So I have little confidence in my ability to run original plots so I'm editing a module to fit in a diff campaign setting. So what you guys think about this? Specifically Rise of Tiamat campaign but with Nicol Bolas stead of Tiamat.
I would say this is pretty standard practice. I do it myself a lot. My current campaign is set in (my version of) Eberron, but I'm cannibalizing stuff from Yawning Portal and Dragon Heist.
Matt Colville (of "Running the Game" fame) does this all the time. He uses modules like Night Below, Red Hand of Doom, Village of Hommlet, and so forth, in his campaign. He does a lot of heavy modification and makes it all fit into his world.
In hindsight, I probably should have done this as well rather than setting up a completely homebrew world into which most of these modules would not thematically fit.
Yup, I'm gonna do this next time, 100%... not necessarily with 1e or 2e, but whatever modules/adventures I want.
One of my mistakes when taking over as DM for the guy who originally was supposed to run the campaign, was in throwing out all the FR-based adventures at the same time as I decided to throw out FR. It just never occurred to me to just set these things in my own world --- "LMOP is set in Phandalin and there isn't a Phandalin in my world so I guess I can't play it." Nonsense. Call it the "Lost Mine of Greyhawk" and set it on Oerth if you want -- or anywhere else. Adjust details to fit the world and you're all set.
Too late for that now so... next time, I guess.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Not too late necessarily. The reason I use the old ones is, as you know, they’re shorter, actually modular, and generally setting agnostic.
And you’re older than dice, so you most likely have even more of those old modules in your library than I do. Dollars to doughnuts you have something that you can easily convert and slip in as needed. Haven’t written the dungeon for chapter 5 yet? Steal a dungeon. Haven’t written the setting’s version of Venice yet? Borrow Glantri City from Mystara. Haven’t written the village Freehold (or wherever) yet? Homlet awaits....
My setting is the Roman Empire, and most D&D material is more of a "feudal era" theme, so it would be more work to adapt than to just make up my own thing. I can't use quite literally any names for NPCs, because they do not follow the Latin rules. So I have to make up all the NPC names anyway. Towns in Roman times were much differently structured, highly organized and more like modern urban planning, so a village like Hommlet would be out of theme for my world. The relationships among the various races (humans, elves, dwarves) are entirely different in my world than in standard D&D. The amount of work it would take to adapt one of those modules to my setting is so extensive that it is simply not worth the effort. It's easier to just draw a Roman town from scratch using maps of the historical sites and old references (like I am slowly doing with Rome and Ostia) than to try and convert a D&D port or city like Waterdeep to Ancient Rome.
After all, the whole point of this campaign is to play in Ancient Rome, which is different in significant and substantial ways from the standard D&D setting. If I'm just going to use the old D&D adventures, reskinned to the Roman Empire, I may as well have just played in FR or Oerth or Mystara. My table voted for Rome, so I am giving them Rome (to the best of my ability).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
So I have little confidence in my ability to run original plots so I'm editing a module to fit in a diff campaign setting. So what you guys think about this? Specifically Rise of Tiamat campaign but with Nicol Bolas stead of Tiamat.
There's nothing wrong with it, and it sounds like you're reskinning the Big Bad for some Magic the Gathering setting. I'm pretty confident that Magic the Gathering has factions in its worlds that map to the factions at play in the module as written.
The big question here and in every game planning question is are you and your players going to somehow have less fun by going this route? I don't see how that would happen by tailoring / reskinning the module to the world you or your game is more familiar with.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I'm not sure what you're looking for in responses. But it's not an outrageous move and there's plenty of precedent for the practice (so much that one can call it part of some DM's practice). People adapt material designed for other settings and port them into their own game worlds all the time. This is literally a "no worries" scenario.
Do you have concerns about doing it? I'm trying to understand what you'd like contributed from the board here.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
My setting is the Roman Empire, and most D&D material is more of a "feudal era" theme, so it would be more work to adapt than to just make up my own thing. I can't use quite literally any names for NPCs, because they do not follow the Latin rules. So I have to make up all the NPC names anyway. Towns in Roman times were much differently structured, highly organized and more like modern urban planning, so a village like Hommlet would be out of theme for my world. The relationships among the various races (humans, elves, dwarves) are entirely different in my world than in standard D&D. The amount of work it would take to adapt one of those modules to my setting is so extensive that it is simply not worth the effort. It's easier to just draw a Roman town from scratch using maps of the historical sites and old references (like I am slowly doing with Rome and Ostia) than to try and convert a D&D port or city like Waterdeep to Ancient Rome.
After all, the whole point of this campaign is to play in Ancient Rome, which is different in significant and substantial ways from the standard D&D setting. If I'm just going to use the old D&D adventures, reskinned to the Roman Empire, I may as well have just played in FR or Oerth or Mystara. My table voted for Rome, so I am giving them Rome (to the best of my ability).
Look for old 1e modules set in “Thyatis” or “The Thyatian Rmpire.” That was the Roman Empire analog for The Known World of Mystara. If you find the Gaz 00 online it should mention which modules were in that setting. (That’s one of the beautiful parts of Mystara, each nation on the Known World was basically its own setting.)
I'm not sure what you're looking for in responses. But it's not an outrageous move and there's plenty of precedent for the practice (so much that one can call it part of some DM's practice). People adapt material designed for other settings and port them into their own game worlds all the time. This is literally a "no worries" scenario.
Do you have concerns about doing it? I'm trying to understand what you'd like contributed from the board here.
Just made thread to see what people thought about doing say Rise of Tiamat but with a diff entity stead of Tiamat. And it seems people do it a lot
It is never too late to change your campaign. You are the master of the mystical stuff!
I find it improbable for any group of adventurers to have seen the entire world. Somewhere in the world is a place you can plant just about any D&D module.
If your group is one of those jaded, seen it all groups, There are always Gates to other dimensions.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
Haven’t written the village Freehold (or wherever) yet? Homlet awaits....
I'm going to do this in a future campaign. Every village and town will have the exact same basic layout because when people came by, there were slabs of (something) already in place for them to build on.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
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So I have little confidence in my ability to run original plots so I'm editing a module to fit in a diff campaign setting. So what you guys think about this? Specifically Rise of Tiamat campaign but with Nicol Bolas stead of Tiamat.
I would say this is pretty standard practice. I do it myself a lot. My current campaign is set in (my version of) Eberron, but I'm cannibalizing stuff from Yawning Portal and Dragon Heist.
Matt Colville (of "Running the Game" fame) does this all the time. He uses modules like Night Below, Red Hand of Doom, Village of Hommlet, and so forth, in his campaign. He does a lot of heavy modification and makes it all fit into his world.
In hindsight, I probably should have done this as well rather than setting up a completely homebrew world into which most of these modules would not thematically fit.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I do it all the time. I take old 1&2e modules and edit them as needed to fit into my campaigns.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Yup, I'm gonna do this next time, 100%... not necessarily with 1e or 2e, but whatever modules/adventures I want.
One of my mistakes when taking over as DM for the guy who originally was supposed to run the campaign, was in throwing out all the FR-based adventures at the same time as I decided to throw out FR. It just never occurred to me to just set these things in my own world --- "LMOP is set in Phandalin and there isn't a Phandalin in my world so I guess I can't play it." Nonsense. Call it the "Lost Mine of Greyhawk" and set it on Oerth if you want -- or anywhere else. Adjust details to fit the world and you're all set.
Too late for that now so... next time, I guess.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Not too late necessarily. The reason I use the old ones is, as you know, they’re shorter, actually modular, and generally setting agnostic.
And you’re older than dice, so you most likely have even more of those old modules in your library than I do. Dollars to doughnuts you have something that you can easily convert and slip in as needed. Haven’t written the dungeon for chapter 5 yet? Steal a dungeon. Haven’t written the setting’s version of Venice yet? Borrow Glantri City from Mystara. Haven’t written the village Freehold (or wherever) yet? Homlet awaits....
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
My setting is the Roman Empire, and most D&D material is more of a "feudal era" theme, so it would be more work to adapt than to just make up my own thing. I can't use quite literally any names for NPCs, because they do not follow the Latin rules. So I have to make up all the NPC names anyway. Towns in Roman times were much differently structured, highly organized and more like modern urban planning, so a village like Hommlet would be out of theme for my world. The relationships among the various races (humans, elves, dwarves) are entirely different in my world than in standard D&D. The amount of work it would take to adapt one of those modules to my setting is so extensive that it is simply not worth the effort. It's easier to just draw a Roman town from scratch using maps of the historical sites and old references (like I am slowly doing with Rome and Ostia) than to try and convert a D&D port or city like Waterdeep to Ancient Rome.
After all, the whole point of this campaign is to play in Ancient Rome, which is different in significant and substantial ways from the standard D&D setting. If I'm just going to use the old D&D adventures, reskinned to the Roman Empire, I may as well have just played in FR or Oerth or Mystara. My table voted for Rome, so I am giving them Rome (to the best of my ability).
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
There's nothing wrong with it, and it sounds like you're reskinning the Big Bad for some Magic the Gathering setting. I'm pretty confident that Magic the Gathering has factions in its worlds that map to the factions at play in the module as written.
The big question here and in every game planning question is are you and your players going to somehow have less fun by going this route? I don't see how that would happen by tailoring / reskinning the module to the world you or your game is more familiar with.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
More asking on opinions of precedence for using modules as is (or much as you can) but diff setting.
I'm not sure what you're looking for in responses. But it's not an outrageous move and there's plenty of precedent for the practice (so much that one can call it part of some DM's practice). People adapt material designed for other settings and port them into their own game worlds all the time. This is literally a "no worries" scenario.
Do you have concerns about doing it? I'm trying to understand what you'd like contributed from the board here.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Look for old 1e modules set in “Thyatis” or “The Thyatian Rmpire.” That was the Roman Empire analog for The Known World of Mystara. If you find the Gaz 00 online it should mention which modules were in that setting. (That’s one of the beautiful parts of Mystara, each nation on the Known World was basically its own setting.)
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Yes we are saying that you can, and many DMs do.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I am directly admitting to doing it all the time.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Just made thread to see what people thought about doing say Rise of Tiamat but with a diff entity stead of Tiamat. And it seems people do it a lot
Yes, people do it all the time. It is no problem.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
It is never too late to change your campaign. You are the master of the mystical stuff!
I find it improbable for any group of adventurers to have seen the entire world. Somewhere in the world is a place you can plant just about any D&D module.
If your group is one of those jaded, seen it all groups, There are always Gates to other dimensions.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
I'm going to do this in a future campaign. Every village and town will have the exact same basic layout because when people came by, there were slabs of (something) already in place for them to build on.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale