Hey, all you AoW DMs out there...thinking about running AoW, and I need to know how necessary is all the suplemental material that was published in Dragon for this AP? Should I make an effort (and an outlay) to get it? Or can I manage without it?
Thanks!
--Fang
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Hey, all you AoW DMs out there...thinking about running AoW, and I need to know how necessary is all the suplemental material that was published in Dragon for this AP? Should I make an effort (and an outlay) to get it? Or can I manage without it?
Thanks!
--Fang
You can manage perfectly well without it. However, I found it very useful for both (here it comes...) crunch and fluff, and ended up using a lot of it. It does potentially save you a bit of time and effort. So, if you can get it at a reasonable price, I say go for it - if not, no big deal.
I have not used any of it, except the very first one with the abandoned house. Even that was hardly used at all, I could have just used what was in the backdrop for the first piece in Dungeon, and the "overload" PDF. So I'd say it's entirely optional, do not pay good money for just a couple of pages in each Dragon Magazine, the ones I've seen add very little value. Especially if as a DM you place it in a wider world, with all the richness for role-play etc you can really help bring it to life - that in itself is much more useful to your campaign than what you'll get in Dragon.
I'm finding the supplemental material in Dragon very helpful. My players love getting handouts and swag, and Dragon has done a good job of packaging that up for you already. For the first session, I gave them handouts of the Mine Office. This has been useful because they now use the office as their base of operations. I then gave them the second article (mining equipment) for some extra gear that they found at the mining office. One of the players has made good use out of the stuff, such as the miner's helmet.
As a side note, the ecologies series in Dragon also parallels the major encounters in each issue very nicely. This is also VERY helpful. For Blackwall Keep, I'll be giving those with Knowledge Nature the article on the lizardfolk. Those with Knowledge religion know more about the Spawn of Kyuss, etc.
Crazy Duck
A few of the Dragon articles have seen or will see use, but the most handy by far is the "Ecology of the Spawn of Kyuss". It includes all sorts of horrible information for your PCs to learn and for you to exploit, and has the Favored Spawn template that keeps showing up on NPCs in later chapters of the Age of Worms. All the info you need to run it appears in the proper statblocks, of course, but it's handy to be able to make your own.
Which issue would I find that in?
--Fang
Dragon 336
I'd have to agree with Hastur. I haven't been a big fan of Dragon in the first place and was initially quite irked at Paizo's ploy (to my way of thinking) of "forcing" (probably too powerful a word but I can't think of another) me to buy the other magazine in support of the Age of Worms. Other than the first one, which provided the abandoned mine office in detail (which was re-abandoned by my players after Whispering Cairn anyway), I found the Wormfood articles a pleasant read at best and a waste of money at worst. In somewhat of a contridiction to that last statement I will say that I have found the quality of Dragon greatly improved over the past couple years. After AoW finished, I found myself buying the most recent Dragon anyway (almost by reflex action) and I am pleased to say I was not disappointed with its content. But again I agree with previous posters, a good DM with the "big picture" firmly in mind can do quite well without the Dragon articles. Outside of the other (unrelated) content of Dragon, I didn't find those Wormfood articles worth the money or effort.
All that being said, Dragon is a great source of supplemental material if you like providing that to your players. True, none of it is essential to the Adventure Path. The editors at Dungeon have actually done a great job keeping AOW self-contained so you don't need anything else to run it other than a PHB, DMG and MM.
But the great thing is that if you want to do something more, there is a whole host of additional content out there that can really supplement the game. One of the hardest things to do as a DM is to get the information that you have (as DM) to the players. I find all the supplemental articles in Dragon (Wormfood, Ecologies, main articles, etc.) to be quite helpful with this. Take Dragon 326 for instance. It has a main article on dungeoneering that is quite helpful for the low levels. Then immediately afterwards there is a good article on adventuring in sewers that is helpful for the HoHR. Plus even a handful of the Class Acts sections are useful (the one on the Sorcerer I passed out to one of my players).
Bottom line answer to the original post is that none of it is needed. But your game can be better with it, no doubt about that. I've never met a player who didn't like getting handouts.
Thanks for the input, folks. Now, next question: Since I don't want to plop down $70 or $80 for the entire bunch of Dragons that ran concurrent to AoW, are there any that really stood out in particular, issues that you would consider "must have" material?
Thanks!
--Fang