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I am looking at starting convert Shackled City to Golarion, in preparation for our next campaign. (We won't be running Pathfinder, but a horrible hybrid mutant set of rules the like of which Man Was Not Meant To Know, which comprises mostly 3.5 plus elements of PF and my own extensive house rules.)
I had already done quite a lot of ground work - at once point, I was going to be running SCAP for one group and RotRL for another, but circumstances have since changed such that the two groups amalgamated due to lack of numbers. Ironically, since then, we've picked up new players, so the party size now stands at eight.
This means I've got to go back through my work and beef everything up a bit (something I have to do with regular AP anyway - I'd thought I was going to get away with it with SCAP, since it was set for the six characters we had intended at the time...!)
Anyhow, as a result of starting Runelords, and during the background research, thus causing me to look closely at Golarion and release how fantastic a campaign world it is, however, while I'm at it, I want to shift to over from Greyhawk to Golarion.
I have already glacned through threads on the subject, but they mostly deal with location. (I have already come to the conclusion is will in Sargava, particular location not especially important.)
I started out beginning the proces, but before I'd literally looked at the first encounter, I realised I need first to sort the deity conversion out.
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It's been a while since I've looked at the book and I'd rather not read it all the way through again before actually doing the conversion work (which I will perforce be doing from start to finish). So, without re-reading everything, I can immediately identify I need to replace St Cuthbert, Kord and Wee Jas. Yes?
If there are any others of plot-critical importance (aside from Mr A himself, obviously!), I would appreciate a reminder! (Monster gods are less important, since I can fudge or just ignore them altogether if need be, as the PCs are not likely to care much about them.)
At the moment, my only source for Golarion deities is the Inner Sea Guide.
There is, for better or for worse, no obviously direct analogues, either thematically or mechanically, though there are some reasonable paralellels.
Cuthbert could be replaced by either Abadar or Iomedae: both are normally worshipped in Sargava anyway. I'm rally not sure as to which would be best suited.
Kord's closest approximation would appear to be Cayden Cailean, or at least the same alignment and jovial-y sort of beer-guzzling-y-ness anyway.
Wee Jas could either be Nethys or Pharasma - I'm leaning towards the latter, on the basis that they are the same gender and Death + knowledge is not that far away from death + magic.
I would welcome any suggestions, especially of any other gods from other books, which as I've really just started getting into Golarion I wouldn't know about. (I have some time, so if I need end up buying some more books in the end, it wouldn't matter too much.)
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Aside from the obvious chance of location, which I'm largely going to gloss over aside from the cosmetic changes (since SCAP is nicely self-contained) and the dieties, can anyone think of any other elements that are particularly in need of alterning?
Jzadirune, perhaps, instead of being Gnomish... What might be a good replacement? Obviously really ancient Ghol-Gan is out of the question due to the size issues, and it's a bit far for Thassiloian. Any ideas?
I don't have anything new to add to the messageboards, but have my amalgamation of good ideas I've gleaned off here distilled down into a couple of documents laying out the general plot lines and changes I've made in order to convert SCAP to Pathfinder. My email is kendall.penn@hotmail.com
I don't have anything new to add to the messageboards, but have my amalgamation of good ideas I've gleaned off here distilled down into a couple of documents laying out the general plot lines and changes I've made in order to convert SCAP to Pathfinder. My email is kendall.penn@hotmail.com
That would indeed be helpful - email sent.
Sorry...try...kendall.penn@gmail.com
Still picking at this, bit by bit...! (It's a long job, not least because in addition to converting to Golarion, I'm adding in the extras from around the web, making conversions to my own house-rules and up-rating the adventure for eight characters...!)
The Ebon Triad is giving me some problems. I know some people - like Greystaff - have eliminated them entirely, but from what I understand, they feature heavily in Age of Worms, anothe adventure path I'll be running in Golarion in due course. Therefore, I may as well nip the problem in the bud.
The most nominal suggestion I've seen involves Hextor => Asmodeus, Vecna=> Norgorber, Erythnul=> Rovagug (obviously extremely heretical...!)
Any better replacements anyone can think of?
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You could always convert the Ebon Triad to be worshipers of the Old Ones and have a suitably creepy/otherworldly threat that foreshadows those in Age of Worms nicely. That being said, I have run both campaigns and the Ebon Triad connections are tenuous at best.
If you are setting the campaign in Sargava, which I recommend, I suggest getting your hands on a copy of Racing to Ruin, which has a fantastic article on Eleder and lots of adventuring in the capital city.
I did some pretty extensive conversions for SCAP when I ran it, which I feel it requires. If you'd like any advice on the changes I made feel free to drop me a PM. I can't give much advice on the second adventure since I ran the campaign from the magazine.
I picked up Heart of the Jungle and Lost Cities in the pdf sale - that should be sufficient for me, I think - I'm not planning for the PCs to do much outside of the AP. (I am using the community side-quest where the PCs find out roughly what happened to the lord mayor and points the finger at Vhaltru, but that's short enough I think it'll be plenty).
Between the numerous encounters and the Siege of Redorge, I think I've got enough supplementary material and side quests, just on the basis of finishing the module without having to push the last bits up too high in character level...!
I am definately open to any conversion material. My intention is, once I've done, to be able to post up a more-or-less by-the-book Golarionising project as a resource for anybody else who might come later. So I'd welcome any input you have!
(I have now actually gotten as far as Flood Season... One more chapter, and then I'll be calling it a break-point. That way, I can assess and adapt the monster encounters in anger when I have a clearer idea of where my PCs are at. I've done the same thing with RotRL - I've done and am running the first three books, and when that's done, we'll run the first part of Shackled City while I do the next part of Rune Lords and then while we finish that I'll go back to Shackled City again etc.)
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That's a fair enough approach. I strongly recommend the Demonskar Ball, however. My group had a blast with that part. I also very strongly suggest using the alternative Cagewrights document. It really streamlines the campaign and makes the villains make more sense.
When I ran it I took a hatchet to the campaign and rebuilt a lot of elements. I ran it in my homebrew world with about a third of the path gutted and rebuilt, because the AP needs a lot of work and I just enjoy doing that sort of thing.
I am indeed using the ball. Though I am going to have a seriously look at the skill checks and make sure I think they're reasonable for a party of that level... As I was goign through last week, I thought they looked a bit higher. (Especially since the more checks you make, the higher the chances of failure and I can easily see that in any progression of five skill checks, you're likely to fail somewhere.)
As to the cagewrights... I was going to say it probably wouldn't matter to the players either way and had a brief look to remind mysef of who they were...
And then realised I didn't recognise ANY of the names apart from about two as being referenced at all earlier in the advanture!
I haven't read the hardcover cover-to-cover, so it was rather easy to just miss the fact that all of the Cagewright are basically unknown until the end. Heck, I was thinking they were the folks in the party at house what'sit'sface.
Yeah, okay, I am going to need to have a bit of a think about that. I'm trying to not change too much from the written module (adding to it, mostly), but that kinda does need some fairly serious thought. Dang, I was thinking I'd finish off as far as I can go (Zenith Trajectory, my girst projected end-point) next time I take a stab at it, but I might have to do some more plot revision first...!
In the end, I used most of the alternate villains ideas. I have thus got zero further on with my actual conversion, but I have familiarised myself with the new Cagewrights, where they appear, and added in some of the foreshadowing bits into my quest notes.
I am still keeping in Strike on Shatterhorn, though, and I simply slightly modified the four "cagewrights" you meet in Secrets of the soul pillars to be three highly-paid specialist (the three casters) who are, while not Cagewrights, highly paid for their efforts and promised rewards, and Arbeth as a LL bodyguard to the Fish, third-in-command (aving literally just had a promotion as the PCs enter!) (If the PCs weren't going to kill them all, these four would probably be made into Cagewrights to supplement the numbers killed.)
I just noticed this thread ...
What's this about alternative Cagewrights, and who has the details about them?
Delvesdeep published a document on the RPGenius website to make the number of Cagewrights and their interrelationships more manageable.
Delvesdeep published a document on the RPGenius website to make the number of Cagewrights and their interrelationships more manageable.
Is that site still active? I can't find it.
Try this. If you can't access, inbox me at kendall.penn@gmail.com
http://therpgenius.pbworks.com/w/browse/#view=ViewFolder¶m=SCAP%20C h%200%20-%20General%20info