roguerouge
First Post
Curse of the Crimson Throne. Great villain, immersive urban setting, very solid almost sandboxy structure that lends itself to copious sidequests, and you have the ability to do a triumphant return scenario.
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Anyone has a favorite Adventure Path?
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Crothian
First Post
Of the ones I've played and ran Savage Tides was my favorite though we only got about half way. Rise of the Runelords is second though I got less then half way through but have read all of them. WLD is third but I ran it a little differently and we did get all the way through all of it. Shackled City we got through 6 or 7 of them and it was good but from reading ahead I knew it was going to get a little weaker before it got better. Age of Worms I played some of the first one before the DM left us and it seemed promising.
Lancelot
Adventurer
I'll add another vote for the classic GDQ series, "Queen of Spiders". Particularly for the many weird and wonderful areas that are "off the beaten path" - ancient temples buried behind piles of rubble, caverns accessible only by jumping in rivers, portals to alternate worlds, etc. I'm also quite fond of the original Slavers series, particularly A2 and A4.
For recent years, though, I'd have to say Age of Worms. Some fantastic stand-alone modules, and the whole thing builds to a tremendous climax that has been foreshadowed from the opening module. Props to Red Hand of Doom, as well.
Shackled City didn't do much for me - it seemed less of an adventure path and more a collection of disparate modules with a tenuous thread. I thought Savage Tide was pretty awesome, but unfortunately it caught my group at the tail end of 3e when we were simply getting bored/frustrated with the ruleset. It also didn't help that we had a huge number of PC casualties throughout the campaign, to the point we ended with a TPK at about the 60% complete mark.
For recent years, though, I'd have to say Age of Worms. Some fantastic stand-alone modules, and the whole thing builds to a tremendous climax that has been foreshadowed from the opening module. Props to Red Hand of Doom, as well.
Shackled City didn't do much for me - it seemed less of an adventure path and more a collection of disparate modules with a tenuous thread. I thought Savage Tide was pretty awesome, but unfortunately it caught my group at the tail end of 3e when we were simply getting bored/frustrated with the ruleset. It also didn't help that we had a huge number of PC casualties throughout the campaign, to the point we ended with a TPK at about the 60% complete mark.
TheAuldGrump
First Post
Oh yes.
This is my favorite - and both the prelude and the first adventure are very well done. The best job of fitting a plague into D&D that I have seen, and undead who are nicely creepy. The Auld Grump
Derulbaskul
Adventurer
Shackled City: I really like this but, like most things, it needs some DM investment to make it really hum. I've bits of pieces of this multiple times in my games.
Age of Worms: I think this will work really well converted to 4E.
Savage Tide: This is probably my favourite, up until the adventures goes extraplanar. The planar stuff just doesn't gel with me, story-wise but I can also understand others enjoying the epic feel it gives.
Rise of the Rulelords: I'm nearly ready to run this in Returned Abeir in the Forgotten Realms. I plan to expand it out and include some Returned Abeir-specific parts, in due course.
Red Hand of Doom: This inspired much of my last campaign and also the one I will be starting in a couple of weeks. It's more a mini-adventure path but I think it has potential to be expanded.
I think you just perfectly described Scales of War and the H1-3, P1-3 and E1-3 series that WotC have published for 4E. Give 'em back to Paizo. Let Paizo write the stories and the scenes and then WotC can insert the stats....
Age of Worms: I think this will work really well converted to 4E.
Savage Tide: This is probably my favourite, up until the adventures goes extraplanar. The planar stuff just doesn't gel with me, story-wise but I can also understand others enjoying the epic feel it gives.
Rise of the Rulelords: I'm nearly ready to run this in Returned Abeir in the Forgotten Realms. I plan to expand it out and include some Returned Abeir-specific parts, in due course.
Red Hand of Doom: This inspired much of my last campaign and also the one I will be starting in a couple of weeks. It's more a mini-adventure path but I think it has potential to be expanded.
I think you just perfectly described Scales of War and the H1-3, P1-3 and E1-3 series that WotC have published for 4E. Give 'em back to Paizo. Let Paizo write the stories and the scenes and then WotC can insert the stats....
Curse of the Crimson Throne and Savage Tide. Love me some city games, and Savage Tide is wackygood.
For "Three linked adventures", my favorite is the Viktor St. Demaine ones from Dungeon. Those were sweet. I've tried to use them twice, but the campaign, alas, fell flat each time.
For "Three linked adventures", my favorite is the Viktor St. Demaine ones from Dungeon. Those were sweet. I've tried to use them twice, but the campaign, alas, fell flat each time.
Here are my favs in no particular order:
Shackled City - It had a great flow for our group. It was fun to DM.
A Night Below (Boxed Set 2nd Edition) - Only made it as far as undermining the Kua-toan city but that was a blast for the players.
Slave Lords Series - This one was fun and had some epic battles. I even redid it as a 3rd Edition adventure and it played out nicely.
Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh Trilogy - I've run this several times and its always turned out great.
I am really looking forward to Crimson Throne as it has some fantastic stuff in there and I hope it plays as well as it reads.
Shackled City - It had a great flow for our group. It was fun to DM.
A Night Below (Boxed Set 2nd Edition) - Only made it as far as undermining the Kua-toan city but that was a blast for the players.
Slave Lords Series - This one was fun and had some epic battles. I even redid it as a 3rd Edition adventure and it played out nicely.
Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh Trilogy - I've run this several times and its always turned out great.
I am really looking forward to Crimson Throne as it has some fantastic stuff in there and I hope it plays as well as it reads.
Savage Tide was a disaster for us when we played it, and we abandoned it half-way through. The story starts with false pretenses, giving a lot of details about Sassarine that could be expanded into a great campaign... and then abandoning it completely. So, you're affiliated with the council - how does that matter on the Isle of Dread again?
(Affiliations in Savage Tide are one of the big mistakes made by the designers).
Age of Worms was far more successful for us, although there are individual parts of it that display dreadful design and development (the big bad at the very end unfortunately being the exemplar of that. Explain to me how a rogue is meant to participate in the final fight?) It contains one of my all-time favourite adventures, "The Prince of Redhand", and has many other worthy adventures along the way. Structurally, it has far fewer problems than ST as well.
Looking to other adventure series (not just paths), the Desert of Desolation has two great parts (Pharoah and Oasis), but peters out unfortunately in the Lost Tomb of Martek.
I've never run GDQ, although I'd like to one day.
The Dragonlance series (DL1-14) I've run bits of. The modules range from the sublime (DL1: Dragons of Despair) to railroaded drek (DL2: Dragons of Flame). I'm also very fond of DL10 (Dragons of Dreams) which I've run as a standalone on a couple of occasions. I think the series could be very enjoyable for a group today, with a modicum of rewriting.
I'm currently running the H1-3, P1-3 and E1-3 adventures. The Heroic levels had two good adventures (Keep and Labyrinth), but things got dreadfully off-track with Pyramid of Shadows. Discussing the series with my players as we go through P1, we identified one of the big problems with the series: By P1, you're basically needing to be heroic adventurers. However, the series doesn't invest you into the world and the NPCs enough. Each adventure is set apart from the others in location, and it causes problems.
H1 has a bunch of NPCs that would be great if they were also in H2 and H3. Unfortunately, they're not. H3 is the worst of the bunch as it isolates the group for 4 levels away from the real world in a pyramid with no sympathetic NPCs to interact with. It's a real missed opportunity: if you could rescue someone in H3, then have them invite you to visit them in P1 (just before the problem with the trolls), then everything would work much better.
Cheers!
(Affiliations in Savage Tide are one of the big mistakes made by the designers).
Age of Worms was far more successful for us, although there are individual parts of it that display dreadful design and development (the big bad at the very end unfortunately being the exemplar of that. Explain to me how a rogue is meant to participate in the final fight?) It contains one of my all-time favourite adventures, "The Prince of Redhand", and has many other worthy adventures along the way. Structurally, it has far fewer problems than ST as well.
Looking to other adventure series (not just paths), the Desert of Desolation has two great parts (Pharoah and Oasis), but peters out unfortunately in the Lost Tomb of Martek.
I've never run GDQ, although I'd like to one day.
The Dragonlance series (DL1-14) I've run bits of. The modules range from the sublime (DL1: Dragons of Despair) to railroaded drek (DL2: Dragons of Flame). I'm also very fond of DL10 (Dragons of Dreams) which I've run as a standalone on a couple of occasions. I think the series could be very enjoyable for a group today, with a modicum of rewriting.
I'm currently running the H1-3, P1-3 and E1-3 adventures. The Heroic levels had two good adventures (Keep and Labyrinth), but things got dreadfully off-track with Pyramid of Shadows. Discussing the series with my players as we go through P1, we identified one of the big problems with the series: By P1, you're basically needing to be heroic adventurers. However, the series doesn't invest you into the world and the NPCs enough. Each adventure is set apart from the others in location, and it causes problems.
H1 has a bunch of NPCs that would be great if they were also in H2 and H3. Unfortunately, they're not. H3 is the worst of the bunch as it isolates the group for 4 levels away from the real world in a pyramid with no sympathetic NPCs to interact with. It's a real missed opportunity: if you could rescue someone in H3, then have them invite you to visit them in P1 (just before the problem with the trolls), then everything would work much better.
Cheers!
I have *started* Against the Giants, Red Hand of Doom, and currently playing Curse of the Crimson Throne as a 4e conversion.
I'd really like to finish one of them. Or Age or Worms, I've heard good things about it. Of the three I've started, I was most into Against the Giants. Good premise and fun party.
Jay
I'd really like to finish one of them. Or Age or Worms, I've heard good things about it. Of the three I've started, I was most into Against the Giants. Good premise and fun party.
Jay
Well, sounds like I have to go against most folks and say that I absolutely hated Age of Worms. It just seemed to reinforce everything that was driving me up the wall about 3.5, and some of the massive plot holes were absolute killers for me as well.
However, The Prince of Redhand was indeed an awesome adventure, that I think is likely to go down as my all time favourite, ever.
I think my favorite AP is Shackled City, even though I haven't run it past #3. It was the first Dungeon AP, and it shows, but with the great resources available on the web, I think it can shine. I am planning on converting it to 4th Edition Eberron during my summer break (Dec - Feb downunder), which should be a lot of fun, and I hope it turns out well. (Just wish I could buy a pdf copy from Paizo to make the conversion much easier).
My big issue with most (all?) of the Paizo APs is there is too much moving around. You only get to spend 4 - 6 levels in any one place, and most of that is spent in the dungeon, so there is very little opportunity to actually put down roots and get to know the NPCs.
However, The Prince of Redhand was indeed an awesome adventure, that I think is likely to go down as my all time favourite, ever.
I think my favorite AP is Shackled City, even though I haven't run it past #3. It was the first Dungeon AP, and it shows, but with the great resources available on the web, I think it can shine. I am planning on converting it to 4th Edition Eberron during my summer break (Dec - Feb downunder), which should be a lot of fun, and I hope it turns out well. (Just wish I could buy a pdf copy from Paizo to make the conversion much easier).
My big issue with most (all?) of the Paizo APs is there is too much moving around. You only get to spend 4 - 6 levels in any one place, and most of that is spent in the dungeon, so there is very little opportunity to actually put down roots and get to know the NPCs.
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