Varying the Beginner Box for Replays

[caps]

I am nearly finished running Menace Under Otari for my two kids. I'm about to start running it again for one of those same kids plus some other friends of ours. I would like to mix up the encounters a bit and I am curious if anyone has suggestions.

Thoughts so far:

I'm leaning towards swapping the kobolds for goblins + a goblinoid boss (maybe a bugbear?) and swapping the xulgath for drow. I can swap the wyrmling to a different colored one, or perhaps a creature of the same CR that could feasibly fill the same role for a goblin tribe as the wyrmling does for the kobolds. I'm looking for suggestions on that, although something may leap out at me once I have some time to look at the bestiary.

Honestly the creature substitutions aren't that hard. What I'm really hoping for ideas on would be how to change the logic puzzle(s) and maybe some alternative trap suggestions.

Any suggestions on re-arranging the dungeon, or a similar map that's easily available I could "transport" the encounters into?

The idea is to not change anything fundamental to the adventure while still making it feel fresh the second time around.

[mikeawmids]

Maybe have the players as Kobolds and a group of humans are stealing THEIR fish to feed a really fat human?

[Gulthor]

I am so, so late to this post, so apologies for the necro thread. But, I figure with the recent Humble Bundle and surge of interest in PF2E, it'd be worth sharing a change I made to re-run the Beginner's Box for a mixed group of new players and players that I'd run Menace Under Otari for previously.

The biggest change that's needed for a group that's played before has to be the Abadar puzzle. So I used this instead:

Rather than the coins on the altar, there are instead three locked chests. One is a chest inlaid with gold, one is a chest inlaid with silver, and the third chest is inlaid with silver and gold.

The voice explains that each of the chests contain one hundred coins. One chest contains 100 gold coins, one contains 100 silver coins, and one contains a mix of 50 gold and 50 silver coins.

The gilding of the chests correspond to the possible contents, but they do not match.

A character may place their hand on one chest and receive a vision of a single coin held within.

The voice requests the characters prove their shrewdness to Abadar by placing the two more valuable chests in the statue's hands.

If the heroes succeed, the chests placed in the statue's hands vanish. The chest remaining on the altar containing the silver coins also disappears, leaving its contents on the altar for the players (100 sp = 10gp, so very close to the value of the original puzzle.)

Solution:

The key is for a character to place their hand on the silver and gold chest, which cannot contain the mix of silver and gold coins (since the chests and their contents cannot match.) Whatever is revealed means that the chest of full of that kind of coin. So, if gold is revealed, then the chest is full of gold coins, which means the gold chest must contain silver coins and the silver chest must contain the mixed coins (because the silver chest cannot contain the silver coins.) Conversely, if a silver coin is revealed, then that means the silver chest contains the gold coins and the gold chest contains the mixed coins (because the gold chest cannot contain the gold coins.)

I do think this puzzle is easier to solve with multiple attempts, so it's up to you how you want to limit the number of attempts. Personally, I'm only giving my players one chance (but I'll inform them that they'll only get one chance.)

EDIT: Naturally, any attempts to steal or unlock the chests results in them disappearing.