Mouseferatu
Hero
Tharian said:
I won't tell.
But thank you much. 
What do you want to see in the fourth Adventure Path?
- Thread starter Alzrius
- Start date
I won't tell.
But thank you much. 
Sejs
First Post
I'd like to see the ultimate BBEG not be some indecipherable villain carved from the raw stuff of evil, oozing with extraplanar power and unsympathetic badassery.
For a change I'd like to have the bad guy be a person. A very smart, very cool, very ambitious person, but a person nonetheless. One with motivations that make sense beyond just "1) be evil, 2) gain ultimate power, 3) pick up dry cleaning". An enemy you can actually understand and relate to, despite the fact that they're the badguy.
And yeah, like others have said, I'd love to see a set that tops out somewhere around 14 or so, and that involves politics, intrigue, and savvy. I want to see reprocussions that echo far beyond just the PCs and what they touch. I want to see nations go to war if things happen in a certain way. I want to see a plague sweep the land if the PCs fail to stop the badguys in time, and I want to see that plague flood cities with refugees, kill entire villages, and shift the balance of power. I want my stakes higher without it having anything to do with the CR of a fight, and I want it in terms that I can't divorce mentally because they're too big or too vague.
For a change I'd like to have the bad guy be a person. A very smart, very cool, very ambitious person, but a person nonetheless. One with motivations that make sense beyond just "1) be evil, 2) gain ultimate power, 3) pick up dry cleaning". An enemy you can actually understand and relate to, despite the fact that they're the badguy.
And yeah, like others have said, I'd love to see a set that tops out somewhere around 14 or so, and that involves politics, intrigue, and savvy. I want to see reprocussions that echo far beyond just the PCs and what they touch. I want to see nations go to war if things happen in a certain way. I want to see a plague sweep the land if the PCs fail to stop the badguys in time, and I want to see that plague flood cities with refugees, kill entire villages, and shift the balance of power. I want my stakes higher without it having anything to do with the CR of a fight, and I want it in terms that I can't divorce mentally because they're too big or too vague.
delericho
Legend
An odd thing about the setting of the Adventure Path is that they will always be 'setting neutral', because the editors aren't going to devote a third of the adventures in Dungeon to a specific setting for a whole year. And yet, since the Adventure Path essentially IS the whole campaign, I would actually be more likely to use an Eberron path than I am to use a normal Eberron adventure from Dungeon. Likewise, I would not be averse to a Ravenloft, Dark Sun, or Spelljammer path, or indeed a path for any setting.
One other thought occurs about the 'no demons' comments that are legion here: I think it was one of Dungeon's regular adventure writers who posted in another thread that of the high-CR creatures in the MM, a huge percentage are evil outsiders. Since any creature not from the MM must have a full stat-block in the adventure (as must high-level NPCs, advanced creatures, or anything else that can't be used straight out of that box), heavy use of anything other than evil outsiders will really eat up the available word-count for the adventures.
One other thought occurs about the 'no demons' comments that are legion here: I think it was one of Dungeon's regular adventure writers who posted in another thread that of the high-CR creatures in the MM, a huge percentage are evil outsiders. Since any creature not from the MM must have a full stat-block in the adventure (as must high-level NPCs, advanced creatures, or anything else that can't be used straight out of that box), heavy use of anything other than evil outsiders will really eat up the available word-count for the adventures.
Of course it is no longer exclusively up to me (James now being the Editor-in-Chief, and all), but I can say with some certainty that almost all of the ideas mentioned in this thread have been seriously considered and many of them are still under serious consideration.
It may interest you to know that the Adventure Path that eventually became the Age of Worms was to be a quest for the Rod of Seven Parts, as my personal goal was to create a campaign that emphasized the "classic" feel of Dungeons & Dragons, a pure vanilla campaign that was so awesome you wouldn't have to make excuses for liking it. The quest for the Rod of Seven Parts struck me as the most basic framework for this type of campaign, and I excitedly took it to the staff. They weren't nearly as excited about the idea as I was, so I went back to the drawing board and came up with the rough framework for the Age of Worms.
In the end I retained some of the Rod of Seven Parts elements for use as possible foreshadowing of a future Adventure Path that would deal with them more fully. "The Whispering Cairn" would work pretty much perfectly as the first adventure in a Rod-focused campaign, but of course if we do one later it will have a new first chapter especially for it.
James's original Savage Tide outline included another Rod fragment, but I think we decided to give it a rest for a while so as to differentiate the Savage Tide from the Age of Worms.
It is a safe bet that the next campaign from Paizo will not feature a major outsider enemy. It will probably have a far more terrestrial focus, and most likely won't jump around as much as the Age of Worms or Savage Tide.
My original plan for the post-Age of Worms Adventure Path was to be a massive war between the elven nation of Celene and the orc hordes of the Pomarj, again with the focus on the most basic of D&D concepts (orc/elf war) and lots of political intrigue in the elven court. Prince Melf was to be a major player, with another cameo from Celeste and probably Manzorian/Tenser.
Ultimately we decided to go another direction, but not without spending a lot of time thinking about using a war as a background and framework for a campaign. We haven't seriously started discussing the next campaign, but something with a "hot" war going on in the background is a strong contender.
We'll begin discussing this issue very soon at work, and all I can guarantee is that we will do something very interesting and (I dare say) utterly unexpected.
--Erik Mona
Publisher
Paizo Publishing, LLC
It may interest you to know that the Adventure Path that eventually became the Age of Worms was to be a quest for the Rod of Seven Parts, as my personal goal was to create a campaign that emphasized the "classic" feel of Dungeons & Dragons, a pure vanilla campaign that was so awesome you wouldn't have to make excuses for liking it. The quest for the Rod of Seven Parts struck me as the most basic framework for this type of campaign, and I excitedly took it to the staff. They weren't nearly as excited about the idea as I was, so I went back to the drawing board and came up with the rough framework for the Age of Worms.
In the end I retained some of the Rod of Seven Parts elements for use as possible foreshadowing of a future Adventure Path that would deal with them more fully. "The Whispering Cairn" would work pretty much perfectly as the first adventure in a Rod-focused campaign, but of course if we do one later it will have a new first chapter especially for it.
James's original Savage Tide outline included another Rod fragment, but I think we decided to give it a rest for a while so as to differentiate the Savage Tide from the Age of Worms.
It is a safe bet that the next campaign from Paizo will not feature a major outsider enemy. It will probably have a far more terrestrial focus, and most likely won't jump around as much as the Age of Worms or Savage Tide.
My original plan for the post-Age of Worms Adventure Path was to be a massive war between the elven nation of Celene and the orc hordes of the Pomarj, again with the focus on the most basic of D&D concepts (orc/elf war) and lots of political intrigue in the elven court. Prince Melf was to be a major player, with another cameo from Celeste and probably Manzorian/Tenser.
Ultimately we decided to go another direction, but not without spending a lot of time thinking about using a war as a background and framework for a campaign. We haven't seriously started discussing the next campaign, but something with a "hot" war going on in the background is a strong contender.
We'll begin discussing this issue very soon at work, and all I can guarantee is that we will do something very interesting and (I dare say) utterly unexpected.
--Erik Mona
Publisher
Paizo Publishing, LLC
Gold Roger
First Post
Abraxas said:
Hell yeah on the evil druids, I love evil druids. Drop in fey, magical beasts and other nature'y stuff and I'm hooked.
megamania
Hero
Could be what I am piecing together for my next campaign-
Intro levels-
Adventure and dungeoneering hear of some strange events / behavior of known people
4-6 levels-
Further odd behavior spreads and threatens war between nations
7-9 levels-
Contacted by a "resistance" group. But why ? There is nothing in common...right?
10-12-
Start investigating / stopping further events. See patterns develop
13-15-
Discover resistance group is auctually the trouble makers and you (the PCs) just helped them anger and enrage a group of dragons whom join the brewing war / conflict / chaos
16-18-
Chaos priests and Tscachors are exposed to be the problem. Begin dealing with it
19- 20+
Stop them from plunging the world into CHAOS. Many fronts- nation vs nation, dragons and in some cases even the use of magic become chaotic and unpredictable.
I'm looking forward to it.
Intro levels-
Adventure and dungeoneering hear of some strange events / behavior of known people
4-6 levels-
Further odd behavior spreads and threatens war between nations
7-9 levels-
Contacted by a "resistance" group. But why ? There is nothing in common...right?
10-12-
Start investigating / stopping further events. See patterns develop
13-15-
Discover resistance group is auctually the trouble makers and you (the PCs) just helped them anger and enrage a group of dragons whom join the brewing war / conflict / chaos
16-18-
Chaos priests and Tscachors are exposed to be the problem. Begin dealing with it
19- 20+
Stop them from plunging the world into CHAOS. Many fronts- nation vs nation, dragons and in some cases even the use of magic become chaotic and unpredictable.
I'm looking forward to it.
