Next AP? Fey!
Or at least a campaign arc...
Come on guys, something?
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Oh, Yeah! I REALLY like this idea!
Dourstone slipped through the cracks, it looks like. Chuckle. Will we be getting a stat block for him?
That's what I'd like to see.
I don't particularly like his short stories, and I've never read his novels, but I really like his descriptions of Realms locations. They are very evocative, and full of fun ideas. I use the ones I like and don't use the ones I don't like--perfect! His Volo's Guide books are wonderful.
I have a suggestion for the next AP. I don't want it to sound like a negative criticism, so first some praise: I'm DMing this AP for my 10-yr old son, and we're having a blast! I have really enjoyed all of the first three adventures, and am eagerly awaiting more! That said, here's my suggestion for designing the next AP: Use a master timeline. Any time anyone puts a date on anything or writes something like "X years ago", they have to put it down on the timeline, and make sure that it actually makes sense with everything else on the timeline. That's really the only way to avoid these kinds of mistakes (which are really popping up with too much frequency in AoW so far).
My suggestion is to not do it. It's way too long for an intro to D&D, and it's somewhat deadly besides. I suggest using Buzz in the Bridge (issue 110).
I can pretty much assure you that you'll find the content worth every penny you paid for it. ;) Alright, smartypants! You're just *trying* to heat the flame war back up, aren't you? :-)
I can't really speak for anyone, but I'm thinking they're way too long for that.
I just finished reading through this adventure... and I can't wait to run it! This adventure is a rip-roaring triple decker of dungeony goodness! It has everything. Each section has its own unique flavor, and each flavor is really good! There is a dungeon that has a well-conceived, organized defense, with opportunities for swashbuckling, cinematic action. There is a cave and grotto complex full of creepy blind humanoids that try to shoot you off of walls and shake you from rope ladders. There is a maze full of kenku popping out of secret doors, followed up by a mystical temple of evil headed by a featureless albino villain. Then to top it all off, there is an ungodly new King Kong of a raging monster that will hunt down the PCs, wreaking havoc where-ever they go! There are opportunities aplenty for roleplaying before and after each dungeon. Depending on how the PCs react to what they learn in the dungeons, big changes are sure to come to Diamond Lake! Are there editing issues? Sure, but none of them are really hard to deal with. Do I wish this was split up into three locations, to be followed linearly? Yes, so in my campaign it will be! Is some of the background inconsistent with the first adventure and the backdrop? Sure, but that's not Mearls's fault, and it's really easy for me to fix. The most important thing is that the adventure is fun and that it advances the overall campaign. This adventure succeeds like gangbusters on both fronts! It is a rootin-tootin good time, and we meet the Ebon Triad and hear of Kyuss for the first time. Keep 'em coming, team!
He hangs out in front of the mirror, admiring his awesome pecs and quads, not to mention his fabulous hairdo.
I really think full attack should make it in.
I really don't understand what people don't like about Three Faces of Evil. I think it is a terrific change up from Whispering Cairn. Whispering Cairn was all about exploring an ancient tomb with a feeling of eery isolation. Three Faces of Evil is about a full on assault into the bad guys' fortress, where you have to overcome an intelligent, active defense. Wonderful variety here! Later, we're going to get some city action. Can't wait! As far as there being a lot of grimlocks, I really don't see that as a problem given the nature of the adventure. You are, after all, assaulting a grimlock stronghold. There are a variety of challenges in these encounters so I really don't think your players are going to get bored. This is one section of one adventure, after all. As for motivation, that's really up to you as the DM, although Mike does provide a couple of possibilities: loyalty to Allustan, mercenary benefit from Smenk. My players are likely to go out of curiosity and a sense of trying to defeat an evil threat. As for RPing, the entire town of Diamond Lake is still there, and I imagine the players will need to return to it at least once, so there is just as much opportunity for RPing. In fact, RPing is nicely set up as a way to start the adventure: talking to Allustan or Smenk, bribing or otherwising dealing with the guards/miners, trying to talk past the two guards at the bottom of the elevator shaft who think you are making a delivery, etc. Theldrick clearly wants to talk, and I doubt the other two BBEGs are going to just mutely fight to the death. They may die, but that doesn't mean they don't talk first. (And whoever said the players won't even get to know the grimlock leader's name is just wrong--it's written in Theldrick's journal.) Although most of the NPCs introduced in this adventure are likely to die, so what. The really important ones so far have been introduced in Whispering Cairn: Allustan, Smenk, Dourstone, the other mine managers, the rival adventurers, whoever the PCs work for in town. They aren't going anywhere just yet. If each new adventure introduced NPCs that were meant to survive, we would soon be overcome with important NPCs, when we really just need a few. I say it's great that the PCs have the opportunity to totally clean out this rat warren and save their town from this particular threat. As far as not moving the story along, I really don't get that. This adventure reveals tons of material about the plot. I'm not sure what you're not seeing. Not only that, the "flow" of information and encounters in the adventure makes for a quite a story of its own in my opinion. And it's just filled with exciting, cinematic, interesting moments. There's fighting the husband and wife clerics of Hextor, knocking over the statue of the Ebon aspect to reach the balcony level of the Battle Temple, the encounter with the grimlocks on the rope bridge, etc. Cool stuff! My only real beef is that the adventure *does* seem to be too big a challenge for a third level party (note that Whispering Cairn was also overpowered, with the really tough encounters frequently coming when the PCs were still 1st level). Given that this is an AP, I really want the PCs to survive. So, I'll probably either nerf the encounters a tad, make sure the PCs have help (Melinde?), or give them a side trek or two to get them to higher levels before attempting this adventure. Long and short of it: I loved Whispering Cairn and I really love Three Faces of Evil, too! In my opinion, Mike has created a true gem of an adventure, and I have to agree with an earlier poster that this will be one of the most memorable of the whole AP. If the rest of the Age of Worms is as good as the first two installments, this AP could become an instant classic.
Just a short question: where can I find the web enhancement for AoW erik Mona told about in the editorial of #125? It hasn't been posted yet. One of the editors said it might be posted this week, but I'm not really expecting it until the middle of next week. BTW, I *love* that you called it "Overdose." lol.
I guess I can let slip one more hint about Celeste: Her alignment is Chaotic Good. Brass dragon?
It turns out that in Ireland, there is this series of Cairns in a place called the Mountains of the Witch (Celeste?). Here is a picture of the entrance of one of them: http://www.carrowkeel.com/sites/loughcrew/jpegs/cairnf.jpeg Look familiar? Well, close by is a standing stone called the *Whispering* Stone. Not too far away is another hill called Cairns Hill; sound like Cairn Hills to you, too? On top of all of this, in some of these cairns, iron and stone balls have been found--iron balls trap, anyone? ;-)
Hear, hear! The current group at Dungeon is doing a fantastic job. I feel really lucky to be in on what will surely be remembered as a golden age of the magazine. About the time this group took over, I started buying the magazine off the shelf. After about 18 months of finding that I just had to have every single issue because it was getting better and better, I finally subscribed! And what a time to do so! My first subscription issue was 124--Age of Worms, baby! I'll be DMing this one for my 10 yr. old son, and you should have seen him as we went over the map and background of Diamond Lake yesterday. His eyes lit up and a smile invaded his face as he imagined saving the world from the approaching Age of Worms! Thanks to Erik and the crew for bringing us moments like this. And not only that. Erik and James, especially, have gone out of their way to be extremely responsive on these boards. Sometimes, they are on here late at night, answering all kinds of questions about the magazine and adventures. Erik even went out of his way to post his unedited text for the Bronzewood Lodge to help someone make a character! Where else are you going to get this kind of personal support? Three cheers for Erik and the Dungeon staff!
For example, look at the Serpent Kingdoms book, this accessory can be used for any generic game world in fact it seems more appropriate for Greyhawk but instead it's given credit towards being a Realms product. Actually, I was really looking forward to Serpent Kingdoms, and was disappointed because I thought it was *too* specific to the Realms. I mean, some of the material in that book is just *arcane*. The level of Realms detail and minutiae(sp?) made it nearly unusable for me, and I'm an FR fan! In some books, the detail is good, because it provides lots of cool and interesting hooks, and gives me ideas to work with--that is, it lights up my imagination. But in this book, the detail just seemed somehow oppressive--it actually shut down my imagination and intimidated me. I was a little depressed by it.
Not Greyhawk. I'd like to do one for Alhaster, but we'll see when the time comes. Cool. I think I'll do a wierd FR hybrid, where instead of using Daggerford as Diamond Lake, I'll just plop down Diamond Lake in Faerun near Waterdeep. That way, I can use the poster map of Diamond Lake, which I like a lot by the way, as well as my maps of Waterdeep as the Free City. Thanks for being so willing to put up with all of our questions.
I realize that's later than I said upthread, but I figure an honest update is the best policy. No rush at all. I'm REALLY enjoying what I've read so far. If a little bit more time means more great content, I'll have the patience of Job.
So here's an interesting bit of info. Apparently, there are actually a couple of Diamond Lake mines in real life. One of them is in Ontario, and one is in Oregon.
Diamond Lake, Greyhawk, Alhaster. Will there be poster maps of Greyhawk and Alhaster?
In fact, ALL of the overflow stuff will be going into a Web Enhancement that should hit either late this week or early next. That will include the Denizens material (which didn't fit in 125, either), encounter tables, Diamond Lake hinterlands, the campaign outline, and some concept sketches for upcoming installments. I was kind of expecting that you meant this stuff was going to be in the 124 online supplement (like the conversion notes and scaling sidebar were). Will it come out in a separate web enhancement soon, or will it come out in the 125 online supplement? Thanks for keeping us informed.
I understand that we won't see Denizens of Diamond Lake until the next online supplement. However, I'd like to start this campaign either this weekend or next. Is there enough in the Denizens article to make me wait to start the campaign--or can I go ahead and start the Whispering Cairn without worrying about really missing anything?
And I promise, this will be my last post on this thread. LOL!
Well, I really liked Wil Save, but I guess I can see that some people wanted it to focus more on D&D, and that's fair. I hope that the editors will replace the feature with something similar (another personal/fluff/gamer-life column, not more crunch). I think it really adds something. If the column is focussed more on D&D than Wil Save was, all the better. I have faith in you, Mr. Mona. Bring us something good here.
Guess this means I'll be changing my avatar, LOL!
Since we're here, let me put in a positive note for Eva Widermann. Her art is great, and I hope to see a lot more of it in the future.
What I'm trying to say, as tactfully as possible, is that the fact that you like it doesn't actually serve to justify its inclusion in the magazine. That's a fair argument.
As long as I'm paying for this magazine, I can talk about the signifigance of a single page for as long as I like... Of course you can. So to sum up (for what feels like the twelfth time), Wil Save offers nothing, folks. It is a non-gaming article dressed up otherwise and schleped off on a gaming community Paizo thinks will swallow anything. Given that I and others have clearly stated that we like it, the above is simply untrue, and you know it.
I'm getting a little tired of hearing this "defense" of Wil Save. It's not a defense of Wil, it's merely an observation. How many pages does it have to be before I'm allowed to complain? 3? 10? 25? 80? Of course you are allowed to complain over one page, as much as you want to. I'm not saying you don't have the right to do it, I'm just saying I think that some of what's going on in this thread is excessive. The points can all be distilled to a single one. A significant portion of the audience feels that Wil Wheaton (for whatever reason) alienates them. Of course, it is also true that a significant portion of us like Wil Save. And since it's only one page, I think you can be a sport about it. After all, I don't like Downer, but I know that a lot of people do. So, let them have it--I still get my three adventures. :-)
Maps do indeed matter. D&D players have a cartography fetish. We like the maps of mystery not because we'll ever actually "use" them in an adventure, but because they are so *evocative*. We like them for the same reason we liked the giant map of Undermountain, for the same reason we liked Erol Otus's side view of the ruins and dungeon from the Basic Set. I'm sure it's not lost on anybody that the Greyhawk map issues sold so well. They didn't sell because we have a Greyhawk fetish, they sold because we have a map fetish.
First, I like Wil Save, and it is one of the first things I read in the magazine every month. Thanks, Erik, for sticking with it. Second, this is a lot of complaining over ONE page. Third, some of you guys are acting like real jerks. Calling Wil names and insulting his parenting is simply pathetic. And there is no way that it would ever even get you what you want. You're just having a temper tantrum.
the 'muscle-bound warrior' is almost laughable. Yeah...that was pretty bad.
I prefer Christopher West's maps over Robert Lazzaretti's. It's funny how people can disagree so much on these issues. :-) Aside from the fact that Lazzaretti's walls and such don't always match up with the grid well, I really like his maps--and I think that they are much better than West's. West wrote a really great adventure a few issues back, but his maps always look way too "computer-y" for my tastes.
I think the maps have been mostly really good lately. (The only real standout was the map for "Temple of the Scorpion God--I can't make heads or tales of it.) I, too, would like to say that the maps for "Fiendish Footprints" were great. I hope we see a LOT more of that guy's maps in the future! As for the art, I'm not a fan of Du Lac and ZUB. I suppose it's good from a technical standpoint, I just don't like that style. Steve Prescott is hit or miss. His art for MMIII was pretty good (Poisondusk Lizardfolf--very nice!) and the recent Dungeon cover with Demogorgon was also neat, but his work in PGtF left a lot to be desired, as do some of his works in the current Dungeon (p. 20). His faces just aren't very good--people just don't look like that. On a positive note, Dungeon has really been great over the last year or so. And I think 124 will go down as one of the best ever. In this issue we have 1) the first adventure for Age of Worms, a heckuva piece written by Erik himself, 2) the second installment of the Shards of Eberron arc, and 3) another level of Maure Castle by Rob Kuntz. Seriously, how can you top that? |