In Dungeon #116, Erik states that the next adventure path will be intitled "Age of Worms". What do you think the next adventure path will be about?
An obvious guess, given the title, is to say that it might concern dragons, but since it is "Age of WORMS" and not "Age of WYRMS", I think it might be something different. There have been a few hints about undead being abound in the second adventure path. Coupled with the title, "Age of Worms", I'm guessing that the path may invole Kyuss and his despicable spawn...
What's your guess?
heehee! an adventure path chucked full of undead, just what i wanted!
Merry Christmas Movie House!
What about such stuff as frost worms and purple worms? Kyuss makes a good villian. Haven't used them that much, but Sons of Kyuss should be interesting.
Squid
Will we need Libris Mortis to run this Adventure Path, Erik?
Creative Director
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Nope. All you'll need to run Adventure Path II are the three core books. We'll definately be using material from the other books, but when we do we'll be reprinting the important parts in the adventure itself, in a simialr manner to how we handled things like tattooed monks, demodands, dracoliches, dragon breath weapon feats, and their ilk in the Shackled City Adventure Path.
Great stuff! Thank You, Mr. Jacobs!
Yes! thanks again for that J.J. (I always wanted to say that)
Undead - great. Though worms? Are we going to be seeing some earthworm swarms here or what?
I remember mention of undead and dragons last I read in the adventure path 2 thread...
Cheers
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Undead, dragons and glowing worms...
Sounds like we'll getting a good time ;)
Can't wait to get an AP where I can use my Draconomicon and Libris Mortis (which arrived today here in germany!) to full power!!!
Ever thought about giving your readers a campaign outline (not for the upcoming AP2) and ask them to write adventures for the AP3 or 4, or 5... That would give us a READER'S ADVENTURE PATH...
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Creative Director
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Some characters and events from the Shackled City Adventure Path will appear in Age of Worms.
Erik's already said that ther'll be undead and dragons and worms, but beyond that I don't think we're ready to reveal much more about the denizens that'll show up in it. What I can say is that we're trying to showcase a fair number of classic D&D monsters during the Age of Worms Adventure Path, along with picking a few new monsters from Fiend Folio and Monster Manuals II and III to develop a little (like we did with spellweavers and demodands in Shackled City).
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Cold Steel, check out page 61 of Dungeon #116. Celeste will be covered, as will what destroyed the Spell Weaver empire, and more Kyuss stuff (I wonder if this will back weave into where Tarkilar got his gift for the dwarves). Oddly enough I might leave these ones sealed and let my mate run them, so I'll actually get to play D&D in something other than NWN. Eric or James, will having run Shackled City as DM "spoil" any parts of Age of Worms? I'll run Age of Worms if I absolutely must ;) It just sounds so cool and I haven't even started Shackled City yet.
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Creative Director
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Excellent research, Craig! There's some other links (easter eggs, if you will) from Shackled City that'll appear in Age of Worms as well, but I can say that you're on the right track!
Nonetheless, having run or played through Shackled City won't spoil any parts of Age of Worms. The two adventure paths are going to be quite seperate storylines, seperated by hundreds and hundreds of miles. Think of it like the Star Trek shows. Elements from the original season popped up in the Next Generation series, but knowledge of the original didn't spoil any of the big plot threads in Next Generation.
I'm curious, and so are my players....
I missed the Life's Bazaar kickoff of the original Shackled City adventure Path, so I am unaware I'm not sure if character creation was covered.
My question is this: In the new Adventure Path (Age of Worms), what is the recommended character creation style? Is it a point buy basis (and how many points?), alignment and/or class restrictions, etc. Any information would be greatly appreciated!
Will we be seeing a "worm that walks" from the Epic Level Handbook? I don't imagine we will, because I didn't see the ELH listed in the not so required reading thread. I hope we do though, I've always wanted to use one but I've never got a chance to. I realize the Age of Worms isn't going to epic levels, and that's fine by me, but I've always thought the Worm That Walks was such a neat creature.
Oh, i just realized it's listed as an Ooze, and not an Undead.
James,
What it the timeline difference with both Adventure paths? Are they happing at the same time? Or does the Age of Worms take place a few years later? Would high level character from the Cauldron series be available to adventure in the last installment of the Age of Worms?
"Age of Worms" takes place soon after "Shackled City." The last few adventuers should be fairly easy to adapt for characters who've gone through "Shackled City," althoguh the storyline has nothing to do with the Cagewrights or Adimarchus.
Perhaps I'm reading this wrong, but does this mean that this Adventure Path begins at higher levels? Or have I lost all understanding of language and it is going to be in the traditional 1-20lvls format?
Thanks again, James.
Sorry, if I confused anyone. I just wanted to find out when the timeline of the Age of Worms began in comparison to the Cauldron series (which James answered, shortly after). Players in my group were wondering if they can use some of their character from Cauldron for later modules in the Age of Worms saga.
I was also curious, because if the Age of Worms started twenty years later, we were going to create player characters that were children of the characters in the Cauldron series.
If I had to guess, I'd say that "Age of Worms" begins about a year after "Shackled City" ends, but you can start "Age of Worms" much later if you want.
That's just long enough to get some heroic statues up in Cauldron. . . maybe some bronze plaques and awarded medals on display at Jenya's too. . .
I'm going to model MY statue after the giant Crazy Horse statue being carved in Wyoming. Do you think that's too big?
What magazine is Age of Worms going to start in? Please say soon, I want to get into it as soon as possible!
And is it really going to be 1 adventure for every level? I don't really like the idea of having to prepare 20 adventures, and having to use 20 different magazines. . .
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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It starts in issue 124. We're already getting art for it, including an incredible Wayne Reynolds cover painting.
It'll be 12 adventures, not 20 as previously announced. The first several adventures will advance characters two levels.
--Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dragon & Dungeon
Hey Guys! I loved the last Adventure Path and I thought the whole idea of an Adventure Path is just brilliant!
My Gaming Group plays in the Forgotten Realms. Will The Age of Worms be adaptable to Faerun? Will the adventures have a "Playing the Realms" side bar that will say what deitys to replace and what-not? How much help will Dungeon be in configuring The Age of Worms to the Realms?
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Creative Director
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Each installment of "Age Of Worms" will have extensive details on how to more fully adapt the campaign to Forgotten Realms and to Eberron. Each will be around 1000 words long. The FR notes will be provided by Eric Boyd. The Eberron notes will be provided by Keith Baker.
You should have no problems at all setting up the Forgotten Realms for the coming Age of Worms as a result.
YES! You guys ROCK!
Hey... are we going to see more extras? Like the "Faces of the Age of Worms" or maps and tokens and stuff like that... ohh and hand outs... players love a good hand out or two :)
Cover art by Wayne Reynolds, sounds wicked.
Will there be different artist doing the illustrations? or will you chose one specific to set the "mood" by doing most of the illustrations in the adventure path? I ask because lately your illustrations and illustrators has greatly improved and have an almost comical side to them which a like a lot.
yeah, art can have a great impact in terms of mood as well as consistency.
Just look what DiTerlizzi did for Planescape.
I think you should check out John Avon, as his work is awesome. Of course, I've only really seen landscapes from him, but it's still awesome stuff!
Each installment of "Age Of Worms" will have extensive details on how to more fully adapt the campaign to Forgotten Realms and to Eberron. Each will be around 1000 words long. The FR notes will be provided by Eric Boyd. The Eberron notes will be provided by Keith Baker.
You should have no problems at all setting up the Forgotten Realms for the coming Age of Worms as a result.
I am hoping this means we will get nice juicy bits of Greyhawkity goodness...
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Creative Director
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Greyhawk fans will get a kick out of "Age of Worms," is my prediction.
As for art... I believe that the art directors have scheduled four artists to pretty much be the "Age of Worms" artists, so the whole thing will have a strong artistic theme throughout. I'll talk to them and see if they're cool with me listing who's gonna be working on it.
I've foolishly missed a few issues so the "Age of Worms" is new to me. I'm bouncing off the walls with glee and excitement. Just finishing Shackled City path and that was a huge success with my group.
Paizo needs to heavily consider this as a MUST HAVE in Dungeon. The only reason I bought Dungeon was for the Shackled City. Otherwise I never bought an issue. Now...With Age of Worms coming, I'm getting a subscription.
I would like to iterate what others have mentioned in some other threads. I think more maps need to arrive online for download. Those maps for Shackled City were PERFECT!!
yeah, art can have a great impact in terms of mood as well as consistency.
Just look what DiTerlizzi did for Planescape.
Yeah that guy rocked, almost made you want to live in the City of Doors.
:D
Where is Kyuss mentioned?
Kyuss has always been lurking in the shadows of Greyhawk. I believe the first thing ever associated is the Sons of Kyuss in the old 1st ed. Fiend Folio. In the new edition he is a demi power but it will be nice for us to get a glimpse of him out in the light, if the Age of Worms goes the way it seems to be hinted at.
I was wondering, will it be as 'dark' as the Istivin mini-series was? I loved freakin out my younger players with the Malgoth thing.
There will be undead. There will be dragons. There will be green, glowing worms.
Will those be the ones jumping from the sons' putrefying flesh into the PCs' brains? ;)
Man, I love the illustrations in the old Fiend Folio. Just too creepy for words.
The adventure paths are a great idea for Dungeon. I'll definitely be buying the shackled city hardback.
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Will we be seeing a "worm that walks" from the Epic Level Handbook? I don't imagine we will, because I didn't see the ELH listed in the not so required reading thread. I hope we do though, I've always wanted to use one but I've never got a chance to. I realize the Age of Worms isn't going to epic levels, and that's fine by me, but I've always thought the Worm That Walks was such a neat creature.
Oh, i just realized it's listed as an Ooze, and not an Undead.
Looks like I'm not the only one with a facination with that li'l critter! Good to know the WTW have a small fan club!!
I'm greatly looking forward to this AP guys. I loved the first one and have used the adventures here and there. I was planing on starting them and running them in order next month but with the announcement of a hardcover edition, I'll put that on hold for now...
As far as Age of Worms timeline goes, I thouht there was a mentioning about it covering the backstory of Cauldron. I guess I just took that to mean we'd be seeing an AP that built up to SC and not set after it.
Either way, if this new one is half as good as the first, we are in for a good time!
I can't believe I missed the memo that this AP wouldn't be all about dragons. Maybe I'll be using it after all! I've wondered about this Kyuss bloke ever since my first trip through the old Fiend Folio. Very promising.
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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The Age of Worms takes place about three months after the end of the Shackled City Adventure Path. The near-destruction of Cauldron (and the role the Ebon Triad played in that fateful event) are mentioned in the lead-in adventure.
Some believe that the volcanic eruption was a precursor to the advent of the Age of Worms, the Waiting Age, a time of darkness and writhing doom that haunts the shadows of every tomorrow.
Kyuss is the Harbinger of the Age of Worms. As a mortal, he once lived near Cauldron, in a haunted locale known as the Spire of Long Shadows. The PCs will visit that locale in adventure about mid-way through the Age of Worms Adventure Path. Jesse Decker ("Secrets of the Soul Pillars," former editor-in-chief of Dragon) is currently slated to provide that chapter, and I'm really excited to see it.
I've got about two more days of writing to finish "The Whispering Cairn." I'd hoped to finish before today, my 30th birthday, but didn't quite make it.
--Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dragon & Dungeon