AOW ? And so ?.....


Age of Worms Adventure Path


Hi all,

I wouldn't want to be a pain in the ass of everybody who's enjoying the AOWAP , but really.....what's so exciting about it ?

I red several adventures from the AP , and except "The Prince of Redhand" , a brilliant and original roleplaying adventure that I stolen immediately to adapt to my own campaign , I found the rest pretty boring , not original , "munchkinesque" and based only on dungeons , bashing , dungeons , bashing......Plus the main plot is as old and fascinating as my old Polo Wolkswagen...:)

So , is there somebody else sharing my opinion or am I really missing something about AOW ?

PS : I'm not criticizing the people who like AOW , let's make it clear ! ;)


I used to make my own campaigns, they were great, but I didnt have a lot of time for other things. Once I even cancelled a campaign simply cause of stress, this was when my players were SUPER into the campaign, it was disappointing for all.

This is why I like AOW: It is generic, so I can adapt the parts that I want to. It is based in Greyhawk, i dont have to buy anything to run it there, I can insert things that I want in Greyhawk (without book nerds correcting me in my campaign like FR.) It is EPIC, the players get the feel that they are doing somehting important. It is focused, it is NOT simply a bunch of semirelated adventures tied together. If the players buy into the idea that the worms are a threat to the world then you have yourself a real seriously cool campaign.

My fave adventures, Whispering Cairn, Champions Belt, Spire of Long Shadows and the Prince of Redhand.

By the way my players think I am creating this campaign (they don't buy Dragon/Dungeon) and they have said it is one of my bests. I have a ton more time with this campaign too..


Being deployed to Iraq I don't have a whole lot of time to plan a campaign (even less to play it). But when we get a chance to roll having something ready is great. Besides, everyone wants to save the world right?


Judging by the sheer mass of participation and information on AoW and SCAP...I'd have to say you're missing something.

Only a DM with the proper freetime, imagination, and passion could develop something that matches or exceeds the quality of AoW. They are not perfect of course and if you're homebrew creations exceed this level of quality and depth then you're players are lucky folks. In that case, my hats off to you.

Otherwise, I'd say the sheer volume of praise I've read on this site drowns your comment like a drop of water in the ocean.


WulfScout wrote:
Being deployed to Iraq I don't have a whole lot of time to plan a campaign (even less to play it). But when we get a chance to roll having something ready is great. Besides, everyone wants to save the world right?

First, I want to say thank you Wulfscout for your service to our country and stay safe and come home soon. You really are trying to save the world!!!

Onto to AOW, I think AOW really is for old school gamers like myself. You have, Dragotha, Kyuss the hand of Vecna and another dozen minor references from 1st edition Greyhawk you can't ask for more.

I'm not going to convince you that the AOW adventure path is for you and your group of players. I myself thought the Shackled City adventure path was good but not great and have used singulary adventures for other campaigns.

I think even if you only use one or two adventures from AOW then Paizo can put another mark in the win column.

Remember you can't make all of the people happy all of the time.


I will agree with the OP only to the extent that I think there are a few too many dungeon crawls in this AP. The catacombs in "The Champion's Belt," for example, felt tacked on. Or rather, it felt like a bunch of rooms with monsters in them were easier to make than a totally event-based adventure. I also was not particularly impressed by, or interested in, "A Gathering of Winds."

On the other hand, "The Whispering Cairn" had some very interesting side plots that helped it transcend the dungeon crawl genre. "Spire of Long Shadows" really struck a chord with me, for some reason. And "The Prince of Redhand" was the most original adventure I've seen in a long time.

As for the over-arching theme - PCs save the world from ancient evil menace - well, that's kind of what heroic fantasy in general and D&D in particular are about. Trite? Maybe. But fun.


Well , thanks for your replies guys , and good luck to you serving in Irak , hope you'll be fine and cone back safe to the States.

But truely , I was reading some AOW adventures tonight , and I just can't click on that , exept as I wrote before the marvelous one that is "The Prince of Redhand". That reminds me a lot about that great and unique game that is King Arthur Pendragon , my fave of all times (wayyyyy above D&D , even if D&D is my favourite heroic-fantasy game) , with all the social skills and court intrigues. This adventure is fantastic and I absolutely admit it...But truely the rest doesn't appeal to me....

Characters , plots , scenes .....well not my cup of tea apparently , I prefer more political and conspiracy tones in my own campaigns.....And I like to mix genres and atmospheres as well.....

But hey , sure Dragon is doing a great job providing this kind of campaigns to us lazy masters and players ! I just would like to see more variety and more originality.

Have nice games you all !


Griselame wrote:

Well , thanks for your replies guys , and good luck to you serving in Irak , hope you'll be fine and come back safe to the States.

But truely , I was reading some AOW adventures tonight , and I just can't click on that , exept as I wrote before the marvelous one that is "The Prince of Redhand". That reminds me a lot about that great and unique game that is King Arthur Pendragon , my fave of all times (wayyyyy above D&D , even if D&D is my favourite heroic-fantasy game) , with all the social skills and court intrigues. This adventure is fantastic and I absolutely admit it...But truely the rest doesn't appeal to me....

Characters , plots , scenes .....well not my cup of tea apparently , I prefer more political and conspiracy tones in my own campaigns.....And I like to mix genres and atmospheres as well.....

But hey , sure Dragon is doing a great job providing this kind of campaigns to us lazy masters and players ! I just would like to see more variety and more originality.

Have nice games you all !

Sovereign Court

I always thought AoW was quite original. Whispering Cairn is one of the best 1st level adventures I have ever seen. It takes players to several locations as well as providing a nice mix of dungeon and urban encounters (it is a bit lethal though). Encounter at Blackwall Keep's first encounter is a tactician's dream. Replacing one of the PC's with a doppelganger in Hall of Harsh Reflections is great. Champion's Belt has allowed me to finally run a gladiator game, plus has the most climatic ending I've seen in a long time. The visions from Spire of Long Shadows were an original way of revealing important background info. The dinner in Prince of Redhand. A war between giants and dragons in Kings of the Rift. While not everything can be original, Age of Worms is different enough from previous D&D campaigns to satisfy my needs.


Thanx Griselame for expressing your opinion. While I don't agree with you, it is refreshing to hear someone from an opposing view. I don't think you're "missing something". I think that your tastes just run contrary to most other people's. I read the Shackled City path several times and though I saw moments of genius, for the most part it left me yawning. I think I understand your "it just doesn't click" feeling because I felt that way about SCAP. Just the same, Age of Worms DOES click for me (and obviously lots of other DMs/players). I agree with some earlier posters that it has kinda an "old school" feel to it, IMO; but epic and sweeping enough to capture the players' imaginations. Despite its easily adapted generalism, it's different enough from my homebrew that it has stolen most of my attention/energies for the past 10 months.
I'm sorry it doesn't *work* for you. Maybe the next adventure path will (they seem to be getting better all the time).


I've really enjoyed the Age of Worms adventure path so far, but I'm entirely willing to admit that there are several weak links. Whispering Cairn was a great start and an instant classic, but Three Faces of Evil, Encounter At Blackwall Keep and Hall of Harsh Reflections, I've felt, have been less stunning for me. From there it looks like things will be getting better after wrapping up Hall of Harsh Reflections, though. I do agree that it's extremely dungeon reliant (I realize this is Dungeon Magazine after all, but it's starting to be a crutch, guys). Even if a good number of them are hack and slash heavy and not altogether inspired, even considering that the premise may have been exciting when I read the outline in the Overload, a good group of players intent on having a lot of fun can make them memorable experiences.

I do really see where you're coming from, though. This is getting a bit off topic, but I read the premise for Hall of Harsh Reflections and it was the one I was most looking forward to running. I like sewer adventures, "The Urban Man's Dungeon!", as a Baldur's Gate denizen said once, and I thought the idea of a Mind Flayer leading an assassin's guild of Dopplegangers was gold. But it immediately became a dungeon crawl after only one event, which seems really counter-intuitive. I would have liked to see (and this is difficult to write, I understand, but still) something a bit more "free-form" with this chapter. An assassin's guild should not be so easy to infiltrate as just saying "Oh, this key we found on the Doppleganger obviously leads us to a warehouse only one Gather Information check away". Half the adventure should have just been finding the guild, while fighting off all manner of ambush. Dopplegangers are great urban foes because they can easily slide into a crowd; they can read minds, they should be a step ahead of the characters. Wouldn't it make sense to have the characters completely hounded while they're out shopping, drinking in the tavern, talking to Eligos, haggling with prostitutes, etc. to the point that the major hook to the adventure is just finding out where these things are coming from in order to stop feeling so paranoid and to not have to be prepared for combat every two minutes? If Sodden Hold was cut to a third of its length and we just had a number of pre-written adaptable ambushes that we can pop into the city, the adventure would be so much more frantic and compelling. And the issue of motivation beyond "Eligos needs a week to research, so I guess we can try and find out who wants us dead to kill time", turns into "EVERYONE COULD BE A DOPPLEGANGER I CAN"T GO TO THE LATRINE UNLESS SOMEONE CASTS A TRUE SEEING SPELL AND TELLS ME ITS SAFE WE HAVE TO KILL THEM ALL AND STOP THIS MADNESS I'M GOING INSANE!" I wish I had thought of this before I ran the adventure.

RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16

Mr. Keegan, don't forget that in HoHR, one of the pc's has been replaced by a doppleganger already, so someone in the party already knows exactly where the Sodden Hold is, no gather information check necessary (though he's more than welcome to fake one). Also, Assassin guilds would cause quite a bit of uproar and backlash from the authorities if the brazenly attacked a target on every street corner in broad daylight. I'd say the "replaced" pc should want to get the rest of the party to Sodden Hold as quickly and quietly as possible, if only to dispose of them out of the public eye.


I wanted to try this just because I had been running the SCAP, and had to call it quits after moving. This was a pre-generated, 20-level campaign that I could use to really build a gaming group around, and it's worked out very well. One of the things that attracted me to it was the AOW Overload's campaign overview; there were so many jaw-dropping moments that I just had to run it. A possible mass sacrifice at a gladator match, a doppleganger infiltration, Alhaster (arguably the best module in the Path so far), the dragons' siege (which will be hard to run with a party who has an airship, let me tell you...). I just wanted to run it for the moments when the players put down their dice and just shake their heads, or pick their jaws up off the floor.

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