Ideas for Age of Worms

Hey Everyone!

I've been gaming for about 6 years now and I'm starting to get the DM itch. So I'm going to start with the first adventure in the Age of Worms adventure path. I've read up on Diamond Lake and I've come up with a few ideas, but I would love to have some advice from a few (or more) old pros. My husband (munin) is a great DM, but he's in my game, so I don't really want to divulge too much info to him for help.

So here's the basic run down of the PCs in my game:
(So far there are only two players, so I'm planning on playing a young squire myself to give them some added backup, as well as toning down some of the encounters.)

Ben is playing a 1st lev human Wizard. He was raised in Diamond Lake and so far has given me nothing but that to work with.

Sam is playing a 1st lev human Paladin of Heironeous. He's given me an excellent background to work with and since there is a temple of Heironeous it shouldn't be hard to fit him in. He's about 35 and was once a mighty Paladin (15/16th level). He was totally drained by a powerful enemy (I'm considering making it a priest of Hextor) and left comatose for six months. He can barely remember anything before that. He was sent to Diamond Lake to try to clean up the debased town.

So there you have it. I'm new blood as far as DMing goes, so any suggestions you can offer will be gratefully accepted. BTW, I already have the DMG2, so I will be reading up on that.

If you get all the issues of the series, there's tips to follow along with the series in order of play. You might download the special web supplement too that has ideas for placing the series in the Forgotten Realms or Eberron.

If you're using Greyhawk at the setting for Age of Worms, I'd sugguest picking up the $5 download of "Greyhawk: the Adventure begins" It has a write up of the City of Greyhawk ie The Free City in the Age of Worms. There's plenty of material in there to develop a campaign from the Age of Worms and the surrounding Greyhawk lands. For instance there's a temple of Heironeous in Greyhawk that the paladin might travel too and meet contacts or gain offers of employment.

Mike

Thanks so much. I'm considering setting it in Greyhawk. I don't want to go too overboard considering this is my first campaign.

I strongly, strongly, strongly suggest downloading the free "Age of Worms Overload" document that's available in the Dungeon area of paizo.com. I think you'll find the campaign overview and Diamond Lake stat block appendix an invaluable resource for your game.

Good luck!

--Erik Mona

I'd like to run AoW, myself, as soon as I can find any players. >.< I've moved and so far all the feelers I've sent out have come to naught.

Even posted a Player's Wanted in the local hobby shop.

Read through The Whispering Cairn a few times ... chronologically, it's a pretty complex adventure. So make sure you know where the switch-ups are, because it won't go entirely linear (not that I've run it myself, mind you, but just a note).

From reading through the two adventures after that, I'll say that may be sort of a theme. The adventures seem to go from site to site, with returns to sites already visited.

If you've only got two players, I'd suggest maybe using the Gestalt rules from Unearthed Arcana or perhaps starting them at lvl2 instead of lvl1 to give them some extra staying power.

You could also give everybody a free Toughness feat (AKA 3 more HP) to help keep them alive for the first few levels.

--fje

I've noticed that about the Whispering Cairn, which is actually one thing I like about it...not just a mindless dungeon crawl. I'm sure my players would appreciate starting at 2nd lev. I think I'll do that. Thanks

Thanks Erik, will do.