Scales of War vs. Published Modules?

[Aristotle]

Anyone who has access to both the scales of war adventures and the published modules (keep on the shadowfell, etc..) care to offer a comparison? Which seems to have the better storyline? Which feels the least railroaded? Which offers up the most interesting encounters? Which do you think seems more entertaining?

I didn't purchase the modules, or the DDI subscription, but I'm looking to run a prewritten campaign now that my homebrew one has ended in a TPK at 3rd (almost 4th) level last night. I'll retool the first few levels of my homebrew and run it again later, but adventure modules would be great for now.

 

[Jack99]

I find the published modules better than Scales of War.

Overall I would say that 3 of the 5 modules are better than any episode in the Scales of War. But both AP's (if you can call them that) have been improving steadily over the last few releases, and while SoW started off poorly (IMO), it's getting quite good.

SoW probably has the stronger storyline, as it is more coheerent, but it's not too hard to put together something that strings the modules more together.

 

[Agamon]

Good question. I'm running a homebrew, but I have DDI and the H and P mods...but I've been too busy to even look at them (the mods are still shrunk-wrapped!), so I'd like to know this too.

From what I've heard, the paper adventures are pretty good for the most part, SoW, not sure, haven't heard much.

 

[Obergnom]

hmm,

the Paragon Tier published Modules are great. Better than any other 4e modules, imho. I used both SoW and the H1-3 modules as resource in my campaign, but I run neither of them as a campaign. You can find great resources for the H1-3 Modules on the wotc boards, though.

(Using H1 and H2 + a couple of Dungeon Adventures like Heathen or Sleeper in the Tomb of Dreams would be my choice for a heroic tier campaign.)

Edit: I would prefere the published modules, because you can easily insert some dungeon adventures in between, by cutting some of the encounters. It's just 3 huge modules per tier, after all.

 

[Aristotle]

Thanks for the feedback thus far (more would be awesome). I get to run games so infrequently that I'm really hoping to run a memorable campaign. I'm leaning toward the published adventures currently, possibly with some slimmed down Dragon adventures in between as suggested. I don't run XP by the book, so I've got no problem slowing down levels so long as the characters remain leveled for the challenges.

 

[bert1000]

H1 - needs a bunch of work to make it come alive, but there have been a lot of threads here and on wotc boards to help. If you run it, I suggest cutting 1/2 the encounters in the Keep and it won't drag as much.

H2 - this one is solid IMO. You get a neat skullport-like base town with interesting characters, an open ended dungeon with 3-4 larger points of interest fleshed out, and the 4e re-introduction of a few iconic monsters. Can easily be a good mini-sand box area.

H3 - Pretty good for what it is, but not my style. It's one of those "you are traped in the big dungeon" types. The individual encounters seem pretty good, but not how I like to spend a whole 3 levels.

Like others have said, Scales of War is very uneven in terms of material. I do agree that it is getting better, and their have been a few episodes I thought were really good. Shadow Rift of Umbraforge is well done, as well as the last 2.

So my vote is a mix and match too. Use a slim down H1 or some Dungeon material as the start, go to H2, and then back to Dungeon material (even some tweaked Scales of War episodes).

 

[Ethalias]

I have H1 & H2, and a D&DI subscription. I'm (hopefully) about to start running Scales of War. I agree that the first few adventures seem a little plain, though I hope that the fact that I'm playing with new players will make that slightly less of an issue. But I'm finding the more recent adventures more exciting, and they draw on the players experience in earlier adventures, which adds strength overall IMHO.

One downside is that the XP progression is fairly rigid, so adding in additional home brew/other published adventureswould be tricky, though there may be room for an occasional one-shot if the players miss a few encounters.

So if you think you'll want to go "off-piste" rather than stick to entirely published material, go with H1-3 etc, or some sort of hybrid.

FYI I've not run anything more than a few games myself, so my view is based entirely on reading and my personal reactions.

 

[FourthBear]

One slightly odd thing between the two series is that Scales of War has not been releasing any plot overview or preview, ostensibly to prevent later surprises from being spoiled. The reason I find this odd is that each of the paper-published adventures has had excerpts published which freely reveal major plot points and encounter areas, even though the excerpts don't even require a DDI account to access. For example, the recent Demon Queen's Enclave excerpts include the overall adventure synopsis, as did the Trollhaunt excerpts. Apparently the honor system is OK for the H, P and E series, but not for the Scales of War.

 

[Aristotle]

I've read through the first couple of adventures of each and, while I accept that everyone says it gets better later on, some of the dungeons still feel like odd compilations of monsters. I could be way off base, but... after wasting folks' time here in this thread, am leaning toward salvaging my homebrew campaign.

 

[Morrus]

SoW probably has the stronger storyline, as it is more coheerent, but it's not too hard to put together something that strings the modules more together.

The modules don't have a storyline. They're not an Adventure Path. They'r ea bunch of self-contained modules with a half-page of weak hooks to transition between each. There's no overall plot, and there isn't supposed to be.

To address the original point - it depends what you're looking for: the published modules are, individually, better; the adventure path (allegedly) has an overall storyline.