So my surgery on this AP continues. One thing that's kind of been bothering me is
Spoiler:
that we start out in this fantasy world and eventually get hurled to another planet, which contains... castles and dragons. If we're going to bother going to another planet shouldn't it be just a bit less familiar than that?
I'm still debating if I'm feeling this ambitious, but I'm giving serious thought to replacing Triaxus with another fantasy world. One that's a bit less stock. One that I was always bummed I never got to play in back when I spent way too much time playing a far less satisfying system...
Who here remembers the Rifts RPG? Who here remembers the Wormwood dimension book for it? I think that's where my players are going. Of course, Baba Yaga isn't going to be on the side of the Cathedral...
I'm looking forward to the Apok fight. And maybe a Battle Saint.
The castles and dragons fit within the fairytale theme. But I can see your point. However, I am preparing this adventure for my group at the moment and it kind of grows on you. I will be adding in a lot of stuff about the history of dragons, especially because a sorcerer PC has a draconic bloodline.
The adventure has tips to add weirdness to it in order to make it feel more alien.
I wouldn't let that look and feel bother you too much. For my game, I kept the trappings, but altered things just enough to show that it's different. For one, since mine uses Clinton Boomer's Marvel Pathfinders as its setting rather than Golarion, I was able to turn that chapter into something like the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Triaxus became the planet Godthab Omega, a world under the jurisdiction of the Xandarians. The players would be helping or fighting the Nova Corps, who use technological versions of medieval weapons (crossbows became something akin to the Wookie Bowcaster and fired energy bolts that target touch AC, for example). The invading army became forces of the Black Order being led by Korath the Pursuer, a Kree subcommander more loyal to his general, Ronan (also known as "the Accuser"), than to the Order's true leader, Thanos. The Black Order possess more overtly technological weaponry than the Xandarian forces based on this world. And I had fun changing the Black Order forces to resemble the Sakarran soldiers and setting up encounters that would not only have the players meet up with the individual Guardians, but possibly be instrumental in their teaming up together.
You need dragons and dragon-riders. One logical replacement would be Krynn, where you could pull out your old Dragonlance books. Another would be Pern, but I'm unaware of any published OGL materials based on the Dragonriders of Pern series.
You need dragons and dragon-riders. One logical replacement would be Krynn, where you could pull out your old Dragonlance books.
I don't think you actually do, to be honest. Aside from the dragon scale key, there's nothing in the overall story that requires the dragons to be there: the entirety of the Triaxus storyline is more or less self-contained, and you could drop in pretty much any planet and still get the PCs where they need to go (with the keys to take them to the next book). It should probably be somewhere with lots of winter, as ostensibly the reason Baba Yaga went there is because she's syphoning its winter into Irrisen. Even that could be worked around, though, with any planet that has poles. So there are several reasons why Wormwood is attractive to me as a replacement (aside from, as previously mentioned, not being excited about Triaxus and having always wanted to play in Wormwood).
First, it has a strong light vs. dark storyline, which plays nicely with some other extra-AP stuff I've got in the works. The timing of this works out very well too, as I'm planning to drop kind of a bombshell on one of my players soon that will make him very aware of that angle. So it'll arise as a major story force right at the time when said player will be concerned with it.
Second, there's a big ol' war going on, which will make it easy to reuse parts of the adventure path (seige mechanics, dungeon layouts, etc.) with a bit of reskinning. Likewise, most of the setting maps pretty well to D&D tropes without being obvious (ex.: apoks are paladins, wormspeakers are icky clerics).
Third, it gives me a chance to flip the fairytale angle on its head. Wormwood is a grim and miserable place, and then these weird people are going to show up and start describing this magical place full of trees and rivers and people who aren't trying to kill you. It'll seem like a fairytale to the denizens of Wormwood, and the PCs will seem like fairytale creatures to them (no elves or giant wolves on Wormwood). I think it'll be fun to give the PCs the opportunity to experience the fairytale from the other side.
Haladir wrote:
Another would be Pern, but I'm unaware of any published OGL materials based on the Dragonriders of Pern series.
Nothing for Wormwood either, just the abominable Palladium system. I'm up for the challenge, though.
Bellona wrote:
I thought that it was Bretheda or Liavara which had the sky-whales?
Triaxus has sky whales too, but they're far removed from where the AP takes place. Which sort of feeds into my point: if you're going to send the PCs to another planet, why pick the place that's the most like the planet they were already on?
Your ideas are very interesting and I would like to hear how it turns out, especially the part where the PCs are seen as fairytale creatures. I am preparing The frozen stars for my group at the moment. My angle so far has been to elaborate on the dragon themes. One of my players plays a sorcerer with a (white) draconic bloodline and so far I have elaborated on the sorcerer in the pale tower (sorry, but I forgot her name) and the Logrivich plot. I have also added a dragon encounter to MMC. Since dragons are surely fairytale creatures, I could perhaps combine the two aspects.
As for Helliconia: I read it long ago. I am planning to reread some stuff, so probably Anne McGaffrey and Brian Aldiss' Helliconia winter/Helliconia spring.
I was also reminded of Marion Bradley's Darkover novels, especially in connection with the Skyfire Mandate. They are a very close-knit community and the atmosphere of some of the books might work. Though the position of women on Darkover is vastly different from that on Triaxus, there were some hints about issues with relations between Triaxians and Dragonkin, so that is an interesting angle to explore, especially when the PCs can obtain their own dragonkin. There could be a very strict code to which the PCs have to adhere.
Also, Darkover has a relatively cold climate, and the mountain range in the Skyfire Mandate reminded me of the Hellers.
Of all the things I could have removed from this part of the AP, the involvement of the dragonkin was something I'm glad I didn't drop. And the reason for that was pretty simple: giving the PCs the opportunity to experience riding one. It's not that commonplace of a thing on the planet Golarion as is, and on the world of "my" setting, Terrene? Forget it, because no dragon would ever stoop so low as to carry a member of the mongrel races on their back. So giving them the opportunity to not only ride a dragonkin, but to bond with one as well, should prove to be a worthwhile experience for the players, provided they don't squander it. Because I can only present the water-trough to the horse. Taking that drink is entirely up to it.
Also, calling Quill's dragonkin "Milano" to reference the ship from the movie makes for a nice Easter egg for them to discover.
Guardians of the Galaxy... Star-Lord's ship is called the "Milano," named after Alyssa Milano, who young Peter had a crush on before he was abducted by the Ravagers.
@Bellona - I heard him call the ship that a few times in the movie... it wasn't until I did research that I found out why.
@ryschwith - For me, keeping the dragonkin will give the world a strong dragonriders of Pern feel and I know at least one of my players will appreciate this (he's a big Anne McCaffery fan and an even bigger Pern aficionado), especially since both sides will be making use of them. I wish I was at my laptop to reference this more accurately.
The base being used by the Nova Corps is a relic from another time that they have occupied and adapted for their own purposes. Much better than spending resources to build a whole new facility. Same with the Black Order, but given that their purpose is to raze worlds for Thanos, that is appropriate.
My point is that you don't have to discount everything that is in the adventure. You already have some idea as to what you're doing or going to do, so do that without making more work for yourself.
I like the idea of replacing or at least modifying this chapter as though it takes place on Krynn.
Just did a quick search and I was surprised that there were so many Dragonlance modules published. Anyone have any idea which module could potentially replace this chapter?
So... nearly a year later (yikes!) and my PCs have finally put Yrax in the cold, hard ground.
(Note: semi-spoilers abound ahead.)
I did indeed transpose this to Wormwood, but I found I could leave a lot of the structure of it intact (after all, I'm quite a lazy DM). There was still the siege at the Spurhorn, the Rimekeening Crevasse, and Ivoryglass. Dragonkin were basically reskinned into a lot of Wormwood native creatures. The Skyfire Mandate became a vast swath of (unnamed) land in between the holdings of the Cathedral and the realm controlled by the Unholy, with the Spurhorn situated in a strategically important range of mountains. The dragonkin in the Cathedral's forces became insect-like symbiotes, and the dragonkin (and similar creatures) in the Unholy's forces became skelterbats, feathered serpents, and a few other nasties. Pure dragons were swapped with demons and devils generally, and Yrax himself was converted into a fallen trumpet archon.
There were three areas that received major revision (not all of it intentional).
The first of these was the beginning. Instead of Bescaylie and Efrixes, the PCs sort of wandered in the inhospitable wastes for a few days before coming across Gavin Wormtongue and his band of "free peoples." Gavin and company took the PCs in, acquainted them with basic survival in Wormwood, and helped them get their bearings. He explained that his group were on a recruiting mission for soldiers for the Free Peoples to combat the oppressive Cathedral. When the PCs finally realized that "recruiting" wasn't precisely voluntary, they found themselves in a bit of an ethical bind. It was during this village raid that Penitence the apok showed up and the PCs suddenly had a choice: stick with Gavin and his people who had been so helpful to them but were now stealing villagers from their homes, or throw their luck in with this new, demon-faced character who was rather violently defending said villagers. (After some deliberation they sided with Penitence, who then took over Bescaylie's responsibilities getting them to the Spurhorn.)
As for the Spurhorn, the beginning and end played out as in the book: they had to sneak in past numerous Unholy patrols, there was the council discussion, and eventually the siege which was pretty much straight from the book. There was a significantly expanded middle, though, in which the PCs were sent out into the surrounding foothills to pick off Unholy patrols that were trying to find a Battle Saint rumored to be hidden there. (A Battle Saint, incidentally, is a Godzilla-sized magical robot of goodness and butt-kicking that can be activated by a Battle Orb). The council informed the PCs that the Cathedral had decided to send them an Orb to activate the Saint and break the seige; Malisindre, having learned of the orb, was desperate to find the Saint first to prevent the Cathedral forces from activating it.
Naturally, then, the siege coincided with the arrival of the Orb. The final battle was replaced with a battle in and around the Orb (it forms the head of the Saint when activated, so it's pretty sizable; and also it flies), which lead to one of the PCs having to assume control of it and then the Saint. So they didn't get to ride dragons, but one of them did get to pilot a skyscraper-sized engine of mass destruction and lay waste to Malisindre's encampment. They seemed pretty pleased with that outcome.
(Oh yeah, and all of this prompted the PCs to suspect that there was a traitor in the Spurhorn, so I figured, "why not?" Thus Amarenth turned coat--corrupted by the nocturnal needling of the crone's two-headed bird.)
The last big change--and the most accidental of them--involved me noticing the night before the session in question that there's kind of a small village around Ivoryglass that gets all of one sentence in the book and absolutely no map or details. I think they intended it to just be another string of patrol encounters leading up to the fortress, but my ad-libbing of it kind of turned it into a pretty sizable establishment, including a small rebellion against Yrax. Their eventual plan to get into the fortress (after their first plan of going up and knocking on the door, explaining that they'd murdered Malisindre, and inquiring if a certain rug was for purchase) involved a circus. It... made for a pretty fun couple of sessions. Once they got inside, it went pretty much according to plan.
So that's probably more about all of this than any of you actually wanted to know. I think it went really well, though. I had a lot of fun running it and my players gave me a lot of compliments, so I think it was well received. Now wait until they see what comes next (no, I'm not altering that part)...
