Steve Geddes's page

I'm going to answer by ignoring your categories. I think the key strong point of the Adventure Paths is that they are story-focussed. There is far more thought into what the NPCs are doing "behind-the-scenes" and why than pretty much any comparable product I've seen.

I think that means they are easier to bend into an RP-heavy style of play if that's what you want - there's more for the DM to work with than most adventure modules (even those more campaign-like or a "series of modules" - usually they are a series of combats in a very railroady style). However, you can still run them as pretty much pure hack-n-slash if you want to.

I think a lot of people have misunderstood what my problem is. There's already decent things to get the party together in the AP, what the issue is to me, is that those things have had NOTHING to do with the actual PLOT of the AP. Save side-quests for the set pieces. Our groups have done a great job of making players appropriate for the APs, but bringing the party together through the means presented has felt contrived.

The Gaedran Lamm and Gold Goblin stuff were both great, but they were just way too disconnected.

This is a great thread, imo. I particularly liked the point about players in an adventure path agreeing to "bite" at any obvious hooks. I've never run protracted set campaigns before, so our group is more of the free-form type: "we'll do what we like and the DM will make things interesting for us".

I see your problem. My suggestion would be to tweak the given motivations. In CotCT, for example, perhaps Gaedran Lamm is in fact an unsavory agent of the Queen - that's why the guards have been somewhat reluctant to bring him to justice. Allow the players to discover this fact later, once the true nature of the plot becomes uncovered and it may boost their motivation to act against the real baddie.

I also think it's worth stressing to the players not to hang their entire backstory on him. He's a recent irritation not a driving force behind their character's motivations. If they plan to devote their lives to bringing him to justice it's going to be somewhat of an anticlimax when it happens so rapidly.

Closed content. WotC's sandbox only.

I was right...

OK this must be addressed somewhere but I'm clueless so I'll just ask here....I've just discovered Paizo and pathfinder in particular (awesome on so many levels - best world ever in my opinion speaking as an obsessive worldbook/supplement collector since the late 70s). This book is typically high standard, almost everything I wanted...

What happened to mind flayers?

I have a sinking feeling I know the answer, but someone please put me out of my misery. My absolute favorite mastervillain/terrifying/horror monster...nowhere in sight *sniff*