Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Converting AS&SH's Rats in the Walls to 13th Age


Rats in the Walls for 13th Age

In thinking about ways to use the modules for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea I realized I could—assuming that my group won’t experiment with a cool OSR ruleset—just convert the modules to some other system that holds everyone’s interest. 13th Age has been bandied about, so hey, why not?

Rats in the Walls is a short introductory module published by North Wind Adventures. You can get it here, The details below provide specific necessary mechanical conversions of monsters to 13th Age to run the module for a party of 4-5 level 1 PCs.

Alternatively, this provides a range of entertaining giant and possessed rat stats for any old low-level 13th Age game you'd like to drop them in!

Kiloplo Vheez
Level  2 Caster [humanoid-hyperborean]
Initiative +4
AC 18; PD 13; MD 15; HP 36
Battle Axe +7  vs. AC ; 9 damage
Burning Hands +6 vs. PD (all adjacent and engaged foes); 7 fire damage
Sleep  +7 vs. MD (up to 75 HP of nearby enemies targeted); target falls unconscious (Save 16+ ends)
Web +7 vs. PD (up to 3 nearby targets); each target is immobilized (save 16+ ends)

Giant Rat Mooks
Level  0 Vermin [animal]
Initiative +5
AC 16; PD 14; MD 10; HP 5
Filthy Gnawing Attack +5  vs. AC ; 3 damage; on 16+ target must make a save vs. disease (save 11+) or succumb to wasting disease; each day make a new save; two saves and the PC recovers. Four failures and the PC dies of the disease; take a cumulative -1 modifier to attacks and skill checks for each failure).

Big Boss Rat
Level  1 Vermin [animal]
Initiative +5
AC 17; PD 15; MD 11; HP 27

Filthy Gnawing Attack +6  vs. AC ; 5 damage; on 16+ target must make a save vs. disease (save 11+) or succumb to wasting disease; each day make a new save; two saves and the PC recovers. Four failures and the PC dies of the disease; take a cumulative -1 modifier to attacks and skill checks for each failure).

Daemon Rat
Level 3 Vermin [fiend]
Initiative +6
AC 19; PD 17; MD 16; HP 95
Disease-Ridden Bite +8 vs. AC; 21 damage; on 16+ target must make a save vs. disease (save 15+) or succumb to wasting disease; each day make a new save; two saves and the PC recovers. Four failures and the PC dies of the disease; take a cumulative -1 modifier to attacks and skill checks for each failure).
Rat Summoning Each round roll a D6. If you roll equal to or under the Escalation Die number then 1D6 giant rat mooks arrive to assist the daemon rat.


Other Notes on converting the module:

Skeleton Halberdiers
Use the Skeleton Warriors from 13th Age, but one of them has a +1 Halberd (large weapon that deals 7 damage).

Magic items Notes
Most magic items in the module can be used as-is (such as the potion of healing and potion of cure disease). A potion of invisibility grants the imbiber invisibility for 1 hour, but he is revealed the moment he attacks or casts a spell.

Difficulty Class Notes:
Anytime an extraordinary feat of strength or other action is called for, the GM can assume a DC 15 for the challenge to succeed. It is suggested that to stick to old school tradition that the GM grant a win in cases where keen investigation/observation on the part of the PCs would reveal secrets and clues without needing a roll.


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