Converting 3.5 Eberron adventures to 4E-advice, opinions

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drscott46

First Post

• Sep 18, 2009

• #1

So I'm looking for some recommendations and advice regarding the conversion of previously published 3.5 Eberron adventures to 4E.

My PCs are currently working through Seekers of the Ashen Crown, which purports to take them through level 5. As a followup, I'm currently looking through the body of 3.5 Eberron works to see what might be compelling enough to warrant 4E conversion. There seems to have been a wealth of mid-level (4E's mid-heroic/high heroic tier) material published for 3.5. The group will be in Sharn following the completion of SotAC but can be nudged in any direction necessary.

So, to that end, please let me know what you thought of the following modules. I'd also love to hear about anyone's experiences in general porting 3.5 works to 4E. Thanks a bunch!

Eberron 3.5 adventure bibliography (Location, 3.5 level range):

Eyes of the Lich Queen (5th-10th)
Voyage of the Golden Dragon (7th)
Steel Shadows (Dungeon #115, 7th)
Fallen Angel (Dungeon #117, 4th)
Murder in Oakbridge (Dungeon #129, 5th)
Tensions Rising (Dungeon #136, 4th)
Riding the Rail (Dungeon #143, 5th)
The Aundairian Job (Dungeon #147, 5th)

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Shards of Eberron trilogy:
Crypt of Crimson Stars (Dungeon #123, 6th)
Temple of the Scorpion God (Dungeon #124, 7th)
Pit of the Fire Lord (Dungeon #125, 8th)
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Viktor Saint-Demain:
Chimes at Midnight (Dungeon #133, 5th)
Quoth the Raven (Dungeon #150, 8th)
Hell's Heart (Dungeon #151, 10th)
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Shroomy

Adventurer

• Sep 18, 2009

• #2

The Viktor Saint-Demain trilogy are the hands down best Eberron adventures IMO. "Murder in Oakbridge" is one of the best murder mystery adventures that I've read in 3e.

 

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nicholasgeorg

First Post

• Sep 18, 2009

• #3

I am in the middle of a pretty loose adaptation of Grasp of the Emerald Claw.

I upped it to 11th level, and it's pretty much an infiltration hack and slash dungeon crawl. Falling damage is higher in 4E (d10 vs. d6), so if there is one trap that has the potential to do about 180 points of damage. Yikes.

I'm really only doing it to give an introduction to Eberron for my group, and then its an open sandbox. That's the whole reason I wanted to move my game to Eberron - to get away from published modules.

 

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drscott46

First Post

• Sep 18, 2009

• #4

nicholasgeorg said:

I'm really only doing it to give an introduction to Eberron for my group, and then its an open sandbox. That's the whole reason I wanted to move my game to Eberron - to get away from published modules.

Click to expand...

Believe me, I wish I had that chance- but time restricts me.

 

Last edited: Sep 19, 2009

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nicholasgeorg

First Post

• Sep 18, 2009

• #5

I feel that. Because of time I cut back to one session every other week. But that gives me plenty of time to figure out what the hell is going to happen next, so it sort of washes out.

Also, don't forget about the DMG suggestions for random dungeons. I've had great luck with it. I find running published modules requires the same amount (almost, at least) of prep studying the flow and the character's motivations. Creating a dungeon, and then using the Monster Builder (which is amazingly useful, btw) to generate a solid stack of monsters for random encounters and anything else they might come across gives me the confidence to roll with anything. So far at least.

And Eberron is so nice for sandboxing, because of all of the machinations happening in the background.

 

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drscott46

First Post

• Sep 19, 2009

• #6

Shroomy said:

The Viktor Saint-Demain trilogy are the hands down best Eberron adventures IMO. "Murder in Oakbridge" is one of the best murder mystery adventures that I've read in 3e.

Click to expand...

I thought "Murder in Oakbridge" was well-written but not quite as Eberronish (other than the murder-mystery trope) as some of the others I've seen. I guess that made it more adaptable to other worlds.

Agreed on the VSD trilogy- I've skimmed the first one.

 

Baz King

Explorer

• Sep 19, 2009

• #7

I converted Whispers of the Vampires Blade, and talked through the process on my blog.

Since then I've been eyeing up the others. There's a lot of potential but in the end I have to say that it takes just as long, or longer, than writing your own from scratch.

 

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mevers

First Post

• Sep 19, 2009

• #8

Vary good question. I am planning on converting the Shackled City Adventure Path to 4th edition Eberron over Christmas, so I am very interested in the responses.

I have heard very good things about the Viktor trilogy. Thanks for the reminder, I will make sure I use it in my conversion.

But from what I can gather, it seem most of the Dungeon Eberron adventures were some of the better ones.

 

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drscott46

First Post

• Sep 19, 2009

• #9

Baz King said:

I converted Whispers of the Vampires Blade, and talked through the process on my blog.

Since then I've been eyeing up the others. There's a lot of potential but in the end I have to say that it takes just as long, or longer, than writing your own from scratch.

Click to expand...

Actually I think I saw that on the RPG Bloggers network. Good read. Although I didn't get the impression that it really took *that* long to convert something from the post.

 

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drscott46

First Post

• Sep 20, 2009

• #10

mevers said:

Vary good question. I am planning on converting the Shackled City Adventure Path to 4th edition Eberron over Christmas, so I am very interested in the responses.

I have heard very good things about the Viktor trilogy. Thanks for the reminder, I will make sure I use it in my conversion.

But from what I can gather, it seem most of the Dungeon Eberron adventures were some of the better ones.

Click to expand...

I've heard that too about the Dungeon stuff, which is why it's a little odd that the only 4E Dungeon adventure published for Eberron to date is a little... lacking.