I believe their was a thread like this before somewhere, I just can't find it, so here goes.
Recently, my group has been playing the Shackled City AP, and I have noticed that they aren't having as much fun with it as I hoped. Travelling through the Jzadirune really got them turned off from the game, it was way too big and too many combats.
So, I've been thinking it over, and was thinking if they might like the Age of Worms better.
The group as a whole enjoys the Roleplaying and story side of the game a bit more than the rules and massive combat, although they enjoy combat, they don't want almost every corner they turn to be another encounter.
My question, for those who are running it or playing through it, does this Adventure Path have a lot more promise than the Shackled City. Does the Age of Worms offer more chances to RP and to develop story than the Shackled City?
I have the all of the issues, but I couldn't rightfully tell just by reading them if this would work better.
Thanks.
I bought the SC hardcover, and while it is an impressive piece of work I dont think it can hold a candle to AOW. This AP has a little bit for everyone, is more interesting and more epic. Hands down.
Well, both AoW and Shackled City have much to be said about them in terms of roleplaying and story building. The Shackled City has lots of opportunities to flesh out a very focused campaign world (the city of Cauldron itself), but that might not be what you or your players want. Age of Worms has a much more coherent story from the beginning, and each module has a good roleplaying potential, although it is very combat intensive. Be wary of "Three Faces of Evil", which is pretty much just a straight dungeon-crawl - I'd recommend upping the ante by disconnecting the three micro-dungeons, so finding them through investigation is as much an impetus as just killing all the bad guys. Or you may want to make the Faceless One someone who killing might have reprocussions in Diamond Lake - Wierus, perhaps? A rival mine manager?
Good luck finding what's right for your group!
I actually thought SCAP hada lot of roleplaying opportunities..its just the DM had to put a fair amount of effort into making them come alive.
With Age of worms, you have an excellent start with the article on Diamond Lake, and also the articles in Dragon I thought were interesting..fixing up the old mining shack and the lost items of the druids being my fav two.
All in all, age of worms has more flair to it..end of the world..lost artifacts..legendary monsters..
lets face it, SCAP cannot compete on the story aspect, but you'd expect that as the editors learned a lot from the design of the first onto the second..and I'm sure Savage Tide will blow age of worms away..or at least I hope it will.
Yeah, I agree that SCAP could work out to have a Rp aspect to it, but just like you said, the DM has to put the time to it, and I don't have that time to work on developing the NPC's given to make that work.
So far as I can tell, it is a little bit easier in the AoW.
At the moment, I am fighting between the AoW and the more recent Dragonlance adventures that have been produced in the last couple years by Soverign Press. I know the Dragonlance has the potential to be good with RP and story and interesting fights. And based off of some threads I've read here, the AoW has the potential as well.
For whats its worth on ease, I am 4-5 adventures in AOW right now, and I must say it is probably the easiest campaign I have ever run. Really the only thing difficult about it is me wanting everything to be perfect... which is silly because most of my players dont seem to notice jack all anyways. If you just run AOW as is, you will have a fun campaign with almost no stress on your part.
Be wary of "Three Faces of Evil", which is pretty much just a straight dungeon-crawl - I'd recommend upping the ante by disconnecting the three micro-dungeons, so finding them through investigation is as much an impetus as just killing all the bad guys. Or you may want to make the Faceless One someone who killing might have reprocussions in Diamond Lake - Wierus, perhaps? A rival mine manager?
Good luck finding what's right for your group!
I like that idea about splitting up the dungeons for 3FoE. To tell the truth, I was sort of worried how that one go with my group. The other one I am kind of concerned about is the dungeon below the Champion Games. That seemed kind of big too.
Don't worry about the Champions Games dungeon. It's a big dungeon, but it's explored pieces at a time.....except when you get down to the depths of it, and even then it's not that big.
In your situation, I'd be more worried about A Gathering of Winds. That is one #&$* of a big dungeon, and talk about encounter after encounter....
Overall though, I'd say AoW definitely. Saving the world, as opposed to saving a city. Whatever; that's just my opinion. As far as roleplaying goes, you're not gonna do any better than Prince of Redhand. I tell you, that is one good adventure.
Yeah, if I end up running AoW, I would be looking forward to Prince of Redhand.