Age of Worms thoughts?

[Wolfwood2]

Late to the party I know, but one of my gaming groups is getting back together after a year apart, and our DM wants to run Age of Worms from start to finish.

Without any spoilers, how does it play out? Is it pretty good? How many gaming sessions will it take to get through the whole thing, assuming 4 to 5 hours a session?

Also, what kind of party balance does it demand? So far we're looking at psion/bard/cleric/fighter type (possibly paladin). That's pretty up in the air, though.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Plan on lots of undead, which is something that affects lots of classes (such as the rogue).

 

[MerricB]

Late to the party I know, but one of my gaming groups is getting back together after a year apart, and our DM wants to run Age of Worms from start to finish.

Without any spoilers, how does it play out? Is it pretty good? How many gaming sessions will it take to get through the whole thing, assuming 4 to 5 hours a session?

It has taken our group 34 sessions to almost complete part 11. I expect it will take the group 37 sessions to complete it in all. Each session for us is about 3-4 hours, but it's been noted that I run D&D combat a lot quicker than most groups do.

I think the Age of Worms is pretty good. It's not perfect, and I think some of the high-level adventures are somewhat clumsy, but it's an incredible experience.

Cheers!

 

[Festivus]

We play 4 hours every week. We have been playing since December 23, 2005 and are one third of the way through it. Granted we are playing online and tend to roleplay at times so it goes a bit slower for us than most but it does tend to run a bit long. So for us, another two years and we will be done with it

Thus far it has been enjoyable to run as a DM. I believe the players are enjoying it too (heck, they have been playing about a year now). There are great moments of nostalgia (at least for me harkening back to 1st edition days), as well as some wonderful encounters. There are some dogs but they can't all be good.

I suggest a well balanced party with the basic four covered (cleric, rogue, divine and arcane caster). My group consists of a wizard, duskblade, bard, fighter and a cleric follower (though the fighter just died and were not sure what were doing about it yet).

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

... but it's been noted that I run D&D combat a lot quicker than most groups do.

How so?

 

[MerricB]

How so?

Koalas.

Cheers!

 

[Herremann the Wise]

I have DM'd about to the halfway point in the Greyhawk Campaign Setting.
So far it has been thoroughly enjoyable with lots of classic "moments".

As far as your group is concerned, what you have (in terms of classes) sounds pretty good. There will be opportunities for each of these characters to shine at different points of the adventure. If you lose a character or two along the way, a wizard is always helpful. Also I think you will find that a good cleric will have lots of work to do in the campaign.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[theredrobedwizard]

The real secret (besides Koalas, obviously) is to commit all the rules to memory. If you can't remember something, study more. Then, give the players limited time to state their actions. They should have plenty of time to think about what they're going to do on the other players' turns.

Roll all attack dice at once (using different colored d20s), then roll all damage dice (again, different colors for different attacks, and color coded dice for elemental damage).

I usually use a system like: Red/Fire, White/Cold, Blue/Electricity, Yellow/Sonic, Green/Acid, Purple/Untyped (ie. Vicious), Gold/Holy, Black/Unholy, etc.

I also expect a lot of rules knowledge on my players' part, simply because they don't have to put the work into the rest of the game, so they should at least know about 90% of the rules.

-----

Back to the OP - I've found the best party combo from the two times I've played through it was: Cleric of Pelor (Sun, Healing -> Radiant Servant), Cleric of Olidamara / Rogue (Shadowbane Stalker), Marshal/Paladin, and a Generalist Wizard.

Then again, I always suggest a Marshal or Dragon Shaman or Bard in every group.

-TRRW

 

[Shroomy]

Classic D&D adventures don't get much more classic than AoW. I would also ad to the chorus telling you to cover all four of the basics if you expect to survive to the end.

 

[DM_Jeff]

To further the OP's question, I wanted to run this for my group in the future, but Shackled City and Red Hand of Doom there were time constraints and deadlines which meant shuffling the party from one section to the next with no breather time to explore their PCs. Does AoW play out silimarly to this or is it more relaxed? they adored SC and RHoD by the way, but did express concerns with the above. Thanks!

-DM Jeff