So a recent post I made got me thinking...
Has anyone here taken a truly modular approach to the APs? While some of them don't really play well with others, I've seen a lot of talk about kitbashing RotR and Shattered Star, and I myself have used Souls for Smuggler's Shiv as a replacement for the Wormwood Mutiny (with some tweaks).
There are some in this thread.
(Geez- has it already been a year since then!?!?)
Anyway, always a fun one to do. Interested in seeing some more.
So a recent post I made got me thinking...
Has anyone here taken a truly modular approach to the APs? While some of them don't really play well with others, I've seen a lot of talk about kitbashing RotR and Shattered Star, and I myself have used Souls for Smuggler's Shiv as a replacement for the Wormwood Mutiny (with some tweaks).
I'm running a campaign using the six books of Rise of the Runelords, three books of Shattered star and one book from Curse of the Crimson Throne. They all link almost seamlessly. I'd say that overall I've cut out maybe 20% of the total material and added in another 10% worth of new stuff. Epic campaign.
I've seriously begun thinking about doing a larger integration of Serpent's Skull and Skull n' Shackles with some additions from Plunder and Peril as well... I've also been considering incorporating the first two books of Second Darkness with different motivations for the PC's.
There's potential to use the first book of Legacy of Fire as a way for the PC's to come together before the events in Mummy's Mask, though there would need to be some tweaking of the challenges in MM Book 1 to reflect their experience level.
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I moved A History of Ashes out of Curse of the Crimson Throne and put it as part of The Varnhold Vanishing in Kingmaker, making the Shoanti NPCs such as Krojun and Thousand Bones part of the Nomen tribe.
When we get around to running CotCT, we're replacing that chapter with a heavily-modified version of Mother of Flies from Council of Thieves coupled with the Academy of Secrets module in place of all the vampire bits (which our CoT game kept).
I'm also cannibalizing portions of Serpent's Skull for our upcoming Savage Tide game and a potential Second Darkness game in the distant future (which will have all the Drow replaced with Yuan-Ti and Serpentfolk).
Herald of The Ivory Labyrinth and parts of City of Locusts (not a fan of quite a bit of the first half of that book) work great for continuing the campaign of most APs, since they're designed for 18+ levels, also Iomedae doesn't come off as such a b$&$$ if she's soundboarding press ganged adventurers from elsewhere cause she's desperate because the war isn't going her way.
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An interesting thread premise!
I will give a somewhat snarky answer to it, too.
Yes. It's called Carrion Crown and as it turns out, it has sold surprisingly well over the years, too. Many of the issues are sold out with others dangerously (and surprisingly!) low on inventory. And this has transpired despite the fact that the AP is acknowledged as having one of the flimsier metaplots and weaker connective tissue between each of the adventures of any AP (All of which are actually pretty damned good "Theme Parks" on their own, to the authors' credit).
Moral of the Story: Gothic Horror is evergreen and will always sell if done well.
Other Moral of the Story: Apply the same yardstick to "classic fantasy" and you will get the same "do well" result. It will be something that players enjoy playing and GMs will be happy to run. So yes, you probably can do as many have suggested here and it will work with a little elbow grease and re-imagining. How well will depend upon the tastes of the GM and his or her players, but yes, totally doable.
I will, someday, run Carrion Crown as a homage to Ghostbusters.
I will, someday, run Carrion Crown as a homage to Ghostbusters.
I had a weird thought today that it might be cool as a Buffy/Angel/Supernatural campaign. I haven't read it all yet, though.
I'm currently running a Mythic Golarion campaign that mixes classic modules, PFS scenarios and sections of APs to create the ultimate Golarion experience, IMHO of course.
We started with the Price of Immortality as our foundation and built from there. We're currently up to the Seven Swords of Sin.
Crypt of the Everflame
Godsmouth Heresy
Masks of the Living God
City of Golden Death
The Immortal Conundrum
The Confirmation
Black Waters
Rise of the Goblin Guild
King of the Storval Stairs
Seven Swords of Sin
The Asylum Stone (Shattered Star AP)
Crucible of Chaos
Beyond the Vault of Souls
Endless Night (Second Darkness AP)
The Demon Within
The Dragon's Graveyard (Yes, I'm running it, even if it's retconned.)
Shadows of Gallowspire (Carrion Crown AP)
Blood of Dragonscar
Moonscar
Herald of the Ivory Labyrinth (Wrath of the Righteous AP)
Parts 11 and 12 of a Dungeon magazine AP (Which I won't name in case my players are reading this thread. ;))
City of Locusts (Wrath of the Righteous AP)
Dungeons of Golarion: Gallowspire
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So, haven't actually DONE this, but I got to thinking about how I'd tweak Shattered Star....
I've always been a bit bemused that every single Shard is still within the general area of Varisia... in all those centuries since,NOBODY came and snagged a piece?
Proposed new structure for reassembling the Sihedron via more of a globe-trotting AP:
1. The Half-Dead City. Run more or less as described. Instead of the Mummy's Mask McGuffin, the item in the tomb, in fact, a piece of the Sihedron, stolen shortly after the fall of Thassilon, and eventually secured by the Church of Nethys and included as tomb loot. The PCs are not necessarily the wiser about this-they just go in and do some good old-fashioned looting and throw down with all enemies as written, and get their hands on a Sihedron Shard. The biggest change, in this version, would be in stressing during character creation that being a native Osiriani is not, actually, that much of a perk, because we willbe moving on- and that they end the first adventure with only a single Shard.
2. Modified Racing to Ruin. Instead of arriving in Eleder, the PCs find themselves being courted by various factions while still in Wati. Word that they explored the relevant tomb has gotten out, and the Pathfinder Society, the Aspis Consortium, the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye, and the Night Heralds all want their piece of the Sihedron. Since I have zero intention of using the varied Serpent's Skull faction options, the Night Heralds don't actually court the PCs- they just attack them where they live- first by sending their "Riot of Arsonists," then, as the PCs make it out of the burning building, they sic the remaining encounters of the Racing to Ruin's opening act on the party, a sort of running fight along Wati's waterfront. This does not make the local authorities happy, but representatives of the other three factions, working in unaccustomed unity, intercede, using their influence to keep the PCs at liberty where they can be leaned upon- and where their chunk of the Sihedron can stay out of the hands of the government. The Pathfinder Society rep then offers to explain a little bit about what the hell is going on- and offers the ioun stone to socket into the piece they have (the Aspis guy just offers cold hard cash for the shard, and the Palatine rep just goes, "you have no idea what you have and should hand it over to people who do.") Assuming the party doesn't just end the AP early by either selling their shard to the Aspis or giving it to the Eldritch Order, the PFs help the PCs get their act together to follow up a lead well outside of Osirion... which, given their recent highly public fracas is all to the good. They have an uneventful sea voyage (yes, they happen!) to a Mwangi port and get the background on what the big deal is with the magic pointy thing they found, at which point we just crank out the remainder of Racing to Ruin as written, except that the magical map they find is actually two of the remaining Sihedron shards- and the ruins are not Azlanti as such- instead, we play up that the ruins of the Azlanti outpost were briefly inhabited by Thassilonian refugees. The Pathfinder society, duly impressed, agrees to let the PCs handle the rest of the retrieval process(getting us properly on the Shattered Star track)
3. Modified Varnhold Vanishing. Move it to the Storval Plateau on Varisia, and place the next shard in the big bad's tomb (he got ultra-mega exiled in this version <_<). Toss out the bits about running the kingdom- just have the PCs head to Varnhold because its the nearest community to where the Sihedron is sending them next. Swap out the Nomen (because Centaurs are a transparent allegory which has been given entirely too much time and page count in the history of fantasy RPGs) for a local group of Shoanti. Turn the Hexploration into an excuse to not roll for "random" encounters- just use it to figure out what they party runs into as they go about their business.
4. Beyond the Doomsday Door. Almost zero changes, except any retroactive stuffthat slips my mind at present.
5. Skeletons of Scarwall. My favorite dungeon is as good a place to stick a Sihedron shard as anywhere else.
6. The Dead Heart of Xin. Because sooner or later, it all comes back to that bag of bones and his clockworks.