Well, no one can answer that question for you but you. Did you play Shackled City as a DM or as a player, because that is not really clear to me?
I can understand the attraction of DM'ing a campaign you played in and loved as a player. I would never run the same campaign as a DM twice.
I DM'ed both SCAP and AOW. My personal favorite was Age of Worms, but starting a new campaign will certainly require a lot more work of you. Still, that is the challenge being a DM is all about.
If you do choose to do AoW, be sure to check these boards for tons of good ideas to make the campaign even better.
Well, I may have a bias here since I've only run AoW, but that game was very fun. My group is running Savage Tide now, and so far I've had fun with it as well. Haven't heard much of Shackled City other than what the GM that will be running it has told me (3 GMs, 3 1-20 APs)
If I had a choice, I'd make the same decision I made before and choose AoW.
I have played in SCAP and DM'd AoW. I think AoW's story flows better, but I also think it is more difficult. Be prepared to tone things down unless you either have players that don't mind dying or if you don't have good players.
I also agree that the story for Age of Worms is probably better straight out of the box, but after several years you probably know how to patch over the holes in Shackled City (e.g. foreshadowing the Cagewrights better) so it's probably a toss-up.
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I also agree that the story for Age of Worms is probably better straight out of the box, but after several years you probably know how to patch over the holes in Shackled City (e.g. foreshadowing the Cagewrights better) so it's probably a toss-up.
I also agree tha I liked AoW better. You can find a million sources of material for Greyhawk. I bought a ton of stuff off ebay, because i had not played GH since like version 2.0.
I am currently running SC...the difference is that AoW is more "world spanning" and the PC's get some truly epic encounters...My favorites had to be Dragotha and then the Fire Giant city...
I enjoy running (as DM) modules I've played through as a player. It's interesting to see how a different group handles similar challenges, to see how different the written module was from what you interpreted about it, and to customize it to fit your vision of how it could hang together better.
But over a whole multi-year Adventure Path, it's a big decision only you can make.
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My suggestion is to do some "Greyhawk" reading...there is alot of specific stuff. While it could be proted anywhere, it really works best with greyhawk...for example, Dragotha is the undead dragon that is mentioned on the map in White Plume mountain. My player (wizard) had the goal to become one of the Circle of Eight. Prince Zeech is prevalent.
I bought a lot of Greyhawk material, ad it really added to the flavor of the game....I loved running it!!
Big Greyhawk fan over here. I'm not sure how easy it would be to "pick up" Greyhawk if you're not familiar with it, as most things are out of print. Ghwiki is a good place to start or do some light research, though.
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I bet if you run SCAP again, but with a new group of players, they'll do stuff your first group didn't. I'm taking my group through the AP for the first time and they've already departed from the script in numerous ways. I'm scrambling to improvise to keep the main plot from the AP going while accomodating their ideas. For instance, Orak was exiled from Cauldron for his suspected complicity in Drakthar's activities--and so they bought his bathhouse and are renovating it to run as a business! And when they visited Redgorge and found that there was still a big breach in the walls from the demon assault long ago, they actually paid to hire every quarryman and mason in town to repair it all. I spend a lot of time going "Wait, you guys want to do WHAT?!" So go ahead and run the Shackled City again if you like.
Awesome players, Zarzulan. And I agree with your point - the same adventure with different players won't just be a re-run.
I love how your players are wanting to be part of the areas they are adventuring in :) I love it when your players throw you curve balls like that.
Mine seriously thought about renovating The Laughing Monkey, instead my rogue player decided to recruit all the surviving Alley Bashers and re-establish the guild to combat the Last Laugh ....
Re the original posters quandry do the one you'll have the most fun with. I've run AoW and currently running SCAP. I have made modifications to suit my world and my players style .... thoroughly enjoy the AP's that appeared in Dungeon.