Shackled City: In My Hands

[Simplicity]

Thanks. The worry I had about Shackled City was that it was one of those 'once you are in it you are in it' adventure/campaign sorts of things that doesn't let you hop out and go tromp around in other scenarios or what have you. I like to do the mix and match steal big, steal little sort of thing.

In the beginning, the campaign is very open ended. You could interpose all sorts of adventures along with the first six or so chapters. For the last six chapters, this becomes more difficult, since the players travel to other planes, hunt down villains between chapters, and do various other things which require immediate attention.

There are a couple of spots where you can add other material in the second half, it's just harder to find. Just after Lords of Oblivion would be one spot. After Foundations of Flame would be another (but before the Fiery Sanctum is found).

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

So...

...is it worth it? If I really want some 1-20th level madness and I can only get one product in that vein is this the one?

I'm liking what I'm hearing but I don't even know what my other options are.

 

[grrtigger]

Now that's customer service!

One major contributing factor for me in deciding to buy the book was the huge, pages-long discussion over at Paizo with the editorial staff soliciting feedback to improve each adventure and the continuity between them from DMs who'd run the adventures. I hadn't really read much of the individual adventures as they were published, but just seeing how great the Paizo team was about being active in that discussion made me feel they were committed to putting out a great product that fans would appreciate.

I've only paged randomly through the book so far, but I've been really impressed with the art and layout and organization of the whole thing. I literally can't wait to run my group through this campaign

 

[DaveMage]

So...

...is it worth it? If I really want some 1-20th level madness and I can only get one product in that vein is this the one?

I'm liking what I'm hearing but I don't even know what my other options are.

For 1-20 in one product, published options are extremely limited. In fact, there are only 3 I know of:

Shackled City (Paizo, $60)
World's Largest Dungeon (AEG, $100)
Ruins of the Dragon Lord Box Set (Mongoose, $45, releases this month)

Anyone know of anything else?

 

[Simplicity]

So...

...is it worth it? If I really want some 1-20th level madness and I can only get one product in that vein is this the one?

I'm liking what I'm hearing but I don't even know what my other options are.

The WotC adventure series... 3e, not 3.5. And many of the adventures are just plain flat.
I'm not a huge fan.

I've run the Banewarrens, another mega-campaign... Though I think that's now outdated a bit (3e, not 3.5). I could be wrong. Shackled city has IMO: better, more, and full-color art, a more interesting plot, more roleplaying, and way more pages. The two campaigns are actually rather similar, in some ways though.

I've also looked at World's Largest Dungeon. I don't see the appeal to this bad boy at all.
Map it and hack it, and that's pretty much it. If you want to seal your players under the earth in a perpetual dungeon... This one's for you.

I'm sure there are many others that I don't know about however...

 

[KaosDevice]

For 1-20 in one product, published options are extremely limited. In fact, there are only 3 I know of:
Shackled City (Paizo, $60)
World's Largest Dungeon (AEG, $100)
Ruins of the Dragon Lord Box Set (Mongoose, $45, releases this month)
Anyone know of anything else?

What about The Drow War (box set?), isn't that a 1-20? I thought there was something like that for the Midnight setting as well.

 

[DaveMage]

What about The Drow War (box set?), isn't that a 1-20? I thought there was something like that for the Midnight setting as well.

The Drow War is a 3-separate-book campaign that goes (or rather will go) from 1-30. Only Book 1 (Levels 1-10) is out now with book 2 (levels 10-20) due in October. Not sure about the projected release date of book 3.

As for the Midnight Box Set, it's not a 1-20 mega adventure.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I can't find Ruins of the Dragon Lord anywhere on Mongoose, but that only makes it sound even more like this is the way to go.

 

[Taurendil]

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/detail.php?qsID=947

Ruins of the Dragon Lord looks like another big dungeon. Reminds me of Dragon Mountain.

 

[Numion]

I just ordered it (Shackled City), from the US, no less

Amazon didn't have it, Barnes was sold out, so I had to go FNSLGS.

It's too late to ask, really, but hopefully stiggybaby is a reliable shopping place? Total damage was close to 55 euros. Not _too_ bad, and even that is mostly due to exhange rate.