How many adventures left in Shackled City

[Cernunnos]

Any chance that special thing could be a 2 or even 3 part FR adventure? Since WotC has announced they will no longer be releasing adventures for FR (just sourcebooks), Dungeon is our only remaining option for pre-written stuff.
Maybe tie ALL those FR ideas into one long series?

 

[Erik Mona]

I haven't decided, yet, but something like that isn't outside the realm of possibility.

--Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dungeon Magazine

 

[MerricB]

I haven't decided, yet, but something like that isn't outside the realm of possibility.

Can you think of anything that does lie outside the realms of possibility?

Cheers!

 

[darkpact]

Hi Erik,

my wish list for the next Adventure Path is: Make the adventures playable in a four to five ours slot. I really like this about the RPGA Adventures, and knowing to end an adventure in one evening is very important for my groups (making some of them playable in two sessions is ok, but do it less frequently).

Be seeing you,

Matthias Sylvester Nagy

 

[Belen]

Hi Erik,

my wish list for the next Adventure Path is: Make the adventures playable in a four to five ours slot. I really like this about the RPGA Adventures, and knowing to end an adventure in one evening is very important for my groups (making some of them playable in two sessions is ok, but do it less frequently).

Be seeing you,

Matthias Sylvester Nagy

Most adventures can be completed in 4-5 hours.

I have to disagree. The RPGA formula is fine for rote combat, but does not serve any RP interests.

 

[Belen]

I will always strive to provide adventures usable by the greatest number of our readers. On the odd occasion when we publish an adventure set in a campaign setting, I'm going to do everything I can to have it written by a bonafide expert in that setting. Forgotten Realms fans can use just about every adventure we publish, so there's really no point in making an adventure that _could_ be a generic adventure a Forgotten Realms adventure just for the sake of inclusion.

It's much better, I think, to run special Forgotten Realm adventures that speak to meat-and-potatos FR issues. When we run an FR adventure (which will happen a few times a year), it'll tie into the setting in a meaningful way. Off the top of my head, I think it'd be cool to have a FR adventure that serves as a way to introduce the players to the Harpers, or one that involves crushing the plans of a Red Wizard of Thay. I haven't figured out exactly what form it will take, yet, but one of my future plans is to do something _really_ special for Forgotten Realms fans later in 2004 or early 2005.

--Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dungeon Magazine

I think that is fine. I do not mind the occassional world-specific adventure. Usually they did not fit a homebrew game, but there is no reason that fans of those worlds should be barred from adventures.

Glad that you support more generic adventures.

 

[Guillaume]

Most adventures can be completed in 4-5 hours.

I have to disagree. The RPGA formula is fine for rote combat, but does not serve any RP interests.

The 4-5 hours slot is fine with me, however, I'll have to agree with Belen Umeria. The RPGA formula has been for me a more combat oriented formula than a RP formula. The games I have played up 'till now have been very story light and strong in monster-bashing and treasure stock-piling.

I don't think that an Adventure Path in Dungeon should take this route. It would diminishe the overall quality I think. Furthermore, I can see the adventures taking a 4-5 hours time-frame to complete at low levels, but I have a difficulty of wrapping my mind around this for the higher-level adventures that surely will come with such a Path. Mind you, I do not have much experience with those levels, I was always under the impression that the higher you get, the more difficult it is to gain a level. The average number of encounters may stay the same, but the resolution of those encounters gets more complicated. If that is the case, I fear that a 4-5 hours time-frame would be too limited.

What I'm trying to say, I guess, is that I would rather have a good series of linked adventures than a series of encounters.

Hope that makes sense,

 

[Waylander the Slayer]

I have not picked up dungeon in a long time. Can someone tell me a bit about the "shackled city" adventure path? The details as to the adventures already published and the levels they were suitable for along with what the overarching story line is and which dungeon magezines they appear in.

 

[allenw]

Thanks for stopping by, Erik!

I buy an occasional Dungeon (and hardly ever a Dragon), for the same reason others seem to: looking for adventures and characters to use or adapt. But you know what would get me to subscribe?
Subscriber-only web content.
I know you had some problems with subscriber-only content in the past. If I recall correctly, it seemed to me that the main problem was that you had two different versions of the physical magazine, with the subscriber-only stuff listed in the table of contents of both versions. If you just had a subscriber-only area of your website, and put "web enhancements" there, I suspect there'd be a lot less outcry. It wouldn't even have to be "new" material; I'd subscribe in a heartbeat if it meant I could download large-scale versions of the adventure or encounter maps.
Or you could provide such material to *all* purchasers, with a password based on the magazine content, much as Necromacer Games does.

 

[Lazybones]

I have not picked up dungeon in a long time. Can someone tell me a bit about the "shackled city" adventure path? The details as to the adventures already published and the levels they were suitable for along with what the overarching story line is and which dungeon magezines they appear in.

I don't have my mags in front of me so these are approximate:

"Life's Bazaar" L1-3 #97
"Flood Season" L4-6 #98
"Zenith Trajectory" L6-8 #102
"The Demonskar Legacy" L8-9 #104
"Test of The Smoking Eye" L9-10 #107
"Secrets of the Soul Pillars" L11-12 #109

The overall plotline involves a beholder running a city located in the caldera of a volcano from behind the scenes, and a plot to open a permanent gateway between the city and Carceri, the latter organized by a group called the Cagewrights (with whom the beholder is in cahoots). The adventures thus far have the PCs going on a series of quests in and under the city, and to locations in the surrounding area.

For even more detail, follow the link in my sig to my story hour, set in this series (I've run a fictional group through the first three mods thus far, starting at level 1); JollyDoc is also writing one set in TSC.