Lets convert APs storyline to AiME

Tales and Chronicles · Jun 14, 2018

In the past week, it has become clear that my current HotDQ campaign is beginning to drag a little, as character motivations and willingness start to become over-stretched. I decided that I probably wont continue with RoT and branch in AiME with this group. I own the Wilderland Adventures (still waiting for Eriador Adventures to be available in my nearest game store) and all the regular 5e APs, I guess it would be fun to use them in a different setting. Some spoilers ahead.

So, just for fun, lets try to modify the premise/theme of the APs to be able to fit them in Middle-Earth.

Tyranny of Dragons: Easy. The forces of the enemies are trying to gather a large hoard to call an elder wyrm from the north.

Princes of the Apocalypse: My favorite AP, but I dont have any idea for this one. Maybe evil men trying corrupt 4 element around Rhovanion like they did with Mirkwood?

Storm King's Thunder: The king of Trolls is missing, Olog-hais come from Mordor to gather each Troll subraces and gain favor in the eyes of the Eye. Can the PC find the old king to re-establish the statu quo before its too late?

Out of the Abyss: The PCs are taken prisoner of the orcs and brought in the depth of Mount Gundhabad, where they must escape and find the surface. Change the towns to Spider town, Bat town, a town of ghost dwarf etc

Tomb of Annihilation: The shadows are emerging from Mirkwood more than never, the PC must delve the forest to find the source of this corruption. Replacing Omu by Dol Guldur is probably too much for the level expected at this point by the adventure, but its a start.

Other ideas&

Lancelot · Jun 14, 2018

Interesting that you didn't mention the one that I think would be "easiest" to convert (for some value of the word "easy"...): Curse of Strahd.

The problem with most of the APs is they're too high-magic, and too combat-heavy. What's AiME about? Audiences, Journeys, the fight against the shadow (which is often subtle and corrupting), etc...

The early phases of Tomb of Annihilation (exploration, interactions at the port) might be semi-suitable, but things go straight off the rails as soon as the party hits Omu. Nine temples filled with traps and puzzles? A multi-level deathtrap dungeon? That's no good for Middle Earth. You can't even substitute Dol Guldur for the Tomb; at least not if you're trying to stick with a Middle Earth feel. Dol Guldur is a place you go to die. The Mirkwood Campaign makes it clear that not even the White Council entered into the Hall of the Necromancer itself, and the amount of psychic and shadow damage you take even climbing the steps to it would destroy most heroes.

As for the others: demon lords, multiple dragons, hordes of elementals... naah.

But let's talk about Curse of Strahd. There are fewer combat encounters, for a start. That's good. There are points-of-light villages under siege by darkness. Excellent - that's very appropriate. There are miseries, and horrors, and elements of corruption. Perfect - we have an avenue for using the Shadow rules!

The hags become village witches, corrupted by Sauron. Strahd could be a genuine vampire (i.e. one of the lesser maia spirits, corrupted by the enemy) or, ambitiously, you could make him one of the nazgul. His castle could be a crumbling dunedain fortification from lost Arnor. You could substitute Bree for one of the villages. Super-conveniently, there are three villages in Barovia... and Tolkien mentions that there are other nearby villages to Bree (Staddle, Combe and Archet). So, that's the location.

As for enemies, trim back on the combat encounters a bit and remove the more outre stuff (angels, flesh golems...). But Bree is near the Barrow Downs, so we have an excuse for a lot of the undead - they're barrow wights and restless spirits. Any blights become corrupted treants, with evil druids being servants of darkness attempting to corrupt the forest.

For Audiences, there are plentiful NPCs in Curse of Strahd... many of whom are important figures like vistani elders or village burgomeisters. For Journeys, there's plenty of travel implied in the map - although you might want to adjust the AiME journey rules to account for the shorter distances. For example, a journey of 5 miles in Barovia might count as a "long journey".

Tales and Chronicles · Jun 14, 2018

Lancelot said:
Interesting that you didn't mention the one that I think would be "easiest" to convert (for some value of the word "easy"...): Curse of Strahd.

The problem with most of the APs is they're too high-magic, and too combat-heavy. What's AiME about? Audiences, Journeys, the fight against the shadow (which is often subtle and corrupting), etc...

The early phases of Tomb of Annihilation (exploration, interactions at the port) might be semi-suitable, but things go straight off the rails as soon as the party hits Omu. Nine temples filled with traps and puzzles? A multi-level deathtrap dungeon? That's no good for Middle Earth. You can't even substitute Dol Guldur for the Tomb; at least not if you're trying to stick with a Middle Earth feel. Dol Guldur is a place you go to die. The Mirkwood Campaign makes it clear that not even the White Council entered into the Hall of the Necromancer itself, and the amount of psychic and shadow damage you take even climbing the steps to it would destroy most heroes.

As for the others: demon lords, multiple dragons, hordes of elementals... naah.

But let's talk about Curse of Strahd. There are fewer combat encounters, for a start. That's good. There are points-of-light villages under siege by darkness. Excellent - that's very appropriate. There are miseries, and horrors, and elements of corruption. Perfect - we have an avenue for using the Shadow rules!

The hags become village witches, corrupted by Sauron. Strahd could be a genuine vampire (i.e. one of the lesser maia spirits, corrupted by the enemy) or, ambitiously, you could make him one of the nazgul. His castle could be a crumbling dunedain fortification from lost Arnor. You could substitute Bree for one of the villages. Super-conveniently, there are three villages in Barovia... and Tolkien mentions that there are other nearby villages to Bree (Staddle, Combe and Archet). So, that's the location.

As for enemies, trim back on the combat encounters a bit and remove the more outre stuff (angels, flesh golems...). But Bree is near the Barrow Downs, so we have an excuse for a lot of the undead - they're barrow wights and restless spirits. Any blights become corrupted treants, with evil druids being servants of darkness attempting to corrupt the forest.

For Audiences, there are plentiful NPCs in Curse of Strahd... many of whom are important figures like vistani elders or village burgomeisters. For Journeys, there's plenty of travel implied in the map - although you might want to adjust the AiME journey rules to account for the shorter distances. For example, a journey of 5 miles in Barovia might count as a "long journey".

I knew I forgot one. I had exactly what you wrote in my notes, CoS would indeed be an ''easy one'' to convert, alongside ToD and probably OotA.

Outside of 5e, I think I'd probably continue Wilderland Adventures with a quick-n-dirty conversion of Red Hand of Doom, extending the invasion timeline to fit allow Fellowship Phases.

I wasnt interested that much in Dragon Heist until now, but maybe there will be a possibility to do the treasure hunt in Erebor or delve the maze under Dol Guldur/Mirkwood. Just throwing some ideas.

Lancelot · Jun 15, 2018

vincegetorix said:
I wasnt interested that much in Dragon Heist until now, but maybe there will be a possibility to do the treasure hunt in Erebor or delve the maze under Dol Guldur/Mirkwood. Just throwing some ideas.

I'm pretty sure that Undermountain is going to be too gonzo for a genuine AiME feel. However, the first part of the AP (Dragon Heist: levels 1-5 urban intrigue) might end up being a good fit. Given we know very little about the content yet, it might end up being a good fit for some business and criminal shenanigans in Laketown. The AiME campaign setting indicates that Laketown is still pretty shady even after being rebuilt in the wake of Smaug's destruction.

I GM both AiME and D&D, enjoying both. When the new two-part D&D AP comes out later this year, I'll be running it as intended for D&D... but I'm a lot more interested in the first part than the latter part. Urban intrigue and new building/business rules? Yes please. Mega-dungeons and mad magi? Been there, done that... many dozens of times over the last 35 years.

As for my AiME campaigns, I'm actually a bit surprised that anyone really feels like there isn't enough material already available. My group games 4 hours per week in AiME, and it'll likely be three months before we even get through Wilderland Adventures. And then, assuming all goes well, I'll extend it into the full Mirkwood Campaign. I plan to flesh out each "year" in the campaign into a single session, adding additional background material and encounters from the Rhovanian Region Guide so that there's enough material for 4 hours per session.

...and by the time we're through all that, if I wanted to continue with AiME (rather than taking a break to do some more D&D, or TORG, or whatever RPG takes our fancy), the new Eriador Adventures, and Rivendell Region Guide, will have been released. And the planned Moria set!

So... yeah. I don't feel a super-great urge to rejig any of the D&D APs, given there is a couple of years of material already out or on its way, even if you're playing weekly sessions.

Tales and Chronicles · Jun 15, 2018

Lancelot said:
I'm pretty sure that Undermountain is going to be too gonzo for a genuine AiME feel. However, the first part of the AP (Dragon Heist: levels 1-5 urban intrigue) might end up being a good fit. Given we know very little about the content yet, it might end up being a good fit for some business and criminal shenanigans in Laketown. The AiME campaign setting indicates that Laketown is still pretty shady even after being rebuilt in the wake of Smaug's destruction.

I GM both AiME and D&D, enjoying both. When the new two-part D&D AP comes out later this year, I'll be running it as intended for D&D... but I'm a lot more interested in the first part than the latter part. Urban intrigue and new building/business rules? Yes please. Mega-dungeons and mad magi? Been there, done that... many dozens of times over the last 35 years.

As for my AiME campaigns, I'm actually a bit surprised that anyone really feels like there isn't enough material already available. My group games 4 hours per week in AiME, and it'll likely be three months before we even get through Wilderland Adventures. And then, assuming all goes well, I'll extend it into the full Mirkwood Campaign. I plan to flesh out each "year" in the campaign into a single session, adding additional background material and encounters from the Rhovanian Region Guide so that there's enough material for 4 hours per session.

...and by the time we're through all that, if I wanted to continue with AiME (rather than taking a break to do some more D&D, or TORG, or whatever RPG takes our fancy), the new Eriador Adventures, and Rivendell Region Guide, will have been released. And the planned Moria set!

So... yeah. I don't feel a super-great urge to rejig any of the D&D APs, given there is a couple of years of material already out or on its way, even if you're playing weekly sessions.

oh, there's quite enough material for sure; I'm set for years with what I already own! And that's after the fact that I got one of my new players the starter set so she could practice to DM for us and another player who want to do a side campaign in Taldorei. By the time I get to use the Moria set, my 10 months old son will be entering college.

zedturtle · Jun 15, 2018

vincegetorix said:
By the time I get to use the Moria set, my 10 months old son will be entering college.

It’s good to have goals in life.

Yardiff · Jun 15, 2018

What is AiME?

Tormyr · Jun 15, 2018

Yardiff said:
What is AiME?

Adventures in Middle Earth, a Lord of the Rings setting for 5e.
http://cubicle7.co.uk/our-games/adventures-in-middle-earth/

Yardiff · Jun 15, 2018

Thanks

Eltab · Jun 16, 2018

I had more fun DM'ing Rise of Tiamat than you seem to be having with Hoard of the Dragon Queen. It IS better, in part because the rules were not being re-designed under the writers' feet.

If Smaug is still alive in your campaign, the purpose of the Hoard could be to entice him to move to a new house. If Smaug is dead, then rumors are flying farther and faster than the actual progress towards hoard-raising; BBEG's goal is to entice some other dragon to move into the area. I don't know if anybody in AiME would get the chance to slay more than one dragon without promptly becoming a target of Sauron's personal attentions, so you may have to sneak in/out of the various dragon lairs.

Lets convert APs storyline to AiME

Tales and Chronicles

Jewel of the North, formerly know as vincegetorix

Lancelot

Adventurer

Tales and Chronicles

Jewel of the North, formerly know as vincegetorix

Lancelot

Adventurer

Tales and Chronicles

Jewel of the North, formerly know as vincegetorix

zedturtle

Jacob Rodgers

Yardiff

Adventurer

Tormyr

Adventurer

Yardiff

Adventurer

Eltab

Lord of the Hidden Layer

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