Converted Rise of the Runelords Playtest


Running the Game


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Hey Community. You don’t know me but I have been a dedicated fan of Pathfinder for the past 8 years. Pathfinder was the first TTRPG that I played fully. I have played a couple levels of 5e and even picked up a 4e book when it was first released but never got to play it.

I have decided for my own purposes to convert RotRL to 2e for my group. 3 main reasons for this was 1. How easy is it to convert old content to new rules because in a year when the full rules come out there will probably only be 1 AP and a couple Scenarios, some groups will probably want to play some older APs with the new rules. 2. Because I do have some, for lack of a better word, “close-minded” individuals in my group who are put off by the term Occult and anything otherworldly. And 3. I wanted to utilize all of 2e’s rules, since treasure and xp rewards and encounter building work differently I wanted to test the ease of use of such rules from a GM standpoint.

As I am converting this using all the rules I chose the Anniversary Edition of RotRL. And since treasure and currency does not convert straight over, nor do the monsters, I had to re write and distribute my own treasure based on the new rules. So far I have converted up to the catacombs of wrath, and every encounter is pretty much on par in terms of # of monsters and difficulty, based on the encounter budget rules in the Playtestiary. Even converting Tsuto the Monk2/Rogue2 (in PF1) does not seem overly powerful, but will definitely present a severe challenge to the PCs. The only road block I think the PCs might hit is the room in the Glassworks with 8 Goblin Warriors, which in 2e is well above and beyond even an extreme encounter. However I will be giving all of the goblins the weakend adjustment without the drop in hp as they only have 6 I can’t make it -4. This adjustment effectively makes them a Creature Level -1 (yes I know lowest is 0), which would put them at experience for budget of Party Level -2. So we will see how well that works out.

We will be having a character building session next Sunday and will post my PCs and their feat choices afterwards. At each level I will give an in depth analysis of how the players felt their mechanics worked and how well they feel their character contributed/felt useless.

After each session I will post about each encounter, how long it took, how well the PCs faired against the monsters, as much information on how much of their resources were used and the overall feel of combat. I will also post how each encounter with 2e conversion lined up with the original encounter.


Another thing to note is that for NPC bosses I used character creation but only gave them 2 Free +2 boosts instead of the Standard 4 free. I chose this because there are no rules for building the NPCs specifically. For Monster bosses I added the elite adjustment, so far I have only Erylium the Quasit as a monster boss so I only added 1 elite adjustment to her, and her initial sinspawn still makes the encounter a severe type encounter based on the encounter budget table. Depending on how well the PCs do during this fight I might have her add another sinspawn.


Really interested in this! Please if you can put your thoughts on the conversion and encounter/treasure balance.

Good luck!


Thanks I will give greater detail on the encounters when the PCs get through them.

As for treasure I’ve used the treasure distribution per level rules and have had to pick and choose the treasure to give for every level. So far I have done this by converting the encounters first, figuring out how much to give per level(by using the table in the treasure section), picking the treasure, then dividing the treasure out to each encounter. So far it seems like not every encounter should have treasure, it seems to be easier to give most of the treasure and currency to the bosses/bigger fights, and the remainder in empty rooms. Things like the NPCs Armor and weapons just seem so lacklustre as treasure, though you can use them as a way of calculating the currency total the PCs get as part of the treasure distribution table. I will not be giving my PCs any of the NPCs mundane equipment as treasure (save for ammunition) basically going to consider it all of poor quality, beaten up in the fight, this will make the currency distribution seem more significant when they find a pouch of 20gp in the Boss’ room or on the boss.

I will post the treasure the PCs acquired in the encounters they acquired them in, then give a total list at their level up as a summary of everything they should have picked up for proper treasure distribution.


I'm excited to see your results


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Hey guys, this will be my last post until Character Creation.

So I just finished converting the first book, Burnt Offerings, with only 3-4 hours available to work on it per day, I managed to completely convert it in 4 days. This time included Converting encounters, Rewriting Class Level NPC's/Villains, Figuring out, selecting and distributing treasure, quick smoke/bathroom breaks and interacting with my son when he wanted my attention. I also got a bit distracted and created my own Backgrounds based on the Traits from the Anniversary Edition's Player's Guide.

All in all i would say conversion is pretty easy and intuitive. The new Encounter building rules are really great this time around i had no trouble figuring them out. The Elite and Weak adjustment tables were also easy to understand. I remember trying to build some encounters and adjust monsters with 1e rules and i just couldn't get it. The only issue i ran into was remembering that my PC's were a higher level as i progressed through converting, some encounters would come up Severe or Extreme. This is because the monsters XP is always based on the Party's Level, so Creature Level 1 for a level 1 party is 40xp and Creature level 2 for a Level 2 Party is also 40xp, once i remembered this those encounters dropped to Low and High difficulty. its just something people will need to get used to when building encounters.

Unfortunately some encounters required monsters that are not in the Playtestiary, so i used monsters that fit the same general premise. For example the Yeth Hounds are not in the Playtestiary so I used Hell Hounds instead, same level, same type of creature.

I also had to recreate the Portcullis Trap from the very last section. Reading the hazard rules i realized i could just assign DC's, such as stealth and Reflex. I made the Stealth a 4th level Extreme DC since only 1 person is gonna get trapped in it and i feel the rogue is going to be scouting for it. I took the Glaive Stats for Damage and made it an auto hit which i then gave it the Reflex save, I then made a 4 Degrees of Success table for the Reflex save as follows.
Success: Target Takes no Damage but is trapped,
Critical Success: as Success but target may take a Step before the Portcullis's drop.
Failure: Creature Takes 2d8+6 Damage and is trapped
Critical Failure: Creature takes 4d8+12 damage and is trapped
I feel this accurately represents a creature being trapped in a 5ft square with 2 Glaives slashing at the air, one high and one low. Success means a character was able to react quick enough to either drop to the ground or press themselves up against the portcullis or wall so as to avoid being hit. A critical success means they were quick enough to realize as they stepped in the square what was gonna happen and managed to either jump back or spring forward to avoid being caught.Failure of course means they were too clumsy and slow and got caught unaware.

As I finished converting the book I went back and calculated all the xp and Level advancement syncs up quite well with what it says it should in the AP. The PC's will reach 2nd by defeating Tsuto or just before encountering him. They will hit 3rd level just before entering the thistletop stronghold building. And will hit 4th by defeating Nualia or just before Encountering her.

Well thats all I have for today. Please check back in on Monday when I will post about the PC's taking on the job of protecting Golarion from a Runelord.


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Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Would you be willing to share the final conversions that you do? My group is looking at running through Rise of the Runelords and it would be interesting to do it using 2E mechanics.


It would be fun to do RotRL in 2E, I would also love to see a final product.


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For Sure. here is the Google Docs link.

Burnt Offerings PF2e Conversion

You will still need the Anniversary Edition of Rise of the Runelords which I do not have the Authority to share.

I have not given Nualia her spells yet i noticed. but I realized that as a Cleric of Lamashtu anyone using this doc can assign her their own choice of spells.

Encounters are listed by either their titles from the book or the Location such as A17. B4. and so on. # and name of monsters plus if they have the Elite or Weak adjustment are listed first, then total XP for the encounter, then for normal monsters treasure is listed. for NPCs/Villains their treasure is in their stat block, and their stat block is usually the next page down.

EDIT: Hmmmm. Im not sure how to share the Google Docs link. when i copy and paste it, it brings up a page not found error. Could anyone inform me on how to do this as i have never tried Google Docs before but I know its what everyone uses.

Double Edit: nevermind. Figured out how to give it a URL and it works now.


I forgot to mention you will also need the Playtestiary and CRB for my conversions.


I'm also interested in hearing how this goes. I'm going to be running Kingmaker when my face-to-face group finishes Wrath of the Righteous, and I was debating about converting to PF2 for it. That probably won't be until the new version itself is released, but anything I learn in advance can only help.


Alric Rahl wrote:
Another thing to note is that for NPC bosses I used character creation but only gave them 2 Free +2 boosts instead of the Standard 4 free. I chose this because there are no rules for building the NPCs specifically. For Monster bosses I added the elite adjustment, so far I have only Erylium the Quasit as a monster boss so I only added 1 elite adjustment to her, and her initial sinspawn still makes the encounter a severe type encounter based on the encounter budget table. Depending on how well the PCs do during this fight I might have her add another sinspawn.

I noticed NPCs in the Doomsday dawn are created like monsters. I do not think there are any desire bu the designers to make monsters using PC rules. It could make for some interesting playtesting using the NPCs are created as PC's.


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From what I gathered, the designers basically picked ability mods and skill bonuses that always gave the PCs at least a 40-60% chance of hitting. Take the goblin warrior for example. It’s AC is 14 (I think I don’t have the book in front of me). A first level PC has between a 4-6 for their hit roll. This makes it a 50% chance of hitting, A Goblin Commando has a 16 I believe, this makes a 1st level PCs chance to hit 40%. As they fight tougher monsters it seems the AC keeps in line this hit chance. Heck even the NPCs I built using the PC rules have a 15-17 AC, and those are the Villain/Bosses so it would make sense the hit chance Drops a little, but even Nualia with her 21 I think is still only about 50% for a 3rd-4th Level PC.

So keeping this in mind NPCs and monsters can be built relatively easily.


Hello again community. time to meet the heroes. But first some notes;

1. I originally told my group they would get one freebie feat to be used for the Half-it's Heritage feats, Archetype Dedication feats, or the Multiclass Dedication feats at level 2. Now i told them this before i started re-writing the NPC Villains/Bosses. Once I started re-writing the NPC's I realized that the Multiclass and Heritage feats actually work as currently written. No one in my group took a Heritage or Archetype with this freebie feat, instead my rogue wanted to be able to use starknives, so I added that the freebie could be used for a Bonus Skill or General feat, everyone jumped at that, but not everyone has chosen one yet.

2. The other most experienced player in my group voiced his concern on how lackluster the General and Skill feats feel. And we both agreed that perhaps every class should get 1 Bonus feat at character creation to be used on either a Skill or General feat. Yes this would give Rogues a total of 3 {2 from class, 1 from background}, but it would make Character diversity at creation more apparent. For example, a player could actually take Splint mail at 1st level as well as a Heavy Wooden shield and weapon and still have some coin left over for adventuring gear. But no one is going to because of that -10ft to speed. My Dwarven Paladin said "Hell no" to being reduced to 15ft, but if he was able to take a General or Skill feat at 1st level he would have taken Fleet and been able to stay at 20ft. Any other race could as well and not feel that speed reduction so terribly. He decided not to take Fleet with the freebie i gave them anyway and opted to stick to Medium armor for now.

3. I created Backgrounds from the Anniversary edition Player's Guide based on the Traits and all of the Players chose one of those.

4. I was a little concerned about the General Feat: Weapon Proficiency, it says "if you are trained in ALL simple weapons you become trained in all martial". Well what if for example the Wizard is trained in only a select few weapons, it seems they would be unable to take this feat.

So without further ado, here are the Heroes.

Knutgas {Pronounced newt-guh} Northwind - Dwarf Ranger {Two Weapon}
Brother of Dunebrash Northwind
Background: Monster Hunter {Strength or Dexterity boost + Free boost, Intimidating Glare skill feat, Monster Lore}
Str: 16, Dex: 16, Con: 14, Int: 10, Wis: 14, Cha: 8.
Feats: Hardy{Ancestry}, Double Slice{Class}, Intimidating Glare{Background}, has not chosen a freebie feat yet.
Weapons: Dwarven Waraxe, Warhammer

Knutgas seemed to do very well with his Two Weapon fighting, managed to hit with both of them consistently. He took 1 hit with his 17 AC. He found 20 feet a little slow, but enjoyed that he could move twice in a single round as it managed to keep him close to the combat.

Dunebrash Northwind - Dwarf Paladin of Torag
Brother of Knutgas Northwind
Background: Giant Slayer {Strength or Constitution Boost + Free boost, Defensive Climber Skill feat, Giant Lore}
Str: 14, Dex: 16, Con: 14, Int: 10, Wis: 12, Cha: 12.
Feats: Hatred{Ancestry}, Hospice Knight{Class}, Defensive Climber{Background}, Intimidating Glare{Freebie}
Weapons: Warhammer, Shield Spikes

Dunebrash seemed to have a harder time hitting things, mainly because his dice were not working for him, he used two attacks with his Warhammer as often as he could and managed to hit on the 2nd attack more often then the first, so multiple attacks even with a penalty are great now as it gives more chances to roll high. He was the tank and took most of the hits mostly 6's from the dogslicers, but with his 22 HP he managed to stay alive quite well.

Ylladi {Pronounced Yeh-La-Di} Elf Rogue {Two Weapon}
Background: Family Ties {Wisdom or Charisma boost + Free Boost, Experienced Smuggler skill feat, Underworld Lore}
Str: 10, Dex: 18, Con: 8, Int: 14, Wis: 12, Cha: 16
Feats: Nimble{Ancestry}, Nimble Dodge{Class}, Experienced Smuggler{Background}, Quick Intimidation{Rogue Skill Feat}, Weapon Proficiency: Starknife{Freebie}
Weapons: Dual Starknives

Ylladi had a great time with her starknives, she was able to hit at range and add her dex to damage and hit at melee consistently too. She got to use her surprise attack within the first round and flanked with the tank to get her sneak attack regularily.

Blythe: Half-elf Druid {Wild Order}
Background: Goblin Watcher {Wisdom or Intelligence Boost + Free Boost, Quick Identification skill feat, Artifact Lore}
Str: 14, Dex: 16, Con: 12, Int: 10, Wis: 16, Cha: 10
Feats: Half-elf; +5ft speed, Lowlight vision{Ancestry}, Wild Shape{Class}, Quick Identification{Background}, Battlemedic{Freebie}
Weapons: Dagger, Sling

Blythe had a hard time hitting both in melee and at range, but again mainly because his dice were not with him. When their tank was engaged in melee and down to 5 hp, he used his 2 action Heal to restore the tanks hp from 30ft away, which he did enjoy.

All in all each one enjoyed the way combat and initiative plays out so far.

Now for the Encounters themselves. I will use the names or Room markers from the book in this thread, so if you have the book you can reference them to see the difference.

Initial Assault: 3 Goblin Warriors {90xp, High Difficulty} I played this out how the book suggests, having the goblins run willy-nilly until engaged, the first goblin was defeated in the first round before he even got to move, this was thanks to the rogue. The second goblin was chasing an NPC until he was engaged by the Ranger and killed. The last goblin was flanked and killed on round 2.

Goblin Pyros: 3 Goblin Warriors, 1 Goblin Warchanter {120xp, Severe Difficulty}, This one I played as the town square was deserted so the goblins just attacked the PC's. This is where the tank took most of the hits. 2 Goblins Charged the PC's while 1 Warrior and the Warchanter stayed back and fired their Shortbows, The Warchanter was able to continue Casting Inspire Courage even while shooting, this was great. Once the PC's closed the gap the goblins flanked the tank and the Goblin Warrior even managed to flank 2 PC's in the same round, Attacking 1 then moving and flanking another with the Warchanter. Although I could of knocked the Tank into Unconciousness, i opted to split the attack between him and the flanking ranger. It wouldnt have mattered anyway as later that the remaining goblins were finished. Overall though I i dont feel like this fight was actually a Severe Difficulty. Maybe if all the goblins were attacking the same PC from range or in melee it might have felt like that, but neither me nor the PC's were worried about them being taken down.

So to summarize

I feel PC's should get a Bonus feat at 1st level that allows them to take either a General or Skill feat as my Players were alot more open to that idea then the heritage or archetypes. While I know this is only the Playtest and there arent alot of options for Archetypes or Heritages at the moment, I still feel that because of how bland most of the General and Skill feats are that taking one at 1st level would not be a significant enough power boost to break the game.

My Players and I love the new 3 Action Economy, and rounds did seem to go much faster.

Thanks all for reading. Stay tuned for the next installment. Next session will be on the 26th of August. If you have any questions I will of course be around to respond.

I will link the Campaign Backgrounds I created tomorrow, and sometime this week will should have The Skinsaw Murders converted so I will link that too.


Can the party even survive the first encounter if the goblins actually try?


ChibiNyan wrote:
Can the party even survive the first encounter if the goblins actually try?

Yes they can, everyone (including the goblins) have a 50/50 chance of hitting, with their bonuses. If the goblins ganged up on someone for sure that someone probably would of been knocked unconscious but goblins aren’t that smart either, so the probably would have took 1 PC each, maybe doing some damage, but ultimately losing. It might have made the second encounter slightly harder because in that one they actually were trying, they just weren’t smart enough to use gang up tactics.

Remember that high difficulty both in encounters, hazards and the DC table I’m the Gamemastering section of the Core Rule Book are supposed to be the standard, a challenge that will test the PCs but will not give them cause for concern.


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Hey guys here is the link to the Backgrounds I created for my PF2e conversion of Rise of the Runelords.

RotRL PF2e Backgrounds


This is awesome. I'm hoping to start GMing and picked up RotRL recently. Might try it in 2e now that there is all this great info! Thanks for sharing all your hard work :)

Looking forward to the updates!


I’m dotting this thread so I can keep track of it!


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber

Thank you for sharing!


Alric Rahl wrote:

Thanks I will give greater detail on the encounters when the PCs get through them.

As for treasure I’ve used the treasure distribution per level rules and have had to pick and choose the treasure to give for every level. So far I have done this by converting the encounters first, figuring out how much to give per level(by using the table in the treasure section), picking the treasure, then dividing the treasure out to each encounter. So far it seems like not every encounter should have treasure, it seems to be easier to give most of the treasure and currency to the bosses/bigger fights, and the remainder in empty rooms. Things like the NPCs Armor and weapons just seem so lacklustre as treasure, though you can use them as a way of calculating the currency total the PCs get as part of the treasure distribution table. I will not be giving my PCs any of the NPCs mundane equipment as treasure (save for ammunition) basically going to consider it all of poor quality, beaten up in the fight, this will make the currency distribution seem more significant when they find a pouch of 20gp in the Boss’ room or on the boss.

I will post the treasure the PCs acquired in the encounters they acquired them in, then give a total list at their level up as a summary of everything they should have picked up for proper treasure distribution.

This has been my experience as well, and I'm creating NPCs using the exact rules for players.

In my conversion of Legacy of Fire for PF2, Dashki (ranger 2 from Howl of the Carrion King), has slightly lower To HIt (+7 vs. +8 from CR 2 monsters), similar HP and damage but much higher AC (19 or 20 with off-hand parry vs 15 to 17 from most CR 2 monsters). His skills have a much lower bonus, but that's probably due to Monster skills being erroneously high (devs have this noted in another thread).

In general, seems simple enough, at least for this level.


This is very cool! Thanks for sharing your work. Very interested in your progress and the way your adventures and players turn out.


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Go to The Skinsaw Murders

Here we go guys. The next installment of the Conversion.

This one took me longer then expected because of the Haunts, Converting them was difficult. The Hazards Chart didnt really help much. It gave me a baseline DC for the hardest save but the rest I just took from the GM DC table in the rulebook. I will say however that even this method still seems to keep the success chance within 40-60%.

Let me explain how I converted them. I took their old CR and made that the Level of the challenge, for example CR 4 = 4th level. I then referenced the DC table in the Rule book and assigned 1 DC from each category {Trivial, Low, High, Etc.} The "to notice" DC I set the highest as most haunts only affect 1 person, i feel that only that 1 person gets the chance to notice it. The Disable DC I set at High, and the Saving throw to avoid the bad stuff I Set at the Extreme DC as again since its only 1 person being affected i want it to be a challenge.

I've also decided that after this book I will no longer be including treasure as I feel anyone who uses this conversion can just assign their own treasures to suit their PC's

On Treasures, I feel Permanent and Consumable need to be reworded or removed. I found that at each level The permanents were almost always just weapons and armor and their varying quality. This left the other "Permanent Items" such as boots, cloaks, etc. hard to give out as treasure. I started just giving that out as consumable treasure. The Categories should honestly just be Weapons/Armor and Other. Otherwise its a little confusing to new GM's and their NPC Villains will either be lacking in the stats department to make them a challenge or they wont have any other cool gear to dish out. Perhaps maybe even add a 3rd Category which is Boss Loot, and just reduce the amount of wealth {"Coins"} given out at each level. Since most adventurers sell the gear they are given and buy what they want anyway.


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Alright Guys time for session info. Sorry its been a week since the session was run but Paizo has been down so I havent been able to post.

First things first , the Paladin in my group is now a Necromancy Wizard named Thelinth Soul Shepard.

So onto the fun.

Die Dog Die: The new Wizard of the Group decided to use Ghost Sound to make it sound like a pack of Dogs was approaching as his first action. He wanted to draw their attention away, but other then the commando the goblins are more scared of dogs, so I had the Goblins roll Will saves and treated the sound as a fear effect. One of the Goblins critically Failed and ran away, the other stood still for 1 round as if stunned, and the last critically saved and became brave and decided to meet them face on, so he left himself vulnerable to a flank attack. The Rogu moved up and dispatched the Stunned goblin, however this left her open to an attack by the Commando, who struck with his horsechopper and then commanded the Goblin Dog to bite her as well, these two attacks dropped her to Dying 1, the other managed to swoop in and kill the goblin and dog and the druid healed the rogue who had failed her con save and dropped to Dying 2.

Aldern Foxglove of course took to the wounded rogue who was excellent in battle but also a delicate flower for falling, and the Rogue {Who has played all of the 1st book before} metagamed him into helping her, playing the role of the wounded damsel in distress and had him wait on her hand an foot. This switched up the order of events.

When they got back to The Rusty Dragon with foxglove, Ameiko's Father came in and tried to get her to leave. Thanks to the Wizards Ghost sound spell again, who caused the sounds of plates crashing in the kitchen, it snapped ameiko out of her unwillingness to disobey her father and she told him to get out. He then disowned her of course.

The next day Sheriff Hemlock and Father Zantus came by looking for their help with the Crypt. Which they gladly agreed and dispatched the Skeletons very easily. Even though they didnt have any blunt weapons it helped when the Ranger made Two +10 DC crits two rounds in a row. Afterwards the Sheriff Deputized them and gave them writs marking them as such.

Later that day they heard about the murder in the house and investigated. The Wizard again shined here as he managed to roll a Crit Deception check with the spell Disguise Self and convinced the goblin commando that he too was a goblin and began jumping on the bed, the goblin followed where he was swiftly dispatched by the Ranger who was checking under the bed and thus was hidden from the goblins view since the goblin was focused on the wizard on top of the bed.

The boar hunt was uneventful as the Heroes managed to dispatch it pretty easily, however there was some competition between the Ranger and the Rogue for Shalelu's attention.

When they arrived back in town Lady Vinder approached the Dwarven Ranger and asked for his assistance in getting rid of her rat problem. Now the other 3 players knew exactly what was going on because of their metagame knowledge but the ranger did not, I also chose the ranger because he was obviously trying to impress Shalelu and I gave him the chance to impress Lady Vinder as well. This encounter was by far the funniest one I have done in a while, it made me laugh harder then I have in the past few years. The Player decided to play the Ranger as the takes everything literally, has no social skills because he has been in the forest most of the past 5 years, and thus was oblivious to her advances. when he got down to the basement she said "Let me slip into something more comfortable and had barely got the top of her dress off when he Table flips the Bed and smashes the ground hoping to smash the rats. I had him roll an intimidate check to see if his action frightened her. It stunned her so she didnt run, but he was so insistant about the rats that she ran away screaming for him to get out of the house.

Now while that was going on, the rogue had decided to tail him. And it was a good thing they did, as when Ven Vinder came back she managed to Deceive him into thinking the house was Quaranteened for rat infestion and the rat problem was being taken care of. Ven walked away. So the PC's got away without a fight but pretty sure they hurt Lady Vinder's feelings.

And finally they convinced the Waitress to explain why Ameiko wasnt there the next morning. And next week will be assaulting the Glass works.

Hope you enjoyed.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Maps, Rulebook, Starfinder Maps Subscriber

Wow, this is AWESOME! I'm thinking that this may give my wife the excuse she need to gather a party for the RotRL. She's been wanting to GM it for years. They've also announced Return of the Runelords is coming soon, so now IS the time for this.

I'm loving how you break this down too so that we can see the mechanical interactions. Keep going, we'll follow.


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Wow, this is really awesome! I ran my first GM session yesterday using your conversions and it went really well! I hope you keep updating this thread.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Love this. Might use your conversions once the playtest period is over.

I also think you seem to have a very entertaining game going. I like your ruling on ghost sound, the shenigans with the wizard/goblin jumping on the bed, and the ranger flipping stuff over. The ranger in my game was pretty surprised when Ms. Vinder made her move as well, though she wound up rolling with it and kind of falling for her.

Could you post your backgrounds?


They haven't posted updates since September. I.. really don't believe they will at this point??


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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Erpa wrote:
They haven't posted updates since September. I.. really don't believe they will at this point??

Fair point, but a guy can hope. Also, sometimes just seeing people care can re-motivate you to update these kinds of threads. I know it does for me.


I've been going through this and am finishing burnt offerings with my group now and his conversion has been super helpful.
Alric Rahl thank you!
I'm new to pathfinder and haven't played 1E and am joining in 2E.
I have a creative group and with Alric converting the story piece I was able to make a Sorcerer blood line my player wanted to do (since the current blood lines don't include an mechanic for RP)


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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

There's a decent chance I'm gonna run my own converted Runelords game, so I took a stab at making my own backgrounds. I am not entirely happy with the skill feats. I broke the rule of having them always be level 1 feats, because some level 2 feats fit too well not to use. And a few could fit multiple feats. Connections could apply to Friends and Family or Merchant Family. I was tempted to put Snare Crafting for monster hunter.

But overall I like them a lot, and while they don't provide quite as much mechanical oomph as some of the corresponding traits, I think they will pack greater narrative ties. Which is what campaign traits were supposed to do in the first place.

RotRL Backgrounds:
Eager Performer: Hearing that Sandpoint had a theater rivaling those found in large cities like Magnimar and Korvosa, you decided to try your luck getting stage time there. After sending a letter to Cyrdak Drokkus requesting an audition and not hearing back, you’ve taken it upon yourself to travel to Sandpoint and meet him in person, trusting your force of will and charming influence will get you what you want.
Choose two ability boost. One must be to Dexterity or Charisma, and one is a free ability boost. You gain the Impressive Performance feat, and you’re trained in the Theater Lore skill.

Family Ties: While not ethnically a Varisian, you have been raised among Varisians and they consider you one of their own. Furthermore, you managed to get in good with a group of Sczarni and consider them your new family. After being run out of the last place your Sczarni family camped, you tracked down a friend of the family in Sandpoint—a ruthless thug named Jubrayl Vhiski at the Fatman’s Feedbag. During your time with the Sczarni, you learned a few tricks of the trade.
Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Dexterity or Constitution, and one is a free ability boost. You gain the Experienced Smuggler feat, and you’re trained in the Underworld Lore skill.

Friends and Enemies: One of your family members, perhaps a parent, cousin, aunt, or uncle, helped Daviren Hosk put down a group of goblins near Sandpoint. Since then, your family member passed away, but not before telling you about that day and the offer Daviren made her should she ever be in need.
Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Dexterity or Wisdom, and one is a free ability boost. You gain the Natural Medicine feat, and you’re trained in the Hinterlands Lore skill.

Giant Slayer: Your family’s village was plundered by giants in the wilds of Varisia, leaving nothing but a smoldering ruin. After the destruction of your village, your family trained for combat against giants to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again. Since hearing of giants mobilizing throughout the countryside, you ventured to Sandpoint to help the town prepare for a possible incursion.
Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Strength or Dexterity, and one is a free ability boost. You gain the Battle Medic feat, and you’re trained in the Giant Lore skill.
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Goblin Watcher: You grew up in Sandpoint staring off the cliff across the Varisian Gulf. Spending so much time there at Junker’s Edge watching the goblins below as they scrounged through the discarded junk and seeing what they made out of the garbage, developed an eye for spotting the most useful and valuable discarded items.
Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Dexterity or Intelligence, and one is a free ability boost. You gain the Quick Identification feat, and you’re trained in the Goblin Lore skill.

Hagfish Hopeful: Ever since passing through Sandpoint when you were a child and hearing about the contest at the popular tavern known as the Hagfish, you wanted to take that coin purse as your own and carve your name on the ceiling beam above the bar. Training yourself to choke down indigestible food and drink water a pig would refuse, you’ve built up quite a strong resistance to all things putrid and gross.
Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Constitution or Charisma, and one is a free ability boost. You gain the Robust Recovery feat, and you’re trained in the Goblin Lore skill.

Merchant Family: You are related to one of the four noble families from Magnimar who founded the Mercantile League of Sandpoint. You either grew up in Magnimar as a cousin in the Valdemar or Deverin family or were born and raised in Sandpoint. Education in running a business and years of looking after the family enterprise have given you a knack for trade.
Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Intelligence or Charisma, and one is a free ability boost. You gain the Bargain Hunter feat, and you’re trained in the Mercantile League Lore skill.

Monster Hunter: Perhaps you came to the Varisian Gulf in search of the Sandpoint Devil, or maybe you followed fisherman’s tales of Old Murdermaw— regardless, you’ve ventured through Varisia to hunt down famous monsters. While they have all eluded you so far, you made it to Sandpoint to research and restock before heading back out into the wilderness.
Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Strength or Constitution, and one is a free ability boost. You gain the Snare Survey Wildlife feat, and you’re trained in the Celebrity Monster Lore skill.

Scholar of the Ancients: Growing up with your nose in books, you’ve had a great interest in past cultures and ancient history. Furthermore, having grown up in Varisia, you know the monuments dotting the landscape belong to an ancient civilization known as Thassilon. From your life of study and dogged research, you’ve pieced together the language and partial history of this once-great empire.
Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Intelligence or Wisdom, and one is a free ability boost. You gain the Multilingual feat and gain access to the Thassilonian language, and you’re trained in the Thassilon Lore skill.

Student of Faith: While you have personally dedicated your life to a single deity, you study all religions and mortal faiths. Upon hearing that the town of Sandpoint recently completed a cathedral dedicated to the six deities most popular in the area, you had to see the place for yourself, and have arrived in time for the consecration of this holy edifice.
Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Wisdom or Charisma, and one is a free ability boost. You gain the Student of the Canon feat, and you’re trained in the Theology Lore skill.


Something we discovered money is very different.
I'm having a hard time with the hook mountain portion dealing out loot


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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
snowpython wrote:

Something we discovered money is very different.

I'm having a hard time with the hook mountain portion dealing out loot

According to Edwir the best formula for money conversion is convert gold to silver/20 x level. At least until high levels.


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To elaborate a little, as I am also running this campaign, I'm using the above formula for all monetary awards and arts/jewel type treasure. For actual equipment they find, like potions, scrolls, and weapons, I intend to simply convert items over to their PF2 equivalent on a mostly one to one basis. (This will be adjusted slightly for non-existent items like the rings of protection and amulets of natural armor, as those have been absorbed into natural AC progression.) In some cases, I'll be homebrewing items for things that aren't in the playtest but are plot significant. Usually this is pretty easy for stuff like the Skinsaw Mask, Stalker's Mask, or Impaler of Thorns. Compare the caster level to items around that level for appropriate bonuses and DCs.

I haven't completely decided what to do on a couple of key items yet-- namely the Sihedron Medallion and Ring. The activated effects are easy enough, but I'm not 100% sure on passive resistance bonus to saves or deflection bonus to AC. My first thought is to treat them as armor potency runes that don't need to be placed on armor to take effect. The whole rune thing seems consistent with that. Or I could instead let them be used as Bracers of Armor, which might be nice for my group that has a monk, wizard, and sorcerer. I want the items to be appealing so folks wear them and Karzoug can spy on them, after all.

Dark Archive

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Alric Rahl, great work and thanks for sharing. I found myself converting RotR before I noticed this thread and wanted to share some different observations I had about it. Mostly about the glass works and Tsuto.

1. 8 Goblin Warriors needing to be weakened. If I'm not mistaken, keeping them as standard warriors would clock in at an 'extreme' encounter, not above that. 'Extreme' sure but some Goblins do use improvised weapons (-4 to attack) and the final 3 run off to Tsuto, so all in all not as 'extreme' as a straight 8.

2. Tsuto himself. In PF1 the CR of NPC with class levels was Level -1 as shown with Tsuto being Monk2/Rogue2 and his CR being a 3. My inclination was to build him in PF2 where the CR matches the Level of the character. So a CR 3 Tsuto became a Lv 3 Monk and his stats fell in line with the CR 3 NPC's in the Playtestiary. Also, the second strike in FoB incurs the -4 penalty I believe and I put his Background as Blacksmith due to the sub category of Glassworker.

3. I just reduced the value of most coin treasure by a factor of 10 and it gets pretty close to treasure tables in the Playtest.

Once again, great work on the Conversion!


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You know, I ran the 8 goblin warriors yesterday and 3 players managed to wipe them out in 2 rounds. The will saves on the goblins are so bad that an AoE Harm from the Sorcerer killed half of them and the others were easily picked off with magic missiles and projectiles. Some of that was probably just having the right tools for the job-- most AoE stuff uses reflex saves, after all. And some of it was probably me being generous with rule of cool. I let them drop the sorcerer on a rope through the sky light mission impossible style to get her into position while letting the allies stay at range. Which also proved to be a fun way to mix up initiatives-- the sorcerer used acrobatics and the monk holding the rope used athletics.


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I ran most of the Hambly farm encounters last night. The playtest rules worked REALLY well for it, using skill checks for initiative rolls to hop between exploration and encounter mode. The PCs sneaking up on scarecrows to examine them, the ghouls tearing free with athletics, the ghouls from the barn sneaking out to ambush the party in the fields, and so on. The encounters weren't especially challenging given the 4 level difference, but I doubt it would have been challenging for even moderately optimized PF1 PCs.

The action economy was also great,unsurprisingly. Folks picked it up very quickly for having so little exposure to it.

For the Sandpoint guards, I statted them up as level 0 creatures with no real abilities of note. While their PF1 counterparts had crap accuracy and 21 highpoint, I modeled them after the goblins of the playtest bestiary and gave them better accuracy and only ancestey+CON up. I figured having them be relevant in combat but easily killed was better for dramatic purposes.


Session 0 today! Looking forward to 1 AUG, but until then it's Playtest rules.
Thanks to everyone for the time and effort. I'll share anything I create as well.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

My players have just dealt with the cornfields of the Graul farmstead. The ranger opted to follow the cougar north instead of wait for whoever was singing to arrive, and then the party took cover in the trees and killed most of Rukus's dogs with the opening fireball, which set him to crying and running home to mama. The ranger heard him coming and wound up stepping out and talking to him with Glad Hand. While the rest of the party was climbing down out of the trees and following, he spent a few minutes working Rukus from hostile to friendly, including by using Battle Medic on the surviving pup. He got the whole story about the Black Arrows out of Rukus before sending him along home for some reason. It was a very interesting encounter, and those skills feats have really been putting in work.

I haven't been feeling inspired for converting the Graul family stat blocks though. I could just use ogres and then adjust levels and add the occasional class feat, I suppose. In general the humanoid NPC selection of the playtest bestiary was lacking past low levels though, and ogres are among the most boring stat blocks by default. I'm really eager to get my hands on the PF2 bestiary because even the "boring" critters like skeletons and zombies seem to have gotten new stuff in there.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Thanks for all of this.

I had my session 0 last week and I am using various sources for conversion. I found some really helpful festival games suggestions and had quite a lot of fun with the players getting familiar with Sandpoint while getting fleeced .
I think it would be marvellous of Paizo converted all the APs from 1e to 2e but I imagine that is not happening anytime soon.

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