Is City of the Spider Queen comparible to 2nd Edition Nights Below?

[Brisk-sg]

Hello All,

One of my friends just moved back into town. He hasn’t really played in a pen-and-paper roll playing game since second edition, though he played 3rd edition once at a con. The short of it is I have to win him over to 3rd edition, as he wants to play a 2nd edition game. He is very fond of the Night Below, and is willing to give 3rd edition a try if I either convert it to 3rd edition or find a game that is very similar.

I have ruled out converting the Nights Below as I never ran it and I am running a birthright game that takes most of my DM planning time. So I went on down to my local game store and picked up City of the Spider Queen.

What experiences have any of you had with running the campaign/adventure? If you have also played Nights Below in 2nd edition, how does it compare?

Thanks,

Josh

 

[johnnype]

I just finished reading CotSQ and it seems like it would be a perfect fit. It's been a while since I opened my box of Night Below but from what I remember it featured many different races that don't really apear in CotSQ. For example Aboleths are completely absent. Duergar and Mind Flayers appear only once (unless you include the add-on adventure featured in Dungeon magazine a few months back). On the whole CotSQ has, as you might expect, a whole mess of Drow and undead.

Similarities to Night Below though are numerous. You spend all of your time underground and it makes for a very long adventure. Probably not as long as NB but it will take you through 8 PC levels.

If you are looking for a similar 3rd adition adventure, I can't think of a better one.

 

[Sir Whiskers]

A few caveats concerning these two:

Power level
*Night Below was intended to start a campaign. The players start at 1st level.
*City of the Spider Queen recommends at least 10th level to start.

Locations
*Night Below included a fairly well-developed overland area, including 3 towns/villages and a variety of npc's - again, it's designed to begin a campaign.
*CotSQ provides a plot hook to take the party underground immediately. You're assumed to already have the overland area developed.

Time frame
*Night Below was fairly open-ended. The pc's will travel out of the Underdark frequently to rest, train, and re-equip. Other things are happening above-ground to interest the pc's.
*CotSQ has the clock running from day one. Within 75 days, if the pc's haven't made serious trouble for the bad guys, a major war begins.

As you can see from the above, Night Below is more a mini-campaign setting, while CotSQ is a mega-adventure. I still plan to run CotSQ some day (probably in conjunction with the old Giants modules), but not as part of my standard campaign. Look at it this way: the module is designed for characters to gain *eight* character levels in just 75 days of campaign time.

If you're looking for something closer to Night Below's campaign setting, consider The Vault of Larin Karr. The power level is the same, the Underdark figures in prominently, and it has some interesting sub-plots. I've taken whole sections out of this module for my homebrew and so far the players seem to be enjoying it.

 

[Brisk-sg]

Thanks for the replies.

I might consider "The Vault of Larin Karr", a module I have not heard of before. Who is the publisher?

Thanks
- Josh

 

[Sir Whiskers]

The Vault of Larin Karr is by Necromancer Games (with the Sword & Sorcery logo at the top of the cover). It's $15.95 list price. I believe there are a couple reviews of it on EnWorld.

One mistake on my earlier post - the module is officially for levels 4 to 9. I stated it is for characters starting at 1st level. I forgot that I knocked down a couple of the early encounters and added a couple side-treks from Dungeon magazine, so my players will be at the proper level before getting into the meat of the module.

 

[Kamard]

One mistake on my earlier post - the module is officially for levels 4 to 9. I stated it is for characters starting at 1st level. I forgot that I knocked down a couple of the early encounters and added a couple side-treks from Dungeon magazine, so my players will be at the proper level before getting into the meat of the module.

So, my suggestion is to pick up this module and duct tape its end onto the beginning of CotSQ.

In fact, I'd use Forge of Fury before either of these adventures, and have the creatures in that module be coming up out of the Underdark in a more overt manner.

My 2 coppers.

 

[Brisk-sg]

Thanks for the suggestions all.

I decided to start the campaign at the beginning of the "City of the Spider Queen". I am thinking of inserting "Deep Horizon" into the campaign after the Drow Outpost is neutralized, as a side trek on the way through the underdark, though I am not sure yet as it might give them too much experience and unbalance the rest of the module.

We had our 1st session last night. Only three of the players were able to make it, but it went well. My old friend enjoyed himself; he said it reminded him of several of the more difficult encounters from Nights Below, so I think "City of the Spider Queen" was a good pick.

None of my players have played in a high level (10+) 3rd edition game, so the module has been very challenging for them thus far.

We ended the session after the party retreated from an encounter with two Bebeliths. The cleric had failed to memorize Greater Magic Weapon and was the only one with a weapon that could get past their damage reduction.

Does anyone think the CR on Bebeliths is a little low? A CR of 9?! I consider them more powerful then lets say a roper (CR 10).

 

[Timothy]

I'm DMing CotSQ right now, and I think that the bebeiliths are way to good indeed. The whole campaign up to now (fight with the very big scary spider) has been ful of fights/traps that were lethal (slay living trap equals bye bye roque) so I let my players level up to counter the high power level of theiur enemies.

 

[Brisk-sg]

I'm DMing CotSQ right now, and I think that the bebeiliths are way to good indeed. The whole campaign up to now (fight with the very big scary spider) has been ful of fights/traps that were lethal (slay living trap equals bye bye roque) so I let my players level up to counter the high power level of theiur enemies.

No Kidding. Those Bebeliths are very difficult. Their ability to rend armor kills tanks.

The party battled with the Bebeliths for a good ten rounds before finally retreating. The cleric's fullplate armor and shield were destroyed, as was the rogue's leather armor, and the dwarven defender's +2 magical shield was lost (I ruled that it was not ruined, just thrown) and everyone was dropped to low hit points by the end of the encounter. They did maybe 20 damage to one, and 2 damage to the other.

I actually think they would have done decent if the cleric had memorized Greater Magical Weapon to cast on the Dwarven Defender. The players thought they wouldn't run into anything this early in the game with decent damage reduction. Well they are rethinking their tactics now, that's for sure.