I'm the GM for a group that will soon start Hell's Rebels, after we'll finish Rise of the Runelords shortly. We're all old hands at rpg's (from the time when you didn't have to prefix it with "table top") who have picked up this hobby again after a long hiatus. My players don't play in other campaigns, do not buy rpg products themselves - though we all chip in for the stuff I buy for us :) - and are generally not immersed in the culture of this hobby. And the reason I mention this is that this fact gives me a great opportunity - to cherry pick the greatest ideas, twists, NPCs, set pieces and concepts from old AP's and include them in our next campaign.
I am currently planning to mix in a part from Council of Thieves
So now I would please need help picking out other cherries from the huge Paizo AP pie. I could buy just the PDF's that contain the stuff that would fit (after adjustments have been done, of course) and hopefully make our Hell's Rebels even more awesome. (I'm sure it'll be great fun as written, but I suspect AP-writers work under the inevitable yoke of "we-have-already-done-that". Since we won't play older AP's anyway, that won't be a problem for us.)
So, wise men and women of the Paizo forums - if you would cherry pick the best concepts from all the AP's you have experienced, what would make the cut? I don't mean whole chapters per se, even though it could be, but what are in your view the best concepts, scenes, NPCs and/or fights that the great minds at Paizo have cooked up over the years? A greatest hits of Paizo's adventure paths, if you will!
Thanks, good NPC's are always of use. Talking about paladins, I was thinking to include a couple from the Glorious Reclamation in the latter part of Hell's Rebels, but will probably pick them from Hell's Vengeance (which I have, but we won't play). Are there any other good parts in WoR that you think could be fitted it?
On another note, I read that in Carrion Crown there's a part that I might use to good effect:
There's a chapter with a trail against a misunderstood monster. I was thinking I could move that to Kintargo, and have the monster be under the protection of the lead rebel tiefling in Kintargo. Maybe I'll change the monster to a very simple but large tiefling. For the PC's to get the tieflings as their allies they need to defend the monster in a trail. Would be a fun way to pit the PC's against Cheliax' law system as well as handling the racism against tieflings, with possibly great RP opportunities.
If you're looking for good NPCs, the old NPC Guide is a good source, as is the Rival book. As for strait up AP stuff, the cult in magnimar in ROTRL could easily be ported into anywhere that has ghettos and travelers to prey upon. If you're looking for Milinai followers to help add her church's presence to the city, you can use the cleric found in the second Reign of Winter who already has background in Chealix.
I didn't even know about the Rival guide, thanks for the tip. I was intending to use the evil iconics as an opposing party in the campaign, but have the final confrontation in part three of HR. So nice to have a high level group to throw at the PC's - I find fights against rival parties among the best and toughest. RotR is the only Paizo AP we've played through so far, but I will have the Magnimar cult's leader show up in Vyre when we get there (unbeknownst to my players he got exiled, with his hands cut off).
There's a bit in Pathfinder #14 Children of the Void where the PCs
So much fun! It was written for 3.5 rules so some of the terminology would have to be changed (Acrobatics replaces Jump and Balance checks, etc.).
@ Razcar: the 3.5 version of the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP is being "Pathfinderised" and compiled into one harcover book. Seeing as it is often pointed to as being one of the best Paizo APs, I suggest that you don't mix in one section of CotCT with Hell's Rebels, but instead keep that entire AP to run after Hell's Rebels.
The only ones I've read through completely are RotR, Hell's Rebels, and Iron Gods. Iron Gods has some good NPCs, but the techno-bent of most of them would make them stand out.
Also, you've looked through all the NPCs in the back of A Song Of Silver, right? They're designed for every other adventure path, but there's enough of them that it's not hard to pick some out.
Thanks, yeah there's some good ones there. I think I have enough usable NPCs now, so I'm looking more for great situations and set pieces from Paizo's back catalog that I could include (which of course, often include NPCs, but in that case they don't come "solo"). I listened to the old but great Chronicles podcast the other day and got a fun idea. They talked about the Kingmaker AP and
a demagog called Grigori who's employed by the PC's enemies to slander them. I think I will include a character like this in Hells Rebels, a charismatic bard who'll try to slander and scandalize the rebel movement, of course with Big B behind it all. And we'll get to use the verbal dueling rules from Ultimate Intrigue when they confront him!
There's a bit in Pathfinder #14 Children of the Void where the PCs
** spoiler omitted **
So much fun! It was written for 3.5 rules so some of the terminology would have to be changed (Acrobatics replaces Jump and Balance checks, etc.).
Haha genius! This is exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for. I'll include this for sure, and I think I know where in Hell's Rebels to put it. Big thanks!
@ Razcar: the 3.5 version of the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP is being "Pathfinderised" and compiled into one harcover book. Seeing as it is often pointed to as being one of the best Paizo APs, I suggest that you don't mix in one section of CotCT with Hell's Rebels, but instead keep that entire AP to run after Hell's Rebels.
Good point. I'm not sure we'll want to do another city campaign after Hell's Rebels and we might very well be in the mood for something more outdoorsy, but since many keep saying CotCT is so good I think I'll save it "in one piece" to be sure. To add to that reason, I couldn't think of any good ways to apply the ideas from part two of CotCT to Kintargo anyway.