Complete Campaigns

[Yair]

My current campaign stalled due to a missing player, so I'm thinking of starting a new one. Finding myself with little time to prepare adventures, I was thinking of utilizing one of the campaigns-in-a-box that I've been hearing about. I want a whole campaign all ready to be played with me just reading the book/adventures and going from there with little to no prework. I've got some of those listed below, but if I missed anything I'd love to hear, and I'd also appreciate any playtest/readthrough comments.

The Shackled City
The Drow War (I)
World's Largest Dungeon
Freeport Trilogy (due July)
Witchfire Trilofy (due November as a book)

Comments? Observations? Derision?

Yair

 

[Khairn]

The Shackled City
Outstanding adventure in the classic D&D style.

The Drow War (I)
I've heard a lot of good things, but I havent played it yet.

World's Largest Dungeon
Really interesting site but for my personal taste, not a place where I would want to spend all my adventuring time. Use it as a place where the players can go, not necessarily the core for your campaign.

Freeport Trilogy (due July)
I'm playing Freeport (Black Sails) now and having a good time. Fun setting with lots of places where GM hooks can easily be added in.

Witchfire Trilofy (due November as a book)
The 3E version is already out, and of the suggestions you've made this was my favorite campaign setting.

Might I suggest looking at Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil and Banewarrens as 2 additions to that list. Both are really well detailed and have exciting storylines.

 

[S'mon]

I'm enjoying Lost City of Barakus mini-campaign alot; it's intended to take PCs from level 1 to 5-6 at 1/2 XP, ie about 30-40 four hour sessions' worth of play. It's also good for adding in other dungeon & city modules or the GM's own adventures. It's not heavily plot driven although there's lots going on.

 

[Trellian]

3 words... Age of Worms...

 

[GlassJaw]

Age of Worms or Shackled City without question. Shackled City just came out in hardcover so you'll have everything you need in there. It will take the characters from level 1-20.

I'm running it now and it's very good. There's also a lot of support for it on the Paizo site, including a message board.

 

[Morte]

God, how I envy you D&D players with your choice of off-the-shelf campaigns that'd last more than a year. I can't even get a Traveller campaign that's good for a couple of months.

* looks envious *

 

[JoeGKushner]

Don't forget Slavelords of Cydonia. It has a lot of great things going for it, but may not fit all campaign styles.

I've run/been in Withcfire, which is a little 'pushy' at times as far as Railroading the characters, but it's a good set piece and will probably be better now that the actually Iron Kingdoms books are out and the rule changes can be accounted for in the adventure.

I've also run/been in Freeport, and it's a solid series that can be railraody at certain points, but is great fun because of it's heavy Cthulhu influence. The 3.5 updates should be solid but this is more or less, unless I'm remembering wrong, 1st-5th.

Lost City of Barakus is another solid one and yeah, at half xp will take months to complete. Dangerous.

Shackled City is the one I'm gearing up for. I was going to do Age of Worms from Dungeon, but I like having it all in one spot. Very tough module and if you're the type of DM or player where a dead character means starting over rom scratch, may not be for you as the players will be severly tested past the level of Die Hard and stupid players or those with poor tactics will drop left and right.

World's Largest Dungeon: I've got one friend running it, another's been through part of it. Unless you're gaming group is very stable, chances are you won't finish it. It's in essence 16 seperate dungeons connected together and has some good stuff going on.

Drow War: Waiting for it to be finished and read some more reviews on it.

Mongoose also has a dragon campaign boxed set coming out that sounds very promising.

 

[kigmatzomat]

I generally play in homebrews but I won a Freeport book at gencon a few years back and it was surprisingly good. The plot has plenty of flavor and IIRC the sequential books provide guidance on what to do if previous events didn't unfold as expected. (i.e. If they made friends with X, this happens. If they killed X, that happens. etc)

The world of Freeport has a decent amount of complexity and flexibility for all kinds of games. It is a favorite, even if I may never run it.

 

[JoeBlank]

I want a whole campaign all ready to be played with me just reading the book/adventures and going from there with little to no prework.

Given this criteria, I suggest World's Largest Dungeon. I am running it now, and am choosing to make some minor changes, but if you are running it straight from the book then it requires not prep work at all. Simply read ahead, and you are ready.

You mentioned a missing player being a problem in your current game. There is an excellent solution to this problem designed specifically for WLD. Check out the short PDF called The Box on this page: james.neetersoft.com/wld/wld.htm

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

I've run the Freeport Trilogy twice and it's great fun. If you're looking for a big campaign though, I would go for Shackled City. I have all of the Dungeon issues this appeared in and I'm looking forward to getting the big book and running it!

Cheers


Richard