Psion
Adventurer
Good topic!
Well, it varies. Some types of adaptations are harder to do than others. Rewriting a core class from the ground up just so it will fit in your game and finding a place for it within the mileu is a lot of work (*whaps AEG and FFG on the nose with a rolled up newspaper!*). Prestige classes are easier to fit in - so long as they are done right, you just have to fit them to the social circumsances of your game; in some cases this is easier than others.
Adventures and setting supplements vary. If it's just a matter of fitting it in the campaign world SOMEWHERE it's usually not a problem. If I want to use it for my PCs on a particular island in a few week and fit all the setting assumptions, it gets a bit harder.
For example, I am planning on using Banewarrens in my game in a few months. It's got up sides and downsides to the adaptation process. For example (
WARNING: Banewarrens Spoilers Follow!):
The biggest thing that makes an adventure or sourcebook hard to adapt is a lot of unusual setting assumptions. MonkeyGod has a habit of putting out adventures like this (Sword of Justice springs to mind). Some of the mini-adventures do this as well (I remember one that posits that elves were formerly demons or somesuch.) Others seem hard to adapt at first, but end up not being so bad (Bluffside talks of migrations to a southern continent; there is no such continent conveniently placed in my game. However, I substituted my western continent, which works just as well.)
Really good adventures often have a way of adapting your campaign instead of making you adapt them. For example, the adventure The Ghost Machine (SPOILERS for To Stand on Hallowed Ground!) speaks of an ancient artifict called the Doom Engine that could not exist in my world. However, the idea was interesting enough that I incorporated it into the future of my world!.
Setting specific material unsurprisingly tends to be the hardest to adapt, especially when that setting uses some unique mechanics. I made an "Orient" for my game and was hoping to adapt a lot of Rokugan material to my game. However, the void use mechanic, which I don't use or want to use, is EVERYWHERE in d20 Rokugan material, and has caused me a lot of work to adapt some stuff, and I have resorted to more piecemeal adaptations than I was originally intending.
Well, it varies. Some types of adaptations are harder to do than others. Rewriting a core class from the ground up just so it will fit in your game and finding a place for it within the mileu is a lot of work (*whaps AEG and FFG on the nose with a rolled up newspaper!*). Prestige classes are easier to fit in - so long as they are done right, you just have to fit them to the social circumsances of your game; in some cases this is easier than others.
Adventures and setting supplements vary. If it's just a matter of fitting it in the campaign world SOMEWHERE it's usually not a problem. If I want to use it for my PCs on a particular island in a few week and fit all the setting assumptions, it gets a bit harder.
For example, I am planning on using Banewarrens in my game in a few months. It's got up sides and downsides to the adaptation process. For example (
WARNING: Banewarrens Spoilers Follow!):
- Premise - The island I am running on already has a major city with an ancient vault to contain evil beneath it, and has had such a place for the 15 years I have been running my campaign world. I hate coincidences and so I rewrote the Banewarrens as a previously unexplored extension of the old vault.
- Features - A big stinkin' spire of rock is a pretty obtrusive feature that you think the DM would have mentioned if it is already there. IMC, I moved it away from the city more.
- Organizations - None of the organizations mentioned exist in my world. HOWEVER, the adventure takes pains to point out what salient characteristics of each organization you should try to keep if you use a substitute, as well as pointing out exactly where all the agents of each organization are in the book so you can make changes. Normally this adaptation is a real sticking point for adventures and you have to pace though the adventure to figure out where all of the "hooks" are; fortunately Monte was thoughtful enough to show you where the hooks are himself.
- Creatures - Um, there are no lycanthropes in my game world. Must find a substitute.
The biggest thing that makes an adventure or sourcebook hard to adapt is a lot of unusual setting assumptions. MonkeyGod has a habit of putting out adventures like this (Sword of Justice springs to mind). Some of the mini-adventures do this as well (I remember one that posits that elves were formerly demons or somesuch.) Others seem hard to adapt at first, but end up not being so bad (Bluffside talks of migrations to a southern continent; there is no such continent conveniently placed in my game. However, I substituted my western continent, which works just as well.)
Really good adventures often have a way of adapting your campaign instead of making you adapt them. For example, the adventure The Ghost Machine (SPOILERS for To Stand on Hallowed Ground!) speaks of an ancient artifict called the Doom Engine that could not exist in my world. However, the idea was interesting enough that I incorporated it into the future of my world!.
Setting specific material unsurprisingly tends to be the hardest to adapt, especially when that setting uses some unique mechanics. I made an "Orient" for my game and was hoping to adapt a lot of Rokugan material to my game. However, the void use mechanic, which I don't use or want to use, is EVERYWHERE in d20 Rokugan material, and has caused me a lot of work to adapt some stuff, and I have resorted to more piecemeal adaptations than I was originally intending.
