Age of Worms vs. Shackled City

[IronWolf]

Right, they did just the opposite with the AoW. You sort of had to piece things together from all the SC modules to get info on the campaign arc or details on Cauldron itself. They are providing a lot more background info on AoW up front. The SC hardcover should remedy that.

Totally agree. I think the hardcover (both from what I have read and hearing Erik Mona talk about it at the Paizo booth at Origins) will really help remedy any previously voiced shortcomings of SC as released through Dungeon. Which I think makes the choice a little harder since both are looking to be great Adventure Paths.

 

[delericho]

The Shackled City was a lot of fun. However, it looks like the Age of Worms might be even better. Certainly, the first chapter was outstanding, and although the second wasn't quite as good, it was still very good indeed. Paizo are really going all-out on this one, to get the best writers they can to do the adventures, and it's really showing.

As regards support for Eberron, there's supposed to be some sort of mega-web-enhancement coming (Age of Worms Overload, or something like that?) that will include conversion notes. It's not available yet.

One thing worth noting is that my group found the Shackled City adventures took about 3 weeks to play through (each). If this pattern is the same with Age of Worms, and if your group play weekly, you might do well to wait another month or two before starting, or else you'll eventually catch up and run out of adventures to run.

 

[Timeboxer]

I've been impressed with the level of conversions available for Eberron. Keith posted several notes (and I'm waiting for his notes on the second adventure),

Someone mind pointing me to where I could find these notes?

 

[IronWolf]

Someone mind pointing me to where I could find these notes?

They are in the online supplements. Keith has some conversion info in Supplement 124.

 

[GlassJaw]

One thing worth noting is that my group found the Shackled City adventures took about 3 weeks to play through (each).

Are you serious?!?!?! Does you group play 12 hour sessions or something? It's been taking my group 6-7 sessions to get through each module and we play 3.5-4 hour sessions weekly.

 

[James Jacobs]

The HC of Shackled City holds up much better as a campaign now. It's got lots of advice on how to build new characters for the campaign, about 20,000 words of background and details on Cauldron, the surrounding area, and the region's history. I also did my best to put in a lot more foreshadowing in the early adventures and provide tips on how and when to introduce plot elements. The fact that when you finally get to the main bad guys at the end and the players have no real idea of who they are or why they are has hopefully been fixed.

Plus, it's a huge, heavy book. You can use it to crack open walnuts or to hunt chupacabras when you're not running your game.

 

[delericho]

Are you serious?!?!?! Does you group play 12 hour sessions or something? It's been taking my group 6-7 sessions to get through each module and we play 3.5-4 hour sessions weekly.

We played for 6-7 hours each week. There was a break for food midway through, but minimal disruptions of any other kind, so we moved at a fair rate.

The 3 weeks figure is accurate for the last 4 or 5 adventures. I don't have an accurate figure for the early adventures. Certainly, in terms of the magazine text, the early adventures are longer, but whether they took us longer to get through is something I'm not sure about.

One thing I do know is that from start to finish, the campaign took us exactly 11 months. We didn't play every week, but were pretty close to it. That suggests that the 3 week figure is not far from being accurate.

Edit: Oh yes, one other thing... We played the game in a very "role-play lite" manner. There was virtually no character development, and little interaction with NPCs except with a sword. If I were to run it again, I would take things rather more slowly. This was a fairly unusual campaign for us in that regard, but I think the group were collectively burnt out on 'heavy' games, and were using it as light relief.

 

[Mercule]

One thing worth noting is that my group found the Shackled City adventures took about 3 weeks to play through (each). If this pattern is the same with Age of Worms, and if your group play weekly, you might do well to wait another month or two before starting, or else you'll eventually catch up and run out of adventures to run.

We only play three-hour sessions. Also, the idea is that the AP game will alternate with my "serious" game -- either weekly or "per episode/module". The primary purpose of running the AP would be to have something to enable us to play consistantly while giving me more time to work on my running campaign, which is rather involved and has been taking up about 10-12 hours of prep time per three-hour session of play.

Anyway, point being that finishing things too quickly is not high on my list of worries.