Now, Shackled City had its moments. But I probably will not buy it. Some of the adventures were too hard to make independant of the path. (hard is relaive, I know). However it seems that Age of Worms does not have this problem. Looking forward to the hardcover!
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I think it's a matter of flavour.
My trouble with the Shackled City (apart from the disjointed plotline which came from the series not being pre-planned fomr the get go like AoW) was the feel of Cauldron and of the adventure path.
Put bluntly - Cauldron and the Shackled City AP had a very Planescapey, surreal feel.
Which is great if you love that sort of thing; and dreck if you don't like it. And I, for one, did not like it for the same reason that you probably *did* like it.
Different stroked for diff folks.
My trouble with the Shackled City (apart from the disjointed plotline which came from the series not being pre-planned fomr the get go like AoW) was the feel of Cauldron and of the adventure path. Put bluntly - Cauldron and the Shackled City AP had a very Planescapey, surreal feel.
I think you nailed it there, Steel Wind. That's exactly how I felt about the last AP. Although I liked the Shackled City, the plot of Age of Worms seems a lot cooler to me. Plus, I don't think Diamond Lake is boring at all! Despite the fact that the town isn't set in a dormant volcano, the characters of Diamond Lake feel more...characterful (durrr, good one David)... than those in Cauldron.
But that's just me.
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Right now my vote is going to have to be Shackled City. In the original AP the driving force of the path was the heroic deeds of the PCs as they slowly uncover the mystery of the Cagewrights and ultimately discover Adimarchus. The AP only lost cohesion in the last three of four adventures, but most DMs have found solutions to this.
Age of Worms on the other hand seems to be driving the PCs on their never ending quest to bring items to another sage. Each of the adventures is an awesome stand-alone adventure to some degree but many lack any connection within the actual adventures. For example, much of what is discovered in the Whispering Cairn interacts little with what happens in Three-Faces of Evil, despite the fact that both adventures are very well written. Many of the adventures, so far, seem to begin with Alustan (sp?) telling the PCs to go do something and in Hall of Harsh Reflections very little seems to be driving the PCs to do anything.
Basically it all comes down to how uber the players feel. When the PCs in Shackled City finally crack the mystery and discover the Cagewrights they feel like they have done something. As far as I can tell, the NPCs are going to be discovering the Age of Worms while my PCs take their hard-earned cash and buy a house far far away...
I always felt that the idea of having a city built inside a volcano was kind of dumb... I mean, I know it was supposed to be "dormant" but come on! You just *know* that sucker is gonna blow sooner or later, right? It's just too obvious.
I'd rather make it a city in a valley, then later find out that one of the nearby mountains is a long dormant volcano, like Mt. St. Helens, etc.
AoTW rules!
Where as Cauldron and its region makes me think of saturday morning cartoons like "pirates of darkwater", "Thundercats" and old movies/tv shows like sinbad and the whatever..
Man! Pirates of Darkwater! What a great show....
Oh yeah, we're talking about the APs. Right.
Man... aren't you glad you don't have to choose between them and can just read BOTH?
/End shameless corporate plug. :)
-James