Starting Age of Worms

[Agamon]

Looks like people are going through this with 6+ players. I'm going to be starting it with 4 players, is that even remotely doable without near TPKs every other fight? Should I strongly encourage party balance? Should I add a party NPC? An above post said rogues had little to do in this adventure, is this true of other mods in the series released so far?

 

[demiurge1138]

Rogues get a lot more active in later modules. Traps that can be disarmed, and lots of sneakable foes.

And a four-player group might have some trouble, but they're not going to hit near TPK every other encounter. Only a few times.

Demiurge out.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Looks like people are going through this with 6+ players. I'm going to be starting it with 4 players, is that even remotely doable without near TPKs every other fight? Should I strongly encourage party balance? Should I add a party NPC? An above post said rogues had little to do in this adventure, is this true of other mods in the series released so far?

I ran most of it with four. No serious problems. Touch and go at times - but it's supposed to be.

 

[Richards]

Just a quick side comment here - when I first saw the thread's title, instead of reading it as (Starting) (Age of Worms), I saw it as (Starting Age) (of Worms), and my first thought was "You're allowing your players to run worms as PCs?

Of course, having read the thread, it makes much more sense to me now.

Carry on.

Johnathan

 

[Agamon]

Just a quick side comment here - when I first saw the thread's title, instead of reading it as (Starting) (Age of Worms), I saw it as (Starting Age) (of Worms), and my first thought was "You're allowing your players to run worms as PCs?

Actually, playing an intelligent version of any of the worms from the MM would be...interesting...

I ran most of it with four. No serious problems. Touch and go at times - but it's supposed to be.

Excellent. If I asked my players to describe my games in 3 words or less, I'm sure "touch and go" would be high on the list...along with some others that I can write here...

 

[sydbar]

Thank you for the replies, and I will take your advise about increasing the numbers, but i will have to see what everyone else is going to play, since we have had very unbalanced parties before.

 

[Krypter]

Watch out for the room with the iron balls trap. Not only deadly if everyone falls in, but it has also been brought to my attention that sneaky players could try to sell the iron for, like, 1 million gold pieces. Apply liberal amounts of common sense as needed.

 

[Quickbeam]

Yeah well it's not like they had Grimtooth designing the place. Well maybe.

In any case yes Hack and slashers WILL get some time but honestly, it's a balancing act for them. You need a REALLY balanced party, maybe more than the usual numbers just in case, and a real sense that what you're doing isn't just one dungeon crawl after another.

(Though there is a good bit)

The group I DM for is attacking the AoW without a cleric -- which is bad...for them. To their credit, they are a cunning lot and play to their strengths pretty well and support each other to overcome missing skills or abilities.

My advice: really sell the story, as it is extremely well done and then your campaign won't feel like a series of dunegon crawls. And don't overlook the value of turning undead.

 

[Nightfall]

Quickbeam,

Apparently though my current friends/fellow players want to dungeon crawl. Thus I find myself running *shudder* Sunless Citadel instead of some other cooler dungeon crawl.