Running a Dungeon Adventure Path. Which is the best?

[JVisgaitis]

I haven't been getting Dungeon or Dragon for some time now and I've been looking to start an ongoing campaign every couple weeks that will require as little prep time for me as possible. Our Violet Dawn game kinda died down as prep was taking me forever so I'm going to return to vanilla D&D. I've been thinking of going with one of Dungeon's Adventure Paths, but I have some reservations.

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.

What's your experience with the different adventure paths? Are they varied enough that players aren't jaded at all or do they lose their luster after a few levels? Also, if the adventure path does keep taking the campaign in new directions, which of the three is the best?

Lastly, can someone summarize the types of adventures in the paths? Looks like Savage Tide is focused on pirates and seafaring. What about the others?

 

[Wik]

Alright. I'm a GM for Savage Tide; we're roughly 2/3rd of the way through the first episode. I haven't run the other two adventure paths, or really read through them, so I can't offer any info on those...

As for the Tide...

...it's a really cool adventure path. I'm really having the time of my life GMing it, and the combats and scenes are definately varied. So far, we've had encounters that range from pirate fights on an honest to goodness pirate ship (lots of fun, although deadly), some puzzle-solving on the streets, and - my personal favourite, so far - zombies underground.

The scenes in the game are incredible, and just the first episode is amazing. The second episode is pretty cool, too (very cinematic, actually). And the setting throughout the path changes(episodes 1 & 2 are set in the city of Sasserine, episode 3 is at sea, the next couple are set throughout the isle of dread, and then there's a finale in the abyss). Lots of fun!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Only the Shackled City really stays in one site very much, and even then it apparently does move away from Cauldron at times. The other two have a lot of travel involved.

 

[JVisgaitis]

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?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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?

Theoretically. Eventually.

 

[Rpjunkie]

Why dont you go over to Paizo's site and check out the messageboards for all three paths and look them over then decide. i ran parts of shackled city and i liked it better than age of worms, but so far Savage tide is my favorite. I have to say Age of Worms is very dangerous,with lots of TPK involved at least in the campaign i was in.


RPJ

 

[Jarrod]

I've played Shackled City, am running Age of Worms, and read Savage tide.

They are very varied, and so you kind of want to pick based on your likes and the players'. That said, I'd go with either Age of Worms or Savage Tide. Shackled City started falling apart for us later on... a little too much "they make horrible tactical decisions because they're INSANE mwahahahahaha". Though it also could have been the party... we didn't mean to be optimizied but man could we dish out the damage.

Age of Worms is fun, but very undead focused. If your group doesn't enjoy stocking up on Death Ward spells then you might want to give it a pass.

And Savage Tide - zombie pirates! I will say no more.

 

[Wik]

Another thing going for savage tide is the fact that the magazines are still readily available if you decide to run it; no hunting down some out-of-print DUNGEON article so you can run adventure #11 in the path.

And, there is no real set bad guy "Type", at least so far. In the first two episodes, you fight: A bunch of smugglers, a construct iron cobra, 9 ravenous zombie pirates, a heucuva, some crabs (who really hurt my PCs, funnily enough), a bunch of 1st level rogues, a crocodile, a crested felldrake, a Worg, some named NPCs, templated pirates, a deinonychus........and a whole lot more. It's not like you're just fighting seven different types of undead or anything, which is a common complaint I've heard about age of worms.

Plus, if you're a fan, Savage Tide makes use of the Allegiance system found in PHB 2. I'm not a fan; we're not using it.

I have to say, "The Tide" is a set of adventures that my group is really reacting well to. I'm looking forward to running episode 2 (and especially episode 3.... TAMOACHAN!).

 

[Mitchbones]

Are all of these adventure paths discouraged to new players?

 

[Wik]

Are all of these adventure paths discouraged to new players?

Well, they are tough. Not just to run, but to play in. However, I'm not sure they're THAT tough.

I have one "new" player in my group, one of moderate experience, and one that's an avid D&D book reader. While I had to help cue the players a little bit ("do you want to search for secret doors?" in rooms I knew didn't have any, so that the PCs would get the gist of it and search the room I *Knew* had a secret door), I didn't find it to be that much of a problem. So far, my group is doing excellently in the combats, although we have had three situations where someone has been brought down to negative hit points (once in the very first fight; the other two times were when Keetara, the Catfolk Rogue, either got swarmed by crabs or when she nearly became a meal for a zombie).

I'd say that if you have a new GM, Don't run the paths. But if you have new players, the paths should be okay to run, with a little bit of GM help (either run stuff as an addition to the adventures so that the PCs are slightly higher level than recommended, or add an NPC who you can use to provide advice to the players without breaking scene).