Even out the level curve. If the AP is 12 adventures long, dedicate 4 adventures each to heroic, paragon, and epic tier play. The WotBS conversion rushes you into paragon by the early part of adventure 4, and spends too many adventures in epic. I adjusted leveling in my own game so they will be starting adventure 5 at level 11.
The different tiers of play are supposed to feel distinct in the amount of influence the group has, and the scope of the challenges they face. In heroic tier they are dealing with more local problems and are not widely known. Paragon play involves actions that can effect entire nations, while epic ramps it up so that the fates of worlds, planes, or the universe itself are at stake. It isn't just a matter of fame and influence; each tier change sees a significant power boost to the characters' abilities.
We need some planar travel starting in paragon, and continuing through epic.
Because of the rush to level the group fast, WotBS 4E has too many filler encounters in the early modules, and spends longer in some locations than is justified by the plot. I did my own conversion of the first 2 and a half modules based on the 3.5 version. There were far fewer encounters than there are in the official 4E version. My group hit 2nd as they were about to face the ambush at Haddin's house, and 3rd after the Fire Forest. That was probably too slow, but fit the amount of material I had.
Some of the added scenes in module 1 are good, and would have been worth keeping. The Fire Forest is such a unique setting, that with the very strong feel and the challenge of surviving there, it is best to not extend the experience there. At that point in the story the group is all afire
to get to Seaquen. Spending too long in the forest feels like dragging out the story. OTOH at least the 4E version has some info on the 100+ mile journey between the end of the forest and beginning of the swamp. I had to make that stuff up out of whole cloth.
Put a clear historical timeline in the DM campaign notes, or in the player handout. The players may not read it, but at least it answers basic questions about the world in a place where it can be easily referenced. Too much of the WotBS history is scattered around in different modules, and it is a challenge finding it. Questions I was asked by the players in the first adventure are only answered in the intro to the 7th module. This wasn't secret information, but just basic history.
Include a
Dramatis Personae summary of the main NPCs. Do this in the campaign guide for those NPCs that matter throughout the course of the adventure, and rulers of major cities, or nations. Include one in each module detailing the NPCs that matter there. That would help immensely when it comes to answering questions like "How long has this guy been king?". I wound up making up surnames for Leska and Kreven, since they weren't mentioned anwhere in the early modules, and fudging a lot of historical information. Stuff that I really should know as DM.
Make sure your maps are consistent between modules. Entire rivers move from one side of the mountains to another on different WotBS maps. I had to pick one version and make my own submap of Dassen based on it. The one in mod 4 is inconsistent with the continent map.
Balance and playtest your encounters. There were some significant flaws in monster and encounter design, but I realize that we were all new to 4E at the time.
Names could be improved a lot, but that is a personal foible of mine. I renamed probably a quarter of the NPC's in WotBS because they had weird names. In some cases they were funny, in others just hard to pronounce. I couldn't begin to say Innenotdar, so called it the Innotdari Forest. Indomitibility became Tenacity. Megadon, Iz, Onamdammin, Steppengard, and many others received different names.
Don't have as many (if any!) NPCs that travel with the party. Some of them are too much like DM PCs that steal the spotlight and plot hooks from the PCs where they rightly belong (i.e. Torrent). Others are just extraneous. When the NPCs traveling with the group begin to outnumber the PCs then there is an issue. As is possible with 5 NPCs potentially tagging along with the group when they finally make it to Seaquen. Some of them have only the most tenuous of reasons for being there, such as Three Weeping Ravens (who also has a silly name - one of him would be fine, but three?).
Please put the combat encounters inline with the main story, or at least adjacent to it, rather than 40 pages later. Too often the description of an area is split between the main text and the tactical encounter section. The delve encounter format leads to too much flipping back and forth, and causes more problems than it solves. I have been unable to find answers to what an area looks like without flipping between the main section and the encounter section, and sometimes find important details after it is too late to make use of them.
Detail what NPC's drop in the way of treasure. It is tedious having to make all that stuff up for every single villain in the game. Give them money, jewelry, and potions that fit with the treasure bundles, and then magic items can be left more vague (i.e. a 12th level magic item). That's pretty minor, but makes me reminisce about the old days when the full description of the room, and answers to questions like "What's in the chest?" were included in the module.
Please don't take any of these criticisms amiss. I have enjoyed playing WotBS with its broad scope and story. I hope that you can continue in that tradition with Zeitgeist.
Edit- Holy wall of text Batman!
The TLDR version:
* Don't split descriptions of an area between the main text and tactical encounters section. Consider keeping encounters in-line with the main story text.
* Fewer, if any NPC's that travel with the party for long periods of time.
* Pronouncible names
* Even number of adventures per tier of play.
* Detail monetary treasure found on bad guys and in areas.
* Don't pad the adventures with meaningless repetitive combat encounters.
* Add planar travel at the appropriate levels of play.
. In fact, one discussion we're having is considering the possibility of not having them at all, and getting a bit more pre-4E with skill based encounters.
