Hey everyone!
Is there anywhere, or does anyone have, a quick index to the Wormfood articles run in Dragon magazine? I scanned the forum but didn't see anything like that...
I'd like to see if any of them will be useful for my AoW campaign. I don't want to get all the PDFs and find half of them are "meh".
Thanks in advance!
I found going to the public library the best way to check these old Dragon articles out. Our library had Dragon in with the kids books, so I was there doing 'research' with all the 4-year olds!
Most were either very or moderately useful (esp. 333, 336, 337, 338, 339, 341, 342, 343) and they definitely added colour to the game.
The Dragon ecology article on the Spawn of Kyuss was also excellent.
More useful, perhaps is the the Dragon Monster Ecologies publication could actually be called Dragon Age of Worms Monster Ecologies. Choker, dracolich, inevitable, kenku, kobold, lizardfolk, rakshasa, spawn of Kyuss, and spell weaver are all covered in detail, and there are useful articles that help put in context the classic D&D mythos around beholder, mindflayer, and displacer beast, all of which are also AoW beasties. This is a very helpful purchase if you don't already have a whole bunch of Dragon backissues (like I did not)
Wormfood Articles-
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Thank you so much! This is a great reference. I'm really curious about the Wormhunter PrC - is it a good PrC? Pretty generic or ranger-based?
I'm really curious about the Wormhunter PrC - is it a good PrC? Pretty generic or ranger-based?
It's very generic, pretty much anyone can qualify. One of my group is playing one. Be warned though it features quite a lot of fluff related features: the character goes slowly mad as part of the progression. In my group I like this, but if your group is more prone to kicking in the door and not so much to characterisation then quite a lot of the disadvantages become fairly minor and it could become unbalanced.
On a more mechanical note as a DM you will have to consider how to avoid the Wormhunter ability to detect minions of Kyuss from disrupting the whole plot of the campaign. A certain vampiric NPC may become an issue...
Thanks for all the info! I've picked up the PDFs for 336 and 338, for now, to capitalize on the 'night on the town' info, which I may work in as a backdrop/interlude, and the Wormhunter PrC, which I'm sure one of the PCs will find interesting!
Thanks for all the info! I've picked up the PDFs for 336 and 338, for now, to capitalize on the 'night on the town' info, which I may work in as a backdrop/interlude, and the Wormhunter PrC, which I'm sure one of the PCs will find interesting!
Is the "night on the town" Wormfood the one with the details of the businesses in Midnight's Muddle, with the map of the area surrounding the Crooked House Inn?
If so, one of the really cool things about it, IMO, was that the little map conforms exactly to a section in this big map of the City of Greyhawk, right down to the individual buildings. So if you want, you can show your players exactly where they are staying in the "Free City" (ie. Greyhawk). This way, you add a huge number of possible locations for the PCs' days and nights on the town while they investigate the doppelganger/illithid activity in Hall of Harsh Reflections and wait for the Champion's Games to begin. If you keep a copy offline, you can even add new labels and red dots on your own for your own group's use; ie. you can add labels to the Crooked House Inn, the Cold Forge smithy, and so on. It's even possible to use the basic framework with completely different maps if you're feeling ambitious, but I digress...
The only other Wormfood article I've actually used so far was 'Gating in the Heavy Hitters' - one of my players (the only one who actually provided me with a background for his PC, which I felt ought to be rewarded) runs a fire-worshipping cleric, so when he got himself killed in 3 Faces of Evil in such a way that the rest of the party was unable to bring his body back to get raised, I had Gendinom Furnace-Master, the massive fire elemental, intercept him in the afterlife and offer to send him back for a price - ie. bring the (unique) Ebon Aspect's body to the Bronzewood Lodge's ring of standing stones, along with materials for a special ritual that would summon Gendinom to collect it as payment to be incinerated in his magic furnace; the materials cost the same as a Raise Dead spell. This made for a fun solo mini-trek for that PC, allowing him a chance to regain some of the XP he lost for dying by fighting off a pack of wolves who were sniffing hungrily around his horse while he camped out en-route to the Lodge. Oh, and to walk on red-hot coals as part of the ritual, which he has been trying in vain to convince the other PC's to try ever since, in an attempt to convert them to fire-worship AKA pyromania...
Good luck with your campaign! Age of Worms can be loads of fun, but it can also be a real meat-grinder at times. Enjoy...
Kang
If so, one of the really cool things about it, IMO, was that the little map conforms exactly to a section in this big map of the City of Greyhawk, right down to the individual buildings.
Not only will you find that map (with pop-up labels) on my website, but you can also find:
A more detailed description of (my) Maldin's magic shop briefly described in the Dragon 337 Wormfood article and Living Greyhawk Journal #2,
A detailed description of the Broken Staff Tavern also briefly described in Living Greyhawk Journal #2,
both of which have interior maps.
You'll also find other useful City of Greyhawk information, such as an equipment supplier, a massive NPC list for the city, and a hidden school of psionics.
Denis, aka "Maldin"
Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com