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The goal of this thread is to establish a consensus rating of the Paizo PFRPG Adventure Paths that may be ultimately compiled into a chart for reference by GM’s trying to figure out what adventure path to play.
Did you GM or play Jade Regent in its entirety? If so, please post your ratings here so they may be tallied for in a final posting that will show the results for all the adventure paths.
Please rank Jade Regent on a scale of 1-10 for each of the following categories (half points allowed):
1) GM Ease of Play: This category relates to how ready to play “out of the box” an adventure path is. Are there enough maps? Are the encounters properly detailed? Is a great deal of work required to play the modules? Readily scale-able? (1-10)
2) Synthesis of the Story: Does the story-line flow through all the modules in a way that leads the players along the path while not being so obvious as to knock them over the head rail-road style? (1-10)
3) Role-play Friendly: Are there enough opportunities for role-players to delve into the soft side of the game? Are there opportunities for well executed role-play to have a positive impact on the story line? (1-10)
4) Combat Design: Is the adventure appropriately powered for four well designed 15 point buy characters? Are there TPK-prone encounters that will probably disrupt the campaign? Will the players cruise through to the point of boredom? (1-10)
5) Fun factor: Did you have fun GMing the campaign? Did your party have fun playing the campaign? (1-10)
Links to other rankings:
1) GM Ease of Play: As with most later APs that aren't sandbox campaigns, Jade Regent ist very easy to play out-of-the-box. As written, the subsystems might be too much, though. 9/10.
2) Synthesis of the Story: Since the campaign is centered around travelling, some railroading is inevitable. It's better handled than you would expect, though, and never felt as linear as, say, Racing to Ruin did. 7/10.
3) Role-play Friendly: Absolutely. Lots of NPCs to interact with and some (like the Prince in book 4) are fun and memorable. 8/10.
4) Combat Design: The combats went pretty well, although the bosses of chapters 2 and 6 were pushovers. JR also has some great set-pieces (fighting ninjas on a burning ship, fighting hobgoblin monks on a metal grate covering a gorgon pit etc.). 8/10.
5) Fun factor: Hell yes. Jade Regent is awesome. 10/10.
1) GM Ease of Play - 8/10: The caravan sub-system is broken, as written, so will require some modifications by the DM (there are some working adjusts on these boards). The "relationship" mech for the major NPCs is wonky and I preferred to just use plain ol' role playing instead. Otherwise, I found the adventures easy to work with.
2) Synthesis of Story - 9/10: Excellent overall! The main objective of the AP is clearly established during the first adventure, and steadily expanded as you progress. The long journey (easily 2.5 of the AP modules) can be grueling at times, but I found that useful to establish gravitas... a 4-month trek over the polar cap *should* be grueling!
3) Role-play Friendly - 10/10: Outstanding! With the integrated NPCs and their background tie-ins with the PCs, I found a wealth of role-playing encounters to run. And there are a ton of great NPCs that come in throughout the AP. For me, this was the AP's greatest strength (just dump the relationship mechanic altogether).
4) Combat Design - 7/10: Overall, the encounters throughout the AP are interesting and well-designed. There are several very interesting opponents and set-piece areas. Like with any group, I had to modify a number of encounters to my PCs' capabilities. Encounters in the last 3 modules were somewhat to very under-powered and needed significant buffs. Three of the major encounters in the third module were 3-D set pieces against flying opponents... while cool once or twice, by the third, I was hearing groans.
5) Fun Factor - 9/10: Excellent! Jade Regent has some great moments, and it has a slow, unraveling mystery that keeps players engaged. It has a long epic journey, and plenty of good work to do once they arrive in Minkai.
I consider Jade Regent to be one of the best AP's from Paizo and it shares the first spot with Curse of the Crimson Throne for "Best AP I've GM'ed".
1.) GM Ease of Play: Seven out of ten. Mostly it is very good to be played out of the box in terms of story. I am not judging it on terms of difficulty, since that perspective seems to vary wildly between individual groups (although I firmly fall on the side of the "make AP's harder, they are too easy" crowd).
Points which bring the AP down are the horribly implemented sub-systems (caravan combat, relationship rules), the way too drawn out trek over the north pole of Golarion and the dreary megadungeon in module four.
All the rest, though, is really good.
2) Synthesis of the Story: Nine out of ten. The story really is very good. The hick-up is, again, the trek over the north pole and also that module five fits a bit too neatly together.
3) Role-play Friendly: Ten out of ten. Extremely RP-friendly. Definitely the best AP in terms of that from Paizo, IMO.
4) Combat Design: Eight out of ten. Excellent. However, brought down two points by the caravan combat rules not working and overcomplicated (yet still not threatening) combats in module three. Yes, module three being a problem is kind of a pattern here.
5) Fun factor: Nine out of ten. As I said, best AP published by Paizo, IMO, with only Curse being in the same category. Loses one point from a perfect score because of book three and the dungeon in book four.
If I would give tips to new GM's looking to start the AP, they would be as follows:
1.) Cut one or two of the permanent NPC's. I personally would recommend Sandru or Koya. They are (IMO) the blandest of the four and it was difficult for me to add much motivation to their storyline.
Ameiko and Shalelu have more going on in terms of character development. You can always add Ulf later to the party if you need a strong male lead character and there are three possible female characters to add to the party in later modules.
2.) Ditch caravan combat rules and the relationship rules. They are bad and the former may even lead to a TPK if you play them by the book. Keep the caravan supply rules if you or your group like fiddling with numbers and provisions.
3.) Cut the megadungeon in module four, replace it with the Ruby Phoenix Tournament. I did it and it worked splendidly. You might want to put some limitations on the "pick any item you like" reward at the end, my group ended up with a +10/+10 double weapon for the party Ninja. ^^
4.) Book three is long and grindy and tedious and adds nothing (and I mean NOTHING) to the overall story arc of the campaign. I highly recommend cutting the interminable travel and random encounters down, which the AP does for about everything else in the entire campaign but this module.
If Paizo would write another AP set completely in Tian Xia, I would be so there. The second part of the campaign definitely was better than the first part (which happens pretty seldomly in AP's, IMO), although Kalsgard had its own rustic charm. And ninjas on burning viking ships, which was trés cool.
Gone through to end as player
1) GM Ease of Play: 7/10 Few bits looked like needed some work, and being from the UK, the names from mods 4 onward became annoying to pronounce!
2) Synthesis of the Story: 8/10 yeah, it has worked for me. Damn shame didn't start in the East to have those sort of PCs. Lose a point for book 4 being a stinker
3) Role-play Friendly: 9/10 Good opportunities for inter-party play, discussion, decision making. 4 major NPCS are fine, from mod 4-5 gets better as quite a few likeable npcs appear.
4) Combat Design: 6/10 I hope you like castles/forts. lost similar fights, book 4 dungeon is dull, a few challenging fights
5) Fun factor: 8/10 think GM has enjoyed himself. Books 1-2 good, 3 rubbish as is most of 4 except first city, 5 very good and 6 pretty good. Have mostly had enjoyable games
Has inspired me to write a 100 page or so adventure myself set in Tian Xia so everyone play a character set there, which I start running in a few weeks