The Shackled City Adventure Path Hardcover

[Ulric]

Anyone bought this book? I know this was an adventure path published in Dungeon, but, because I don't subscribe to Dungeon, tell my how you liked the adventures.

 

[GlassJaw]

It's very good. Check out the Paizo site/forums for more info.

 

[Retreater]

Actually, I would recommend against the Shackled City Adventure Path. I purchased the hardcover, ran a few of the adventures, and then I gave it away ... a pretty bad fate for a relatively new $50 hardcover book.

SCAP was the worst gaming experience my group has had yet in 3.5 edition, probably since the inception of 3.0. This thing is a headache to DM with all kinds of spellcasters and specialized character classes all fighting in the same encounter. The challenges in it are well beyond a party of 6 characters of the levels they suggest. I had several TPKs in the first 3 adventures alone.

I would definitely NOT purchase the SCAP. It nearly destroyed our gaming group. Several of us with around 20 years of gaming experience hated the game so much after playing it we almost quit gaming altogether.

Terrible module.

Retreater

 

[delericho]

I ran the adventures from Dungeon, and highly recommend the Adventure Path. It ranks as one of the three best campaigns I have run, for any system, in 18 years of gaming.

 

[Tinner]

I'm running it right now, and my group is having a great time.
Make no mistake, SCAP is a TOUGH campaign! We've had a handful of dead PC's already.
The competition is rarely anything straight from the MM. Nearly every foe has been advanced, or had character levels added onto it. There are many encounters with multiple levels of engagement. There's a riot that happens mid campaign that can be very rough on a DM.
Never the less, if you're willing to take on the challenge, SCAP offers a LOT of good gaming.

 

[Whimsical]

I'm running two campaings with it. One group is 13th level, the other is 5th. I have been very impressed by how this adventure series has been structured.

The message board dedicated for DMs running Shackled City is here.

Did you have any specific questions about this adventure path? What are your concerns? What do you want to get out of the games you run?

 

[GwydapLlew]

I can't recommend it enough. It was the first Adventure Path, so it definitely has some areas that Paizo has improved upon in Age of Worms and Savage Tides. It's a meatgrinder in some adventures, and it requires the DM to "fill-in-the-gaps" a bit between some of the adventures, but I can't say how much I like it.

I'm running it right now.

 

[DragonLancer]

I finished running it a couple weeks ago, and it was one of the best campaigns we've done. It's worth the time, effort and money IMO.

With respect to the nay-sayers, it's not overpowered at all. In running it I found the encounters were either equal to a 5 character party, or slightly underpowered. There was nothing we found that was too powerful or hard. In fact unlike a lot of groups we didn't lose a single character.

I think Age of Worms is better but it might be a while before we see a HC for that.

My recommendation is go for it.

 

[HellHound]

It's VERY good, but I won't put it as great.

I found the adventures had too many large dungeons (and other buildings, like the really really really big inn) that really slowed down game play. The fights are tough, but not ridiculously tough. My players really enjoyed what we did with it (since I run with a 1/2 XP rule in my weekly games, I changed the pacing signficantly - sretching out the timeline over several years and adding more adventures between the ones in the magazine), and still talk about some of the great scenes presented.

I've also dropped adventures from the path into other games, again with great success.

And I've run a game set in Cauldron without using the adventures from the AP, which the players also really enjoyed.

 

[DragonLancer]

I found the adventures had too many large dungeons (and other buildings, like the really really really big inn) that really slowed down game play. The fights are tough, but not ridiculously tough. My players really enjoyed what we did with it (since I run with a 1/2 XP rule in my weekly games, I changed the pacing signficantly - sretching out the timeline over several years and adding more adventures between the ones in the magazine), and still talk about some of the great scenes presented.

Some of the dungeons are a little too big or at least unweildy in their layout.

I've also dropped adventures from the path into other games, again with great success.

I had to do that even with the progressive nature of the campaign. There were just big XP gaps I found. Some of the DCC's were rather suitable to include as side quests to make up the XP (I used The Volcano caves and Crypt of the Devil Lich).