How many DM's have actually run a published Adventure Path?

[roguerouge]

Try cross-posting over at Paizo. They have forums devoted to each of their most recent adventure paths, as well as stuff for Dungeon.

 

[MerricB]

I've run the entire run of Age of Worms. If you look around, you can find my comments on the series.

Both Shackled City and Savage Tide were abandoned before completion, the former due to the group no longer being able to meet, the latter due to huge dissatisfaction with the series.

I'm currently running all the Wizards H/P/E adventures in sequence. Is that an adventure path? We've almost finished the H series.

Cheers!

 

[Deverash]

I ran Rise of the Runelords to it's logical conclusion: TPK...twice. The first one I easily saw a way to keep the game going. The next one, 2 sessions later, stumped me, so the game ended. I was pretty disappointed.

I played the Age of Worms AP, and was pretty happy with the experience, though it highlighted some things about high-level play in 3.5.

 

[catsclaw227]

I ran the first two books of the Drow War series from Mongoose (1-10, and 11-20). And on another, I did the first 12 levels. We didn't get to the Epic book that goes from 21-30.

I also did Savage Tide from 1-16ish and Age of Worms from 1-12 or so.

I also did the original 3 Freeport adventures and then the subsequent ones (with other adventures mingled in), taking the PCs to about 16th level. But you said you wanted to eliminate these.

My advice, read through it and stay ahead at least 6-7 levels in your preparation. And, oftentimes I have found that some advetures play much better than they read, and vice versa.

Use the net. It is your friend here. Read about other's experiences and take note of the tricky spots and see how you can weave the ways other DMs deal with the problem parts into your game.

And know that they ALL have some problem parts. But most decent ones also tell compelling stories along the way and can be forgiven for the few bad apples in the bushel. So don't be afraid to make changes that make sense.

And weave the PCs into the story. It's the best way to prevent the game from feeling railroady. But the drawback is that you might have to do some fancy footwork if you weave the story too deeply and the PC gets killed.

 

[Dice4Hire]

My group is currently going through the new $e adventure path, and we are currently onteh enclave, though I am a player in it. It has been interesting, for sure.

As a DM I ahve never run any major portion of tone, mainly because my face to face is not too interested, and for online play I'd prefer to finish befroe 20 years are done. Online play jsut takes too much additional time for me to conisider running an adventure path.

The fact I hate running and playing low level certainly adds to this problem.

 

[Dedekind]

I ran Shackled City from beginning to end. The only modifications I made were to add a large chunk of roleplaying before the last two adventures, and then squished the last 2 adventures together (we were ready for 4e).

To me, the greatest asset was always having the next adventure ready. It's just too much time involved for me to write my own adventures anymore. The most work was customizing the AP for my players. I enjoyed it, but some players were harder to hook than others. My least favorite part was that some of the xp and treasure levels were off. You just kinda assume those things would be very well taken care of in an AP.

Generally speaking, I would recommend SC to anyone and have a favorable impression of APs.

 

[vazanar]

My group is currently playing through the Shackled City AP. We've currently been playing for over a year now and are about to start Chapter 5 (out of 12). I think the secret to running the AP well is adding bits in to personalise the campaign. As much as it's good to have the whole AP laid out in front of you, the AP authors don't know your group personally. They can't possibly know what every group will like. You, as the DM, do.

Another thing I think is important is to let the players know from the start of the campaign that you want to run an AP. Give them an general idea of the type of AP it will be and make sure they are happy to play that sort of game."

I'll second this. Ive run two successful AP's and one that we are changing. We are also in a fourth with another dm that is running nicely.

In both my groups Ptolus (back ofbook/NoD/Banewarrens) and Rise of the Runelords the characters had strong backgrounds in the story. Mostly from the two player's guides for both products. I found you need to just highlight the connections to the characters more than change the whole AP. You also need to let them go off and do side things that might hint back to the overall story.

I found Scales of War had less connection to the characters and it feel apart. I probably should have waited till the heroic sections were out, since the dm and player info for the AP was weak. I couldn't really tell them the type of AP and they expected something more like the first two APs. They do enjoy their characters so I think I might use Red Hand of Doom instead (little time mess up). We discussed the type of game so they were ready for it.

The one I'm a player in, (Crimson Throne) seems to be going well. However once again we all have numerous plot connections to the story from our backgrounds, and the dm using those.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Another thing I have found adds to adventure paths is foreshadowing. The further out you can foreshadow something, the bigger the impact it will have when the big reveal is made.

This means introducing and integrating NPC's into the campaign well before the PC's are actively involved with them. Have them meet one of the bad guys in a roleplaying encounter months before they actually realise who he his. Introduce good NPC's before they become integral to the adventure at hand. This makes the campaign world seem more real and stops the players from thinking, "the DM has given this NPC a name, they must be important to the current adventure somehow!".

[sblock=Shackled City Spoiler]For example, in my campaign the PC's have dealt with Lord Vhalantru on at least half a dozen occasions over the 30 campaign sessions. They trust him and think he's a nice, if somewhat harmless, guy. They will be in for a big shock in about another 20 or so sessions when they find out he is the BBEG!

In a similar example, the PC's have met and become friendly with one of the town guards in Cauldron. The 5th adventure has a situation where this NPC might be killed if the PC's don't intervene. Since I have introduced him into the campaign well before this situation comes up the PC's will be a lot more motivated to save him, compared to if he was random town guard A.[/sblock]

Olaf the Stout

 

[Starfox]

1/2 way trough Rise of the Runelords.
2/3 trough Savage Tide, with lots of added filler in between.

I find that the much slower Savage tide camapign, where about half the scenarios have been from outside the main arc, works really well - but we are going on our fourth year now.

 

[Lwaxy]

I've run several APs, however, none of them exactly as intended. Players are crazy creatures who seem to think it is their most important duty to thwart my plans. And it really only worked if I introduced elements from the AP early into the overall campaign, so they would not see where I was going with it.