4 out of 5 rating for Age of Worms Adventure Path
I've begun it twice now. The first time as it was being published and again just recently stalling this summer after spending over a year and a half. The 12 adventures are typically adventure path in design, meaning linear by event or combat encounter or both, but each can be run openly. However they require a lot of work if you run them openly together than as 12 separate installments. This last go around I tried running the first 3 as a sandbox in the Cairn Hills, the next 3 as the Grey Hawk City region, 3 as missions as discovered, and the last 3 as a linear gauntlet to the final battle. ...But I've never gotten to the end. It takes too long.
The best parts of the adventure are the references to Greyhawk and other D&D lore. Dragotha is in there, so is the Rod of Seven Parts, the Isle of Woe sunk in the Nyr Dyv, and much, much more. Some adventure are neatly designed too. As mentioned by other reviewers, the first adventure has a good dungeon and interesting components. But all the adventures have their flaws too. In general it is hit or miss when it comes to design, but there are some truly inspirational style selections here. As well as top notch pieces, like NPcs, magic items, and perhaps most often, combats.
However combat is also one of the biggest drawbacks to the design as this was an era for Paizo when they heavily inflated the encounter CR to make the game challenging as many players were mastering CharOp in '05 & '06. Inflating the PCs a level or two is a good idea. A problem I had was the starting town is practically a double adventure in itself, about 25 pages as an extra support PDF, which vastly increases the amount of difficulty running the game. There is simply too much to remember and keep track of. This "overload" document needed to cover aspects of running all 12 adventure not just the first couple.
I don't really care for adventure paths, but I do like Greyhawk and interesting scenarios full of inspiration. You will find more than enough here. My best advice is to chop up the adventures as needed to run your game than following the design as is. I know the first time I started the PCs in the first half of module 3 (a poor one). If you follow the adventures as a plot the transitions need work, some are hard to notice in the reading while others are heavy handed. The plot itself zigzags back and forth continually pointing at potential new enemies, which is thrilling for an adventure path. It gives the illusion of solving what's going on. But it's a bit "your queen is in another castle" as a sandbox.
