Converting LMoP to a City setting. Anyone done it? Any input?

[Vintrastorm]

!!! I've posted this thread 2 years ago, but the project got put on the shelf. Now it's been reactualized so I'm posting it again. !!!

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Hi, I'm thinking about converting (parts of) Lost mine of Phandelver to a city setting, for example having most of it take place in Waterdeep or Sigil or some sort of Metropolis.

I'm thinking that the ambush would take part in an alley, the hideout could be some sort of warehouse connected to a river running through the city. The town of Phandalin would be a shady part of the city where thugs rule the streets.
The ambushers would be street urchins (or halflings?) using goblin stats.

Echo wave, if I use it, might be located under the sewers. Kind of being part of the city that was before... Kind of going with the "we rebuilt the city atop the ruins of an old city" theme.

I'll be looking more closely at the LMoP adventure when I get back home. Haven't looked at it in over a year.

Anyone who've done anything like this?



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Characters travelling through some part of the metropolis. Right now it helps to think of it as a more shady part of the town, probably more downtrodden where crime is more common and the law have less of a presence. Like "the Hive" from Planescape. I'd love to change that at some point, especially when it comes to the "phandalin parts"...

Ok... So the characters are travelling through the Hive, for reasons unknown. (I'm thinking about letting the players come up with the reason or expand on an existing reason, like looking for a friend, in game. But as I'm planning I'll go with the "looking for a friend"-route.) They spot a few street urchins here and there, but unlike the usual behaviour of street urchins, these younglings seems to be mostly watching in silence rather than beg for handouts. They cross an alley where they hear growling noises and notice a few wild dogs or cats fighting with eachother over a carcass. A familiar dog carcass with a collar, belong to a friend. After inspecting it they will be ambushed by a number of street urchins. It will not be an ambush-attack, but rather a "you are surrounded, give us your valuables"-attack.

After the attack the characters might have an inventive to find the hideout. Revenge, looking for the friend, searching for an item or whatever. If they do not explore this venue they might continue to Phandalin. If they explore it they'll arrive at a part of town near a river that is mostly abandoned (maybe because the river started to "thin out" and this area didn't function as well anymore.) . Old mills and warehouses and other factories. As they enter the factory area they might encounter the two traps in LMoP, or some variation thereof.

Eventually they'll find an old mill combined with a warehouse. It might be one big complex or smaller buildings that are connected. (Haven't decided, but I'm using the cragmaw hideout as a blueprint). I'll be replacing the goblins here as well, with kids, and put a warlock spellcaster of some sort (We had this in our 2nd campaign. It was with other players in LMoP, made with another DM.)

The fact that this somehow is connected to the river means that I can still use the general layout in some capacity and I like the whole stashing up on water-bit.

[Eric Diaz]

I've done this! Although the city is the size of a planet.

I wrote a series of posts about it here:

https://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-lost-mines-of-ravnica-i-lost-mines.html

This bit might be useful:

One problem of using Ravnica for LMoP is that there are not many wilderness areas in Ravnica, since it is supposed to be one single mega-city. Still, I figured, there must be plenty of uninhabited ruins, slums, big parks, etc.

Everything that looked like wilderness, thus, became Gruul (the wild, barbarian guild) territory.

Conveniently, that made the wilderness not only a source of danger, but also a source of ambiguity: it reminded the players that civilization had destroyed most of the forest and the "chaotic" Gruul clan were one of the few guilds that actually cared about that.


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The thing is, Phandalin is basically a gigantic slum, filled with ruins and partly covered by overgrown forests. Worse, the Gruul clans are very active in the area. The Gruul clans were once responsible for the forest, but singe the growth or Ravnica has destroyed most great forest in the planets, the Gruul are now homeless, marginalized and angry. Swindled out of their share in the Guildpact, now the Gruul threaten civilization from within. Even then, their numbers never seem to dwindle, maybe because any guildless can potentially join the Gruul, although the weak are brutalized by the strong.

...

Part 1 - Goblin arrows

The players are charged with investigating the disappearance of Sildar Hallwinter, a Boros officer that was investigating a supposed criminal gang in Phandalin (in my campaign, Sildar was involved with the hiding of the mine). They have an informant in Phandalin that could help. As they meet this informant, he will say he must meet the PCs in a more private place. If the players are smart or suspicious enough, they will realize that this is an ambush; the informant has been compromised.

Part 2 - Phandalin

Phandalin causes mixed reactions to the Boros; they might be appalled by the poverty and lawlessness of the people, but the simple fact that the place is so filled with natural life could cause some admiration. While interacting with people in the city, it will soon become obvious that not not all guildless are alike, and even among the Gruul there are very different people.

The factions of Phandalin are mostly substituted by guilds in my version, but you can certainly have smaller groups that are not directly tied to any of the major guilds. If your PCs are Boros, they will probably not pledge allegiance to any competing faction, but they can - and should - cooperate with other guilds to advance the goals of the Boros or their own - make clear that this is part of normal life in Ravnica.

Part 3 - The Spider's Web

Not much to add here. The green dragon is a giant worm (or "Wurm") in Ravnica instead; a creature worshiped by some of the Gruul as a symbol of primal power and chaos unleashed upon civilization. The owl-bear might be a symbol of corrupted nature gone wild, too - like a giant boar out of Princess Mononoke. Or say it is a giant bear - and that the PCs had never seen a bear before. It adds to the strangeness of the setting.


Part 4 - Wave Echo Cave

The story behind WEC is that is was sealed a thousand years ago because it was overrun by the undead and many other foul creatures - specially one particular being (the spectator) that is an envoy from the dangerous, forgotten gods from before the Guildpact. The Black Spider is interested not only in the gold, but in the ghost-stones that kept the undead active for all this time. He wants to study them and use them to help building his own undead army.

The wraith and the spectator have a pact of their own, so they can't destroy each other. They will try to enlist the PCs for their cause, promising many rewards. The spectator will claim to be a herald of ancient gods that were hidden from the people of Ravnica by the corrupted guilds.

The Black Spider, in reality, is the psychic vampire Szadek, head of the secret tenth guild. In the original Guildpact, the tenth guild was charged with secretly challenging the power of the other guilds, a fact that only the ones who signed the pact know. The other guilds are forbidden to let the secret out.

He will not fight to the death; instead, he tries to run away (even before the fight ends) or surrender (promptly reminding the PCs they shouldn't attack a surrendered foe).