Savage Tide my FAVORITE campaign path!

[Jib]

I am glad to see people are still interested and playing the Savage Tide Adventure Path. It was my favorite! I suppose it was the flavor of the setting. Maybe the feel of the tropics with the exploration element thrown in? Old school D&D Isle of Dread re-visited? Of course I loved the pirate element... often repeated but not often done well.

What is your take on the Savage Tide? What made the AP for you and your crew?

[Andreas Skye]

1) Demons galore. sometimes as something more than enemies.

2) Planewalking (or, rather, planesailing)

3) resource management and settlement administration.

[Carl Cramér]

I loved it, and its by far the best adventure path - Curse of the Crimson Throne might be close.

A bit more pirates on the way down would have been nice. My favorite parts were in Sasserine - they actually led to a Sasserine spin-off campaign.

[tim yeh]

I'm finishing BWG and already the players are really bonding with the Sasserine setting. For me, I loved the old school Isle of Dread (IOD)setting which was my 1st experience with DnD.

The pirate theme are another favorite especially coming at the time of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean.

Another really cool idea was the ability to interact with such legendary figures such as Iggwill, Demogorgon, & Orcus. These were my favorites monster back in the ad&d period.

Now if only, you guys could include Asmodeus in the mix ;).

[Luna eladrin]

It inspires my PCs to enormous creativity. They want to use a whip to swing from the rigging of one ship to another, they want to write an encyclopedia about the Olman culture and plants on the isle of dread, they want to become defender of the Olman, they want to camouflage whole ships in order to avoid pirates, etc. etc. etc. They really get in the atmosphere of high adventure.

All in all this campaign so far has been the most fun I ever had as a DM.

[doppelganger]

I love because it is the last adventure path to go all (and past) twentieth level. The APs after Savage Tide end before reaching the highest heights.

Legacy of Fire (my second favorite AP) has some of the plane-traveling, deal-making, weird monster cosmopolitan fun, but it ends before the PCs are able to treat the bad baddies as almost equals.

[Lightningwing]

I'm interested in running this fantastic campaign with my group this fall. While going through my vast collection of stuff I realized I have a small problem. Can anyone tell me which issue of Dungeon magazine this started in? I'm sure I have it, but I can only find the other installments so far. Thank you.

[Dark Roland]

Lightningwing wrote:

I'm interested in running this fantastic campaign with my group this fall. While going through my vast collection of stuff I realized I have a small problem. Can anyone tell me which issue of Dungeon magazine this started in? I'm sure I have it, but I can only find the other installments so far. Thank you.

from wikipedia:

"There Is No Honor" by James Jacobs (Dungeon 139, October 2006) – In this opening adventure, the characters are drawn into a murderous family feud. Undead pirates and a powerful thieves' guild feature heavily.

[Lightningwing]

Thank you kindly Dark Roland. I would have never thought to look for a listing of such material on Wikipedia.

[JustTim]

tim yeh wrote:

Now if only, you guys could include Asmodeus in the mix ;).

I had to chuckle at that. In Scuttlecove, the Dire Hunger Monks, definitely a sinking bastion of lawfulness in a chaotic port was in desperate need of a patron after the Ur-priests vanished. Who should come calling but none other than Glasya, daughter of Asmodeous! Well, she tried to assassinate Tyralandi who was saved by the PCs. Tyralandi orchestrated some other plots to get the PCs to go after the DHMs. They did, teleported in after getting detailed descriptions from Tyralandi (so helpful she was, kind of her, wasn't it) and were surprised to be facing the ritual sacrifice of one of their cohorts at the hands of a Pit Fiend (Glasya's agent). They successfully killed the Pit Fiend but were stunned by the power of the epic-level Monk leader and some of his followers. They quickly retreated, licking their wounds, back to Farshore.

What they didn't realize was that they had gone up against Glasya (Tyralandi left that fact out). They were startled to have an Imp locate them in Farshore and despite all of their best in-game thinking and out-of-game meta-gaming, somehow found themselves in a pact with Glasya through the machinations of this Imp. Ultimately the crazy wild elf Barbarian Ranger had too much of this and raged on the imp. No one (even to this day) realizes that the imp was Glasya's familiar, although they did wonder why it was such a tough imp. But the imp did get several into a pact. Those PCs continue to further damn their souls (unknowingly) by continued use of the benefits provided through this pact (skills, feats, weapons, vile damage what have you). None of these characters has actually died yet, but once they do, they will then discover that Glasya has claimed their soul and won't return it.

Glasya has decided that although revenge will be hers, she will take her time and extract maximum usefulness from the party. So, she has had her Erinyes watch the party conduct its fights, especially against the Crimson Fleet HQ so she can better understand their tactics and their strengths and weaknesses. She is also content to let them damn their souls slowly. She has already realized they will harm the demons, so that is good. And then if she can get them to return and destroy Tyralandi, even better. But the party will be hers, and she'll devote herself to that over centuries if need be.

Of course, the party hasn't quite figured this out yet, despite a variety of foreshadowing such as (1) Erinyes being spotted observing their fights and taunting them after (2) loss of Harliss when she was left on the Blue Nixie during the assault on the Crimson Fleet HQ (3) sending to Harliss that revealed she was in Hell, not the Abyss and that the cohort sacrificed by the Pit Fiend was there too (party has yet to try and resurrect her, wants to later).

The party also hasn't fully appreciated Tyralandi's position - that they double-crossed her by allying with Glasya - nor how powerful the epic Tyralandi was.

It's been fun to have this as an ongoing plot and to throw various clues in that don't yet connect for them. And the best part is it has been almost entirely driven by their choices which continue to surprise me, but keep it fun.

[Carl Cramér]

Tim, what level are your players by this time to face epic treats?

[JustTim]

Carl Cramér wrote:

Tim, what level are your players by this time to face epic treats?

They are all 17th level (x6 of them) with 15th level cohorts (x3). They also have access to all rules from any official book, as well as most magic (i'm a bit more restrictive on magic item compendium although loosening up). As per other threads I have read, once they have access to the expansion rules, and you have 6 rather than 4, their power really amps up. In addition, I believe the leadership feat is one of the most powerful around as it allows such a powerful follower.

[Lightningwing]

Could anyone give me advice for running this story-arc in the Forgotten Realms setting. "There Is No Honor" mentions further information to expand upon through use of articles in Dragon magazine, and this website. I've been looking closely at these messageboards and have as yet found any information about using settings other than Greyhawk/Oerth. Either such information is so old as to no long be found here, or as I'm sure is the case, I'm too dumb/old/unskilled with site surfing to find it. Any help/suggestions that anyone cares to send my way will be greatly appreciated. I'm an "old school" DM that is trying to convert this all for the enjoyment of my gaming group. I'm not entirely sure this is going to work at all. We need a change of pace, and I sincerely hope this works. Its getting harder these days to keep gamers coming back that have been sitting across the table from me for 20 years or more. Maybe I need to find fresh,new players...

Please contact me about this, or even gaming experiences you wish to share here or at [e-mail]

Thank you all,

David .

[carborundum]

The conversion notes for the first four parts are here:

http://paizo.com/dungeonissues/SavageTide/SavageTide_conversion.pdf
http://paizo.com/dungeonissues/SavageTide/SavageTideConversion2.pdf
http://paizo.com/dungeonissues/SavageTide/SavageTideConversion3.pdf
http://paizo.com/dungeonissues/SavageTide/SavageTideConversion4.pdf

(posting quickly from work or I'd do the link html code)

All the web supplements can be found here, I think - handy for maps etc.

http://paizo.com/dungeon/news#v5748eaic9kfs

Enjoy!

[Freehold DM]

Probably the fact that I could turn it into a spelljammer campaign-based game with little work.

[Lightningwing]

Thank You!!

[Mactaka]

Still playing it..On Tides of Dread

[Camris]

My party just got shipwrecked on the Isle of Terror. Next up, Tyrannasaurus Terror!

[Orthos]

JustTim wrote:

tim yeh wrote:

Now if only, you guys could include Asmodeus in the mix ;).

I had to chuckle at that. In Scuttlecove, the Dire Hunger Monks, definitely a sinking bastion of lawfulness in a chaotic port was in desperate need of a patron after the Ur-priests vanished. Who should come calling but none other than Glasya, daughter of Asmodeous!

That's beautiful. I'm working Zariel rather than Glasya into my STAP but I may borrow a few of these ideas.

[Fiendish Dire Weasel]

I had been putting together my own ideas for some sea-based d&d adventuring on my own to run. I had some fun ideas that stood alone, but no real "glue" to bring them all together into a coherent story line.

That same month, the first issue of Savage Tide came out, and a friend who knew what I was doing pointed it out to me. It was perfect because I was still able to incorporate most of my own ideas in as side adventures, another was more or less exactly what I had in mind, and most importantly, it all had a perfectly coherent and credible story arc that my disparate ideas had so far lacked. Perfect!

[Luna eladrin]

I think I have never run a campaign with so much excitement and tension. I notice it in my players, because they take a lot more trouble to pick a date for playing, even cancelling other activities. Which is just great.