Here's the situation, on a recent trip to Duesseldorf I picked up some DSA stuff so that my group can play a little something different for a bit plus an adventure called Die Quelle der Geister.
We used to have a German guy in our group who said he would Regel or GM, I speak fluent German but now I am the only speaker in the group and well using a system where I have to (to use the best word which is a german one) umdenk everything I have decided to just convert the adventure not the hold gd-system, it cost me like 60 Euros for rulebook and adventure so i would hate to see it go to waste.
So how would you convert the adventure for use with a PF game? Is DSA generally more or less deadly than PF and any other tips you could give would rock!
Thanks!!!
What is DSA?
DSA or Das schwarze Auge / The Black Eye / Realms of Arcania is one of the first german PPRPGs.
As an old DSA player and DM I would say athfinder is more deadly then DSA and also have a higher magic level (there are only a few magic weapons in the hole world of DSA). On the other Hand DSA Wizards can cast much often but everytime they have a chance to fail (spell/pointmana based cast system).
For the conversion I would only take the story(line) of the DSA adventure and then creating the encounters completly new with the Pathfinder rule set. Also you have to adapt t the higher magic level in pathfinder (teasure & NPC design).
I already thought about running the "Jahr des Greifen" Campaign with my Kingmaker group but I have to realise that level 10 PF Chars are much, much more powerfull then level 10 DSA characters.
once translated into English: The Dark Eye. DSA stands for "Das Schwarze Auge" (The Black Eye, but that sounds funny, so it became "the dark eye"). A German RPG and setting with a more middle-ages feel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Eye
You may know the Drakensang-Games (for PC) by chance? They were quite popular over here.
my 2 Cent on converting:
- slow experience progression, throw in some extra goodies from time to time (extra skill ranks, languages, when appropriate, DSA is skill-heavy)
- a not too powerful general feat per even Level for everyone (2,4,6)
- no WBL rules (tell the Players you will completly ignore them)
- almost no magic items
- level increase should take some time - Players declare what they want to learn or increase and how it is done.
- don't use Pathfinder's Ueber-Monsters, think about lowering DR and SR accordingly
- play with money: for example: it is almost impossible to afford a full plate for PCs if they are not from a rich noble family. Noone wears gear worth a city.
- if you think stat-enhancers are needed in your game, tie them to the Level ups (as slotless enhancements that can't be taken away, much like inherent, but not stacking with the equivalent spell)
Thanks a lot!!!
I am half tempted to try this as a PbP first. I can either try running with DSA rules, modified PF rules or PF rules, what a quandry....