Pathfinder 1E Thank you Paizo/WotC! Adventure Path saved my game!

[GwydapLlew]

These are all good points to make, and none of them can really be avoided with a published adventure series. The point of an AP, after all, is to provide a series of linked adventures telling a story. I won't derail the thread by going into my personal thoughts on 'railroading,' but there has been mention of fleshing out the campaign.

You need to do this.

It's really that simple. You can run any of the APs without modifications, but as with all published adventures, they really shine when tweaked to fit the campaign you are running.

For example, in my SCAP, I added in Red Hand of Doom simply because my party has a bugbear in it, and the player is interested in building up rapport with the tribes in the area. If you don't do this, then many players will feel a fundamental disconnect.

That being said, there's absolutely nothing wrong with running the AP 'as is;' it's not a rule of the universe that everything has to fit perfectly - one doesn't need an undead-hating cleric in the AoW, but it does help.

 

[Frozen DM]

Yup, adding in my agreement with everyone else here. For a long time I was burning out as a DM. I had very little time to prep any games, and my campaigns kept stalling or falling apart because I just couldn't get enough matieral ready.

Since we started playing Shackled City, though, things have been great. I actually have time now to customize the adventure for the individual players, and the game feels cohesive. The players are having a blast and this is actually one of the few campaigns I ever run that has lasted will past the 1 year mark. One of my players will be running the Age of Worms AP once Shackled City is done, and I can't wait to finally play in one.

 

[EricNoah]

I'm looking forward to the next one. Though the preview makes me wish I hadn't just run a mini campaign that combined Dungeon's "Torrents of Dread" with that Demogorgon adventure by SKR. If I run Savage Tide, parts of it will seem VERY familiar to my players...

 

[Numion]

Well, the players are free to ignore the plot. They just shouldn't be too surprised when the Real Age of Worms consumes the campaign world sometime in the future

 

[ssampier]

Yeah, that's pretty much why they feel that way... they tend to make characters that won't fit the "plot" (despite knowing the general idea in the first place... too many of our campaigns are very "open-ended" with no theme, so we are free to make anything we want and leave it up to the DM to draw us in), so that's part of the problem in itself. If they know the campaign will deal with undead, for example, I doubt any one of them would want to make an undead-hating Cleric, they'd make something like a Tiefling Enchanter wizard and then get upset when they can't really use any of their own backstory because it doesn't fit with the plot.

Maybe your players are better than mine. I call that "farting-around", "Gee. I think I will pickup a new axe today. The world ending? Phhh. Let Elminister handle that."

 

[ssampier]

Well, the players are free to ignore the plot. They just shouldn't be too surprised when the Real Age of Worms consumes the campaign world sometime in the future

Yes.

 

[Sunderstone]

Running the Shackled City myself bi-weekly (or as close to bi-weekly as possible), great campaign for us working DMs that dont have much time anymore to make our own. Currently getting ready to start The Demonskar Legacy this week.

This is by far the best product since the beginning of 3rd Edition. I cant wait to get the Age of Worms in a hardcover deluxe book.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I have the SCAP hardcover and I am hoping that the AoW also gets released in hardcover format.

Personally I think that if you speak to the players before the start of the campaign, let them know that you want to run SCAP or AoW and give them an idea of what sort of things to expect it can make life easier for all concerned. Sure the players won't necessarily have as much freedom compared to some of the more freeform campaigns but there is no reason why GM's can't customise parts of the campaign to suit his group.

In fact I think all adventures should be customised to suit individual groups. It just makes for a better play experience in my opinion.

Olaf the Stout