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

[kitsune9]

I'm not talking about running an adventure or two from an adventure path, or picking and choosing plot lines and story for your own campaigns.

I'm wondering how many DM's have actually run a published Adventure Path as written, and run it either to the completion of the path, or used at least a majority of the path material (you've added your own stuff) but still ran the path to some form of a conclusion? (I'd even include adapting adventure paths to another system or campaign setting than what it was originally written for, as long as a majority of the adventure path was used and it was run to some sort of conclusion.)

To this point, Adventure Paths have been something for me to longingly read and think about running someday. Unfortunately, someday just hasn't arrived yet.

Also, for those who have run a complete adventure path, what lessons did you learn and what advice would you have for those who want to embark on such an endeavor? And which adventure paths were the best/worst?

I ran Age of Worms start to finish. It was really cool, kind of brutal with many near TPKs, but overall enjoyable. I played in Shackled City, but we found it to be shackling our attention span and I had quit after about six or seventh level for my characters. I heard the group played a few more sessions and went onto to something else.

If you run the APs as written worry about the XP. I found that my AoW guys were completing the mods but didn't have enough XP to adequately handle the next one in the path so I had to provide some fill-in-the-blank dungeon crawl here and there to get them up to speed before the next module. So my advice is that to award the PC's XP and keep track of it yourself to make sure that they get to levels they are supposed to be before they go onto the next module.

Aside from that, go for it! There are a ton of APs out there to get into. Paizo is on their forth or fifth now, there's War of the Burning Sky, and if you play 4E, WotC has produced theirs and 3PP are rolling out with their own.

 

[Dyson Logos]

I ran the full Temple of Elemental Evil --> Against the Giants --> Drow --> Demonweb set back in the 1e days.

More recently I ran the entire first Paizo path (Shackled City) - it was ok, but the dungeons were quite a bit larger than I like.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Years ago I ran the al-Qadim boxed adventure set "A Dozen and One Adventures" - I used the "Ruined Kingdoms" set to fill in spots in the level progression. It was a much better way of getting the Arabian Nights flavor across than anything I tried to write.

I have a group of players that are decidedly fond of being railroaded - I think they prefer to have a stated goal instead of choosing between options - so this worked particularly well. My (current) City of Brass game is fun, but a little bogged down with all the optional plot lines they've stumbled upon.

 

[jdrakeh]

The only one I've run close to completion was Shackled City, but that ended due to a TPK. I tried to run Age of Worms, but it couldn't hold player interest because some players felt that certain adventures were unfairly difficult due to miscalculated XP awards or encounter design (and, in retrospect, I think they were right). Some of the lessons I learned were:

1. TPKs serve only to end an AP.

2. Planned TPKs (i.e., TPK situations entered into with player consent) can be fun, but random TPKs aren't exciting or fun.

3. Near TPKs are fine, but if you want the game to continue, you need to have some kind of plan in place that allows for such a contingency.

4. If your plan is to simply have players create new characters 3/4 of the way through an adventure path, your plan sucks.

5. The math in adventure paths with regard to XP is often (if not always) waaaaaaay off base.

6. Don't be afraid to deviate from the AP as written in order make up for that flawed math.

7. Make sure you check your own math when deviating — PCs who end up too tough are just as bad as those who end up too weak.

 

[Hussar]

Ran the World's Largest Dungeon.

Currently running Savage Tide AP.

Currently playing in Shackled City AP.

I likes me the AP's.

 

[pweent]

Well, I haven't completed an AP yet, but we are almost to the end of Chapter 6 of Age of Worms. We took a hiatus after Chapter 5, and we've converted to 4e beginning with Chapter 6.

Advice: read well ahead. Think about how PCs are expected to make the transition from one chapter to the next, because the transitions occasionally take some finessing. I've made my own set of customized reference documents for AoW, detailing the timeline of past events and incorporating changes I've made. I also made a graph of important facts the characters will need to learn at times, and how they can learn it. This is a useful way to make sure clues lead logically from one plays to the next, to help you plan out dramatic revelations, and possibly to sort out how to rejigger some information if you notice you have more "NPC X tells the players to talk to NPC Y" style exposition than you are comfortable with.

 

[Morrus]

I ran AoW start to finish over about 18 months. We enjoyed it immensely.

 

[amethal]

I'd never run an adventure path before, but we are currently on the final adventure of War of the Burning Sky. I love that series, but there's a bit too much "plot" for some of my players, who prefer simpler scenarios.

With hindsight, I think it would have been better to wait until all the adventures were written before starting an adventure path, but of course that's not always possible.

From a continuity point of view, I really like the idea introduced in WotBS of giving each character an extra "life" - allowing them once per day to stabilise on -9 hp instead of being dead. However, the blase way the rest of the group leave their "friend" to lie there on -9 until the end of the fight rather than attempt any healing does grate on my sensibilities.

For our next campaign I am going to cobble together a number of published adventures into a shorter adventure path of my own devising. Hopefully this will allow the players a bit more flexibility to go off on a tanget occasionally.

 

[FunkBGR]

I've ran Shackled City start to finish twice now, in 3.5.

I've run Age of Worms before (3.5), and am currently running it again (4e)

It's been less brutal, but still challenging, in 4e.

If I ever ran 3.5 / Pathfinder again, it'd have to be heavily modified. I realize they switched from doing 1 - 20 to 1 - 16 with their modules, which is good. High level Paizo adventure paths are boring meatgrinding.

Also, there's too much stuff packed in! I remember reading somewhere that the original AP's were "packed" because of the magazine format. Well, they still feel packed with the current iteration Paizo is putting out.

Don't get me wrong, I still like Paizo's stuff. It's just these specific complaints, which I'm sure they're aware of, and have addressed before.

 

[Turbiales]

Played Shackled City, until in the final adventure there was a TPK.

Also played Curse of the Crimson Throne in Pathfinder Beta, actually playing Second Darkness.