Scales of War Adventure Path... How is it?

[Pbartender]

So... Has anyone been playing through the new Scales of War adventure path? What do you think of it so far?

I'm trying to decide if I want to collect them up for my next 4E campaign.

 

[malraux]

So... Has anyone been playing through the new Scales of War adventure path? What do you think of it so far?

I'm trying to decide if I want to collect them up for my next 4E campaign.

I'm playing in a SoW game right now. Thus far we've only just finished the first adventure. Its not the best thing since sliced gnome, IMO, but not horrid. Thus far its been a bit dungeon-crawly, but its a new DM and we a playing in a game store, so that's probably a factor. Of course, since it's all online, collecting it is pretty easy.

 

[Wormwood]

I've run 4 of the adventures so far (Dungeons 156 - 159).

1. Lots of dungeons.
2. Not a fan of the fact that I, as DM, don;t fully understand what is going on. Now that I have the next three adventures, I have a better idea of what to expect---but I'd rather save the surprises for the players.
3. Not as 'path-y' as I expected. The adventures don't feel as connected as they could be. Yes, certain locales are central to the path, but some of the side treks seem out of place. I'm trusting that all these disparate elements tie into a cohesive whole---but the threads appear tenuous at times.
4. Some great villains, and some *awesome* combats.

Spoiler

The final fight in Karak's Lode was particularly exciting

 

[Spatula]

I believe you can still download the first few for free from the WotC site. So you can check them out yourself. I've read the first three and been less than impressed myself.

Rescue at Rivenroar - looks like a decent adventure, although the bad guys seem like a grab-bag of random stuff and their actions don't make much sense, but that's easy to change or gloss over.

Spoiler

The goblins kidnap the townsfolk to feed to the undead - so why don't they do that? Why do they instead spend 4 days constantly moving the captives around the dungeon? And yet they give one prisoner to the ettercaps to eat.

Siege at Bordrin's Watch - has zero connection to the first adventure. Which is a bit strange, as it means the DM has to do work right out of the gate to keep the AP flowing... which kinda defeats the purpose of running the AP to begin with. Fumbles the setup to the next adventure (see below). The last encounter looks really cool.

Shadowrift of Umbraforge - gets off to a bad start when it retroactively turns a stock nameless straight-out-the-MM monster from Siege into a named NPC that was supposed to be carrying a MacGuffin. No MacGuffin, no adventure. That would have been nice to know when running Siege, eh? The setup to get the players into the meat of the adventure also doesn't make much sense.

Spoiler

Namely, there's no reason for the villains to ever be connected to the tavern - there's a portal from the tavern's basement to a warehouse in the city. No one would ever go from the tavern into the secret chamber, or come out of there, because they can just access the basement and its Shadowfell portal via the warehouse. I guess the investigation should lead to the warehouse, instead, which after all does have suspicious goingons (goods are coming out of there when no one saw any goods going in).

I've only skimmed Lost Mines and haven't really looked at the others. The MacGuffin bit from Shadowrift kinda turned me off to the whole thing.

 

[RefinedBean]

I agree with most of Spatula's main points, except I disliked Rescue at Rivenroar quite a bit. The plot is fairly stupid, the dungeon doesn't give you any helpful hints as a DM on how to change things up, and some of the encounters (

Spoiler

the one with the ochre jelly that comes out of the painting

) are just stupidly implemented.

You'd be better off running something else and then starting things off with Bordrin's Watch, in my opinion.

Take everything I say with a grain of salt, though; I'm a relatively new DM, and this is my first time doing an AP.

 

[Rechan]

IMHO, the only redeeming feature of the whole thing is Den of the Destroyer, which I think is a really decent dungeon crawl, and did a lot with the gnolls.

The previous one, the one in the desert, didn't look awful, but that's it.

 

[Simplicity]

I have to say, I went from being a huge fan of the Paizo adventure paths to being thoroughly disappointed in the new 4e adventure path. It seems to me that 4e really hadn't hit its stride when the first few adventurers were being constructed and they just came out... meh.

I haven't run them, but that shouldn't disqualify me since I think hardly anyone runs adventure paths anyways. APs exist for us to read, drool over, and wish we had time and the friends to run it even though we don't.

 

[Scholar & Brutalman]

I've been DMing a group through Scales of War: right now they're in the tower section of Shadowrift of Umbraforge. It's the first time I've DMed in 5 years so I'm fairly rusty. As a DM I like scenarios that give the players strong motivations and the don't rely on the players or the monsters acting against their own interests to make sense. So far, Siege of Bordrin's Watch has met those criteria but the other two haven't.

Rescue at Rivenroar starts off with a couple of great combats with the raid: the level 8 ogre may be hard on inexperienced players who don't realize that it's essentially strapped to a bomb, but my players had no problems. The dungeon itself is bit of a mess though.

Siege of Bordrin's Watch is a pair of very linear dungeons, but I found it gave my players good motivation to act like heroes, and the dungeons each escalated nicely to their final battle. The final battles were suitably epic, but the designer thinks that a good choice for a boss enemy is an elite soldier several levels higher than the party (see "grindspace".)

Shadowrift of Umbraforge has some real motivational problems for the party:

"This looks like a job for...the duly designated authorities!"

"We've found that there are two enemies that hate each other... so lets watch them fight!".

And for me as the DM. Weapon smuggling?

I haven't run the last battle yet, but the "elite soldier several levels above the party" problem looks like it will be there again. Again, very loosely connected to the other two.

I get the impression that the authors of these modules didn't really communicate. Or even that these were originally unrelated modules.

 

[Scholar & Brutalman]

I have to say, I went from being a huge fan of the Paizo adventure paths to being thoroughly disappointed in the new 4e adventure path. It seems to me that 4e really hadn't hit its stride when the first few adventurers were being constructed and they just came out... meh.

I haven't run them, but that shouldn't disqualify me since I think hardly anyone runs adventure paths anyways. APs exist for us to read, drool over, and wish we had time and the friends to run it even though we don't.

I actually played all the way through Age of Worms, after which I was no fan of Paizo, or of 3e anymore. As a player I got the impression that there was too much story that only the DM was exposed to. IMO APs are meant to be played, by everyone at the table.

 

[Rechan]

I actually played all the way through Age of Worms, after which I was no fan of Paizo, or of 3e anymore. As a player I got the impression that there was too much story that only the DM was exposed to. IMO APs are meant to be played, by everyone at the table.

I played in the flood adventure of Shackled City, and then I fled that campaign like my leather armor was on fire.

I've read through Savage Tide, and that AP looks far more fun. So does the Scarlet Throne one.