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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 Skull & Shackles 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 Kingmaker 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:
I've been a player in a S&S path for about 4.5 adventures, so I'll do my best:
1) 6/10 - I think most of the excess work my DM has done here was self-inflicted (trying to tie the campaign to previous adventures, e.g.). She hasn't had to really touch the combat, and the adventures tend to be well laid out, though there are times she has to flip between pages a lot. That being said, there are at least two major combat subsystems (ship-to-ship and fleet combat), as well as a new upgrade system (infamy/disrepute), and rules that aren't used often (drowning, underwater combat) that will make this campaign something of a challenge if you aren't ready to do some studying.
2) 8/10 - Overall, the story flows well. It scales up from the interior of one ship to start, to mass fleet battles between nations at the end (we haven't finished, but the end is so well foreshadowed that I can already safely conclude that fleet battles between nations is involved). The only issue is that some sections (most notably all of adventure 4), feel a bit side-questy, and don't really advance the plot by themselves, except to increase the party's renown.
3) 9.5/10 - Great roleplay opportunity. There is a very large suporting cast in the first adventure that the GM can use (possibly too big, as she sometimes would lose track of some of them for weeks at a time. Beyond that, there are allies aplenty and opportunities to spend whole sessions doing nothing but discussing politics and strategies. That said, there's really not a lot of RP when you get to the dungeon crawl, but that's not necessarily the time or place either.
4) 7/10 - I'm not the best at analyzing the combat difficulty, so this is the best guess I can give. Combat can get very dangerous, and sometimes overwhelming (both for player and GM), but very rarely does it feel unfair. I think the biggest problem with combat is that it can oscillate wildly at times, possibly going multiple sessions on cruise control, then absolutely getting pile-drived without warning.
5) 10/10 - I prefer GMing to playing, but this is still the most fun I've had playing a TTRPG. The setting is immersive, the story is cool, the combats are actually fun as often as not. If the idea of a high seas adventure is at all appealing to you, I absolutely recommend this.
i love it! but i waited decades for a decent Pirate Campaign so i'm still Milking it:) as such my grade would be incomplete:)
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1) GM Ease of Play: 7. Because there are so many places the PC's COULD visit there is some homework but with the Isles of the Shackles book it's actually fun. Naturally some islands you may need to create on your own. There's also a ship combat system to learn.
2) Synthesis of the Story: 9. With the exception of book 4 it does a great job of this.
3) Role-play Friendly: 10 Plenty of opportunities and interesting NPCs throughout.
4) Combat Design: 10 again. Danger quotient changes her and there obviously but we had very few cakewalks and only a couple close-calls on TPK.
5) Fun factor: I had a 10 time running it and the group easily ranks it their favorite, 10 again.
1. GM ease of play 8. I ran it nearly as it is. Minimal adjustment needed, and that was due to the PC's doing things outside of the box.
2.Synthesis of the story 9. The PC's knew what they getting into and came ready to be pirates. The story generally flowed without any need for me to drop a cluehammer on them.
3. Role-play friendly 9. Plenty of opportunities for role-playing, lots of NPC's to befriend, betray, or drain of all their blood for daring to cross Captain Bria Tharen. :)
4. Combat design 9. Some easy fights, some hard. (Bonewrack isle I'm looking at you!). On the whole interesting and varied enough to stop boredom without losing the pirate theme.
5. Fun factor 10 I enjoyed running it, my players enjoyed playing it.
A very enjoyable and engrossing AP with a good blend of combat and story. The only thing that might put people off it is the first book, starting at the bottom and being on a story driven railroad might deter some players. Even though it's only half the book.
DBH
DBH
(I love it but it will be over a year before we've played it to completion so I cannot honestly participate in this poll just yet. No regrets so far, though. I look forward to running the rest of it.)
1) GM'ed a group all the way through. I'm giving the first category (Ease of Play) a 6/10, primarily due to two reasons - new rules that were cumbersome and subpar, specifically those for ship-to-ship combat, and a massive presumption of sandbox-style play with almost no support whatsoever. Its assumed that the PC's will have dozens of incidents of piracy on the high seas and a paltry few examples are provided, and even they not well detailed.
2) Synthesis of the Story: 8/10. The AP presumes that A) the players actually WANT to be pirates and B) the players WANT to gain renown for being pirates and climb up the pirate social hierarchy. Those are safe enough assumptions given the theme of the AP, but only if the GM and the PC's are very clear on what to expect from one another at the outset.
3) Role-play Friendly: 10/10. Superb opportunities for RP from beginning to end with a wide array of interesting characters.
4) Combat Design: 7/10. Piracy lends itself to a lot of 'once-a-day' type encounters which PC's having an entire crew at their backs typically blow through. Bonewrack Isle is a terribly overpowered adventure for such low level characters and the Wormwood presents an entire cast of potential foes, some of which are to be battled immediately, some soon but not yet and some not for a very long while - its difficult to pick and choose who is who.
5) Fun factor: 10/10. Perhaps it was the theme, perhaps it was some of the extensive re-writes and add-ons by the GM, perhaps it was the NPC and freedom offered by the thinly populated sandbox, but this was absolutely the most fun, least 'high-powered' feeling campaign we've ever run. Unanimous favorite by GM and PC's both.