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That cover art really takes me back to the early 3E days. Go ahead and google "The Speaker in Dreams", you will see what I mean.
When I learned that 2E wasn't going to be backwards-compatible with 1e adventure paths, I decided not to bother with it. Now that I've actually read the finished product, I'm madly in love and will put up with the extra work, because I know my players will have a great time with 2E!
No love for RotRL? It used to be a regular favorite around here. From the ones I've run, it's Curse of the Crimson Throne along with Hell's Rebels. City-based APs are always a good thing (see also Shackled City from way back when). Jade Regent and Legacy of Fire are also great. Will probably run War for the Crown next, looking forward to it!
Seconded. I sunk dozens of hours into making Serpent's Skull playable. It was worth it, but I wouldn't advise to do so.
The whole "getting people killed" thing is one of the main gripes I have with TLJ. To me, Star Wars always was (among other things) about heroics in the face of unsurmountable odds. You know, like, attacking a battle station with a handful of fighters. Infiltrating a crime lord's palace to rescue a friend. Saying "hello there" to a deadly lightsaber-wielding cyborg and his army. Getting the plans for the aforementioned battle station under great cost. But now, TLJ comes around the corner and not only makes our heroes' plan fail (which is fine), but as a direct consequence, lead to the deaths of hundreds. It's like a crappy game master.
It took us almost two years this time, but last night we wrapped up Hell's Rebels. For me, this was the eigth Paizo AP I ran from start to finish. As usual, thanks to all of you guys. Even for a 20+ years veteran GM, this place remains an invaluable resource. So, how did it go? Pretty good, I'd say. Even when compared to Shackled City and Curse of the Crimson Throne (the other well-beloved city campaigns), Hell's Rebels is a blast. Rebel against the Evil Empire? That's always cool! Murder Mysteries? Why, yes, take three of 'em! High-Level diplomacy and politics that actually work? Sure Thing! And, above all, Barzillai Thrune. I love that magnificient bastard and my players loved to hate him. In a world where BBEGs tend to be vague threats up until the boss fight, Barzillai steps up to the plate on day one, being a constant presence in the campaign. He is an imposing overlord, a petty little troll, and a deeply flawed character all in one package. Fearsome, ridiculous, well-rounded. For me, he's the best AP BBEG ever, bar none. Barzillai put up a good fight in chapter four before getting his butt kicked in chapter six, but I didn't mind. It was a fun ride with ol' Thrune and I will always remember him fondly. Up next: Starfinder! Super excited.
*throws money at computer screen*
Since suffering through Kingmaker, I've sworn an oath to never, ever use adventure path subsystems again. Worked great with Jade Regent, seems to work with Hell's Rebels too.
Okay, so I voted for Crimson Throne earlier in this thread. Yesterday, I received my digital copies of books five and six of Hell's Rebels. My vote goes to Hell's Rebels from here on.
After a year of weekly play, my group defeated Karzoug and saved Varisia from the Rise of the Runelord. This has been the 10th Adventure Path I ran from start to finish, and once again I have to thank the mighty Hivemind for providing me (and countless other DMs) with cool ideas, hints, clarifications, and general awesomeness. Keep being amazing, you guys! Since I love reading those stories myself, I'll give you a short recap of the final battle: In the early going, Karzoug put up his defenses, including a Prismatic Wall. Then, he took the dangerous fighter and the EXTREMELY dangerous brawler out of the equation via Forcecage and Maze, respectively. Meanwhile, the party's arcanist was busy taking over the storm giants with Dominate Person und the hunter did some respectable damage with his bow (which was a first, but better late than never). The arcanist also managed to telekinetically disarm Karzoug and Teleport (Any Object) his glaive away. Ship got real when the cleric got snatched by a Crushing Hand spell. The hunter dispelled the hand just in time for the cleric to save the arcanist with Breath of Life (she got shot by a storm giant). The brawler came out of the Maze and together with the rogue tried to attack Karzoug. Too bad Karzoug had Repulsion on him. Karzoug cast Wail of the Banshee and killed the hunter's animal companion. Enraged, the hunter cast Greater Dispel Magic twice and shattered most of Big K's defenses. At the same time, the brawler and rogue freed the fighter from his Forcecage. The fighter, after being imprisoned for a good while (about two hours of real time - that poor player!) put all of his frustration in one mighty blow - a critical hit with Power Attack and Greater Vital Strike! Karzoug was hurt ("how is this possible...you are merely insects...") and used Limited Wish and Dimension Door to heal and regroup. The arcanist delivered the finishing move - and what a finish it was! Here's the transcript (disclaimer: rules-wise, this might not be kosher): Player: "I'll cast Mass Charm Person on Karzoug." Me: "Okay" (player overcomes SR, Karzoug bombs his will save) Me: "Oh, well, he's charmed, not a big deal..." Player: "I'll use a hero point for another action!" Me: "Uhm, okay..." Player: "Since he views me as an ally now, I'll cast Telekinetic Charge on him..." Me: "I guess you're right, he won't resist that now..." Player: "...so I'll send him charging through his own Prismatic Wall." (insert sound of record needle coming to a screeching halt) Long story short, Karzoug got turned to stone by his own spell and fell OF COURSE directly into his own Runewell, his stony eyes full of hatred while he sank. So that was fun. Campaign's wrapped up and my group will lose some players and get some new ones. Hell's Rebels is up next, see you in Kintargo.
It's still Curse of the Crimson Throne, but Hell's Rebels could surpass it.
I see what you did
Dear Hivemind, my players just arrived in Magnimar to investigate the leads they stumbled upon at Foxglove Manor. They quickly met Justice Ironbriar, since I wanted him to have an appearance before the events at the sawmill. Ironbriar left a lasting impression on the PCs with his professional demeanor, something they found sorely lacking with Sheriff Hemlock. So the PCs immediately spilled their beans about everything they discovered so far, while Ironbriar listened attentively. He knows now they're on to something. So when they mentioned Foxglove's town house, he encouraged them to investigate it, "since sending my own men would be too obvious". The party went to Foxglove's house, killed the two faceless stalkers after a tough fight und turned the place upside down looking for clues. After finding the documents, they decided to stay the night in Foxglove's house, although they had rented rooms in an inn. That's when we called it a night. So here's where you come in: Ironbriar will know about the party's whereabouts, but how will he react? Send more stalkers? Skinsaw cultists? Send the guard to arrest the PCs? If so, on what charges? Thanks in advance!
After 15 months of bi-weekly gaming, my group defeated the Evil Snake God and his followers in an epic battle. Hats off to all the fine folk on these boards, I couldn't have done it without you. No, I'm serious, I couldn't have done this! If you are reading this, chances are that you're familiar with the manyfold weaknesses of Serpent's Skull. So to salvage a campaign with a terribly underwritten centerpiece and some questionable plot twists (looking at you, Mr, Kline!), I had to liberally rob, steal and borrow from the excellent brains I've But if you're willing to put in the work (and have a group of excellent players, I might add), Serpent's Skull is a blast. The sandbox structure of Saventh-Yhi allowed me to play with the five factions, integrate the personal character arcs of the PCs, and add more dinosaurs to the campaign (seriously, where are the dinosaurs in Serpent's Skull?). So this post is a celebration of the fine folks at Paizo, my fantastic group, myself, and you guys. Give yourselves a round of applause!
System Shock 2 reference. <3
I remember Shackled City being published in Dungeon Magazine and being heavily hyped. Back then, I wasn't impressed, but later it was released as a Hardcover, which I bought and fell in love with. Ran it for my group and we had a blast. First Pathfinder AP I ran was Legacy of Fire.
Chalk up another vote for a dragon-centric AP. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we still haven't had a Dragon BBEG, which is a crying shame. I, for one, welcome our new Robo-Overlords.
So my buddy's homebrew campaign (in which I am a player) comes to an end soon. It will be my turn again to DM. Now I've already run five Paizo APs to completion, so I consider myself an experienced hand at this. I've never run RotRL before (played it, though), so I already decided to run the Runelords AE, because it is arguably the most classic AP and the AE hardback tends to sing my name at night. Then Hell's Rebels got announced. You see, my friend's campaign takes place in Isger and heavily features Hellknights and the like. Running Council of Thieves now would possibly be a good centerpiece for some kind of "Cheliax Trilogy", concluding with Hell's Rebels further down the road. So I've got the beloved champion in one corner and the not-so-beloved but possibly continuity-creating challenger in the other corner. My players would probably be fine with both options. What would you, mighty Paizo Community, recommend?
While I also cannot agree with the OP's sentiment, I'll contribute to this thread for fun. I will use only modules which I ran as GM. Best part 1: Souls for Smuggler's Shiv (Serpent's Skull), really good introductory adventure. Best part 2: Seven Days to the Grave (Curse of the Crimson Throne), one of the all-time classics. Best part 3: The Varnhold Vanishing (Kingmaker), actually one of the better Kingmaker mods. Best part 4: Beyond the Doomsday Doors (Shattered Star), a great and atmospheric dungeon crawl. Best part 5: Tide of Honor (Jade Regent), lots of cool stuff to do in Minkai! Best part 6: The Final Wish (Legacy of Fire), which was a lot of fun for my players.
Thanks, guys. Standout moments of the campaign. Let's see... - I'm happy to say that one of my players fell victim to THAT trap in chapter two. He kept his new body, which led to some hilarious siuations, especially in book six. - While chapter three might be the weakest one, Kaer Maga in all its weirdness went over pretty well. Also, it has the deadliest encounter at the very start. - The final battle of Beyond the Doomsday Doors is a thing of beauty. A charismatic and interesting BBEG, qlippoth minions, and that huge, breathing door opening to reveal the crawling chaos...classic! We loved it. - Me and some of my players are Lovecraft geeks, so fighting a shoggoth in the Temple of Nyarlathotep in Leng was pretty awesome. - The whole reforging/tsunami event was great. The oracle in my party braved the tsunami, armed only with a scroll of Miracle, not knowing if it would be enough to save Magnimar. I described how the monuments of Magnimar would suddenly all face the sea, palms outstretched, and the giant wall of water would recede. Pretty badass moment for the player. - The Sihedron makes the final encounters easier, but not a cakewalk. I skipped some encounters in the crystal palace, though. The final battle was tough - Xin and his minions dealt ~250 dmg in the first round, leading to shell-shocked players. They rallied, though, and bested him in a tough, but not overwhelming battle. Those Axiomites, though. On his final turn, Xin cast disjunction on the Sihedron. I told my players "there's only a 20% chance for this to work, so here's an open D20 roll, 17-20 means it could work". I rolled a 19 and my players went into panic mode. The monk carried the sihedron and I described to the player how the Sihedron started to crack. When he beat the will save DC by 10 points, I let Xin sell that like crazy: "HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? YOU ARE ONLY PRIMITIVE INSECTS!". Good times. - Death toll was: 1. Rogue died in THAT trap and was reborn as you-know-who.
Not a lot, but since I banned most forms of resurrection from my game, I refrain from killing PCs by the dozen.
You might like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI1TPq2P_II
After 13 months of bi-weekly play, my players finally defeated Ileosa! Just wanted to say thanks to all you guys, these boards just plain rock. Special thanks to Steev42 whose conversions were extremely helpful. Bottom line: There's a reason why CotCT wins almost every "Best AP" poll. The reason: It's top-to-bottom awesome. I modified the linear quest chain in History of Ashes, removed some filler fights in Scarwall and made some substantial changes to Crown of Fangs. Other than that, pure perfection (although the Gaedren Lamm storyline didn't go over too well). Ileosa, as others have stated, is an unusual enemy for the final fight. She's got almost no way to inflict direct damage. Instead she relies on enchantment spells to make the PCs fight each other. Sounds good on paper, but with Protection From Spells and the like, my players made all important saves. It took them some time to wear the Queen down, but the party was never in real danger. You might want to change her build (there's a thread here) to make her more of a direct threat. Anyway, that was fun. My players are in the process of voting for the next AP. Right now, Serpent's Skull looks like an early favorite. See you there!
After 14 months of playing almost every monday, my group finished the Jade Regent AP. Thanks to everyone at Paizo and to everyone on these boards. You people are awesome. Some campaign notes: - Started the Campaign with We Be Goblins! My players loved it and I recommend this to any DM who's going to run JR. - In retrospect I would have one of the player characters take Ameiko's spot. It was kinda irritating to run a campaign where an NPC is the protagonist. Especially in chapter six, where she couldn't just let the PCs do all the heavy lifting. - Got rid of the relationship score, caravan combat and discord subsystems. Never regretted it. - One thing I love about JR is the epic feeling of traveling around the whole world. To emphazise this, I banned long-range teleport spells from my campaign. Should've done this way before. I also banned any kind of resurrection except Breath of Life and the Amatatsu Seal. - Since the story didn't really do anything with Sandru, Koya and Shalelu, I killed off the latter to raise the stakes. - Fighting ninjas on a burning viking ship was pretty damn awesome. - The party's bard defeated Katyana by using a...Quaal's Feather Token (anchor). Yup. - The Prince Batsaikhar storyline was hilarious. He proposed to the party's witch. Good times. - The party's cleric came from Minkai to Sandpoint when he was about three years old. He didn't know anything about his family. So I did what every responsible DM would do...made Kaibuninsho his Evil Twin. He even managed to take the cleric's place without anyone (not even the cleric's player) noticing. - I had to level up the Jade Regent and his buddies to make the final battle any kind of challenge to my players. YMMV. I've run six adventure paths so far (SCAP, AoW, STAP, LoF and KM before this) and I think JR is top three material. Thanks again, folks!
I ran that scene last sunday and stole some ideas from another thread around here to customize my chase cards. While I made sure that movement skills like Acrobatics, Climb etc. were most important (this is a scene where Rogues, Monks and the like have an opportunity to shine), I also included some other Skill Checks and even Saving Throws. Examples: - Knowledge (Engineering) to use a pulley at a construction side as a shortcut (by cutting the correct rope) - Disable Device to pick a very simple lock and create a shortcut - Intimidate to make some gang members step aside - Stealth to pass a single Hellknight - Fortitude Save to pass the tannery without being nauseated - Reflex Save to pass a beekeeper's roofside garden without being swarmed by the bees And so on. Even then, some characters didn't do very well and it fell to the Wizard to cast Expeditious Retreat on himself and then charm Trinia. |