Pitching the APs

[Stacy Forsythe]

I'm interested in running one of the Paizo APs for the group I hope to put together after D&D 4e comes out (I know, I know, blasphemy). They seem like the best campaign books currently in existence.

I'd like to pitch little blurbs on the different APs to my prospective players and let them pick the one that interests them most.

However, I'm a little stuck on how to bring out the interesting and distinctive parts of each AP without "giving away" too much that happens later on in the storyline.

Any suggestions? How would you pitch Rise of the Runelords, Curse of the Crimson Throne, and (what we know of) Second Darkness so as to whet interest but not reveal too much?

If anyone has pitch ideas for the three Dungeon APs as well, that would be cool too.

Thanks,

Stacy

[SirUrza]

RotRL, an adventure to stop an ancient evil from gaining power.
CotCR, save the city from the evil within.
SD, the drow are on the move, descend into the darkness to stop them.

[Cpt_kirstov]

Stacy Forsythe wrote:

Any suggestions? How would you pitch Rise of the Runelords, Curse of the Crimson Throne, and (what we know of) Second Darkness so as to whet interest but not reveal too much?

If anyone has pitch ideas for the three Dungeon APs as well, that would be cool too.

my suggestion - choose either RotRL or AOW and either CotCT or SCAP and give them 4 choices: (RotRL or AOW), (CotCT or SCAP), STAP, SD. for those that have player's guides, print one copy of the free downloaded player's guide for the players to flip through. These and the covers (or first page illustrations for the dungeon paths) sell the pat so much better than any blurb, in my opinion

[Davelozzi]

Similarly, I will most likely be offering my players a choice of Paizo adventure paths when our Red Hand of Doom campaign ends, probably this fall. Though I like the Dungeon APs, I will probably narrow the options down to the first two PF paths, as playing all the way to level 20 is too much of commitment for me (it would take us years). Further, even though the Second Darkness path will be in swing at that time, it sounds slightly less to my tastes than the other two (though I am still expecting it to be good), and I would rather work off something that is already complete anyway.

I have thought a bit about how to approach this, and so far what I figure is that I will tell them that RotRL is a more traditional D&D campaign, with a lot of dungeons that also includes some urban and wilderness exploration elements. I will also mention that the storyline is a more varied and episodic, with adventures that tie together somewhat in the long run but usually don't connect directly.

Conversely, I will spin the Crimson Throne path as one in which urban intrigue is the focus of the campaign, particularly for the first half, though again dungeon and wilderness will be present to a lesser degree. I'll also let them know that this one has a more of a unified storyline throughout. Of course, this is all based on my current assumptions of the path based on reading the first two, flipping through the third one, as well as the general outline in PF#6. It's certainly possible that my opinion will change by the time this choice is upon us.

Finally, whether or not the PF mini line remains on pace and is caught up to Crimson Throne at this point could be a minor factor, as it would be nice to have good figs for the major players, however this is something I can work around easily enough that it won't be the deciding factor unless we are really on the fence.