Running a Dungeon Adventure Path. Which is the best?

[Glyfair]

The Adventure Paths are on Wikipedia. Seems like Age of Worms would fit my player's tastes the best. Are they doing a hardcover of that like Shackled City?

The stock answer is that Paizo needs to get permission from WotC to publish it. Everything else is speculation, but one bit is that WotC is putting out there own adventures now so don't want non-magazine adventures to compete.

 

[Nightfall]

Theoretically. Eventually.

Yeah translation = Whenever WotC feels they can release it for Paizo to use. I'm betting 2008.

I liked Shackled City just because I like the planar aspects. Age of Worms, hell who doesn't want to stop the end of the world?! Oh yeah and plenty of big name villians too. My take on Savage Tide will depend on the very end as you see the mastermind behind it...and what his "foes" might do to stop it. (Specifically, Necromancer Games mascot and my personal "hero" of the Abyss. )

 

[Lazybones]

I had a lot of fun with the Shackled City path, but I'd definitely recommend 6 rather than 4 player characters. The setting has a lots of NPCs that are great for drop-ins during the campaign, and lots of threads that are foreshadowed before being revealed in full fruition later in the game.

I let my Dungeon sub expire right as the AoW AP was coming out. I liked the first adventure, and would definitely buy it if/when it comes out in hardcover. From what I saw, it started out just as deadly as Shackled City.

 

[Legildur]

This thread is great! I was just about to start my own thread on exactly this topic. A homebrew game I play in will be coming to an end over the next year and I was looking to make a recommendation to the DM on which AP would be the better one. The homebrew is fantastic, but it is time consuming for the DM, and we are all busy professionals.

 

[brehobit]

For a shorter "AP" you might look at using Red Hand of Doom. It is for 6-12, but I'm doing levels 1-5 from free WoTC adventures and my own then going to RHoD. All using the Vale in the RHoD module. Works pretty well and caps out at 12th level (something I like a lot).

Mark

 

[SWBaxter]

I never really liked mega adventures as either the players or myself get bored of the same locale and storyline all the time. With an adventure path that takes characters from 1st to 20th level, it seems like that problem will be ten fold.

If this is the angle you're coming from, then why run one of the APs? Dungeon prints lots of great non-AP adventures, as do Necromancer Games, Goodman Games, Green Ronin, Wizards of the Coast. Plus there's all the freebies available for download from WOTC. Rather than shoehorning your players into an experience you think they might not like, you can give them the variety and freedom to try a bunch of different adventures, and still get from 1 to 20.

Dungeon's APs are excellent examples of maintaining an overarching plot behind a group's adventures, but if that's not a selling point for your group then it's OK to look elsewhere for your modules. And the good part is, you don't have to look very far.

 

[Gundark]

My only gripe about doing an adventure path is that if you stray off the beaten path (ie. too many side treks) you'll end up with a party that is too high a level than what the next adventure calls for which means that you then have to adjust ( which if your time is limited....)

 

[Wik]

My only gripe about doing an adventure path is that if you stray off the beaten path (ie. too many side treks) you'll end up with a party that is too high a level than what the next adventure calls for which means that you then have to adjust ( which if your time is limited....)

Yeah, but there are plenty of encounters that you can just drop from the AP... do it right, and while the group might be higher level for an encounter or three, eventually things will just even out. And I don't see too much of a problem with upping a critter's level by one or two to make things tougher (and then just keeping their CR the same for XP purposes).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Given how tough the APs are, I don't know why you'd be bothered if a party was a level or two ahead. It'll even out pretty quickly and they just get to skip rolling up new characters for part of the party or shelling out money on resurrection.