3e Keep on the Borderlands?

[Ashrem Bayle]

I've never ran this before, but it looks to be a good introduction to my group of new players.

Any idea where I could put the Keep in Forgotten Realms?
Any idea where I could put the Keep in Greyhawk?

I'm undecided on the world just yet.

Any advice from DMs who have ran this module would be welcome.

Also, if anyone knows where I can get a good 3e conversion, I'd be most welcome.

Thanks

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

I hear it is full of things that go BUMP in the night.

 

[Vanye]

I've never ran this before, but it looks to be a good introduction to my group of new players.

Any idea where I could put the Keep in Forgotten Realms?

I put it in the mountains north of Waterdeep. Gave the PC's a major city they could travel to within a tenday, and still be aways away from very powerful people. I also modified the keep somewhat so that it became somewhat like Hommlet, as I was planning on using the Temple in my campaign. Unfortunately, the PC's all died against the ghoul in the moathouse...

Also, if anyone knows where I can get a good 3e conversion, I'd be most welcome.

Well, there used to be a decent one here....

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Looks around surreptitiously, to make sure none of his players are watching, whispers:

I'm currently running a conversion set at the south end of Mistledale. I changed the stone houses of Peldan's Helm out for a stone-walled keep, tweaked the bad guys a big, and bang, instant campaign.

 

[rounser]

You may want to also track down copies of Return to the Keep on the Borderlands for 2E AD&D and Little Keep on the Borderlands for Hackmaster. The best parts of those - mixed with the best parts of the original and your own ideas - would make for quite a campaign, I'd think.

 

[Neo]

I've never ran this before, but it looks to be a good introduction to my group of new players.
Any idea where I could put the Keep in Forgotten Realms?

Well its a borderland keep, but is tied to a greater entity, so north of Eveningstar along the border to the stonelands would be one option, or in the Thunder mountains.

Or alternatively you could have it in the savage north, sort of a last beacon of civility before passing into the great untapped wilds.

Any idea where I could put the Keep in Greyhawk?
I'm undecided on the world just yet.

In the original boxed Greyhawk I seem tor ecall all the original adventures were actually placed on it's map coordiantes wise in the rulebook.

Any advice from DMs who have ran this module would be welcome.
Thanks

Play the place as a community make the individuals in the keep persoanlities, have NPC's of colorful sorts the PC's can interact with or hire.
Regarding the tribes in the Caves of Chaos..be sure to give them some greater driving force that knits them together it is unlikely that many varied humanoids would be found in one place without some strong binding leadership and/or common cause.

 

[rounser]

The people in the Keep don't even have names, so you should probably spend some time to give them some, and an evocative word or two each about their personality, goals, and appearance.

The Caves of Chaos could do with some dressing up, as they're pretty much a hack'n'slash'athon as written. Come up with some traps (maybe the orcs are accomplished with pungi sticks and booby traps), tricks (illusions are good for this...maybe the goblin chief has some Illusionist levels and has set up some illusionary dungeon features?), riddles (the mad hermit might show up at odd times while they're looting the caves and ask a riddle - help them if they answer correctly) and weird rooms (these are the Caves of Chaos - maybe there's a Magic Mouth who tells jokes, a bathtub with a water weird in it which is a friend of one of the humanoid leaders, or a door which teleports the PC who opens it to another part of the caves).

If you could weave some quests of your own around the framework of the caves and the Keep, the whole thing would get a bit more depth, too. Maybe a merchant at the Keep requires rare magical truffles, and gives the PCs pigs to root them out of forest right next to the Caves of Chaos....but the hermit covets the truffles for himself, and they have to roleplay or fight their way to a solution. Perhaps the PCs have some of their equipment stolen by a theif, and learn that there is a bounty on his head and that he lives in the Caves of Chaos with one of the humanoid tribes. Maybe the PCs learn that the Castellan of the Keep is really a doppleganger, and need to convince the other residents of this, or go on a rescue mission to retrieve the real Castellan.

In short, the Keep is easy to weave things around, but may be a little dull if run as written if you aren't easily amused by lots of combat with not much else.

 

[fusangite]

If you do manage to produce a nice 3E conversion, do please make it available to others. I think there would be considerable demand, certainly amongst my gaming circles.

I'm very much against changing the caves too drastically. Presumably, the main reason to do a 3E conversion is in the interests of nostalgia not scintillating and clever gaming.

 

[rounser]

I'm very much against changing the caves too drastically. Presumably, the main reason to do a 3E conversion is in the interests of nostalgia not scintillating and clever gaming.

"3E conversion" implies a pure rules conversion, not changing the content of the original module at all (except for a bit of massaging to make it fit 3E a bit better, perhaps), so I think that your concerns are unfounded.

My cliche suggestions and the like was just random idea sparking for home campaigns, because IMO the module is in desperate need of a bit of something else to do other than hack.

 

[Rel]

You may want to check out "Milo Winby's Story Hour" in the Story Hour forum. They started out with a 3E conversion of KotB and the story is pretty good.