I recently decided to run SCAP (and I will follow up with AoW if the group stays together long enough). Why, you might ask? Dont I have enough stuff of my own? Sure I do. But I wanted to be a part of the "shared experience" of 3E D&D. I think the Dungeon Adventure Paths are the new shared experience, like Tomb of Horrors or Giants/Drow or Keep on the Borderlands.
But I also wanted to learn to be a better DM and a better adventure designer. Reading and playing adventures from Dungeon will make you a better DM and a better adventure designer. I find I tend to create similar styled encounters. There are some monsters I would never consider using, for whatever reason. I wanted to break out of my "design rut" and challenge myself to try some new things. So I decided to run SCAP. And, frankly, I thought it was just an amazing adventure anyway.
My campaign is underway. And I am learning alot. I told them they were guinea pigs to an extent. I cant wait to see what I learn from this process. I have a number of hesitations. I am worried about Foundations of Flame, the almost total roleplaying chapter. That looks challenging. I dont know if I am a good enough DM to do it. A Planescape-esque trip to Carceri is way out of what I normally do. I dont know if I will run that stuff properly. It's out of my comfort zone :) So I am totally excited to try it. And I would encourage all of you to try it. And when you do, think about the design decisions that went into the project.
Just going through this is like taking a college course on how to be a DM and how to design a whole campaign. In my view, running an adventure is one thing, but designing and running a campaign is another thing. SCAP is like a course book on how to do it.
It is really interesting to compare and contrast SCAP and AoW. And to observe some things about how to design a campaign.
Here are few observations.
You dont need to create a whole world and set of cultures and elaborate history to run a campaign. Look at SCAP. How many times have you as a DM been daunted by the thought they you had to create a whole world to run a campaign. Heck, SCAP is proof you can rough out one city, a nearby village, and a nearby inn, and basically run a campaign through 20th level. Think about that. And what are the consequences of that design decision? Well, rangers and druids suffer. AoW goes globetrotting much more. But SCAP doesnt.
You need a solid theme. Both campaigns have solid themes. But can theme be too much? SCAP had lots of variety. I cant wait to see if the omnipresent worms in AoW become too much and too repetitive.
You need a key setting. It doesnt have to be a home city (like it was in SCAP). In SCAP, Cauldron was like the Enterprise in Classic Trek. It was practically a character. Diamond Lake is the opposite. Think about that design choice. What does that do for your campaign?
Location, location, location. Connected to the last thought, you need to make things memorable. Cauldron sure fit that bill. What a great setting. But the "main city" doesnt have to be "the Enterprise," But you definately need a defining location, IMHO.
Vary the monsters (this is my fear with AoW, though there still is a ton of variety, I cant wait to see if my fears of variety are founded or unfounded; its all part of the learning process). SCAP, I thought, was great with this. A memorable fight in a memorable location with memorable creatures. Now that is campaign stuff. This was a huge lesson for me. I think my PCs have fought enough ogres and trolls and orcs and such. I dont know what my aversion to "the wierd monsters" is, but I have one. Running SCAP you get right into it. A couple faves are there--grell, dark stalker/creeper; but even those are ones that I only use very rarely. Not an orc or kobold in sight. :) My instinct is telling me to change out the cheesy automatons, but I am not going to do it--precisely because my gut is telling me TO do it. I want to fight my design instincts. I have a funny feeling that those will be great memorable encounters.
Dont be afraid of a tight story line. I think we as DMs fear "railroading" the PCs. But in my experience, though people may say they dont want to be railroaded, they actually dont mean it. They want a story that drives them forward. What they want within that story is the feeling of choice, despite the fact that they are staying in a tight script. What people mean by railroading is they dont want you making important decisions for them, not that they dont want a tight story line. I will be very interested to see if my group wants to take detours from the main story line. And, as I read it, AoW seems even tighter than SCAP.
Consider the "PC vs. events" timeline. Both SCAP and AoW are, as James put it to me today, "agressively paced," meaning that there isnt much time to take a year off and build a keep, for instance. What effect does that decision have on your campaign?
Know your key NPCs and kick the foreshadowing into high gear. AoW does this a bit better than SCAP, though I think SCAP can be modified to do it better than AoW (or what I have studied of AoW so far). Clearly SCAP was serialized with less of a control of knowing where everything was going than AoW was. As a result, you have key NPCs in later chapters that really needed to make cameos in earlier chapters to set them up better. The hardback cleans up some of this.
Build tension. You can do this in a lot of ways. One is to make the PCs emotionally invested in the outcome. Rivalrly with the Stormblades. Connection to Cauldron. Threaten something they love. Create a place of safety and take it away. Hitchcock was a master of this. He loved to have key scenes of vulnerability and abnormality happen in places that we think of as safe and noraml--Mt. Rushmore, a empty rural street, a phone booth in the middle of town, there are a hundred examples. Dont be afraid to employ the devices of screenwriters.
Personalize it. Give some content that makes this campaign different. It doesnt have to be much. An example I can use are the Traits from the back of the HC for SCAP. I included them as a lark in the character creation materials that I handed out, figureing no one would care. I think every PC took one and they all are raving about them. They are unique, different, something that "only this campaign" has. Find ways to do that.
Create a support net. My biggest criticism of the SCAP is that more DM-friendly materials are not available for use by actual DMs. All the NPC art should be available for download. ALL maps of cauldron, in all forms, should be available for download. Headers and other items should be available for people to use to create support material. The rpgenius/shackled city cite is an amazing resource. I hope Paizo helps out with that. That said, I love the extra content for AoW. It is amazing.
See what people do when they get a chance to revise. I love the extra material in the SCAP hardback. Frankly, they could have just compiled the adventures, added nothing extra, and sold it that way. They didnt. So now go and study that extra material. See the changes they made, and consider why they made them. Because all those changes were made because the editors believed it aided playability, and I agree that it did. So what did they do?
--more on Cauldron up front
--NPC summaries
--locations in Cauldron (could have used more)
--more detailed introduction
--tightening up and slight revision of some story lines
I mean, Erik, James and co are experts at this. I'd venture to say there is no one right now that is better at designing an entire campaign than James and co. They have done it now almost three times. They learned from SCAP, did things a bit different with AoW. And I'm sure will do things a bit different for AP3, based on things they have learned.
I really love design issues. I think thinking about these things makes you a better DM and better adventure designer. And here you have a book that is basically a textbook for how to do it.
Go forth and learn!
And I'd love to hear more design comments and things that the Paizo staff learned from making SCAP, how they incorporated those lessons into AoW, and what they learned from AoW and how htey are incorporateing that into AP3.
Clark
Think of all the things they have addressed.
"How to start that first adventure."
Both avoid the overused "you are at an inn" trick. SCAP goes with the alley gag. Frankly, less than satisfactory. I added a prologue when I ran it. AoW basically puts you on the doorstep of the dungeon, though encourages everyone to build strong bacgrounds that motivate them to get out of Diamond Lake (unlike SCAP that requires you to build a strong bond to Cauldron!).
"How do we deal with the higher level PCs"
Look at the high level adventures. When I read "Thirteen Cages" and saw the trick used there to slow down "find the path" and some of the other standard high level spells, I said to myself "I am going to learn something from this."
"How much dungeon crawling do we do?"
I cant believe I am about to say this. Limit the dungeons. I thought Jzadirune was way too large. Even the Kopru ruins is larger than it needs to be, though not so much that it has to be modified. In fact, Jzadirune is an excellent example of a mistake in SCAP design. One of the few mistakes, IMHO. That dungeon is too large. It doesnt stay focused enough on the story and the driving force. I cut out about 1/3 of the rooms at least to trim the fat. I love the dungeons in AoW. Love them. Or should I say "encounter locations." They arent all dungeons. That is a key. In SCAP I think the kuo toa location is about right. And when I say "limit" the dungeons, I dont mean you ahve to make them small. Big is ok, as long as that fits the story. The dungeon in "Thirteen Cages" is pretty big (and freaking deadly!!! I said "you have to be kidding" a couple of times, and I run a company known for tough dungeons). James posted a neat thread on this issue. And someone there posted what I thought was a great response, she said essentially that the adventure should dictate the dungeon, not the dungeon dictate the adventure. She said it better. [edit: deClench said "The adventure isn't the dungeon; the dungeon is simply a piece of the adventure. I prefer this type of dungeon." -Clark] Jzadirune is great if you want to explore an entire gnome complex. But you dont. That is the dungeon driving the story. And it invites the PCs to get off track and dungeon crawl.
Be careful of "Handout Fixation," based on the "if the DM gives it to us, it must be important" syndrome.
I was reluctant to use the list of kidnap victims handout from the Life's Bazaar download. There are about 25 names on that list. You have to be careful what info you highlight for players. If you give them a handout, they will presume you mean for them to do something with that info (as opposed to just summarizing orally). One thing I LOVED about SCAP is it got you quick with a conflict and a quest. Then it gave the false appearance of allowing the PCs to investigate however they wanted (when in reality there are only a few things to do--orphanage, lock shop, maybe some gather info and talk to town guards; but it sure feels to the players like they can do anything they want). It is just a beautifully designed way to fake openendedness, which is in my view a key DM skill. But you give the PCs that handout and you run the risk of sending them scurrying to re-interview everyone and everything. And you definately dont want to deal with that.
Sorry, I just cant stop talking about this topic. I love adventure design. And adventure design is not just for the publishers--it is for every DM that creates and runs adventures for his or her group.
Clark
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Hey Clark!
I'm thinking about this very subject, and I couldn't have summarized it as well as you.
I'm going to finish Shackled City in a few months, and I would really like to go on my own creation as a "sequel" to the SCAP. I'm trying to build a campaign storyline I can use, and I'm having a rough time getting beyond the brainstorming session ...
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Think of all the things they have addressed.
"How to start that first adventure."
Both avoid the overused "you are at an inn" trick. SCAP goes with the alley gag. Frankly, less than satisfactory. I added a prologue when I ran it. AoW basically puts you on the doorstep of the dungeon, though encourages everyone to build strong bacgrounds that motivate them to get out of Diamond Lake (unlike SCAP that requires you to build a strong bond to Cauldron!).
"How do we deal with the higher level PCs"
Look at the high level adventures. When I read "Thirteen Cages" and saw the trick used there to slow down "find the path" and some of the other standard high level spells, I said to myself "I am going to learn something from this."
"How much dungeon crawling do we do?"
I cant believe I am about to say this. Limit the dungeons. I thought Jzadirune was way too large. Even the Kopru ruins is larger than it needs to be, though not so much that it has to be modified. In fact, Jzadirune is an excellent example of a mistake in SCAP design. One of the few mistakes, IMHO. That dungeon is too large. It doesnt stay focused enough on the story and the driving force. I cut out about 1/3 of the rooms at least to trim the fat. I love the dungeons in AoW. Love them. Or should I say "encounter locations." They arent all dungeons. That is a key. In SCAP I think the kuo toa location is about right. And when I say "limit" the dungeons, I dont mean you ahve to make them small. Big is ok, as long as that fits the story. The dungeon in "Thirteen Cages" is pretty big (and freaking deadly!!! I said "you have to be kidding" a couple of times, and I run a company known for tough dungeons). James posted a neat thread on this issue. And someone there posted what I thought was a great response, she said essentially that the adventure should dictate the dungeon, not the dungeon dictate the adventure. She said it better. [edit: deClench said "The adventure isn't the dungeon; the dungeon is simply a piece of the adventure. I prefer this...
Eric Mona,
Mr. Peterson through his descriptions has single handedly convinced me to purchase SCAP. I hope his endorsement is duely compensated for. :)
Professor Webb
This is very nice. I will have to use the information that Orcus has provided when I run SCAP. Thanks!
Eric Mona,
Mr. Peterson through his descriptions has single handedly convinced me to purchase SCAP. I hope his endorsement is duely compensated for. :)
Professor Webb
First I would have to say, I also think that it would be amazing to see what each of you thought as you came up with the adventures.
Second, clark as a DM who also wishes to become better at what I love I was wondering if you like to stay in touch and share what we learn and share Ideas. Pleas reply to this if intrested?