I'm about to start a new game for some of the people in my group, and I'm trying to figure out what I want to run.
I'm thinking of picking up the .pdfs of the Dungeons with Age of Worms, but is there a good place to 'translate' the adventure path into Golarion?
I'm about to start a new game for some of the people in my group, and I'm trying to figure out what I want to run.
I'm thinking of picking up the .pdfs of the Dungeons with Age of Worms, but is there a good place to 'translate' the adventure path into Golarion?
You could try to capitalize on the crunchy stuff published about Darkmoon vale by placing Diamond Lake there. Diamond Lake and Falcon's Hollow share the same theme of economic oppression, but it means substituting the mining industry for the logging one, and throw away most of the nice fluff about DL.
You could place DL in Cheliax too, with a nice garrison of Hellknights and no corruption, just plain political oppression. It would explain why the PCs have to solve their problems themselves, without help from the authorities.
In fact, DL could be placed almost anywhere, provided you have a local government who couldn't, or wouldn't want, to act against an evil temple hidden beneath the town.
Redhand and the Bandit Kingdoms are easier to place : the River Kingdoms is an almost identical substitute. Spire of Long Shadows goes to Garund. Rift canyon becomes a deep fissure somewhere on the Storval plateau in Varisia.
Hi. You should chek 'Rule of fear', the sourcebook on Ustalav.
Almost all of AoW can be placed up there, in various counties (except the spire of long shadows, which can become a kellid ruin somewhere in the Mammoth lands).
You have it all: ancient tombs (cairn hills), decadent rulers (Zeech), big towns and small hamlets, even an extremist cult of Pharasma to replace St Cuthbert.
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So Falcon's Hollow/Diamond Lake is pretty easy to merge or just switch out. The one I'm struggling with is the Free City.
Where and what.
I thought about dropping in Ptolus along the southern coastline of Andoran, and figuring out some wacky history like it was a planar shifted city during the powerful storms of 4606. Only because I like Ptolus, and think it'd be a good fit. The trick is that it's huge. But it would work, I think, in Andoran ok. It would be a free city state(no pun) and be allowed to operate in a more open friendly environment with the democratic ideals of Andoran(again, still learning the setting).
Plus putting it closer to Cheliax gives Andoran a reason to support Ptolus as an ally. Rambling now, but... I know that the Free City comes into play in the AP, but like I said I'm struggling with this one.
I just read the Magnimar companion : it really fits with the AoW Free City.
My new bet would be to make Diamond-Lake some sort of mining asset of Magnimar, close to the cinderlands, and start from there. Zeech can stay in Ustalav.
Hi. You should chek 'Rule of fear', the sourcebook on Ustalav.
Almost all of AoW can be placed up there, in various counties (except the spire of long shadows, which can become a kellid ruin somewhere in the Mammoth lands).
You have it all: ancient tombs (cairn hills), decadent rulers (Zeech), big towns and small hamlets, even an extremist cult of Pharasma to replace St Cuthbert.
I'm placing mine in Ustalav for these very reasons with Caliphas sitting in for the Free City. Diamond Lake is about 50 miles northwest of the city. This makes the city much smaller but since I am merging the Free City and Alhaster it works out just right. The only big change is that the events in Champion's Belt are going to be an underground bloodsport as opposed to a big arena event. There's a little plot hook buried in Rule of Fear about illegal bloodsports going on in Caliphas anyway, which I ran across after I had made the decision.
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I have placed Diamond Lake in Cheliax near the coast in the hills, about 200 miles East of Westcrown.
The Free City is obviously Absalom. The fact that it is not nearby but is available via short trip by ship is neither here nor there.
This is pretty close to what I'm thinking but I'm struggling with where to put blackwall.
I would put black wall close to the hills also, even if I have to remove another settlement to make it work.
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This is pretty close to what I'm thinking but I'm struggling with where to put blackwall.I have placed Diamond Lake in Cheliax near the coast in the hills, about 200 miles East of Westcrown.
The Free City is obviously Absalom. The fact that it is not nearby but is available via short trip by ship is neither here nor there.
Note re: Absalom.
I ended up changing the Free City from Absalom to Egoria. Far more importantly, I subbed Westcrown for Alhaster. Diamond Lake is, as noted, 200 miles East of Westcrown, and is south of Egoria about 3.5 days on the Imperial road. Blackwall I placed in the hills north-east of my Diamond Lake towards the Chelish/Andoran border.
I made a large number of changes to the rest of the AoW to Golaionize it. I have created a fairly large document detailing those changes. As my players read the Message Boards from time to time, you may PM me for a copy of the conversion document.
I would add that Egoria seems a particularly suitable city for The Champion's Belt.
In all, I am extremely pleased with the above choices and it has worked out extremely well so far. We are near the end of Hall of Harsh Reflections, and are about to start The Champion's Belt. No troubles so far.
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As my players read the Message Boards from time to time, you may PM me for a copy of the conversion document.
/snicker
From a player's perspective, it has been a seamless conversion to Golarion
(I never read it in Magazine form but I understand it was originally set in Greyhawk).
Steel didn't mention that he advanced the timeline by 80 years and made some significant changes to the political landscape as well.
A wonderful tale is unraveling before us and I suspect that he's changed a fair amount of what didn't work when he ran it the first time.
I'm starting this campaign now. I decided to locate Diamond Lake up in the Fenwall Mountains as a tributary to Korvosa as the Free City. That leaves the Mushfens as the site for the lizardfolk activities, with Blackwall on the border between the Mushfens and the main route leading up into the mountains from there, with another fortress south of the mountains to protect that border with the Korvosa hinterlands.
I'm still not sure what I'm doing to do about the arena. I like the idea of an underground complex but also considering introducing an arena into the city or perhaps on the city's outskirts.
I see the cinderlands to the north as a reasonable location for the Pesh battles and the Rift can be somewhere along the Storval Rise.
We had our first session last week and got off to a great, fun start. Looking forward to seeing the AP unfold over the coming months.
Honestly, Age of Worms adapts so smoothly to Golarion it almost feels intentional. Varisia, the land full of ancient ruins, is a perfect setting for the Cairn Hills, and the Mushfens are even to the south, just like in the AP. Magnimar is excellent for the Free City. The Eye of Abendego makes a great setting for Tilagos, which blends nicely with the Sodden Lands housing Kuluth-Mar. If you want, you could even merge the Whispering Tyrant with Kyuss. Pre-godhood Arazni could be blended in with Lashonna quite nicely in that case, if you're okay tweaking her nature and making her a villain.
Best of all, Lost Omens is a dead ringer for the themes of Age of Worms. The Age of Lost Omens is all about uncertainty festering, about a great destiny now lost and doubt about what comes next. With Aroden gone, the Age of Worms might be everyone's new destiny, unless the PCs can avert it.
I actually took it even further and plan to introduce a twist in SoLS that Aroden and Kyuss are the same being, but that's going a bit beyond standard Golarion lore.