Converting an Adventure Path to 4E

[Answulf]

Hey guys, I'm going to be starting a new campaign soon and my players are dead-set on 4E. Instead of using crappy WotC products I'd like to run them through an adventure path, probably Rise of the RuneLords. To add an additional twist - there will only be two PCs and probably some NPC help.

How difficult do you think it will be? Any advice?

Thanks!

[Trenloe]

I've started the running Rise of the Runelords a while back and got about midway through the 1st part before the group split up.

Obviously, you'll have to do all of the NPC/Monster conversions and the amount of work depends on how close you'd like the original 3.5E monsters to come across to 4E - if you want them to be close, you may have to spend time modifying existing 4E monsters, if you're OK with things being "close enough" then you can just substitute monsters in to create an encounter similar to the style of the original, but using 4E creatures. You could use creatures from the 4E DnD Insider Monster Builder and could create encounters more suited to your party mix/level (2 players only or whatever you end up with).

The one area you will have to spend some time on is creating 4E stats for main NPCs. These are 3.5E class based and so need some work bringing them over into 4E. Again, it depends on how true to the original you want to be...

I'm not too familiar with the later parts, so I'm not sure how much extra work you might be letting yourself into.

Then, of course, you'll have to put it all in Fantasy Grounds - I'm presuming that's what you're going to do, but you don't specifically mention that.

If you don't want to use WotC products, there are other 4E adventure paths out there - enworld.org has 2, War of the Burning Sky and Zeitgeist.

EugeneZ has even done Fantasy Grounds modules for War of the Burning Sky - here is a post about the 2nd one - I can't find a post specifically about the 1st. But, the modules are downloadable from the War of the Burning Sky link I gave above (under "Resources").

But, Rise of the Runelords is a good adventure path - as is the 2nd Paizo one Curse of the Crimson Throne. So, if you're prepared to put in the work then those are cool too!

[Answulf]

Thanks Trenloe! I hadn't seen War of the Burning Sky - have your run or played it? How does it compare to Paizo' stuff?

[Trenloe]

Thanks Trenloe! I hadn't seen War of the Burning Sky - have your run or played it? How does it compare to Paizo' stuff?

I think WotBS is up there - perhaps not as good as the very good Paizo stuff, but still pretty good. The background stuff provided for free in the Intro Pack (player's guide and GM's guide) is good and the adventures are well laid out with good cartography. It gives you 12 parts taking the player's up to the top of epic tier (30th level) and fits in well with the 4E tier concept.

While the Paizo stuff is good also (and perhaps some of their APs could be viewed as "better" than WotBS) I think you'd be doing a lot more work as your players reached Epic tier - or perhaps your players wouldn't reach there as the Piazo AP's usually don't even hit the Pathfinder cap of 20th level - Rise of the Runelords is designed to get the PCs to 3.5E 16th level.

Again, it goes back to how much work you're prepared to put in - I'm sure you'll have a blast playing a converted Pathfinder AP, but you'll have to put the work in... Mind you, with any adventure path you have to put some work in to make it fit with you and your group...

EDIT: Sorry, I didn't answer your question fully - no, I haven't played it. I've read through the intro pack and the first 2 adventures and prepared to run it. Perhaps someone who has ran it will respond with their feedback.

[Answulf]

The more I read about both Pathfinder and 4E, the more I want to play Pathfinder and toss 4E out the window... lol

Now I'm going to look for a Pathfinder game and maybe start my own Pathfinder campaign down the road.

[Dershem]

If you don't mind some minor conversions I'd really really recommend curse of the crimson throne or Legacy of Fire. If you want straight pathfinder I'd say Carrion Crown has the best level good all the way across on the modules.

[Trenloe]

The more I read about both Pathfinder and 4E, the more I want to play Pathfinder and toss 4E out the window... lol

I never used to play Pathfinder and played 4E, now I'm the other way around. The main thing that converted me to Pathfinder was the adventure paths and the rich world detail. Now I'm playing Pathfinder I do prefer it to 4E...

Now I'm going to look for a Pathfinder game and maybe start my own Pathfinder campaign down the road.

If you want to find out what Pathfinder is like, try playing some Pathfinder one-offs: check out the Pathfinder Society (organised play) group here.

[Answulf]

That's a good idea... I spoke to my players and they are really set on 4E, but I'd like to try playing Pathfinder myself. Thanks for the link.

[Harlekin]

Somebody on the ENWorld Forum already has done the Fantasy Grounding of War of the Burning Sky. You can save a ton of work that way. You still need the mods, bt hey are dirt cheap these days.

https://www.enworld.org/forum/en-pub...aign-saga.html

[Trenloe]

Somebody on the ENWorld Forum already has done the Fantasy Grounding of War of the Burning Sky. You can save a ton of work that way. You still need the mods, bt hey are dirt cheap these days.

https://www.enworld.org/forum/en-pub...aign-saga.html

Just to avoid confusion, these are the same ones I linked to in post #2.

What Harlekin refers to in terms of needing the mods is that the Fantasy Grounds WotBS modules are password protected and you need the WotBS PDF for the relevant part of the series to find the password. But, as he say, they are relatively inexpensive. I think if you become an enworld silver sunscriber ($3 a month) you can download them for free - I'm not sure if there is a limit of 1 a month or anything like that to stop you downloading them all for $3...