Our regular GM is moving away in a few months, and right now I'm the most probable replacement. We're right now working through the first book of Carrion Crown, but while I'm having fun playing it, it's not really the sort of game I'd enjoy running, so we figured we'd start up a new adventure path. We've narrowed it down to a couple likely candidates, and I was hoping someone who has played through them/run them could give me some direction.
The possible APs
Curse of the Crimson Throne
Legacy of Fire
Council of Thieves
Skulls & Shackles
Mummy's Mask
(If you have a suggestion for any others that fit my specs, by all means.)
What I like:
Roleplay focus (dungeon crawls with RP throughout/interspersed are fine, but straight dungeon crawls are kinda meh)
Middle Eastern settings
Balkan settings
Fairytale elements (I'm not feeling Reign of Winter, though, seems too combat focused and the traveling to Earth seems kinda hokey)
Lore exploration
Bizarre (but not lolrandom) elements.
Rakshasas (not necessary, but appreciated.)
What I don't like:
Excessive doom and grimdark. Tragically done dead child, fine. Wall of screaming disemboweled babies, nooooo.
Right now I'm leaning most towards Curse of the Crimson Throne, because it seems to urban, RP based, and it has a rakshasa (everyone has their favorite monster, don't judge) but any input is appreciated.
these are my suggestions in order according to your specs
1) Reign of Winter (Faerie tale, Roleplay focused, bizarre x2, lore exploring, planet hopping, it has it all!)
2) Skull & Shackles (its pirates!)
3) Mummy's Mask (its F&#$ING MUMMIES!!!!!)
4) Rise of the Runelords (because its the first AP)
5) Kingmaker (create your own kingdom, faeries, dragons, role playing focused)
i know little about the rest you mentioned and the kids are home from school:)
You might like Legacy of Fire.
It has a lot of roleplay elements in it. There is a lot of combat you can skip just by talking to or outsmarting the opponents.
It is a middle eastern setting
It has fairy tale elements galore: genies, gremlins, werecreatures and lots of gnolls and elemental creatures and the City of Brass.
There is quite a bit of lore exploration, though it isn't central to the plot.
As for bizarre it has alchemical and wish powered mutants, strange buildings and a magically created demi-plane with lots of weird stuff.
I don't recall there being a rakshasas in the AP but it wouldn't be too hard to add one as a minor boss or lieutenant.
The AP is 3.5, but most of it has been converted in one place or another. My only real gripe about the AP is there are a number of editorial and continuity issues between some of the books. Those are easy to fix as long as you read most of the AP before starting.
Legacy of Fire is your best bet so long as you don't mind a little 3.5 conversion. Lots of peaceful downtime for the party to generally hang out, set in Katapesh, honestly the lightest overall tone of any AP I can think of. Particularly for villain motivations.
Past that, Kingmaker's a really good choice. Might also want to consider Jade Regent.
Crimson Throne might go a little too doom and gloom for your tastes, (and again, APs 2 3 and 4 are the ones where you need to convert).
The entire 5th book of Curse of the Crimson Throne is a dungeon crawl. You will also need to convert the entire AP. I'm currently in the 6th book and it's a fun AP, but doesn't seem like something you're going to enjoy based on your preferences above.
I'm pretty sure every AP has at least one big ol' dungeon crawl that consumes a whole book at one point or another, but there's a difference between that and an entire AP being a long string of dungeons. There's two of them in Legacy of Fire actually, but there's enough other things going on that it doesn't really feel heavy on the crawling.
Rise of the Runelords - Good mix of RP, dungeon crawls, and generally accepted as a 'classic' AP.
Curse of the Crimson Throne - Lots of RP, but built for 3.X, not Pathfinder. Some conversion necessary.
Second Darkness - Starts with gambling, then builds towards a Drow conspiracy. Pretty good imo, but like Curse of the Crimson Throne, build on 3.X rules, not Pathfinder.
Legacy of Fire - Reclaim an outpost in a middle-eastern themed nation, go on to save the world. It's alright.
Council of Thieves - Work with an underground political movement to help uplift a city. 3.X rules, but still solid.
Kingmaker - You like Balkans? You like exploration? You like roleplaying and fairy tales?! This has it all and more!
Serpent's Skull Very little knowledge on this one, but I hear it can be alright as long as the GM is good at it. Look up other reviews for it.
Carrion Crown - Gothic horror, Pathfinder style. Vampires, liches and more await.
Jade Regent - Stop the goblins soon becomes reclaim an empire. Caravan rules are bad, but totally optional, and heavy, heavy roleplay focus.
Skull & Shackles - Pirates and guns. Need I say more?
Shattered Star - Effectively dungeon crawl after dungeon crawl. Good RP can liven it up, but...
Reign of Winter - Fey, witches and Baba Yaga herself! And you foray into Russia. Really! Well done AP.
Wrath of the Righteous - Crusader AP if ever there was one. And using the mythic rules, it lends itself nicely to making crazy powerful characters. Be cautious with it though, since mythic rules are meant to be crazy.
Mummy's Mask - Don't know enough, but sounds fun so far.
Iron Gods - Not out yet.
You're a little mixed up there. CoT is Pathfinder, LoF is 3.5. It's easier to convert than the other two though. Crimson Throne and Second Darkness go weirdly heavy on humanoids with class levels, LoF is mostly monsters with updated versions right there in the bestiaries.
You're a little mixed up there. CoT is Pathfinder, LoF is 3.5. It's easier to convert than the other two though. Crimson Throne and Second Darkness go weirdly heavy on humanoids with class levels, LoF is mostly monsters with updated versions right there in the bestiaries.
Just forgot to mention the 3.X thing for Legacy of Fire. But I could have swore CoT was 3.X... Hmm, need to brush up on my old APs again n_n
You're a little mixed up there. CoT is Pathfinder, LoF is 3.5. It's easier to convert than the other two though. Crimson Throne and Second Darkness go weirdly heavy on humanoids with class levels, LoF is mostly monsters with updated versions right there in the bestiaries.Just forgot to mention the 3.X thing for Legacy of Fire. But I could have swore CoT was 3.X... Hmm, need to brush up on my old APs again n_n
Council of Thieves was the first PFRPG adventure path
Other than that one hiccup, I still stand by my outline and suggestions.
|
I strongly suggest Kingmaker as a "lighter" AP, as well as being very RP-centric and fairytale. Your only hesitation might be it's very typical temperate forest European setting. Comments on the APs I've played or am playing:
Carrion Crown: pretty good doom and gloom AP with plenty of undead and cultists. A few moral dilemma type situations, but overall, RP-light.
Kingmaker: probably my favorite overall, pretty open-ended/sandbox. Lots of lore and flavor, but it's hidden in small pieces.
Serpent's Skull: very similar to Carrion Crown, but without the doom and gloom. It's the lore-heaviest AP I've played. AP version of an Indiana Jones movie.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Council of Thieves isn't 3.5. It's Pathfinder. It's the first adventure path that was written for the Pathfinder rules.
Council of Thieves - Work with an underground political movement to help uplift a city. 3.X rules, but still solid.
well, that explains the utter lack of mind flayers and beholders;D