I'm looking at starting up a new campaign, and my players have requested something in the vein of "classic" or "old school" Greyhawk.
So I'm looking at either updating the orginal Temple of Elemental Evil to 3.5 (many of the players have played through it in older editions of D&D), or running one of the adventure paths. I already have the SC hardcover, but to be honest, I picked it up more on reputation, and haven't actually gone through it in detail yet. And I have the Dungeon issues for Age of Worms as well.
So which AP has a more classic Greyhawk feel?
*I'm leaning towards Age of Worms in this regard, but as I said, I haven't gone over SC yet.
...So which AP has a more classic Greyhawk feel?
Definitely AoW -- there is far more recognizeable GH content. In fact, two scenarios take place in Greyhawk itself.
Jack
Talion09, I would definitely recommend AoW. You've got Dragotha, Kyuss, the Free City of Greyhawk, the horrible Mistmarsh, the Nyr Dyv, Rift Canyon, not to mention a lot of stuff dealing with the Rod of Seven Parts. I mean how much more classic Greyhawk can you get than that?
Of course, AP3 will start this year and depending on what you see there, you may have a 3-way dilemma.
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
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AoW hands down....but Shanckled City is very cool and ties into the Age of Worms. Paizo did an excellent job of foreshadowing the next adventure path. Not to mention the fact that Shackled City greatly improved with the hardcover release and I'm looking forward to an AoW hardcover before I begin Age of Worms.
Just my 2 cents.
Thanks for the responses.
I was leaning towards AoW to begin with, and you guys have just reinforced that.
So I'll be running the party through the Whispering Cairn in a week or two.
AoW hands down....but Shanckled City is very cool and ties into the Age of Worms. Paizo did an excellent job of foreshadowing the next adventure path. Not to mention the fact that Shackled City greatly improved with the hardcover release and I'm looking forward to an AoW hardcover before I begin Age of Worms.
Just my 2 cents.
You'll have to forgive my dumb question.. but how exactly did SC improve with the HC release? How much new stuff and revision is in there... especially to encourage buying it when I have all the issues?
Cheers
Llowellen
Creative Director
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You'll have to forgive my dumb question.. but how exactly did SC improve with the HC release? How much new stuff and revision is in there... especially to encourage buying it when I have all the issues?
The entire campaign has been reorganized and made to flow much more smoothly than its original run in the magazines. Events are better foreshadowed, errors in the text have been fixed, all stat blocks and rules have been updated to the 3.5 rules, and areas that needed clarification have been clarified.
We added several new maps to the entire product, including a poster map of Cauldron before and after the events that take place in "Foundation of Flame" and "Thirteen Cages." Also new to this product is a DM's map of the surrounding region, as well as maps of notable Cauldron locations like the Town Hall and one of the more important taverns.
We added an entirely new adventure to the campaign; this is "Drakthar's Way," by Chris Perkins. It's about 10,000 words long and fits in between "Life's Bazaar" and "Flood Season"; in the original run, there was a slight gap in experience and this additional adventrue addresses that gap while also giving more opportunities to foreshadow the troubles to come down the road.
We added dozens of new illustrations, ranging from full page illos down to many new NPC head shot illustrations.
We also added about 40,000 words (that's about the same amount of info as the standard 3 adventures in a current issue of Dungeon, for sake of comparasion) of new content to the campaign. This new content consists of:
—An extensive introduction that gives a lot of tips on how to run the campaign, including an exhaustive timeline and history of events leading up to the campaign, a complete list of named NPCs with their role in the campaign, information on how to handle the PCs' gradual discovery of the vilinious cagewrights, and over a dozen pages of new content describing important locations in Cauldron and in the surrounding environs.
—Contents of web enhancements for "Life's Bazaar" and "Flood Season" (including the notorious tilt-a-pit traps, the early Stormblade encounters, and Skie's Treasury) are expanded and incorperated into the text.
—Earlier adventures are adjusted and adapted to more accurately reflect events and NPCs encountered later in the campaign.
—Each adventrue has sidebars to help you get the chapter started, and to let you know what the bad guys are up to during that chapter in case the PCs take too long completing the chapter.
—The Flood Festival during "Flood Season" has been greatly expanded, giving the PCs an excellent opportunity to get to know the town of Cauldron and have a little fun at masked balls, street competitions, drinking contests, and more in the days before the rains really begin to fall.
—The encounter at the Cusp of Sunrise in "Zenith Trajectory" has been greatly expanded, and Celeste's role in the campaign has been made less mysterious (with her playing a more direct role in the adventures).
—The awkward transition between "Demonskar Legacy" and "Test of the Smoking Eye" has been fixed.
—Two encounter locations in "Lords of Oblivion" (House Rhiavadi and House Vhalantru) are now fully detailed and stocked with additional encounters and treasure and peril.
—The descent into the depths of Cauldron in "Thirteen Cages" is more detailed, and includes three new encounters along the way to the Fiery Sanctum.
—All new monsters, magic items, spells, and feats are now gathered in appendixes, including a few that are new to the Hardcover edition that didn't appear in the magazine editions of the adventuers (includig the enormous thunderbeast and the magic item Vhalantru uses to pose as a humanoid).
—The High Handcrafter prestige class from "Demonskar Legacy" has been revised and made more attractive to a wider range of PCs. A second prestige class, the Pathwarden, has been made available as well; this prestige class is closely associated with the Striders of Fharlanghn and should appeal to characters allied with this group.
—NPC organizations the PCs might find themselves allying with (notably The Chisel and the Striders of Fharlanghn) have been presented in much greater detail.
—An appendix filled with tips and advice for character creation for the campaign has been added, including several new traits that local heroes can start the game with.
Finally, the entire thing is printed on MUCH nicer quality paper than we can afford for the magazines, and it's a LOT more durable and portable. I'm really proud of how it turned out, and I think you'll get a kick out of it if you enjoyed the adventures' original run in the magazine.
James, we are getting a HC version of AoW like this too, right? Eventually anyways? Because while I don't mind running the adventures straight out the magazine, I would like to have a nice hardcover version sitting on the shelf, if for no other reason than because it'll last a lot longer than worn Dungeon issues that have been used to run 2/3 of the adventures.
i'm also waiting for the AOW hardcover. any indications on when it might happen? perhaps another year? i have been wanting to start this adventure path up, but want all of it together so i don't have to worry about ruining my magazines and everything would be in one location. granted, i have been reading the AOWAP as it goes along and i like what i see, but it would be nice to be able to run it all the way through from one hardcover book and not 12 paper magazines. great work BTW keep it up.
also, i love some of the adventure site names. they really remind me of some of the great greyhawk 1st ed module names.
We'd love to eventually do an Age of Worms hardcover... but we don't have one on schedule yet. It certainly won't be available this year, so if you're waiting to start the Age of Worms, now's a great time!
The key, James, is to have it ready for my while I'm over in Iraq. That way, once I'm done chuggin' through the SCAP hardcover with a group, I can move right on to AoWAP. You've got 18 months to make me happy, Mr Jacobs. Don't let me down - or else!
Seriously, though. An AoWAP would be nice. I've really enjoyed the SCAP book. However, I can see why you'd delay the project - it must have cost alot in terms of man hours to get the last one together. It shows, though. When you _do_ finally decide to publish a consolidated AoWAP book, I'll be ready...
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You'll have to forgive my dumb question.. but how exactly did SC improve with the HC release? How much new stuff and revision is in there... especially to encourage buying it when I have all the issues?The entire campaign has been reorganized and made to flow much more smoothly than its original run in the magazines. Events are better foreshadowed, errors in the text have been fixed, all stat blocks and rules have been updated to the 3.5 rules, and areas that needed clarification have been clarified.
We added several new maps to the entire product, including a poster map of Cauldron before and after the events that take place in "Foundation of Flame" and "Thirteen Cages." Also new to this product is a DM's map of the surrounding region, as well as maps of notable Cauldron locations like the Town Hall and one of the more important taverns.
We added an entirely new adventure to the campaign; this is "Drakthar's Way," by Chris Perkins. It's about 10,000 words long and fits in between "Life's Bazaar" and "Flood Season"; in the original run, there was a slight gap in experience and this additional adventrue addresses that gap while also giving more opportunities to foreshadow the troubles to come down the road.
We added dozens of new illustrations, ranging from full page illos down to many new NPC head shot illustrations.
We also added about 40,000 words (that's about the same amount of info as the standard 3 adventures in a current issue of Dungeon, for sake of comparasion) of new content to the campaign. This new content consists of:
—An extensive introduction that gives a lot of tips on how to run the campaign, including an exhaustive timeline and history of events leading up to the campaign, a complete list of named NPCs with their role in the campaign, information on how to handle the PCs' gradual discovery of the vilinious cagewrights, and over a dozen pages of new content describing important locations in Cauldron and in the surrounding environs....
Is that ALL????
Sorry, joke.
Age of Worms is more like classic Greyhawk than some classic Greyhawk..so my first choice is to play AOW. That being said, while I intially balked at buying the SCAP because I had all the original issues, the points James makes are totally valid. It is a much finer product than the original pieces..
I think SCAP is a much better FOrgotten Realms campaign. Set it in southern Tashalar and you are golden..
Age of Worms is definitely more Greyhawk. SCAP, on the other hand, could easily be converted to a Planescape campaign.