Shackled City First Time

[soulforge]

I'm prepping to run the Shackled City AP for the first time since picking up the hardcover. The hardcover by the way is beautiful, and a great addition if your interested in running a great long term campaign.

I'm wondering if anyone out there would like to share some things they noticed when running the adventure that maybe of service to me. Any tips, suggestions, ideas, and things to watch out for? Things that you had happen whether in the AP itself or not that you think went over well with the group?

Basically anything you think might help me run better! Thanks all.

 

[Simplicity]

I'm prepping to run the Shackled City AP for the first time since picking up the hardcover. The hardcover by the way is beautiful, and a great addition if your interested in running a great long term campaign.

I'm wondering if anyone out there would like to share some things they noticed when running the adventure that maybe of service to me. Any tips, suggestions, ideas, and things to watch out for? Things that you had happen whether in the AP itself or not that you think went over well with the group?

Basically anything you think might help me run better! Thanks all.

Well, the hardcover has fixed a lot of the problems people ran into. Some of the biggest ones being (SPOILERS)

Spoiler

Kazmojen being a probable TPK... The erinyes statue being a probable TPK...

.

Drakthar looks tough as nails, especially if you run him as suggested by the book. He could do some serious damage to a party

Spoiler

DR 15/silver AND magic against a 3rd level party? I hope they got lots of magic missiles... And then if they hurt him, he just retreats and heals up? OUCH. A smart DM can easily wipe out the whole party with this guy.

!

 

[soulforge]

Well it's nice to know that the enemies have been reigned in a little bit.

I'll have to keep track of Drakthar though, because I hadn't even realized that yet.

 

[HellHound]

For me, I reduced the size of the first two dungeons in the first adventure. They were just tooooo much dungeon delving for a small party of level 1 characters, and slowed down gameplay to a crawl.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Keep these tips coming. I'm planning on running 3+ Iron Heroes characters through this campaign and any troubleshooting I get probably also helps with the conversion process.

Particularly since my natural inclination is to go for the TPK and that'd be bad in a system that has no resurrection whatsoever.

 

[soulforge]

Just to give a reminder for other things?

I'm also interested in anything you added to make a campaign better? Some romance w/ any of the book NPC's. Something you didn't count on that the PC's did that was a load of fun, etc.

 

[Simplicity]

Keep these tips coming. I'm planning on running 3+ Iron Heroes characters through this campaign and any troubleshooting I get probably also helps with the conversion process.

Particularly since my natural inclination is to go for the TPK and that'd be bad in a system that has no resurrection whatsoever.

Hmmm... This is going to be TOUGH. I saw a note in the back of the Shackled City hardcover which mentioned something about the adventure being designed for a 6 player party (which I thought was odd, since it came from Dungeon magazine and they ADDED an adventure to make it easier). Normally, Dungeon designs the adventures for 4 to a party.

I think a 4 person party is definitely doable for the adventure path. A 3 person party... I think they'd be in for a world of hurt. I would have the Striders play a much more active role. Maybe include Fario and Fellian or Shensen as full-time NPCs in the party. Get the party into the Striders so that they can take advantage of the telepathic bond and get some more resources... Though with Iron Heroes, I'm not sure this ability exists. Screw it. Use it anyways. There's going to be some deus ex machina rescues, I think.

In Life's Bazaar

Spoiler

there's a disease that affects magical items... which don't exist in Iron Heroes. You could leave it out, but then you'd better have a better explanation as to why a gnome city is strangely empty.

Also...

Spoiler

the main villain a beholder/demon is going to be very odd in Iron Heroes. Anti-magic cone! Oh, not so useful. Petrification ray! I guess that's instant death. Paralyzing spit... Also instant death.

It would be cool to pull off, I'm just not sure how well it works without some serious modifications.

 

[Marchen]

How long is the campaign arc? How many adventures, and how long does it take an average party to run through it (if anyone has had experience playing it)?

I've been thinking about picking it up, but the price is a bit high if I ended up never using it.

 

[Simplicity]

How long is the campaign arc? How many adventures, and how long does it take an average party to run through it (if anyone has had experience playing it)?

I've been thinking about picking it up, but the price is a bit high if I ended up never using it.

It's 480 pages of book. Levels 1-20. How long it takes to run... Ugh. I've never run it all the way through. I don't think there are many people who have. There are some storybook hours on it... They get REALLY long.

The adventures are:
Life's Bazaar
Drakthar's Way
Flood Season
Zenith Trajectory
The Demonskar Legacy
Test of the Smoking Eye
Secrets of the Soul Pillars
Lords of Oblivion
Foundation of Flame
Thirteen Cages
Strike at Shatterhorn
Asylum

12 adventures in all. Each of those should probably take you 3 sessions to run at least.
So, 36 D&D sessions or so maybe. Though it depends on how fast you play.

 

[Marchen]

12 adventures in all. Each of those should probably take you 3 sessions to run at least.
So, 36 D&D sessions or so maybe. Though it depends on how fast you play.

That sounds like it's worth the price of admission. Generally even a $60 sourcebook isn't much more than some of the newer hardcovers I want, namely Midnight 2e and the Game of Thrones RPG book, both of which weight in at $50 per piece.