Running them all in a row?


Pathfinder Adventure Path General Discussion


I want to say that I do not plan to actually go through with this. It is way too much time and money for my present situation. This is pretty much a thought experiment.

So, with that in mind, here is the proposition: All the adventure paths run in chronological order, with the events of previous paths interacting with the latter, in essence creating a new Pathfinder universe based around the choices of the characters in each previous installment.

My first question: Has anybody actually managed it? Or even half, or close? It sounds like a nigh-insane undertaking that would easily take a decade if not more of time. Anyone who could get even close to halfway would deserve all the respect, especially as the consequences from the former become increasingly large.

my second: If you where to hypothetically undertake it, how would you do it? My thoughts below:

we'd start with rise of the runelords on 1 abadius, 4707. I would not play kind, allowing PC's to die just as often as they get into deadly situations (after all, they'll have more chances). Once done with this, I would ask each PC what they wish to do post-campaign, and keep note.

The second campaign would start either 6 months (1 sarenith 4707) after the start of the first, or about a month after it's end, whichever is later. Each player would get 1 "Interrupt" for this second campaign, to be spent either immediately or later. IE, they could choose one point in the campaign to insert a character, concept, etc. from the previous one, with all other crossovers of my choosing.

I would allow the players to fail whole adventure paths if they get a TPK or just get flatout beat. This would not only throw the world into a new way, but may give a reason to assemble some old favorite PC's to go deal with the issue (assuming it's world ending)

another thing I was thinking of would be to only allow certain books as they came out. IE during rise of the runelords, only allowing core rulebook (kind of cheating but oh well) and then drip-feeding other sourcebooks as they come, perhaps adding a few extra's to the first few paths since they didn't have much support.

Step two of this plan (one that would only work assuming an excess of time and money) would be to also link in pathfinder society scenarios and modules into the mix. While these wouldn't be played by players necessarily (they could be on request), I'd be either running them (unlikely) with an NPC party, Or else creating an NPC party and then narratively determining how they do against the threat, if it works out, ETC. This would provide a war for the world outside of the players to evolve even further, and for NPC's to spawn naturally (Want to meet a pathfinder? Why not one with a history of adventures in (insert region here)!?)

As you can see, this is pretty clearly a pipe-dream with probably far too many moving parts and bookkeeping for it's own good. So a question to you fair forum: Assuming you had limitless resources and this particular project, how would YOU handle it? Less emphasis on interconnectedness? More emphasis? More or less mercy on PC's? Starting with heavy modification of the adventure paths? Some other neat idea I havne't thought of? Would love to hear!


My group already does something like this in that each campaign we run exist in the same universe and things that happen will effect them later on. For example we've played Curse of the Crimson Throne and when/if we ever go back they may see what their actions in that campaign have done to change the city and similar things.

I also sprinkle tidbits here and there of past events or news as we go as well. However, I don't think we will ever get all the APs done and incorporated.

Silver Crusade Contributor

I'm working on it, although not in chronological order.


IMC the APs have happened/are happening in almost-chronological order, whether the players are resolving them or (for the APs they don't care for) they're being resolved 'behind the screen'. Two are hanging in the breeze (due to the $ constraints combined with a 'meh' impression of them).

Most of PFS we're not incorporating (excepting, thus far, Year 3's (?) extirpation of Runelord Xutha).

IMC they're not interconnected unless they are already interconnected, i.e., RotRL, CotCT, ShStar are effectively interconnected, albeit quite loosely.

I wouldn't want to try to pre-plan a whole lot other than a rough chronological order for a group of players' characters to be resolving, for weal or for woe.

This way the group's play-through results are what carries forward.

Examples of note: CotCT, PF Beta test, resulted in a King and Queen ascending the Crimson Throne of Korvosa as zealots of Zon-Kuthon. Korvosa's not a nice place, especially after 7-8 years of Kuthite rule.

Kingmaker: the campaign's timeline doesn't end for several more years of real time (circa 2019 I think?), so just now they're starting to hear the rumormill speak of some new duchy upsetting apple carts in the River Kingdoms far to the east.


Our group has plans to do exactly that. we limit ourselves to the APs set in Varisia (or starting there) though, since that will take over a decade to finish anyway (or longer if new Varisia set APs get released in the meantime). We might change a couple of in game dates as needed but the chronological order will be intact. currently we're halfway through book 2 of RotRL (so,very early in the process. we started in May) and news about the wedding of the Korvosan king will reach my players soon as a fluff article in a Magnimaran newspaper I intend to write throughout that AP. When the group reaches the end of book 6, news about certain events that start CotCT will reach them too. Characters in RotRL with relations to other characters in CotCT or SD or JR or ShSt get a little more screentime than written, which I hope will pay of later on.
It will be interesting to see how a couple of ideas to connect the Aps a bit more will play out. Especially with the players still having a free will (I have to do something about that) and the power (in higher levels) to change the world (or at least Varisia and, well, Minkai the Darklands and a couple of locations more) through their actions significantly. not just once.

Liberty's Edge

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While not run in Chronological order, Azmyth and I have managed to run through:

(part of) Rise of the Runelords, Legacy of Fire, Council of Thieves, Kingmaker, Serpent's Skull, Carrion Crown, (part of) Jade Regent, Skull & Shackles, (most of)Shattered Star, (part of) Mummy's Msk, Iron Gods and Giantslayer -- with the last two underway right now.

And Curse of the Crimson Throne is on our immediate horizon.

The problem is simple: to really do these justice, it takes a looong time to run them. 1.5 years with weekly play, and 2-3 years with bi-weekly play.

Basically, unless we are playing in MORE than 4 APs at the same time (and the highest we have hit is 4 at once), Paizo is pumping more water in at their publication rate than we are pumping out at the same time.

And that's without getting much of a chance to play any stand-alone modules or very many society scenarios, either.

Paizo's publication schedule for adventure material is intimidating. There is more released than anybody can soak up and play. You need to pick and choose.

But, overall, that's a much better place to find yourself than the alternative.


I really like the idea of keeping the story going between the different campaigns, especially when a group has been involved because you increase that feeling of ownership. And while I don't want to rule out running some of the APs, having some of that metagame continuing plot helps with world immersion as well.

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