What's special about Age of Worms?


Age of Worms Adventure Path


Just what it says.
Not knowing this AP, I'd like to hear from people who has played through/GM'ed/read this.

What is the Flavor? Does it differ from the Pathfinder AP's, and if so - how?

what can you tell us ignorants about AoW?

thanks in advance,

GRU

Liberty's Edge

Uhm its a truly epic adventure path? As in save the world from destruction epic. Also it was designed for 3.5 not PF so some conversion work is required. Plus its location is based in and around the World of Greyhawk if I remember correctly. Still pretty damn good AP


Nikolaus Athas wrote:
Uhm its a truly epic adventure path? As in save the world from destruction epic. Also it was designed for 3.5 not PF so some conversion work is required. Plus its location is based in and around the World of Greyhawk if I remember correctly. Still pretty damn good AP

Thanks!

does it differ in "feel" from the Pathfinder AP's?
GRU

Dark Archive

The "feel" is pretty similar to the current APs with a couple exceptions:
- Current APs are designed a LOT more to tell a very solid story from beginning to end. There're a few episodes in AoW that don't string together quite as solidly. Now me, I like a few "red herrings" and side quests thrown in my AP, so I didn't mind. Just be forewarned that not EVERYTHING fits together from beginning to end as one solid storyline.
- AoW was designed to fit generically in any world as were many of the Dungeon adventures. Yes, it was designed with Greyhawk in mind, but many locations were still somewhat generic. So you'll need to change the locations to Golarion specific areas as Mr. Athas above said.
- If you like the AP feel of "lowly scrubs to powerful saviors," you'll love AoW. You get to grow your PCs from a ragtag group of nobodies in a dirty mining town to 20+ level heroes that stop a god and the apocolypse he's trying to bring about. Great stuff!
Overall a fantastic AP, IMHO


This is designed to be a very iconic AP, so it features a lot of D&Ds iconic monsters and iconic type adventures. It definitely has a strong story, and a good DM can emphasize the mystery and investigative elements of the story, but it is pretty heavy on dungeon crawling and combat. Because the adventures are shorter than a Pathfinder AP adventure there aren't any really huge dungeons, but almost every adventure features some sort of dungeon type complex- Prince of Redhand being the biggest exception.

It has 12 adventures instead of 6 (as per a pathfinder AP) but they are slightly shorter. This campaign takes the characters to about level 21-22, and a Pathfinder AP generally caps out around level 17.

I'm running it right now and my group is really enjoying it. However, I do like Savage Tide a little better.


Thanks guys (all three of you)-
I'm a little clearer on what this is now...

GRU


It is also full of potential TPK's. It is one of the most difficult AP's I have set eyes upon. I ran it, and may the dice gods have mercy on your players if they don't "bring it".

Liberty's Edge

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The Age of Worms is a love letter to 1st edition gamers written in the 3.5/PF tongue.

It is chocked full of death and nostalgia.

Liberty's Edge

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Paizo has learned a lot about AP design over the last seven or eight years and it shows. Age of Worms is absolutely dripping with atmosphere from beginning to end and I recommend it but it does have a few flaws. The plot is a bit of a bait and switch in that it leads the players to believe it is about one thing then drops the plotline and goes in a very different direction, leaving the first plot hanging.

The flaw, in my opinion, are not major but they are there. The AP does have a great old school feel and offers a lot to those with a touch of nostalgia. However, it still works great for younger gamers who perhaps don't get the old school references. Some of the hooks need a lot of work and the usage of NPCs is a little clunky at times. The boards here offer a lot of suggestions for fixing these issues.

If you have this AP, I say run it. It's hella fun and well worth the effort.


I've had to put a bit of work into iron out a few of the minor issues in the AP and linking the adventures together, but I'd likely end up doing the same amount of tinkering with any AP I'd run, so I don't really see this as a big problem. It's solid.

Liberty's Edge

Age of Worms is what got me into Dungeon Magazine when I got a bunch of issues from a friend. I found out about the APs and discovered I had all of the AoW issues. I tracked down all of the Shackled City issues and grabbed the remaining Savage Tide issues as they came out.

I followed along with Paizo after that and now am a avid fan of the company and the line. It is no exaggeration that AoW is what made me a fan.

Shadow Lodge

AoW will murder your soul.

Liberty's Edge

TOZ wrote:
AoW will murder your soul.

You say that like it's a bad thing. :P


Pathfinder Adventure Path, PF Special Edition Subscriber

How well does this work in Pathfinder?


I've been running it with Pathfinder, and it's been working great so far. I've done a bit of conversion work, but it's close enough to 3.5 that it's pretty simple, and other people on the boards have forwarded me lots of stat conversion documents, which has saved a lot of work.

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