Questions with Age of Worms

[Book of Vile Derp]

I am a player and DM, whichever need be at the time. But as a player, few things have peaked my interest more than the Age of Worms adventure path. I actually sent WotC an email suggesting they finally make the full adventure path a single volume (would be greatly appreciated if other would as well ). But unfortunately I have 2 groups I go between, one for while I'm in school, another when I'm back home for summer. So I have to ask about how sessions does this AP take? Our group can handle 5 hour sessions easily, and usually going as much as 7-8 isn't too bad, and we can usually swing a game a week. could it be done in a fall and spring school year, or would we need an awful three month gap somewhere in there?

 

[haakon1]

Go to the Paizo web site and ask for help there. There's probably an active community there (there is one for Shackled City Adventure Path).

As for publishing an AOW book, I agree, but apparently that can't happen due to licensing issues between Paizo and WOTC. There's a SCAP book though, as you probably know.

 

[Morrus]

Go to the Paizo web site and ask for help there.

Or, alternatively, don't do that! Instead, stay here at EN World and ask for help here.

It took us 18 months, roughly. We played weekly for 3-4 hours. It sounds like you have more gaming hours per week than we did, so you can probably do it much quicker.

(I think a compiled volume would be cool too - though it's an AP for 3.5, which is two editions ago from WotC's POV. So I wouldn't hold your breath. Then again, they are reprinting a lot of older stuff while they wait for 5E, so you never know!)

 

[MerricB]

We averaged about 3 sessions per adventure, so about 36 sessions in all. Our sessions would be generally 3-4 hours long. One caveat: I run 3E games a lot quicker than most people, so you'll probably take longer.

Cheers!

 

[scott2978]

I ran AOW and it took almost exactly 2 years of gaming one or two nights a week. I tossed in a couple side quests as well but those were pretty short 3 or 4 session adventures. I did it because I wanted the PC's to be powerful enough to face the boss at the end, as one thing you will quickly learn is AOW is seriously deadly. As DM you might think of implementing some way for the PC's to avoid death especially in early levels. I averaged 1-2 PC deaths per adventure until about level 7, which is a lot for me. Also make sure you either advise the players to have a group capable of fighting undead (a no-cleric group will tpk a lot, and rogues are pretty useless vs undead) or else be prepared to fudge a lot to keep them alive.

 

[kitsune9]

It took us 2.5 years to do it. We played 8 hours once every two weeks, but often we played around once every three weeks and skipped pretty much the entire month of December.

 

[scott2978]

I ran AOW and it took almost exactly 2 years of gaming one or two nights a week. I tossed in a couple side quests as well but those were pretty short 3 or 4 session adventures. I did it because I wanted the PC's to be powerful enough to face the boss at the end, as one thing you will quickly learn is AOW is seriously deadly. As DM you might think of implementing some way for the PC's to avoid death especially in early levels. I averaged 1-2 PC deaths per adventure until about level 7, which is a lot for me. Also make sure you either advise the players to have a group capable of fighting undead (a no-cleric group will tpk a lot, and rogues are pretty useless vs undead) or else be prepared to fudge a lot to keep them alive.

Reading the other posts and remembering more, it does depend quite a bit on how you run your game. The Adventure Path itself is built with lots of opportunities for downtime where you can run other adventures or just let time pass in the early parts but that gradually decreases until at the end it's a race to the finish to save the world with almost no downtime between adventures. Also there are many parts you could "quicken" and some you could skip altogether if you needed to finish it sooner. Just beware if you quicken the campaign pace that the PC level keeps up with the EL of the adventures. I recall AOW was a constant balancing act of keeping it a challenge while avoiding a TPK. Another factor is how many players you have. More players = faster advancement but less challenge (as always) but in AOW it may not be a bad idea to run with 5 instead if 4, especially if your 5th is a cleric or paladin.