Dragon Mountain

[Jdvn1]

I recently found the Dragon Mountain boxset at my FLGS. Having a set that I've had longer, that I got used, I figured I'd bring mine in and compare the two--make sure I wasn't missing anything.

Well, first glace everything seemed fine. I counted everything, and there was the same number of everything.

A more in-depth look yielded a problem. Each had the same number of maps, but each set had one map different from the other set.

Weird!

Anyway, I picked up the second set at a discount (because it was obviously incomplete), and now I really want to run Dragon Mountain again. Except, a conversion is so darn hard to find.

So, I figured I'd run Dragon Mountain, doing most of the conversion on the fly. Thing is, I need a starting point.

I decided that since 2nd ed has so many power disparities, that trying to keep the statistics of everything somewhat the same (ie a direction conversion) would be not only unfeasible, but contrary to design philosophies of 3e/3.5. So, I need to choose a starting level, and effectively rebuild every encounter to balance appropriately.

Thing is, I started D&D with 3e. I know very, very little about 2nd ed. This isn't a problem for most of the adventure, since I'm not doing anything close to a direct conversion but a story conversion (as I call it), but I do need a starting point.

So, what level should the adventure start at?

I don't want to start too high because having to pull in too many epic things toward the end would be kind of a hassle. I dont' want to start too low, because then the feel of the early encounters would drastically change (I couldn't throw a thieve's guild against a level 1 party for example).

I don't have the adventure with me right now, but I think it says a party of 6-8 level 10-12 characters. Should I start it at level 10? Any advice?

Note that I'm not asking for a conversion. Baby steps, you see.

 

[damitjimmii]

I gave up on a straight conversion. The storyline needed soo much work. I decided the best parts of the set were the maps and the conflict setup by the dragon. The original storyline for getting the players to the mountian was pretty lame so I've basicly taken the main elements of the story and done an outline, added some extra conflict, moved the whole thing into Eberron and I scale the encounters on the fly.

The main thing (i've found) to remember about encounters I've found it that even if the EL's match, if you have only one bad guy, he needs to be a bit tougher, i.e. higher CR vs. EL. The only other issues is that Eberron is not really geared to deal with high level pc's. So a lot of the core polititians and bad guys have to be advanced.

If you play "on the fly" like this it's best to put all your creatures and npc's in a tool like pcgen or etools (yes i know there are others, that's a different thread). Once in a software tool you can advance them to match the party's current level when it's time to meet up.

I had my players start at CR6. becuase there is enough in this story to get them to epic level by the time they are ready to face the dragon.

I will post a blog of their encounters so far and the stats for creatures they've defeated as soon as I can figure out how to setup the software :-/. Check back here in a week.

 

[Jdvn1]

I had my players start at CR6. becuase there is enough in this story to get them to epic level by the time they are ready to face the dragon.

That's slightly higher than I was expecting. That's why I asked, though. Tell me how it works out for you! I'll be looking forward to the blog. An Eberron conversion should be interesting.

I will post a blog of their encounters so far and the stats for creatures they've defeated as soon as I can figure out how to setup the software :-/. Check back here in a week.

If it's useful to you, Mark Chance does/did a similar thing with on of his games. If you like the format, you can use it too. Else, if you have a program you'd like to use, that works too. http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=2919138

 

[Goldmoon]

This was one of my favorite adventures of all time. Played this in 93 or 94 I beleve....Damn I hate being old. I also would love to see a 3.5 conversion of this. Fighting 300 kobolds in a village with the DM saying no sweep rules...good times!

 

[BOZ]

Cleave feat tree would come in handy there, now.

 

[Siegfried Niemand]

what are you going to do about the polymorphed fire giant? he's no longer like a kobold with fire giant abilities and str.

When I ran this at the beginning of the year, I simply had the drow wizard bestow greater curse on the fire giant, shrinking him to Small size. He now wears a hat of disguise to be one with his new clan until he can get the curse removed. This solves the immunity to fire bit, and he still has a decent Str.

 

[reanjr]

I loved this adventure.

The party I ran through it made it all the way to the dragon (in the form of a captured friendly kobold) who led them to her lair, polymorphed and breathed. Two of the three party members died outright. The third had fire resistance from two different sources, reducing damage to 1/4 if i recall correctly.

She had an amulet given to her from a pit fiend that she could exchange for a favor. She had the pit fiend wish her a Two-handed sword +5 of red dragon slaying. She proceeded to crit the dragon for well over half her hitpoints. Then the dragon breathed again, and she died.

Great end to a campaign.

 

[orbrover]

reanjr

say, reanjr, would you be willing to share your conversion files with us? pretty please?

 

[Endarire]

I agree on the begging. I asked about it above.

-EE

 

[Goldmoon]

Anyone? Anyone?....Bueller?