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View Full Version : how to refluff a premade adventure properly?



Togath
2012-08-20, 04:05 AM
Anyone have tips for things to aim for, and for things to avoid while re-fluffing a premade adventure?, Currently I had been planning to change it to an Asian theme, but I'm worried about players finding it too silly, or too cheesy if I have it have components of more then one Asian culture(such as having Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian, Mongolian, Tibetan, and Russian influences in the same place), I'm also having trouble deciding how to name things, should I use an English name fore a place translated into another language, or can I stick to English names?, Would it be too cheesy to have a mixture(for both names of places, and names of people)?

Currently I'm leaning towards a mainly Japanese influence, with some minor aspects of other Asian cultures, and a few Scandinavian cultures added in.
The system is also pathfinder if that changes anything(though the original adventure is dungeons and dragons), and I'm intending to run it as a pbp
edit; also, part of the reason i decided to refluff it was first; wotc was horrible at comign up with names for places in adventure paths, and second, because the area it's set in already seems to have an asia theme(or at least, bamboo forests with tigers, and a few other features like that)

Zerter
2012-08-20, 08:55 AM
It really depends on the group, in general I would not worry about it, you're already putting in more effort than a lot of DMs and are worried about stuff most players will not notice and don't really have a reason to care about if they do.

Eldan
2012-08-20, 09:25 AM
I wouldn't translate names, really. Naming conventions for places are really pretty similar in most places, once you go to the roots. Mostly after geographical features.

Your players likely won't understand Japanese names anyway. And I find it strange if only the names are in another language, but everything else is in English. Call it a translation. Your characters may be talking Japanese, but you aren't. Just as in another game, they may be talking Elvish, but you aren't.

Psyren
2012-08-20, 04:22 PM
Transplanting it to a different setting might help. For instance, moving a FR premade to Rokugan, or one set on the Sword Coast down to Kara-Tur. That would force you to think about which locations need to be swapped, which monsters to change etc.

Togath
2012-08-20, 04:54 PM
I'll probably keep things in english then(though I will probably still rename a few things, such as vhalanthru, phalian gurnezarn[a dwarf oddly], and maavu arlintal in order to make it easier to remember the names of npcs)
edit: i may also transplant it to Rokugan(Rokugan is also good as I have a campaign setting book for it, which saves time with comign up with a location for the city), since it meets a decent match between asian themed, while not having everything possessing an asian name, and would help me come up with new names for things, while still letting me use both mostly english names for places, and an asian setting.