I am looking at getting the pdfs for this adventure path, but I am wondering how well does this adventure stack up with the current adventure paths?
I am looking at getting the pdfs for this adventure path, but I am wondering how well does this adventure stack up with the current adventure paths?
Yes. I think so, anyway. But then again, I like undead. And cults. And having my players participate in gladitorial events. And badass dracoliches. And the city of Greyhawk. And fighting wannabe deities.
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I personally would recommend the Pathfinder paths over age of worms. Age of worms is very good, don't get me wrong, but it is a lot harder to pull off. It is very focussed on undead, which leads to problems with class balance. It is a 12 issue path as opposed to a 6 issue one. That makes it harder to maintain interest levels through the entire campaign. Finally, AoW has some rather weak links (Spire of Long Shadows, Encounter at Blackwall Keep), while even the weakest Pathfinder (Second Darkness, in my book) can be run almost as-written.
AoW (and the others dungeon APs) can hold its own to the pathfinder APs, especially if you take into account the associated Dragon stuff (ecologies, overload, maps, city articles and wormfood). And there is ample old greyhawk stuff that you could use. It may take a bit more preparation, though.
Yeah, there are many undeads. But don not belief that it gets boring! My players have just finished SoLS, and the next challenging undead will be... uhm... Thesselar who is like 10 sessions away. The party has some very dedicated undead killers (a ranger and a paladin/wormhunter), but there is plenty opportunity for others to shine as well, even for the rogue/bard.
For me, it boils down to personal preference: What kind of spirit do you want to evoke in your campaign? What should it feel like?
AoW is gloomy, brutal, and epic. From the first installment, the PCs know that they are destined against something huge. There are only so many instances where they can "relax", show off and feel themselves as a mighty powerful party (Blackwell Keep, most of Champion's Belt, some in Prince of Redhand). For the rest of the AP, the are challenged by brutal odds and are accompanied by a nagging feeling of determination and responsibility. It's an ugly business campaign. And my players like it a lot that way.
If the OP is using Pathfinder rules, then the undead issue isn't as bad.
I personally would recommend the Pathfinder paths over age of worms. Age of worms is very good, don't get me wrong, but it is a lot harder to pull off. It is very focussed on undead, which leads to problems with class balance. It is a 12 issue path as opposed to a 6 issue one. That makes it harder to maintain interest levels through the entire campaign. Finally, AoW has some rather weak links (Spire of Long Shadows, Encounter at Blackwall Keep), while even the weakest Pathfinder (Second Darkness, in my book) can be run almost as-written.
I disagree with with TerraNova. The 12 issues versus 6 issues statement is silly, as size of the individual adventures in the Pathfinder APs is MUCH larger than the size of the individual AoW adventures. The AoW covers more levels (from 1 to 20+) in the same or slightly less space than the Pathfinder APS (which cover 1-15 or so). There are a number of weak adventures or adventure points throughout all the APs. There are surprise TPK encounters, loose threads, vanishing NPCs and more in both the AoW and the Pathfinder APS.
Age of Worms has a definite focus, a very well done starting point, and lots of interesting threads. It is definitely worth the OPs time, money, and energy.
Also, AoW runs great as a 4E campaign, if that is a ruleset you'd consider. My group is just finishing up the second adventure and they are not showing any signs of giving up, despite the fact that they have already had a few character deaths!
However, they also liked Burnt Offerings despite the fact they had a TPK in that one (we were using Savage Worlds rules).
But I agree with some of the other posters, AoW is pretty dark and has lots of undead and nasty disease and infestation overtones, while the Pathfinder AP's have a much different feel. I would not say one is "better" than the other though.
I think its comparable. Really all the APs are good or bad more on personal taste by this point. Shackled City was the real learning experience in terms of AP design. After that improvements were incremental. Personally AoW is my favorite of the APs with Curse of the Crimson Throne coming a close second. There are some rough patches but there are some truly epic scenes as well. Generally I think that, while the designers would make improvements to APs in the future, which would help future APs, the very early ones got to snag most of the low hanging fruit.
So Age of Worms has some pretty obvious D&D cliches - stuff like a chance to fight as a gladiator during one memorable adventure - now most campaigns probably don't need PCs as gladiators, more then once or twice in your D&D career and the sheen of getting to be a gladiator really wears off - but every PC should get that chance at least once if their hobby is high fantasy gaming. Age of Worms and Savage Tide got to jump on some pretty basic tropes and exploit the heck out of them while the later APs needed to go further afield to find interesting fantasy scenes.
I am looking at getting the pdfs for this adventure path, but I am wondering how well does this adventure stack up with the current adventure paths?
It's an awesome campaign. The only I dont like is that there is a lot of behind the scenes information that the players dont get to know unless you give it to them. What I am doing is giving them some of this background information at certain points. I think it will make the story more interesting.
I haven't run any of the APs, but having run AoW for the last 2 1/2 years, it's a pretty amazing campaign. Don't let the undead scare you, there are a slew of monsters in the campaign that are not undead. Some points to consider:
1) lots of unique monsters in AoW. It's a good campaign to use against players who know the MM inside and out, as it keeps them on their toes.
2) It has a very epic feel to it, especially at the later levels.
3) Turning the undead, unfortunately in 3.5, was almost pointless, as most of the undead in the adventure were very resistant to it. I think PFRPG channeling rules would make the adventure more enjoyable, and remember certain undead can now be critted.
4) One negative about the adventure, so many stat boosting magical items… there must be at least 15 sets of Gloves of Dexterity +4, and Circlets of Wisdom +4 in the adventure.
thanks for all the feed back, I will look into it.
I am familiar with all 3 Dungeon APs but I have only read Rise of the Runelords, so my opinions may be slanted a bit.
The Dungeon APs are longer, 20 levels instead of 15 or so. The issue of 12 installments instead of 6 doesn't factor in as much, as has already been stated. I like the idea of running a game that spans the entire range of play and goes the full 20 levels, but it can be a challenge to get the players through it all. It really is a personal preference. In running SCAP I found the players began to get a little burned out as they started to hit 16th level and we needed to take a break before retuning to it. Pathfinder avoids this by ending at about that point.
As far as story quality is concerned, I prefer AoW over RotRL by far. The darker, grittier, meaner elements are much preferred. Rune Lords starts out great but degrades into dungeon crawling by the mid way point while AoW keeps things changing. There are dungeon crawls to be sure, but the dungeons are smaller and quicker to complete, by the looks of them anyway, leading to more variety and less player burnout.
Age of Worms is a hella cool story and while there are elements that could have been handled better (wind dukes, anyone?), it is still a solid campaign. It is my favorite of the three Dungeon APs.
But keep in mind there are other APs out there to consider. Dragonlance Chronicles was probably the most fun I had in 2E and the length is comparable to the Dungeon APs. There is also other 3p APs like The Drow War (cool though I haven't read part 3) and War of the Burning Sky (I know nothing about this one).