More news from the Paizo messageboards:
Erik Mona:
The next Adventure Path will probably be about as "Setting Specific" as our "generic" adventures. Everything you'll need to play the campaign will be provided for you in the form of "Backdrop" articles (like 114's "Isle of Dread") and poster maps.
It will range over a larger area than the Shackled City Adventure Path.
It will start in a village, with a suggestion that all of the player characters are from that village or are passing through when the first adventure begins.
The current outline does not involve a trip to the Outer Planes. We've been doing that enough lately.
The current outline involves a handful of dragons.
There will be many undead.
It's currently slated for 20 adventures, one for each level.
I hope the new approach makes it easier to "sub in" alternate adventures if you don't care for one of the 20. We'll see how it goes.
Assuming we go with the current outline, it will be on the same "world" as Cauldron, but about 1,650 miles to the northeast.
The first Adventure Path was written to a very loose outline, with authors dropping in dangling plots here and there in an attempt to leave fertile ground for future authors in the series. Many of these threads, such as the Sign of the Smoking Eye template, were picked up by the authors closing out the series. Others, such as Celeste and the Ebon Triad, were not.
I'm sad to say that Celeste does not appear again in the Shackled City Adventure Path.
I am pleased to say, however, that she _will_ appear in the _next_ Adventure Path, and will play a fairly important role. The truth behind her mysterious character will come out eventually, and we're hoping it will be all the sweeter because it will have been about a year in the making.
Oh, by the way, the current plan is to include appendices in the second Adventure Path that include suggestions regarding inserting the campaign into the Eberron and Forgotten Realms campaign settings, written by some of the foremost experts on those worlds.
I'm really excited about our current plans, and it's definitely a Herculean effort not to just post my full outline here on the message boards!
Which reminds me. One difference for the next Adventure Path will be short "The Path Ahead" articles every five issues or so that will chart out in broad strokes where the storyline is going, what NPCs you might want to try to keep alive, etc. We'll also be doing fairly extensive "concept" art for important characters and locales, and hope to build excitement through these articles.
I'm glad most people seem to have enjoyed the Shackled City. I suspect you're really going to like what we have in store for 2005.
We probably won't "debut" authors on the Adventure Path. That's not to say all of them need to work at Wizards of the Coast, or anything, but writing an adventure to an outline that is linked with 19 others takes some doing, and isn't something I'd want to foist on a novice.
Things you'll see:
* Story arcs: Check.
* Chris West on maps: Check
* Christopher Perkins as an author: Check
* Backdrop to go with the first one: Check (plus more to come)
* Poster map: Check.
The second Adventure Path will begin shortly after issue #120. Probably #122 or thereabouts.
James Jacobs:
There should be fewer instances of sudden plot shifts in the second Adventure Path. The dramatic shift in plot from "The Demonskar Legacy" and "Test of the Smoking Eye" works on some levels, but in hindsight it does leave certain story elements hanging. Since the second Adventure Path will be more or less completely planned out from start to end, this shouldn't be a problem the next time around.
As for errors in stat blocks and continuity errors (such as Hookface's gender swapping)...they're unfortunate, but they'll creep in now and then. Having the entire adventure path plot laid out should help a lot, if only because we won't have to wait for Author #3 to finish his installment before we can get Author #4 working on his installment, which should give us a LOT more time to develop and edit them!
Cheers!
Erik Mona:
The next Adventure Path will probably be about as "Setting Specific" as our "generic" adventures. Everything you'll need to play the campaign will be provided for you in the form of "Backdrop" articles (like 114's "Isle of Dread") and poster maps.
It will range over a larger area than the Shackled City Adventure Path.
It will start in a village, with a suggestion that all of the player characters are from that village or are passing through when the first adventure begins.
The current outline does not involve a trip to the Outer Planes. We've been doing that enough lately.
The current outline involves a handful of dragons.
There will be many undead.
It's currently slated for 20 adventures, one for each level.
I hope the new approach makes it easier to "sub in" alternate adventures if you don't care for one of the 20. We'll see how it goes.
Assuming we go with the current outline, it will be on the same "world" as Cauldron, but about 1,650 miles to the northeast.
The first Adventure Path was written to a very loose outline, with authors dropping in dangling plots here and there in an attempt to leave fertile ground for future authors in the series. Many of these threads, such as the Sign of the Smoking Eye template, were picked up by the authors closing out the series. Others, such as Celeste and the Ebon Triad, were not.
I'm sad to say that Celeste does not appear again in the Shackled City Adventure Path.
I am pleased to say, however, that she _will_ appear in the _next_ Adventure Path, and will play a fairly important role. The truth behind her mysterious character will come out eventually, and we're hoping it will be all the sweeter because it will have been about a year in the making.
Oh, by the way, the current plan is to include appendices in the second Adventure Path that include suggestions regarding inserting the campaign into the Eberron and Forgotten Realms campaign settings, written by some of the foremost experts on those worlds.
I'm really excited about our current plans, and it's definitely a Herculean effort not to just post my full outline here on the message boards!
Which reminds me. One difference for the next Adventure Path will be short "The Path Ahead" articles every five issues or so that will chart out in broad strokes where the storyline is going, what NPCs you might want to try to keep alive, etc. We'll also be doing fairly extensive "concept" art for important characters and locales, and hope to build excitement through these articles.
I'm glad most people seem to have enjoyed the Shackled City. I suspect you're really going to like what we have in store for 2005.
We probably won't "debut" authors on the Adventure Path. That's not to say all of them need to work at Wizards of the Coast, or anything, but writing an adventure to an outline that is linked with 19 others takes some doing, and isn't something I'd want to foist on a novice.
Things you'll see:
* Story arcs: Check.
* Chris West on maps: Check
* Christopher Perkins as an author: Check
* Backdrop to go with the first one: Check (plus more to come)
* Poster map: Check.
The second Adventure Path will begin shortly after issue #120. Probably #122 or thereabouts.
James Jacobs:
There should be fewer instances of sudden plot shifts in the second Adventure Path. The dramatic shift in plot from "The Demonskar Legacy" and "Test of the Smoking Eye" works on some levels, but in hindsight it does leave certain story elements hanging. Since the second Adventure Path will be more or less completely planned out from start to end, this shouldn't be a problem the next time around.
As for errors in stat blocks and continuity errors (such as Hookface's gender swapping)...they're unfortunate, but they'll creep in now and then. Having the entire adventure path plot laid out should help a lot, if only because we won't have to wait for Author #3 to finish his installment before we can get Author #4 working on his installment, which should give us a LOT more time to develop and edit them!
Cheers!
