New 4e campaign using Pathfinder's RotRL - Am I crazy?

[kiznit]

Yeah, I'm a sucker for the Pathfinder fluff - it's really solid (well, as solid as "fluff" can get ). The storyline is great, the sense of epic empires of the past is great, and their goblins are great. I've got the RotRL Map Folio and while the Player's Guide's crunch will probably result in some confusion and a fair bit of "hacking" attempted on the part of my players, the feel of Varisia is pretty exciting and even has a little bit of "points of light" going for it.

I'm not too worried about leveling - I've never been a stickler for matching XP to encounters and always preferred the percentage of progress method.

I do think there's going to be a lot more minion action going on.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Can't see it without a ton of work based on my first game of KotS.

For example, you'd have to have dozens and dozens of goblins and several encounters.

XP accumulation works very differently.

I'm sure there are a ton of other potential issues.

Can it work? Sure.

Will it be a snap of the fingers? No way.

 

[Grand_Director]

I'm interested in finding out how it works out for the OP. I'm in the middle of RotRL and the specter of 4th edition is looming. There is a lot of internal debate about what to do for the next campaign. We want to move on to the next adventure path and many are fighting to stick to 3.5 to maintain continuity. If I was able to convert with just a bit of work and still maintain the excellent story telling I would convert to 4th and stay Pathfinder.

My real worry is that some assumptions of 4th won't translate into a 3.5 based adventure. As it is, I have a warforged in my game and we explained it off that he was created by a Thessilon wizard and the only one of his kind. I find the idea of incorporating the new races and classes of 4th a bit daunting. Are they all special? That's OK. But knowing when to use a 4th edition only type character in a module that does not consider them may be more work then I am willing to undertake.

I appreciate the Pathfinder adventures for the remarkable storytelling; but I also need them to do the work for me (a 33 year old father of two) so that i can spend my adventure planning time dedicated to plot rather then math.

We shall see.

 

[Ventifus]

Surely it can't be that hard to convert, can it? Anyone else thought about doing this? I don't have the core books yet so I'm wondering how easy people think it might be to switch rulesets and convert monsters and bad guys more or less on the fly.

I subscribed to Pathfinder when it first came out precisely because I wanted to make it my first 4e campaign. I think it will be pretty trivial to convert. I've already run a module (the old 1e Forbidden City) using the PrRC and all my own monster conversions and it was pretty easy compared to DMing 3e (ok, so our 3e game was 18th level Gestalt... that might have been the reason ).

As soon as my books get here I'll start porting the Pathfinder critters. I already know the goblins are going to have a special "fumbles on a 1" ability! Minions will probably kill themselves in embarrassing ways, while the higher level ones will grant combat advantage until their next turn.

I'll try to remember to post my conversions in the 4e Fan Creations forum.

 

[kiznit]

As soon as my books get here I'll start porting the Pathfinder critters. I already know the goblins are going to have a special "fumbles on a 1" ability! Minions will probably kill themselves in embarrassing ways, while the higher level ones will grant combat advantage until their next turn.

You sir, I like your style.

 

[Wisdom Penalty]

I think it would be hard, but you'd potentially have the Best Thing Going. Paizo does fluff like nobody's business (RotRL), and WotC has the best crunch (4E). If you can combine them...well, I'd pay to read that story hour.

Yes, yes - everything above is IMO, YMMV, and all that crap.

Wis

 

[FunkBGR]

Bah, I'm doing it for Age of Worms.

It's not hard, and I don't even have the books yet!

I've been basing it off what's to be found out now, and some of the stuff Keterys has put out (including Pathfinder-style goblins, I might add!)

Biggest thing to get around? Realize that you will make "mistakes" at first, but you'll pick up on it, and just make sure to learn from those mistakes!

 

[Shroomy]

Its possible. Over on the Paizo board, Rodney Thompson told everyone that he was running a 4e conversion of RotRL during his lunch breaks.

 

[hong]

I am, of course, VERY curious to know how this turns out for ya, if it's more work/trouble than it's worth, and how close the final converted adventure resembles the original. I suspect you'll be making up a LOT of monster stat blocks out of the blue, though... I mean... there's a goblin bard pretty much in the very first encounter, for example...

If I can play the same character in Baldurs Gate, BG2, BG2:TOB, NWN, NWN2, Jade Empire and Guild Wars, then Kiznit should have no trouble bashing together a goblin spellsinger for 4E.