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The only two AP's I've played are Savage Tide and Rise of the Runelords. With Savage tide it has the feel of an indiana jones movie (without the aliens, so far)pirates, jungles, ruins, dinosaurs, cannibals. I'm running Rise of the Runelords, and I'm running that with a horror feel (horror rules from ravenloft/heroes of horror) sacrificial cults, backwoods/inbred ogres wielding rusty hooks (and that's the first 3 adventures).
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Those are some very open ended questions! I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but some are probably inevitable.
The three adventure paths are set in Varisia, a region of Paizo's Pathfinder campaign setting. You can buy the setting separately (and its a great product) but everything you need to run the adventures is in the adventure paths.
All three of the current adventure paths are excellent, and I'd happily run any of them with my players when our current campaign ends.
They do tend to include adult themes, which is great for mature groups but might not be suitable for a younger audience or those who prefer their D&D to be a bit less dark.
Rise of the Runelords features the PCs defending a small town against a variety of apparently unconnected dangers, and gradually realising that everything is connected to the return of an ancient evil. The adventures often have a "horror" feel about them.
From things others have said, it can seem a bit disjointed and often doesn't feel like an adventure "path". It also includes some large dungeons, which I consider are very well designed but might not be to everyone's taste.
Curse of the Crimson Throne is set in the city of Korvosa, which is a very interesting place. The city gradually falls into the grip of evil, and the PCs have to defeat the bad guys in a fairly indirect fashion. Whilst there are excursions elsewhere, there is more of an urban theme to this adventure.
Second Darkness features a sinister plot to bring doom to the surface world. I only have the first installment, which takes place in the crime-dominated city of Riddleport and seems very grim and gritty. It might be better suited to neutral parties rather than good aligned ones, but that is only my initial impression.
Pretty general questions, but I'll answer them:
SPOILERS ABOUND ABOUT THE PLOT OF ALL THREE APs!
Setting for all APs is the Pathfinder Chronicles game world, which mainly takes place in the Inner Sea region on the Planet Golarion. There are over 30 nations there, with something for everyone - there's a wild frontier region, huge city states, lands of gothic horror, vikings, pirates, magical wastelands, infernal empires, anarchical countries.....
Rise of the Runelords:
This plays in Varisia, a wild frontier nation with a handful of cities, a number of villages, and leagues upon leagues of wilderness.
The heroes meet at a festival-turned-goblin raid, and have adventures in goblin warrens, haunted houses, giants' fortresses, ancient dungeons of magic and even a legendary city. The first half of the AP does seem a bit disjointed, but after that, it becomes clear that the heroes must stop an ancient archmage of a long-lost nation of powerful wizardry, ere he returns and conquers the region.
It's combat-related, with many dungeons, some small, some bigger (the 5th part is one big sevenfold dungeon), though it is quite varied. There's decent hack'n'slash here, and lots of exploration, but it's not devoid of rolelaying opportunities, either.
It does have its horror moments: haunted houses, terrifying hillbillie ogrekin, and things from beyond time and space will make it show what stuff the characters are made of.
Curse of the Crimson Throne:
Another in Varisia, though it's a whole different corner: More than half of it takes place in Korvosa, the largest city in Varisia (and, if you ask its inhabitants, its capital).
The players, joining up for a common cause (an old, cruel and thoroughly nasty crime lord who wronged each of them in one way or another), find their city in dire need of heroes. In the first half of the path, they stay in the city, dealing with uprisings, dissidents, plagues, assassins, and witnesses to a regicide. They then leave the city to make peace with highland barbarians to stop them from invading the city, and find out that the usurper that sits on the throne is thrall to a powerful artefact. In one massive dungeon crawl (where the dungeon is a castle swarming with all kinds of undead - if you like Castlevania, you'll love this) they will find a weapon to fight the artefact. In the end, they will storm Castle Korvosa to defeat the corrupted Queen.
Especially the first half is mostly urban adventure, with several smaller missions per adventure. Often, the missions can be tackled in any order, and there's plenty chance for settling things without killing everyone. Later, it becomes a trek through the wilderness, though even then, it's more smaller sites and miscellaneous missions than outright dungeon crawls (except Skeletons of Scarwall).
Second Darkness:
The most notorious D&D subrace makes its debut in Pathfinder, as the Drow are intent on defeating their lighter-skined brethren once and for all. Since they plan to do this by repeating the Earthfall (a meteorite that destroyed the continent of Azlant and plunged the planet into 1000 years of darkness) in an even grander scale, it's not just the elves who would suffer - this is the first Pathfinder AP where the players get to save the world!
The path is only half done so far, but shows great promise. It starts with adventures in Riddleport, a lawless city of bandits and pirates, where they work for a casino owner who clashes with several crime bosses. When a small meteor crashes into a nearby island (which is the drow's doing, as they test their super weapon for the big bang), the starmetal rush brings the party to an island under siege by monstrousities from beyond the stars.
This path promises to be a once around the world type of campaign, with city adventures, wilderness adventures, Darklands adventures, fighting in drow-infested cities, and more.
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Hmmm... Thanks for all the input, guys (and gals?).
It looks like, even though horror and general messed-up-ness is my favourite genre, the dungeon crawls make me swing away from the Runelords AP. I like the sound of an urban adventure, so I might have to check out Crimson Throne. Second Darkness looks nice, but I guess its too early for a proper overview ;)
Cheers! :D
It looks like, even though horror and general messed-up-ness is my favourite genre, the dungeon crawls make me swing away from the Runelords AP.
Fair enough. It's not easy to get these days, anyway (at least one part is sold out, and it would not be feasible to reprint, so you'd be limited to PDFs for at least parts).
Which is a shame, because that haunted house in The Skinsaw Murders is way beyond awesome, and Hook Mountain is as messed up as only a Logue can mess things up.
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Hmmm... Thanks for all the input, guys (and gals?).
It looks like, even though horror and general messed-up-ness is my favourite genre, the dungeon crawls make me swing away from the Runelords AP. I like the sound of an urban adventure, so I might have to check out Crimson Throne. Second Darkness looks nice, but I guess its too early for a proper overview ;)
Cheers! :D
The only thing I would add to the above description of crimson throne is that there are some 'cutscene' moments which are put in that way because it would be hard for players to wrap their fingers around them happening in a 'rules as written' situation, when they are looking at in as HP and damage instead of
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I do not know that I would let the Dungeons put you off of the Runelords. I am GMing a group that is just entering the last chapter and it has been a great time. And the rational for the Dungeons make a lot more sense than they do in most adventures.
I have been playing D&D for 25 years and DM'd a lot of that time. I find that Paizo is doing the best work that I have ever come across for the game. I cannot recommend all the paths more and nothing I have read before measures up.
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Don't get me wrong, I don't mind dungeon-/site-based adventures, its just that I have just finished running the fantastic Age of Worms AP (very site-based) and I'd like to read something different. Oh, and I'm completely not a 'rules lawyer' type. Rules are meant to be broken, right? ;) Anything for the story?
Crimson Throne is awesome, especially if you play up a lot of the "V For Vendetta" feel of it as our group is doing.
*Blushes* I've not seen or read V...
Cheers! :D
*Blushes* I've not seen or read V...
Great movie!
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Great movie!
*Blushes* I've not seen or read V...
Yes, and even greater comic book.
I'd advise you to get at leat part 3 of the Runelord AP (even if PDF only, since it contains a guide to Varisia in great detail - and the setting is awesome. Also, if horror settings are your cup of tea, book 2 and three contain adventure parts that could do great as stand alone adventures.
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If you are interested in a good Horror adventure I suggest that you have a look at "Carnival of Tears" from Paizo.
Even though I have not DMed RotR AP, I read through it and a crafty prty can avoid most of the Hack'n Slash in the Dungeons and use Diplomacy and Stealth to get through the encounters.
It depends on Players and DM how the whole AP is handled.
I'd suggest looking at U1: Gallery of Evil too.If you are interested in a good Horror adventure I suggest that you have a look at "Carnival of Tears" from Paizo.I've seen this - it looks interesting, I might get it to have a look! This and Hangman's Noose :)
Cheers! :D
Especially at the one picture. ;-)
Hmmm... Thanks for all the input, guys (and gals?).
It looks like, even though horror and general messed-up-ness is my favourite genre, the dungeon crawls make me swing away from the Runelords AP. I like the sound of an urban adventure, so I might have to check out Crimson Throne. Second Darkness looks nice, but I guess its too early for a proper overview ;)
Cheers! :D
Good idea. I have no doubt that after you have played Curse of the Crimson Throne we won't have to sell you anything. Paizo's work sells itself once one has taken the plunge.
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I am running AoW for my group right now and am playing in a RotRL (Rise of the Runelords) game, and all I can say is if your group liked the module writing, twists, plots and general insanity in AoW, then you will not be disappointed in any of the Pathfinder offerings. Both the individual adventures as well as the paths use the same top-shelf talent, though in many cases, Pathfinder exceeds the previous Dungeon APs because the product does not need to be blessed by WotC. This gives the writers more freedom to explore grittier/darker themes and makes the encounters and stories truly memorable. Add this to the fact that the world of Golarion is at once a rich tapestry and clean slate upon which to build, and you'll find that Pathfinder APs and products sit at the perfect confluence of writing talent and creative opportunity.
The product flats rocks.