Shackled City AP conversion

[Triga]

I am a new gm and new player. I will be running crypt of the ever flame module and the other two for a mini AP. After that I wanted to run the shackled city ap I bought. I was hoping I could just drop PFRPF on top of it because I do not have any of the 3.0 or 3.5 books.

Can I just replace the monsters in the AP with ones from PFRPG? Can I just drag and drop the PFRPG right on top of the shackled city?

Any one got any advice?

[Stewart Perkins]

Triga wrote:

I am a new gm and new player. I will be running crypt of the ever flame module and the other two for a mini AP. After that I wanted to run the shackled city ap I bought. I was hoping I could just drop PFRPF on top of it because I do not have any of the 3.0 or 3.5 books.

Can I just replace the monsters in the AP with ones from PFRPG? Can I just drag and drop the PFRPG right on top of the shackled city?

Any one got any advice?

First off since your new I'll say this about crypt of the ever flame

Spoiler:

be very careful of the pillar of a thousand arrows. It's a TPK waiting to happen

As to shackled city, you can indeed run it with the pathfinder rules. It would take a little conversion obviously. Search the shackled city sub forum here under the old dragon magazine forum and you may find stats and situations already converted. Beyond that youll need to pay attention to make sure the characters are the right level at times due to the slight difference in expected xp. In 3.5 for instance to gain level 2 you needed 1000xp, but pfrpg requires 1200 or more depending on the speed your shooting for. (aps, and that includes shackled city pretty much assumes the fast track for xp by the way). So there could be some potential level discrepancies. Also a few critters will need converted for sure as they are not open liscence so are not in the bestiaries and won't be.

Also, the npc villains will need to be a level higher to be the same cr due to the changes, not to mention their gear and abilities need looked at thanks to class changes (also a good time to utilize some of the cool classes in the apt if you want).

[Morgen]

The Shackled City is a rather epic campaign. There is work involved. It wasn't just a 3.5 adventure, it was actually started off in 3rd edition and then later on forward converted to 3.5 so you should look at it as a whole and see where you need your updates. Stewart is right that there are plenty of good threads on these boards that can help with that. :)

Spoiler:

Okay so as for my suggestions for doing it, really look hard at the first part of the adventure as it's a super dungeon crawl at low levels. I'd look at probably moving some of the skulks around to give the PC's more interesting fights and watch out for the damage on the constructs as they can totally wipe out a party. Make sure to try and get the PC's involved with the various NPC's in town as it can really help things out and give them a reason to care about the city as things continue to go bad.

It is definitely a meat grinder too so have that in mind when thinking about how your group plays. Characters will die. I'd tone down the vanishing like a lot, build the treasure sets more for your player's characters and double check where all the stupid keys are at. I think there is one missing and one doubled up. J maybe?

[Faazazel]

The problem with the shackled city is the fact that it's a meat grinder. Characters will die all the time, new characters won't be interested in continuing the campaign and it will feel like one big railroad.

The first dungeon alone is deadly like hell. The players will be level 1 when they start and they know there are stronger NPC's in town, so it's very hard for them NOT to get some help from above.

[wraithstrike]

Faazazel has a good point. It is a meat grinder. If you have really good players they can probably be ok. If not I would suggest being prepared to help them out during play, or giving them help up front. We had 28 point buy(3.5), and extra hp. With the right group I think 20 pb, and a few extra hit points might be enough under pathfinder. Take your group into consideration.

[Steev42]

Triga wrote:

I am a new gm and new player. I will be running crypt of the ever flame module and the other two for a mini AP. After that I wanted to run the shackled city ap I bought. I was hoping I could just drop PFRPF on top of it because I do not have any of the 3.0 or 3.5 books.

Can I just replace the monsters in the AP with ones from PFRPG? Can I just drag and drop the PFRPG right on top of the shackled city?

Any one got any advice?

There is one repeat villain in particular that wouldn't be included in the PFRPG Bestiary, and without the 3.0/3.5 books, you'd have nothing to base his stat blocks off. It's been a while since I looked, but I'm pretty sure at least his early appearances are default and don't include complete stat blocks, which may cause issue.

That said, I'm sure you can find a replacement for him somewhere on these forums, or at the very least can get help in crafting a replacement.