I know that there have been a few threads already on the overall opinion of the path thus far, but when I tried to read them they are full of spoilers. I'm trying to hold off reading this path in the hopes of getting someone to tun it;)
So, WITHOUT SPOILERS, what is everyone's opinion of this path compared to the previous two? What did Pazio improve using lessons learned from the previous two?
This is a great campaign! Recurring villains, not too large and boring dungeon crawls (although I am really looking forward to the one big dungeon), very good support articles namely Savage Tidings. The backdrops are really nice, too. A great variety in adventure type: some with more rp-moments, some more hack and slash-style, but all really well done. The only thing I am missing are more urban adventures, but I guess the third AP is all about the wilderness adventures (although there were or are urban ones, too). I don't know how to top this one (although I thought the same of AoW).
Best series of adventures yet published, hands-down. Dinosaurs and pirates are a perfect mix, somehow. I just really can't say enough good things about the adventure writing.
As far as non-writing STAP stuff, I've got to say that I REALLY love the art for this one-- especially Ben Wooten's city-scapes, but the rest has been top-notch, also (with the sole exception of maybe the gargoyle in HTBM). I know I'm not supposed to be an art critic, but when I'm playing a fantasy game, a bit of realism with the art really helps with suspension of disbelief for me. If the characters are shown badly misproportioned or "cartoonish," the whole feel suffers. (That was the biggest flaw with "Chains of Blackmaw," for example--the art was good, don't get me wrong, but it was, well, very anime-ish, and sort of clashed with the "gritty" feel of the adventure plot, to my mind). Feel free to disagree; this is just one of my bizarre pet peeves. Anyway, in STAP it's been great!
Overall, this is an excellent path so far.
AoW was more of a "classic" D&D campaign, heavy on combat and dungeon crawling (apart from one or two installments). ST really mixes it up: combat, diplomacy, dungeons, NPC interaction, politics, wilderness exploration/travel... There was obviously much more thought given to integrating the party into the campaign setting on a continuing basis as well.
Aureus, I believe that part 8 is an urban adventure, as it's set in Scuttlecove (the place where "Porphyry House Horror" was set), and it's written by Richard Pett.
Huzzah! Scuttlecove is a very nasty place to be - and it was a great honor to explore James' horrible place even more:)
Sounds very cool. I am very familiar with AOW as I ran the first several parts and have spoken to a few others who have run the whole thing and the comments seem to be that the combat heavy element makes it hard for players to stay focused on the overall campaign and players becoming engrossed in the overall story. I know I had difficulty and I was the DM.
Sounds like this one goes a long way towards fixing that. Now I really don't know if I want to run it or play it;)
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Aureus, I believe that part 8 is an urban adventure, as it's set in Scuttlecove (the place where "Porphyry House Horror" was set), and it's written by Richard Pett.
Blastin, the previous two posters hit the nail on the head; Savage Tide beats the previous two, by far.
I almost forgot this one! SoS will be especially nice as one of my players is a beguiler/changeling posing as an elven pirate captain that was a friend of Amella Venkalie's dead husband. He plans to become the captain of a huge pirate fleet titled "The Admiral" (he doesn't know that the leader of the Crimson Fleet is called like that and perhaps plans to take over his identity when he gets to know it). The ring of mindshielding from the flotsam ooze might become handy:)
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While I appreciate the Spoiler alert.....
I did put right in the title no spoilers PLEASE. If ya wanna discuss specifics about the AP, please take it to another thread and leave this for people who, like me, haven't read it yet but still want to know what people think.
So far, STAP has been the best of the three. SCAP had its good moments but was very piecemeal. AoW, again had some strong moments, but the story didn't take off until around the midway point; the raison d'etre of the early adventures was simply to level the PCs up, in my opinion.
The biggest reason, STAP hasn't had any rubbish installments yet. The path has yet to see the equivalent of "Strike on Shatterhorn" or "Three Faces of Evil." I hope this streak of quality continues.