Module Conversion

[SkinnyOrc]

I would love to see UK7 Dark Clouds Gather, or really any/all/most of the UK modules

I plan to convert most of the UK modules including that one. It has some quite high magic elements (the transparent wizards tower and the floating cloud giant castle) but Titan can accommodate that. I guess everyone sees it a bit different, but for me Titan's a world where common people don't see a lot of magic but there can be very powerfully enchanted locations in out of the way places.

Caves of Chaos might be interesting though as a straight Dungeon even if it lacks by way of story it probably has a lot of memories for many people too.

I did look into doing Caves of Chaos (aka B2 Keep on the Borderlands) earlier and was amazed how much people have written about it! A lot of the appeal seems to have been the freedom you had, it's a very early sand box with all the detail about the keep and the small wilderness. Even the caves bit you decided which entrance to go in and then how to work your way around. But I don't think I could run this one now without changing it quite a bit. For all the page space given to the keep it doesn't have a lot of plot hooks (although this thread shows there's plenty you could add). But the bigger one is the older me would want a reason why all those different tribes (and an evil human cult) are living in caves side by side in a ravine so close to the keep, clearly not very friendly but not killing each other either.

But this is the style of some of the early modules, the idea seems to have been DMs would want a framework rather than something 100% ready to run. I read somewhere a guy who'd grown up with the newer editions complaining how U1 tells you how important it is to detail the village of Saltmarsh but doesn't do it for you. The advantage we have these days is there's so much free material you can slot in. Generic fantasy fishing village, check.

Would you consider converting some of the White Dwarf scenarios out of interest? Lone and Level Sands holds fond memories too, among many others.

I know the scenarios from back when White Dwarf still did stuff for other systems were mostly pretty good but I hadn't discovered them back in the day so there aren't any I played. It'd make sense some'd have a flavour similar to the UK modules. I'll see if I can look that one up.

[SkinnyOrc]

I think that a good Ravenloft conversion, well pitched somewhere in Mauristatia instead of a domain in a strange dimension, would be great!

I'm only familiar with I6 but with all the Ravenloft campaign stuff that was released there must be tons that would work in Mauristatia.

I3 could be staged in the dead city of Djarat (Desert of Skuls), that we encountered for the first time in Jon Green's Curse of the Mummy.

Nice one, I was thinking of looking up where Curse of the Mummy was set for for I3 and you've saved me the trouble The pyramid in I3 is great but I don't like the campaign it's part of much, the whole release and then deal with the efreet thing is very railroady and very very high magic. But the pyramid stands well on its own, or a wilderness around it could be put together from bits of that module and it's sequels.

Anyone know of a Maya or Aztec like culture on Titan for C1?

I also love very much The Temple of the Frog (DA2), by Dave Anderson, and, with some minor modifications, it could be played in Aratis, not too far from Rimon, as I suggested in the gazzetteer.

That's a fun adventure I'd forgotten about. Yep it could go pretty much any big swamp area.

I also guess that X3 The curse of Xanathon can be moved a bit anywhere almost easily and could be another fair candidate.

From what I remember it had a Scandinavian theme, but maybe not so much it would matter if the location didn't have that.

The same can be said of the In search of adventure super-classic adventure cycle.

If this is B1-9 it's a cobbling together of the first nine Basic modules, so there's a real mix in there of the good, the bad and the ugly (B8 Journey to the Rock and B9 Castle Caldwell and Beyond, I'm looking at you). But some of the modules it's made up from definitely. B2 and B4 we mentioned above, B6 The Veiled Society may well be the best early city adventure (David Cook did something a bit different with almost everything he wrote), B7 Rahasia has Tracy Hickman's (same guy as I3) usual imagination but tendency for high magic and B5 Horror on the Hill is decent too with a sand box wilderness and a dungeon that's a bit different.

[Dupont]

Temple of the Doomed Prince was another WhiteDwarf Scenario worth looking at imo, loved it actually and it started my interest in Tekumel. There was that epic one too that springs to mind, a big mystery/investigation with a Tolkien name set on some Islands Tol Erresea or something? I wonder how that would work, can barely remember it now but it spanned several issues I seem to remember.

I think Caves of Chaos/Keep on the Borderland might have inspired Chaosium's Snakepipe Hollow for RuneQuest, I like to think so anyway

[Robb 1]

Necklace of Brisingamen is an old WD adventure that Ive just dug out of my collection and am going to convert it for my Norse adventures round frostholm it needs some tweaking as it isn't particularly Nordic in flavour surprisingly as it's based on conflict between Loki and Freyas cults but there's some good ideas in it.

[Nuvole!]

I also guess that X3 The curse of Xanathon can be moved a bit anywhere almost easily and could be another fair candidate.

From what I remember it had a Scandinavian theme, but maybe not so much it would matter if the location didn't have that.

Actually I started thinking how to pitch it in Frostholm, then I had a second thought and, thinking about the many hints at the madness of the town ruler, I realized it could be a great Kallamehr adventure, prequel of The Dreaming Sands and The Riddling Reaver (or perhaps, better, an interlude between them), with Cona Nundrum in the place of Draco Stormsailer, the Riddling Reaver instead of Xanathon, Logaan in place of Cretia, the barbarians of Kulak Island instead of Ethengar Khanate and a few adaptations to remove the few Viking bits of the setting and make sure that the Riddling Reaver / Cona Nundrum survives the day to keep haunting Kallamehr in The Dreaming Sands and The Riddling Reaver.
It would be a good reason for me to finally put together the Kallamehr gazzetteer, adding some relevant Rhoona locations to the mix...

[Robb 1]

Temple of the Doomed Prince was another WhiteDwarf Scenario worth looking at imo, loved it actually and it started my interest in Tekumel. There was that epic one too that springs to mind, a big mystery/investigation with a Tolkien name set on some Islands Tol Erresea or something? I wonder how that would work, can barely remember it now but it spanned several issues I seem to remember.

I think Caves of Chaos/Keep on the Borderland might have inspired Chaosium's Snakepipe Hollow for RuneQuest, I like to think so anyway

Theres Irillian which ran over several WD issues (could that be the Tolkienesk name your thinking of ?) I'm sporadically working on converting this, hopefully much quicker now with Skinny orcs D & D conversion guide (Cheers for this works really well Skinny Orc very much appreciated)nearly got pt 1 done but keep getting distracted by Norse ideas and sadly an inability to work out how to load it to public files not very IT savvy I'm afraid but will keep on working at it when time allows.

[Dupont]

Temple of the Doomed Prince was another WhiteDwarf Scenario worth looking at imo, loved it actually and it started my interest in Tekumel. There was that epic one too that springs to mind, a big mystery/investigation with a Tolkien name set on some Islands Tol Erresea or something? I wonder how that would work, can barely remember it now but it spanned several issues I seem to remember.

I think Caves of Chaos/Keep on the Borderland might have inspired Chaosium's Snakepipe Hollow for RuneQuest, I like to think so anyway

Theres Irillian which ran over several WD issues (could that be the Tolkienesk name your thinking of ?) I'm sporadically working on converting this, hopefully much quicker now with Skinny orcs D & D conversion guide (Cheers for this works really well Skinny Orc very much appreciated)nearly got pt 1 done but keep getting distracted by Norse ideas and sadly an inability to work out how to load it to public files not very IT savvy I'm afraid but will keep on working at it when time allows.

I am waiting for Irilian with bated breath

It wasn't that though, there was an adventure on an island called Tol Eressea it was a D&D adventure with a lot of clues like runes carved onto stones on hill tops and scraps of clues. I will try and find it and find out what it was called.

How much of your Norse stuff is available too, sounds like something I would wanna play in.

[Robb 1]

Temple of the Doomed Prince was another WhiteDwarf Scenario worth looking at imo, loved it actually and it started my interest in Tekumel. There was that epic one too that springs to mind, a big mystery/investigation with a Tolkien name set on some Islands Tol Erresea or something? I wonder how that would work, can barely remember it now but it spanned several issues I seem to remember.

I think Caves of Chaos/Keep on the Borderland might have inspired Chaosium's Snakepipe Hollow for RuneQuest, I like to think so anyway

Theres Irillian which ran over several WD issues (could that be the Tolkienesk name your thinking of ?) I'm sporadically working on converting this, hopefully much quicker now with Skinny orcs D & D conversion guide (Cheers for this works really well Skinny Orc very much appreciated)nearly got pt 1 done but keep getting distracted by Norse ideas and sadly an inability to work out how to load it to public files not very IT savvy I'm afraid but will keep on working at it when time allows.

I am waiting for Irilian with bated breath

It wasn't that though, there was an adventure on an island called Tol Eressea it was a D&D adventure with a lot of clues like runes carved onto stones on hill tops and scraps of clues. I will try and find it and find out what it was called.

How much of your Norse stuff is available too, sounds like something I would wanna play in.

The Norse stuff is partially borrowed from Vikings supplement for D & D historical . for berzerkers with my own twist , The Northern reaches gazeteer for basic D & D for Runes again with my own twist also Runes from Warhammer Battle 1st an 2nd ed But most is from my own interest in Norse Mythology. Neil Gaimans new retelling of Norse myths is excelent for ideas as is Runemark Runelight and The Gospel of Loki by Joanne Harris of Chocolat fame eventually against the Giants modules stealing of the hillgiant chieftain glacial rift of the Frost Giant Jarl and hall of the fire giant king all A d&d 1st modules but be warned the Giants if you use skinny orcs converter are extremely tough with skill and stamina much higher than their AFF counterparts but i think this fits in well with the Norse beliefs and description of giants who wereimmensly powerful and highly magical creatures hope this helps

[Dupont]

The Norse stuff is partially borrowed from Vikings supplement for D & D historical . for berzerkers with my own twist , The Northern reaches gazeteer for basic D & D for Runes again with my own twist also Runes from Warhammer Battle 1st an 2nd ed But most is from my own interest in Norse Mythology. Neil Gaimans new retelling of Norse myths is excelent for ideas as is Runemark Runelight and The Gospel of Loki by Joanne Harris of Chocolat fame eventually against the Giants modules stealing of the hillgiant chieftain glacial rift of the Frost Giant Jarl and hall of the fire giant king all A d&d 1st modules but be warned the Giants if you use skinny orcs converter are extremely tough with skill and stamina much higher than their AFF counterparts but i think this fits in well with the Norse beliefs and description of giants who wereimmensly powerful and highly magical creatures hope this helps

I like the odd monsters a bit tougher. When running Warlock of Firetop Mountain recently I wished at times a few of the solo monsters were tougher, I get that in larger numbers the modifier turns the tide and that that makes the feel of the setting be about the forces of good being outnumbered but solo monsters fell too easily for my taste. In future I will definitely want to do that a bit more.

I dont remember if I told you before but Cubicle 7's Yggdrasil is quite nice too for Norse stuff. Love the Neil Gaiman Norse Gods! I'm reading Tolkiens Sigurd and Gudrun at the moment. Are you going to put your stuff on here or Titanica?

[SkinnyOrc]

be warned the Giants if you use skinny orcs converter are extremely tough with skill and stamina much higher than their AFF counterparts but i think this fits in well with the Norse beliefs and description of giants who wereimmensly powerful and highly magical creatures hope this helps

When I was putting the conversion system together I looked at a selection of classic monsters that were in both games to get a feel for how HD should convert to SKILL, and the result was the sliding scale of the table I have for that. Mostly the monsters from the two games matched up pretty well but the exception was the giant. Although I think it might have been a Storm Giant because the Frost Giant doesn't come out too different at SKILL 11 compared to 10 in OotP. The Storm Giant converts to 13 SKILL but still has 10 in OotP.

Agree that giants should be mighty opponents and by OotP they're really not. SKILL 9 or 10 means they can barely take on a pair of starting adventurers each, let alone a whole party or more skilled PCs. I'd like to see them be fearsome even one at a time, especially the Frost, Mountain and Sea Giants described as being the biggest. SKILL 12 or 13 wouldn't be out of line and if that means they shouldn't be used except with experienced characters I don't see a problem with that.

In my conversions I've been swapping in AFF monsters as much as possible rather than converting them. But I do vary their stats sometimes saying they're large or experienced, using what OotP says about varying SKILL by up to 2 up or down. I also pretty much ignore OotP's number appearing. But it seems like the stats in OotP were mostly taken straight from the gamebooks and those were designed for one character, so I'm not sure they can even always be taken as a typical example of the creature.

The problem you have with the Giants modules is the numbers in the fights. Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl is for around 9 10th level characters and one of the fights has six giants! They obviously had a lot of players back in the early days of roleplaying. Have you seen XL1 Quest for the Heartstone? That's got a more interesting frost giant lair and for less experienced characters.

[Robb 1]

be warned the Giants if you use skinny orcs converter are extremely tough with skill and stamina much higher than their AFF counterparts but i think this fits in well with the Norse beliefs and description of giants who wereimmensly powerful and highly magical creatures hope this helps

Oops sorry, when you said you were converting the Giants modules I was going to come back about what I noticed when I was putting the conversion system together. And I didn't I'd looked at a selection of classic monsters that were in both games to get a feel for how HD should convert to SKILL. The result was the sliding scale of the table I have for that. Mostly the monsters from the two games matched up pretty well but the exception was the giant. Although I think it might have been a Storm Giant because the Frost Giant doesn't come out too different at SKILL 11 compared to 10 in OotP.

Agree giants should be mighty opponents and by OotP they're really not. SKILL 9 or 10 means they can barely take on a pair of starting adventurers each, let alone a whole party or more skilled PCs. I'd like to see them be fearsome even one at a time. The problem you have with the Giants modules is the numbers in the fights. Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl is for around 9 10th level characters and some of the fights have six giants! They obviously had a lot of players back in the early days of roleplaying.

In my conversions I've been swapping in AFF monsters as much as possible rather than converting them. But I do vary their stats sometimes saying they're large or experienced, using what OotP says about varying SKILL by up to 2 up or down. I also pretty much ignore OotP's number appearing. But it seems like the stats in OotP were mostly taken straight from the gamebooks and those were designed for one character, so I'm not sure they can even always be taken as a typical example of the creature.

Have you seen XL1 Quest for the Heartstone? That's got a more interesting frost giant lair and for less experienced characters.

Hi skinny orc will check xl1 out sounds interesting .I don't mind the Giants being very tough the pcs will only be getting involved with them when they have a few adventures under their belts I want them to be scared. unknown to them their mentor is a Storm Giant Rune smith posing as the village Blacksmith Rogni so will use your conversion to stat him out

[Robb 1]

Hi Dupont have seen ygdrasil but not bought it you did mention it an it looks pretty good I've put a few bits of what I've written up and converted /tweaked and posted them here (sort of)My IT skills are not the best especially with a tablet or I phones so might struggle uploading larger documents my lap top has expired and gone to silicon valhalla or hel not sure which stuff ive loaxed on this forum includes runes and Berserkers both rough drafts of ideas that probably need tweaking

[SkinnyOrc]

there was an adventure on an island called Tol Eressea it was a D&D adventure with a lot of clues like runes carved onto stones on hill tops and scraps of clues. I will try and find it and find out what it was called.

Hmm I can't find what this was called or what issue it was in. Googling "White Dwarf Tol Eressea" just gets a lot of hits about Tolkien. I guess the name was something like that but not that

The Norse stuff is partially borrowed from Vikings supplement for D & D historical . for berzerkers with my own twist , The Northern reaches gazeteer for basic D & D for Runes again with my own twist also Runes from Warhammer Battle 1st an 2nd ed But most is from my own interest in Norse Mythology. Neil Gaimans new retelling of Norse myths is excelent for ideas as is Runemark Runelight and The Gospel of Loki by Joanne Harris of Chocolat fame eventually against the Giants modules

You must have done a load of prep for this campaign I'll have to find Gaiman's book of Norse myths, he's a talented storyteller and it's great material.

When running Warlock of Firetop Mountain recently I wished at times a few of the solo monsters were tougher, I get that in larger numbers the modifier turns the tide and that that makes the feel of the setting be about the forces of good being outnumbered but solo monsters fell too easily for my taste. In future I will definitely want to do that a bit more.

I've thought the same, outnumbered by weaker enemies is great but you also sometimes you want the party taking on a single tough creature and it putting up a good fight. The creature having multiple attacks helps but if you have at least four characters they still probably get an outnumbering bonus. So the creature needs a decent SKILL advantage and OotP is weighted towards lower SKILL monsters. It only becomes worse as the characters gain weapon special skill, which are pretty cheap. There's a thread on this here, http://arion-games.com/bb/viewtopic.php ... 5813#p5215.

[SkinnyOrc]

Actually I started thinking how to pitch it in Frostholm, then I had a second thought and, thinking about the many hints at the madness of the town ruler, I realized it could be a great Kallamehr adventure

That's a really interesting idea. I'd have to read X3 again to check but from what I remember it'd move to a different location pretty easily. Rather then replacing Xanathon with the Riddling Reaver how about have him be an agent of the Reaver? Then you can still have the invulnerability bit with the side quest to break that.

[Nuvole!]

Actually I started thinking how to pitch it in Frostholm, then I had a second thought and, thinking about the many hints at the madness of the town ruler, I realized it could be a great Kallamehr adventure

That's a really interesting idea. I'd have to read X3 again to check but from what I remember it'd move to a different location pretty easily. Rather then replacing Xanathon with the Riddling Reaver how about have him be an agent of the Reaver? Then you can still have the invulnerability bit with the side quest to break that.

Well... in FF canon there is arguably another (although less famous) agent of Logaan that is the Dark Jester, if you want, but if you check well the detail, you will found that Draco (in The Curse of Xanathon) has a function in the adventure that is extremely close to Cona Nundrum (in The Riddling Reaver) and it's not a big spoiler to say that Cona Nundrum is just another disguise of the Riddling Reaver.
Of course we can repeat the situation with different actors (in the D&D conversion as a prequel we can have a different agent of Logaan, such as the Dark Jester or entirely somebody else), but it would sound a bit stale and repetitive in a Kallamehr campaign.
I'd rather change the D&D story in some way with a conversion / adaptation that allows Xanathon/Cona Nundrum/the Riddling Reaver to escape death and to maintain somehow his control on Duke Rhoona / Baron Bluestone until the beginning of The Riddling Reaver campaign, although unmasked by the characters in private.