The 3.5 Adventure Path - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

The 3.5 Adventure Path

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
Hideous_Phidias
Apr 03, 2009 23:54:03 The Forgotten Forge
Shadows of the Last War
Whispers of the Vampire's Blade
Grasp of the Emerald Claw
Voyage of the Golden Dragon
Eyes of the Lich Queen

I was wondering if anyone out there ran the printed campaign for Eberron? My group has been having a lot of problems with prep time for campaigns. We seem to like Eberron best out of the setting. I have ran a few campaign in it over the years and a few other of the guy have tried too, but with limited success. I think the real problem is that now that we are older and starting families of oir own we have less time to devote to coming a good story line and well flushed out NPCs. The group has become roleplay lazy and we all need to work on it. My thoughts are using a per printed adventure may make this easier on the DM and thus a better game for all. I was wondering before I spend time hunting them down, how well do they fit together. Is there a storyline that seems to run through the six adventures? If so what is it?
#2
nthdegree256
Apr 04, 2009 0:31:08 I haven't run or played in them apart from Forgotten Forge, but my understanding is that at least 3 of the adventures are designed to be usable as a continuing storyline from Forgotten Forge - in particular, I know that a loot item near the end of Forgotten Forge is specifically described as being used for Shadows of the Last War.
#3
Amaril
Apr 04, 2009 1:07:11 The Forgotten Forge, Shadows of the Last War, Whispers of the Vampire's Blade, Grasp of the Emerald Claw, and Voyage of the Golden Dragon are all part of the adventure path, although VotGD is only a continuation in that it makes references to the others.

Whispers of the Vampire's Blade was a series of fun encounters but it was heavily railroaded.

With regards to your gaming group not having time to invest in the game because of families and/or other responsibilities, I highly recommend changing game systems. I switched to Savage Worlds specifically for this reason. It's a low cost entry at $10, requires less prep time than 4e supposedly does, allows the players to focus more on roleplaying and fast game play, and really does a far better job of representing pulp action in an RPG.

Check out the Test Drive Rules from Pinnacle's site, or just buy the book or PDF of the entire core rules in the Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition for $10.
#4
skrapsan
Apr 05, 2009 13:55:09 We ran the adventure path all the way through Wisper of the vampires blade. And we had great fun. Never got around to the last ones since that was about the time 4th edition struck down. But in my opinion its great adventures that represents the setting well. Grasp of the emerald claw seemed like the weakest one story wise, but we never got around to that one so I cant say for sure.
#5
Amaril
Apr 09, 2009 14:02:16
We ran the adventure path all the way through Wisper of the vampires blade. And we had great fun. Never got around to the last ones since that was about the time 4th edition struck down. But in my opinion its great adventures that represents the setting well. Grasp of the emerald claw seemed like the weakest one story wise, but we never got around to that one so I cant say for sure.

As a DM who ran the campaign, I personally like Grasp of the Emerald Claw the best in terms of story. I also made heavy use of drow character options and weapons in Secrets of Xen'drik to alter the drow NPCs. I also threw in some scorrow and warforged scorpions.
#6
warlockda
Apr 11, 2009 15:34:07 We ran all except VotGD (which came out after the campaign party of the time was well past the req level) and we all had a ton of fun. The EotLQ was my favorite.
#7
cloud_divider
Apr 15, 2009 21:15:08
The Forgotten Forge, Shadows of the Last War, Whispers of the Vampire's Blade, Grasp of the Emerald Claw, and Voyage of the Golden Dragon are all part of the adventure path, although VotGD is only a continuation in that it makes references to the others.

Whispers of the Vampire's Blade was a series of fun encounters but it was heavily railroaded.

With regards to your gaming group not having time to invest in the game because of families and/or other responsibilities, I highly recommend changing game systems. I switched to Savage Worlds specifically for this reason. It's a low cost entry at $10, requires less prep time than 4e supposedly does, allows the players to focus more on roleplaying and fast game play, and really does a far better job of representing pulp action in an RPG.

Check out the Test Drive Rules from Pinnacle's site, or just buy the book or PDF of the entire core rules in the Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition for $10.

For what it's worth, I've done more-or-less the same. I've been using Savage Worlds for my campaign for about the last year.

We've played through The Forgotten Forge and we're about halfway through Shadows of the Last War. Exceeeept that I've found I just can't leave well enough alone, so I ended up modding them heavily.

I used the overall structure of The Forgotten Forge (right down to using the same maps), but tweaked many of the encounters and the storyline to match a more investigative run against some Khyber cultists. In this case, I basically swapped out some of the set-piece encounters. So instead of fighting a band of shifter mercenaries in the sewer tunnels, it was a band of Kech Volaar hobgoblins looking for a Dhakaani ruin, and instead of fighting Saber, they fought some skeletons and a Nothic (the PCs were well beyond 1st level-equivalent).

I'm running Shadows of the Last War rather closer to how it's written, though I ended up tweaking the beginning to make it mesh with the PC's starting point (they met Elaydren in Trolanport; she was on her way to meet with her advance team in Rose Quarry). They made it through Rhukaan Draal without too much difficulty (they ended up facing down the hobgoblin crew at the Clenched Fist without having to fight openly; but spent the most of that session resolving some side-plots involving returning some Dhakaani artifacts they'd recovered in my adapted Forgotten Forge). I'm playing Rose Quarry pretty straight (adding a band of Marguul bugbear mercenaries) to match the challenge to the PC's "level". I am, however, changing the way the map room works (you could still probably use it as-is, though). I'll probably make some minor changes to Whitehearth, again to compensate for level (the PCs are more like 10th-12th level, rather than 1st). The big hydra golem is going to still be "alive" with a glass-petrification breath attack, for instance.

I plan on skipping Whispers of the Vampires Blade completely - there's really not much connecting it to the other adventures, except that it has some followers of the Lord of Blades involved for one scene. That said, I did end up stealing one action sequence (the lightning rail chase), and intend on utilizing/adapting the masquerade ball scene as well. Basically, the great strengths of this module are in some of the setpiece action sequences - there's a lightning-rail chase, an airship boarding action, plus a horse-drawn carriage pursuit. Were I to use it fully, I'd probably change the climax scene a bit - if the PC's are 3-4th level, the main villain (a vampire spawn) with an artifact sword is probably too rough of an opponent (especially as the PCs have to make a long slog through a monster-filled dungeon to get to him); as it stands, you'd have to play the villain intentionally not taking advantage of his most potent abilities (energy drain on a slam), which just doesn't make much sense, especially if the PCs have already killed off his allies/sister. I've got a couple ideas to make it more dramatically interesting, but ends with a rising sun and existential angst on the part of Lucian, rather than a big battle...

I intend on running Grasp of the Emerald Claw as well, though I'm going to use a normal surface ship rather than the elemental submarine...
#8
jack_altrades
Aug 28, 2009 0:00:02
I ran through that series twice. the second group was 50% of the origional one. In WotVB, I used the sword as a motivator for the vampire. Party shows up, fight ensues, vampire gains an upper hand, sword get's impatient. Sword then hits it's weilder with a painful cure spell. vampire remembers his job and takes off after making things difficult for the PC's. The vampire needed to deliver the sword and the sword wanted to go, therefore, the vampire was in a rush and didn't have time to fully finish off the PC's.

And now that 4e is out I have some of those players asking me to adapt them and run it again... lol

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Hideous_Phidias Apr 03, 2009 23:54:03	The Forgotten Forge Shadows of the Last War Whispers of the Vampire's Blade Grasp of the Emerald Claw Voyage of the Golden Dragon Eyes of the Lich Queen I was wondering if anyone out there ran the printed campaign for Eberron? My group has been having a lot of problems with prep time for campaigns. We seem to like Eberron best out of the setting. I have ran a few campaign in it over the years and a few other of the guy have tried too, but with limited success. I think the real problem is that now that we are older and starting families of oir own we have less time to devote to coming a good story line and well flushed out NPCs. The group has become roleplay lazy and we all need to work on it. My thoughts are using a per printed adventure may make this easier on the DM and thus a better game for all. I was wondering before I spend time hunting them down, how well do they fit together. Is there a storyline that seems to run through the six adventures? If so what is it?
#2 nthdegree256 Apr 04, 2009 0:31:08	I haven't run or played in them apart from Forgotten Forge, but my understanding is that at least 3 of the adventures are designed to be usable as a continuing storyline from Forgotten Forge - in particular, I know that a loot item near the end of Forgotten Forge is specifically described as being used for Shadows of the Last War.
#3 Amaril Apr 04, 2009 1:07:11	The Forgotten Forge, Shadows of the Last War, Whispers of the Vampire's Blade, Grasp of the Emerald Claw, and Voyage of the Golden Dragon are all part of the adventure path, although VotGD is only a continuation in that it makes references to the others. Whispers of the Vampire's Blade was a series of fun encounters but it was heavily railroaded. With regards to your gaming group not having time to invest in the game because of families and/or other responsibilities, I highly recommend changing game systems. I switched to Savage Worlds specifically for this reason. It's a low cost entry at $10, requires less prep time than 4e supposedly does, allows the players to focus more on roleplaying and fast game play, and really does a far better job of representing pulp action in an RPG. Check out the Test Drive Rules from Pinnacle's site, or just buy the book or PDF of the entire core rules in the Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition for $10.
#4 skrapsan Apr 05, 2009 13:55:09	We ran the adventure path all the way through Wisper of the vampires blade. And we had great fun. Never got around to the last ones since that was about the time 4th edition struck down. But in my opinion its great adventures that represents the setting well. Grasp of the emerald claw seemed like the weakest one story wise, but we never got around to that one so I cant say for sure.
#5 Amaril Apr 09, 2009 14:02:16	We ran the adventure path all the way through Wisper of the vampires blade. And we had great fun. Never got around to the last ones since that was about the time 4th edition struck down. But in my opinion its great adventures that represents the setting well. Grasp of the emerald claw seemed like the weakest one story wise, but we never got around to that one so I cant say for sure. As a DM who ran the campaign, I personally like Grasp of the Emerald Claw the best in terms of story. I also made heavy use of drow character options and weapons in Secrets of Xen'drik to alter the drow NPCs. I also threw in some scorrow and warforged scorpions.
#6 warlockda Apr 11, 2009 15:34:07	We ran all except VotGD (which came out after the campaign party of the time was well past the req level) and we all had a ton of fun. The EotLQ was my favorite.
#7 cloud_divider Apr 15, 2009 21:15:08	The Forgotten Forge, Shadows of the Last War, Whispers of the Vampire's Blade, Grasp of the Emerald Claw, and Voyage of the Golden Dragon are all part of the adventure path, although VotGD is only a continuation in that it makes references to the others. Whispers of the Vampire's Blade was a series of fun encounters but it was heavily railroaded. With regards to your gaming group not having time to invest in the game because of families and/or other responsibilities, I highly recommend changing game systems. I switched to Savage Worlds specifically for this reason. It's a low cost entry at $10, requires less prep time than 4e supposedly does, allows the players to focus more on roleplaying and fast game play, and really does a far better job of representing pulp action in an RPG. Check out the Test Drive Rules from Pinnacle's site, or just buy the book or PDF of the entire core rules in the Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition for $10. For what it's worth, I've done more-or-less the same. I've been using Savage Worlds for my campaign for about the last year. We've played through The Forgotten Forge and we're about halfway through Shadows of the Last War. Exceeeept that I've found I just can't leave well enough alone, so I ended up modding them heavily. I used the overall structure of The Forgotten Forge (right down to using the same maps), but tweaked many of the encounters and the storyline to match a more investigative run against some Khyber cultists. In this case, I basically swapped out some of the set-piece encounters. So instead of fighting a band of shifter mercenaries in the sewer tunnels, it was a band of Kech Volaar hobgoblins looking for a Dhakaani ruin, and instead of fighting Saber, they fought some skeletons and a Nothic (the PCs were well beyond 1st level-equivalent). I'm running Shadows of the Last War rather closer to how it's written, though I ended up tweaking the beginning to make it mesh with the PC's starting point (they met Elaydren in Trolanport; she was on her way to meet with her advance team in Rose Quarry). They made it through Rhukaan Draal without too much difficulty (they ended up facing down the hobgoblin crew at the Clenched Fist without having to fight openly; but spent the most of that session resolving some side-plots involving returning some Dhakaani artifacts they'd recovered in my adapted Forgotten Forge). I'm playing Rose Quarry pretty straight (adding a band of Marguul bugbear mercenaries) to match the challenge to the PC's "level". I am, however, changing the way the map room works (you could still probably use it as-is, though). I'll probably make some minor changes to Whitehearth, again to compensate for level (the PCs are more like 10th-12th level, rather than 1st). The big hydra golem is going to still be "alive" with a glass-petrification breath attack, for instance. I plan on skipping Whispers of the Vampires Blade completely - there's really not much connecting it to the other adventures, except that it has some followers of the Lord of Blades involved for one scene. That said, I did end up stealing one action sequence (the lightning rail chase), and intend on utilizing/adapting the masquerade ball scene as well. Basically, the great strengths of this module are in some of the setpiece action sequences - there's a lightning-rail chase, an airship boarding action, plus a horse-drawn carriage pursuit. Were I to use it fully, I'd probably change the climax scene a bit - if the PC's are 3-4th level, the main villain (a vampire spawn) with an artifact sword is probably too rough of an opponent (especially as the PCs have to make a long slog through a monster-filled dungeon to get to him); as it stands, you'd have to play the villain intentionally not taking advantage of his most potent abilities (energy drain on a slam), which just doesn't make much sense, especially if the PCs have already killed off his allies/sister. I've got a couple ideas to make it more dramatically interesting, but ends with a rising sun and existential angst on the part of Lucian, rather than a big battle... I intend on running Grasp of the Emerald Claw as well, though I'm going to use a normal surface ship rather than the elemental submarine...
#8 jack_altrades Aug 28, 2009 0:00:02	I ran through that series twice. the second group was 50% of the origional one. In WotVB, I used the sword as a motivator for the vampire. Party shows up, fight ensues, vampire gains an upper hand, sword get's impatient. Sword then hits it's weilder with a painful cure spell. vampire remembers his job and takes off after making things difficult for the PC's. The vampire needed to deliver the sword and the sword wanted to go, therefore, the vampire was in a rush and didn't have time to fully finish off the PC's. And now that 4e is out I have some of those players asking me to adapt them and run it again... lol