D&D 5E Phandelver in Greyhawk

[Nebulous]

Plus, how bad could it be to transplant the Elemental Evil storyline back into Greyhawk?

lol. right, i forgot they just transplanted it in the first place! With some heavy mods, but still.

 

[Jester David]

Do you have Princes of the Apocalypse? There's some good advice for that adventure, including converting the factions. Which would be handy.

As for Phandalin and Phandelver, you need a backwater location with dwarves. Perrenland might be decent, being farther to the north. Perhaps on the far side of Lake Quag, with that replacing the "Sword Coast".

 

[Mad Zagyg]

I have just started running Princes of the Apocalypse. It's good, but not as good as Lost Mine of Phandelver, in my opinion. Princes suffers from a few logistical gameplay problems and does not convert seamlessly into the suggested region of Hommlet. This is especially true for someone that has run both the original Temple of Elemental Evil and the sequel adventure, Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil.

I'm not saying it can't be done; I've done so, but with a substantial amount of work. It stretches somewhat outside the boundaries of verisimilitude by plopping the new locales into the Kron Hills region (Feathergale Spire was right over there? Why didn't we hear about that place before?). Also, I spent a good deal of time incorporating the Red Larch locales and plot line into the established community and history of the town of Hommlet.

It's the kind of stuff that some DMs won't care about at all, but grumpy and entrenched grognards like me piss and moan about.

If interested, here are my suggested locations for placement of the Princes of the Apocalypse in the Kron Hills region:

[close up of Hommlet and environs]
http://www.battlegroundgames.com/greyhawk/princes_close.jpg

[wider scale regional map]
http://www.battlegroundgames.com/greyhawk/princes_regional.jpg

 

[chriton227]

I just finished a very successful run of the Lost Mines of Phandelver in my long-running Greyhawk campaign. I've been playing a continuous campaign since 1983, beginning in 576 cy. Now, in 2015, my campaign date is 605 cy.

I carefully considered where I wanted to place the Lost Mines adventure because it was so well written. Seriously, it's one of Wizards' best adventures in years (way better, in my opinion, than any of their two new hardcover adventure paths).

Over my many years of running the campaign there has been very little activity in the region of the Principality of Naerie (formerly Idee). I took a look at the map comparisons and found that the adventure and the accompanying maps fit startlingly well. I used the maps by Anna B. Meyer as my baseline and I layered the map from the adventure over it. I discovered that the travel distances perfectly aligned with the Sword Coast regional map.

Here are the links to two of Anna's maps that I doctored up with the Phandelver locations added (distances are accurate to the original adventure).

[close up with all locations]
http://www.battlegroundgames.com/greyhawk/naerie_map_zoom.jpg

[zoomed out map of entire region]
http://www.battlegroundgames.com/greyhawk/naerie_map_full.jpg

Hope that gives you some inspiration!

Thank you! That looks awesome!

Now I just need to figure out what groups to swap in for the Zhentarim, Harpers, Order of the Gauntlet, and Lord's Alliance. Order of the Gauntlet should be easy to swap to one of the many "Knights of the *" organizations.

I don't expect this to be a long campaign springboard, when we try a new system we usually start with an intentionally short campaign to get the feel of the rules, knowing that any mistakes or failed experiments will only have fairly short term impacts, and then if we like it we create new characters in a fresh campaign intended for the long haul.

 

[Mad Zagyg]

Now I just need to figure out what groups to swap in for the Zhentarim, Harpers, Order of the Gauntlet, and Lord's Alliance. Order of the Gauntlet should be easy to swap to one of the many "Knights of the *" organizations.

My humble suggestion is to not get too hung up about switching out each and every organization. Personally, I feel like they are a little bit to ham-fisted into the adventure. If you are hell bent on using them all there are some decent suggestions in the back of the Princes of the Apocalypse book.

• The Harpers = The Circle of Eight
• The Order of the Gauntlet = The Church of St. Cuthbert (Trithereon might be a better choice for Naerie, as he is an outlawed religion that must operate in secret)
• The Emerald Enclave = The Old Faith (worshipers of Beory, the Oerth Mother)
• The Lords' Alliance = (any of the various knightly orders of the Flanaess; or, I suggest the Idee Volunteers, which is a group of rebels who seek to overthrow the government of the Principality of Naerie and restore it to former Idee)
• The Zhentarim = The Thieves' Guild of Greyhawk (more appropriate for Naerie however, would be the nearby Scarlet Brotherhood).

 

[JohnRoycomic]

The factions of FR were given Greyhawk equivalents in the conversion notes of Princes of The Apocalypse. They suggest Circle of Eight for Harpers, Church of St. Cuthbert for Order of the Gauntlet, Knights of The Hart for Lord's Alliance, Old Faith for the Emerald Enclave, and The Thieves' Guild of Greyhawk for Zhentarim. And I feel like the Mines could be in any non-Baklunish, non-evil, non-lawless country in Oerik.

 

[Caliburn101]

I did it, very successfully when it first came out in the southern reach of the Gnarley Forest.

The characters later were given lordship of the area and developed it into a demesne, taking over Cragmaw Castle and rebuilding it, renaming it Cragfall Castle. They extended a road and founded further villages, also rebuilding Thunder Tree. I have a map if you're interested. The other elements and locations worked well in the Gnarley, and the campaign ended at 20th with a confrontation against Vecna and his puppet Ivid the Undying in Rauxes after making their way through a whole bunch of adventures including Hidden Shrine of the Tamoachan, Heart of Nightfang Spire and Return to the Tomb of Horrors.

The mines and their contents worked well as an old Vecna facility from his days as a normal lich in charge of his Empire - which of course all happened in Greyhawk as you no doubt know.

 

[JohnRoycomic]

I would love to see your map if you have it. Thanks!