Adventure Path Three: You'd Do...

[RangerWickett]

How about a picaresque, travel-across-the-world adventure, something akin to Season One of The Jackie Chan Adventures. Make the villains be trying to do something involving travel. Get a big travel theme going.

 

[Steel_Wind]

So thinking about the Adventure Paths, the Age of Worms still has a few miles to go but should be winding down before '06 is out. Very curious to see if they do a compendium of that. It'd be bigger than Shackled City due to all the add ons and Wormfood supplements but at the same time, it'd be better. And as a GM of the Shackled City right now, I say that's awesome.

Don’t get me wrong – I LOVE the Age of Worms. While I might get the Hardcover “just because”, I’ve put a lot of time in to organizing my Dungeon articles and Online Supplements and Dragon companion articles. So…the marginal utility of a hardcover (to me) is diminished.

For those without all the relevant issues of Dungeon and Dragon – I can well appreciate the value.

But what path do you think they'll take for the third adventure path? I suspect we'll get another default Greyhawk/generic setting. While I love Forgotten Realms and think Eberron a little too esoteric to make specific adventure path qualities for, I think that a whole adventure path in that vein would not be a good thing but rather, a bad one as it would force a person not using one of those settings to do some possibly heavy conversions.

Dungeon has spent a lot of time researching their reader base and has come to the conclusion that the most popular setting for its readers is “None of the Above”. Most Dungeon DMs have, hitherto, used dungeon adventures in a home brew setting.

That said, after 27 years or never running a Greyhawk campaign – I set the AoW in Greyhawk. It’s been fun so far and I even went out and bought that o so collectible poster map of the 3E City of Greyhawk in LGJ#2.

While I have never imagined myself as a fan of the FR setting, a lot of the FR material is well done and very flexible. While I expect another Greyhawk Campaign in a third AP – I wouldn’t be opposed to an Adventure Path set in the FR – against the Red Wizards of Thay or something similarly flexible, and relatively open and non-detailed.

Conversion notes are just as good.

Again - I’m not a FR fan and I can do without the whole Drizz’t /Underdark or Elminster thing. But don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. There is a lot of interesting setting material in the FR that has barely been touched.

Then again – the setting is not so important to me as the flavour of the AP itself.

There are a lot of people who really like the Shackled City – but I’m not one of them. If Demons and planar adventures are your thing – I can well imagine why SCAP is to your liking. But it’s MUCH too Planescapey for me and I never liked it. Sorry, not my cuppa.

Age of Worms, on the other hand, is simply amazing. I love it.

I wouldn't mind seeing them try to tie the D&D minis into the paths a bit more. Not anything where they were required to play, but some blown up maps of taverns (which would've been awesome for the Lucky Monkey in SC), or something along those lines and perhaps even working with WoTC or a 3rd party to do some bundles of miniatures. For example, with SC, I'm surprised they didn't package, since they sell individuals anyway, some of the various miniatures that would've been handy for the book.

I agree with this completely. I would really like to see interior art and dungeon design which suggests in the description of the encounter itself the suggested D&D mini. There should be a few provisos to this:

• Try to limit the number of rares required – no more than 2 per adventure;
• Never require more than one rare type per encounter;
• Always try to focus the encounters upon commons and uncommons;
• To the extent possible, skew to later D&D mini expansions and away from Harbinger
• Include the suggested miniature in the monster’s stat block

I would REALLY like to see this sort of approach and I would think it would be an excellent way to sell minis on the Paizo site. Sell the minis required for the entire adventure in one box of minis. Poof. $30 for single minis - you got all you need for four or five sessions.

To those opposed to this...ask yourself why? If you don’t want to use them - then don’t. There is nothing mandatory about such an approach. It simply makes it easier and more fun for those who DO enjoy using and collecting D&D miniatures to have all the minis match up straight down the line.

I also wouldn't mind seeing the adventure path go past 20th level into the epic level reaches. That would be fantastic as it would allow some more epic level play. While the big bad fights in Shackled City are great, then expanded notes on what to do afterwards are a little on the 'm'eh' side of things. A big bang ending at 25th level or something along those lines after the core rules would be great!

Again – not my thing. I rather think the current AoW AP is ending up spending too much time on high level play as it is. The problem with high level play is that saving throws begin to work against the party and there are a lot of death spells which will kill the player characters.

I’d prefer to see more play focussed on 1st to 12th and less on 13th to 20th. I won’t run an epic adventure or campaign. 15th is pushing it with me as it stands.

P.S. While I might buy a Paladin themed AP; I'd never buy a the PCs are evil campaign. Given the comments on this topic when it comes up on ENWorld every few months - way more agree with the "no evil PCs" rule here than do not.

 

[Patman21967]

Steel Wind, you were the (nice person/swell guy/Pielorinho does this better than me) who out bid me for LGJ on EBAY...Really...You aren't a (nice person/swell guy/Pielorinho does this better than me) for any other reason than I really wanted that..

That being said, and Epic level campaign arc, akin to Vampires of Waterdeep, that tied AoW and SC together would be cool...where the players could run a choice of their characters in a battle to save the world...It could be done in a 3 issue arc, that took the PC's to 25th.

I never ran SC, but woiuld buy it, and run it, just for that kind of conclusion.

I would think it would have to be travelling the planes to battle and recover the whole Rod of 7 Parts, to stop an invasion by the Queen of Chaos, the precursor of which was SC of course..

 

[James Jacobs]

This is a great thread!

We've got a fairly rudimentary outlie of what we're planning on doing with Adventure Path 3, and while it's in no shape to have anything said about what's in it, I can definately say that we'll be doing something different than we did with Shackled City and Age of Worms. That is to say:

1: No strong demon/devil/demondand themes.
2: No strong undead themes.
3: No evil cults.

Apart from that... anything's fair game!

 

[Joshua Randall]

I would pay cash money for a hardcover book (or heck, even softcover) that took the Githyanki Incursion and drastically expanded it. Whether it's suitable for an Adventure Path is a little debateable, given that not all GMs want to subject their game world to the githyanki's untender mercies.

I would love to see a "crusade" adventure path. If done right, this wouldn't have to be a annoying, stick-up-the-butt paladin crusade; but it would be great to see the forces of good taking a proactive role for a change. (Note that several of the recent WotC books have featured good-aligned organizations that lend themselves to this: there's ond in DMG II and another in Complete Adventurer -- names escape me at the momemt).

An exploration adventure path would be great, also. Something like the old Isle of Dread module, in which the PCs are blazing a trail into an unknown region.

Planar adventures. Age of Worms has been very much bound to the material plane, and seems like it's going to stay that way. I'd enjoy an adventure path that made use of some of the info in Manual of the Planes / Planar Handbook. Or at least featured some adventure sites on different planes, even if the main action was on the material.

An adventure path that inverted the usual "bad guys try to take over the world but the good guys stop them" would be neat. So, the AP starts with the bad guys already haven taken over the world... and the PCs have to build up the resistance movement. You could have a lot of fun at the low levels with the PCs trying to stay out of jail while at the same time engaging in various acts of civil disobedience. By mid-level, maybe the PCs join up with or found their own rebellion. High level adventures would allow the PCs to engage in all sorts of fun recon, theft, or assassination missions against the evil empire, hoping to strike a blow severe enough to cause the evil empire to topple.

 

[JoeGKushner]

• Dragons are manipulating the world from behind the scenes, and now things are building up to a major conflict between the chromatics and the metallics in which the lesser races are merely pawns. The PCs are drawn in and must decide which side they support, or if they want to support either side at all. In the latter case, they might act to upset the power base of both sides to try to avoid war altogether.

• 
  
  That would be interesting but could quickly get overblown and would require a lot of NPC reaction and the uppage of dragons in the campaign which could 'cheapen' them so to speak.
  
  

  [*]The Far Realms! Reality is starting to fray around the edges. The material plane bears the brunt of the damage as the expiry date on the multiverse looms and madness threatens to overwhelm everything with its corrupting influence. The PCs must figure out what's happening and why, and then figure out how to stop it. Lots of alienists, gibbering mouthers, and other agents of madness like the way things are going just fine, and oppose the PCs' efforts. This would probably work really well in Ebberon, what with the Daelkyr (or however it's spelled) already major villains. Lots of Lords Of Madness material available to cram in here.
  
  [*]Githyanki Incursion. 'Nuff said.

  
  Combine the two. The Githyanki Incursion is actually cuasing the Far Realm to spread and it actually effecs the Githyanki first, slowing down their invasion plans and eventually giving them new powers/effects.
  
  

  [*]Or, for something a little more mundane, The Horde! Orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, ogres, and other humanoids and giants are massing for attack against the civilized races. Start off by knocking off goblin warbands, work your way up to seriously inconveniencing hill giants, and finish by facing down the elite armies of evil in a world-shaking conclusion that leaves a mountain of corpses and a river of blood.

It would be nice to see some military action of that sort. This would be a good tie in for something like the Lone Drow series by R. A. Salvatore set in the Realms. A Green Tide or something of that nature. Oops, orcs are gray now.

Maybe we should see something with the Ethergaunts? That's one of those weird races we dont' see too much use out of, or those weird creatures from the plane of mirrors.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

no... not the PCs as the Paladins.... the NPC villians would be the Paladins.
edit: besides, in Greyhawk i can think of the perfect place to put this...

Well, that's a horse of a different colour. Stop the friggin' paladins from ruining everything for everyone everywhere. It has potential...

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

P.S. While I might buy a Paladin themed AP; I'd never buy a the PCs are evil campaign. Given the comments on this topic when it comes up on ENWorld every few months - way more agree with the "no evil PCs" rule here than do not.

They don't have to be evil. They just have to want to resist being crushed under the boot of Lawful Good in its most Miko Miyazaki-esque form. A thousand paladins of St. Cuthbert eliminating the menace posed by Chaotic Good.

"Today it's Chaos, and tomorrow, it's utter destruction of everything, so it must be wiped out for the good of all! Chaos and Good cannot coexist! And don't get us started on those filthy Neutrals. They're practically eating babies, what with their moral ambiguity and their noninvolvement in the struggle against evil. Put the druids to the burning stake, purge the Old Faith to make way for the gods of righteousness and truth! Eliminate the infidel, and we will erect a perfect society of Law and Good to preserve peace and order forever!"

 

[Mercule]

Whether it's suitable for an Adventure Path is a little debateable, given that not all GMs want to subject their game world to the githyanki's untender mercies.

I like the Gith, but I do not have them in my homebrew. I don't include any non-OGC races as major players in my homebrew. Should I ever get around to posting a web site that outlines my setting in depth (which is, in fact, my plan), I'll not subject anything significant to WotC's IP.

Edit: Otherwise, the Gith would be practically perfect for a niche in my game.

 

[Steel_Wind]

This is a great thread!

We've got a fairly rudimentary outlie of what we're planning on doing with Adventure Path 3, and while it's in no shape to have anything said about what's in it, I can definately say that we'll be doing something different than we did with Shackled City and Age of Worms. That is to say:

1: No strong demon/devil/demondand themes.
2: No strong undead themes.
3: No evil cults.

Apart from that... anything's fair game!

I look forward to it guys. The AoW has made a great Dungeon magazine the best it has even been. The unlooked for bonus was that it even made Dragon something I looked forward to.

If you had told me that a year ago, I would have figured you were trying to sell me the Brookyln Bridge as a fallback plan.