Wizards product question.

[MaximumTaco]

This is a question for someone really familiar with D&D 3.5 products.

I have had some good experiences with fully fleshed out and detailed campaign settings which take a group right through from low to high level (like Chaosium's ) and include detailed NPCs, fun add-ins (like handouts, etc) and essentially require very creative work, just delivery and tweaking on the part of the DM.

I don't really have a lot of time to prepare from scratch, and in the past I've often modified the wizards standalone adventures from the website to fit into a coherent storyline as best I can, usually with extensive modifications.

My question is this: does anyone know if there are any detailed, good quality, long-running products (level wise) for the D&D 3.5 system, third party or otherwise? I know Wizards offers some pre-made adventures, but I've never really seen anything that looks like it could stand alone as a campaign or 'fill the time' of a gaming session independently. Anyone have any recommendations?

[h2doh]

there is the world's largest dungeon. don't know how well it is set up (adobe keeps crashing when I try t read it). but it does take your characters from lebel 1 to epic(at least lvl 20)

[MaximumTaco]

Yeah, I've heard of that product - I was wondering if there was anything with an actual story though, not so much just 20 levels worth of encounters in a row.

[Zherog]

My question is this: does anyone know if there are any detailed, good quality, long-running products (level wise) for the D&D 3.5 system, third party or otherwise? I know Wizards offers some pre-made adventures, but I've never really seen anything that looks like it could stand alone as a campaign or 'fill the time' of a gaming session independently. Anyone have any recommendations?

Dungeon Magazine produces "Adventure Paths" that are exactly what you're looking for.

The first was called Shackled City. That has been released as a hardcover book and can be purchased from Paizo's Website

The second was the Age of Worms. There has been no hard cover for this adventure path yet (because WotC won't grant them permission to produce it). Paizo has all the issues gathered together on one page to make ordering easier.

The third adventure path is currently being produced in the magazine. It's called the Savage Tide. It combines pirates and dinosaurs and adventure on the high seas and the Isle of Dread and a bunch of other nifty things. They've gathered all the issues that have been released so far to make ordering easier.

In each case, the Adventure Path consists of 12 adventures designed to take your party from 1st level up to 20th level (though you can actually expect to hit low epic levels (21-22) in reality). Everything you need is included - the overarching plot, the individual adventures, "backdrop" articles that detail major places and give information about cities and such, NPC allies, and so on.

I've heard really good things about Shackled City, but I started my subscription to Dungeon right at the end, so I can't give my own endorsement.

Age of Worms is interesting, and there's a ton of cool things, but I was a bit disappointed in the ending.

Savage Tide (so far any way), has been real top notch. It seems to be a ton of fun so far - I look forward to each issue of Dungeon so I can read the next installment.

[MaximumTaco]

That's awesome, I will definitely have to look into that. I've been really busy with school and just don't have the time or energy to prep a campaign from scratch, but my friends and I have really been wanting to play. Being 'designated' DM this sounds like exactly what I needed. I'll have to pop by my local gaming store sometime soon :)

Thanks, Zherog!

[SpatulaOfDoom]

The worlds largest dungeon is horrible, my friend bought it and we went through the first 5 out of a hundred dungeon floors before we got fed up with the stupidity.

The Red Hand of Doom on the other hand is really good, it's a full sized campaign which will take quite some time to get through. There's quite a bit of story to it but it's mainly a war campaign. Quick note though any party that defaults to "we kill it" will miss out on story elements and they WILL die at the end of the first chapter and will likely die again in parts of the second and third, when facing an army attacking isn't always the best option.

[clarkvalentine]

If you don't mind Dragonlance, there's the new Age of Mortals campaign trilogy: Key of Destiny, Spectre of Sorrows, and Price of Courage. Takes your PCs from levels 1 to 20. Key of Destiny is pretty OK, but Spectre and Price of Courage are amazing. Lots of story involved in this: slay dragons, thwart gods, save the world.

[storybookknight]

Yech, Dragonlance.

If you like the Eberron campaign setting, WotC has some premade campaigns there that I've heard good things about.

[clarkvalentine]

Yech, Dragonlance.

Not everyone's cup of tea, true, but it's come a long way since the original modules (which, in fairness, were pretty darn cool in their own right for the mid 1980s). The new module trilogy (parts 2 and 3, anyway) is really a great example of modern adventure design.

And I agree with Eberron - the stuff WoTC is writing for Eberron is pretty nifty.

[Telonius]

Dungeon Magazine produces "Adventure Paths" that are exactly what you're looking for.

The first was called Shackled City. That has been released as a hardcover book and can be purchased from Paizo's Website

The second was the Age of Worms. There has been no hard cover for this adventure path yet (because WotC won't grant them permission to produce it). Paizo has all the issues gathered together on one page to make ordering easier.

The third adventure path is currently being produced in the magazine. It's called the Savage Tide. It combines pirates and dinosaurs and adventure on the high seas and the Isle of Dread and a bunch of other nifty things. They've gathered all the issues that have been released so far to make ordering easier.

In each case, the Adventure Path consists of 12 adventures designed to take your party from 1st level up to 20th level (though you can actually expect to hit low epic levels (21-22) in reality). Everything you need is included - the overarching plot, the individual adventures, "backdrop" articles that detail major places and give information about cities and such, NPC allies, and so on.

I've heard really good things about Shackled City, but I started my subscription to Dungeon right at the end, so I can't give my own endorsement.

Age of Worms is interesting, and there's a ton of cool things, but I was a bit disappointed in the ending.

Savage Tide (so far any way), has been real top notch. It seems to be a ton of fun so far - I look forward to each issue of Dungeon so I can read the next installment.

Our group played Shackled City all the way through, and are kind of close to the end of Age of Worms. Shackled City was played in a generic setting, AoW in Eberron. They're easily adaptable to any setting. We ended up fighting the BBEG in Shackled City at about level 18 or so. If you're running this, I would suggest that you do not allow your cleric to be a Radiant Servant. Ours completely tore up a bunch of encounters that were supposed to be very difficult. But if you adjust the encounter difficulties upwards for any powergamers, you should have a great time with this one.

Age of Worms has been a mixed bag so far. The adventures of the first twelve levels or so aren't very well connected to each other. There were several points where none of our players could remember why exactly we're in the dungeon, why it was important that we do x, etc. There really didn't seem to be any over-arching theme, except a bunch of the enemies were worm-related. I like to have some kind of a theme or quest (or at least the sense that we're unravelling a big conspiracy) in a super-long campaign. This might not matter to your group, but just putting it out there. On the other hand, the encounters have been extremely well-crafted, with lots of opportunities for all sorts of characters to shine. Minor exception: if you're playing a combat Rogue, this is not for you. You'll be fighting tons of undead, plants, and other things with no discernable anatomy, so your sneak attacks will be worthless for most of the game.

[MaximumTaco]

From what I've read of it, Shackled City does sound really cool. I'll keep in mind what you said about the Radiant Servant class as well. I'm guessing Shackled City was created for 3.0? That's fine by me, just curious.

Dragonlance sounds interesting as well, though I've never played in that setting and don't really know too much about it.

Age of Worms sounds cool too - my group does like complicated combat and they're very battle-focused (not really powergamers, just more interested in the combat than in the role-playing aspect). On the other hand, one of the feedback that I've gotten in the past was that it's more difficult to roleplay/act as a character would when you don't remember why you're doing something. I'll have to see what's available locally before I make a decision I guess, and I'll flip through that Dragonlance trilogy as well if it's there.

Out of curiosity, is anyone playing Savage Tide?

[Zherog]

I'm guessing Shackled City was created for 3.0? That's fine by me, just curious.

The hardcover book is a 3.5 product. I think the magazines that contains the original adventures are also 3.5, but I'd have to check dates to be sure.

[edit]I just checked, and the first two magazines in the Shackled City adventure path are 3.0, while the remainder are 3.5.[/edit]

Out of curiosity, is anyone playing Savage Tide?

I'm not, though I would actually be willing to DM it if I could pull together a group in my area. Savage Tide is (in my opinion) they're best job at foreshadowing and bringing back NPCs from previous adventures to become a thorn in the players' sides later.

I'll agree with Telonius that Age of Worms would have moments that are less fun for a rogue looking to sneak attack. There is in fact a lot of undead creatures in it (though there's now spells that allow for sneak attacking undead, so it's not quite as bad). However, there's also plenty of dragons and giants and wizards and so on for the rogue to get his sneak attack against.

I disagree with Telonius about the plot being disconnected. I wasn't at his table, so I don't know how his DM presented things, but there's definitely connections between the various adventures and reasons to be in the various dungeons, cities, etc.

One other point about the Age of Worms. The first adventure in the path - The Whispering Cairn - might just be one of the best adventures I've ever read. It really does a fantastic job of taking what amounts to a dungeon crawl and making it non-linear in nature.