| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Did someone mention wanting a conversion for G2? Well, here it is: "G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl" (Gygax, Gary. TSR, 1978). As with other conversions I've attempted, there was some license (e.g. not a purely "straight" conversion). That said, I opted for a closer conversion this time with inline stats. Because many of the creatures were straight from the Bestiary(s), this made sense (to me at least).
If anyone (Silke?) takes a look, let me know if you find mistakes, etc. Note that much of the text was written by Gary himself, so I may or may not change that further depending on it's impact to running the module.
Here is the current file -> G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl
Please right click the link and select "Save as.." to download the file.
Enjoy,
~D
Once again Daemonslye, my hat's off to you on another great product. Thanks for all you hard work and generosity.
Hi daemonslye, nice work :)
- Great presentation and font choices (as usual) – the various heading fonts in particular
- Some of the pictures you’ve been able to source are choice additions. In particular page 2, 3, 5 (fantastic find), 9 (converted to b&w)
Making the pictures black & white is great for making artwork look consistent and timeless. It also allows you to utilise a much broader range of pictures. Having said that I’m going for colour in G3 but it is a challenge not to make it look too gaudy
- Placing the maps as they are encountered in each section is interesting – I’m now pondering whether to do that
- Yellowing around the edges of each page for a ‘ye olde module’ look is novel – might look better if it is a slightly browner shade of yellow and/or textured? Of course any texturing should be limited to the page edge only
- Adding the NPCs table is a nice touch – even if players almost never use them (which is unfortunate)
- Inline Stat Blocks look good
- Haven’t read the conversion through yet but I did notice that "ALARUM! ROBBERS!" on page 16 was corrected to "ALARM! ROBBERS!" in later editions of this module
- Suggest adding Fortitude save DC and frequency for purple worm poison in the PUZZLE BOX OF THE JARL so DMs don’t have to look it up during play
- Noted you have changed the Storm Giantess’s original name from Olgani to Kallisto – personally I prefer the original name
- Would like to see alternative pics used for the Storm Giantess and Frost Giant Jarl
P.S. I just spent 3 hours putting together a G2 picture ideas pack for you. Download it from the same link under the G3 thread. Let me know if you can’t find it (G2 - Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, picture ideas pack.zip 33.4MB).
Some of the pictures are included for consideration on the basis they are converted to b&w. Others may useful for Wilderness encounters.
Hi daemonslye, nice work :)
- Great presentation and font choices (as usual) – the various heading fonts in particular
- Some of the pictures you’ve been able to source are choice additions. In particular page 2, 3, 5 (fantastic find), 9 (converted to b&w)
Making the pictures black & white is great for making artwork look consistent and timeless. It also allows you to utilise a much broader range of pictures. Having said that I’m going for colour in G3 but it is a challenge not to make it look too gaudy- Placing the maps as they are encountered in each section is interesting – I’m now pondering whether to do that
- Yellowing around the edges of each page for a ‘ye olde module’ look is novel – might look better if it is a slightly browner shade of yellow and/or textured? Of course any texturing should be limited to the page edge only
- Adding the NPCs table is a nice touch – even if players almost never use them (which is unfortunate)
- Inline Stat Blocks look good
** spoiler omitted **
I just downloaded the file, but I don't even have to look at it to know it will be awesome. You two are a helluva team. Thank you and keep it up.
I love what you've done with this, in terms of layout and production value! And I second the comment about excellent artwork additions in the early parts of the document.
A minor quibble is with the number of spelling errors: "Berserker" is missing an "r" everywhere it appears; "remorhaz" is likewise missing an "h"; "flat-footed" is missing the hyphen; etc.
A far more major reservation I have is with the conversion itself. In 1st edition, a mix of encounter difficulties was OK, because the difference in power between ogres and giants, for example, wasn't really all that great. But when you port encounters directly to Pathfinder, you end up with bizarre anomalies like a guard post of mook sentries at EL 13 (vs. 12th level characters), followed by a major trap at CR 6. Your use of the advanced template and class levels to scale up some of the encounters is very good, but you haven't taken the same care in scaling down some of the other encounters. For example, I'd personally swap the frost giants at the guard posts out for ogres, reduce the number of actual giants in the common chamber (#16) and caverns of the carls (#18-19).
It is not my intention to nit pick your lovely work, nor even to truly proofread it. However, as I was looking over Grungnir I noticed he has the wrong number of rage rounds per day. Should be 21; it appears you forgot the 2 for 2nd level barbarian. ;)
Btw, I love how you kept the (basic) layout and style of the original module, yet incorporated Pathfinder. In particular, the back cover is brilliant!
@Can'tFindthePath
To get any user feedback is precious so I’d say nit-pick away.
@Kirth Gersen
You can't beat a production value of "free" :)
RE: Rebalancing Encounters
I have thoughts and observations on that one. As a player I like having a range of encounter difficulties from low to high rather than everything being a near perfect balance of EL (CR) vs. Character Level like in modern modules. I’d like to see PCs flee occasionally and sometimes resort to guerrilla tactics rather than steamroll through modules just because they are powerful enough to get away with it.
You must know that typical optimised PCs can take a lot more than their Challenge Rating. For example I recently threw a record 43 opponents at a party of eight 12 level characters in G3 play testing and despite 4 deaths the party slaughtered everything. Hordes of Fire Giants (including King Snurre and 15 young) were no concern to them at all. The four deaths actually came from 4 simultaneous flaming breaths from nessian hell hounds (which I will take into account when writing the encounters in G3). Note also that death is temporary once the party Cleric reaches 9th level - though deaths do cost the party money.
Party spell casting is the bane of large numbers of enemy units. For example in my last session the party launched energy damaging spells with Reflex saves and not one giant made their saving throw all night.
Also creatures with low AC (like AC 23) meet swift deaths at the hands of full power-attacking fighters and particularly from optimised archers. Also note that large numbers of enemies have trouble getting into positions where they can bring their full force to bear – typically they have to line up and wait to be slaughtered due to very small room sizes.
So I would leave the number of critters as written and where needed - beef them up with better feat choices, magic items, and templates. It’s easy for DMs to drop a monster or two from each encounter if they are concerned.
Updated
First off - Thanks for the input and comments! It will help everyone that wants to try this out with their PCs.
I tried to address most of the issues raised. In summary:
slightly browner shade
> did what I could; tried a sepia tone; hard to see the difference but let me know.
"ALARUM! ROBBERS!" on page 16 was corrected to "ALARM! ROBBERS!"
> i think I may keep for nostalgia's sake
purple worm poison
> will keep as is until I need to reformat the whole doc. ran out of space. kind of the same thing with area 14 (kitchen) - I forgot the stat blocks for the cooks and ogres but will wait on it a bit before I fix.
Olgani to Kallisto
> You know, I never did check Queen of Spiders, I just ran with G2 and G1-3; I changed it, as suggested.
alternative pics used for the Storm Giantess and Frost Giant Jarl
> I tried a new pic for the storm giantess; kept the Jarl for now, I like the gravity of his expression.
3 hours putting together a G2 picture ideas
> thanks much for doing this - you found a quite a few pics I hadn't. I am trying to keep this light on the artwork - it's a careful balancing act.
multiple conversions, it may be worth linking them all under one thread
> thanks for the suggestion - ill probably build out the website and link to that at a later time.
"Berserker" is missing an "r" everywhere it appears;"remorhaz" is likewise missing an "h"; "flat-footed" is missing the hyphen;
> Argh. Spellchecker didnt help me - Fixed.
you haven't taken the same care in scaling down some of the other encounters
> Hmmm. I'm with Silke on this one. Couple of things to consider:
> The females are generally unarmed and won't fight unless they or their young are attacked. This could be readily observed by the PCs - and could force them to be careful, rather than simply blasting away.
> On the other hand, at this level, flight is common and a cloudkill along with some well-timed fireballs can clear out a cavern relatively quickly. Even the pregen has a staff of fire.
Grungnir I noticed he has the wrong number of rage rounds per day
> Huh. I used Herolabs and turned on rage to update the stats, it must have used up a couple of rounds. I'll need to re-check the yeti as well.
As always, right-click and choose "Save As" to download the file as it may cache the old one in your browser.
Thanks again,
~D
I'm OK with the high-EL common rooms, overall -- I like when the PCs have to skulk about and/or retreat occasionally -- but still feel cold about guard room after guard room that are far deadlier fights than some of the major encounters.
THANK YOU!! TOTALLY AWESOME WORK AS ALWAYS!!! Daemonslye. Still looking forward to seeing the completion of the
"A Paladin in Hell". Some of hardest battles I think are located in the temple areas. Have the orginal copy right in front of me and was the DM for this years ago. (Can't remember if they lost any PC's to it, may have) Plan on using yours also! Look forward to maybe, G1 at some point and to A Paladin in Hell! THANK AGAIN FOR THE GREAT WORK! Your Fan, Kevin
Updated
First off - Thanks for the input and comments! It will help everyone that wants to try this out with their PCs.
I tried to address most of the issues raised. In summary:
** spoiler omitted **...
I, for one, think the pictures you originally chose for both the Storm Giantess and the Jarl were perfect!
Also, I am certain the original ALARUM was completely intentional. It is, in fact, the archaic form of alarm from Middle English. It sounds just like the Old Guard at TSR to have written that.
@Can'tFindthePath
Good pickup. Even though "alarum" was changed to "alarm" in newer print editions I see now that TSR's original module had it correct.
Definition: alarum "Archaic an alarm, esp a call to arms"
Now that is cool...definitely keep it as "alarum"
@daemonslye
The more sepia toned page edge looks good…nothing more to do there.
No problem with the pics – I figured even if you used just one of them it was worthwhile. As it turns out that’s exactly what happened and Olgani is nicely improved with a more representative pic.
Can you add the Jarl's wife's name? It's 'Lady' Amgroth and their Winter Wolves are Bez and Rebez
Cheers,
Silke
Dot
Did someone mention wanting a conversion for G2? Well, here it is: "G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl" (Gygax, Gary. TSR, 1978). As with other conversions I've attempted, there was some license (e.g. not a purely "straight" conversion). That said, I opted for a closer conversion this time with inline stats. Because many of the creatures were straight from the Bestiary(s), this made sense (to me at least).
If anyone (Silke?) takes a look, let me know if you find mistakes, etc. Note that much of the text was written by Gary himself, so I may or may not change that further depending on it's impact to running the module.
Here is the current file -> G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl
Please right click the link and select "Save as.." to download the file.
Enjoy,
~D
My group loves all these conversion of the old modules so thanks to everyone who put in a lot of hard work and time.
But, alas, the link doesn't appear to be working.
Can someone re-post the conversion doc?
Unlikely. The conversions daemonsyle does includes the original material, and therefore may not be posted without permission of Wizards. He goes waaaaay beyond the bare-bones conversions that require the original module to use.
Demonseye is not responding to requests to email it. Can anyone else email the conversions of against the giants?
Looking for this conversion myself, too. Any idea where to find it?