Classic AD&D Module, "Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh U1" now in Foundry

cuddlesmacheese · May 2013

NW-DB9Q7NCWR

Part one is now complete, and I hope you enjoy it. This was the first stand alone module I ever bought. I have put many hours into the quest trying to keep it true to the original story. I would appreciate feedback.

Thanks

malakhglitch · May 2013

WHOA! Must try this one out! I have dead-tree editions of the original modules. Actually of most of the UK series of modules.

impervium · May 2013

This is exactly one of the things I was hoping people would do. Conversions! There's a time for original material and then there's a time to draw on the VAST history of excellent source material and adventure modules written over the years. We'd be at a great loss if either were missing from Neverwinter, and I for one am hoping that we see lots and lots of both in the years to come.

I bookmarked this post, I have a folder set up just for these. Fill that folder up, Foundry authors!

impervium · May 2013

ALSO:
Three great MUST-READ resources for Foundry authors.
http://www.dndclassics.com/
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Tool.aspx?x=dnd/4new/tool/dungeonmagazine
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Tool.aspx?x=dnd/4new/tool/dragonmagazine

malakhglitch · May 2013

If and when I reach 60 I shall convert some some of the old adventures from Dungeon into the Foundry. There's one I particularly want to convert...

cuddlesmacheese · May 2013

I hope you enjoy it.

pzzdachu · May 2013

cuddlesmacheese wrote: »

NW-DB9Q7NCWR

Part one is now complete, and I hope you enjoy it. This was the first stand alone module I ever bought. I have put many hours into the quest trying to keep it true to the original story. I would appreciate feedback.

Thanks

Thank You good sir. I haven't played Salt Marsh in Ages!

mconosrep · May 2013

Not sure this is technically allowed in "General Discussion" but a big thank you for the conversion anyway

wolfrat14 · May 2013

I played this module more than any other, except maybe B2 Keep on the Borderlands and T1 The Village of Hommlet. I cannot wait to check out this Foundry quest!

thebriman · May 2013

Really looking forward to checking out your adaptation this weekend! It's been a looooooong time since I played through the original module. Thanks for sharing!

iamthetoastman · May 2013

Give me my Tomb of Horrors and White Plume Mountain please!

No Expedition to the Barrier Peaks for me, though... I dont care what Stephen Colbert says.

Out of curiousty, are TSR books public domain?

cuddlesmacheese · May 2013

Tomb of horrors may be my next one.

No TSR books are owned by Wizards of the Coast.

You can publish as best we know, you just have to list your reference and you may never be featured.

cuddlesmacheese · May 2013

Thank you all for the reviews and feedback so far.

chronomancer · May 2013

Interesting I loved the classical modules. Will check it out.

sydanyo · May 2013

Being a hard core Forgotten Realms fan, I'm not sure how I feel about there being Greyhawk HAMSTER in this game... But I guess it's better than some Game of Thrones or Final Fantasy adventure.

Still, I'd much rather see Pool of Radiance, Azure Bonds, Silver Blades, or something like that. You know, actual Forgotten Realms stuff.

s3pt · May 2013

Wow I actually remember that one from all those years ago, blast from the past good job Op!

foundrymaker · May 2013

I thought about doing Tomb of Horrors, but the biggest problem is that it relies very heavily on traps, and Neverwinter's selection just isn't where it needs to be do it justice.

Since you are PW Staff and condoning a AD&D Module, there will be no problems with those doing a Dragonlance Flavoured Module?
I have never been able to get an answer to this.

chronomancer · May 2013

I love Dragonlance and would love to play a Dragonlance themed module.

foundrymaker · May 2013

chronomancer wrote: »

I love Dragonlance and would love to play a Dragonlance themed module.

Working on one right now. It has Draconians

Just worried I go through weeks of work and PW/Cryptic ban it saying its not Forgotten Realms and against license (Which as far as I know if you have a license for D&D/AD&D from Wizards of the Coast its for the entire IP of Dungeons and Dragons) I made a HUGE world based on Dragonlance in Neverwinter Nights 1 and Bioware never said boo or anything.

cuddlesmacheese · May 2013

Yea, I would have to custom build traps for Tomb of Horrors. Not ideal, but can be done (to an extent).

zophie · May 2013

foundrymaker wrote: »

Just worried I go through weeks of work and PW/Cryptic ban it saying its not Forgotten Realms and against license (Which as far as I know if you have a license for D&D/AD&D from Wizards of the Coast its for the entire IP of Dungeons and Dragons)

I had an adventure module from a Dungeon magazine I wanted to recreate, I contacted the original author of the adventure directly, and he gave me permission to recreate it, however he advised I would also need WOTC's permission because the rights are owned by them. I contacted WOTC's legal department for permission and was turned down.

kwsapphire · May 2013

wasabiburn wrote: »

I had an adventure module from a Dungeon magazine I wanted to recreate, I contacted the original author of the adventure directly, and he gave me permission to recreate it, however he advised I would also need WOTC's permission because the rights are owned by them. I contacted WOTC's legal department for permission and was turned down.

You're kidding! I would have guessed it would be okay - I am going to assume you got a "no" because WotC's legal department (A) didn't really understand what you were asking and (B) says "no" to just about everything to cover their butts.

I'd like to see an official PWE ruling on this as well. What printed modules are allowed in the Foundry? Forgotten Realms modules only? Modules over a certain age? As I said, my first assumption was that if it's D&D, it would be okay, but maybe I'm wrong!

foundrymaker · May 2013

kwsapphire wrote: »

You're kidding! I would have guessed it would be okay - I am going to assume you got a "no" because WotC's legal department (A) didn't really understand what you were asking and (B) says "no" to just about everything to cover their butts.

I'd like to see an official PWE ruling on this as well. What printed modules are allowed in the Foundry? Forgotten Realms modules only? Modules over a certain age? As I said, my first assumption was that if it's D&D, it would be okay, but maybe I'm wrong!

I could see it for a particular module, but mine is just general Dragonlance lore.

countee · May 2013

sydanyo wrote: »

Being a hard core Forgotten Realms fan, I'm not sure how I feel about there being Greyhawk HAMSTER in this game... But I guess it's better than some Game of Thrones or Final Fantasy adventure.

Still, I'd much rather see Pool of Radiance, Azure Bonds, Silver Blades, or something like that. You know, actual Forgotten Realms stuff.

The awesomeness of the classic modules transcends location. They just happen to be in Greyhawk is all. You can't hate on them just because they aren't part of a world that didn't even exist yet.

foundrymaker · May 2013

sydanyo wrote: »

Being a hard core Forgotten Realms fan, I'm not sure how I feel about there being Greyhawk HAMSTER in this game... But I guess it's better than some Game of Thrones or Final Fantasy adventure.

Still, I'd much rather see Pool of Radiance, Azure Bonds, Silver Blades, or something like that. You know, actual Forgotten Realms stuff.

I prefer Heroes of the Lance, Champions of Krynn and Death Knights of Krynn

Although I have played all of the Forgotten Realms 'HAMSTER'

you mentioned

impervium · May 2013

wasabiburn wrote: »

I had an adventure module from a Dungeon magazine I wanted to recreate, I contacted the original author of the adventure directly, and he gave me permission to recreate it, however he advised I would also need WOTC's permission because the rights are owned by them. I contacted WOTC's legal department for permission and was turned down.

My unprofessional, unofficial advice is to go right ahead and put it in the Foundry. Or, if not that adventure, then some other. If you don't, someone else likely will eventually anyway, and then you'll be playing it instead of making it. I seriously doubt the hounds will ever be turned loose on conversions. In this very thread we have Perfect World staff publicly considering doing a conversion. I'm guessing Legal didn't turn you down because they have a policy about Foundry authors; I'm guessing they turned you down because that's the default thing to do when they don't have a policy. And I doubt they'll come up with a policy anytime soon. That probably requires paying lawyers way too much money to copy/paste some malarkey out of a legal database.

We're talking about fans doing conversions of WotC properties within a WotC-licensed property. I'm guessing the worst thing WotC or PW staff will do is look the other way. If you're worried about wasting time and losing work, wait and let some other people test the waters for you. I'm sure they will.

And while it's super-polite to ask an author for their blessings, it's not any different from a Star Trek Online Foundry author tracking down the (various) writers of any one episode to ask for their permission to do a fan conversion. I would be super-surprised if that has ever happened. Because it would be kind of silly.

Also, as an aside, and legally speaking, it's debatable whether WotC should actually be preventing their customers from using D&D modules for, well, personal non-profit use. The Foundry is a way to experience D&D adventures for a team of players, which is a different medium but in principle is no different than a tabletop. If you twist the lens into focus from this angle, it's arguable that WotC Legal pretty much told you that you cannot buy and use their materials for personal, non-profit use. Now, I wouldn't raise a stink about it, and I'd never ever write them back to argue about it--all I'm doing here is philosophizing in the midst of a highly gray area at best (black and white at worst, of course). I can't blame them for turning you down if their current policy doesn't give them any ground for making blessings; someone is just doing their job the best they know how.

Or maybe they just didn't feel like looking into it and said no so they could go back to their workpile. I guarantee you, the world will never know.

zophie · May 2013

If you change all the names and don't copy any dialogue or descriptions written, write it all yourself and say it's inspired by the module then it should be fine, as long as you adapt it to not specifically copy unique characters or other intellectual property. If you do this tastefully and avoid specifically not copying any intellectual property holders' material, there should be no problem.

impervium · May 2013

Well yeah, and I wouldn't argue against that at all. What you're describing is a tribute or homage, a story "based on" or inspired by another story or characters, you get the drift.

That type of stuff is everywhere and yep, if done tastefully, can be nothing but flattering to the authors and copyright/trademark holders.

However, for argument's sake (grown-up argument, not mean grrr argument

) there are going to be Foundry authors who want to do conversions of their favorite supplements and other published D&D materials. There are going to be many of them. I know this because there have been many of them chattering away about it over the years since Neverwinter's development was first announced. It's always been one of the draws for this project. And you can bet your pirate booty that WotC, PW and Cryptic aren't unaware of that.

The unfortunate thing about a legal gray area like this is that a publisher has no incentive to expend resources to create a policy for something that's never a problem. If we all agreed to never create conversions in the Foundry because it might be a bad idea, that would be the end of the issue for all parties involved. Everyone here knows that publishers don't run on fuel made out of altruism. The only way to create a productive dialogue about this is to put conversions into the Foundry. Mind you, any productive dialogue will be between PW and Cryptic and WotC. But I'm sure our feedback will be passed along.

Also, if it never becomes an issue, if conversions are never blessed or banned, that's an answer too. It's the closest thing to a blessing that fans generally get from a publisher. (And I'm not saying that as a knock against publishers. There are good business reasons for the way they behave in these matters.)

asdfasdfgf · May 2013

I'm not big on foundries and far from a roleplayer, but this was a real treat. If more foundries had the time and effort you put into this, then the population would be in for great entertainment.

Thank you.

touzsan · May 2013

Thank you for working hard converting a module into a foundry mission! I think the foundry is perhaps the greatest thing about this game, imagine if the game designers can tweek the classes a bit better, fix more bugs and give foundry users more control and power in building the foundry modules. I think the foundry could keep this game alive for a long time.

I dream of the following modules being converted
The Queen of Spiders (a series of modules, considered by many to be the best adventure series ever for d&d)
The Temple of Elemental Evil (the original one)

sydanyo · May 2013

countee wrote: »

The awesomeness of the classic modules transcends location. They just happen to be in Greyhawk is all. You can't hate on them just because they aren't part of a world that didn't even exist yet.

A world that didn't exist yet? Dude, I'm pretty sure the Forgotten Realms world predates Greyhawk. The genesis of Forgotten Realms dates back to the 60s.

In any case, great or not, Greyhawk is Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms is Forgotten Realms, and Neverwinter is Forgotten Realms. I'd just rather not mix great things.

Classic AD&D Module, "Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh U1" now in Foundry

Comments