Congrats guys, everything about this book looks great- art, layout, maps, etc. etc. I just picked it up at my friendly local gamestore. I only had about 10 min. to flip through it before I had to go back to work, but I am impressed so far.
My only regret is that I can't dive into it until I get through the rest of the work day and put my daughter to bed. So looks like I will be up very late reading tonight!
I probably will not recieve my copy for a month or so (I live in Australia and have had shipping and postal problems of late) therefore I am anxious to hear any tid bits from the Hardcover.
What are the major differences b/w the Dungeon Adventures as written in the magazine issues and the revised adventures in the HC?
Is there much information on Cauldron in general (ie shops, NPCs, rumours, Flood Festival, timeline, history etc)?
What are the major improvements and 'Wow factors' of the text?
Keen to hear your views
Delvesdeep
Sure. I am happy to provide you with a few tidbits to help tide you over until you get your copy. However, I'm probably not the person to tell you the major differences with the original adventures published in the magazine. I never played through this adventure path before and only read parts of one adventure when it appeared in Dungeon.
That being said, I read through the entire intro section and Cauldron background last night. Things I really like so far:
* Background story on Adimarchus and the Cagewrights;
* Timeline of Cauldron's history;
* List of all major NPCs and villians;
* Rumor section- includes general rumors throughout the campaign. You roll random and add a modifer depending what adventure you're currently on. Rumors necessary for a certain adventure are listed under each adventure and made with gather info checks.
* I read one appendix on character creation. They recommended having the PCs be from the Cauldron Region and gave "Traits" to flesh them out and to add flavor (in one the PC is actually Shackleborn but doesn't know it!). I really liked the ideas here.
* It appears like each adventure gives a new summary of what the Cagewrights/other players are doing at the time to give an understanding of where the adventure fits in the larger campaign. I have only read the part here from Life's Bazaar, but this appears new. I also like the little blurbs at the start of each adventure that tell what level the PCs should be, and how much downtime they should have in between.
* New adventure appears to be a dungeon crawl against some goblins. I haven't read it yet, more on this later.
* About 4-5 pages of Cauldron locations. I liked the ideas for buying/selling magic items under Skie's Treasury. Otherwise, I thought the town might need a little more fleshing out, though some of the locations are probably detailed more under other chapters. This didn't bother me, as I intend to convert this to Eberron anyway (which shouldn't be too much work).
* My only other wish so far is I hope they will have a web enhancement here with some of the artwork and maps, especially the NPC portraits. All of the art is intermingled in the text and it would be nice to have it readily available for printing to show the players. Otherwise, I have to either hold up the book and show the players while trying to shield confidential info or suck it up and go to Kinko's and do a ton of photocopying. So if any Paizo dudes are reading this- pretty please on the hardcover web enhancement???
Overall the art and layout are really cool. I like the slick pages. So far I am very happy with this purchase. I will update you later when I have time to read more.
That really hurts you know! It sounds great and I'm itching to read my copy and to hear it is as good as I am anticipating it will be is agonizing.
Thanks for the information. Let me know when you read more.
Delvesdeep
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as I have mentioned in another post about the book.. My only complaint is that the group I am running is now in Flood Season.. and the new adventure is BEFORE it :( Luckily with a little ingenuity I am hoping to still be able to run it with a little crafty DM work on making it a little tougher.. and at the same time not so exp intensive to make them level up beyond the next one in line :)
Other then that it is awesome.. the new map is way cool! I love the appendix and the player handouts. The Introduction and history is very nice indeed and provides alot of insights into the NPC's and such that the adventures in the magazine are not able to provide. Not to mention all the blurbs and sidebars in there.. it is amazing!!
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* I read one appendix on character creation. They recommended having the PCs be from the Cauldron Region and gave "Traits" to flesh them out and to add flavor (in one the PC is actually Shackleborn but doesn't know it!). I really liked the ideas here.
That's spooky, when we did charater development last year the LN human Wiz/Clr (Wee Jas) asked for an odd background. As he is a Amedian Sueloise orphan I made him Shackleborn. Embril is keeping him around as a spare, she keeps offering him evil spells from the BoVD to try to make him evil so they can use him as a battery. Weird.