Watch out for spoilers for either in this article and perhaps stop reading if you plan on potentially playing them. Any of my own players should stop here because you never know if you will find yourselves here in my games....
While I have a copy of Rappan Athuk for 5e, Slumbering Tsar is only available for Pathfinder 1e. So reading through the latter I've been thinking a lot about how I would convert the adventure into either 5e or Shadowdark RPG (eventually I'd like to try PF 2e, but I'm not all that interested in trying 1e). I think it's a good brain exercise for anyone to try out, because looking through a Pathfinder 1e stat block and even simply making the decision to sub in the same monster (if it's derived from the SRD originally) forces you to think creatively and consider how the encounter might play differently. Looking at custom spells created for that product and considering how one might change them to 5e forced me to think in new ways, which is one of the reasons I enjoy GMing so much.
For now I'm going to enjoy my read-through of Slumbering Tsar, and later Rappan Athuk. My current campaigns certainly aren't ending anytime soon, but I am definitely interested in trying out both these adventures in both 5e and Shadowdark, just to see how different they feel and see what occurs during the campaign. While I've never really played Old School RPGs I hope that Shadowdark can deliver something akin to what others felt earlier in the hobby. 5e is just a comfortable space for me since it is my first experience, so I definitely want to try them in it at some point too.
There's a lot of good adventures to run and enjoy in the meantime though, and when I do run these title I would like to have created a world of my own that fits their tone in which I can drop them in. I think this will help provide some plot and motivations to the characters that are missing in some ways (although the XP advancement tied to treasure by Shadowdark certainly works as it's own motivator).
I have lots of other projects and ideas, but I'll post as I have further thoughts or insights as I read through. Currently I'm loving the inclusion of a lich as a moneylender in the Camp in Slumbering Tsar. I can absolutely see how I could create a sort of mystery about this NPC, potentially leading the characters to his treasure, or a party wipe as a hugely underleveled party gets Power Word Kill and more raining down on them. Or an overzealous Shadowdark party being TPK'd by an absolutely terrifying lich! (I promise I'm fairly nice GM...but if you're going to play an old school style adventure with eight pages in the back for dozens of player character obituaries then there are deadly consequences for your choices).
The chapel in the camp provides tons of flavor too--needing to get your healing help and spell scrolls from a patient priest of an ancient and forgotten god of death that will always win when you die in the end? It's almost poetic. I definitely feel like other books like The Dark Tower certainly influenced this location. It feels very forsaken in an old western or frontier region sort of way, something which I haven't seen for all the talk in the Forgotten Realms about the "Savage North." Faerun is just too densely populated and there's too much stuff for my Phandelver campaign to really feel like the frontier.
All in all, there's a lot to enjoy with these titles, and I would recommend them (although I have well over a thousand pages of them left to read).
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Addendum:
Also just remembered that Level Up: Advanced 5e is also a great option for a playthrough of either of these adventures. More to consider...
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