What level of support do you want in your Adventure Path?

Mustrum_Ridcully · Nov 16, 2008

MerricB said:
Not too much.

Oddly enough, the initial background support offered by Paizo for PCs in both Age of Worms and especially Savage Tide detracted from the APs in my opinion. And, yes, I've run them both.

The trouble was that Paizo spent a great deal of effort in detailing places that weren't ultimately used in the APs that much, especially for Savage Tide. So, character creation focused on that... and then discovered that the AP path took them away from it (almost at once in ST).

I think that's a good example on supporting going wrong, not being useless. I remember the stuff from Savage Tides - it looked really neat, and then we're off to another region where all those backgrounds figured in... not at all?

If ST was a "Sasserine City Adventure Path", I think the support would have been very useful and could have enhanced the AP. But the way it was set up, it was more a reason to not follow the Path and do something with the city instead.

justanobody · Nov 17, 2008

Morrus said:
Really? That's surprising.

Why?

"Adventure Path" was coined by Paizo, and used extensively in DUNGEON magazine for the (ENnie winning) Shackled City Adventure Path, as well as the Age of Worms Adventure Path, and the Savage Tide Adventure Path.

MerricB seems to disagree with the origins of the term, and on top of that I don't own anything from Paizo, and only a very early Dungeon Magazine. So would have had no notice of it there.

WotC took the DRAGON and DUNGEON licenses back,a nd presumably decided that the term "Adventure Path" had gathered so much brand recognition that they would continue to use it for their new Scales of War project.

This is where I first saw the term used in the DDI.

EN Publishing used the term "Campaign Saga" instead (for War of the Burning Sky) because Paizo had coined "Adventure Path" and asked us not to use it. I don't know if they got round to trademarking the term, but I notice that other companies these days seem to feel free to use it willy-nilly.

I don't know anything about that either.

So...I first heard it regarding 4th edition, and anything prior was just an adventure.

I guess you have to buy everything made to know these strange terms that people come up with. I would have never thought to add "path" instead of "series".

Anyway, that is why I had only heard it recently. Hope that helps you in some way so it may not surprise you in the future if you meet someone else that has only heard "adventure path" from 4th edition onwards.

Interesting to learn from the rest of this thread the debate on where the term came from though.

Morrus · Nov 17, 2008

justanobody said:
I don't know anything about that either.

it's been plastered all over EN World for the last two years.

I guess you have to buy everything made to know these strange terms that people come up with. I would have never thought to add "path" instead of "series".

I don't think buying DUNGEON Magazine qualifies as "having to buy averything to know these strange terms". It's not a strange term, it's a common one frequently used in official D&D products.

That said, I certainly retain the right to be surprised that someone can have 800+ posts on a D&D forum and not have heard a very common term. There are thousands of threads about Adventure Paths. But don't worry, it's not a moral judgement or anything; just something I find surprising. I guess you just managed to miss them all, along with the news!

It's probably a good lesson for pubishers: you can plaster something everywhere, and there will still be people who are comlpetely unaware of it. Perhaps more forceful marketing strategies are needed!

Hope that helps you in some way so it may not surprise you in the future if you meet someone else that has only heard "adventure path" from 4th edition onwards.

Why thank you! I suspect I'll not meet too many online on a D&D forum, though!

justanobody · Nov 18, 2008

Morrus said:
it's been plastered all over EN World for the last two years.

I don't think buying DUNGEON Magazine qualifies as "having to buy averything to know these strange terms". It's not a strange term, it's a common one frequently used in official D&D products.

That said, I certainly retain the right to be surprised that someone can have 800+ posts on a D&D forum and not have heard a very common term. There are thousands of threads about Adventure Paths. But don't worry, it's not a moral judgement or anything; just something I find surprising. I guess you just managed to miss them all, along with the news!

It's probably a good lesson for pubishers: you can plaster something everywhere, and there will still be people who are comlpetely unaware of it. Perhaps more forceful marketing strategies are needed!

Why thank you! I suspect I'll not meet too many online on a D&D forum, though!

Thanks to 4th and DDI you just might meet a few of us oddballs, that don't follow everything.

Like Dungeon, I never really read ENWorld, until recently, and don't really pay too much attention to those fancy names of things. I am still trying to figure out of the Ennies is something like the Webbies....

DMs, I suspect would be familiar with the term, but players, maybe not so much. I surely was not going to DM 3rd. But fel surprised when you feel surprised. I was just making a statement with my initial post, not an accusation, as I had no frame of reference prior to the thread that the term did have meaning prior to 4th.

In the end the amount people want out of the "adventure", either from their own DM, or from a published "path" will vary.

I liked taking older adventures and chopping bits up if everything didn't fit and be able to insert town Y into random hole on overland map. The good ones came form having something that you would want to build a world around and make a setting out of.

For publishers....take the Burning Sky saga, and put it out there places other than RPG related sites, just in case 4th draws in new people so they will know the term you use for ENWorld adventures so they can be ready to look for it.

I tripped on 4th edition by mistake reminiscing about an old D&D website and the old Netbooks.

But ENWorld has been doing more with 3rd than I ever did so..... Who knows.

Aside from Burning Sky....What do YOU feel an "adventure path"/"campaign saga" should give in support of the players/DM? [insert advertisement plug as your reply.

]

I guess it might be important to look at this from both angles as well. What do players expect from one, and what do DMs expect from one?

Jan van Leyden · Nov 18, 2008

I don't actually need a lot of background info for an AP.

A player info is something I like and would want to have if there is a background world available separately. Also if the selection of races and classes deviates from PHB, especially if there are limitations, this has to be made clear from the outset.

A basic outline for the DM would be a good selling point for an AP. There are several topics I just don't care for. If the first one, two adventures pit the characters against goblins and orcs, it's okay, but if the whole campaign features them as adversaries, I'll bow out.

What I'd really love to see is a player guide akin to Monte Cook's Player Guide to Ptolus. In this book the players can read about factions, groups and persons. It's quite cool when they hear about or meet a guy they've read about.

But this is admittedly hard to do. The designers would either have to write a very detailled outline beforehand or the adventure writers would have to send in their drafts for all adventures at the same time.