When adapting an adventure path (specifically a Pathfinder one, my group wants to play Rise of the Runelords but we…

When adapting an adventure path (specifically a Pathfinder one, my group wants to play Rise of the Runelords but we…

When adapting an adventure path (specifically a Pathfinder one, my group wants to play Rise of the Runelords but we don’t like 3.X), what is the best way to go about it? Organize the entire adventure path as a single Campaign Front and improvise up from there using iconic and exciting scenes? Write up each Part in the individual books as an Adventure Front? Wing it? Stop overthinking and do what’s most comfortable for me? Tips and advice appreciated!

6 thoughts on “When adapting an adventure path (specifically a Pathfinder one, my group wants to play Rise of the Runelords but we…”

  1. I would go through to exercise of the Campaign Front, with an Adventure Front per book. Even if you don’t wind up using them, time spent thinking about it that way will help a lot. Most modules can be distilled down a couple dangers and a few locations. Generally, a location will sing out a custom move that the layers can use while there (“when you pray at the shrine…”). If it doesn’t, it probably isn’t a worthy location.

    Runelords is the one that starts with the goblins, right? So, the town should be a steading, there is probably a custom move to be found no in the festival they are throwing. The goblins are clearly one danger. And so on.

  2. Also, have a look at Funnel World, which adds a zero level “funnel” to DW. You might use the goblin attack as the funnel, and those who survive graduate to full playbooks for the rest of it.

  3. I’d say think of it this way – if you were describing the adventure path to someone else, how would you describe it?

    The scenes, monsters and treasures that you would bother to mention, those are your high points; think about how you would handle those.

    The stuff you skipped over is filler. Keep it in your back pocket if you need something, but don’t worry to much over it, and be ready to change or toss it as needed

  4. Thanks, all! I’m very particular about doing things, and doing them “the right way” as organized as possible. I perhaps was giving too much thought to The Module and not quite enough to Distilling The Module. If anyone else has ideas I’d love to hear them!

  5. I don’t know Rise of the Runelords specifically, but I know that some Pathfinder APs can be quite railroady – they expect that each book will resolve in a specific way, and each subsequent book builds on that assumption.

    I’d suggest trying to identify any plot threads whose assumptions span multiple books, and turn each of them into its own front that can run independently. In other words, don’t slice up your prep into something per-book in the AP, slice it up by the overarching elements. Some of those will only span a single book anyway, but the “main plot” which spans all of the books (if there is one in RotRL) will just become a single campaign front.

    The fronts should be from the perspective of the antagonists – a to-do list of what they need to do to achieve their ultimate goal (and the symptoms on the larger world from each of their successes) assuming the players never interfere. If and when the players do interfere, have the antagonist adapt on the fly during the session (or activate their pre-planned response to interference), and regularly re-work the front between sessions to reflect the antagonists’ plotting to still reach their goal in the face of any setbacks.

    It’s likely that the players will end up dealing with things from different modules at the same time, but that should be fine… Dungeon World isn’t as sensitive to level expectations as D&D, so it doesn’t matter as much if low-level characters pursue one front into content that appears in a higher-level book of the AP.

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