D&D 4E Converting Publish 4E Adventures to Greyhawk

[the-golem]

Forking, since it's tangentially related to my previous thread.

I haven't yet had a chance to run my first adventure, but I'm already thinking about what to do next. I really want to keep things in Greyhawk, and was seriously considering using the WotC published adventure, Seekers of the Ashen Crown.

My first thought was to place it somewhere deep within the Pomarj, which would fit in pretty well with the first adventure, 2E Patriots of Ulek, converted. However, there are a few slight problems. The first is that its based in Eberron and I'm afraid its ... flavored ... towards that particular style. The second, and truthfully more bone-jarring, is the treatment of goblihs as possibly non-evil. I don't particularly have an issue with this; I can rational that good and evil exist in all walks of life, human or not. Nevertheless, it doesn't feel particularly Greyhawk to me. As such, I'm having trouble articulating a particularly good spot to place this module, and am having second thoughts.

Has anyone had any particular luck placing published adventures into Greyhawk, without too much fuss?

 

[renau1g]

Unfortunately, I find Eberron adventures to be fairly campaign specific as it is very different than Greyhawk or FR.

 

[the-golem]

Unfortunately, I find Eberron adventures to be fairly campaign specific as it is very different than Greyhawk or FR.

I know. I didn't really want to elaborate much on the Eberron aspect, as I'm trying hard not to step on the toes of anyone that relishes that setting. Although the module claims to be loosely connected with Eberron, the flavor of the module kinda rubs me wrong.

The PCs early on encounter an NPC dwarf who's willingly palling around with a hobgoblin!

So, I suppose noone has really tackled this, then?

 

[Turtlejay]

I know. I didn't really want to elaborate much on the Eberron aspect, as I'm trying hard not to step on the toes of anyone that relishes that setting. Although the module claims to be loosely connected with Eberron, the flavor of the module kinda rubs me wrong.

The PCs early on encounter an NPC dwarf who's willingly palling around with a hobgoblin!

So, I suppose noone has really tackled this, then?

That might have been a unique feature of Eberron when it was unvieled (the varied alilgnments of traditional adversaries), but 4e in general has seen a shift of creatures from the 'always evil' and 'usually evil' columns into the ambiguous 'unaligned' column. To be sure, this allows DM's a little more flexibility to include such things in their campaign worlds, but that does not mean it is the default in *your* campaign world, or that you need to accomodate it.

Jay

 

[the-golem]

That might have been a unique feature of Eberron when it was unvieled (the varied alilgnments of traditional adversaries), but 4e in general has seen a shift of creatures from the 'always evil' and 'usually evil' columns into the ambiguous 'unaligned' column. To be sure, this allows DM's a little more flexibility to include such things in their campaign worlds, but that does not mean it is the default in *your* campaign world, or that you need to accomodate it.

Jay

This makes sense, considering that *shudder* Tieflings are now a core race.

 

[Jhaelen]

The first is that its based in Eberron and I'm afraid its ... flavored ... towards that particular style. The second, and truthfully more bone-jarring, is the treatment of goblihs as possibly non-evil.

Errm, the first is actually more of an issue. The adventure is meant to stress the unique aspects of the Eberron setting. It definitely has the typical pulp-noir style, involving several power groups hunting after the same thing, intrigue, betrayal, etc.

It starts in a metropolis (Sharn), includes an episode on an elemental airship and the Eberron/3e style redline travel. It includes many references to Eberron's history, factions, and nations.

Now, getting rid of the goblinoids is easy. Just replace them with any other humanoid race you're comfortable with. If you don't use the Eberron setting there's no reason they have to be goblinoids. Just make them humans of a nation of your choice. Doesn't Greyhawk also include a country with a glorious past? That would be a good fit.

If you strip the adventure down to its core it's all about collecting five pieces of an artifact to help a nation to end its internal struggles and achieve greatness again.

You'd also have to replace all of the Eberron-specific monsters, though. Dolgaunts, Dolgrims, and Dolgarrs are goblinoids that have been modified by the Dhaelkyr, turning them into aberrations. I'm not sure what would be good replacements in Greyhawk. One of the Underdark races maybe?

Though, I'm currently playing a Greyhawk campaign I don't actually know a lot about the setting. Since it's _my_ campaign, I don't particularly care about its 'official' history.

 

[DracoSuave]

You'd also have to replace all of the Eberron-specific monsters, though. Dolgaunts, Dolgrims, and Dolgarrs are goblinoids that have been modified by the Dhaelkyr, turning them into aberrations. I'm not sure what would be good replacements in Greyhawk. One of the Underdark races maybe?

Well, you could replace them with goblinoids that worshiped strange powerful Elder Things from the Far Plane, turning them into Dolgaunts, Dolgrims, and Dolgarrs.

It's not like the players are going to ask the aberrant bastards what they're called. And if they do, at most, they'll get a burbling melty face as a response.

 

[the-golem]

I've actually decided against using the previously mentioned 4E module, and decided to go with the 3E "Forge of Fury" adventure instead. It fits much better with my campaign, and is something like the 13th best adventure of all time, according to a Paizo article.

Unfortunately, the 2E module I want to use got a scathing review on Canonfire! The points are all soundly based, though. Especially the ones regarding the character involvement. -- I've included a link to the review, but you hafta a member of the site and logged in to view it.