How popular were PF1e Adventures?

So I’ve been a fan of Paizo ever since Dungeon and Dragon magazine and the Age of Worms adventure path.

I’ll be the first to admit that I overlooked PF1e adventures in lieu of the adventure paths during the whole run of PF1e. But with the Crown of the Kobold King adventure coming out soon I’d like to know - what adventures were particularly successful? Which were not?

Yes, each product has reviews, but most are like 5-10 reviews tops. Hardly an accurate sample size. Not sure if Paizo would be able to comment on actual saves either. I know sharing recent sales data is a no-no for competitive reasons, but some of these are approaching 20 years old now.

I obviously don’t know which were the successful ones, but I was a big fan of the various incarnations of the modules line. In my opinion the revamp which started with Dragon’s Demand onwards were the “best” (although DD itself was deliberately designed to be a very swift progression, so there are some quirks).

Broadly, I think it’s safe to assume they weren’t terribly popular, since whenever things got manic it was invariably the modules line that suffered in terms of release schedules. That would be a peculiar choice if it was a strong seller (albeit one can construct situations where that would make sense).

Tears at Bitter Manor and House on Hook Street were two that I remember enjoying. As well as Dragon’s Demand.

I own most of the modules, but have only played a few of them.

I enjoyed playing Seers of the Drowned City. Some good expansive lore on the Sodden Lands, as well as a variety of adventure styles based on a common theme.

You might get a better feel for the adventures by reading through the GM posts in the forum for each adventure.

I obviously don’t know which were the successful ones, but I was a big fan of the various incarnations of the modules line. In my opinion the revamp which started with Dragon’s Demand onwards were the “best” (although DD itself was deliberately designed to be a very swift progression, so there are some quirks).

Broadly, I think it’s safe to assume they weren’t terribly popular, since whenever things got manic it was invariably the modules line that suffered in terms of release schedules. That would be a peculiar choice if it was a strong seller (albeit one can construct situations where that would make sense).

There were a few milestones for Paizo that you can see in the Adventures. Hollow’s Last Hope was the first Paizo module ever, for D&D 3.5. Crypt of the Everflame was the first for PF1e. Dragon’s Demand was the first super-adventure.

I’d say they they must have been popular enough since they are still doing them! They just call them Standalone Adventures for 2e. I’ve seen the Emerald Spire referenced many times, and The Ruby Phoenix Tournament inspired an AP.

The ones I haven’t heard about but look very interesting include Cradle of Night, Feast of Dust, Doom Comes to Dustspawn, No Response from Deepmar, and Feast of Ravenmoor. There’s even a mini-AP in there with Crypt of the Everflame, Masks of the Living God, and City of Golden Death that looks interesting.

My personal favorites in order are.

1. Carrion Hill
2. The House on Hook Street
3. Plunder and Peril
4. The Harrowing
5. Feast of Dust
6. Tomb of the Iron Medusa
7. Feast of Ravenmoor
8. Doom Comes to Dustpawn/ No Response from Deepmar (tie)
9. The Moonscar
10. Ire of the Storm/ The Dragon's Demand (tie).

In France they were super popular, especially the first released in french (I think it was Rise of the Runelords).

Well a lot of them are sold out and you can't get the original books anymore except on the used market.

Man I want that Curse of the Crimson Throne hardcopy :(

Well a lot of them are sold out and you can't get the original books anymore except on the used market.

Man I want that Curse of the Crimson Throne hardcopy :(

I have to admit, it looks really nice on the shelf next to the Runelords and Kingmaker hardcopies.

I have to admit, it looks really nice on the shelf next to the Runelords and Kingmaker hardcopies.

, Na, the three hardbacks merely make a nice separation between all 186 AP volumes (187 is still in the post) and the printed adventures.

captain yesterday wrote:

I have to admit, it looks really nice on the shelf next to the Runelords and Kingmaker hardcopies.

, Na, the three hardbacks merely make a nice separation between all 186 AP volumes (187 is still in the post) and the printed adventures.

Unfortunately they don't fit with the hardcovers on the same shelf, there are that many of them.

As far as popularity? Who knows?

But it seems more like what you're asking is "are they good?", and the answer is "mostly, yeah".

Paizo has always been really good at writing adventures. It was their claim to fame in the 3.5 era, and persisted through all of PF1's existence.

Are there stinkers? Absolutely, you can't hit 100% of your shots. But the good definitely outweigh the bad.

the popularity of the PFS1 Scenarios far exceeded the popularity of the APs if you're counting the number of people who GM/played them. The vast majority of Scenarios were freelance efforts, some a mix (beyond editorial oversight). The play history is more a function of Org Play. Org Play Campaign mode got introduced to sanction APs within and outside of Org Play strictures (of course within Org Play the benefits were better & the play less difficult).

If you want hard numbers I'd look at old GenCon & Origins game programs for offerings. PaizoCon is too closed a sample. I'd also consider dedicated table count at a convention.

APs had a higher difficulty level than Scenarios (per Tier).

I think the more focused APs create more investment and then nostalgia for the GM & players. APs also relied on active GM participation as where Scenarios were static(GMs just ran it "as is").

I think the 1st edition org play scenarios were popular enough that if a 1st-2nd edition conversion guide were a thing, they would see a huge surge in play (and sales), if such a product were ever released (HINT HINT!)

I think the 1st edition org play scenarios were popular enough that if a 1st-2nd edition conversion guide were a thing, they would see a huge surge in play (and sales), if such a product were ever released (HINT HINT!)

Call me a curmudgeon if you must, but the point of 2e is to sell new, incompatible products, not give you a new way to play old content you already own.

Alison-Cybe wrote:

I think the 1st edition org play scenarios were popular enough that if a 1st-2nd edition conversion guide were a thing, they would see a huge surge in play (and sales), if such a product were ever released (HINT HINT!)

Call me a curmudgeon if you must, but the point of 2e is to sell new, incompatible products, not give you a new way to play old content you already own.

Guess I’ll shelve these P2 Eberron campaigns then.

I myself once thought that 2E -> 1E conversion guides would sell well... but after trying my hand at it myself, just for a few hours, I can easily see why they are not doing it, completely outside of wanting to push people towards the current system. It's really fricking hard, because NPC statblocks are just monster statblocks under another name at this point and of course the DC scaling is a completely different game than in 1E.

On the good side (for Paizo), I am at least mildly interested now in running some 2E stuff, because I got a few 2E AP's sitting on my shelf, which are collecting dust and at least two of them interest me in running them one day. I'll see how my players feel about that, though, anti-2E sentiment is still prevalent among some of them.

Alison-Cybe wrote:

I think the 1st edition org play scenarios were popular enough that if a 1st-2nd edition conversion guide were a thing, they would see a huge surge in play (and sales), if such a product were ever released (HINT HINT!)

Call me a curmudgeon if you must, but the point of 2e is to sell new, incompatible products, not give you a new way to play old content you already own.

While it's probably not something Paizo is looking to do directly, it is a very good project for someone to put on Infinite. There are conversion guides for a few 1E APs on there already, scenarios could sell pretty well too if you did the whole metaplot of each season as a thing.

Arutema wrote:

Alison-Cybe wrote:

I think the 1st edition org play scenarios were popular enough that if a 1st-2nd edition conversion guide were a thing, they would see a huge surge in play (and sales), if such a product were ever released (HINT HINT!)

Call me a curmudgeon if you must, but the point of 2e is to sell new, incompatible products, not give you a new way to play old content you already own.

While it's probably not something Paizo is looking to do directly, it is a very good project for someone to put on Infinite. There are conversion guides for a few 1E APs on there already, scenarios could sell pretty well too if you did the whole metaplot of each season as a thing.

Scenarios would be weird, since you couldn't play unofficial conversions for credit. Might be fun anyway, but it would need to be entirely outside of PFS, which would take away much of the appeal for many people I suspect.

Trust me, you can absolutely play scenarios outside of PFS no problem. Ask Clinton Boomer about True Dragons of the Third Riddle sometime.

Every now and then our group will grab a scenario or module at random and play it when we're between longer campaigns or somebody new to DMing wants to give it a shot in something with low stakes.

Trust me, you can absolutely play scenarios outside of PFS no problem. Ask Clinton Boomer about True Dragons of the Third Riddle sometime.

Obviously you can. I said it "might be fun anyway", but I suspect it wouldn't translate into the suggested

Oh definitely not. Even official conversions likely wouldn't sell noticeably differently.