Going to be running Night Below for some friends and I'd like to start a discussion on the conversion process. I'll be placing the campaign within Golarion, though I'm undecided as to just where yet.
I've already started a Rise of the Runelord game, and was considering placing NB in Varisia so there could be a little bit of back and forth. Not so much characters from one campaign running into those of the other, but some of the large scale events of each being heard about in the other.
The idea of adding in the Mythic rules appeals to me, though I've truly no idea where a good place for the to attain mythicness would be.
Any thoughts on either would be grand, or any suggestions on converting it over in general for that matter.
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Going to be running Night Below for some friends and I'd like to start a discussion on the conversion process. I'll be placing the campaign within Golarion, though I'm undecided as to just where yet.
I've already started a Rise of the Runelord game, and was considering placing NB in Varisia so there could be a little bit of back and forth. Not so much characters from one campaign running into those of the other, but some of the large scale events of each being heard about in the other.
The idea of adding in the Mythic rules appeals to me, though I've truly no idea where a good place for the to attain mythicness would be.
Any thoughts on either would be grand, or any suggestions on converting it over in general for that matter.
There's some good ideas on this thread
There's also a great website of Night Below ideas from the 2nd edition era, if you're interested.
Going to be running Night Below for some friends and I'd like to start a discussion on the conversion process. I'll be placing the campaign within Golarion, though I'm undecided as to just where yet.
I've already started a Rise of the Runelord game, and was considering placing NB in Varisia so there could be a little bit of back and forth. Not so much characters from one campaign running into those of the other, but some of the large scale events of each being heard about in the other.
The idea of adding in the Mythic rules appeals to me, though I've truly no idea where a good place for the to attain mythicness would be.
Any thoughts on either would be grand, or any suggestions on converting it over in general for that matter.
Inserting Haranshire into Varisia should be fairly easy, there's many places to choose. I would go with Nybor and Wartle to replace Milborne and Thurmaster respectively, or maybe Baslwief and Harse. If you used the former, you could even bring Shaleleu into NB to bridge the two campaigns, possibly serving as an acquaintance or replacement of the NPC Kuiper.
The kuo-toa and ixzan are a little trickier. I don't have the Bestiary 4 but as far as I can tell there aren't a lot of subterranean evil fishmen races to choose from. Maybe an underdark gridylow or evil vodyanoi? Skum are a must, but probably more as beasts of burden in Shaboath.
For the rockseers, I always found them too similar in nature to the svirfneblin. I'd be tempted to use something a little different like the dark folk or maybe fetchlings.
I hope that helps. I converted this campaign for 3.5 about ten years ago and it was a lot of work then but we had a blast.
While Second Darkness is kind of unpopular, throwing in 'Endless Night' and parts of 'Descent into Midnight' could give that whole Drow feel an interesting spin, especially with all the Flesh-Warped critters in Bestiary 4. Throw in a 'Drow-suddenly-getting-Mythic-abilities-from-some-source' plot and you've kind of got some bare bones to work with outside of using the full conversion (and more Golarion-centric). Other sources of Mythic power could be any of the Vaults..
Amethal...I know I've looked through that post before, thanks for the reminder of it's existence. The link looks like it'll be incredibly helpful, thank you very much!
Luz...Wartle and Nybor sounds like fine plan to me. I was looking a bit more north, up by Ravenmoor earlier, planning on just adding in Thurmaster and Milborne, mostly to keep things close to Wolf's Ear (I've plans to extend a lot of the smaller encounters out and I might use that town in expanding the werebear situation).
Been waffling back and forth on the monster issue. I think I'm going to try and stick with PF only, or at least mostly. I rather like the suggestions you made, especially the brain ooze. Looks like I need to reacquaint myself with Bestiary3. Fetchlings are a good pick for the rockseers. In my RotR we have one fetchling and had another player strongly consider it, so I like the idea of using them myself and laughing maniacally as the party fails their concealment checks.
Rakshaka...Luckily I both own Second Darkness and rather liked the little I read of it, so that is a strong possibility.
The original plan was for me and a friend to set down and each pick an AP for the other to run, with me picking Serpent's Skull for him to run, and him picking Kingmaker for me to run. The more I looked into KM the less interested I was in it, and after talking to him I found out all that really appealed was the exploration and kingdom building rules.
So now the plan is to import those rulesets, and fill out some extra meat to work the kingdom building off of. Thought about just running the game in the Sodden Lands...but I already know Varisia, and I rather like the idea of the two games rubbing shoulders from time to time.
My group and I are a few sessions in now, and it's become a Night Below/Kingmaker/Second Darkness mash up campaign, being ran on roll20. If you're looking to be a player in any of those games and care about spoilers, you might want to stop reading now, because I'm not spoiler taging anything or giving further warnings.
Things opened with a modification of the opening encounter of Night Below. Most of the group (all but the dwarven rogue and elvin ranger) were heading from Magnimar to Wartle, having signed up on a charter to clear the area of bandits. They were to head to Olig's Trading post, a re-purposed fort just south of Wartle in the Mushfens, where they would start venturing out into the surroundings and start striking back at the bandits who were taking over.
Along the way the group came across a second batch of travelers, also heading roughly the same way. This second group looked largely disheveled, hungry, a little wild eyed. Before long they separated from our heroes, but it was no surprise to anyone when the group returned in the form of an ambush. The dwarven rogue was actually part of this second group, but at the last minute decided he didn't like their odds and turned traitor.
Carlanis and his band struck against the adventurers, having given them orders to keep Erynnae alive. But the heroes prevailed, and with the help of the traitor bandit killed all the bad guys.
They finished their journey, and made their way to Oligs where they learned a group of bandits was performing a monthly shake down. Happs and his boys were soundly beat when they showed up at the Trading post expecting easy coin. The heroes managed to take Happs alive, and got the location of his boss, a blood thirsty woman named Kressel.
Through timely use of the Pyrotechnics spell the heroes brought down Kressel's band of robbers, and managed to take Kressel herself alive. Several of the bandits escaped though, and they'll likely be finding their way to the Stag Lord before long.
The way back to Olig's consisted largely of a Charm Person enhanced conversation with little Miss Handaxe, and the group now knows about the Stag Lord.
I picked up the Mythic rules not long ago, and wanted to add them in here...and figured the best way to have the group ascend would be to have them defeat a Mythic foe. The Stag Lord strikes me as an interesting chap, and the idea of this legendary being having mythic power, but squandering it being a drunken bandit king appeals to me. So I've restatted the Stag Lord as an 8th level Bloodrager (still bow focused) with two mythic tiers. He's still going to be drunk and/or hung over all the time, and I specifically built him up a little less than optimized, so hopefully I didn't go too crazy.
Our heroes are currently third, but nearing forth. I'd like them to be at least fifth if not sixth before taking on the Stag Lord's camp. I've restatted all his lieutenants too, and will be statting up the lesser bandits individually. Our heroes are going to need to be particularly crafty to take that camp on, but I think they can do it.
Tonight's session though consisted of them going after the mite. In the talk between Erynnae and Kressel the bandit mentioned not being overly worried about being caught, as she'd offer her guards the location of some treasure in return for her freedom, neglecting to tell the guards the treasure was in the possession of some thieving mites. The heroes were already on the lookout for Svatalia (Olig's wife, I goofed her name in the beginning and it has sense stuck)'s wedding ring...and so when there was mention of cheap jewelry taken from Olig, the group was all about going after it.
Everyone being third level, so the mite caves were going to be an absolute breeze. Just to make it a little interesting I replaced one of the mites with a 6th level witch, with no gear, and no spells that do actual damage. She was going to basically run around the caves debuffing the party while they fight the vermin and mites, trying to go for a prankster/troublemaker vibe.
Erynnae and Lodo ended up taking the brunt of the witches casting...which was kinda funny as those two characters are played by the same player. Lodo got pelted with a Web Ball, and Erynnae was Cursed. A couple other spells went off but Lodo managed all his saves until he caught up with the mite caster, and promptly grappled her to death.
I was looking forward to the giant whiptail centipede...but it and the party both noticed eachother, the gunslinger beat it on initiative, and proceed to crit it for 40 damage with his opening shot. A lot of people complain about gunslingers, but up until then Xaikon had been far from over shadowing toward the rest of the group, so as disappointed as I was I didn't get to whip anyone...I was pretty happy to see him feel like a bad ass for a few minutes.
The party came across the tortured kobold, and through Erynnae having draconic managed to communicate with the little guy. They were already keyed into the kobolds having some sort of issue, as I described them to have been relatively harmless/peaceful up until recently when they started actively patrolling their area and attacking anyone they saw. No one had actually died in the attacks, but some merchants had been pretty badly hurt in the last incident. I've also increased the size of the Sootscale Tribe, and had Kuiper suggest to the party that going in and talking to the kobolds with an attitude might cause more problems than anyone is ready to deal with.
The kobold explained that he was there to return their god/statue, that the mites had stolen. Xaikon patched him up with the Heal skill, and Erynnae told him to make his way back to his tribe, and that they would kill the mites, get the statue, and return it. The kobold is now in awe of the group at large, and in something along the lines of puppy love with Erynnae.
We ended the session with the group returning to Olig's, seeing Kressel hung for her crimes, and the group traveling north to Nybor to meet with a cleric who could take care of Erynnae's curse issue. From there they have a little ways to go before entering the area controlled by the Sootscales. After the kobolds are sufficiently pacified, they will be focusing their efforts on finding a missing wizards apprentice I think.
Our Band of Heroes
Doredhiel-female elf ranger (newest member of the group, joined up just in time to take part in raiding Kressel's camp but then missed going into the mite lair)
Erynnae-female emberkin sorcerer (pretending to be divine and goodlike, but is actually lawful evil. Player has hopes of her being a cult leader)
Frauvner-male human (Kellid) barbarian (connections with Kuiper)
Hethor-dwarf rogue (player never actually came to any of the games, so I NPCed him for two sessions and he's been hanging out in the bar of Wartle since.
Lodo-male dwarf warpriest (I let Erynnae's player put together a healer of sorts as it was looking like we had no one capable of healing)
Xaikon-male tengu gunslinger (pistoleer) (the son of a missing Pathfinder who disappeared in the area while exploring the history of the Palfry family)