which AP would you run for kids that want to capture Harry Potter, my first inclination is Carrion Crown with The Harrowing replacing WotW, the problem is it goes by so fast! but then i thought, what about Curse of the Crimson Throne? or even Council of Thieves?
so which APs are better for capturing that Harry Potter feel.
:-)
edit: i only have book one of CotCT and i don't mind converting for PFRPG:)
Well, Academy of Secrets is the Module you want.
You could slot it into Crimson Throne somehow, I think there's even a sidebar to that effect. But the rest of crimson throne wouldn't fit your theme too well I think.
You might be best off linking some modules together to achieve this.
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Well... Rise of the Runelords has an evil magic user plotting his return and subsequent conquest. So there's the obvious Voldemort parallel there. However the subject matter can get Dark with a capital D in the AP. There are also plenty of opportunities to investigate how events are connected with a little effort on the GM's part.
How old are these kids you're planning to run it for?
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For an A.P, I strongly recommend retrofitting some of the Pathfinder Society scenarios instead. Use the factions as school houses. The Pathfinder venture can be re-skinned as faculty.
Personally, I wouldn't use Pathfinder at all. For a Potterverse style game, I would use Ars Magica. The fourth edition rules are available here:
Lets see if i can say this clearer, i'm not looking for PFS scenarios, i'm not getting other RPGs, its pathfinder or bust for me.
i would like an AP where its easy incorporating the following elements: Gothic, a way to include a magic academy easily, and an air of mystery.
i've done Carrion Crown in the past and might do that one again, but i was wondering if others (especially CotCT) incorporate some of those elements.
lastly their ages are irrelevant as i will edit as i need to and i've been gaming with kids at the table for a few years now:-)
thanks for any advice:-)
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Well, if you're definitely leaning toward CotCT, go for it. I recommend obtaining Academy of Secrets, and heavily integrating it into the campaign. Trust me, the hogwarts-style maps alone are worth its inclusion.
Thanks i will look at it:)
So far the APs i'm considering are
Curse of the Crimson Throne (i think they would love Korvosa and the whole story)
Carrion Crown (with The Harrowing replacing WotW)
Shattered Star (i like the ancient thassilon angle and love the AP)
I think they'd like Mummy's Mask personally but you know kids, they all wanna make Hermione and Ron and such. Personally i don't like the books and can tolerate the movies (except for the second one with Jar Jar Binks's simulacrum)
i'll get the PDF for book two of CotCT this week or next and figure out if i want to go that route, it gets great reviews and converting to pathfinder it turns out isn't as daunting as i thought it might:-)
I don't convert APs, usually.
If I feel the need to power up a stat block, it's trivial to find them online (PFSRD.com has nearly every statblock from every 3.5 AP updated).
But more often I will just have the PCs trail the AP by a level or two and leave things as they were.
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Actually, running an edited Curse of the Crimson Throne such that the PCs are young students at the Acadmae sounds like a sweet idea. Of course you'll have to tune down a lot of the nastier stuff (keep some of it, though - if you don't give the kids a good chill down their spine every now and then, you ain't doin' it right). You could replace them working with the city watch with them working for one of the professors :)
Thanks your Mammoth-ness, just what i was looking for! one question that comes to mind is, for how long do they work for the Watch, is it pretty much the whole campaign?
Captain, you really need to read the detailed campaign summaries before making this kind of decision.
APs are just too long to go in blind like this.
CotCT is a fairly dark AP -- plagues and undead and the like. it might run a little too dark, in fact, for what you're trying to do.
Curse of the Crimson Throne has no campaign summary in book 1, and I agree. I have plenty of time, not happening until new year:)
I'm a little surprised that nobody has recommended Reign of Winter - the game starts out in Southern Taldor, and they could easily be attending an academy there. The whole focus of the campaign is witches/dark fairy tales, which matches the tone of Harry Potter pretty well. There's even a "magical world meets mundane world" angle to the AP as you get sent to Earth (during WWI) to do battle with Rasputin.
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Thanks your Mammoth-ness, just what i was looking for! one question that comes to mind is, for how long do they work for the Watch, is it pretty much the whole campaign?
They only really work for the watch in the first couple of adventures. After that they are much more independent.
CotCT is a fairly dark AP -- plagues and undead and the like. it might run a little too dark, in fact, for what you're trying to do.
Well, Harry Potter is definitely dark as well from pretty early on. Chamber of Secrets is already fairly dark with a monster loose in school petrifying children and all, in the third book we have dementors and a higppogryf almost getting executed... A lot of the magic kids find in the books is from being frifhgtened. I certainly think one can tap into that, present the dark stuff in CotCT in a somewhat simplified, more childish manner and make it something that kids would enjoy being slightly disturbed at. Does require some finesse to get it right, though.
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I'm a little surprised that nobody has recommended Reign of Winter - the game starts out in Southern Taldor, and they could easily be attending an academy there. The whole focus of the campaign is witches/dark fairy tales, which matches the tone of Harry Potter pretty well. There's even a "magical world meets mundane world" angle to the AP as you get sent to Earth (during WWI) to do battle with Rasputin.
The reason I didn't is that in Reign of Winter the character are always on the move and it's hard to establish a "magic school" base of operations, which I think is part of the inherent charm of Harry Potter... but if the requirements are more along "have a story packed full with magic and weirdness and adventure" then yes, Reign of Witner fits the bill perfectly. And, after the second adventure, the hut of baba yaga can serve as the Hogwarts equivalent. It's even possible to put some sort of Dumbledore character in there - a mentor that guides the PCs and teaches them.
I was about to say Reign of Winter....But then the poster above me already mentioned it.
It is kind of forced, but they deal with this world, and that world, and even have Baba Yaga (which you could fit into a Harry Potter type thing of a caster gone bad or something...maybe one of the Death Eaters long forgotten).
You could adapt Wrath of the Righteous, but instead of the Crusades, have it about the academy of Magic holding back the World wound, and it's destruction leads to a new war....
Council of Thieves is a bit wee too adult of kiddys...if you want to do a LOT of editing, that could fit in fairly easily, with things guarding the streets at night, but will eat you too...mysterious villains in the dark, and magical powers being used in corrupt ways.
I had also thought of Reign of Winter due to its ties to Mysticism, but as Lord Snow says, the traveling about in the hut makes it unlikely to connect well in a Harry Potter sense, tho i might come up with something as a thought just popped in my head, can't expand now, really busy.
i had also thought of Shattered Star with Sheila Heidmarch becoming more of the headmistress.
and yes Harry Potter is very much rooted in the Gothic/Pulp Genre (Gothic Horror for kids i call it:)