I've been playing with an idea of running a long campaign in the FR setting. At this point there is no experience at all in this world, but it offers a lot of interesting possibilities. The adventures which I plan on running are:
1. The Kobold Hall lvl 1-2
2. The Shadowfell Keep lvl 2-5
3. Sons of Gruumsh lvl 5-6
4. Red Hand of Doom lvl 6-10
5 and beyond still open for ideas, but was thinking about the Paragon adventures Troll Haunt Warrens and the Spider Queen. Or attempt a conversion of the Spiderqueen from 3.5. I'd really like to add some underdark Drow adventure with a black/shadow dragon in it somewhere.
With the help of the Shadowfell conversion guide to the FR setting it was easy to place it in Cormyr/Thunderpeaks. I've placed the Kobold Hall at the outskirts of the Kings Forrest-Arabel. Sons of Gruumsh will be a little bit further to the north east (as per original adventure) following through to the RHOD which I'll place in the area of Pamarra-Narfell-Dunwood and is gathering its forces there. Just before they'll start moving east and join with the orcs for a big sweep through Toril mwahahah.
To me it sounds logical since the adventurers will explore further from where they started. They will get deeper into the story which will have a dragon story in the background.
A white dragon at the Kobold Hall, Shar cultists trying to release an ancient and powerfull shadowdragon at the keep, aspect of Tiamat with RHOD. And I'm looking for ways to keep dragons involved until a big final using the Draconomicon.
With some inspiration from other community made conversion guides I thought about making the goblinoids in the Shadowkeep capture and trade slaves with orc tribes...instead of a hobgoblins tribe. This to get some connection with the Sons of Gruumsh adventure. They can use slaves to re-build their temple. The goblins do this on their own accord since Kalarel does not wish to assist the Rhod and only follows Shar and not Tiamat.
There is a half-orc in the group which grew up among orcs instead of humans. He can have a connection with one of the orc tribes in the North that gather under the Gruumsh boys. It would also be interesting to have the female orc oracle/priest spell scarred making her that much dangerous and interesting. Since more and more orcs are migrating north/east to gather up there will be less and less random attacks on traveling adventurers. This might cause some suspicion as well.
The dwarf rogue was tricked, during the intro, into stealing a metal working recipe which has ended up in the hands of a RHOD figure using that to arm his troops. The dwarf doesn't know the contact was an RHOD operative, but is busy redeeming herself in the eyes of her community...assisting to stop the army is the least she could do. And the RHOD is trying to use the orcs to gather and fight with them later on.
I'm currently not sure if I should involve a few orcs here and there during the Shadowkeep adventure. It is possible to add the side trek of missing people from Winterhaven and that the PCs need to rescue them, but find them guarded by some orcs as those people get transported. Or stick with the original and use the Hob Goblins as transporters to orc tribes. But Kalarel might get annoyed when he notices some of his troops are missing from time to time.
Depending how the SoG adventure goes there will be orcs appearing in the RHOD along side hob goblins, dragonborn etc.
That is the big outline...Some feedback and ideas to make the campaign more interesting are welcome. The group is a decent mix of RP/Combat and pretty casual in play. Not to heavy on either aspect of the game so don't expect perfect build for battle.
I'll also keep this thread in case there are some conversion questions. Since Sons of Gruumsh needs to be done from the ground.
Current group consists of:
1. Vicross Serpenthelm - Male Human Fighter (depending how his inner troubles evolve he might add Paladin)
2. Magen Nalnore - Female Dwarf Rogue (will probably go the assassin road)
3. Mel Ur Genilly - Male Halfling Cleric
4. Skarbez Sharmorfang - Male Half-orc Barbarian (which will go warlord eventually)
5. Xarba - Warforged Wizard
So as mentioned I'll attempt to convert the SoG adventure. It's going to be an adventure along the same lines of level advancements. This means it'll be 4-6th lvl. The story itself will remain as it is, but there are possibilities to add more environmental influences as well as skill encounters. It'll be interesting how to get those in the adventure.
I've decided to make all NPC's either elite's or solo's depending on their status. Guards will be solo's and other prominent NPC's elite's with some henchmen here and there.
But first and foremost...my first attempt at converting the first NPC. Never done that so feedback would be nice.
The stat below is for Ongom the human bouncer for the Crows Nest. I basically just took fighter skills and added some gear. Nothing fancy. There wasn't any information about this guy in the Appendix leaving a lot of room for interpretation. Since he's a bouncer I think it would be better to alter Athletics for intimidate/bluff, but not sure if that would be logical with his demeanor.
Also attempted a Skill Encounter. When the PC's meet Lord Nanther they could do a Diplomacy DC30 check to get him to pay them 1500PP instead of 1000PP. I thought this would be a nice place to insert a Skill Encounter with 4E. Getting 500PP with only 1 check...that's a lot of coin riding on it me thinks hehe.
Skill Challenge: Haggling – XP 525
Lvl4 DC15
Complexity: 3 (8 successes before 3 failures)
Goal: To convince Lord Nanther to pay 1500PP instead of the offered 1000PP to find his son and bring him back safely.
Primary Skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, Insight
Intimidate is considered 1 failure
Any additional skill used for assisting information are easy DC 12
Succes: Lord Nanther reluctantly offers to pay 1500PP
Failure: Lord Nanther is insulted by the PC’s greed and now pays only 750PP