomorrow and as you'll see there is a lot left to do. With luck the first session won't see them get to King Snurre. Maybe I can post some results of the playtest over the next two months.
Plenty of content and pictures have been added since my last post. Feedback welcome.
Cheers
Silke, you seem to be a fountan of inspiration! Your update to PF of an old classic is very welcome. I will second stormcrow27 and ask if you will do G1 and G2 also. Thanks for all your hard and very creative work. Love the advancement on the giants, etc to cover for their young. Genius!!!
Thanks for the kind words Osmos777.
My group has already played G1 & G2 so I have no plans to convert them. Converting the lesser known "PART TWO: The Liberation of Geoff" may be a possibility.
This morning I perfected the Rune Giant Racial Levels and added hot linking from the encounter summary table to the various encounters in the module - not more paging up and down...yay! If you download it again you'll see this in action.
Doing G3 is a massive amount of work for me. It’s hard to believe but those racial levels in the appendix took 10 hours for EACH monster! That's the problem with being a perfectionist. It will be 1,000 hours of editing effort by the time I'm finished. On the bright side this module will be the best, most comprehensive conversion ever.
Cheers
I plan on downloading this when I get home. I haven't played G3 since it first came out, and happen to have a place in my current Pathfinder campaign where I could insert it quite nicely. I'm quite excited to see how it looks all Pathfinderized! Thanks for doing this.
I plan on downloading this when I get home. I haven't played G3 since it first came out, and happen to have a place in my current Pathfinder campaign where I could insert it quite nicely. I'm quite excited to see how it looks all Pathfinderized! Thanks for doing this.
You must be as old as me. I played it when I was 11 years old DM'd by my friend John Birk who I have since lost contact with. That was 1978. 33 years ago. We got hippogriffs for free, though, for our characters since on the back cover the PCs are shown arriving on them (in an awesome Dave Trampier illustration I should add)
I like the line on the first page. Although encounters range high as CR 22, it is not expected that the party will fight every fight and defeat every monster. Hehehehe! I've ran this 25 times across three editions of D&D, and all of the groups fought every monster that existed. Thanks, Silke, for taking the time to update this classic to Pathfinder. Is the entire series getting the same treatment?
Yeah. My players, too. Every time I have run it. Kill everything. Fire giant is so much fun. Frankly, I think Frost Giant is a better overall module (and I voted that way in Dungeon's "Top 30 Modules of All time"., Dungeon 116, 2004, I was one of the panelists, that was great fun) but you can't beat G3 for the killer drow reveal when they were actually mysterious and cool and evil instead of what they have now become.
I tried to convert and run G for 3E but giants were one of the creatures that REALLY changed with 3E (and Pathfinder). Those fights, if not scaled, would be brutally deadly in 3E/Pathfinder if done as written. I've always wanted to do it though :)
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Back in the day, here were my votes as a member of the "panel" to evaluate the top 30 adventures of all time. It was cool of Erik to include me. We each sent in our top 10. Here are mine, with comments. Note G3's prominence.
TOP 10 MODULES OF ALL TIME
1. Tomb of Horrors. This is the definitive module. It is not the best from a playability standpoint, but for sheer Gygaxian genius, which is what D&D is all about, it has no peer. This module has "total party kill" written all over it. Not just in one spot, but in practically every room, trap or encounter. The false lich. The introduction of the demi-lich. Plus, it is a high level adventure and those are so hard to write. The one knock on Tomb of Horrors is that it is so evil, so fully trapped and the PCs are so aware that a wrong turn means death that it can slow play to a crawl. But for pure inspired genius it is unmatched. Plus, to top off what is already perfection, two words: "player handouts." And with Trampier art I might add!
2. Tie: Hall of the Fire Giant King and Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl. I might have to give it to Fire Giant by a nose, mostly for sheer size and scope and because it provides the first real taste of the then mysterious (now ubiquitous) drow. From the Trampier art to the great encounters, these babies have it all. The physical setting of Frost Giant is better. The rift is just such a cool setting for an adventure. It was probably the first module to be something more than a building, dungeon or caves. The rift itself was very unique. If Frost Giant had a third level, it might edge Fire Giant. For some reason, Frost Giant always plays the best of the Giant series. And for some reason the battles are always epic. It is just balanced perfectly to AD&D, in an old school way. No goofy ELs here.
3. Judges Guild’s Caverns of Thracia. Bill likes Thieves' Fortress, but I like Thracia. This module to me is what Judges Guild is all about. Great writing and design by Paul Jaquays. Great ideas, but plenty of room for you to flesh out in the way that classic products let you but that is for some reason seen as a bad thing these days.
4. Keep on the Borderlands. More players probably started their campaigns with this module than any other module in the history of gaming. And that right there qualifies it as being in the top 10. You have to put Village of Homlet in this category too, but I like the Caves of Chaos from Borderlands way better than the ruined keep from Homlet. Plus, Homlet doesn’t stand on its own and Borderlands does.
5. Vault of the Drow. Wow. Nothing like this had been done before (or, frankly, since). Sure, Judges Guild had done the City State of the Invincible Overlord, but this was an underground city of evil monsters—the drow, who, then, were new and mysterious as opposed to tired and overused as they are today. The Fane. Lolth. The Vampire/Succubus encounter before you even get to the city. More Gygaxian genius.
6. Palace of the Vampire Queen by Wee Warriors. What is a top 10 list without this one—the very first module ever produced, even before TSR. Just like “Video Killed the Radio Star” makes video top 10 lists because it was the first video ever played on MTV, Vampire Queen will forever go down in history as the first module ever made (even though they called it a “DM Kit”), and it was done by a tiny little independent company called Wee Warriors run by Pat and Judy Kerestan. Sure, Temple of the Frog appeared in the Blackmoor supplement as an adventure, but Vampire Queen was the first module published just as a module.
7. White Plume Mountain. The three artifacts, Wave, Whelm and Blackrazor. Heck, you could chuck out the first two and just have Blackrazor and this thing is a classic. I can't tell you how many players have wanted to take on WPM just to try to get Blackrazor. Because what kid playing D&D in the early 80s like me didn’t want to have Elric's sword? Everyone, duh! And the design—the cheesy puzzles, one-off rooms clearly designed to challenge adventurers and not for any practical purpose. I love it! That is D&D to me. I know that to many people, these things I am calling strengths are what they consider its problems. To those people I say "get a life, its a game." The only black mark on the module is the lack of detail on the wizard rooms above and the efreets that intervene in the end. I wanted that stuff detailed out, which is saying alot for me since I normally love a little room for expansion. But in this case, it hurt the module.
8. Greyhawk Ruins. I know there are Greyhawk pursits who will kill me for this, since this module wasn’t written by Gygax, but it was amazing to finally have the ruins of Greyhawk detailed, particularly after the embarrassing garbage that was the Castle Greyhawk module. This module is gi-normous, far surpassing anything else in size and scope. Even the love-it-or-hate-it Undermountain doesn’t come close to this many rooms and this much detail.
9. The Desert of Desolation series (Pharoah, Oasis of the White Palm and the Lost Tomb of Martek). I didn’t want to put a series of modules as a winner, since Giants and Drow could so easily have made the top 10, but I thought that this series was so good and so tight that it needed to be included as a series.
10. The original Ravenloft. This module spawned a setting. It had amazing maps, a great NPC antagonist—perhaps one of the best villains of all time behind Acererak the demi-lich and Eclavdra from the G-D Series. You could arguably put the first few Dragonlance modules here, but no single one of them is better than Ravenloft and the series as a whole is weak except for the first few. So Ravenloft takes it.
I have to admit, I really wanted to put one of my own modules in the top 10, but the ones above are just better.
Runners Up:
These ones were really hard to leave out of the top 10.
11. Judges Guild’s Dark Tower. A total dungeon classic that embodies the coolness that is Judges Guild.
12. Village of Homlet. More Gygaxian flavor and a total classic campaign starter.
13. Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. A hugely overlooked module. The second module ever written (behind Wee Warriors’ Palace of the Vampire Queen) and its original form is one of the most collectable modules ever.
14. The Dragonlance series (the first few). The first ones were good. Great story. Interesting setting. Great NPCs and adventure locations. And more awesome maps like Ravenloft. Maybe some of the only Second Edition stuff that I can tolerate.
15. Necromancer Games’ Rappan Athuk series. I thought we hit a First Edition home run with these three modules. Tomb of Abysthor (which was inspired in part by the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth and the Temple of the Frog) is a better individual module, but the RA series just rules.
HONORABLE MENTION
1. Masks of Nyarlathotep for Call of Cthulhu. This is the best designed adventures of all times for any game system, period. It is that good. Certianly in scope and depth, this thing is unmatched. And on top of that it is for Call of Cthulhu, which may be one of the hardest games to design for both from a playability standpoint and from a literary one. It is nearly impossible to have a good extended CoC campaign because of the high rate of character death, but this thing pulls it off. Plus, the story is so Lovecraftian. You really feel the mythos. It is so true to the subject matter. If this were a D&D module it would be on the top of my list right there with Tomb of Horrors.
2. Gygax's Necropolis for Lejendary Adventures. This module just blew me away when I got the original. Necromancer Games redid it for d20, and I am tempted to put Necro’s conversion in the main list as a d20 module, but I don’t think that is right since it was just a conversion. Necropolis is a LA module, not a D&D module, despite the fact I think Necro’s conversion rules. This is right up there with Masks.
3. Twilight's Peak for Traveller. This is an amazing adventure. It took the dungeon concept and ported it to a future setting. With a great story, a great build up, and a challenging and significant conclusion that impacts any campaign that includes it. Very well done. And Traveller had some excellent “double adventures,” like Chamax Plague/Horde, Shadows/Annic Nova, and Argon Gambit/Death Station. Classic Traveller is one of the best game series that has ever been created in my opinion and deserves far more credit and recognition than it gets. If it were a D&D module it would easily be in my top 10.
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Sorry for the threadjack. Back to your regularly scheduled discussion. Dang I am a dork!
Clark
@Clark Peterson, thank you for posting with some great insights. If you downloaded the (in-progress) Pathfinder revision in the first post it would be an honour to receive feedback. I understand if that may not be appropriate.
I am deliberately adding character depth and motivations throughout, but still striving to remain true to the original. It will be just as hack and slash as ever if players' want to overlook the inner machinations. The Appendix is an example of finished work and will be used to create variable strength monsters (young giants for example).
Silk, I downloaded G3 last night and flipped through it briefly. Boy did it bring back memories! I'm looking forward to flipping through it in depth.
Clark, yes I was a teen when my friend and I played the G1-2-3 series (we played the combined module not the individual ones so not sure what year that would have been). My confession is that we didn't really know how to play D&D back then (we thought "hit die" was the number on a d20 you had to roll to hit the monster in question) but we sure had a blast tromping through the G series in our own warped-rules way.
We bumbled our way through Tomb of Horrors in the same fashion, and that module still scared the tar out of me due to its instant-death traps. The final fight with the demilich was brutal, just brutal.
I love the Judges Guild reference. I landed a copy of the City-State of the Invincible Overlord in the late 80's and made great use out of the epic-scale map for many, many years in several campaigns. Great stuff!
My own top 10 list would include Castle Amber (as a GM) and the D1-3 series (again, we played the combined set not the individual modules). I loved figuring out the pronunciation of Blibdoolpoolp's name (sp?).
Is it just me or do the female drow on the cover of the module look like a bunch of 80's aerobics instructors gone bad?
Hey Gallo, your comment cracked me up…so true.
@Dosgamer – this module does bring back memories. Hope you like the conversion so far.
Latest version is posted - see opening thread for download. Mostly it’s been a lot of formatting work in the past week. Hyperlinks and internal links are being added throughout the document. I’ve also been experimenting with what formatting options work and what doesn’t when converting from Word to PDF.
I’ve proudly added a “Show picture to players” function so you can click the link, press Ctrl+L for fullscreen and swing your laptop at them. Then click ‘Return to module’ afterwards. I’ve never seen a pdf module before with this feature. I think it’s going to ROCK :)
In addition you can now click on miniature names in the encounter summary list to see individual online pictures of what each suggested miniature looks like.
Cheers,
Silke
Well it’s almost been a month since my last update and mostly a lot of carefully selected pictures have been added in that time (about 80% done on that point). Some text and encounters have also been updated (about 10% done in that area). To get the latest version see opening thread for download.
My large gaming group is running this with 8 12th level characters and 2 10th level cohorts. Consider it a playtest for you but it’s the real thing for them. It is a bit awkward when they are ahead of what I’ve completed so far (doh). The following is going to sound like they are doing it tough but they are actually killing giants left and right. 20 minutes after entering King Snurre’s hall we have a dead king and queen, 4 dead adventurers (1 now revived), 2 spent wishes, 2 awry teleports, a split party, and a rest period. Not to worry…by next session they’ll have regrouped and revived all PCs before re-entering what’s left of the hall level.
My second smaller, gaming group will playtest this about 3 months from now so by the time you have the completed module it'll be the best Pathfinder conversion for G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King you’ll find anywhere.
Bring on the feedback…cheers.
Well it’s almost been a month since my last update and mostly a lot of carefully selected pictures have been added in that time (about 80% done on that point). Some text and encounters have also been updated (about 10% done in that area). To get the latest version see opening thread for download.
My large gaming group is running this with 8 12th level characters and 2 10th level cohorts. Consider it a playtest for you but it’s the real thing for them. It is a bit awkward when they are ahead of what I’ve completed so far (doh). The following is going to sound like they are doing it tough but they are actually killing giants left and right. 20 minutes after entering King Snurre’s hall we have a dead king and queen, 4 dead adventurers (1 now revived), 2 spent wishes, 2 awry teleports, a split party, and a rest period. Not to worry…by next session they’ll have regrouped and revived all PCs before re-entering what’s left of the hall level.
My second smaller, gaming group will playtest this about 3 months from now so by the time you have the completed module it'll be the best Pathfinder conversion for G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King you’ll find anywhere.
Bring on the feedback…cheers.
I'm certainly looking forward to the final version. The Giants trilogy was my favourite set of modules back on the early 80s (not that I can remember exactly when they came out).
Hi folks,
A progress download is now available from the link in this thread's first post.
Numerous updates have been added in the past fortnight. Bookmarks have been refined, pictures improved and more included.
By now you will have a good idea of the finished result. If you want to see how someone could possibly expand 18 pages of original module to 221 pages (and climbing) well here's your chance. The completed PDF is likely to be 300 pages.
Have a look at the following two encounters which are completed drafts.
1. EGG RAID (EL 13) on page 85
3. LONG CAVERN (EL 12) on page 89
These have added depth and relate to one another. Tell us what you think of the format as this layout is planned for all encounters.
If there is a tactic, template, trap or magic item you’d like to see in this module...by all means mention it.
Cheers,
Silke
I will be checking this out ASAP. But there is a point in the whole senario than I actually used (wayback when...) that might be interesting to bring up for a current version.
The deity represented in the G3 doesn't fit Lolth but only fits Ghaunadaur (see the description of symbols and effects of the hostels).
So in the end of the whole serie Ghaunadaur lost a small church and a few priests (that he might have seen as a worthy cost to bring the destruction/heroes to the demo-web pit) when Lolth gets wiped out! I found it ... properly slimy!!! ;)
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Silke - Great job! Looks like it's coming along nicely; I'll try to provide some more detailed input a little later (mostly around formatting - I know you're still working on this;).
For others here, I thought I'd post the originals (done several years ago - forgive the errors, mistakes, etc.) for your viewing (and nostalgic) pleasure:
HALL OF THE FIRE GIANT KING (3.5 Conversion) -> CLICK HERE
Also, an unfinished prologue adventure which tries to tie in all of the interesting bits of randomness found in the Hall of the Fire Giant King. Who was that a temple to? Why were the Dark Elves working with the giants? Was there some greater plot at work? etc. This also includes the "encounter booklet" for the module.
HFGK PROLOGUE ADVENTURE & ENCOUNTER BOOKLET -> CLICK HERE
As always, the recommended way to get the pdfs is to right click the link and select "save as".
Cheers,
~D
Hi all,
Thanks for the feedback so far.
@daemonslye
On formatting
This conversion started by incorporating your personal embellishments and as you can see I’ve taken that and am running a marathon with it. Any advice you can give would be great.
A big question is whether to put stat blocks for each creature on a separate page. It's neat but also breaks the flow of the module. If we implement this approach then it’s tempting to put it all in a separate booklet (pdf file). One advantage is you can print the things you need to edit (the monsters) while leaving the module text and pictures on your computer screen. Also the flexibility of separate pages allows you to grab whatever critters are needed for each situation. Creatures move around, get killed, and sometimes returned to life so encounters often don’t match the groupings of creatures written for each module location).
Option 1. Leave creature stat blocks in the passage of text (as it is now)
Option 2. Place creature stat blocks on their own pages (1 page or double-sided page per creature) and bundle them at the end of each encounter
Option 3. Place creature stat blocks on their own pages (1 page or double-sided page per creature) and list them all in a separate booklet sorted by encounter order.
@Slime
If you wish to integrate this module into a complete campaign then consider running the following modules:
For a focus on Tharizdun…
- S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (level 6-10), a loosely-based prequel to WG4
- WG4 Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun (level 5-10)
- Dungeon #152 - Essence of Evil (level 20)
For an epic adventure
- T1-4 The Temple of Elemental Evil (level 1-8), events in this module occur in 579 CY
- A1-4 Scourge of the Slave Lords (L7-11)
- G1-3 Against the Giants or TSR 11413 - Against the Giants - The Liberation of Geoff
- D1-3 Descent into the Depths of the Earth
- Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits
Years later the characters can adventure in…
- Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil (level 4-14), events in this module occur 15 years later in 594 CY
- The Crumbling Hall of the Frost Giant Jarl (L10)
@Faazazel
I’ve added a statement to thank artists for their pictures.
“Images included in this module have come from the internet (public domain) and in many cases do not identify the original artist. Copyright is most likely owned either by the artists who created them or the publisher of the book(s) they came from. As a fan-based work, I wish to thank and honour the artists for such fantastic pictures and only seek to display them as fair use.”
My details on Gods:
I was post-lazy to go into the details of our house-uses. ;)
We were going Oerth at the time but we had the Forgotten Realm stuff and we assumed the since Lolth had kept the name in both realm I ran it as the "Elder Elemental God/Eye" would have the name of Ghaunadar on Oerth maybe only for the higher-awakened/madened priests(ses).
Thanks for the info on Tharizdun (and it's gem in Snurre's quarters) and the links to other modules.
Silke, I am throughly enjoying your conversion. My vote for which option to use on the monsters would be option 1, which is how currently is being done. Thanks again for all the work!!!
OK, here's a thought! Why could not the both of you, Silke and Daemonslye work together on the Hill Giant and Frost Giant parts? Call me crazy! But, I've LOVED what both of you have done to the Paladin in Hell and the Hall of the Fire Giant! Both would be a overwhelming and hugh task for just one person to do alone. At least maybe 4-6 months plus for just one of the areas. Just something to maybe think about? THANK YOU, BOTH for all of your time and hard work that you have put in for us to see these done! THANKS!(:
OK, here's a thought! Why could not the both of you, Silke and Daemonslye work together on the Hill Giant and Frost Giant parts? Call me crazy! But, I've LOVED what both of you have done to the Paladin in Hell and the Hall of the Fire Giant! Both would be a overwhelming and hugh task for just one person to do alone. At least maybe 4-6 months plus for just one of the areas. Just something to maybe think about? THANK YOU, BOTH for all of your time and hard work that you have put in for us to see these done! THANKS!
+1 with many stars!
@kevin bienhoff, you’re right. I can't believe how many hundreds of hours this conversion has taken and is still only 50% complete. It’s consuming my life.
I may work best by daemonslye doing the first cut of a module (he can put out a respectable conversion in mere weeks, i.e. A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity) and I refine it (like A Paladin in Hell).
I have found it time consuming to post module improvements on Paizo forum in BBcode. If you’re working with the original Word or Publisher document then updates can be entered directly (perhaps in red text) and sent back and forth.
Last night my group completed the entrance level dungeon which saw them advance to 13th level characters. I ran the inhabitants as reactive thus the level consisted of 3 massive battles and a few minor encounters. Last night’s epic battle involved a record 43 opponents in an attempted ambush where 4 characters died. After that, the PCs toured empty rooms to confirm the level was wiped out.
The kill tally so far is 148 monsters (which includes slaying King Snurre twice after Eclavdra True Resurrected his corpse the first time and charged 50,000 gp for the privilege. That future party loot is now consumed).
There have been about 10 character deaths, only 2 of which are permanent (a PC and his cohort, with a replacement Paladin on the way). Note that several PCs are adventuring via Astral Projection provided by a local, planet-bound, lesser demigod known as 'The Master' - who happens to be a drow harbouring, sex crazed, incorporeal, possessor demon and 20th level Godling.
The players fell “hook, line and sinker” for 3 rakshasa found barred inside the guest quarters. They were disguised as human merchants. These thieves were in the hall for a stupendous robbery – no less than the sacking of King Snurre's Treasure vault! They had information that the treasure trove was located somewhere near the king's quarters and had been waiting for a chance to make their raid. They posed as human merchants travelling from dungeon to dungeon with a horse and cart selling trade goods (the horse had since been eaten while the tiger folk lingered in their quarters).
The adventurers did these schemers a great favour as the level had been cleared of threats by the time they reached the disguised rakshasa. The wily tigermen refrained from attacking obviously powerful PCs and thanked them for their release so they could 'leave' the dungeon. The authentic seeming rascals sold a bear rug for 100 gp to a dumb (Int 6) half-ogre character and claimed it was dire bear skin. They also signed an exclusive trade deal with another enterprising PC which of course they had no intention of honouring!
After a short search the rakshasa (with rogue class levels) found the vault while the PCs searched elsewhere. They killed the pyrohydra, filled their portable hole to the brim with Snurre’s loot, and departed…sniggering all the way.
The trade deal PC has a spy network and next week he'll be informed of 3 merchants boasting of new found wealth and getting drunk in a city bar. No doubt the party will fire off a quick teleport and hunt them down. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if “these are not the merchants you're looking for”?
OK, here's a thought! Why could not the both of you, Silke and Daemonslye work together on the Hill Giant and Frost Giant parts? Call me crazy! But, I've LOVED what both of you have done to the Paladin in Hell and the Hall of the Fire Giant! Both would be a overwhelming and hugh task for just one person to do alone. At least maybe 4-6 months plus for just one of the areas. Just something to maybe think about? THANK YOU, BOTH for all of your time and hard work that you have put in for us to see these done! THANKS!(:
+1 too!
Hi folks. I've been itching to post your next update every day for the past two weeks but kept holding off until there was sufficient progress to show.
To the 66 people who downloaded the last update its worth downloading it again from the link in this thread’s first post. It’s now a 30 MB download.
Last post the module was nearing 300 pages. This post it’s an amazing 413 pages. At this rate I might do the impossible and expand an 18 page module to 500 pages! Of course it's picture rich which accounts for most of it.
What you see here is definitely a work in progress with notes all over the place. There are still 30 pages of pictures to add, and then I can start on the text and stat blocks. After that it’s formatting and proofreading. Rest assured it is coming together and there is additional content not yet incorporated such as 500+ names. Yep I'm going 'all out' so every critter in this module has a name!
You'll never see another module like this one - even from me. It's one of a kind. If you've got a pic to add or replace, or a cool critter name then please post a link. I particularly need a lot of gnoll names.
P.S. First-pass play testing is already in progress. My players pointed out last week there have been 14 character deaths and they are only halfway through the module. Some things will be toned down such as a vorpal headsman’s axe because sure enough I rolled a confirmed crit so it was off with the PCs head.
Hi folks. I've been itching to post your next update every day for the past two weeks but kept holding off until there was sufficient progress to show.
To the 66 people who downloaded the last update its worth downloading it again from the link in this thread’s first post. It’s now a 30 MB download.
Last post the module was nearing 300 pages. This post it’s an amazing 413 pages. At this rate I might do the impossible and expand an 18 page module to 500 pages! Of course it's picture rich which accounts for most of it.
What you see here is definitely a work in progress with notes all over the place. There are still 30 pages of pictures to add, and then I can start on the text and stat blocks. After that it’s formatting and proofreading. Rest assured it is coming together and there is additional content not yet incorporated such as 500+ names. Yep I'm going 'all out' so every critter in this module has a name!
You'll never see another module like this one - even from me. It's one of a kind. If you've got a pic to add or replace, or a cool critter name then please post a link. I particularly need a lot of gnoll names.
P.S. First-pass play testing is already in progress. My players pointed out last week there have been 14 character deaths and they are only halfway through the module. Some things will be toned down such as a vorpal headsman’s axe because sure enough I rolled a confirmed crit so it was off with the PCs head.
Your work is truly amazing Silke, but you break my heart when you swear off doing this again. So many of the old modules could use the love that you and Daemonslye have given to so few. Think of the modules Silke...think of them.
But seriously, I can only imagine the all-consuming nature of the task you have undertaken, and I understand why you don't want to do it again. But it is a shame. The treatment you have given the old girl is like Peter Jackson's LotR vs. the Ralph Bakshi version. It makes me want to see all the old modules made into 'real' epic sagas, rather than half-assed, LSD fueled, impressionist cartoons.
But, until I can do a significant share of this kind of work, it is unreasonable to expect it from others. Once again I applaud Silke and Daemonslye for their inspired (re)creations.
-Cheers
P.S. First-pass play testing is already in progress. My players pointed out last week there have been 14 character deaths and they are only halfway through the module. Some things will be toned down such as a vorpal headsman’s axe because sure enough I rolled a confirmed crit so it was off with the PCs head.
That's awesome goodness! The player will never forget that character. 14 deaths seems kind of high though. How many PCs are participating in the adventure?
P.S. First-pass play testing is already in progress. My players pointed out last week there have been 14 character deaths and they are only halfway through the module. Some things will be toned down such as a vorpal headsman’s axe because sure enough I rolled a confirmed crit so it was off with the PCs head.That's awesome goodness! The player will never forget that character. 14 deaths seems kind of high though. How many PCs are participating in the adventure?
Never mind I see you have 8 characters and 2 co-horts from your earlier post.
The board has been extremely quiet this past month on downloadable module conversions. It’s time to change that with another G3 update. You can download the latest version from my opening post. The last update was rough but this one has all the artwork in place. Now I can focus on encounter descriptions, treasure and stat blocks. Work has slowed down but it should pick up again for the month of October when I have the entire month free to work on it.
@Groggie
I can be brutal by realistically grouping encounters as defenders come to each other’s aid against the PC interlopers. After my last post I gave them oversized teddy bears to play with (i.e. lots and lots of gnolls) so they went home with a warm and fuzzy feeling. No character deaths and they gained two gnolls as groupies :P
@Can'tFindthePath
RE: “Think of the modules Silke...think of them”.
You cracked me up. I’m not swearing off doing this again…just doing it this way again.
daemonslye likely needs some motivation help to complete "A Paladin In Hell - Pathfinder Core Rules Conversion" so it may be better to spend time assisting with something like that.
One word..simply one word....EPIC.....am blown away by the amount of effort you have put into this conversion, it looks amazing, and will be a treat to unleash upon my poor poor players. Thank you for all the hours you've sacrificed upon the conversion alter, you're work shines with the sweat of your labor.
@KTFish7 Why thank you. I'm sitting here on holidays supposed to be working on this conversion but I am not. You might just get me motivated!
@Lincoln Hills You are exactly right "Infiltrate, learn who's pulling the strings, and assassinate them." I'm trying to write in as much of that option as possible. Most players invariably make head-on assault and my group were no exception. At the expense of 20 character deaths (parties above 9th level can revive fallen PCs without too much trouble) had the power to steamroll the module. They are at its end with just Brazzemal left to face next week. Eclavdra was slain and Nedylene escaped. They did not discover the temple or Snurre's hoard.
I have another group doing this module very soon. Let's see if they tackle it in a less bloodthirsty manner.
Oh I agree with you. Note that half of these deaths were very temporary (i.e. recovered by breath of life spells).
Magic dominates the game to an incredible degree. Giants are just a big bag of hit points to modern Pathfinder PCs. You can’t bring their power to bear when large numbers of giants can’t reach the PCs due to limited room sizes or obstructions such as pillars and even each other. They end up having to stand in line and be mowed down by area-of-effect spells. It is worth noting that giants caused very few PC deaths and they needed powerful weapons to do it. One wielded a vorpal axe which was successful against 1 PC. 4 Hell Hounds were converted to Nessian War Hounds and those four simultaneously breathing fire over the same area slayed 3 PCs.
Archer based Fighters or Ranger PCs are devastating. A L12 Ranger Archer slaughtered an advanced CR12 chimera all by himself in 1 round. It's crucial weakness turned out to be low AC (i.e. less than AC 20). The poor creature couldn't even get within range to engage the party! The Magus is a powerhouse class and the arcane spell casters were superb with high spell DCs. 19 times out of 20 the giants couldn’t make their reflex saves. Melee based PCs also have high ACs making them very tough to hit.
Teleportation magic is a major problem and without that it would be Wind Walk instead. The party simply teleported away for frequent rest stops. There is also the ever-present stoneskin passed all round and haste. Some PCs also have mirror image. Naturally I did many things to make it hard for them such as grouping encounters and optimising creature builds including giving them class levels. Other tactics included Eclavdra disguising herself as a Fire Giant child to make an appearance in the throne room when the PCs returned for their second raid. She was there to cast Greater Dispel Magic but it didn't help much and she left. She also True Resurrected King Snurre so the party just killed him twice. I built her as a 20th level Cleric so later on in the module a few PCs died from DC 29 Weird (Domain spell) and another PC died from DC 29 Implosion...they were 15th level at the time and still killed her anyway. Speaking of optimising, the next thing to do in the conversion is replace one of the Fire Giant’s feats with Quick Draw so they can each throw 3 rocks per round.
We are about to try a 4 week concept adventure without magic. Oh how nice it will be to actually use skills like climb and heal again!
I've got a copy. Send me an email at kendallpenn@hotmail.com and I'll reply with a copy
DR Fever...I sent emails to a couple of people, but couldn't match the email with your alias. If you didn't get a copy then I probably didn't get your email...send me another and I'll close the loop. Thanks.