The Shackled City Adventure Path Hardcover

[Psion]

With respect to the nay-sayers, it's not overpowered at all. In running it I found the encounters were either equal to a 5 character party, or slightly underpowered. There was nothing we found that was too powerful or hard. In fact unlike a lot of groups we didn't lose a single character.

Oh, I think there are situations that, if you go in guns-a-blazing, are going to roll over you.

Of course, those are situations that are not intended for you to go in guns-a-blazing. If you are the sort who never face PCs with encounters that test the player's judgement as to whether it's a good time to fight, I could see where the overpowered claims come from.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I enjoyed over six months of game play with it.

I found it open enough to add little encounters here and there and to adjust NPCs and situations to my own campaign style without sweating the details.

 

[FunkBGR]

I'm running this currently, and echoing above statements, I highly recommend it.

Not only do you have constant support from Paizo.com on their messageboards, but there's http://www.therpgenius.com, which has tons of material support in the form of Town Bulletins, and handouts 'n things.

 

[billd91]

So far Shackled City has been going great for my players. They've had some serious challenges lately including 2 deaths but they're working things out.
They've got a particular style that has been working for them. One PC is a scout who has some mercenary company experience with 2 other PCs. He scouts ahead in the dungeons as his comrades back him up, guard the rear, etc. They've been very hard to get the drop on. It's only been when they've split up or gotten too strung out that they've been particularly vulnerable.
They virtually breezed through the first chapter and most of the 2nd without too much serious injury because of this. Most of the time, they've run it very smart.

We are playing with 6 PCs. I think fewer would be a little too tough.

 

[wayne62682]

We are playing with 6 PCs. I think fewer would be a little too tough.

Most people seem to forget that Shackled City, unlike Age of Worms and Savage Tide, is designed for six PCs and not four. Trying to play it with four is suicide, I would think. That said, I own the hardcover but I have not found a group to run it for yet (debating with running it online sometime). I've glanced through most of it and it seems very neat (I love the idea of a 1-20 level campaign in a book) but extremely tough. Like most of the Adventure Path modules it seems like the writers deliberately made the adventures insanely difficult (akin to playing a videogame on Very Hard mode) for no good reason other than to "challenge" groups, however more often than not I think a lot of them are too difficult and will slaughter most groups, not challenge them.

 

[airwalkrr]

Bought it. Ran/played it. Loved it. Five stars. I highly recommend this adventure path. It works best for a campaign using the Great Wheel, but with a fair bit of tweaking can be adapted to work with others. The first few adventures are pure gold. Great stuff for 1st level characters to get in on. The fourth* and fifth* are decent adventures, but they didn't have anything memorable for me other than a battle with a dread wraith that we were woefully unprepared for when I played it. With the sixth* adventure, this AP really takes off and enters the planar realm fairly often with lots of exciting antagonists including one of the coolest BBEGs ever, a schizophrenic fallen angel! It is a great storyline and the adventures are really well written.

*I ran/played this using the Dungeon modules, not the hardcover book, although I still own the book and intend to run it again some day. The hardcover includes an extra adventure between the first and second to help the PCs gain a little XP I suppose, but we were never behind. The point is, the fourth, fifth, and sixth from my perspective are the fifth, sixth, and seventh in the hardcover. The hardcover book includes bonus information, errata, and updates the first adventure (which was the only one to use 3.0 rules) to 3.5, so I'd recommend getting the hardcover over back issues anyway.

 

[Dragon Vindaloo]

A very well put together book with lots of neat handouts and extras. The downside is some of the dungeons are too long and boring but thats easily fixed with a little snip-snipping. Go for it and have fun, Cauldron is one of the best and most flavourful towns in any setting ever! Just make sure to read it cover to cover more than once learn to adapt on the spot and keep your players away from the internet spoilers.

 

[Dragon Vindaloo]

Most people seem to forget that Shackled City, unlike Age of Worms and Savage Tide, is designed for six PCs and not four. Trying to play it with four is suicide, I would think. That said, I own the hardcover but I have not found a group to run it for yet (debating with running it online sometime). I've glanced through most of it and it seems very neat (I love the idea of a 1-20 level campaign in a book) but extremely tough. Like most of the Adventure Path modules it seems like the writers deliberately made the adventures insanely difficult (akin to playing a videogame on Very Hard mode) for no good reason other than to "challenge" groups, however more often than not I think a lot of them are too difficult and will slaughter most groups, not challenge them.

Arn't all the adventure paths aimed at six players?

 

[jcfiala]

I've just started with the Shackled City, and I like the book a lot. We've only played one session so far, ending with the players on the threshhold of the first dungeon, and everyone had a good time getting into the game.

If you're going to run it, I recommend this site: http://therpgenius.com/index.php for downloadable materials to help you run the game.

(Also note that there is an alphabetizing mishap in the Appendix Four - the G's are mixed up - it goes Go* to Gr* and then back to Go* again.)

 

[zoroaster100]

I'm running it for our group right now, and we are already four fifths of the way through. We've found it to be great. It's the most fun I've had with D&D in the over 20 years of gaming I've done. It is tough, but I've had a group of six experienced players and they've done very well. I've found it takes all of the tough encounters in this path to challenge a group of smart, experienced D&D players. One thing, though is I'd definitely suggest taking a look at paizo.com and their Dungeon/Shackled Adventure Path message boards which have a ton of suggestions and tips on running this adventure. These are especially useful to help a DM foreshadow the big villains at the end of the adventure so by the time the players face them, they have already grown to known them and have grown to love to hate them.

I highly recommend it.