3.5e Conversion of City of the Spider Queen


3.5/d20/OGL


I'm reading through CotSQ, which I got a few days ago, and was wondering what I need to convert to 3.5e (actually, Iron Heroes in particular), and if anyone else has some tips or tidbits of wisdom about it. Plus, it would be cool if you shared your experiences, either DMing or playing. Also, for anyone on the boards who has IH (cough, f2k, cough), if you have any tidbits about the conversion for IH in particular, that would be nice.

Thanks all,

WaterdhavianFlapjack


I found this review to be, ahem, interesting:

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10581.phtml

P.S. If anyone knows how to do links, please inform your poor, needy, local flapjack. Thank you.

WaterdhavianFlapjack


I haven't done any work on a conversion to IH. My players were very lukewarm on the topic for an Iron Heroes campaign. We playtested a couple of rounds of combat and the handing out of tokens just annoyed everyone. I was surprised by the negative reception, but I see their point that combat was already complicated enough without throwing in tokens and other stuff like that.

I went through the book and picked out some stuff that I could use in my D&D campaign, but I'm going to put the book on E-bay since no one in my gaming group is willing to try IH.


farewell2kings wrote:

I haven't done any work on a conversion to IH. My players were very lukewarm on the topic for an Iron Heroes campaign. We playtested a couple of rounds of combat and the handing out of tokens just annoyed everyone. I was surprised by the negative reception, but I see their point that combat was already complicated enough without throwing in tokens and other stuff like that.

I went through the book and picked out some stuff that I could use in my D&D campaign, but I'm going to put the book on E-bay since no one in my gaming group is willing to try IH.

Ouch...

Sorry, man. My group is eager to play in IH, and are especially excited about the prospect of being drow.

Did you try having, say, a pile of pennys so when the PCs gain tokens they grab x pennys and when they use them, put x back? Also, were your players "hip to the jive" of feat masteries? It strikes me as extremly odd that they could not enjoy IH. On a related note, what level did you playtest? The problem could have been the players having a bunch of abilities they have no clue about handed to them.

Hope this helps,
WaterdhavianFlapjack


To add some more specifics, I am planning on having the PCs be drow and be sent from Menzoberranzan to go through the adventure. I'm still reading through CotSQ and I won't be running it for a while, so I haven't worked out any details. But, has anyone else ran through CotSQ much like the War of the Spider Queen novels (which I thought to be great, BTW).

F2k, have you read through CotSQ?

WaterdhavianFlapjack


Read about Spires of Mazzelith(sp?), a Dungeon companion adventure. Is it any good? Thanks!

WaterdhavianFlapjack


WaterdhavianFlapjack wrote:

I found this review to be, ahem, interesting:

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10581.phtml

I ran CotSQ and my group had an absolute BLAST. Took us about a year and a half to get through it. We had, depending on various time frames, between 7 and 9 players, so I had to do a certain degree of tweaking to keep the encounters challenging (though, as that review pointed out, the adventure is pretty darned challenging anyhow) and I did a lot of tweaking as time went on to specify the adventure to the campaign that developed.

As a DM, I found it to be a delightful adventure to run. The enemies were highly intelligent combatants that I could run "smartly." There were loads of interesting NPCs that I could use for roleplaying purposes on weeks when I wanted more of an intrigue thing going on, or could use as straight-up "bad guys to be taken down" when the group seemed to be craving more hack n' slash.

My players have universally praised the experience. They enjoyed the high-level, "some times many PCs will go down in a single session" nature of it, they loved to hate the Big Bads, and they enjoyed the challenges of fighting against enemies who fought with smarts and spent time trying to learn all of their weaknesses.

Now, my group was very much a bunch of good-aligned folks, so I probably can't share much with you in terms of running the adventure for evil drow, but if you want to do some more e-chatting about CotSQ, drop me a line at "dizzyk at gmail dot com" and I'd be happy to discuss further, share my campaign logs with you, share my 3.5 conversions, etc..


I've decided that I'm going to hold on to IH, because I think a big reason for my group's reaction was the fact that many of them just barely got comfortable with 3rd edition and felt that I was asking them to change just for change's sake.

I think I'll work on a Robert Adams Horseclans campaign using the Iron Heroes rules. If no one wants to play in it for 10 years, it will just be developed a bit more than normal.

Sorry this isn't more help to your question, Flapjack...the pennies idea is a pretty good one.


I found a really good thread on the WoTC boards about the 3.5e conversion of CotSQ. If anyone is intersted, the URL is:

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=255217

Thanks all!

WaterdhavianFlapjack


WaterdhavianFlapjack wrote:

Read about Spires of Mazzelith(sp?), a Dungeon companion adventure. Is it any good? Thanks!

WaterdhavianFlapjack

The Spiral of Manzessine - an illithid prison, where the prisoners are tattooed with tattoos of dimensional anchor that prevent them from using their plane shift abilities. Psionic dampeners everywhere, and then there's a RIOT!! Woo-hoo!!

It's an absolutely awesome adventure. To this day, my players are still scared of tattoos that crawl off dead bodies and attach themselves to a new host, and illithids that can't use their psionic abilities instead turning to enhancing their physical bodies.

Liberty's Edge

WaterdhavianFlapjack wrote:

To add some more specifics, I am planning on having the PCs be drow and be sent from Menzoberranzan to go through the adventure. I'm still reading through CotSQ and I won't be running it for a while, so I haven't worked out any details. But, has anyone else ran through CotSQ much like the War of the Spider Queen novels (which I thought to be great, BTW).

F2k, have you read through CotSQ?

WaterdhavianFlapjack

Our group is currently going through it with a War of the Spider Queen influence. The group consists of surfacers and drow who were sent by a drow Matron Mother from a far-off city to stop Kiaransalee (and preserve the status quo). However, there are a great many changes we did - one of which - the end of the CotSQ is actually next to the end of my campaign. I've added in that last room of CotSQ the change that the orb is actually a portal to the abyss, where the end game is The Harrowing, from Dungeon 84 and Kiaransalee is in cahoots with Lolth's other daughter. Should prove fun.


I ran CotSQ with my group of 5 players. Didn't need to do much on the conversion front to 3.5 (just check the feats and spells mostly) - it played great.

Had more trouble with the groups' tactic of daylighting everthing in sight (stones, spiders etc...), which got a bit dull.

Still all their anti-Drow geekery was for nothing when the undead started turning up...

Tee Hee

Halgabron

Dark Archive

COTSQ is a very good adventure, but it can be quite deadly, when played out to the max.
There are far too many powerful NPC's and challenges and if a DM really makes use of all the possibilities these creatures and dangers offer, the PC's are meat (unless you have a group of extraordinary smart players).
I started the game with the PC's each one level higher as originally intended and they barely survived.
I had to do a lot of adjustments on the spot because some encounters developed in ways I hadn't imagined and I didn't want to provoke a TPK.
I cut some of the big fights and encouraged role-playing to make it a little less deadly.
I found the adventure not suitable for a group of classic hack'n slash players because if you'd take on every fight possible within the story (and playing NPC's smart while using their ressources), sooner or later the PC's will die.
My players found it great to solve the adventure in a tactical way.
They were very cautious and chose wisely which fights to take on and which to avoid.
Sometimes they operated in stealth-mode, sometimes with diplomacy and sometimes with sheer force.
It was a great experience for everyone and my players were quite proud making it through with only three characters, that didn't survive.
But I think that for a less experienced DM, the adventure can be quite difficult.

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