Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Goliat 07-30-07, 07:06 PM	I am looking for a D&D adventure/campain that takes the characters from level 1 to level 20. Does it exist? I enjoy beeing a DM but I dont have time to make the adventures.
WarRabbit 07-30-07, 07:26 PM	Here are the mega-campaigns I know about: From Paizo at www.paizo.com: Shackled City Hardcover(1st to 20th - mostly dungeons) Age of Worms (Dungeon magazines 124-135)(1st to 20th - mix of city/outdoor/dungeon - lots of undead) Savage Tide (Dungeon magazines 139-150) (1st to 20th - outdoor/seafaring) From Mongoose Publishing: Drow War trilogy (1st to 30th) Monte Cook: Ptolus Campaign Book (1st to 20th - City based adventures) My personal ratings are: Shackled City 8/10 Age of Worms 9/10 Savage Tide 9/10 Drow War 7/10 Ptolus 8/10
Goliat 07-31-07, 11:03 AM	Thanks WarRabbit. Just what I was looking for. I think I will go for the Shackled City Hardcover. But I will ask the PC's what they prefer. We just had a city-based campaign and our current is an outdoors campaign. Any body else got some suggestions?
Subversive 07-31-07, 04:16 PM	I've heard nothing but good things about Age of Wyrms myself. In fact, I'm dying to see a campaign writeup of it. I think the only drawback to the adventure is that it hasn't been published outside of the pages of Dungeon magazine, meaning you'd have to buy the backissues. -Steve
WarRabbit 08-01-07, 02:04 AM	Here is a link to the campaign journal from James Jacobs (editor-in-chief of Paizo) which is DM'd by Erik Mona: http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/community/gaming/campaignJournals/ageOfWormsAdventurePathPlaytestTyralandi Scrimm&page=1 To date, they're a bit short of half way through the adventure path, but the write up is enjoyable to read and it gives you a fun player perspective of the adventures. There's also other good campaign journals on the paizo site using all three of the adventure paths. (Killer GM runs Age of Worms is quite entertaining).
James Jacobs 08-01-07, 02:20 AM	In theory, we're playing again this Thursday. So I guess I'd better get the last session written up and added to that thread, if there's gonna be new eyes checking it out!
Goliat 08-05-07, 06:24 PM	I just have to say: Tyralandi Scrimm rules! Thanks for all replays.
Sean-Khan 08-07-07, 06:14 AM	Interesting thread - just something I've been looking for myself too. I wasn't actually looking for a ready campaign, but gathering people that would be interested in co-operative campaign-creation, something resembling Baldur's gate II (I really love that game!), but I haven't found much success with this so far, so I might try this instead. I'll have to check what I can find about these games, but I'd appreciate a few details, as I'm probably going to use True20 instead of D&D. First, I'd like to know about these campaigns, about how much of the opponents are basic Monster Manual -stuff, compared to creatures from other books, unique characters or creatures? The less I have to convert, the better. Second, I prefer using less magic items than in D&D usually has - is any of these campaigns such that it wouldn't have loads of magical items in every corner? Or is there any other such campaigns, D20 or possibly even non-D20 but using D&D -like creatures? Oh, and one more thing - like I said, I really liked BGII, it's feel and everything - does any of these have any similar feel? Do they have something larger that binds the campaign together? And, yet another thing - any comments about easiness of study/readability -design of those campaigns would also be welcome :) I hate it when I have to memorize lots of things beforehand... Lots of thanks in advance for answers!
WarRabbit 08-07-07, 11:26 AM	First, I'd like to know about these campaigns, about how much of the opponents are basic Monster Manual -stuff, compared to creatures from other books, unique characters or creatures? The less I have to convert, the better. The Paizo Adventure Paths tend to have a mix of basic monsters, monsters from WotC Monster Manuals (II-IV), and unique characters as well as one or two new monsters per adventure. The Drow War is mostly basic monsters and unique characters. The Ptolus campaign is some basic monsters mixed with a lot of unique characters. Second, I prefer using less magic items than in D&D usually has - is any of these campaigns such that it wouldn't have loads of magical items in every corner? Or is there any other such campaigns, D20 or possibly even non-D20 but using D&D -like creatures? All of the campaigns I mentioned use pretty much standard D&D Treasure. I don't know if that means 'loads of magical items' to you or not since you seem to like BGII so much. If you hand out less treasure than the adventures specify, then you will have to tweak the difficulty at mid to high levels as the player's opponents were definitely created towards defeating a group of players with standard D&D treasure. You may want to look into Monte Cook's Iron Heroes for a set of character rules based on low-magic. If you use those rules, I believe you can play any of these campaign adventures 'as is' and just leave out giving magic items to the characters (or give out a fraction of it). Oh, and one more thing - like I said, I really liked BGII, it's feel and everything - does any of these have any similar feel? Do they have something larger that binds the campaign together? All of these campaigns have something larger that binds the adventures together. These adventures were design to build on one another towards a goal (although sometimes the goal isn't apparent until later in the campaign). I'm guessing Shackled City or Age of Worms would fit the 'BGII feel' the best. Savage Tide is more of a swashbuckling and seafaring type of campaign. And, yet another thing - any comments about easiness of study/readability -design of those campaigns would also be welcome :) I hate it when I have to memorize lots of things beforehand... Ptolus is a pretty awesome city campaign, but it takes a lot of work from the DM to memorize the city in and out and really know the major NPCs of the city, their personalities, and their affiliations. The Paizo Adventure Paths take less work and are layed out in an easy to read format, but as the adventures progress the DM really needs to review the major monster and NPC capabilities, before playing each adventure, in order to play them effectively.
Sean-Khan 08-07-07, 02:23 PM	Lots of thanks, WarRabbit, for all the info! I believe this will help me to choose my setting! I know it may sound a bit controversial my willingness to limit magic items and liking of BGII; I've been reading Ptolus player's guide, and it may be that I'll have to change my views... I might not want to limit scrolls and such, and lower magic items I could turn into varying degrees of masterwork items - I just want most magic items to be something that causes 'ooh' from players's mouth when they see them - and ensuring that there's not too many of them, it will help the impact. I believe that some of the adventures aren't actually in books, but you'll have to buy bunch of magazines to get them?
WarRabbit 08-07-07, 05:59 PM	I might not want to limit scrolls and such, and lower magic items I could turn into varying degrees of masterwork items - I just want most magic items to be something that causes 'ooh' from players's mouth when they see them - and ensuring that there's not too many of them, it will help the impact. Like I mentioned before, if you decide to make your campaign low-magic and you're using any of these 'mega-campaigns' you're going to start having trouble at mid levels and higher unless you're willing to do a lot of modification work. Definitely look into Iron Heroes if you plan on sticking with low-magic. As for how to purchase the campaigns: Ptolus: A big book of 600+ pages includes almost everything except a couple of 'extra' aventures that fit well into the setting like Banewarrens and Night of Dissolution. Shackled City: A hardcover book includes the entire campaign from Paizo. Age of Worms & Savage Tide: Only available by buying the dungeon magazines from Paizo. Age of Worms is in Dungeon magazines 124 through 135. Savage Tide is in Dungeon magazines 139-150. Drow War: Three hardcover books which cover levels 1-10, 11-20, and 21-30 respectively.
captain02 08-08-07, 12:20 AM	Is Ptolus sold anywhere online that isn't out of stock that anyone knows of? I've looked all over and every place I've been to is saying it's out. :(
Sean-Khan 08-08-07, 03:38 AM	Thanks again! :) Ptolus really sounds interesting, I really like that lots about the surrounding has stuff, and I've read good reviews about it. But it really seems to be out of stock from many places... And need of studying for start sounds like lot of work. I'm actually GM'ing Iron Heroes campaign right now, but I thought of trying True20 this time - which surely requires conversion work. I've already found one True20 -ptolus GM, with whom I can probably co-operate which reduces work. I have little experience about True20 in practice yet, so maybe I should start converting a single adventure first and try it. Anyway, the system is much more simplier than D&D and still based on D20, the main differences to D20 are damage & magic system. Power level equality of True20 remains to be seen - but as characters need to be converted (maybe I need to do some kind of base templates of some archetypes), maybe that evens out difficulty. And, I'm going to implement stunts from IH, maybe I'll have to change saves to IH -way too - possibly also add Saga -like damage & damage resistance bonus. That would be a simple way of empowering characters with few magic items.
Caligula 08-08-07, 07:14 AM	I am looking for a D&D adventure/campain that takes the characters from level 1 to level 20. Does it exist? I enjoy beeing a DM but I dont have time to make the adventures. "The Shackled City" adventure path. Can be found at: www.paizo.com It is an awesome module in hardbound! :)
WarRabbit 08-08-07, 08:55 PM	Is Ptolus sold anywhere online that isn't out of stock that anyone knows of? I've looked all over and every place I've been to is saying it's out. :( It does look sold out in a lot of places. I did find one copy on half.com and one on abebooks.com for sale. Oh and one used on amazon.com
WarRabbit 10-02-07, 11:44 PM	I thought I'd ressurect this thread and add that paizo is also producing a series of Adventure Paths called Pathfinder, the first two will be 3.5 rules and are called: Rise of the Runlords Curse of the Crimson Throne Each adventure path will come in 6 books, one each month and describe the a piece of the setting of Golarion, monsters of Golarion, and add another chapter to the adventure path. Pathfinder #1 - Rise of the Runelords, Chapter 1 "Burnt Offerings" is available and a great adventure: http://paizo.com/store/paizoExclusives/v5748btpy7zf2 If you get a subscription to Pathfinder, you also get a free download of a PDF of the adventure in addition to your hard copy each month. You can also find the adventures at amazon.com.
EldonG 10-03-07, 09:40 AM	Just in case anybody is interested...I dunno that we'll make level 20...but: http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?p=13975903#post13975903
DoveArrow 10-03-07, 01:16 PM	I've heard nothing but good things about Age of Wyrms myself. Really? Because I found the the first three or four adventures for this series to be a real drag. Particularly the opening adventure. I liked Shackled City so much better.
Renvale999 10-03-07, 03:02 PM	Anybody played through the Drow War trilogy? I'm debating on buying it and wanted to get some opinions.
WarRabbit 10-03-07, 10:54 PM	Anybody played through the Drow War trilogy? I'm debating on buying it and wanted to get some opinions. I haven't played it, but I do own it and have read the 1st book through (levels 1-10) and skimmed the other 2 books. Some of it looks good, other parts I'm not so sure it would play out well. I do like the over arching story, and if your group is one that likes adventures for the LONG haul then it could be a lot fun.
Renvale999 10-04-07, 09:58 AM	I haven't played it, but I do own it and have read the 1st book through (levels 1-10) and skimmed the other 2 books. Some of it looks good, other parts I'm not so sure it would play out well. I do like the over arching story, and if your group is one that likes adventures for the LONG haul then it could be a lot fun. Do they write out the stats for the monsters in the book or do you have to look them up? My current campaign may die in the water because of lack of time, but I could run a module rather easily. Does it look like you can easily change things to fit into a different world, like FR or Eberron?
WarRabbit 10-05-07, 02:53 AM	Do they write out the stats for the monsters in the book or do you have to look them up? My current campaign may die in the water because of lack of time, but I could run a module rather easily. Does it look like you can easily change things to fit into a different world, like FR or Eberron? They write out the stats for every monster, and many of the opponents in the books are NPCs. The authors really had to put in a lot of work to do all those NPCs! In the first book there's quite a few stats for duergar and drow enemy NPCs as well as a lot of humans with classes as encounters. As far as easily changing things to fit in a different world? I'm afraid not. The story describes an entire world with it's own Pantheon of gods and the characters 'destiny' entwined with this setting. No matter what background the characters have, the reason they come together is that they're 'Starborn'. Each is born with a distinctive birthmark and comes with a minor ability. You could still modify it to fit in another world, but I think it would take some work on your part. What do I like about the adventures? The setting and story are good in my opinion. I like the 'grandness' of the entire thing going from 1st to 30th level. Also, despite comming up against drow quite a few times in other settings I still think they're fun monsters fight. What don't I like? The authors make a special point to state they tried to make the adventures open ended where the characters can follow different paths, but quite often there's only 1 path to follow to forward the storyline. Most adventure paths are designed this way, it just seems a little forced at times in Book 1.