Dungeon Adventure Path series in Greyhawk?

[Simplicity]

It would be better to place it in either Greyhawk or FR.
Anything more "generic" than that would have to waste
time explaining its religious system and so on...

 

[blackrazor49]

Greyhawk all the way!

Mike

 

[Bob the Reaver]

I'd like to agree that the adventure path is an amazing cool series of adventure and I hope that these adventure paths become a permanent feature in dungeon magazine. Now I dont know if all the Adventure paths need to go from level 1-20 but a good campaign series would be most cool.

I dont mind if the setting is generic or specific. FR is my playground but I dont require the adventure to be of that world. However how about the next Adventure path be MUTANTS AND MASTERMINDS!!!!! Yea baby!

The idea that there be sidebars or webenhancments that can help convert adventures to the realms, greyhawk, AU etc is most exellent and sholud be considered.

 

[Mount Draco]

I don't understand what you mean. I ran Forge of Fury in the Realms with no problems.

I am sorry for the misunderstanding. In fact I was referring to the second module in the Adventure Path: Shackled City (i.e., Flood Season, Dungeon #98). I do not want to spoil the module, but the events are very difficult to adapt to a generic setting due to the nature of Cauldron.

 

[Cernunnos]

My vote is for Forgotten Realms... I'm still wondering why in blazes WotC chose Greyhawk as the "default" D&D setting when nobody I know plays it (they are all playing FR or home-brew campaigns). Yeah, historically it was first, but still, when was the last time WotC published something on Greyhawk not in Dungeon or Dragon? The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer?
Second, since WotC has decided they are not going to be publishing any more adventures, the burden kind of falls on Dungeon now, doesn't it? We really can't expect a long term, ultra-thought out, multi-part adventure in any other venue. I think that Dungeon should take turns with their Adventure Path series... make one Generic, one Greyhawk, one Forgotten Realms, etc. I'd say make it generic enough that it can be adapted, but that only comes by sacrificing that campaign's flavor. I know readership is an issue, so considering how many people play FR, I honestly think it would be the logical campaign to use.

 

[GruTheWanderer]

I was wondering if there were any plans to publish a Dungeon anthology of the Adventure Path, with the entire Shackled City series in one volume, because that would be really cool.

I didn't read beyond the first page of this thread, so others may have echoed this already. But if not, I second the idea of a Shackled City anthology.

 

[Olive]

My vote is for Forgotten Realms... I'm still wondering why in blazes WotC chose Greyhawk as the "default" D&D setting when nobody I know plays it (they are all playing FR or home-brew campaigns). Yeah, historically it was first, but still, when was the last time WotC published something on Greyhawk not in Dungeon or Dragon? The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer?

you man other than the huge number of mods the RPGA publishes right?

Then Return to The Temple of Elemental Evil.

But you do realise that the whole point of the default setting is to just provide a shell right? So that the defult setting was never meant to be fleshed out like FR?

edit: fixed the mod name.

 

[Archade]

I'm running the adventure path in the Realms. Specifically in the Silver Marches, and Cauldron is now Everlund. But it hasn't been any hard work (just removing a volcano, y'know?), so I don't mind where the new setting is ... but a sidebar with quick notes to convert it to your greyhawk/realms campaign would be nice.

 

[Coreyartus]

Erik--

If there was ever a decision worth investing in, it's hiring someone to write a page or two of sidebar material on how to adapt the "generic" mods in Dungeon into specific settings--i.e. Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Greyhawk, and even Kalamar if one is so inclined. One of the BIGGEST drawbacks to the selling of Dungeon Magazine AT ALL is that the adventures are either too campaign specific, or not written for the right levels. Time and time again, these two factors are mentioned over and over as reasons why the magazine isn't purchased.

Fickle gamers are not going to spend much time adapting. It's too much work. Why not win over a bigger pool of purchasers if you hire a person to do that for you? It should be relatively simple to suggest alternative monsters, different kinds of traps, variations on challenging terrain, and a few scaled NPC stats. But it's too much work for a home DM to want to spend time on. Who wants to figure out locales and re-name NPC's, or provide racially specific details on important figureheads, etc? Why bother, when there's a plethora of campaign-specific settings begging to be purchased already, and no adaptation work needs to be done at all? Given the amount of work I've just described, I wouldn't want to buy Dungeon Magazine either...

Hire someone to write those sidebars. Figure out a place to set them in each setting. Provide a paragraph of campaign specific setting-enhancing material and you've suddenly got a whole new world of people who will buy your magazine. The motivations behind the actions of the baddies may change from campaign to campaign, but the actions will remain the same. The giants will still attack, whether they are being manipulated by Drow or by Illithids or by whoever... The Temple of Elemental Evil is still a temple, regardless of whether it's in Hommlet or wherever. The Shackled City simply needs a few details to help readers get over the bumps inherent in adaptation. Give us some clues, a helping hand, some gentle guidance... and we'll follow you like puppies and buy your magazine more often.

Seems like a no-brainer to me. Publishing generic adventures is one thing. Demonstrating why they're generic, and helping us adapt them is quite another.

Coreyartus

 

[TimSmith]

Generic vs setting specific

Definitely praise and genuflections to the Dungeon lads and lasses for their shackled city path!

On the setting specificity, or lack of it, I think the importance of this is over dramatised. I mean, does Cauldron really need to be in Greyhawk if you just change the Gods? Does it really even NEED to be in a volcano- couldn't it be a city around a large lake (even a dam/resevoir). Flood season would still work for this and underground locations can still be used without any problems at all. My point is that there are a lot of tweaks that can be made in a few seconds that don't stop you using the adventure path as presented for its meaty bits whilst changing the setting slightly to fit with your other stuff. Personally I don't see a problem with setting an adventure path in a new area anyway- if you are going to make it the basis of an entire campaign then why do you need to tie it too closely into other areas that have been developed?

One thing that would definitely be useful would be a sidebar suggesting alternate Gods for the Realms and other "big" settings or perhaps a web enhancement (by the way, where did these get to for episodes 3 and 4?!?)

What you should DEFINITELY steer clear of would be world specific tie-ins which would prevent use in other worlds unless a lot of work was done. Perhaps have a generic or new evil organisation which could be replaced by a DM's preferred set of baddies if he wants. (The Cagewrights work well for this as they can be used as is, BUT if you really want they can be adapted slightly to be agents of Tharizdun/Iuz/S Brotherhood/Kraken Society/Knights of the Shield/ Menzoberranzan/ whoever you like as long as they think they can gain something by making a pact with the infernal powers.) Earth shattering events like rains of colourless fire or the time of the Avatars should NOT be essential to run the adventures- they could be there as a suggestion/alternate ending though.

My vote would be that Shackled city has pretty much got the balance right so far. The only mild difficulties for me were trying to resolve the relationship between the different religions in Cauldron if you change them to non Greyhawk deities- but since that has been the most difficult area you can see its not a big deal!