Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ryan_stone 10-16-03, 03:11 PM	Hello all, For the most part I have been a lurker on these boards, however, today I come to you in need of your collective creativity and experience. Here's the situation: I am part of a small group of 4 players who, for the most part played alot of 2e as kids and are now picking the game back up as adults. Two of us take turn Dm'ing ( I am one of the two) our own campaigns. I had the great idea ( at least I though it was great) of converting the old Fall of the Avatar trilogy to 3.5 and running it for my group. As a kid I really enjoyed this trilogy so I htough it would be fun to introduce it to the others I play with. As an adult I realize now realize how linear these adventures are but it will be no problem for me spruce things up a little to solve this problem. However, I made the mistake of assuming that since our previous campaigns were not in the Forgotten Realms, that no one had the 3.0 FR book. WRONG! The other DM has the book and has read it front to back. He knows all about the Times of Trouble and the fall of the Avatars. He will know what is going all through out the entire campaign! The Problem: How might I go about reworking these adventures such that they maintain the general theme and flavor, but will keep my frustratingly knowledgable player on his toes? I am not asking you all to do my work for me, but after reading these forums I have come to appreciate the creativity and resourcefulness of all of you. You imput would be greatly appreciated.
loki87 10-16-03, 03:32 PM	Well, first of all, I would have a quick conversation with the other DM, which might go something like this, "A truly great role-player should be able to put aside his knowledge as a person and play his character for what it is, with only the knowledge it should have." Assuming this guy is a mature adult, that can often fix most issues of him spoiling the adventure. However, as a DM, you still want to be able to surprise the party, as that's just more fun for everyone involved. The easiest way to do this is to change the characters themselves. We know them as Kelemvor, Cyric, and Midnight, but they can be anyone in your Realms. Also, you could change their appearance and mannerisms. Do this just enough to make it difficult for this player to equate them to the canon characters. Honestly, while I know all the events of the Time of Troubles, I never played through the adventures, so I'm not sure what the easiest things to alter would be. I know the locations are so pivotal to the events, so you may not want to go through the trouble of relocating the adventure. I tend to play with a lot of gamers who are pretty familiar with the Realms, so I never use adventure books or adventure ideas from the supplements. I come up with new campaigns, and only ever use major canon NPCs as peripheral characters. While this is usually far more complicated and time consuming than using adventure books, in this case it may be easier for you to start from scratch rather than mess with one of the most important events in the Faerun timeline. If you really want to use these books, then follow my advice on changing the characters first, and then if you still feel like it won't be a challenge, change some locations or maybe the order of certain events. Good luck! :D
Lashan 10-16-03, 03:34 PM	I agree. Just ask the player to be able to put his personal knowledge aside. That would be the best way to do it. As for stopping it from being linear, I am not sure what you can do. Ed Greenwood has expressed regret at how the modules turned out that way (for what his opinion is worth). Not that means you should not play those modules for that reason.