New DM, Trying to Find a Good Starter Campaign


Advice


My friends and I have been wanting to play a tabletop game together for a long time now, and the humble bundle pathfinder sale gave us the excuse to finally start putting it into action. As the only person who actually has experience playing tabletop games (I've played a few one-shots (3.5 D&D, some homebrew stuff) and I'm now ~6 months into a long term campaign (3.5 D&D)), I was elected our GM.

Right now, I'm spending my week off to read through the rulebooks and familiarize myself with Pathfinder. I know I don't want to try to make a homebrew campaign for my first game with them, so I was hoping to see if anyone knew of any good campaigns for what we want to play (either sold by pathfinder, somewhere else, or if anyone has any homebrews available).

This is a little difficult because we have a few specific needs:

More social/diplomacy based than combat based, plot that gives lots of opportunities for roleplaying

Players hate dark and gritty storylines- I can obviously omit or cut out single occurances but nothing where the overall plot relies on plot twists into the needlessly violent or depressing

Not neccesarily /required/, but would prefer an urban fantasy setting, and one where there isn't a masquerade in effect trying to hide the supernatural from the mundane. At least, no plots which revolve completely around maintaining the masquerade.


I'm not sure if anything like you describe exists.

Just grab something to learn the game, then when you know the game, make your own adventures how you want them.

Kingmaker is my favorite adventure path, and allows for a lot of flexibility.

Dark Archive

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Humble Bundle came with the first 3 books of Hell's Rebels Adventure Path. They are pretty easy to understand and follow and start at level 1. You can either stick to what's on the page or ad lib and you deem necessary. Remember all the rules are suggestions and ultimately you as the GM has the final say on how things work. (though granted the more you change the greater the chance of things to be unbalanced) As long as you and your players are having fun though you are doing it right.


Look up the "Urban Arcana" campaign setting for the D20 Modern system. It's an urban fantasy setting that has a lot of interesting ideas and flavor you could rip out to use.


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Seconding Hell's Rebels - it's highly social, and while you are eventually going to take down a corrupt leader, a lot of the adventure gives you the chance to be only as violent as you choose to be, especially when it comes to intelligent opponents. It gives a lot of chances to negotiate instead of resorting to violence, and if that's what you want as GM you can probably introduce even more chances.

It does skew a little into darksided-ness when it comes to describing the ruling Thrune regime (a royal family bound in service to the Lord of Hell will turn that way). But I don't think there's anything that can't be glossed over, and the overall plot is very positive and triumphant assuming dice go your way.

The Golarion setting (Paizo's default game setting for Pathfinder) in general isn't shy about magic - most communities have at least one spellcaster, even tiny hamlets. So the standard assumption is that you don't have to try and hide that magic exists; it's something that's fairly well known and accepted, though not everyone can necessarily do it or has full understanding of its workings.


Hmm, Curse of the Crimson Throne is mostly urban and can have a lot of social rolls, but it can be a bit on the dark side at times. Still, it can be pretty fun.

I think Council of Thieves was mostly urban and had a lot of social moments (including starring in a play or going to a governor´s feast) but I´m not sure how good it is - can anyone recommend it?


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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Have you considered running a few modules first to get a feel for how the group plays? They're shorter adventures that are usually the equivalent of about 1/2-1 book of an adventure path, depending on the particular module (the newer ones tend to be longer).

I've GMed Council of Thieves. It's pretty much entirely urban and fairly social. We enjoyed it a lot, but it does have some darker moments, so I'm not sure how well it would fit this particular group. It depends on what their standard for "dark and gritty" is. One of the main complaints about CoT that I've come across is that the city's portrayed as kind of a grim place and some people might not WANT to save the current system, but that can be avoided by framing the PCs as people who want to change/improve the city. The forum for the path has some good ideas about that, but it's not really explicitly done in the AP. If you're a first-time GM, it might be tricky to have to make adjustments for your players.

Once you get a sense of the core rules, I'd also suggest picking up Ultimate Intrigue (it was just released). It's a rulebook, not an adventure, but it focuses on the social stuff that you mentioned your players like.


With the specific requirements you want, it would seem homebrew would be the best way to go. Do you not want to do homebrew because you feel the task is too daunting?


Rise of the Runelords is still IMO the best campaign for new players/DMs but for your specific needs that humble bundle came with some of Hell's Rebels adventure path (also known as a campaign) chapters. I highly recommend Hell's Rebels if you want an urban/more roleplay campaign.


Thank you to everyone for your suggestions and advice! I think I have a much better idea of where to start now.
I actually was looking at the D20 modern systems earlier, I might buy a sourcebook and use it for some inspiration. I'll talk some more with my players and get an idea of which one of these campaigns sounds best for us!


Meraki wrote:

Have you considered running a few modules first to get a feel for how the group plays? They're shorter adventures that are usually the equivalent of about 1/2-1 book of an adventure path, depending on the particular module (the newer ones tend to be longer).

I would definitely be interested if anyone had suggestions of good modules to start with (I'd be less invested in specific settings for a module suggestion).

Tormsskull wrote:
With the specific requirements you want, it would seem homebrew would be the best way to go. Do you not want to do homebrew because you feel the task is too daunting?

Absolutely too daunting, yes. Not that I don't think it would be a blast, and my players (all creative folk, bless them) would have fun helping me build the world, but in the interest of actually completing all of my current coursework...


absolutely disagree with everyone suggesting APs like Rise of the Runelords or Hells Rebels

Homebrew is a terrible suggestion as well for a new GM, adds way too much to the plate of someone trying to get a handle on both the rules and how to run a table in general

Running a module or a low-level PFS scenario would be a much better start for a new group and new GM to get their feet wet

I would suggest something like the The Confirmation, The Silverhex Chronicles, Out of Anarchy, Master of the Fallen Fortress, etc. for your group to have some fun and learn for a session or two, THEN to think about a longer module

this way your group can make some initial characters, play some games, have some fun and get a better idea of what they might want to lock into for a longer campaign

In addition, you will gain valuable GMing experience without feeling overwhelmed

Once you and your group are comfortable after a couple of sessions and games together, THEN you may want to consider an AP or Homebrew if that is your preference


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Vaportrue wrote:


I would definitely be interested if anyone had suggestions of good modules to start with (I'd be less invested in specific settings for a module suggestion).

Since you're all new to the game, I'd very much recommend one of the first level modules. (They're written for a variety of levels, but starting off at first level will definitely be a lot easier for new folks.)

Trying to stay close-ish to your criteria, here are a couple of recommendations that jump to mind:

Murder's Mark: PCs have to investigate a murder that's being blamed on a traveling circus. Fairly social with lots of investigative bits and takes place in a small town, so not metropolis-urban, but not extensive dungeon-diving either. (It's actually the first thing I GMed.)

The Godsmouth Heresy: Takes place in a huge city, though it seems that some (a lot?) of it is exploring crypts. Haven't played it myself so I can't speak to how social it is.

I've also heard Dragon's Demand is a good starting GM module (again, haven't played it myself), but I'm not sure how well it would fit the kind of game you want.

Otherwise, you can take a look at the other first level modules on the site and see if any of them catch your interest.


Vaportrue wrote:

ressing

Not neccesarily /required/, but would prefer an urban fantasy setting, and one where there isn't a masquerade in effect trying to hide the supernatural from the mundane. At least, no plots which revolve completely around maintaining the masquerade.

You only get that in Storyteller campaigns because "Masquerade" type campaigns are set on Modern Earth which doesn't have dragons flying in the sky, or wizards with open shops in Times Square, so that concern really isn't a big thing in a typical D+D or Pathfinder setting.

You might want to consider getting the Beginner Box set.


Rennaivx wrote:
The Golarion setting (Paizo's default game setting for Pathfinder) in general isn't shy about magic - most communities have at least one spellcaster, even tiny hamlets. So the standard assumption is that you don't have to try and hide that magic exists; it's something that's fairly well known and accepted, though not everyone can necessarily do it or has full understanding of its workings.

It's not unlike the real world with computers and a local IT or PC repair person. Most towns in the US have *somebody* who can at least do basic PC repair (even if it's not advertised as an actual business).

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