Seeking advice on converting 3.5 D&D Curse of the Crimson Throne to D20 Modern - OG Myth-Weavers

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Seeking advice on converting 3.5 D&D Curse of the Crimson Throne to D20 Modern

   
Seeking advice on converting 3.5 D&D Curse of the Crimson Throne to D20 Modern

First off, because I may run this one on this site once I get my act together, I'll separate out plot spoilers (to satisfy curiosity of those who might have read the adventures) from what would be known by new characters.

I have an idea about how I could convert the Paizo adventure path Curse of the Crimson Throne (a medieval fantasy adventure that is mostly urban with some trips afield) to a post-apocalyptic modern setting. I'd appreciate any feedback in this kind of a conversion project and for running d20 modern games in general, which I'm newish at. I am planning on using d20 modern and d20 apocalypse (which I'm waiting to get on ebay).

The game would be set in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada:

Link to google maps of the city

The biggest reason for Why Vancouver is because the geography fits.

History
Tomorrow, Nuclear Armageddon initiated by a computer virus levels most world cities and causes every nuclear-powered vessel to melt down, worldwide. Retaliatory wars serve to further dwindle military hardware. Vancouver is spared from a direct hit but the ICBM that targeted the city detonated under the ocean water to the west sending a 5-metre tidal wave that washes over low-elevation parts of the city, destroying much of Richmond, Delta, Surrey and Coquitlam. After two years of nuclear winter, the climate warms dramatically. Sea level rise turns Vancouver into a sub-tropical island everywhere west of Port Coquitlam. Fallout causes widespread mutations but the on-shore Pacific breeze tends to protect Vancouverites from the worst of it; things are much worse east of the Rocky Mountains, as far as people know the eastern seaboard is uninhabitable as is europe and much of asia.

50 years later Pose Apocalypse, Vancouver is a fortified island-state, protecting its citizens from the mutants that menace the countryside. Survivors from the Interior trickle in to the city and only the First Nations (native Salish Indian) tribes remain in the wild mountains to the East.

Vancouver is now a city-state led by a President and his First Lady.

Tech Level
Modern but with limited gasoline and other commodities. Electricity generation is local and is therefore extremely limited (wind, solar, tidal sources only - hydroelectric sources are too far away to be adequately defended). Lots of cars and boats are around to be rebuilt and maintained but air travel is extremely rare as the Tsunami wiped out the Airport. Probably a barter economy.

People
Vancouver is a cosmopolitan city with majority european ancestry but with large Chinese and South Asian minority populations (Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan) with some natives (Salish Indians)


Geographic changes

A Palace is built on the Stanley Park grounds and false creek now connects to Vancouver Harbour and separates the old downtown from the rest of the city to the east.


Everything south of the river (Richmond, Delta, Surrey) is flooded, everything up-river from Burnaby or so was destroyed in mud slides after the big melt (post-nuclear winter) and is now farmland, ruins or underwater.

Awesomesauce.

Sadly, I've no experience converting anything to d20 Modern. Good luck!

Oh - and this would probably go better in the GM Workshop.

Whisper? Mordae? Etc?

The workshop forum description said it was to "get the input or feedback of prospective players". I seek advice about D&D-d20 modern conversions in general and help with any common pitfalls. I really think the plot and setting fits so I don't really need ideas on that side.

Edit: I was reading the Game Workshop and missed the GM workshop. Oops.

Hey Greycloak, very nice concept!

I'm from the area so the geography is conveniently familiar, plus I ran a d20 modern game set in post-apocalyptic Russia so I might be of some help in those regards. I don't however know much about the Curse of the Crimson Throne.

The initial plot hook involves all of the players knowing and having reason to seek revenge against a certain underworld guy - a drug dealing, murdering, pederast and that all works fine. The reason that Vancouver works well is because certain chapters require some geographic confinement, so flooding the lower-laying parts of the city, leaving the hilly part north of the north branch of the Fraser river helps to do that. I am unable to find a really good elevation map of the city to confirm what I think I see from the satellite maps so if you have any ideas on that front, I would be most appreciative.

I guess my biggest questions are not about the plot and setting, which I think will work out really well, but are more about designing challenges and encounters for a d20 modern game. Was your game a PBP game or in-person? Did you limit the availability of firearms somehow or was it fully armed? Did you have any more fantastical elements in the form of mutated bad guys or was it more hard-core science fiction?

It was PbP. What were you planning?

I let players buy whatever weapons they wanted at character creation with a warning that ammunition was more scarce than guns so selecting an automatic weapon was probably not a good way to protect oneself reliably. Weapons can be bored out/modified to accept different ammunition, and ammunition can be crafted by one so trained and with the right materials.

My take was to make mutants rare and gritty; with illness and deformity more the norm. Mutants are shunned and believed to be contagious; essentially post-apocalyptic lepers. I wanted to bring bigger, badder nastier mutant critters in and had a few ideas but my game was sandbox and there was only minimal contact with one type of mutant; a kind of hybridized, hairless wolf creature.

I would not do a sandbox style game in the future; something like what you're planning is a great way to provide the needed structure I think my players would have likely enjoyed more. Still it was a blast and we had a lot of fun.

Probably PbP myself. I'm fairly new to the d20 modern game so that'd give me lots of time to look stuff up offline.





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