Has anyone converted any Pathfinder APs to DW and run them successfully? Are there any pitfalls to doing this?
I love the idea of Kingmaker being a DW campaign, but I’m unsure of the amount of work involved in conversion. Would it be better to just build something similar in my own DW campaign as opposed to converting?
Lol. I asked this exact question several years ago, and nearly every reply informed me that “I wasn’t playing DW right” by attempting to convert an AP.
Who knows, hopefully times have changed and you’ll get a useful answer.
I would think about it just like running any published module using DW. The only thing special about an AP is that it’s a connected series of modules.
To that end, give a listen to Fear of a Black Dragon. They talk a lot about classic-ish modules and adapting them for play with modern systems, like DW.
Something I’ve seen a lot of is the recommendation to use World of Dungeons instead of DW. Then you can pretty much run the module as-is. gauntlet-rpg.com – Fear of a Black Dragon
I know you can’t convert the AP directly, because the encounters and such wouldn’t translate to DW properly (Pathfinder is far more about the combat, xp, gold/trinket/gear grind than DW). But I’d think you could still mine the broad strokes and make it work. I’m just not certain if it is worthwhile to even bother.
My experience with the APs has been that they tend to be rather convoluted in their design. The big bad hidden away for ages behind hordes of underlings so the characters can be the “proper level” before facing off. I’m not okay with that kind of thing anymore. I find Pathfinder and D&D to be entirely too crunch focused. That being said, if I can have some ready-made villains and plots that can be built as fronts and dangers I think it could be worthwhile. It might also save me on description-writing if I can use some of the locations as well.
I just don’t want to bother if it’s going to end up being more work than just making my own campaign where I start with the premise of, “Hey, would you guys like to earn a steading and maybe try to grow it into a kingdom? Cool, why would you be offered a steading? Who’s offering?” Etc.
I don’t know the Kingmaker AP at all, but I think your last paragraph kind of hits it on the nose: you’d probably end up doing less work just by starting with that premise and asking the players to come up with the seeds and building from there. The Perilous Wilds would, I think, be invaluable for that sort of game.
If and when the actually get a steading/stronghold established, you might find the Stonetop steading playbook & moves to be a useful framework. Or you could look at the Landed Gentry compendium class from Class Warfare.
I found this pretty awesome:
lampblackandbrimstone.blogspot.com – Pathfinding in a Dungeon World
I was going to suggest #Stonetop 🙂 It’s more focused on a single steading than Kingmaker, which puts you in charge of a new Barony that might eventually grow into a Kingdom, but I feel the season-based approach is robust enough that you could scale it up with a bit of work.
(Certainly you don’t want do use the Pathfinder Kingdom building rules.)
If you wanted to mine the Kingmaker AP for ideas, you could probably turn the antagonist of each module and their agenda into a front, plus come up with a front for the looming civil war in Brevoy between the Issians and the Rostlanders, and then just have them all percolating away at once. You don’t need to worry about level-appropriate encounters, and there’s no reason why Vordakai or Irovetti couldn’t be the “final” big challenge for the players’ realm rather than Nyrissa.
But that said, getting the players to answer leading questions about why the task of taming the Stolen Lands falls to them would be a great way to develop the context of their new barony without having to do an info-dump about Brevoy. You could still mine the AP for ideas, in terms of the questions to ask. The AP gives reasons for why the expeditions to the Stolen Lands are being done as they are, so you could ask your players the questions the AP answers: “Who is sponsoring you to claim this territory? Why are they doing it now? Why can’t they just openly annex the territory themselves? What other groups are also being dispatched to claim this or the neighboring territories? Why is this territory not already claimed by a recognized nation? What happened to previous attempts to claim this territory? What minor independent settlements already exist in this territory?”
A few months ago I doodled this. It is just brainstorming so it’s not even close to what I had in mind but you might be inspired on how to approach Steading moves maybe… Or not lol
Stats
Resources
Power
Influence
Population
Loyalty?
Prosperity?
MOVES
Spying
When you send agents to uncover secrets, roll+Influence.
On a 10+, they uncover a secret.
On a 7-9, they uncover a secret but the target knows you spied on them.
Diplomacy
When you send representatives to convince a nation that a certain action is in target’s best interest, roll+Influence.
On a 10+, they do it willingly and it strengthen your relation.
On a 7-9, they do it but it hurts your relation.Gain -1 Ongoing to Influence with this nation.
War
When you send troops to achieve a military objective, roll+Power.
On a 10+, they achieve their objective without much lost.
On a 7-9, they achieve their objective but choose 1:
Sustained heavy casualties, -1 Power.
It cost a lot to execute the operation, -1 Resources.
Conscription was necessary, -1 Population.
Project
When you undertake a specific construction or research project, roll+Resources.
On a 10+, choose 1.
On a 7-9, choose 2.
It takes long.
It was costly, -1 Resources.
It has unforeseen consequences, the GM will say what.
Oh and this I doodled on upgrading your Steading
All moves are only applicable while within the confines of the Steading and once the upgrade is built.
Training Rooms
When you upgrade your Steading with a library, an archery range, and training dummies gain +1 to Bolster.
Feasting Hall
When you upgrade your Steading with a large room with a long table, a large fireplace with a spit and some beer and mead kegs, you can Carouse without paying the initial cost of 100 coins.
Healing ward
When you hire specialized personnel that tends to the wounds and ailments, while you Recover, you can heal a Debility after each day of rest.
Matthew Everhart yeah, I’ve never gotten the ‘you’re doing it wrong if you’re using modules’ thing with certain members of the player base considering there’s an appendix in the book called “Adventure Conversion.”