Just wondering here - my group started AoW way back in, I'd say late Oct'05, and we're just now finishing up the Kings of the Rift (number 10 of 12). We've had more than a few PC deaths along the way, and we don't get to play every week. But this seems really long to me, compared to other campaigns I've run. Are others having this experience? My players do like to do a lot of non-combat roleplaying, and we're doing Eric Boyd's Forgotten Realms version of the AoW (with some minor changes). Perhaps that's it? Don't get me wrong, it's been amazingly fun, I'm just wondering how long others' AoW campaigns are going time-wise?
well we have been taking about 5 or 6 sessions to complete each adventure and we don't play every week, so it is taking FOREVER! Arggghh.
It can be sooo frustrating for me to DM because I can see the players start to lose interest in a given adventure after the third session and I have to cattle prod them every now and again to keep momentum going. That being said I think that they do enjoy the sessions as a whole, esp with all the socialising ...
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August '05, theoretically a weekly game for four hours after work on Tuesdays...we're just now in a severely trimmed 4th installment gearing up for The Champion's Belt.
The game has had it's share of real world hardships and adult schedules aren't as conducive to gaming as our youthful obligations. Regardless, the players have thoroughly enjoyed the story thus far and it has been a pleasure to take the material and tweak it enough to make it "mine".
AP#6 may be going before we complete AP#2. That's fine with me. As long as there are folks here on the Paizo.com boards to share a story with that still find the number of commoners in the Hextor Temple relevant, I consider myself a fortunate gamer.
Indeed this is taking my group a while also. We are nearing completion but I started the campaign in the summer of '05 (I believe). But then we have had some interruptions along the way as well. It takes us around 3-4 sessions to get through each issue, and I have been cutting out all uninteresting combat encounters since Blackwall Keep.
I'm enjoying the Adventure Path and so are most of my players, but I believe my group (and I) will all be pleased to see the completion of a good campaign.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
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well we have been taking about 5 or 6 sessions to complete each adventure and we don't play every week, so it is taking FOREVER! Arggghh.
It can be sooo frustrating for me to DM because I can see the players start to lose interest in a given adventure after the third session and I have to cattle prod them every now and again to keep momentum going. That being said I think that they do enjoy the sessions as a whole, esp with all the socialising ...
Started in January '06. After 28 sessions, we've just finished Champion's Belt. 4-6 session per chapter is typical. I'm hoping we pick up the pace a bit, but mostly it's the play-every-two-weeks that is responsible for it taking a while. And we're having fun, so why worry?
Russ
My game began in March of '06. We have been playing long sesssions, averaging 6-9 hours, once every other week. The players just completed the 22nd session, and are in the middle of the Spire of Long Shadows. It may help through that I have only two players, thus things run a little more smoothly. But yah it is a long adventure.
By the way I have timed it such that the feast at Prince Zeeches (which my wife is cooking versions of for us to feast upon, unbeknown to my players) will end up being on the 1 year anniversary of us starting the campaign.
well we have been taking about 5 or 6 sessions to complete each adventure and we don't play every week, so it is taking FOREVER! Arggghh.
WOW 5-6 sessions per adventure?! Most of mine have been 2-3 per adventure. I am sometimes a little lite on the random encounters and I also occasionally cut repetitive rooms out of dungeons.
I find once we break 4 sessions on the same idea the whole campaign just feels stale. Which as an aside is a problem I have with AOW in general (20 levels of lets stop this worm problem)
I, too, am at then end of Kings of the Rift. Not sure how long it took us, but I'd guess about a year. Started off with 3 players and 4-5 sessions per module, but now we're going through the modules in 2-3 sessions. This can partially be explained by the PCs high-level abilities enabling them to circumvent encounters and easily obtain information. The primary reason, however, is that we are playing 8-10 hour sessions now instead of 6-8 hour sessions.
The players are still very interested in the AP, but I'm losing my interest a bit. Don't get me wrong, the adventures are well-designed, but I am finding high-level play to be tedious and quite stressful to manage. There are simply too many numbers to crunch, bonuses to account for, etc... I'll be glad when the whole thing is over.
We play weekly for 4-5 hours and I manage to complete each chapter in about 4 sessions. We are halfway through AoW after just over a year of playing, but I alternate chapters with another DM who is running SCAP. This distracts a little from the focus of my campaign, but also allows a little break. Originally we alternated weeks, but that was too confusing. Alternating months seems to work well.
The campaign paths are a long haul. You definitely have to keep things moving and manage time. We tend to take care of dividing loot, buying equipment, and minor errands by email so gaming time is focused on the chapter goals. Even after a year,we are all totally enjoying the APs and ready for another year of AP adventure.
I started running AOW for 3 friends, probably sometime in August or September. Right now we are in a the second go around of the whispering cairn. I think it is called " Gathering of Winds?"
Baring the occasional real world interuption (school, work, snow...) we have been playing a 3-4 hr sessions each week. Originally each player had a single gestalt player and we were running about 2-3 sessions per adventure. That was getting alittle complicated though as they got to higher levels. We just switched to each player having a two normal characters. It seems like a good idea still, but I feel like our game has slowed to a crawl. Mow there are so many more actions to account for. This current adventure has already seen 2 sessions and I think we will be due for a few more with our new pace.
drag. Oh well, for the most part everyone is still having alot of fun. So I can't really be too upset.
By the way I have timed it such that the feast at Prince Zeeches (which my wife is cooking versions of for us to feast upon, unbeknown to my players) will end up being on the 1 year anniversary of us starting the campaign.
That is so awesome! I wish I had thought of it! Your players will love that touch. You've given me the idea to bake Kyuss cookies for Dawn of a New Age, when we start it. Mmm...black frosting and gummi worms.
For my group we average 3-5 sessions an adventure and started in Sept '05 as well. We use to game a 6-hour or so session every week for almost a year, then swapped to a 4-hour every week. My goal is to get around 3-4 combats a game session. (I've only had one session with no combat so far). Can you believe I actually thought we could complete an article per session when we started?!
I've even added side quests in Midnight's Muddle, as well as a whole castle (based on the Castlevania games) as diversions from the AP. These have helped to give some extra variety to the campaign.
Although my players are itching to play Savage Tide, we're only about a third through Into Wormcrawl Fissure. Still, everyone's having a great time, and I have the wonderful staff/writers at Paizo to thank for the quality work.
I was surprised by how long the Age of Worms ran, but I think it goes to show that you're getting your money's worth. It would be good advice for any potential AoW players/DMs to know of the campaign length (on average) in a future hardcover release...but that's just my two cents.
I've been progressing pretty steadily with my group. We started the adventure path in January of 06 and have played probably 44 out of 52 weeks of the year. Right now, they are just one session away from fighting Kyuss, so overall, its been about a year of playtime for us. I had few sidequests in mine and a couple of modules (EaBK and Champ's Belt) were completed in only three sessions...not due to rushing through them, but to extended playing sessions (6 hours). I guess by playing regularly with few sidequests, a group can expect to complete the path in about a year.
For me, we are on our 21st 4-5 hour session and we are about 2/3 of the way through Champion's Belt. Admittedly, we have experienced more than our fair share of character deaths in those sessions, but we have been eating up about 5 sessions per module. Also, at the level the characters are at now, I expect deaths to reduce in number per adventure, so I figure our session per adventure to go down as well.
We started in November of 2005, have played almost every week, and we just finished Kings of the Rift. We were running about a month per adventure, but the last couple have slowed down considerably. It seems like we get through one, maybe two good fights a session, and this last adventure had a LOT of fights. (This was exacerbated by multiple foes that had the ability to escape and return for rematches.)
I'm hoping our group figures out how to make high-level combat go a bit faster. (Some of these recent fights have been 3 hours for 5 rounds of combat, admittedly with 7 PCs, but still...)
We're probably averaging 4 sessions per episode, and are currently preparing to start SoLS. These are the highest level characters I've ever run, and the only way I've been able to stand it is just to trust them as far as advancing their characters go. I also skip a lot of encounters and don't use XP at all - just level them up simultaneously at the appropriate points of the adventure.
It is difficult, but I want to see this thing through to level 20, and I think they do, too.
If anyone has some 'stuff' that would add to my players' enjoyment of the SoLS, please contact me on gmail at keith.wampuscat43. I'll be glad to send same to anyone who's behind me in the path.
wow. its only after reading this thread that i actually see just how long we have been playing AOW. i think we started about a year ago and the group just encountered zyrog at the end of HoHR. we average 2 sessions a week at around 3-4 hours each. the only drawback i have about playing such a great campaign is that i can see how savage tide is going and want to play that too. gahh.
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We started around Dec 05, and we have just arrived at the spire of long shadows. We play once a week for only 2-3 hour sessions so the pace has been a little slow. Everyone has been loving the AP so far and this is the highest level of d&d that any of us have played. It's been a wild ride so far and it looks like we will hang on until the end. I added one side trek(Home Under the Range) after whispering cairn, but have kept it "as written" ever since. We can't wait for savage tide as well!! arghh
I haven't run any of the APs yet, but I'm thinking of doing Savage Tide in a couple of months. However, some people were mentioning in this thread that the AP's get a little tedius after a while because they all revolve around the same theme (One big onion of never ending layers). How many of you who are trudging through the path are finding it is getting monotonous?
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Started it in August 06.
I have run 23 sessions since. The party has now passed the Black Gate and is in Izosiel's complex in Ch. 6 A Gathering of Winds.
The AP is designed for a group running a weekly game session of 4-6 hours to finish it in about a year ~ 52 sessions.
If you are running less often than once a week - do the math :)
As for monotonous - depends on your group's style. Levelling is a definite reward and comes relatively often in the AP. I find the theme of the dungeons sufficiently different that it is not monotonous to run - and my players show up without fail.
It is endless surprise and ceaseless wonder compared to World's Largest Dungeon :)
Started June 24th, 2005. We are now halfway through the Prince of Redhand (8 of 12). So yea, it is taking us a while. My party currently includes:
Dwarf Ftr14/EWM1
-Gnome Brd8 (cohort)
Human Healer15
-Elf Rog10 (cohort; Tirra)
Human Drd15
Elf Ftr1/Wiz5/EKn8 (Cymria)
We've had a few hiccups that slowed us down. There was a TPK in the Hextor temple in 3FoE. A new party came into town and mopped up the other two and continued the quest. In the middle of AGoW we took a brief 2 or 3 month hiatus. And most recently TSoLS gave my group a run for their money. They had to requisition FOUR true resurrection spells from Ravel Dasinder (the high priest of Boccob in Greyhawk) after various sojourns into Kuluth Mar resulted in numerous PC deaths. After the Harbinger killed two of them, they resolved not to go back, at least for the time being.
All in all, it does seem to be taking a long time, but we have only met, on average, twice a month. Some of us attend conventions occassionally and our game is Friday nights. I also make time for the occassional date night with my wife. Our last session was #31.
We started the AoW about a year ago, January '06 I believe.
We tend to play long sessions, but irregularly. Our sessions typically go 6-8 hours, with an occasional 10hr session. It's typically been two sessions per issue (though I am very light on random encounters).
We're just now starting on Kings of the Rift, but I suspect we're going to start slowing waaaay down. I also want to reiterate a previous poster's lament about higher-level play. It's a nightmare of bookkeeping and remembering what effects do what, and remembering to have the NPCs utilize every means at their disposal.
I think for my next campaign (which just might be the Savage Tide), I'm going to halve XP rewards and slow the pace down a bit, giving us all more time to roleplay, explore, and have secondary encounters not directly related to the AP.
My group is moving through the AP surprisingly fast, though they have a penchant for leaving plot threads dangling (which I'm going to make come back and haunt them when they return to Diamond Lake). We began in September or October 2006 and are already to Hall of Harsh Reflections. I assume that the pace will slow here a bit, but compared to my Shackled City campaign (now entering its third year and not yet to the volcanic eruption), we are flying through this one.
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We intentionally tried to blow through the campaign (I live in a touristy town, so people tend to come and go quickly). We started at the end of August 06, and the last seesion I ran was in December. We left off halfway through Shadow of Long Spires. We were averaging about 2-3 sessions per adventure, lengthening for some of the real crawls. I cut a lot of "excess" encounters from the big dungeons, leaving the ones that seemed to fit best.
Alas, we've had to leave the campaign behind, but this ought to give a decent idea of how fast it can be done...
Started in December 05.
The PCs will probably be encountering Augerric in AGoW next session.
Started in Aug '05. Ended Feb 10, 2007, and the players wish to continue with the characters into epic adventures (a success then, in my books).
Over the course of the campaign the number of players went from 3 to 7 (plus DM, and a few one-time additions). We played 3 or 4 times a month, with about 1/2 the sessions lasting 6 hours or longer.
As the DM it sure seemed long ;-) Lengthy, but fun. Certainly looking forward to actually gaming now!
J-
We started in late fall 2005, took about three months off to run a different campaign, and just started Library of Last Resort last week. We play once a week for about 3-4 hours, so I don't think we're moving that slow. I echo the comments on running high-level encounters. Hard to keep track of all the abilities and powers high-level characters and monsters have and play them effectively. That's one of the reasons we usually drop campaigns around 10th level. Just once though, I want to finish one. We have until August, when I'm moving overseas, and it's going to be tight.
As a DM, finishing AoW has become an obsession for me, which thankfully my players are still going along with and entertained by.
Our group ostensibly tries to play once every other week, but I work primarily in theater (you hear that, Logue, you're not alone), and most of them are primarily available on the weekends, so I'm sometimes unavailable for about a month. Other conflicts crop up too, from someone being out of town or what have you.
It's a small group, with me and four other players (though we once had five and even six early on). We try to do long sessions (six to eight hours or more), and I've avoided side quests. We started later in the campaign, with Encounter at Blackwall Keep, and have been plowing through since January of '06. We're just now about to start Kings of the Rift at our next session.
The last three adventures of the AP are quite complex though, and even keeping laser focus, I'm worried we may have another six months or more left in the campaign.
Frankly, as obsessed as I am with finishing it, and as much as we're enjoying it, I really want it to be over, so I can start a more leisurely, less driven campaign. Possibly a heavily modified Savage Tide AP with added side quests, but definitely taking time to be the characters and role play, and not worry so much about Getting Through Everything.
We started in May 2006, and are now 75% of the way done, about to start Kings of the Rift. So nine months down, maybe two more to go.
Prior to that, we played through Shackled City, which took us exactly nine months.
In both cases, interest in the campaign was pretty high all the way through. Sure, the battles became more tedious as the campaign progressed (as always happens at high-level), but the role-playing just kept on getting better, so everything remained interesting and fresh.
See for yourself: www.knights-of-valencia.com
Can't wait for Savage Tide, though :)
Started playing with my group in late 2005, just starting The Library of Last Resort next wednesday.
I'm running it online, and it's taking forever. I fully expect to have to port it to fourth edition partway through, and the final battle will be played out in fifth edition. ;)
Just ending Kings of the Rift this Sunday if everything goes well. My group only meets once a week (sometimes only twice a month if things are busy) and we play for about three and half hours. All of our battles at this point eat up most of a session, and I predict the
(SPOILER)
Brazzemal showdown will be no different. We've also lost and gained players due to people moving away and new people being introduced to the hobby (imagine your first character ever coming in at 15th level. It just seems wrong) so that's also slowed things up. I wish I could remember exactly when we started The Whispering Cairn, but it had to at least have been about a year ago.
I also find it sad that I'm racing to finish this campaign before 4th edition is released. This is only my third campaign since 3.5 came out, and the first two only took characters up to 10th level.
DMing for one person is sooo much easier, but we did start the campaign way back when the first adventure came out.
like the week after i bought the mag. and now we are hovering between the intro of Library of Last Resort and actually going on the journey. mainly due to a hiatus in game to find new jobs, family problems and general life stuff. that and losing the character sheets and having to build them from scratch only to find them again once we're finished.
We are taking a while, too.
Started in Sept. '06, we're just finishing "TFoE".
Since we're all adults, we have had a few mini-hiatuses for RL, but we TRY to stick to a once-a-week session, for 3-5 hours per session.
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So far we've done 13 (4-5 hour) sessions and we're just finishing up Three Faces of Evil. I'm expecting a bit less than 90 sessions to finish Age of Worms so we should be wrapping up the campaign in early 2009, possibly late 2008. It took my group 21 months to play through the entirety of Shackled City (August 2005 to May 2007).
My group has been playing since May '07 and will finish Spire of Long Shadows next week. We play EVERY friday (with very few exceptions) for about 4-7 hours a session. It takes us 2-3 sessions per chapter.
I run my games very quickly however. There is nothing I hate more than a slow fight or roleplaying where everyone is not involved. We take care of any roleplaying that happens solo away from the table, and I sometimes shorten fights that are taking too long by reducing the max hp of the enemies mid fight, if it looks obvious that the players should win.
This is a longer game than Shackled City definitely, which is the only other printed adventure I have ever ran. We're having a blast with it though.
Clive, your pace impresses and terrifies me!
We began AoW at the start of the year. We're playing on average three sessions a month for 4-5 hours per session. This week the party fought off Illthane's draconic kobolds in the Twisted Branch egg chamber (their acid breath upped the stakes a little!) and headed back into the swamp with Illthane's egg on a makeshift stretcher. Next week we'll be playing the Blackwall Keep interlude. Between (spoilers)
Our pace has been a little slower by virtue of certain digressions, such as the trial of three of the party members for the murder of Tordek (witnesses agreed that Kullen brought his own death on himself, but Tordek was last seen being dragged away unconscious from outside the Feral Dog; with Smenk pressuring Sheriff Cubbin into an actual trial, the party had a harder time writing off Tordek's death as self defense). And the temple under Dourstone Mine was a pretty grueling period that I probably should have tightened up a bit, though it did see two PC deaths, so it certainly wasn't a waste of our time!
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I've been DMing AoW since December '06 and we've just gotten into HoHR. That's a pretty slow pace, I admit, but our gaming group has had several real life disasters to deal with and that has cut into our play time considerably. That, and we've got a parallel STAP campaign running between AoW modules (in theory at least -that DM has not run more than 6 sessions since April).
The actual modules are running at a pretty good pace though; It takes me about 5 sessions per adventure to complete. HoHR is a pretty big adventure and it might take me 6. At this rate, what with alternating DM duties, it will take me another year to complete, probably more.
I'm not entirely sure when we started, it must be around.. mid 2006? I started with the end of the second adventure, (I let it run over from a homebrew into AoW) and we are now at HoHR.. We try to play two times in the month, but, there have been a few months that I wasn't able to DM and during the summer months, we only played once.
That said, it's kinda worrysome that some players have asked me (in a good humored way) how far along they were. Ugh. I more or less answered once that.. well, it wasn't too far along (not past half, I believe I said). I got a look of disbelieve.
Now.. mind you, up until now, the players that had played D&D already, only played short stories and very short campaigns (one was in fact a story with five or so chapters, some very short, home made) and some hadn't played at all.
They did tell me (not when the subject of 'how long' came along), they are enjoying the campaign immensly and are excited on how it will continue and end.
Still, being the worrysome me, I can't help to feel a bit guilty when I start another chapter, that the 'big clue (aka Kyuss)' they are used to, hasn't come yet (and again). I never DM'ed a long campaign myself though.
And yes, when we will hit december 2007 with HoHR, we will be playing for a year. <_< But, that won't happen, since they are in the midst of the mindflayers lair and I expect them to finish that adventure one of of the following session. That or TPK. (They were very close a few times in there.. ugh.)
I'm holding myself a bit up at the thought of the speed they finished EaBK. I don't mind roleplaying that long though, and they (and me) are having lots of fun. So.. meh, I guess.
Real life situations keep coming in over and over (like two players leaving for a month long journey), I just can't play every weekend... and I try to hold onto playing twice every month.
It does seem that this AP takes a long time to run...I think I am crazy for running AoW (just getting that revved up) and planning on running Savage Tide after that. I am just too ambitious sometimes...
Just be thankful you guys aren't taking as long as Erik Mona and James Jacobs group. They've been playing for 2 1/2 years and are only in the Champion's Belt. Great gaming by James Campaign Journal...but I know I would be wanting to play more.
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Amazing how long it is taking for you people. Actually Im pretty surprised cause this is the fastest-paced campaign Ive ever DM'ed. With a few exceptions, they have gone at a rate of one adventure per session!! It is fast. And requires a lot of DM work.
PS. We do have long sessions of 8-10 hours or so, though.
8-10 Hours would certainly help. I'm lucky if I get 3.
With a few exceptions, they have gone at a rate of one adventure per session!!
Hi DarienCR. I am staggered by this, even with 8-10 hour sessions! Very impressive.
Me, I'll be DM'ing my 49th session this Wednesday (we started December 2006), and we are now half way through The Hall of Harsh Reflections. We have 4 hour sessions, and some of this time is inevitably taken up with happy distractions like drinking, eating, telling stories and more drinking, but we probably get 3 to 3.5 hours solid gaming most nights.
So, let's see, that means our group has been playing Age of Worms for at least 147 solid hours. Mind you, my group keep telling me how much they are enjoying it, so I guess this pace works for us. That's all that really matters in the end.
We still have 300+ hours of gaming to go, and that is a very happy thought. Like having just started reading a HUGE book, and after a few chapters, you know you've struck gold and you're having the best read of your life.
I hope you enjoy yours just as much.
We are on week 15, in the middle of HHR. So we've done 3 modules in about 12-13 weeks, that's 4 weeks each. About right for a monthy serial.
Maybe you guys all spend too much time roleplaying or something. :)
Maybe you guys all spend too much time roleplaying or something. :)
Yes, between that, scouring through rules and drinking, I'm lucky if they manage to kill anything in a session. But everyone goes home (or sleeps on the couch) happy.
Maybe my players are repressed actors, or repressed lawyers, or repressed alcoholics, or all of those things at once.
They're lucky I let them come over really...
:o)
Early June '05 is when we started. We're starting Kings of the Rift next weekend. It has been fun, despite the TPK last week at the hands of Vecna's little buddy and his friends. The players want to see it through, so they're a new party hired by Lashonna to go destroy the phylactery now that the info's been released.
Not a big fan of the high level stuff, so I'm looking forward to finishing this and moving on to a (much, much shorter) M&M game before moving back to D&D (3.5 or 4, not sure yet, but it'll be set in Golarion, for sure).
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With a few exceptions, they have gone at a rate of one adventure per session!!Hi DarienCR. I am staggered by this, even with 8-10 hour sessions! Very impressive.
Yes we're actually enjoying the sessions very much, and the funny thing is besides the AoW adventure path Im running side adventures and side stories, characters have personal goals (concerts, alliances, rituals, construction, and much more) that sometimes have nothing to do with the AoW so they spend time on that too.
I imagine that this pace is highly due to the initative of the group to resolve encounters without resorting to combat, so they have talked out many of the encounters or performed dirty tricks to deal with them without getting their hands dirty.
For example in Three Faces of Evil, a series of forgeries, Bluffs, Diplomacies and Disguises turned the 3 temples against themselves so they ended up fighting each other and the party had little to kill. They had to deal with the Ebon Aspect though, which was fun.
The party is also small (3 players) so it may also have an influence.
They almost died last session against the ulgurstasta (a deux ex machina paladin saved them), and one of the characters fell into the Kyuss trunk trap.