Adventure Module Specialist Characters?

[CharlieRock]

Anyone else ever buy a module just for the art? Like, Temple of the Frog. Then realize afterwards that the level was way over here and the setting was way over there from where your team currently has their characters?
I do (and did).
Besides the ol' Pit-swallows-the-characters-and-they-land-on-page1, I have a tough time fitting in a (few) certain module.
DM:Everyone make a reflex save, please. Pit trap!
Team:Ack! I got Detect Traps...
DM:It was invisible.
Team:Well, to a degree all traps are, that's why you need special skill to detect them, right?
DM: ... I used an action point.
Team: er, okay ...
Besides, some modules just eat up characters. One weekend we all made characters specifically for Castle Amber. Over and over.
Sometimes I'm lucky and a module just works out: "Hey, this map sorta looks like the town I made up last session ... hey, cool!"
Sometimes I don't want to wait for the team to get up to 12th level the hard way.
I only know of three other teams that play D&D (or C&C). Two don't use modules (sucks to be them). And, the third makes new characters every session (not kidding) so they don't exactly have a 'campaign'.
Is our team the odd one for interrupting the usual program to jump knee deep into a module?

[JediOre]

Folks in my game will roll up a new character of the necessary level if needed, i.e. -- they are joining an existing adventure.

In all my years of playing D&D (since '81), I can only recall having the players create new characters for a high level module one time.

It was early this year and the module was S1 -- Tomb of Horrors. All of the specially made characters died horrible deaths with in two hours. We put the module away and the fellow playing the PCs desided his strength is NOT traps and puzzles.

Oh well, better luck next time. And since we switched to C&C, there will be a next time sometime in the future (The Lord & players willing).

[CharlieRock]

Folks in my game will roll up a new character of the necessary level if needed, i.e. -- they are joining an existing adventure.

In all my years of playing D&D (since '81), I can only recall having the players create new characters for a high level module one time.

It was early this year and the module was S1 -- Tomb of Horrors. All of the specially made characters died horrible deaths with in two hours. We put the module away and the fellow playing the PCs desided his strength is NOT traps and puzzles.

Oh well, better luck next time. And since we switched to C&C, there will be a next time sometime in the future (The Lord & players willing).

I'm switch-hitting C&C/D&D. Currently doing Blacktooth Ridge/White Plume Mountain (yes, it's old. But noone else, besides me in the team, actually played it before, heehee).

[superfan]

Hi!

I've been thinking about picking up C&C. I'd LOVE to run White Plume Mountain, and TONS of other vintage modules (as I have a boatload of 1st and 2nd Ed modules). How hard is it to convert ealier modules to C&C? Would you be willing to share your notes on White Plume Mountain? If you could, I'd love to see them. Benwax@aol.com if you can help the superfan.

Rock on, and thanks in advance,

Ben "superfan" Waxman

[JediOre]

Notes? You don't need any stinking notes!

You really don't need much in the way of notes.

For monster AC, subtract the AD&D AC from 20 and you have the C&C AC. AC 5 in AD&D = AC 15. AC -1 = AC 21.

For saves, use any minus as an addition to the difficulty check.

The rest of it ya wing!

It's exhilarating!

[bighara]

I don't typically use modules as written (if at all), but I love picking up a copy of a DCC or the like and mining it for ideas. My long-pending C&C campaign is due to fire up in one week (tomorrow is the last session of our current Savage Worlds campaign) and the first adventure is some of my own stuff mixed with Dragonfiend Pact and Idylls of the Rat King.

I am breaking my rule about using modules a bit later (when the party hits 2nd or 3rd) and putting them through TSRs B10: Night's Dark Terror. It is an awesome module and since they are starting play in Mystara's Grand Duchy of Karameikos, it's a great way to get them familiar with the setting.

@superfan, "converting" old D&D (AD&D or otherwise) to C&C is very simple. Just follow Jediore's advice. Back in the day (late 70's/early 80's), we played 1e almost exclusively, so the people in my group who played during that time aren't familiar with the Basic/Expert stuff like the B & X series of modules or Mystara. So I can lift from those sources pretty freely.

[JediOre]

I forgot magic resistance. Divide the AD&D number by 5 and add one.

Thus a monster with Magic Resistance of 50% has a spell resistance of 11. The player must roll an 11 or higher to overcome the monsters spell resistance. (I allow the INT or WIS modifer to be added to the roll.)

[CharlieRock]

Notes? You don't need any stinking notes!

You really don't need much in the way of notes.

For monster AC, subtract the AD&D AC from 20 and you have the C&C AC. AC 5 in AD&D = AC 15. AC -1 = AC 21.

For saves, use any minus as an addition to the difficulty check.

The rest of it ya wing!

It's exhilarating!

Exactly ,Thac0 is now Thac20. It's basically all just inversed.
It is easier to convert to C&C because they do not have all the feats and skills. Uses a SIEGE system that you could actually lift out of C&C and plop onto 1eD&D and run with it.
I would seriously recommend C&C books themselves though. Peter Bradley's artwork is pure amazing.

[Barrataria]

You don't really "need" anything to run 1E mods in C&C.

However, you should decide initially if you'll use the 1E monsters or the C&C monsters. Doesn't matter so much but BTB many of the monsters have powers missing that you'd expect. For example, lycanthropes can be hit by normal weapons.

The one part I'm not comfortable winging is the spellcasters, particularly NPCs. in White Plume Mountain I think that's irrelevant. But I prefer to jot down the NPC's spells prepared before I run a session. Lots of 1st level spells are 0 level, others were moved up or down, and the spells available to the characters are not the same. So, I suggest you think through those first.

But as you can see it certainly isn't mandatory.

BB

[JediOre]

Good point. You do need to spend some time before the game begins to make the spell casters easy to run.

I forgot about that. It's still not hard to do.

[CharlieRock]

Good point. You do need to spend some time before the game begins to make the spell casters easy to run.

I forgot about that. It's still not hard to do.

Naw, not hard. Just tedious, at times.
I converted 1ED&D magic spells into Palladium at one point (don't ask, I forgotten why. maybe to have evil wizards invade TMNT ). I think a similar method was used. A point system was devised to 'rank' spells. Ever notice no matter what the cantrip (level0) ,it's damage is 1d3? There is a ceiling for those now, over 1d3 damage is mandatory level 1 or >1.

[Warduke]

Sometimes we make up characters for a one-shot but usually that is because a group of folks is in town and we want to get some gaming in without disrupting the usual campaign.

one thing I do (think this is stolen from Dark Sun maybe?) is have the players scribble up 3 different groups of PCs that adventure independently, but share out portions of experience. so while rogue/intrigue group is doing city stuff in Crieste, the knights and war-casters are on the front lines against the Scourge.

its a little of a pain, but if you have the time it can be really fun to have story arcs that cross between the groups. team A accomplishes (or fails!) to do something, influencing the world that team B has to deal with and so on.

clearly this doesn't work for many gamers, but if your into the whole "the world exists outside of you" style of play, it can be really rewarding for both PCs and GMs.

[CharlieRock]

We do have plenty of 'retired' characters. That is, ones that we played for awhile ... then had to really make a new one for any old reason. The older character gets sent back into the general population of NPCs. They might show up as part of the taverns crowd (or the owner), in the court of a local baron, on a 'scouting mission', etc. These are free to the players to pick up and play again, later. Like 'guest stars' in a regular T.V. show. Kinda like Angel from the Rockford Files, or the Brigadier on Dr.Who.

I'm saving one particular adventure module for when next we have a bunch of new players who may not be playing with any frequency within the regular team. It has eight pre-generated characters in hand-out format with backstories intertwined into the story of the module. It is called Nemoren's Vault from Fiery Dragon Productions (found in my local gamestore bargain bin ). It is spiffy enough on it's own, but with all the 'tie-in' pregen characters it is just begging to get played when we have 'guest star' players.