EATERoftheDEAD's page

There have been plenty of conversations about the big adventure paths so I'm not as interested in people's opinions of those. I already know they all rock. :D I'm more interested in the shorter paths that have appeared in Dungeon over the years.

There have also been discussions on favorite issues of Dungeon and favorite adventures. Now I'd like to start a slightly different discussion and get input from folks that have more experience with these magazines than I do.

I have been quite impressed with the Istivin: City of Shadows (#116-118). I also have the issues that include Shards of Eberron (#123-#125), Vampires of Waterdeep (#126-#128) and Seeds of Sheehan (#145-#147) though I have not had the time to dedicate to reading them in detail yet.

So far, Istivin has been may favorite as I like the dark urban tone they offer. What does everyone else think? Any suggestions of paths I should track down? What were the strengths, weaknesses or highlights of the paths you played or read?

This doesn't need to be specific paths and could just be adventures that had sequels in non-consecutive issues. I'm interested to hear what people think.

I saw this one just today and I say congrats for getting it published. The quality of the adventures Wizards has been offering is what has kept me optimistic about digital Dungeon.

Most of the campaign journals I've read have had an introductory bit of adventure. Personally, I'll be using the Burning Plague adventure found on wizards.com and setting it in Redgorge. The party will begin as natives of the town to add impact later during the battle.

I like the idea of a monkey or ape attack. I think I'll borrow that and have a 'random encounter' on the party's way from Redgorge to Cauldron (which I totally redesigned and called Caldera).

Or possibly a great group, but not so great for STAP.

I agree with this and other posts along the same lines. Try something different that will not be ruined by their current style of play. Hopefully they will mature or get the nihilistic desires out of their system and you can move on to something more sophisticated like the Paizo adventure paths.

If you still want to run an epic adventure path try out the 3.0 adventure path. The story is still decent and the party can go about it any way they choose for the most part. The series is Sunless Citadel, Forge of Fury, Speaker in Dreams, Standing Stone, Heart of Nightfang Spire, Deep Horizon, Lord of the Iron Fortress and Bastion of Broken Souls. With a few stumbling blocks that you should watch out for, the whole game could work no matter what the party's motivation is.

Like I said on the other forum, the original Eberron path is a lot of fun and can start at 1st level. It begins with The Forgotten Forge, included in Eberron Campaign Setting and continues with Shadows of the Last War, Whispers of the Vampire's Blade and ends with Grasp of the Emerald Claw.

The adventures are all a lot of fun but seem to be badly scaled and overpowering. Of course, I am not running them in Eberron and so my party doesn't have access to action points. I leveled up the party and now they're doing okay. I have heard they are really tough for regular Eberron parties too, though so keep that in mind.

Right now we are half way through Whispers of the Vampire's Blade and we are having a lot of fun. I normally don't sing such high praises of published adventures but these are fun and not at all repetitive.

This path could serve to get your party up to, and a little past actually, the levels you need to start the ones you have listed. Dragon Magazine had some other great Eberron adventures that I read but chose not to include in my existing campaign just for time's sake. I recommend The Queen with Burning Eyes (I don't remeber the issue) and the Shards of Eberron adventure path (Crypt of Crimson Stars, Temple of the Scorpion God and Pit of the Fire Lord) in issues #123, #124 and #125 looked really good.

Thanks. Worth checking out. Isn't that war related as well?

As far as I know it is but don't quote me on that. I read it a while back but never got a chance to run it.

The fact that they haven't even bothered with compiled .pdfs has really bugged me. I'd rather have a complete issue on my computer that I can browse at my leisure than a number of separate articles. The content itself is okay but not up to the same standards as what Paizo was putting out, especially toward the end there.

IMO right now DDI is is faltering and may well collapse if Wizards doesn't pull it together soon. They have to potential to put out a decent product but have fallen short of doing that so far.

maybe a couple of levels of "bored delinquent" with the "small town brat" regional feat.

My first few levels look the same way.

While in high school a friend and I once succeeded in collapsing the roof of an abandoned trailer by running through with aluminum bats and tearing out all the weight bearing walls. It was an all day process but it can be done if you know what needs to be taken out. That and the building didn't actually collapse until there was a big wind storm a few days later...

Again, neither of us had any levels in "frenzied berserker" though we both were shooting for the "savant of delinquency" prestige class. We never did make it that far because we both started taking levels in "layabout stoner".

I also make Diplomacy an opposed roll most of time. Of course, I also don't allow the use of the splat books so I don't usually have anyone trying to talk their way out of more than a bar fight. My players seem to know when it's better to buy a round of drinks to forgive and forget and when to move on to the warhammer upside the head.

I know there have already been some fantastic suggestions but City of the Spider Queen should run a party from level 10 or 11 up to level 18 or so. It's not a Dungeon adventure and it's 3.0 but not hard at all to adapt. I haven't run it but I have heard from a lot of people that it was really good.

My only experience with Eberron (other than those excellent Viktor adventures you mentioned) is Whispers of the Vampires Blade, which is an excellent high-paced chase adventure for four 4th level adventurers, easily scaleable.

** spoiler omitted **

I'm running that whole series right now and it's fun but a tad overpowered for non-Eberron characters. There's an interesting conspiracy that could form the backbone of your campaign. Intersperse lots of little adventures with the events of the main arc and you'd probably have a pretty cool campaign. The series is The Forgotten Forge in Eberron Campaign Setting followed by Shadows of the Last War, Whispers of the Vampire's Blade and Grasp of the Emerald Claw.

Another option which I love is to insert treasure of the dungeon master's own invention.

This is essentially what I'm doing but I wanted each character to have a single item that would grow and evolve with them. And it gives me an excuse to run Tomb of Horrors, which in nearly 15 years of gaming I have never had the opportunity to do.

... but then they died from rot grubs.

I've had similar experiences where the big nasty bad guy goes down in one hit or something and the whole fight you've been looking forward to ends up being nothing. Gaming is great for moments like that.

That is quite the epic commitment and I applaud your fortitude. Congrats and it sounds like it was fun.

I've always enjoyed mezzoamerican culture and was glad to see the pantheon represented in the pages of Dragon. Thanks for putting up the last couple of articles.

DUNGEON Web Enhancements are at this link.

The very limited DRAGON Web Enhancements are at this other link.

Precisely what I was looking for, thank you.

Perhaps I am either blind, stupid or both but I cannot find the web enhancements for these magazines anywhere on the site. I want to get the ones for the issues I own but I can't seem to find them. I've looked through the store and performed searches but I'm still not getting anything.

With Wizards of the Coast taking control have the extras been taken down? I found a thread that said that content wouldn't be removed but that was from back in May.

Can someone help me with this?

Sweet!

I think what I'll do is give it a run through using the magazines. If I enjoy it enough and think it's worth running again I'll buy the HC.

I bought later versions of the Dragonlance chronicles because I liked them enough to have expanded and updated material. I may do the same with this.

IMO, best all-time D&D campaigns, in no particular order:

• Giant Series
  
• Drow Series
  
• Temple of Elemental Evil
  
• Slave Lords
  
• Savage Tide
  
• Age of Worms
  
• Shackled City

Others might be able to think of others, but I can't. It's interesting to me (but unsurprising) that there are no 2/e campaigns on the list, and no WotC 3/e campaigns.

The Grand Conjunction was pretty good with some really strong moments. It was Ravenloft but that's okay, and there was some discrepancy with the levels but it was easy to rearrange things a little and make it work, the middle 2 adventures need to be moved to the beginning but can be done so without difficulty.

Rod of Seven Parts was pretty good and so was Night Below and Tale of the Comet and Dark Sun's City by the Silt Sea.

It's true that most of the 2nd Ed stuff was not as solid as the earlier material and while there were some standouts in the 3.0/3.5 adventures the series have been lackluster. The real power of 2nd Ed adventures were in Planescape. Writers that have gone on to make big names for themselves were part of that line. The adventure anthologies like Dead Gods and Tales for the Infinite Staircase really matched pace with the classics from 1st Ed.

The only series I have been excited about as a whole that has come out of WotC is Eberron's first series (The Forgotten Forge, Shadows of the Last War, Whisper of the Vampire's Blade and Grasp of the Emerald Claw). However, the series is in Eberron and becomes overpowering very quickly if taken to a new setting.

There is a writeup on theRPGenius.com for Alkhast as a legacy item and that was what gave me the idea for this.

My interpretation of the legacy rules, and the way I plan on running it, is that there will be more rituals to unlock powers and the rituals will cost more so that it will end up costing the party as much as it would for comparable magic items. As well I plan on ignoring the penalties because I don't think they fit with the feel of the items otherwise. The rituals will also be for all of the items picked up so the whole party can take place in one and the rituals will give some important bit of history on Adimarchus and the game as a whole.

I have seen that there is a bit of a lack of magic items available in Shackled City. I have also seen here on the boards that others have noticed this as well so I thought I would post my fix for this.

I began thinking that, knowing my players, they will take what they can buy in Cauldron or pillage from their victims, er, fallen foes. It is unlikely they will take the time to travel to Sasserine to purchase more powerful or expensive items so I had to think of a logical way to get them items for higher levels of power without blowing the game balance.

The solution I came up with is to use Legacy Items. For anyone who does not own Weapons of Legacy, simply, Legacy items are super bada*s magic items that start basic and get better as the characters advance in level but they need to unlock the powers of the items through certain, often expensive, rituals. These items balance with comparable cost items and will fill the needs in my game.

I have added a side trek to the game after Zenith Trajectory that will send the party to an ancient tomb to recover the treasure of a legendary group of adventurers. I'm using the updated Tomb of Horrors for this, scaling back the adventure from level 9 to level 7 or 8, and putting some custom, tailored to the party, legacy items as the final treasure.

To tie it together I am going to say that the adventuring party fought in some ancient demon war and Adimarchus, before his fall, was part of the party. His fallen friends' spirits want to see him redeemed and will give the items to the party knowing what fate holds in store for them. So, one of the party will be wielding Adimarchus' sword. This will also allow the party to learn, in bits and pieces as they research the items, Adimarchus' story and will allow for some more foreshadowing.

I thought I'd throw this idea out there for anyone who has been trying to think of a way to correct this problem without frequent party trips to Sasserine. If there is enough interest in this idea I can post something a little more structured for the side trek.

Good idea there, Lisa.

Since I have a small group, 2-3 players, I'm toying with the idea of giving each of them the Smoking Eye. I have some other ideas about making them a little more powerful and such to make up for the difference.

I've spotted all of the available outs and have told my players, and plan on telling them again as they have horrible memories, that there are several places that we can stop and wrap things up if they don't feel like continuing.

...when one player grumbled about it being too low!

Did you immediately shoot said person? :D

I did want the characters to survive so we could have good continuity, and it certainly worked.

I have this issue as well but only because I have such a small group. There will only be 2-3 players so it can get really hairy when one of them drops dead.

I just have a hard time justifying the purchase to myself. $50-$60 for one book, even one as epic as Shackled City, is a hard decision to make. I'd rather spend the money on minis or something...

I actually running an intro Side Trek that should be enough to get them up to 2nd level before they get to Cauldron. I'm using The Burning Plague from the free adventures on wizards.com and setting it in Redgorge. After they solve the plague they will be sent to Cauldron to seek out the clerics at the Church of St. Cuthbert for advice on recovering and possible support. This will lead them into the events of chapter one.

That and 32 points. I'd rather have the characters too powerful than slaughtered if they get in over their head.

My group will consist of 2-3 gestalt characters and I was going to go with 28 points. However, I am using the magazines that assume a 4 character party. I also have never played the modules before and I have no idea how tough they are.

The High Handcrafter is in one of the articles, the appendix of Demonskar Legacy if I remeber correctly. I thought there might be more to it than that. I already have quite a bit of custom material so I can just toss in Dream Haunted to the traits from Unearthed Arcana.

I don't see the point in dropping the money on the hardcover when I already own all the magazines. From what I gather the same amount of work needs to go into smoothing things out and few details are changed enough to worry about.

Holy crap, that does look awesome.

Good job.

I have been taking considerable steps at prepping this adventure path for my group and have made extensive use of the fine work put forth by the folks here and at theRPGenius. However, I am running from the original Dragon articles and there seems to be some information in the hardcover that adds a lot to the game.

Can someone give me a list of the traits and any feats, prestige classes etc. that's exclusive to the hardcover? I have all of the issues plus the web enhancements but there still seems to be substantial info I'm missing. For example the added adventure material makes extensive mention of a dream trait, but that's not anywhere in the non-hardcover material.

Can I get some help?

Okay, the mention of story models has brought out the english major in me. Interestingly enough, this is how I tend to build long term campaigns. I have also been known to use 16 or 20 chapters as well. Anything that divides by 4 evenly works well for a 3-4 act model.

If we assume a 3 Act model and 12 adventures we can see the following structure. Act 1, levels 1-5, 3 chapters. Act 2, levels 6-15, 6 chapters. Act 3, levels 16-20, 3 chapters. Here's what we have so far and feel free to update this list.

Act 1 [Lvl 1-5]
Chap 1: The Whispering Cairn, #124
Chap 2
Chap 3

Act 2 [Lvl 6-15]
Chap 4: Tammeraut's Fate, #106
Chap 5
Chap 6
Chap 7
Chap 8
Chap 9

Act 3 [Lvl 16-20]
Chap 10
Chap 11
Chap 12

What else would fit in with this to create an overall story? We can fudge story details later to make it mesh but let's put together 12 great adventures for now.

Honestly, I can't believe no one has mentioned The Crow.

How does it compare to the Glenn Ford original? Any vague resemblance at all?

The original film is flawed and centers around two things, the stagecoach gambit and the scene in the hotel room. The new film adds more depth to the characters and makes getting to the town so much more difficult. The stagecoach gambit is actually important to the story as it buys them time, it was rendered pointless in the original, and the depth added to the characters makes the hotel scene have so much more impact. The ending of the original was a fluffy, happy ending that doesn't make sense with the rest of the film but the changes they make are very fitting and appropriate.

It takes a mediocre revisionist western and creates a solid modern action film that may well lead to a resurgence of westerns.

I have studied film quite bit in college and have focused on westerns so I apologize for the long winded response. ;)

Second line: Entertained by two who clowned.

Ah, I missed that. Precisely why I suck at riddles.

I just want to come in and pimp SCAP

I know Shackled City better than the others because I am currently adapting and prepping it for play as my next campaign. It is a great urban intrigue game and really does make the party care about what happens to the city of Cauldron. There are some weak points but, as has already been said, the fact that they are so easily fixed is testament to the integrity of the series.

I think what is most impressive is the amount of fan support that all three of these series have accumulated. It really shows how good all three of them are that so many have embraced them instead of just complaining that they took up page space in the magazines.

I've seen a few threads debating which of the 3 APs is the best, so how about this...

If you had to build a campign out of 12 adventures from the 36 of the APs, which would they be? You can alter CR if you want more flexibility with the order they are played.

This is an interesting concept. The paths are all so solid and build off from each other so well i don't know if this would really work. What might work better would be to attempt to build an adventure path from other adventures. That might be more rewarding.

You can't go wrong with any of them.

Paizo hit three BIG home runs with these, IMO :)

Besides some easily fixed structural flaws in Shackled City I'd have to agree.

The Clue: 54

Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't the clue be 52?

Side Treks really can be looked at as a single encounter adventure. This is easier said than done, though. It's not easy to make a complete story with a beginning, middle and end in a single encounter but it is fun to try sometimes.

I have a few submissions for side treks currently pending with Wizards right now and once I got the hang of them they weren't too bad to make but they require a lot of focus. A full size adventure with multiple encounters is easy enough to create but the little side trek is tough.

As a more radical suggestion, a modified form of Speaker in Dreams from the WoTC AP has potential as a series ending for SCAP, inserted where Zenith Trajectory is now.

That's a good idea, Speaker in Dreams was a lot of fun and has that urban intrigue feel that most of Shackled City shoots for. However, I ran the whole series that Speaker in Dreams is part of for two of the three players in the group and it was among their favorite moments so I don't think I could get away with this, personally.

Okay, I know it sounds a bit...odd...but wouldn't it be cool if all three APs could be combined into one super-AP? I dare everyone to come up with a story line that involves every adventure of all three. I just dare you!

Jesus, that would take a party, even a big one, up over 30th level. Plus it would take forever to play. Sounds neat if you have the stamina for it. Personally, I think I'll just have the party retire between each one.

- Greyhawk: 79
- Homebrew: 38
- Forgotten Realms: 37
- Eberron: 28
- Planescape: 17
- Ravenloft: 17
- Dark Sun: 14
- Al-Qadim: 10
- Dragonlance: 10
- Mystara/Hollow World: 10
- Ptolus: 10
- Spelljammer: 9
- Birthright: 6
- Iron Kingdoms: 7
- The Styes: 6
- Wilderlands of High Fantasy/City State of the Invincible Overlord: 6
- Kara-Tur: 3
- Council of Wyrms (v.3.5): 3
- Freeport: 2
- Oriental Adventures / settings: 2
- Maztica: 2
- Wheel of Time: 2
- Scarred Lands: 3
- Diablo: 1
- Everquest: 1
- Ghostwalk: 1
- Midnight: 1
- Dawnforge : 1
- Pathfinder Chronicles : 1
- kingdoms of Kalamar: 0
- Sundered Reaches: 0
- Warcraft: 0
- Áereth: 0

I'm all about the homebrew but there were some great settings I had a lot of fun with back in the day. Most notably Planescape, Dark Sun, Dragonlance and Ravenloft. I also put in my girlfriend's vote for Planescape.

Total added: +1 Homebrew, +2 Planescape, +1 Dark Sun, +1 Dragonlance, +1 Ravenloft.

Go and check out theRPGenius.com for some great resources on the adventure paths. Most of the folks that post here frequently are the ones that put up most of the material over there. It's really invaluable if you plan on running any of the paths.

I'm in the process of converting Shackled City to my game world and it is chock full of urban intrigue. There are dungeons and it can rely on them but that's not a hard thing to alter, as I have done. However, on first read through it was the story of Age of Worms that jumped out at me most. I like the idea of some cosmic evil corrupting the world and trying to find a way in. But upon further reading the rollicking adventure aspects of Savage Tide make it look totally awesome and I think my group will really enjoy that.

Each path seems to have it's strengths and weaknesses and it ends up that each are pretty good though the quality seems to build as you go due to a natural learning process.

So my vote goes to Shackled City first but all three eventually. I am going to do them in order and I hope my group will enjoy them.

Hmm, damn, I got an add for Office Max and a 15% off coupon.

No portraits, however.

Okay, thanks. I probably would have seen all the outs once I got further in adapting the path but I figured I'd ask before I got into it. I have only converted Life's Bazaar so far. I've been checking out the boards and the content over at RPGenius as well. Once I get the conversions done and get ready to run the game I'll put up my conversions so that folks can have yet another alternate take on things. I tend to go pretty extreme at times so that the adventure matches the tone and feel I'm shooting for.

For example, in Life's Bazaar I have moved several locations. Jzaderune has been removed from the basement of Ghelve's Locks, I didn't like that element, to a separate location accessible via the city's sewer system. Ghelve can show the way once he is convinced to help. The Malachite Fortress has been removed from the underground and has become some warehouses in the city's docks district. There is still Underdark access and everything, it's just above ground now. I have also decided to change Vhalantru from a beholder to a glabrezu. He still has the same motivations and personality but fits with the demonic theme of the campaign. I like aberrations but there really aren't any others in the game that I have seen.

If you are considering something like this I suggest tracking down a copy of the now oop Call of Cthulhu d20. Monte Cook was nice enough to bless us with a Cthulhu D&D article in the appendix that actually stats out all the gods, complete with CRs. I remeber most of the gods were up over CR 40, however. It was still fun to flip through it and waggle it menacingly at my players.

Of course, in true Lovecraftian fashion it's impossible to actually kill an Old One. All a mortal can do when faced against such a creature, regardless of level, is writhe around and die painfully. Cthulhu was fought in one of the stories but was not killed only driven back to sleep and that was only by having a steamliner driven through his head.

**EDIT**

I went and looked it up and Cthulhu is CR 37. Not a single Great Old One is below CR 30. Azathoth, appropriately, is CR 50.

I posted something a little while back asking for input on the AP series and someone posted a great thing about 'outs'. I liked the concept quite a bit and now I plan on doing outs in all my campaigns.

To put it simply an out is a place that a DM could end a game and have a certain amount of satisfaction and closure to the story. Places where the story resolves some major plot thread or shifts focus that things could be tied up easily and the campaign doesn't feel abandoned. Sure there may be more untold but the immediate threads are resolved. An out should be able to occur every six sessions or so. With 11 chapters in this path an out should occur every two or three chapters though I don't know if that's feasible.

I have been adapting Shackled City but have only completed Life's Bazaar (I've moved a lot of stuff around). There is an obvious out at the end of Chapter 1 but I was wondering what everyone else thought would be good places to call it quits if the game is dragging or going downhill.

For folks who have played or know the whole story shoot me some pointers.

-Josh

I like to combine a couple of soundtracks. The tone I will be aiming for in Shackled City is captured by these two. I go with Tyler Bates' score for 300 and pair it with Hans Zimmer's score for Black Hawk Down. Both work excelent.

I also have extensively used Akira Yamaoka's Silent Hill scores, mostly 3 and 4 though 1, 2 and the movie are all excellent. Hans Zimmer's Pirates of the Caribbean scores (Dead Man's Chest and At World's End) are great background for D&D as well as Marco Beltrami's Hellboy score.

I have included, to a limited effectiveness, Mozart's Requiem Mass, and the work of Richard Wagner. The music of Enigma, any CD, can add some great ethereal music to a game.

I always tell my players. As a writer I feel like it adds something to the game when, even though the events don't pause, they pass from one chapter to another. It helps the party feel like they are advancing in the storyline. I feel that the names of the chapters don't give away too much and usually when the party gets to a certain point they'll stop and go 'oh, that's what that meant'

I also tell my players the name of the campaign because I feel like that helps tie it all together better. Especially for long temp gamers that have played in several campaigns. If there is a name it doesn't degrade to "Josh's D&D Game", no the other one he ran, territory.

If I allow my players to make their own names for things they tend to be really misleading or downright silly. They have a bad enough habit of naming creatures and NPCs misleading or silly things I don't want to encourage them to do it with the game chapters or campaign too.