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

Rats in the Walls for 13^th 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. 13^th 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 13^th 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.