Probably a silly question but how practical and difficult would it be to run both adventure paths similtaneously if the players needed double the XP to advance levels (ie requiring them to undertake double the adventures)?
I'm sure the notion is unachievable for an infinite amount of reasons but all the same I am curious about what people think.
Delvesdeep
Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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I think it would be very difficult. The APs are separated by thousands of miles geographically (the Age of Worms does not take place in a jungle). Far better to run them in sequence. There are unresolved threads from the Shackled City that make their way into Age of Worms. The characters won't be the same, but it should be enough to intrigue the players even further.
--Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dragon & Dungeon
I have not run Shackled City and am currently planning to run Age of Worms. I was imagining running Shackled City after Age of Worms finishes, sort of as a "prequel" a la Star Wars with the same players. The reason is I want to wait until the hardcover of Shackled City comes out before I run it, and the Whispering Cairn is a really cool adventure. I'm hoping this will work out just as well if not better than running them in chronological order.
I have not run Shackled City and am currently planning to run Age of Worms. I was imagining running Shackled City after Age of Worms finishes, sort of as a "prequel" a la Star Wars with the same players. The reason is I want to wait until the hardcover of Shackled City comes out before I run it, and the Whispering Cairn is a really cool adventure. I'm hoping this will work out just as well if not better than running them in chronological order.
Good idea, running it as a "prequel". Had I know that a hard cover was going to come out, I never would have ran the path in the first place. Like you, I'd have waited. BUT, I and my players absolutely had a blast with the Shackled City campaign. I bet you a platinum piece that you and your party will enjoy it as much!
A prequel is an interesting idea, but is there any reason the Paths can't be run in reverse order without the flashback? This is how I'd like to do it and I'm interested in hearing from the AP2 staff if there's anything in the upcoming storyline that would prevent that.
As cool as Shackled City was, starting a campaign in a dormant volcano city seems a bit of a jump. The Diamond Lake region is nestled nicely in the heart of the 'normalcy' which would make a stronger foundation to a campaign. I figured, with the promise of an AP2 adventure taking place in the Cauldron area, that would be the perfect time to introduce the concept of the region so it doesn't seem so jarring when I start another campaign there.
I know there are some loose threads from AP1, but the reason they're loose threads is because they actually don't matter to the story. If, during Age of Worms, the party learns the truth about Celeste such that the next group of heroes wouldn't trust her in Cauldron, I can just change her in AP1. Same with the Ebon Triad if they're all wiped out in AP2. Plus I now have a full year to sell enough plasma to afford the AP1 hardback before I run it.
My only concern is from a storytelling standpoint of, if Age of Worms concludes with the PCs preventing the end times, how anti-climactic will it be for the follow-up to "only" be the prevention of demon invasion? It seems the stakes would decrease if played in reverse order like that.
Anyhoo, my big question is what's to stop me from doing that? Without the need for details, are there any aspects of AP2 that will be lost if we don't do AP1 first, and will running AP2 first ruin any part of AP1?