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Randal_Dundragon
Seeker
USA
95 Posts |
 Posted - 16 Apr 2008 : 20:31:17
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Hey All, long time since ive been on these forums. However, life does tend to do that.
Anyway, after several months (almost a year) of no Dming ive gotten the itch again. Ive decided i want to run a classic AD&D adventure in 3.5. as the title suggests im hoping to run "The Night Below" in Faerun probably in Cormyr.
What i was wondering is, has anyone else run this campaign adventure in 3.5? and if so, do you have any suggestions? any information would be appreciated. Thank you and if theirs any other topics about please let me know.
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Its simple really, Your an idiot and I'm simply a figment of your imagination |
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Hoondatha
Great Reader
USA
2449 Posts |
Posted - 16 Apr 2008 : 22:23:03
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I ran it a couple years ago, and created a thread for advice about it. Here's the link:
http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4515
That said, I'm not going to be of much help, since I ran (and still run) Second Edition, not 3.5. The adventure is scary enough converted to 3.5, but in its native setting, with the original 2e psionics, it's got to be the deadliest adventure I've ever read. We started with nine PC's, only two of them survived to the end. It was getting so bad at one point it was like Dark Sun character trees. Lots, and lots, and lots of fun, but death and destruction all around as well.
Edit: Oh, and you should also check out the last few pages of the current Questions for Ed thread, since he talks briefly about aboleths, and the Night Below adventure is mentioned. |
Doggedly converting 3e back to what D&D should be...
Sigh... And now 4e as well. |
Edited by - Hoondatha on 16 Apr 2008 22:24:21 |
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tauster
Senior Scribe
Germany
399 Posts |
Posted - 16 Apr 2008 : 23:25:06
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I'm another one crazy enough to DM this campaign. 
It's 2nd edition like Hoondatha's.
I placed Harlaton in the western part of Mistledale (1370 DR), which places the city of the glass pool somewhere below the sea of stars.
Here are a few pictures of our Mistledale map, as well as my own version of the Derro Warrens (which I developed into a more realistic city)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23109322@N00/sets/72157603829390197/
I found that where to place the surface entry into the underdark is one of the most important decisions in preparations, as it affects the interaction between surface sites and underdark caverns as well as the PC's (potential) allies on the surface. I even went so far as to copy the underdark map an all it's important locations true to scale on a map of the heartlands, just to see which lies below which. There were a few reallo good surprises, for example Fandruzsh's lair being right in the wall of the bluff on Archendale's eastern side, or the city of the gnomes being very near the mistran village of Glen... |
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Zanan
Senior Scribe
Germany
942 Posts |
Posted - 17 Apr 2008 : 10:00:37
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Matter of factly, I am running it right now, tonight is the third session. Was introduced to (A)D&D while studying in England and have DM'ed it over here once already, starting with AD&D and finishing it with 3,5E. It's just great!
A few sites have / had converted NPCs and creatures, I did quite a bit of converting myself. One could combine the efforts and do it again, as most stuff out there is not complete or erroneous.
Now as well back then I placed my NB campaign into the northern part of Impiltur, close to the mountain ranges.
By now, you can find many of the more exclusive monsters in MM II*, III and the Fiend Folio*.
*3,0E though. |
Cave quid dicis, quando et cui!
Gęš a wyrd swa hio scel!
In memory of Alura Durshavin.
Visit my "Homepage" to find A Guide to the Drow NPCs of Faerūn, Drow and non-Drow PrC and much more. |
Edited by - Zanan on 17 Apr 2008 10:14:17 |
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tauster
Senior Scribe
Germany
399 Posts |
Posted - 18 Apr 2008 : 20:47:18
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quote:
Originally posted by Zanan
A few sites have / had converted NPCs and creatures, I did quite a bit of converting myself. One could combine the efforts and do it again, as most stuff out there is not complete or erroneous.
Even if it has absolutely nothing to do with NB itself: I noticed on several websites that people make an enormous effort to convert stuff, even HUGE adventures like NB. My question: is it really worth the effort? I mean: why should a DM spend hours upon hours on number-crunching when the monsters are used in battle and (hopefully) die after a few rounds? I wing quite a lot and try to focus on story, on bringing out the NPC's character and quirks, on describing different locations, creating the right mood, etc... not that I think other DMs don't do that, but I spend most of my preparation time on such things rather than converting stats.
OK, the only "crunchy thing" I do is fleshing the bare bones of the small 2e stat-block out by giving a monster a more fitting set of equipment than what the writer thought of, a few magic items, feats/abilities or stuff like that. But not converting whole stat-blocks to another edition... as I said we use the 2e rules, so I never had to convert anything. But even if I had to, I believe I'd rather wing it.
I don't say that my style is better than your style (far from that!), I'm just curious how other people play...
...OK now, back to topic!
quote:
Now as well back then I placed my NB campaign into the northern part of Impiltur, close to the mountain ranges.
Interesting. Do you have a surface-map of your campaign that shows where the underdark-tunnels run? I'd like to see that! Did you introduce any side-treks or change parts of the plot? |
Edited by - tauster on 18 Apr 2008 23:04:27 |
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Zanan
Senior Scribe
Germany
942 Posts |
Posted - 19 Apr 2008 : 12:20:04
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Well, one thing is for sure, NB is worth the conversion. Problem might be, that DMs will have to use the PDF version in years to come.
NPCs ... you cannot have enough well statted NPCs, not just for NB, but every campaign you run. Of course, it makes only sense for "real" NPCs, as hardly ever will you need much more for a miller or blacksmith than Bluff, Sense Motive, Diplomacy, alignment, HP / HD (charm spells) and perhaps the saves. Thoe thoughs and thugs, brigands and evil-doers are another matter. In either case, converters do need to keep in mind that people willing to use their stuff afterwards may not have all books (e.g. Faerūnian stuff about Ilithid Bodytamers), so keeping as close to the core stuff (i.e. SRDs) is usually required. As in: be inventive with what you have.
In the previous campaign, I used the Headless - adventure in one of the Dungeons, but not many more side-treks (flying visits to Skuld for trading et al). |
Cave quid dicis, quando et cui!
Gęš a wyrd swa hio scel!
In memory of Alura Durshavin.
Visit my "Homepage" to find A Guide to the Drow NPCs of Faerūn, Drow and non-Drow PrC and much more. |
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tauster
Senior Scribe
Germany
399 Posts |
Posted - 23 Apr 2008 : 12:47:45
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...just realized that I forgot to post the links to the campaign map...
complete map (somewhat difficult to read)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2416/2232424249_e711083a6a_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2071/2233215340_99ff0a6ea1_o.jpg
western part:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2027/2232433245_97624fa1f6_o.jpg
eastern part:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2146/2233218252_0c56ce1522_o.jpg
the names are in German, but if you compare it with both the map of Harlaton from the NB box and a map of Mistledale, it shouldn't be too difficult to see what's what.
Here's my version of the Derro warrens from the 2nd book:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3064/2295478039_c169574235_o.jpg
Since I always felt unhappy with Sargent's low level of detail for the Derro, I drew my own map and developed 9 houses/clans of Warnak (my name of the settlement in the Derro language), as well as coming up with a clan of rebels that could flee 3 years ago (when the Illithid took over the city) and now allied with the party. Right now they are in the midst of a large battle to reconquer the city and free it from the illithid domination.
For what it's worth, here is the map of the battle.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3017/2295480043_820d05585c_o.jpg
It takes place in a large cavern the Derro use as defensive outpost against intruders from above. The tunnel above the piggibank (which symbolizes an illusionary bronce dragon one of the PC mages created) leads up and out of the underdark, while the tunnel leading to Warnak is the one south of the red pawn (which is an Illithid that was rather badly burnt by a fireball and thus could not much intefere with the battle yet). The folded paper snippets are Derro warriors, the round stone and the cork in front of the *ahem* bronce dragon are two PC dwarves that were enlarged to 3m size by our wizard.
In our last session the mage controlling the "dragon" used the illusion to have another Mind Flayer appear and kneel in front of the dragon - who casually bit off it's head. Since the derro cannot see very well (the party threw a lot of coins enspelled with permanent light spells into the cavern), they haven't yet realized that it's only an illusion. This creative ruse helped a lot to force them to capitulate - I didn't foresee my players using such clever tactics!
The second sage of the battle is close at hand, as it won't take long until the main part of the illithid rulers of the settlement will arrive at the scene, complete with their elite bodyguards. These guys won't be as surprised as were the cavern's original defenders. They will be prepared for a tough battle and use a deadly combination of psionics, weird derro-magic and fighting strenght. 
The player's goal is to kill all Mind Flayers and only as much dominated Derro as necessary. They plan to make the city an ally and a place in the underdark where they can come back to and rest/re-equip. Let's see how important this will be when they mastered the earth-magic from the Rockseer Elves (I'll use Node Magic from 3e's "Underdark" book) and can "teleport" almost back to the surface. But that's far in the future, and another story... |
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Halidan
Senior Scribe
USA
470 Posts |
Posted - 23 Apr 2008 : 20:19:25
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I ran the Night Below adventure twice in the Realms using the 2E rules. The first time, the adventure was set in the northern part of the Vast - using the village of Maskyr's Eye as Milbourne and the village of Tavilar as Thurmaster. The HighMoor encounters took place in the
hills outside of Kurth, while the Thornwoods material was moved to either the
woods outside the Mages Tower or the woods north of Maskyr's Eye. This geographic arrangement resulted in me changing the order and timing of some of the Book One encounters from the box set, but I felt it was better to fit the adventure into the existing geography of the Realms.
The second time I ran it in the Realms, I used the Ashaba as the primary river of the campaign. The players started in Ashabenford and moved south and east along the river to Deepingdale and Tassledale. The swamp encounters were moved to the Glaun Bog and the hill and Mountain encounters were scattered about the Dun Hills.
In both campaigns, the Book II and III underground encounters were mostly used as maped in the box set. I did add several additional tunnels leading to the surface in Book II, mostly to allow the players to resupply and to make it more realistic that the villians had multiple paths for slaves to reach the Underdark.
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"Over the Mountains
Of the Moon
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,"
The shade replied,
"If you seek for Eldorado!"
Edgar Allen Poe - 1849 |
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Zanan
Senior Scribe
Germany
942 Posts |
Posted - 24 Apr 2008 : 09:28:20
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| BTW ... to any of my players ... if you have read any of the above, I need to kill your characters, of course. Slowly and horribly, as always ... |
Cave quid dicis, quando et cui!
Gęš a wyrd swa hio scel!
In memory of Alura Durshavin.
Visit my "Homepage" to find A Guide to the Drow NPCs of Faerūn, Drow and non-Drow PrC and much more. |
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Eremite
Learned Scribe
Singapore
182 Posts |
Posted - 25 Apr 2008 : 14:01:03
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| My first full-length campaign for 3E was a conversion of Night Below, with a few liberties taken. I set up beneath the Shining South specifically between the Forest of Amtar and Dambrath. The PCs (all wild elves) began as gladiator-slaves in Dambrath before escaping back to Amtar from where they led a rebellion against the aboleth-led slavers. |
Best
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Hoondatha
Great Reader
USA
2449 Posts |
Posted - 25 Apr 2008 : 17:14:32
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| That's not a bad variation, now that I think about it. Did you sub the drow city for the derro? Talk about a deal with the devil if the PC's turn them into allies. |
Doggedly converting 3e back to what D&D should be...
Sigh... And now 4e as well. |
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tauster
Senior Scribe
Germany
399 Posts |
Posted - 28 Apr 2008 : 16:46:52
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| Yep, the Shining South is a great region for an NB campaign. But one of the really good points of NB is that due to the Underdark being riddled with portals, the starting point of the campaign can be wherever you want. And it's even easier to place the Sunless Sea: Just substitute the tunnel leading from the City of the Glass Pool to the Sunless Sea with a portal that fills the same role and transports the party into that huge cavern. |
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Ergdusch
Master of Realmslore
Germany
1720 Posts |
Posted - 28 Apr 2008 : 17:33:57
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Nice maps tauster!
I never go through such pain and to draw my own map. Also, I have a strange but firmly rooted reluctance towards translating the names of places to German. It sounds too wierd to my own ears, after having read the original multible times over.
None the less, nice style and thanks for sharing!
Edit note: sorry for being off topic!  |
"Das Gras weht im Wind, wenn der Wind weht." |
Edited by - Ergdusch on 28 Apr 2008 17:34:37 |
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tauster
Senior Scribe
Germany
399 Posts |
Posted - 28 Apr 2008 : 17:43:32
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| Translating names is tricky, right. We found that we most often like German names in our game sessions better: It makes in-character conversations (which are done, as anyone can guess, in German *g*) easier and "smoother"; english names have a tendency to "stick out" of a sentence. Still we don't translate every name, some are just either too good in English or too bad in German. |
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Hoondatha
Great Reader
USA
2449 Posts |
Posted - 28 Apr 2008 : 19:05:21
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| As someone with a passing familiarity with German (studied it in college, and spent a semester in Tuebingen), I can well imagine. Have you found that specific types of names are easier/harder to translate, or is it more scatter-shot? |
Doggedly converting 3e back to what D&D should be...
Sigh... And now 4e as well. |
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tauster
Senior Scribe
Germany
399 Posts |
Posted - 28 Apr 2008 : 20:17:20
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On the top of my head, I can't think of any "pattern" as to which names are easy/hard to translate, apart from "names that sound like other english words". "Alustriel" comes to mind, but that one wouldn't need translation anyway.
[sorry for off-topic'ing!] |
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Zanan
Senior Scribe
Germany
942 Posts |
Posted - 28 Apr 2008 : 23:20:40
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BTW, Shrieken was/is a personal name, much like Alustriel.
Neat maps nonetheless, though I think the scaling is a bit odd, unless that bit of Cormanthor is really just a bit of the forest realm.
As for translating names ... well, sometimes it works, sometimes it don't. "Stumpenhügel" makes you cringe, as does Halbschnitthügel. No matter whether they mean exactly that in English too. You see, even if their meaning is the same, they still sound ... well, let's say stylish in English. Quite a bit of that does not "translate" into German and one is inclined either to use the English word or substitute it with something that does not represent a 100% translation. (As if the players would know!) |
Cave quid dicis, quando et cui!
Gęš a wyrd swa hio scel!
In memory of Alura Durshavin.
Visit my "Homepage" to find A Guide to the Drow NPCs of Faerūn, Drow and non-Drow PrC and much more. |
Edited by - Zanan on 28 Apr 2008 23:21:27 |
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Randal_Dundragon
Seeker
USA
95 Posts |
Posted - 05 May 2008 : 23:16:52
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| Thanks Guys, appreciate the help, i actaully bought the PDF and im hoping to get cracking on converting it soon. Again thanks for all the help. |
Its simple really, Your an idiot and I'm simply a figment of your imagination |
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Zanan
Senior Scribe
Germany
942 Posts |
Posted - 06 May 2008 : 20:33:15
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Here's a link to an older Night Below info site:
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/zimriel/NightBelow/index.html
which includes a few conversions. |
Cave quid dicis, quando et cui!
Gęš a wyrd swa hio scel!
In memory of Alura Durshavin.
Visit my "Homepage" to find A Guide to the Drow NPCs of Faerūn, Drow and non-Drow PrC and much more. |
Edited by - Zanan on 06 May 2008 20:36:53 |
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Night Below in Faerun
