Choosing a PF Adventure Path

[Fiendish Dire Weasel]

Hey all, I ran a group through Savage Tide and we all had a GREAT time, but that's all finished and one of my players is now running us through Age of Worms, which has also started out well. We're having a blast.

Well, after that is over (probably at least a year from now), we'll be moving on to one of the Pathfinder Adventure Paths. I have all of them, being a Charter Subscriber carried straight over from Dungeon Magazine, but haven't really been able to keep up with reading all of them as I've gotten them. My players don't really know much about any of them either, as I am the only one with an AP subscription.

What I'd like to know is this: is there somewhere I can go that has a short summary or synopsis of each of the 4 Pathfinder APs so I can get a good idea of what they're "about"? Obviously something like that would have some spoiler info, but if there's something like that, that'd be great.

Barring that, would anyone who's played or run one or more of them like to give input on what they did and didn't like about the one(s) they were involved with? I'd like to know. :)

Thanks!

[Fiendish Dire Weasel]

Fiendish Dire Weasel wrote:

What I'd like to know is this: is there somewhere I can go that has a short summary or synopsis of each of the 4 Pathfinder APs so I can get a good idea of what they're "about"?

Or each of the 5. That would be even better. =P

[Grimsh]

I have run Legacy of Fire, half of Second Darkness (damn TPKs) and starting up RotRL. I have read CoCT. I would highly suggest looking at Legacy of Fire, or Rise of the Runelords. They are by far my favourite to run and have lots of excellent roleplaying.

Second Darkness is awesome, but has some snags along the way. Coming from running the Age of Worms, and almost all of the Savage Tide, I would say go for with RotRL or Legacy of Fire. They have a great story, and overall are a great read and fun to run and play.

[redcelt32]

The adventure paths are all great, and each has their individual appeal. For good old fashioned 1st ed DnD feel, I highly recommend Rise of the Runelords, plus it has a TON of fan generated supplemental material to help you along. Since its the oldest AP if you don't count the first 2 published in Dungeon Magazine, its been played more and tweaked and modified more by fans, so you should have plenty to work with. Basically, the APs are fairly straightforward to figure out if you read the descriptions of each of the books in the Paizo store.

[Fiendish Dire Weasel]

Thanks to both of you for your input. Anyone else have anything to add? :)

[Gamer Girrl]

I am playing in two of the first three, am GMing Crimson Throne, and have read most of Legacy of Fire for the future :) Here's what I can tell you from a player/GM standpoint respectively [BEWARE SPOILERS AHEAD!]:

Rise of the Runelords

Spoiler:

This one strikes me as your archetypal campaign/dungeon crawl series of scenarios. We have only finished the first book so far, but the GM has been chortling evilly over the amounts of undead and nastiness coming in part two, and gave us a ghoul preview at the end of part one, so we're ready for the nasty undead there.

In part one, you can either be natives of the small town of Sandpoint, or have reasons to be arriving in town in time for the autumn festival of Desna (Swallowtail Festival if I recall right, don't have notes in front of me). While having a jolly good time, the festivities are interrupted by a goblin raid! Folks are dying, horses and dogs being killed, and it's up to you to save the day :) In so doing, the town shows its gratitude and looks to you as their new heroes. An intriguing mystery about the former priest of the town, his dead daughter and some great threat to the town must be solved, and many more goblins will fall to the heroes blades.

There were a couple of monsters that our GM felt were really overpowered, but apparently there is a lot of help for fixing these on the Runelords boards.

Curse of the Crimson Throne

Spoiler:

This one I am GMing and LOVING it! Four of the six books take place in Korvosa, the town the characters are members of, with a jaunt off to the wilderness to find out where an important relic is hiding and retrieve it to stop the resurrection of an ancient evil.

There are good ways to tie the characters to the town, and as the adventures progress, the chars feel more and more like they are saving their home from evil.

Part One deals with the death of the King, the rise of his bride as Queen (our big baddy of the AP), and the dismay of the populace. Riots, hate crimes, blackmail, false accusations, and feelings of something unknown behind it all fill this adventure.

Part Two sees the Queen's evil plans growing, as she plots for the deaths of many of her people through an introduced plague. Lots of ways for the players to save folks, become infected, and have a paranoid time trying to figure out what is going on.

Part Three has our heroes in the "gunsights" of the Queen, and they are advised to find a missing older hero and get out of Dodge to safety. Their loved ones will be protected by their patron (Kroft) to the best of her ability, but they need to find the fencing master who might have information on ways and means to stop the building tragedy in the town. They find out much, much more (like the secret behind House Arkona -- Rakshasa!).

Part Four is where some folks get annoyed, but the party is tracking down the natives (Shoanti) in an effort to seek out information on what is going on with the Queen and how to stop it. A lot of go here, do this, go there, do that, but it makes sense as I read it, and looks like a lot of fun coming.

Part Five having gained the trust of the Shoanti, the chars now know where to go to retrieve a sword that can put an end to the Queen's nefarious plans, and prevent the return of an even worse evil. This is the "dungeon" crawl adventure, wherein the players go into a majorly haunted castle and have to clear it out to get what they want. Pretty deadly looking and challenging.

Part Six has the return of the party with the sword, to put an end to the Queen's plots, and restore Korvosa to her people. Lots of chasing and finding of info, both within the formidable castle and at a nearby ancient Thassalonian ruin.

Second Darkness

Spoiler:

Pirate time! The city of Riddleport makes me think of Thieves World, and is a darker, grittier game in some ways. The first book feels a bit on the weak side, though our GM is very pleased with the rest of the adventure, wherein I am pretty sure we'll be chasing drow into the underground and having amazingly nasty fun with all the nasties of that realm. I had a great time in the first book, but there were times it felt we were spinning our wheels a bit ...

Legacy of Fire

Spoiler:

Wow! Arabian Nights, genies, other planes, the possible reawakening of a god's spawn ... this is an awesome looking AP. If you like Sinbad, Aladdin, etc., this is a grand story, and I cannot wait until I can get to run it :)

Hope that helps!

[Gorbacz]

Rise of the Runelords is a "classic" path. It has some mystery, some horror, a healthy dash of dungeon crawlin' and some D&D staples such as Fortress of the Stone Giants. However, the first half of the AP (with the excellent Burnt Offerings and Skinsaw Murders) is somewhat more varied than the second one (which, while well written, tends to be something of a hackfest). Also, the lethality level is pretty high, the players need to be on the top of their game in some combats.

Curse of the Crimson Throne is mostly an urban AP. There's much opportunity for city hijinks - make sure you grab the Korvosa guide as it is a perfect companion to the AP. However, the AP does take a trek outside of the city for 2 issues - which might be cool with some, but some people got irked by getting kicked out of town for 1/3rd of the AP. However, one of those two adventures is the excellent Skeletons of Scarwall, which is one of the best dungeon crawls out there. Overall, the second AP is where Paizo got some things ironed out and the result is great.

Second Darkness ... well, I don't like it. The main point of the AP are the drow, however I believe that the authors got too focused on the dark elves and failed to see the "big picture". While SD has some great adventures (notably the second and the fourth), it also has the biggest stinker in Paizo history (Memory of Darkness, I am looking at you), some really heavy-handed railroading, and the kickoff locale - the city of Riddleport - is nowhere as developed as it could be (let alone the players leave it shortly and likely never see it again). So it's kind of a low point in the whole line. Also, SD introduced the Set Pieces - short side-trek adventures that could be fit into the main one. A concept that didn't really work well and was fortunately recently ditched.

Legacy of Fire - oh yeah ! Genie wars, mad wishes, impossible places ! Paizo went to town with this one, with Arabian theme and strong planar elements (including a trip to City of Brass). Usually such zany stuff is risky, but LoF is masterfully executed, from the great first adventure (rivaling Burnt Offerings) right to the finish it's nonstop exotic fantasy action. Memorable locales, fights and NPCs, epic storyline and gorgeous artwork (best so far, IMHO).

[Fiendish Dire Weasel]

Wow, OK thanks guys. Those were exactly the sorts of responses I was looking for. All 4 of you have helped immensely. But of course anyone else who has something to add is most welcome. :)