Suggest unto me an AP


Pathfinder Adventure Path General Discussion


I've been almost exclusively running homebrew sandbox since the days when I first colored in my dice with a wax pencil, but have a hankering to try out an AP.

So I come seeming reccomendations, preferably one that will not require too much knkwledge of Golarion for players to appreciate, or that I can port to my setting without having to completely rewrite it.

So, what have you got for me?


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I don't think any of the APs require knowledge of Golarion to be appreciated, though certainly it doesn't hurt. My guess would be those confined to specific areas, or even cities, would require the least amount of work on your part, however.

Giantslayer, for example, covers a lot of territory, mostly otherwise devoid of any major human settlements. It's all tied to the world pretty heavily, and knowledge of the region would be a good idea for you at a minimum.

Hell's Rebels, on the other hand, is centered around a single city that could probably be any city (as far as I've read). There's a lot of world specific backstory, but little of it is required to understand the plot.

The biggest problem you'll have is with the deities, I'll bet. I struggle with that since I'm relatively new to the world as well. There's soooo much material it takes a while to absorb.

Anyway, I guess recommendations depend upon what you like thematically. I've run 2/3 of both Giantslayer and Mummy's Mask, both of which are somewhat classic in terms of traditional monster battles, i.e., giants and undead. I'm hoping to start Hell's Rebels tomorrow, which will be much more intrigue focused.


If you like sandbox adventures I'd recommend you Skull and Shackles. It requires zero knowledge of Golarion (I even GMed if for another setting), has a lot of roleplaying and is quite sandboxy. Even if you don't like pirates a lot (I don't) it is a great story, with social interaction, investigation, adventure and a lot of situations that you have to solve with skills instead of combat.

Acquisitives

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
taks wrote:

I don't think any of the APs require knowledge of Golarion to be appreciated, though certainly it doesn't hurt. My guess would be those confined to specific areas, or even cities, would require the least amount of work on your part, however.

Giantslayer, for example, covers a lot of territory, mostly otherwise devoid of any major human settlements. It's all tied to the world pretty heavily, and knowledge of the region would be a good idea for you at a minimum.

Hell's Rebels, on the other hand, is centered around a single city that could probably be any city (as far as I've read). There's a lot of world specific backstory, but little of it is required to understand the plot.

The biggest problem you'll have is with the deities, I'll bet. I struggle with that since I'm relatively new to the world as well. There's soooo much material it takes a while to absorb.

Anyway, I guess recommendations depend upon what you like thematically. I've run 2/3 of both Giantslayer and Mummy's Mask, both of which are somewhat classic in terms of traditional monster battles, i.e., giants and undead. I'm hoping to start Hell's Rebels tomorrow, which will be much more intrigue focused.

these are two very good suggestions. giantslayer just needs orcs and a mountain range. hells rebels just needs a port city and devils.

to the OP: you've been running homebrew - do you have any details about your setting that are pertinent or is it pretty generic fantasy land?

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Kileanna wrote:
If you like sandbox adventures I'd recommend you Skull and Shackles. It requires zero knowledge of Golarion (I even GMed if for another setting), has a lot of roleplaying and is quite sandboxy. Even if you don't like pirates a lot (I don't) it is a great story, with social interaction, investigation, adventure and a lot of situations that you have to solve with skills instead of combat.

What did you replace the Eye of Abendego with?


Thanks for the ideas so far folks. There was a question about my homebrew setting, I wouldn't call it generic, but it is fairly standard fantasy I would say. I use several settled and wild continents and move around over centuries of history, so I've got alot of options when I start up a new campaign. The two things I don't have are crashed UFOs and an underdark full of evil reflections of surface folks, no Drow, Duergar or what not. There is an underworld, but its more abberationville.

I could have also said that I'm not necessarily looking for a sandbox story, I do those on my own pretty well, but something a bit more directed.


Lord Fyre wrote:
Kileanna wrote:
If you like sandbox adventures I'd recommend you Skull and Shackles. It requires zero knowledge of Golarion (I even GMed if for another setting), has a lot of roleplaying and is quite sandboxy. Even if you don't like pirates a lot (I don't) it is a great story, with social interaction, investigation, adventure and a lot of situations that you have to solve with skills instead of combat.
What did you replace the Eye of Abendego with?

I am playing in a Dragonlance campaign.

If you know something about Dragonlance, maybe you'd know that the Blood Sea of Istar used to be some sort of vortex. It could have been a good replacement but in the time I'm setting the campaign the vortex is no longer there. So it wasn't an option and I had to pull out something by myself.

I ruled that when the Blood Sea stopped hosting the gigantic cortex, the currents clashed and caused a climatic anomaly in the north of the Blood Sea. It is something new and still unknown and people is still unsure if it has mundane/magic/divine origins. As there is a Tower of High Sorcery in the middle of the Sea it might have been the Wizards who created the storm, but it could also been the Goddess of the Sea protecting one of the places that hosts most of her worshippers. The origins were left as a mystery that could be further investigated.

As a fun fact there was another storm called «The Gale» that made a perfect Eye of Abendego in Southern Ergoth but it was also removed in a previous story. In this case it was created by a powerful dragon tyrant as a way to protect its domains. So the appearance of this new storm has created some paranoia in my setting and there are a lot of people wanting to investigate.


If you're looking to learn about golarion rather than stripping bits out for a homebrew world, then I'd recommend Rise of the Runelords. There's a fair bit of travelling around Varisia (the "generic frontier" region of Golarion) and decent introductions to some of the powers that are important.

I wouldn't recommend it as a good one to convert - there's too much backstory tied to the specific world historyf the inner sea region. I think changing that would lose some of the point of the AP, really.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Even though I don't like it all that much...

Kingmaker just needs a stretch of wilderness near some unstable nations. It reskins out of Golarion really easily.


Some suggestions for the OP:

If you have an isolated northern kingdom which could have been invaded centuries ago by users of cold-magic (Winter Witches) lead by a mythic witch (Baba Yaga), then Reign of Winter might be of interest. Only the first three books remain "on-world", the others take the party far, far away.

Do you have an (ancient) Egypt-analogue in your setting? Mummy's Mask could be an option in that case. It would work best if that country/continent's ancient history is still relatively unknown to the rest of the world (otherwise the Shory connection might need some re-writing).

As others have suggested up-thread:

  • Skull and Shackles
  • Kingmaker
  • Giantslayer (one warning: it's an homage to G 1-3/Against the Giants, so some might find it a bit more monotonous than other APs)
  • Serpent's Skull (there have been complaints about some parts of this AP; check the forums - particularly the SS-specific one - for those issues and any possible solutions)
  • Ironfang Invasion (caveat: it's still being published) (also, I'm not sure how well that part of the Underdark meshes with your own setting)

Sovereign Court

Cole Deschain wrote:

Even though I don't like it all that much...

Kingmaker just needs a stretch of wilderness near some unstable nations. It reskins out of Golarion really easily.

I'm running it now for my own world and I agree. I ditched the fey elements (and book 6) and put in more politics and war. It's been a great success so far.


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Well, for those who were holding their breath wondering what I would run, I decided to just dive into Golarion and go with Runelords. About halfway through the first book and the group is having a blast.


Java Man wrote:
Well, for those who were holding their breath wondering what I would run, I decided to just dive into Golarion and go with Runelords. About halfway through the first book and the group is having a blast.

You have the potential for an AP trilogy. Shattered Star is the 'middle' with next year's fall AP completing it over a 10 year span. Good times


Interesting, I must investigate this.


Java Man wrote:
Interesting, I must investigate this.

Unless you're willing to wing it, I'd suggest that the RotRL characters have a gaggle of babies. The first round of kiddies go into Shattered Star whilst the next round wraps up what Maw and Paw begun in Return of the Runelords with the kids born later on.

Obviously this presumes relatively human-ish lifespans. Longer-lived races, go with the "clan o' [race]" approach, especially for dwarves and elves.

I would make it work as a direct series with the same characters from start to finish, but then, I play/run "E-20" in Pathfinder, so YMMV. ;)


Java Man wrote:
Well, for those who were holding their breath wondering what I would run, I decided to just dive into Golarion and go with Runelords. About halfway through the first book and the group is having a blast.

RotRL is 10 years old and still good. It was the very first AP, so on one hand if you stare hard you can see some teething issues, but on the other they really pushed to keep the quality high. It includes some absolutely wonderful set pieces, most particularly the haunted house in the second module, the hillbilly ogres in the third, and the dungeon of the seven sins in the fifth.

-- Are you running the original six modules, or the one-volume revised deluxe version from a couple of years ago? They're both fine, but the single volume upgrades to PF and includes some additional content.

Doug M.


Picked up the AE. This AP was actually my first intro to PF as a player, made it through book 4 before the game collapsed, so I have a bit of a sense of where it is going now that I am running it. And it is interesting to see what I missed or misunderstood as a player.

Acquisitives

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Java Man wrote:
Picked up the AE. This AP was actually my first intro to PF as a player, made it through book 4 before the game collapsed, so I have a bit of a sense of where it is going now that I am running it. And it is interesting to see what I missed or misunderstood as a player.

there's also a lot of support, particularly here, in terms of homebrew stuff that's been added by fans over the years that helps flesh out some parts of the adventures.


Runelords is probably the best "intro-to-Golarion" option out there. It was pretty straight forward, covered most of the iconic monsters, and provided for a lot of fun, tough encounters.

I would also recommend using the new updated hardcover edition.


I would also second running the 'Updated' RUne Lords book. Having DMed back in the day and now owning said re-work. The additional stuff is nice, extra sweet tasty cream. (^_^)

Hell's Rebels is a fantastic adventure path. Would highly recomend.

Skull's and Shackles? Swap out the first book of the adventure path with the first book of "Serpent's Skull" instead. Use the PFG one off module "Murder on the Throaty Murmaid" (Who names these things? O_o ) for an excelent reason for players to end up in the first book.

"Shattered Star" is a good adventure path... Except for that one book in the series. Would like to know how to tweak it so as to avoid running that one book. (¬_¬) *Ideas welcome! (^_^)

Some one has done an AMAZING job of tweaking "Kingmaker" into a truly awesome adventure..... Um.... can't find the link. :(

"Iron Fang invasion" is looking to be a very enjoyable romp. While it's 'Setting intensive' all the needed info is provided within the adventure path books. Pretty much.

"Descent into Darkness" has some neat encounters/books but over all my group did not enjoy it. :(

Annnd...after typing my thoughts/hear out I see the original post is many months old. :(

Ah well! I hope my words might bring some help to others! Cheers! (^_^)

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