You know, I hadn't really thought of it until now, but there is growing a population of gamers who have only played Adventure Paths. I have players who joined my Age of Worms campaign in progress who have never played before, and I'm looking at doing Savage Tide next. Players can spend their entire gaming careers in Adventure Paths. It is kind of exciting to be a part of; it's kind of like the old Tomb of Horrors and Ravenloft days.
The problem is that APs have a reputation of being hard going.
I've been a DM for over 30 years and have run all the APs to date and my experienced players find them challenging and hard going at times, so I imagine it would be particularly difficult for brand new players.
I wouldn't subject new players to an APs. New players are learning the the game and making lots of mistakes or taking questionable actions in the process, which is best done in adventures that are 'more forgiving' of said mistakes.
Well, if everyone is having fun, game on. Who am I to say otherwise.
I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. I have found the adventure paths provide a wide range of D&D mechanics to use that we have yet to use in home brew campaigns. For example you have modules that really make a rogue shine while there are modules that give the entire group a chance to test their battle tactics against a range of foes. We have fought more weird monsters that we have never dealt with in the past and have learned many new tactics we never thought of. My players got a rude awakening when they found out in AoW that grappling monsters can annihilate a party no matter how powerful they think they are. They now have adjusted themselves in this game and others to deal with those kinds of threats. So like I said all in all I think adventure paths give a nice broad range of challenges the players can learn tactics from without having them bog down with the same bland boring battle strategy .
The problem is that APs have a reputation of being hard going.
I've been a DM for over 30 years and have run all the APs to date and my experienced players find them challenging and hard going at times, so I imagine it would be particularly difficult for brand new players.
I wouldn't subject new players to an APs. New players are learning the the game and making lots of mistakes or taking questionable actions in the process, which is best done in adventures that are 'more forgiving' of said mistakes.
Well, if everyone is having fun, game on. Who am I to say otherwise.
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You know, I hadn't really thought of it until now, but there is growing a population of gamers who have only played Adventure Paths. I have players who joined my Age of Worms campaign in progress who have never played before, and I'm looking at doing Savage Tide next. Players can spend their entire gaming careers in Adventure Paths. It is kind of exciting to be a part of; it's kind of like the old Tomb of Horrors and Ravenloft days.
These Adventure Paths are truly a shared experience for people of all gaming backgrounds, and in this way they are like the old classic modules that everyone played back in the day...because that was all there was. The APs are well designed/written and make a lot of DMs workloads a lot smaller, thus their appeal and why so many people find themselves playing in them. Add a medium such as Paizo's message boards and the shared experience can happen instantly, unlike the olds days when it took a Con to get strangers together. The instantly shared experience only makes the AP more fun to play and run.
I agree about the universal appeal of the Adventure Paths. I can only imagine the level of work that goes into them. I'd love to see more like it, particularly one that doesn't have to wait until all the cards fall in to place to see hardcover publication. Perhaps one published under a subsidary magazine, or Adventure Path Magazine, or something.
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Add a medium such as Paizo's message boards and the shared experience can happen instantly, unlike the olds days when it took a Con to get strangers together. The instantly shared experience only makes the AP more fun to play and run.
That's what I like most about the APs; it's really cool to see what other groups did differently, who they recruited, who they killed, how alignment affects the gameplay, what kinds of stories are being told from the same plot skeleton. It's sort of like having access to never-ending fan fiction for your favorite TV or book universe.