My response has spoilers for the campaign. You who might be playing it are forewarned.
Archade said:
Hi all,
I've read over the campaign overview, and I am considering running this campaign for my group, but adapting it to the Forgotten Realms. I'd appreciate some advice from those who have actually played the campaign.
1) I am thinking of setting the campaign in Thay, as the replacement for Ragesia. Instead of Emperor Coaltongue, Szass Tam has been destroyed and the Tharchions and Zulkirs are scrambling for power. Will that work?
Thay is also my suggestion if you're running it in the Forgotten Realms. In one playtest I ran, I sort of turned the map of the campaign 180 degrees, so that Thay is Ragesia, Aglarond is Shahalesti, and the countries further north filled in for Dassen, Sindaire, and Ostalin. In my version, Thay and Aglarond were already edging toward war, and Szass Tam and the Simbul had just killed each other off. (This handily explained why the PCs couldn't just ask the 30th level spellcaster to help them out.)
Or were you intending to set the whole thing in Thay, with the different nations representing different factions of Red Wizards? You may have to do some mild reworking of geography, adding mountains or forests that aren't on the default FR map, but yeah, Thay works well.
The main question I have is, are you planning to keep the Torch? Would you use a different artifact? Retrieving and using the Torch is a major focus of the campaign, but I don't think it's a perfect fit for Szass Tam's style. You could probably come up with some other item that has the same powers and a similar backstory, but perhaps a staff or scepter would be a more likely item for the late Szass Tam to have had.
Or maybe the Torch was an item he created for a powerful general, who commanded a Thayan army. I only suggest this because in the 9th adventure there's a battle against a 90-foot tall torch-wielding bronze colossus that looks like Coaltongue. It probably doesn't work the same to fight a 90-foot tall staff-wielding statue of a wizard. So my suggestion is to have Szass Tam and his loyal general Coaltongue both be assassinated at the same time.
2) For Inquisitor Leska and her goons, would substituting undead lieutenants formerly in the employ of Szass now running amok work?
Well, I mean anything can work, but the more you change, the more work is required. Unless you just really want to use a particular type of enemies, I'd encourage you to try to come up with a solution that lets you use the same stats for the villains, to save you the effort of re-statting all the Ragesians.
I would make Leska be the Zulkir of Abjuration who has been training minions for a long time in preparation of a coup. When Szass Tam falls, she's in a good position to claim power, and her minions start rounding up those wizards who aren't falling in line.
'Running amok,' as you say, implies a more chaotic type of villainy, but Leska is really meant to be a lawful evil tyrant. The way I'd imagine it, after Szass Tam falls, people in nearby nations hope that perhaps Thay will get a new ruler who's not so evil, but Leska is pretty damn evil (plus more aggressive than Szass Tam was, because she needs to cement her power), which makes the war heavily focused on toppling her while she's still weak.
3) I don't see much detail about how to bring the group together for the first campaign. What sort of motivations do the players receive early on to move along the plot line?
Thanks!
The main hooks for the first few adventures are:
1. The PC is a spellcaster and wants to get to safety before he's captured by the inquisitors. This encourages the PC to join up with his fellow magic-users at Seaquen in order to defeat Leska.
2. The PC is already a member of a group working to stop Ragesia (Thay). In this case, it's up to the player to come up with a good reason for his character to be involved in the war. I heartily recommend you encourage players to make characters who want to fight in the war, rather than trying to use a carrot and stick to keep the PC involved.
In my playtest, we had a former soldier who was drummed out of the military when he manifested sorcerer abilities (he wanted to convince his father, a general, to rebel against Leska), a member of the the Gate Pass thieves' guild whose sister was a sorcerer (she had already fled, and he wanted to find her and keep her safe), an apprentice to one of the wizards captured by the scourge (he wanted to get himself to safety, and later to get revenge), and a spy (he wanted to topple Ragesia because his village was destroyed by their army).
It was much easier than working in a later PC who just had 'cool powers' and no backstory.
I'm more than willing to help work out any kinks of the setting conversion. Good luck.
