Its amazing how time and responsibility in the real world infringes on your fantasy world as you get older. As a 20-year Greyhawk DM and writer of numerous GH articles for Canonfire! (Xaene the Accursed, the postfest-winning Screaming Column, numerous others) I have to say one of the hardest realizations of my life came earlier this fall when I reconvined our Liberation of Sterich Campaign (beginning the year after the Greyhawk Wars ended) and found that due to life's many pushing and pullings I found I had no energy or creativity left in me to continue forging the campaign.
It wasn't burnout, it was the simple fact that the tide of reality that comes when you are 32, have a family, run a small business, and work fulltime (in addition to a social life) simply left me with no time or energy to dream up and write down the campaign to come. I began to dread Gameday, as my adventures I hastily put together were becomming less and less fluid and I honestly felt my campaigners were being shortchanged. I even began to consider giving up D&D because of the strain and the simple fact that I felt I was letting down my group and the campaign world I held so dear.
Then, happily, I took the time to honestly pay attention to the Adventure Paths that Dungeon Magazine had been publishing. In so doing a light clicked on and I felt inspired to DM D&D for the first time in about two years. All the work was done for me! All the twists, turns, mysteries, betrayals, and carnage that makes any campaign session an event to be excited over! I ran out and bought the Shackled City hardcover (yeah, I had them in the pages of Dungeon, but being old school I just -LOVE- a big hardcover adventure!) read it through and then studied the Age of Worms Adventure Path.
Then came the time to tell the party what was up. Some of members of the campaign (the ones who'd been in it for 15+ years) thought I had hit my DMing limit and was going to just quit for good, others had no idea what to think but had noticed a downhill trend in my preparedness and the passion I put into the game. In any case, the end result was that they were sad to see the Godakin Keep campaign perish but they all agreed that my contiuing to DM Greyhawk, whatever the capacity, was better than nothing at all. After some debate over which Adventure Path to follow (I let them choose, and provided some vauge details about the flavor of each campaign) they chose the Age of Worms.
Let me tell you with beaming pride and happiness it was one of the best 'jolts' my campaign has gotten the past decade! In the span of two weeks we geared up for the Age of Worms (much campaign website updating was necessary) and exicement grew. Then, after a 15-hour Saturday game session the Whispering Cairn and the vile Filge were conquered and everyone sat back smiling after one of the best sessions I've ever run.
Now the campaign is in full swing and our campaign forum is abuz with exicement and praise for the adventures and the energy the campaign is generating. My campaigners are having the time of their lives and I couldn't be happier. The Adventure Path has made my life as a DM wonderfully easy and their lives as campaigners challenging and fun.
So, after the longest lead-up possible, I just want to say THANK YOU ERIC MONA AND DUNGEON MAGAZINE! Your adventure paths are making it possible for me to enjoy doing what I've loved doing for so long. Many of us 30-somethings just don't hace the time to design and write the way we used to, and I'm certain that I'm not alone in my thanks for your hard work and creativity that brings us these fabulous AP Campaigns set in the best campaign world in the multivers: Greyhawk.
Keep up the fantastic work Eric and Co!
-Bryan Penney
I had given up D&D after my last AD&D campaign whimpered to its end in 2002 for all the same reasons--life, kids, marriage, work, mini-van...
I kept up my Dungeon subscription through most of those dark days and when my group came back to D&D with 3.5, I've found that 90% of my adventures are just slightly modified Dungeon adventures from my treasure trove of years of unread magazines that are now paying off in droves.
I've strung a campaign together with nothing but Dungeon magazine adventures and even started running the SCAP for 3 hours every Wednesday night. There's no way I would have the time to be DMing right now if it wasn't for Dungeon magazine, so I concur with the thank you's!
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Many of us 30-somethings just don't hace the time to design and write the way we used to, and I'm certain that I'm not alone in my thanks for your hard work and creativity that brings us these fabulous AP Campaigns set in the best campaign world in the multivers: Greyhawk.Keep up the fantastic work Eric and Co!
I have to give an Amen to that. At 36, I don't have the time to create adventures like I did back when I was in my teens and twenties. If it wasn't for the AP, I wouldn't be DMing either
I have to agree with the whole hearted thanks. Between juggling work and kids, there just isn't enough time do the campaign that I want in my head. The AP series from Dungeon are excellant for doing a nice long campaign with minimal set-up. If it wasn't for the AoW adventure path I probably wouldn't be DMing now either.
I'd also like to say a few things:
I'm 28. I teach. I certainly don't have time to draw maps and write up modules. Getting a subscription to Dungeon this year has been one of the best decisions I've made in a good while (as odd as that may sound).
I never thought I needed Dungeon. I had plenty of my own modules to run. Then I saw the Githyanki Lich-Queen on the front of a Dungeon issue and I thought, "No way." Sure enough, she was all statted out, and her palace was amazing. I grabbed the Dragon and Dungeon issues and shaped a year-long Githyanki Incursion campaign arc from it. What a great ride that was.
Then I caught wind of the Shackled City campaign arc. Twelve modules over a year. I bought the last issue of the series, and thought, "How did I miss this?" When I learned of Age of Worms, I subscribed immediately. :-)
The modules are always excellent. I'm always excited to get the latest issue. The Age of Worms is something my group is eagerly awaiting, and I'm eagerly awaiting the oppotunity to run the campaign. Vampires of Waterdeep is a great campaign arc, which I plan on using in conjunction with Age of Worms.
I'm also delighted with all of the extra web enhancement information available. Those are a great resource.
As thankful as I am for having dedicated players, I'm equally as thankful for what Dungeon has done for my games. What a wonderful resource for DMs.
My $0.02... my players have never been as excited about a campaign as AoW. It is more than meeting their expectations. This is the first pre-made AP I've run, I always used to think pre-made campaigns were for lazy DMs. But now I realize that it just takes a different kind of creativity to run them and make your players feel like they own it.
Thanks for the great experience.
I'd like to echo these sentiments. My group has an MSN Group site (pitiful interface, but eh...). In the first year, it had a total of 13 posts, mostly me putting files out there for some of them to read.
For this campaign, I encouraged them to post in character, bribing them with small XP bonuses. There have been 22 posts in the last month! The group is energized, particularly this week as I left them with a cliffhanger - the party paladin is about to go toe-to-toe with Theldrick in 3FoE. I yoinked the "Lapdog of Helm! Let me show you what REAL power is about!" line and it's going to get wild next week.
Thanks again for all your fine work. It really makes a time-stressed DM's job much easier.
PS: PLEASE get us access to the Archives. The Search feature is nice, but I feel my Skill Level is still about a zero and I'm hate to think I'm missing some good information.
Ahh...Adventure Paths....Is there anything they can't do? LOL
I know this is the Age of Worms section, but hey, I too will add my undying respect and graditude for the Adventure Paths. I currently run Shackled City and even though I plan to take those characters into epic levels, I eagerly anticipate running the Age of Worms.
My real life mirrors many of the other posts here. I am blessed with a wife that made me promise that I would not stop roleplaying after we got married. That was eight years and 4 kids ago. I had actually ceased my roleplaying for years and restarted the hobby after the release of v3.0.
After SEVERAL failed campaign attempts, I found out about the Shackled City AP and decided that I would check it out. I read several of the adventures before I started up, but now I have had a year of great campaigning under my DMing belt. My players love it, I have learned alot about being behind the screen with this AP. Keep in mind that I have ran the game for most of my 25 years of gaming and I have learned more by running these "premade" adventures than by writing my own.
Thank You....Sincerely.
- Neomorte
Might as well throw my hat into the ring. I'm 32 and started DMing again four years ago shortly after 3.0 came out. I'm married with two kids, a dog, a house, and a full-time job. In the last four years none of my campaigns (a homebrew, the 3.0 Adventure Path, and Banewarrens) have been as successful or as fulfilling as Shackled City (which I run once a week in the evenings) and Age of Worms (which I run once a week during lunch at work). I'm loving it.
The adventure Paths are great. I'm 31, married and we are expecting out first any day now so time is precious.
There is a group of 5 that try to game every week and we run 2 different campaigns, alternating weeks. I'm running Age of Worms and the party was just about killed by the Mad Slasher and Beetle Swarm (I was merciful and pulled my punches.)
All in all it is great. I spend less time preparing and there is a path the camapign is headed.
Even better is our other campaign (SCAP). One guy was running it, but realized he doesn't like DMing and didn't have much time. SInce we are sticking with the AP, another guy is taking over where the first is leaving off (End of Flood Season). SInce the campaign is prewritten, it appears to be a smooth hand off of the campaign.
Thanks Dungeon (& Dragon). You probably saved our gaming group, we had thoughts of no longer playing. I just reupped both Dungeon and Dragon for another year and will probably continue doing that as long as I can.
I too would like to thank everyone responsable for the adventure paths. As a gamer reaching 40, with all the fun that goes with being an adult, I can not say enough about how Dungeon has pulled my game from the brink of death. After everything one must do in a day I have little juice left to put towards my game. With the AP though, a few tweaks here, an adjustment there and I have a game worthy of players with 20+ years of experience. Thanks again
Same here -- to all of this!
Jack :)
I said this about a year and a half ago and I stand by these words: Adventure Paths are ARGUABLY the best idea Dungeon may have drummed up since its inception.
It has in fact been such a success, Paizo staff have looked to capatilize by including Adventure Path material in the step-child magazine Dragon to get people like me to buy that one too! :)
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Many thanks to the Dungeon team : as a DM, it's a real pleasure to read through the AoW AP. In fact, I just can't wait to make my players go through Whispering Cairn.
Since the PCs were created before AoW began, they're almost 5th level (by the time we finish Fiend's embrace, another great story), after having played Mad God's key and Unfamiliar ground among others (I recommand on dowload at Wizards of the coast the short adventure called something like "What's cooking"). All I can say is that you do a great work, especially when I have less time now to prepare adventures than when I was 20-25.
My PCs liked the scary Bone Dragon in Unfamiliar ground, they liked the Mad dog's key adventure and climax, and I guess they're going to like Fiend's embrace and the AoW campaign.
I also intend to make them play the Istivin/Shadow of the abyss campaign arc (between AoW installment 6 and 7), since I can connect this to one of my PCs' background (a half drow).
Also, the diamond lake backdrop is quite interesting : since one of my PCs hasn't been able to work on his background, and I haven't worked on one NPC's background, I can connect those 2 characters to Diamond lake easily (just what I'm doing right now).
Keep on the good job (and more good backdrops please)...
Silenttimo