Is switching Age of Worms to 4e halfway through worth it?

[Ravellion]

Nothing like a new edition to start posting again, eh? Basically, the question I want to ask your advice for: should I convert my 3.5 game or not?

Our group has just finished the 2nd adventure of the Age of Worms, and are now 5th level. I like 4th edition, from what I saw in Keep on the Shadowfell (which I've now played two sessions of to see what everything is all about). What I like most about 4e, is the monster layout, and less prep time. This might be especially helpful at high level. I am also liking the fact that I will do less botches like I always do: "ooops, the creature had this one ability which I completely forgot to use, which would have made the encounter actually exciting instead of the snoozefest you got now".

However, we've got an established group. One player is a dragon shaman, and one is a gnome illusionist. These characters might be hard to convert. Some specific Age of Worms encounters might be hard to convert too. Especially the final encounter... yikes.

My group of five players is split in two. Two are strong proponents of 3e, two are strongly in favour of 4e, and me and another player are somewhat in the middle (though I lean towards converting IF it saves me time or at least doesn't cost me MORE time).

Starting over is not an option, but a very loose conversion is fine by me. As long as the Age of Worms story remains in tact, me and my group are fine.

What would you do in my situation?

Thanks,
Rav

edit: Typo in the title

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Hello Ravellion,

I'm DMing my group of seven players through The Spire of Long Shadows - the 7th adventure - at the moment. I have to be honest and say that while prep work is considerable at higher levels (three 14th level characters and four 13th level characters), going 4E would throw it all out of whack for me - as well as taking thrice the time. If I had enough experience DMing 4E I think I could make a go of it, but I would not like to be experimenting with an entire campaign adventure path as one of my first 4E DMing efforts.

In essence, I would vote for maintaining it in 3.5 as it was written and intended. Going 4E will take more prep-time in the end at this stage.

However, go 4E if you and the players were happy to wait for some more 4E product to come out (4EPHBII etc.) and do another 4E campaign first so you could get a better feel for all the powers that are available and thus what would be suitable in terms of conversions. If you go to Paizo's website, I have seen a thread on converting to 4E and so you might be able to get some ideas there if it is what you want.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I would play it out as 3.5. In the time it takes for you to finish it up, the illusionist and other stuff will come out, making conversion easier, and everyone in the group will have time to get a more nuanced take on what 4E has to offer, or doesn't.

 

[keterys]

I was personally finding myself spending a ton of time changing modules to fit my group's power level and abilities in 3.5 - if you're going to have to take a hacksaw to it anyways, then the possible cost of switching is much lower.

At this point, I'm not sure I _could_ run it in 3.5 after getting used to running 4e, so I'd switch, but it can be tough. The gnome could get some powers from the illusionist article posted on wotc's site, and you could easily reflavor a lot of other powers (cold->psychic, change flavor = illusion) and do that. The dragon shaman could be a warlord.

I'd only convert if the players actually wanted to, though.

 

[hamishspence]

AoW monsters

It would take one heck of a lot of homebrewing to do stats for all those monsters, esp Kyuss, that are both 4th ed-ish, yet still evoke the feel that came from the original monster. But if you are prepared to put in the work, good.

I have about a third or more of AoW, the end third. One missing: Prince of Redhand.

For dracolich, might add wizard template to it: the elite Solo concept. Dracolich with 3 action points, +7 save bonus, more HP, spells, and counting as 6 monsters instead of 5 would be an interesting challenge.

Lashonna: homebrew Silver, or if there are 4th ed rules for Dungeons of Dread silver, start with that. Add vampire lord template (ignore the Humanoids only rule) making an Elite Solo.

Kyuss: combine orcus, Larva mage, and Yuan-ti anathema to try and get something with the feel of Kyuss, maybe.

 

[Ravellion]

I was personally finding myself spending a ton of time changing modules to fit my group's power level and abilities in 3.5

I don't really do this - I tailor my group's abilities to the powerl level of the campaign . Perhaps it's best to stick to 3.5 then. I'll see what I can pillage from 4e.

I'll refrain from informing my group for a moment, to see if there are other arguments around here.

Rav

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Our Savage Tides DM decided he wanted to convert our game to 4E. We'll see how that works out.

Our Age of Worms campaign ended in a disaster. After too many highly deadly encounters against overpowered monsters seemingly breaking any CR guidelines that might have existed, we "decided" to end it with a Total Party Kill and never go back. I don't lay all the blame on the adventure path, the DM didn't do a good job, either. It is really unfortunate, still, because the Adventure Path is said to be one of the best.

But anyway, my experience suggests that reworking the campaign into a 4E campaign might not be _that_ bad. It might actually remove any mechanical or balance problems since you'll have to convert a lot of monsters.

I think a general problem might be that 4E assumes larger encounter areas with more monsters then 3E. That might become a problem with the existing encounters.

 

[CapnZapp]

Of what I've see, any conversion is way too much hassle for what its' worth.

Now please burn all your non-4E books, and stand in line to buy everything WotC sells you, thank you very much.

 

[hong]

You're not even halfway through AoW. At 5th level, you're more like one-quarter of the way through it. If you're going to convert, this would be a good time to do it.

 

[Scholar & Brutalman]

Given my experience playing through Age of Worms you've probably done the best part already. I'd start a different campaign.