JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Still going through it. Part ranges from 10th-12th level (one player with Smoking Eye Template) and they're now in the middle of a church battle.
Anyone finish this sucker yet?
Anyone finish this sucker yet?
Anyone finish the Shackled City yet?
- Thread starter JoeGKushner
- Start date
Dog Moon
Adventurer
Nope, not here. We're still on what I think is the fourth adventure in the path, but we didn't start it until about when the hardcover came out, so we'd have to move quickly to be done, though we've also become sidetracked frequently.
Level 6 Gestalt btw.
And what's the Smoking Eye template, or is that something a player of AP not supposed to know?
Level 6 Gestalt btw.
And what's the Smoking Eye template, or is that something a player of AP not supposed to know?
We started in november 2003 and we've just finished Secrets of the Soul Pillars. Everybody's level 12 right now. We're having to get used to high-level D&D since this is the first time we've gone to these levels.
The main reason why it's taking us so long: all my female players had to get pregnant and give birth between december 2004 and august 2005. I was hoping to finish it this year, but one of them has gotten pregnant again (ok, I'm married to her
) and I'm expecting more to follow. So it looks like this will be the Longest Campaign ever...
The main reason why it's taking us so long: all my female players had to get pregnant and give birth between december 2004 and august 2005. I was hoping to finish it this year, but one of them has gotten pregnant again (ok, I'm married to her
) and I'm expecting more to follow. So it looks like this will be the Longest Campaign ever...
dagger
Adventurer
Yes we finished it......we skipped the next to last part and went straight to the last part. We failed......eveyone died. Even my 18th level Wizard.....
SPOILER BELOW:
We also failed to prevent the volcano (we did worse than prevent..), we actually used a Wish spell to make the tree real for one hour.....we then chopped it down (we had no clue this would set off the volcano). BIG MISTAKE.
The town was totally destroyed......
My wizard aftwards:
"That's what they get for building a town on a volcano..."
Dwarf in the party:
"Aye, it was bound to happen."
SPOILER BELOW:
We also failed to prevent the volcano (we did worse than prevent..), we actually used a Wish spell to make the tree real for one hour.....we then chopped it down (we had no clue this would set off the volcano). BIG MISTAKE.
The town was totally destroyed......
My wizard aftwards:
"That's what they get for building a town on a volcano..."
Dwarf in the party:
"Aye, it was bound to happen."
5-Foot Step
First Post
I finished running this about a month ago. Took about a year and 4 months playing almost every weekend in marthon 6-10 hour sessions (with a month off). We started it during the magazine period so we didn't run Drakthar's Way. It was a lot of fun. I ran it for only three players playing 2 characters a piece and unfortunately one of them couldn't play anymore so we finished with only two (playing 3 characters a piece). I integrated "Chamber of Antiquity" and "Root of Evil" as side quests that allowed the PCs to discover more about the villains in SCAP.
Depite the fact that it was a pre-written campaign, I spent a good 4-5 hours a week doing prep work and reworking of the campaign. Not that it required it, but I really enjoyed personalizing and editing the campaign for my players. That's what the campaign's biggest asset is: There's so much material there that it's easy to flesh out for your personal style.
If I were to do it again:
I would make it take place over 10-20 years with about a year or so between most adventures. The timeline of the game was a little to condensed and it didn't really sit right that a character could go from 1st-20th level in about a year. This could also set up villains and Cauldron really well.
I would wait until the Savage Tide comes out. That map of Sasserine would have been useful. In my homebrew (semi-Greyhawk) world, Sasserine was a port city that a couple of characters came from. Unfortunately, I had to make up most of the details off the cuff so it never felt right to me. Most mysterious characters from far away came from Sasserine.
I would run more sidequests. This could also allow me to let the characters "come off the rails" a little bit, but still be able to rope them back in. Some of the recent dungeon adventures would really fit well. Mad God's Key. And Madness Followed. The one with the disaster happening to the city (high level). Maybe The Quicksilver Hourglass instead of Asylum.
I would not let people play more than one character. This wasn't as bad is it could have been, but it definetly impeded role-playing between characters. Some characters that people ran could have been really interesting interacting with each other, but because they were run by the same player, role-playing was kind of akward. Also, a lot of wealth distrubiton (loans) happened betweened characters which may have thrown off some balance. However, they did RP the loaning and all that so I guess I can't complain.
The player's favorite part, strangely enough, was the dungeon crawl series of Life's Bazaar, Flood Season, and Zenith Trajectory. After that, they felt they didn't have any idea what was going on or what to do until around Soul Pillars or Lords of Oblivion. Some of this probably due to the fact that most of the super cool information was being fed to a secretive player who (unfortunately) didn't last till the end of the campaign and thus, didn't get to leak said information. I might consider dropping or severely reworking Demonskar Legacy, Smoking Eye (my players HATED the random encounter table as they walked across the plane) 13 cages, Shatterhorn, and Asylum. This has more to do with my personal tastes and I what I feel would fit for the characters than anything wrong with the adventures.
I would highly recomend this AP. It was a ton of fun to run and players had a great time playing in it.
Depite the fact that it was a pre-written campaign, I spent a good 4-5 hours a week doing prep work and reworking of the campaign. Not that it required it, but I really enjoyed personalizing and editing the campaign for my players. That's what the campaign's biggest asset is: There's so much material there that it's easy to flesh out for your personal style.
If I were to do it again:
I would make it take place over 10-20 years with about a year or so between most adventures. The timeline of the game was a little to condensed and it didn't really sit right that a character could go from 1st-20th level in about a year. This could also set up villains and Cauldron really well.
I would wait until the Savage Tide comes out. That map of Sasserine would have been useful. In my homebrew (semi-Greyhawk) world, Sasserine was a port city that a couple of characters came from. Unfortunately, I had to make up most of the details off the cuff so it never felt right to me. Most mysterious characters from far away came from Sasserine.
I would run more sidequests. This could also allow me to let the characters "come off the rails" a little bit, but still be able to rope them back in. Some of the recent dungeon adventures would really fit well. Mad God's Key. And Madness Followed. The one with the disaster happening to the city (high level). Maybe The Quicksilver Hourglass instead of Asylum.
I would not let people play more than one character. This wasn't as bad is it could have been, but it definetly impeded role-playing between characters. Some characters that people ran could have been really interesting interacting with each other, but because they were run by the same player, role-playing was kind of akward. Also, a lot of wealth distrubiton (loans) happened betweened characters which may have thrown off some balance. However, they did RP the loaning and all that so I guess I can't complain.
The player's favorite part, strangely enough, was the dungeon crawl series of Life's Bazaar, Flood Season, and Zenith Trajectory. After that, they felt they didn't have any idea what was going on or what to do until around Soul Pillars or Lords of Oblivion. Some of this probably due to the fact that most of the super cool information was being fed to a secretive player who (unfortunately) didn't last till the end of the campaign and thus, didn't get to leak said information. I might consider dropping or severely reworking Demonskar Legacy, Smoking Eye (my players HATED the random encounter table as they walked across the plane) 13 cages, Shatterhorn, and Asylum. This has more to do with my personal tastes and I what I feel would fit for the characters than anything wrong with the adventures.
I would highly recomend this AP. It was a ton of fun to run and players had a great time playing in it.
JoeGKushner said:
Not even close. We have wrapped up Chapter 1 with the trial of Keygan Ghelve, and will be skipping Chapter 2 (in the hardback) to go straight on to Chapter 3. The PCs gained enough experience to reach 4th level already, and I didn't think chapter 2 added much to the overall story and so decided to chop it.
Tonight will be our 16th session (about 2.5 hours of play per session), but they are all having a good time. We lost our first PC two sessions ago - a 3rd level bard w/ 9 hit points!
Alan
Not only did we finish but we chronicled the whole thing in our Shackled City Story Hour. It took us well over a year to complete the campaign, but all the 1st to 20th level goodness is chronicled therein.
We had to thrown in a couple of linker modules @ mid and high levels b/c of repeated character deaths and subsequent level loss.
SPOILERS
We almost got TPKed by Adimarchus in Asylum. Through the slimmest of margins, we managed to stave him off long enough until he decided to retreat to Occipitus instead. Oh, and we also never figured out what the deal was with the Tree of Shackled Souls and destroyed it -- thereby burying Cauldron in magma (however, we did evacuate the town so only a few people died). The ending is kind of a downer (check out our epilogue.
We had to thrown in a couple of linker modules @ mid and high levels b/c of repeated character deaths and subsequent level loss.
SPOILERS
We almost got TPKed by Adimarchus in Asylum. Through the slimmest of margins, we managed to stave him off long enough until he decided to retreat to Occipitus instead. Oh, and we also never figured out what the deal was with the Tree of Shackled Souls and destroyed it -- thereby burying Cauldron in magma (however, we did evacuate the town so only a few people died). The ending is kind of a downer (check out our epilogue.
DM_Jeff
Explorer
Yep. I finished running Shackled City in 40 sessions from last summer to just a couple months ago.
The enchanter/mind bender is the new lord mayor.
The kobold who started as his servant is still his servant.
The changelling rogue has the smoking eye template and retired to the planes.
The elan psionic monk is hunting down the mind flayer cabal that made him.
The mongrelfolk rogue/assassin now rules the Last Laugh guild.
They are happily 'retired'. Interestingly, they never finished the last chapter, I saved that for next month's reunion. Sadly, I fear that's where they'll all bite the big one.
-DM Jeff
The enchanter/mind bender is the new lord mayor.
The kobold who started as his servant is still his servant.
The changelling rogue has the smoking eye template and retired to the planes.
The elan psionic monk is hunting down the mind flayer cabal that made him.
The mongrelfolk rogue/assassin now rules the Last Laugh guild.
They are happily 'retired'. Interestingly, they never finished the last chapter, I saved that for next month's reunion. Sadly, I fear that's where they'll all bite the big one.
-DM Jeff
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