Spider Queen vs Elemental Evil

[Eltern]

So I'm starting a new campaign with my crew, and I'm looking for adventures to run.

Oh, we're starting....at...1. pm. Today. You know, like, TODAY. Yeah. I can take them

My plan right now is to start them at level 5, run through some free online adventure, then go Banewarrens (From Malhavoc, yay Monte), then City of the Spider Queen. Two of the four members of my group just got done with a Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil campaign with me as the DM, and I'm wondering if City of the Spider Queen is going to be a big repeat for them. I loved RttToEE, however it felt like ONE BIG GO. It did not have many discrete packets where you could stop and start, take a break to make items, go on a minor sidequest to get a warhorse, etc. It wasn't a quantum campaign So has anyone run the City and knows if it's like this, and if so, ways to make it distinctly NOT like this? Change some timing things, some motives, whatever it takes, I want them to be able to do it in chunks -if- they want.

Couple other City questions:
-Does anyone know of a fan/support website for it? I know RttToEE had a GREAT one on Monte's boards.
-Is it impossibly difficult to remove it from FR and put it in Greyhawk? The group isn't into running all around the world so they don't care about actual geography, but I don't want to mess with FR gods and all its complexities (Lloth stays, though)
-Lastly, is it all dungeon? I know RttToEE was basically (Not entirely, but basically) all dungeon setting. Are there a variety of environments in City, so the druid/ranger/environment-focused-person doesn't always get screwed?

I should go buy this thing now

Thanks a bunch!
Eltern

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I'm actually running this combo with a lot of other itercut adventures. It's worked pretty well conceptually. As to City questions:

1. There's a timeline for what the BBEG's do in the module. If you're flexible with the timeline, it can allow for a lot of side adventures, but that also takes some of the pressure off to investigate the primary adventure. I'd planned a "loose" timeline, myself.

2. I don't know of any fan support off hand, but WotC had a web supplement for it, plus a related adventure in Dungeon ("Spirals of Messanine"), and you could drop in virtually any Underdark-based adventure with a little tweaking -- lots to choose from in Dungeon.

3. I think you could port it quite easily into Greyhawk (since it's in the Underdark, the geography matters not a whit). You'll need to tweak the backstory a bit, substituting some Greyhawk gods, but that's easy. Basically, you change a hook, keep Lolth, and need a god of Undead that will work for drow -- but it's pretty easy to just port over the FR drow pantheon; the rest of the FR gods don't figure much at all.

4. It's not all dungeon -- but as an Underdark adventure, it can feel like it's all dungeon. By adding a bit more to the Underdark in terms of details and exploring, you can still allow your "wilderness"-focused characters to shine. Treat the areas between major encounter areas as wilderness, and the adventure combines dungeon, wilderness, and city adventuring. Take a look at the maps (they're available free, unkeyed, at the WotC site) and see what you think.

Another note: CotSQ is pretty dependent on the style of play of both the DM and players. Some folks have gotten frustrated with it as a meatgrinder and excessively large dungeon -- but that's in great part due to either a DM who runs the adventure like some sort of ununspired dungeon crawl, or players who prefer to shoot first and negotiate afterward. IMO, a stealthy, open-minded approach by the players, combined with a DM who can emphasize the non-combat aspects of the adventure which are implied, but not really fully fleshed out in the adventure itself, are key to making this a great long-term campaign. There are some great opportunities for a little political maneuvering, investigation, and exploration as well as hacking and slashing, if played cleverly -- but as the DM you've got to hook your players with those concepts in mind and play them up. The advantage of that approach is it makes it easier to add some sidetreks, and allow the players to determine the course and emphasis of the adventure. If they go in with proverbial swords & spells blazing, it'll be a long slog.

Unless, of course, they like killing and looting their way all the way through to the end, in which case everything's fine.

 

[Sir Whiskers]

...I loved RttToEE, however it felt like ONE BIG GO. It did not have many discrete packets where you could stop and start, take a break to make items, go on a minor sidequest to get a warhorse, etc. It wasn't a quantum campaign So has anyone run the City and knows if it's like this, and if so, ways to make it distinctly NOT like this?...

I haven't run the module, but in my initial read-thru, I noticed that it is set up with a very tight timeline. Very bad things happen if the party does not stop the bad guys, and I believe they only have four months of game time in which to do it. Also, the module is set up for the characters to gain several levels in that limited time - otherwise they won't be powerful enough to survive the final battles.

Definitely not what you want if you're looking to slow things down.

 

[Eltern]

Well thanks very much, that's good info

Eltern