[Swordbearer] Swordbearer Tamoachan (part 1 of 4)

[Lev Lafayette]

One of the better old school AD&D modules is the "The Hidden Shrine of
Tamoachan" (C1) where the authors (Harold Johnson, Jeff R. Leason)
actually made some effort to read up on Mesoamerican design and deities.

Recently in a long running, off-again on-again campaign (which has
previously used DragonQuest and RuneQuest rules) I used the module with
the Swordbearer rules. It went very well, and exposed some new people to
the game. However, as can be expected, some game-system tweaks were
needed to ensure that everything worked well.

The following comments assume you have a copy of Swordbearer and The
Hidden Shrine.

Background: The working assumption of the module is that the PCs are
unceremoniously dumped into the a pit below a pyramid and have to find
their way out. It's a dungeon-crawl with death-traps, but it's an
interesting one with plenty of style. I didn't bother with 'wandering
monsters' which would have distracted from the setting anyway.

Lower Level

Location 1: I got rid of the animated statues and left them in their
normal form. It was exotic enough as it was. The bad air referred to in
the text I took as a particularly virulent form of Lung Rot. If the PCs
remained underground for 1 hour, it would affect them as per the normal
description of the disease. For every hour after that the loss of
characteristics would be increased to 1 point per season, per month, per
week etc. So there was good motivation to leave quickly!

Location 2: Damage in AD&D is a little different to damage in SB and
varies according to context; in this case I assumed 1d3 SB damage.
'Rounds' in this context was the same as 'rounds' in SB.

Location 3: In this case I used an Agility test of 26 for the test.

For the talkative and tricky hermit crab. I made it's pincers the
equivalent of shortswords (1d6 cutting), gave it a Strength of 15, Mass
of 20, Agility of 15, Intelligence of 15 (it's pretty smart). For hit
location I used the quadruped chart, with 6 points of armour for the
torso (shell) and 4 points for the head and legs.

Location 4: No change.

Location 5: The loss of effectiveness due to exposure to lime in AD&D
was -2; this easily converts to -10% in Swordbearer terms.

Location 6: Damage for the trap is changed to 2d6.

Location 7: The effects of the deadly gas (sleep of 5,000 years) remain
the same. However avoidance is based on a Easy test versus Mass. The
magic battle axe is +10% to hit and +2 to damage (but -10% and -2 to
"chaotic evil" creatures - which becomes an interesting feature later
on). Instead of magical scrolls there are nodes here (because nodes are
more interesting and appropriate) - a four point Wind node, a two point
Metal node and a two point Crystal node.

The vampire Tloques-popolocas is quite a scary character; apart from
standard 'vampiric' abilities he also wears a breastplate of jade and
bone (4 points armour), a magical ring of protection (+1 armour
everywhere), magical bracers of missile protection (-20% to missile
attacks against him). He's Strength 15, Mass 12, Agility 15, Social
Status 15, has 75% in Battle Axe (and a similar skill level in
Leadership and other combat skills e.g., Warlord), knows Fire, Crystal
and Wind spells and spells of the Choleric humour. Unlike the
description in the module he can cross running water, and would dearly
love to re-establish his old rule.

... and that's where were up to at the end of the first session.