We didn't post adventure summaries for the first Adventure Path, and we (rightly) caught a lot of flak from DMs who wanted to foreshadow future events or wanted to know what NPCs would be important later on. The summary for Age of Worms is intended to address this need.
And it is greatly appreciated! I was one of the DMs that complained (I think it was the only thing I complained about), and that letter about it actually was published in one of the Dungeon magazines.
I've read over the summaries a couple times now, and I'm eager to see all of the adventures!
That leads me to something that I've been wodering about... how many of the adventures have been completed and turned in for editing? About how far in advance of publication do you have the adventures in hand? Just curious.
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Can see what the overload was dropped from the magazine; you'd have lost a third of the magazine's page count to extra AoW material, which then would have had half the readership up in arms that you were giving to much preference to AoW material and not enough to other adventures. ALternatively you could have pushed 3FoE back and replaced it with the Overload which would have aggravated the rest of the readers.
And thanks for the outline, that is going to help my game a heap. Only just started Shackled City, having waited for the whole story first. Probably about to buy the hardcover for the equivilant material that the Overload posted free.
Yep. Damned if you do and damned if you don't but then again, you can't satisfy all of the people all of the time. Not meaning to sound condescending but keep up the great work.
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I for one am very happy with the way the Overload turned out. The majority of us asked for the complete campaign overview and thats what they gave us. I for one know how hard it is to describe an entire campaign before everything has actually happened and I think the staff did a good job. If players are reading Overload (or any part of Dungeon) then there is a much bigger problem that is not the magazine's fault.
Creative Director
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That leads me to something that I've been wodering about... how many of the adventures have been completed and turned in for editing? About how far in advance of publication do you have the adventures in hand? Just curious.
I'm currently developing "The Champion's Belt" and ordering art for "A Gathering of Winds." We like to have an adventure on hand several months before publication. The next one to come in is Jesse's, although I wouldn't expect it to arrive till after Gen Con. Gen Con wreaks havoc on the fragile ecosystem that is the magazine schedule. Poor little magazine!
Thank you folks for a fine suppliment. It looks better than some products I've handed cash over for.
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In all fairness you have to consider the stuff that is made available almost daily, for free, on WotC's website. Some of that material is golden. (...)
Hello airwalkrr,
first my apologies for answering so late (and thereby keeping this thread longer alive).
I have to disagree: Yes, I love all the stuff WotC is publishing online. But on the other hand I still pay about 30 $ per book, same price, less content (160 instead of 180 pages, or bigger primary school size fonts):
1. I feel fooled. A company taking me seriously, is able to tell me "sorry, costs increase, we have to either decrease content or increase prices". I never read any such news on their homepage. I just realized AFTER having bought one of these "slimline" books, that I got less for the same money.
2. Second I do not feel that the web site contents make up for the missing book content: I payed a price which I felt was justified for the old amount of content. The online content is a great bonus for all the D&D players out there, it is NOT an extra service for those people who bought one of these less-contents-books. For those people there are just these one time web enhancements which (physically) never seem to fit into the books. And please correct me, if I am wrong: I did not notice that web enhancements increased proportionally to the amount of pages which are missing in the books.
Web contents is a great service for us (still) loyal D&D customers! It does not make up for what is missing in the products, though!
And yes, more pages in a book do not make its content better. But especially in a book like the recent Waterdeep..., there should be plenty of material to be put into it - and be it some of the contents already published by Ed Greenwood on the WotC web site.
Ok. Enough rambling, this is not the right thread for this, anyway. ;-)
Greetings,
Guenther
Hmm, I actually agree with you, so I think you missed my point since you sound as if you are disagreeing, at least the point I made in the specific sentence you quoted. I only said that to point out that publishing online material is becoming fairly standard in this industry. WotC and Paizo aren't the only companies doing it either.
I do agree that the AoW Overload is a "necessary" supplement to run the campaign though. I say that in quotations only because you can fill in the gaps yourself if you need to, nor do the gaps necessarily create an insurmountable barrier to the storyline. However, for those who buy the magazine because they don't like ad-libbing or don't have the time to write their own backstories, it would be a form of false advertising if Paizo had not provided the Overload for some reason. Incidentally, I don't think analogies to other magazines are entirely appropriate since Paizo is selling an entire campaign with the AP, which is a year-long subscription in itself, and the closest thing other magazines have is a regular columnist which is still not even close enough to hazard an analogy.
Of course, I think all discussion on that point is moot because I don't think anyone was ever in doubt about whether or not Paizo would actually produce the AoW. People were just concerned about the when, which I, personally, do not consider as big of a deal. Putting off your campaign and spending more time with family or just playing another game for a few weeks is not going to ruin anyone's life. If you find extreme offense at such a notion, well, that's another issue altogether.
In all fairness you have to consider the stuff that is made available almost daily, for free, on WotC's website. Some of that material is golden. (...)Hello airwalkrr,
first my apologies for answering so late (and thereby keeping this thread longer alive).
I have to disagree: Yes, I love all the stuff WotC is publishing online. But on the other hand I still pay about 30 $ per book, same price, less content (160 instead of 180 pages, or bigger primary school size fonts):
1. I feel fooled. A company taking me seriously, is able to tell me "sorry, costs increase, we have to either decrease content or increase prices". I never read any such news on their homepage. I just realized AFTER having bought one of these "slimline" books, that I got less for the same money.
2. Second I do not feel that the web site contents make up for the missing book content: I payed a price which I felt was justified for the old amount of content. The online content is a great bonus for all the D&D players out there, it is NOT an extra service for those people who bought one of these less-contents-books. For those people there are just these one time web enhancements which (physically) never seem to fit into the books. And please correct me, if I am wrong: I did not notice that web enhancements increased proportionally to the amount of pages which are missing in the books.
Web contents is a great service for us (still) loyal D&D customers! It does not make up for what is missing in the products, though!
And yes, more pages in a book do not make its content better. But especially in a book like the recent Waterdeep..., there should be plenty of material to be put into it - and be it some of the contents already published by Ed Greenwood on the WotC web site.
Ok. Enough rambling, this is not the right thread for this, anyway. ;-)
Greetings,
Guenther
I've noticed that to, after buying a few new books I really have noticed a decrease in content. It also seems that each book is made for a just one kind of campigen(spelling) and Its really hard to find one that can benefit all adventures and all classes.
It ought to simply help you to decide not to buy the manual. Nobody makes you resort to piracy. That's your decision alone.
I just wanted to note that there really isn't any reason to stop posting to this thread. It's been a friend I turned to daily for many weeks and it's kinda hard to say goodbye.
Rooster
this reason alone has stopped me from buying 'heroes of battle' at least 4 times...I can't see paying the same price for less stuff. 160 pages, thats 19.99, 24.99 tops. asking for five bucks more makes me want to search Kaaza.
Ya, my thoughts exact. I want that so bad, but its kinda a waist.
oh well i just wanna be the last post, lol
this reason alone has stopped me from buying 'heroes of battle' at least 4 times...I can't see paying the same price for less stuff. 160 pages, thats 19.99, 24.99 tops. asking for five bucks more makes me want to search Kaaza.Ya, my thoughts exact. I want that so bad, but its kinda a waist.
oh well i just wanna be the last post, lol
I must say, there is something to the whole "expectation" is sweeter than "realization." I had something to do about seven times a day: check to see if the Overload was ready. . .I'm not saying I'm disappointed at all. . .I just don't have anything to do anymore. . .
just in case anyone is remotely interested in my 2c about this thread and APs in general...
i agree that all campaign background info should be made web-only in order to make more space for the adventures. not trying to quote policy, but even the AP instalments are intended to be easily used as generic one-shots. i wrote a letter some months back saying something similar about stat blocks & how they were compromising magazine space, particularly in high-level adventures (notably the last few instalments of the SCAP).
it boggles my tiny mind to think that maybe some of the DMs who have needed Overload so badly have been playing these adventures in the absence of a campaign overview. why even start if it's something you need and you haven't got it?
'sigh' what did we do before we could complain about the APs? we strung together seemingly disconnected adventures, and made the rest up! but i suppose those of us who (thanks to the generosity of the magazine staff) need to be led by the nose without having to use their own imagination and want everything at their fingertips yesterday are the ones more likely to complain when it's not 100% to their liking
hehehe i know this is raking over dying embers, i just don't want this thread to die!! and i wanted to be 666!!
(LWB goes back to his mistress to be flogged)
lol, sing on brother!
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Woohoo - I just woke up and had to check if this AoW-Overload thing is finally ready to download. While my computer booted up, I realized that I already have it for weeks now and that I just was dreaming about it! What power habits can have (I did just this thing for weeks, waking up, checking, go to sleep)... Mad world this is.
Well, but at least it gave me a reason to *bump* my most favorite thread so far ;)
Woohoo - I just woke up and had to check if this AoW-Overload thing is finally ready to download. While my computer booted up, I realized that I already have it for weeks now and that I just was dreaming about it! What power habits can have (I did just this thing for weeks, waking up, checking, go to sleep)... Mad world this is.
Well, but at least it gave me a reason to *bump* my most favorite thread so far ;)
Reinforcers can be quite powerful! But... is this an example of a Fixed Interval (FI) schedule of reinforcement, or Variable Interval (VI)? And was the AoW supplement the reinforcer in this case, or the messages on the board? If only we could see a graph of the "hits" on the page, by frequency vs. time! :-)
Reinforcers can be quite powerful! But... is this an example of a Fixed Interval (FI) schedule of reinforcement, or Variable Interval (VI)? And was the AoW supplement the reinforcer in this case, or the messages on the board? If only we could see a graph of the "hits" on the page, by frequency vs. time! :-)
I'd say the posts are definitely the reinforcer in this case, which makes the schedule a Variable Interval schedule of reinforcement (the first behavior [reading the thread] after a variable amount of time has passed is reinforced [a new post has been posted]).
And I hope I'm not the only one on the thread that actually understood what you were asking....;^)
I knew what Laeknir was asking, so you aren't the only one. I didn't remember enough of my college psych course to remember the answer, though.
I was looking through the NPCs in AOW overload and spotted (DC 20) that Velias Childramun is listed as NG priest of Pelor, but in Diamond Lake backdrop he's listed as LG priest of Herioneous.
Sooooo, I was just wondering which it is. Heironeous seems more likely, but I'm just curious to know if this was an error or if Eric had plans on making Velias priest of Pelor instead of Heironeous.
Anyone else curious or do I just have too much time on my hands?
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from the overload, other than asventure #6, Diamond Lake seems to lose it's limelight as much of the focus shifts to Redhand and the PC's eventual(assumed) aquisition of the kingdom.
So, the priest? Whatever suits your campaign the most. Eric made the error because he didn't care either; he knew the priest didn't matter.
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from the overload, other than asventure #6, Diamond Lake seems to lose it's limelight as much of the focus shifts to Redhand and the PC's eventual(assumed) aquisition of the kingdom.
I noticed that too. I was left wondering why all this initial emphasis was put on Diamond Lake. Not that I didn't appreciate it! The work done on fleshing out Diamond Lake was excellent and on par with what was done to make Cauldron feel like a living breathing place. But the PCs (as best I can tell) really leave the place and its politics behind very quickly.
I was curious about Velias Childramun because 2 of the 3 PCs in the group I'm DMing worship Pelor (LG rogue--he is playing the character like a detective, and a Paladin).
I will probably just change Velias into a cleric of Pelor and use that angle to develop some kind of interaction between he and the PCs.
I am starting AOW tomorrow and I am going to try to stretch the PCs stay in Diamond Lake out as much as I can. The backdrop article + AOW Overload was just too much good stuff to not use for all its worth. I am going to run the party through an adventure as a prelude to WC to help setup some foreshadowing for TFOE.
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from the overload, other than asventure #6, Diamond Lake seems to lose it's limelight as much of the focus shifts to Redhand and the PC's eventual(assumed) aquisition of the kingdom.I noticed that too. I was left wondering why all this initial emphasis was put on Diamond Lake. Not that I didn't appreciate it! The work done on fleshing out Diamond Lake was excellent and on par with what was done to make Cauldron feel like a living breathing place. But the PCs (as best I can tell) really leave the place and its politics behind very quickly.
You're right, but I learned, that the opening chapter of a campaign is the most important part of it all. If the players buy that, they will be instantly thrown into the whole campaign, and will more easily believe in an inconsistency, if you happen to have one later on.
And leaving a place behind, doens't mean it can't have an impact on the pcs as well later in the campaign.
from the overload, other than asventure #6, Diamond Lake seems to lose it's limelight as much of the focus shifts to Redhand and the PC's eventual(assumed) aquisition of the kingdom.I noticed that too. I was left wondering why all this initial emphasis was put on Diamond Lake. Not that I didn't appreciate it! The work done on fleshing out Diamond Lake was excellent and on par with what was done to make Cauldron feel like a living breathing place. But the PCs (as best I can tell) really leave the place and its politics behind very quickly.You're right, but I learned, that the opening chapter of a campaign is the most important part of it all. If the players buy that, they will be instantly thrown into the whole campaign, and will more easily believe in an inconsistency, if you happen to have one later on.
And leaving a place behind, doens't mean it can't have an impact on the pcs as well later in the campaign.
I seem to recall part 6 takes them back to DL and WC, In my game, htey are going to spend 6 long weeks in DL, plenty of time for a few mini adventures and to use up the stats.
Here are some sample stats for Ragnolin Dourstone, feel free to use them or change as needed.
Ragnolin Dourstone CR 5
(Mine Manager)
Male dwarf expert 6
NN Medium humanoid
Init +0
Senses Spot +0, Listen +0
Languages Common, Dwarven, Gnome
AC 15, touch 10, .at-footed 14
hp 36 (6 HD)
Fort +4, Ref +2, Will +5
Spd 20’
Melee Master work Light pick +7 (1d6+2)
Base Atk +4; Grp +6
Abilities Str 15, Dex 10, Con 15, Int 14, Wis 11,
Cha 8
Feats Earthcraft (+2 to Knowledge engineering, architecture, and dungeoneering), Persuasive (+2 to bluff and Intimidate checks), Skill Focus (Appraisal)
Skills Appraisal +12, Diplomacy +5, Bluff +10, Intimidation +7, Knowledge (Engineering & Architecture) +13, Knowledge (Local) +5, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) +13, Profession (Miner) +7, Sense Motive +7, Use Rope +9
Possessions masterwork light pick, chain shirt, ring of
protection +1, cloak of resistance +1, potion of hiding, 12 pp, 4 gp
Hook “Bah, leave me be.”