I have been wanting to run Age of Worms since it was first published but I have STILL not had the opportunity. Hopefully I will very very soon. When I do run it, I want to do it right.
First off, I will be running it in Golarion using PFRPG, but those a moot points.
The big thing is I want to include the material in Elder Evils/Exemplars of Evil. The points to include that material is pretty straightforward as the ELs dovetail into the adventures without much fuss.
I also really want to include Tomb of Horrors, which if I use the 3.5 conversion that was released free on Wizards.com I can replace Gathering of Winds without much issue. Especially since I gather that is the weakest of the adventures.
I have a copy of the Rod of Seven Parts boxed set for AD&D 2E and I'd really like to allow the party to recover all seven pieces. I'm not really sure how to merge it together though. Rod of Seven Parts isn't a bad series of adventures (I played a 3.0 conversion a while back and have since read the whole thing) but it doesn't seem to mesh with the Age of Worms story at all. I am thinking maybe including pieces of the rod in various treasure loots but that seems too forced. I really want the quest for the rod to intertwine with the fight against Kyuss but be it's own subplot. I want the party to have to earn it instead of handing it to them as they go. I'm not dead-set on using the material in Rod of Seven Parts but that seemed like an obvious starting point.
Does anyone have any suggestions for including or building this subplot?
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I'll send you what I got, but it doesn't sound like your ideas will be all that compatible.
There are certain aspects of the AoW which are just all about channeling Old Skool Greyhawk.That doesn't make those elements of the story bad, but it DOES make those elements "all about Greyhawk" -- which does not fit well with Golarion, imo.
Either way, I think the bait and switch on the Rod of Seven Parts elements in AoW was a mistake and Erik Mona and JJ agree. It dilutes the story and distracts the players with plot hooks that go nowhere. Best to excise it and double-down on the Age of Worms: The End is Nigh plot, imo. Add to that and make the AP more about that.
YMMV completely -- and probably does. Which is cool.
Wow, now that is some detail. You obviously have put a lot of thought and work into your conversion. I have read the adventures and related articles several times and started two detailed preparations. One was as a d20 Modern game set during the Great Depression and the other was to my post-apocalyptic steampunk homebrew world before I put it aside and jumped on the Golarion bandwagon. I like what you have done to plug the plot holes and account for some of the missteps in design.
I never played Greyhawk so those parts of the tone were lost on me. What grabbed me was the Lovecraftian elder thing wriggling forth from it's prison to bring doom upon the world, meanwhile spilling forth alien monstrosities. The old-school references I got obviously with Kyuss and Dregotha and the Rod and whatnot, but it never screamed Greyhawk to me. If it had been channeling old-school Dark Sun I might have gotten it.
I thought about placing the campaign just off the edge of the Inner Sea map in a blighted and unholy land where the only religion is that of the Mythos. Magic drives its wielders insane and the only clerics are those of dark and alien gods. As I type this I think perhaps Ustalav would be a better fit, plus it's already been detailed in Rule of Fear removing a lot of design work for me.
I felt the bait and switch with he Rod was weak too. That and the lack of clerics I felt might be paid off/balanced by the intertwining of the Rod quest. I agree with your point about it perhaps distracting from the impending doom tone that made me love Age of Worms to begin with. On the other hand, I liked having another nod for the old school gamers (like myself).
So the question still exists of if or how to include Rod of Seven Parts. You make a very valid reason not to add it on. I wonder if Mishka's plotting could be intertwined to tie it into the story and not dilute the tension. Perhaps she is interested in helping or hindering the coming apocalypse ...
Incidentally, I am no stranger to adventure paths. I have not had the opportunity to run any of the Pathfinder ones but I ran to completion Shackled City a couple years ago and Dragonlance Chronicles in the last days of 2E as well as Transylvania Chronicles for Vampire the Masquerade before the WoD reboot and a lot of other, shorter paths, series and homebrew adventures across several game lines. I have been playing since the late 80s and 99% of that time has been behind the screen.
I am starting the Price of Immortality series for a group next weekend so I likely won't be starting Age of Worms soon. I just wanted to open a forum to discuss including the Elder Evils/Exemplars of Evil and Rod of Seven Parts material.
For fairness and reference sake, I chose to include the Elder/Exemplars stuff between the chapters as follows:
1. The Whispering Cairn [1-2]
- Worm that Walks 1 [3]
2. The Three Faces of Evil [3-4]
3. Encounter at Blackwall Keep [5-6]
- Worm that Walks 2 [6]
4. The Hall of Harsh Reflections [7-8]
- Worm that Walks 3 [9]
5. The Champion’s Belt [9-10]
6. A Gathering of Winds [11-12]
- Worm that Walks 4 [12]
7. The Spire of Long Shadows [13-14]
- Worm that Walks 5 [15]
8. The Prince of Redhand [15-16]
9. The Library of Last Resort [17]
- Worm that Walks 6 [18]
10. Kings of the Rift [18]
11. Into the Wormcrawl Fissure [19]
12. Dawn of a New Age [20]
The final confrontation from The Worm That Walks will become the end of Dawn of a New Age. In case it's not obvious, the numbers to the right are suggested levels.
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I've sent out my conversion notes for running AoW in Golarion pursuant to another request.
As I have mentioned before in a few other posts now, if there is anyone who wants a copy of my Golarion conversion notes, just send me a PM or post in a thread here and I will send them to you. I only ask that they not be discussed publicly right now as my players are frequent visitors to the Paizo Message Boards and I don't want the Age of Worms Re-Rolled spoiled for them.
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I've sent out my conversion notes for running AoW in Golarion pursuant to another request.
Steel Wind, as long as you have the document on hand, do you think you could pass it along? From one Andoren brother to another?
I've been chomping at the bit to run this path, Golarion-style, ever since I 1) recovered all my old Dungeons issues from a mystery box in the basement; and 2) discovered the glory of Yhidothrus, Demon Lord of Filed Off Serial Numbers.
I've sent out my conversion notes for running AoW in Golarion pursuant to another request.
It's a pretty great bit of hard work. Kudos to you for the effort and forethought.
I don't want the Age of Worms Re-Rolled spoiled for them.
I also image you would not want the Age of Worms Rick-Rolled spoiled for them either.
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I've sent out my conversion notes for running AoW in Golarion pursuant to another request.Steel Wind, as long as you have the document on hand, do you think you could pass it along? From one Andoren brother to another?
I've been chomping at the bit to run this path, Golarion-style, ever since I 1) recovered all my old Dungeons issues from a mystery box in the basement; and 2) discovered the glory of Yhidothrus, Demon Lord of Filed Off Serial Numbers.
Done. It's in your private message box with some reformatting applied to it as the document continues to grow in length and complexity.
I might be all for Rick-rolling Azmyth! But no, I want my AoW Re-rolled unspoiled for my players as much as possible.
If you are looking to run AoW under Pathfinder RPG, I would HIGHLY recommend getting the AoW in PDF format. All of the issues in the Age of worms AP are on sale now and you can get it for about $43.00. As Paizo's PDFs feature fully copy+pasteable and searchable text, you will find this feature alone will assist you IMMEASURABLY in converting stat blocks from 3.5 to PFRPG and otherwise re-working the text.
I have all the old magazine issues too and yes, I have a complete collection of scans of them as well. I STILL bought the official PDFs and I am very, very happy that I did.
I considered buying them but I went through so much work scanning my hard copies and then bookmarking the .pdfs that I'd feel like I should have paid myself $43 for the effort. lol
Also, I just this morning read through the adventure books for Rod of Seven Parts and I agree with you that intertwining them is probably a bad idea. I think removing the rod entirely really is the best idea.
I really hope I get to run the damn campaign this time. I've been drooling over it since it was first being published.