Theres dungeon crawls, to be sure, but less of them relative to Age of Worms. Its larger in scale, both in the plans of the bad guy, and the places the PCs adventure. Theres some serious emphasis on "the enemy of my enemy is my freind" and parties that just don't swing that way will find themselves in an uphill battle, sometimes to the point of vertical.
Downtime is sporadic, ranging from several months to a few hours. Some of the major elements, like naval hijinks and pirate ships, don't appear to be as major as they seem, but then come back later, often after you've given up on them.
But for its faults (which it has some, nothings perfect) its a very solid path that could provide a lot of memorable game moments at many a table. My biggest regret about running it was that we didn't get to finish it thanks to people moving away at the end of the school year. Currently running a close knit group through the APs consecutively, and were wrapping up 3FoE from Age of Worms this weekend. As much as I love Age of Worms, I can't wait to finish it, just to start Savage Tide again.
If you watch out for the few flaws (you can read all about them on the forum) this is a great adventure path. The nice thing is that is has the feel of a long adventure, and not of a series of short dungeon crawls. This might welll be the most fun campaign I have ever DM-ed.
The adventures have some very original ideas and locations (e.g. the sargasso) and the Isle of Dread is a great location. It really has a high adventure feel to it.
If you watch out for the few flaws (you can read all about them on the forum) this is a great adventure path. The nice thing is that is has the feel of a long adventure, and not of a series of short dungeon crawls. This might welll be the most fun campaign I have ever DM-ed.
The adventures have some very original ideas and locations (e.g. the sargasso) and the Isle of Dread is a great location. It really has a high adventure feel to it.
I have to agree wholeheartedly with Luna.
First, it is an Adventure Path – It’s one solid story that takes the characters from (I think) level 1 to 20. It’s not a hodge-podge of random modules thrown together with little or no connection. I cannot underscore this enough – there are story elements from the very first adventure that are referred back to in the third and fourth. There are seeded elements that are meaningless until later in the path. (e.g. “Hey, remember that tiki idol we found back in the lost city on our way here – over a month ago? Yeah, maybe that would help now!”)
Second, as Luna mentioned, there are some flaws – or at least some minor tweaks that could be made to improve the story flow. All of those are outlined here on the boards. I don’t know of any other module or adventure that is as well commented as the STAP. When you run the adventure path, here on the message boards you have the equivalent of an army of play testers who have already worked out the kinks and upped the ante. There are some incredible ideas here – use them!
Hope you all have fun.
I've had a look through my old magazines and was wondering if this actually plays out well and is any good. I've not read any of the adventures (on purpose).
How does it compare to Age of Worms, which I loved but had too many dungeon crawls IMHO?
Cheers! :D
will ye run or play?
Thanks for the heads-up, peeps!
I will more than likely be running it.Cheers! :D
then ye should check out the killboard. many of the encounters are rather stiff and if character liveablity is key to you, pay attention. lindemacil posts are of keen intrest to me, about half of the deathes are me. still, IT WAS A BLAST TO PLAY!!! and should be just as much fun to run!
This might well be the most fun campaign I have ever DM-ed.Agree completely.
Interestingly though, the best scenes of my own campaign were from "Porphyry house Horror" (Dungeon #95 - mature) which take place in Scuttlecove despite not being an official part of STAP.
Aye, and though we have not gotten there yet, some of the funnest parts were from War of the Wielded, which is not STAP but took place in Sasserine so I added it.
Is there a single thread that kind of combines all the hiccups?
Love the AP and am having a blast DMing it. Pirates, dinosaurs, and a world changing plotline (even though you do not know it at the beginning). What more do you need??
(ok ninjas, but *shrug* had to draw the line somewhere. :)
(ok ninjas...With flaming swords!!!
Seriously though, I'm going to check this out (ie. read the synopsis and the first adventure).
Cheers! :D
You could put put ninjas with flaming swords in there. Make them a group of assassins hired by the Kalanis after Bullywug Gambit. You could call them the Fire Trolls.
Wait, that sounds kind of familiar...
(ok ninjas...With flaming swords!!!
Seriously though, I'm going to check this out (ie. read the synopsis and the first adventure).
Cheers! :D
You could put put ninjas with flaming swords in there. Make them a group of assassins hired by the Kalanis after Bullywug Gambit. You could call them the Fire Trolls.
Wait, that sounds kind of familiar...
What do you think a certain diamond-suited minions are?
Yep, low-end minions.
Although giving a dozen or so mooks +2 weapons (8,300 gp and change per) for the group to sell off wholesale seems a bit daft. Unless they're clubs .. which makes them REALLY effective torches... mmmm... torches ....
(ok ninjas...With flaming swords!!!
Seriously though, I'm going to check this out (ie. read the synopsis and the first adventure).
Cheers! :D
You could put put ninjas with flaming swords in there. Make them a group of assassins hired by the Kalanis after Bullywug Gambit. You could call them the Fire Trolls.
Wait, that sounds kind of familiar...
What do you think a certain diamond-suited minions are?
Yep, low-end minions.
Although giving a dozen or so mooks +2 weapons (8,300 gp and change per) for the group to sell off wholesale seems a bit daft. Unless they're clubs .. which makes them REALLY effective torches... mmmm... torches ....
You've hit on something - Where are they going to sell of magic items wholesale? If these theoretic Fire Trolls attack, say suring SWW, the won't find anyone with enough gp to flash at magical items - even once they get to Farshore. It will be a LONG time before the trade routes open up - and then only if the payers successfully make it so. Something to give them that much more incentive, though, huh?
And I thought it was "mini-onions" with you. I feel so ... disappointed.
Well, I realize its not a ninja with a flaming sword, but I can give you a deathknight hill giant riding a bodak tyrannosaurus. I just hope that will make up for it, but I know it won't. Savage Tide has failed us!
Seriously though, there is one of those in endgame Savage Tide. Several in fact.
You've hit on something - Where are they going to sell of magic items wholesale? If these theoretic Fire Trolls attack, say suring SWW, the won't find anyone with enough gp to flash at magical items - even once they get to Farshore. It will be a LONG time before the trade routes open up - and then only if the payers successfully make it so. Something to give them that much more incentive, though, huh?
And I thought it was "mini-onions" with you. I feel so ... disappointed.
O.o ... well ... there was this 4e thread see ... and ...
ROCKS FALL, EVERYONE DIES!!
Sneaks out the back door
O.o ... well ... there was this 4e thread see ... and ...
ROCKS FALL, EVERYONE DIES!!
Sneaks out the back door
There's the Mad Turin we all know and love! He's sneaking out the back door. GRAB HIM!!!
There's the Mad Turin we all know and love! He's sneaking out the back door. GRAB HIM!!!
O.o ... well ... there was this 4e thread see ... and ...
ROCKS FALL, EVERYONE DIES!!
Sneaks out the back door
I have mini-onions!! And I'm not afraid to use them!!
Oh ... and a CR 50 superkraken ... y'know, just 'cause ...
Agree with most of the above - STAP is one of the best campaigns I've ever seen. I am running Rise of the Runelords paralell to it now, and STAP really is a lot better.
Now to convince people to play it! ;)
On a side note, aren't Ogres like mini-onions? (Though I still wish they had flaming swords. Hmmm... Ogre ninjas with flaming swords, disguised as onion sellers...)
Cheers! :D
They are indeed - 'cept they're really BIG mini-onions.
Now, if your ogre-ninjas are properly disguised, they will strongly resemble the minimum-wage workers at your local fast food joints... the flaming weapons are (a) command-activated after all, and (b) disguised to resemble such clever implements as mops, spatulas and other cleaning/cooking implements.
The give-away to the party is (a) they're a bit tall for the role and (b) even the cashiers, manager and trash-collecting ogre-ninja-employees are toting along a cooking or cleaning implement.
Players don't get no steeekin' Perception check for that - if they can't call "WTF" after seeing the flavor text on that set up ... they deserve what the ogre-ninja-mini-onions do to them.
Now to convince people to play it! ;)
On a side note, aren't Ogres like mini-onions? (Though I still wish they had flaming swords. Hmmm... Ogre ninjas with flaming swords, disguised as onion sellers...)
Cheers! :D
Awww c'mon if you want to play ogre ninjas why are you are not playing WoW minis?
just say two words "pirates" and "dinosaurs"Now to convince people to play it! ;)
I would be more enticed by "Isle of Dread" and "Demogorgon".
I would be more enticed by "Isle of Dread" and "Demogorgon".just say two words "pirates" and "dinosaurs"Now to convince people to play it! ;)
should have put that second in a spoiler. At least for my players I had to avoid the word to prevent demon-slaying metagaming O:)