I agree with Mothman and can highly recommend both modules. They are very well written.
By the way, welcome to the Paizo boards! :D
The Pathfinder RPG Adventure Paths.
You will need to change your main handle before your 10 th post. Look under "My Account" and the option should be there. Somewhere.
Also, if you subscribe to the APs, you get a 15% discount to everything but non-Paizo PDFs.
Hi Josh. I personally like the Adventure Paths, but if you want to check out a few modules before you buy, two of them, Hollow’s Last Hope and Revenge of the Kobold King are available as free PDFs at the Paizo store.Is there a specific adventure path story you would recommend.
Thanks everyone. The modules look good but I'm tempted to get the council of thieves if it's any good. How much of these books are the actual 'module' part? It looks like they are general magazines that also contain adventures.
Edit: Showing my real name as my username is totally odd. I can't find where to change it.
Looking at my Edge of Anarchy (AP#7, part one of the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP), the breakdown of the book is as follows:
Foreward pp 4-5
Edge of Anarchy (adventure) pp 6-57
Harrow (article on the Harrow deck and how to use it) pp 58-61
People of the Road (article on the Varisians) pp 62-69
Pathfinder's Journal (serialized fiction in each book) pp 70-75
Bestiary (new beasties) pp 76-89
Pregenerated Characters pp 90-91
One page of what's coming next month
Two pages of ads :)
The fiction for the first three APs (18 installments) was written by numerous authors and followed the story of one Eando Kline. The fiction now only arcs over six books, or one Adventure Path.
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I have always loved homebrewing, but with real life, I find myself using published worlds, and absolutely LOVE Golarion for a number of reasons. And I adore the APs, as it gives me a good, lengthy storyline to play with my friends and go from first level to wherever it takes us. This is a huge strength for the busy adult, you can still put your spin and additions on a very healthy body of work :)
Hi Josh.
I'm new to Pathfinder too - my first adventure session is this Sunday. I started with the core book, the Pathfinder Companion Campaign Background (because I love backgrounds) and the Bestiary along with the first adventure path module: Rise of the Runeloards: Burnt Offerings.
I love running my own home-made scenarios in pre-existing backgrounds, but this time I opted to go with the adventure paths provided by Paizo because:
(a) it allowed me to focus on learning the system/background rather than trying to create everything from scratch. I'm new to Pathfinder as a DM.
(b) the adventure paths provide a complete campaign arc that I could later expand (or contract) as I see fit.
(c) other people have run it, and reviewed it--giving me a wealth of data that I can mine to get extra content, maps, counters, and ideas on potential pit-falls, problems and possible solutions.
(d) the adventure paths that I have read are well written, detailed, and interesting to me. The adventure I chose has a nice mix of kill-it-and-take-its-treasure (AKA exploration of dungeons), daring-do, and intrigue.
(e) the adventure paths are sold as an all-in-one (erm... 6 issues for the campaign) solution. In my opinion, you don't really need anything beyond the core book to run them.
(f) beautiful full color maps (not my strong point).
I hope you get lots of answers Josh. :) I'm very interested in hearing other people's opinions on this topic.
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Is there a specific adventure path story you would recommend.
Thanks everyone. The modules look good but I'm tempted to get the council of thieves if it's any good. How much of these books are the actual 'module' part? It looks like they are general magazines that also contain adventures.
Hi Josh, welcome to the boards!
First: off yes the Core Rulebook and Bestiary would be a no-brainer to get.
Second: It's important to understand the difference between the Pathfinder RPG and the Pathfinder Campaign Setting. The former is merely the core generic rules for playing the Pathfinder Game - equate it to the PHB and DMG for D&D 3rd edition. You can play any 3rd edition existing world or your own design with those rules. The latter is the campaign setting of the World of Golarion which is the mothership world that Paizo created and is fully supported by the Pathfinder RPG rules. You don't have to play in the World of Golarion to enjoy the PF RPG rules - but they do complement each other.
Third: If you're looking at making your own campaigns and adventures using the PRG core rules to support it, then the Adventure Paths would be harder to convert to your own campaign world - but not impossible. This is because the APs support the World of Golarion and are tightly tied to its canon, and it's development. In such a case, I would reccomend starting with some of the Pathfinder Modules - while these too are set in Golarion, it's easier to adapt into another existing setting since it's such a smalls scale of an adventure by comparison to an AP. The modules that others suggested are great ones, and I second their reccomendations: Hollow's Lost Hope, Revenge of the Kobold King were both excellent. And there's a third in the series. Both Hollow's and the third (can't remember the title) were free downloads IIRC.
Fourth: If you sold on Pathfinder Camapaign Setting and want to run APs and use their world, then I strongly recommend the Pathfinder Campaign Setting hardcover book as a must-buy; as it will fully indoctrinate yourself to their campaign setting and is a remarkably well-written book with lots of creativity in it, and able to spark a whole lot more. As for the setting itself, I've been playing D&D since 82 with the 1st edition of AD&D, and Golarion is my favorite "standard" setting ever written - moreso than Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, definitely Eberron. I still have a great fascination and love for the Ravenloft and Planescape settings, but I wouldn't call them "standard." Regardless, you can't go wrong with the setting - it is designed with over 40 different territories - each with it's own flavor and feel so that you can run a campaign in any one of them - whichever caters to the style and feel of a setting that you prefer. Whether it be a gothic feel, a mideval knights and lords land, Egyptian Pharoahs, Pirates, 10,0000 BC savage world, Slavic ice and vikings realms, feylands, diabolists nations of devil worshippers (which is the setting of the Council of Thieves) etc..... There's pretty much something for everyone.
Fifth: If you're going to run an AP as your introduction to all things Pathfinder, you can't do better than Council of Thieves. I've gotten the first two and it is definitely remarkable work. Futhtermore it is the first and only AP written in support of the Pathfinder RPG rules (the previous ones are written using 3.5 SRD); so it would need no rules conversions to play.
I get subscriptions to both the APs that I run for my main group of players, and the modules that I use as filler for one-shots etc when we get together on an off gaming day when not everyone can make it. They are all excellent. And I'm a player in the Pathfinder Society league play - which has proven to be quite entertaining as well. If you find that you love running games in Golarion with the PfRPG rules, you want to think of starting a group and GMing for Society play.
I hope all of this is helpful to you. Welcome again, Josh.
Edit: Showing my real name as my username is totally odd.
I know what you mean......
I started my group with the Treasure Chest/ Into the Haunted Woods scenario.
It's a 1st level adventure with some combat, a mystery, some good role playing, and some very low level, but unique magic items.
And the Treasure Chest comes with:
The Module
Forest Flip Mat: which has all of the outside encouter areas from the advenutre.
Inns: Map Pack: Whcih has maps for both Inns in the adventure (combat in both eventually)
Item Cards: with specific cards, referred to in the text of the module, for all of the magic items in the game. (when you hand your player a card with a blank 1/2 3x5 in the card sleeve and tell them "You see THIS" and then let them figure out what it does, it adds a lot to the adventure)
And the Critical Hit Deck.
All you need is some dice, minis, and players.
Form there I moved on to Burnt Offerings....
But the Tresure Chest is worth the cost and really helps both players and GMs get a feel for the game, especially the non combat aspects of PF. (And my players liked one of the NPCs so much that they drgged her along with them into the Adventure Path...)
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If you want a minimum of work as a Gm, then go for the modules or AP's written after the Pathfinder rules were finalised. Crypt of the everflame is good as a starter stand alone module (It's set for 1st level characters, written for the new rules by the author of the rules).
Concil of Thieves is the first AP made specifically for the rules. If you run the earlier ones then you'll have to do some conversion on the fly. They were written for the 3.5 ruleset and may take som jigging to keep the balance the same. However most of that will probably come down to calculating CMD and CMB values really.
They're all good as far as plot and design go. I haven't come across a bad paizo module yet (haven't read them all so not sure if there are any dodgy ones). Really its going ot come down to how much conversion work you want to do.
Cheers
I started with the core and bestiary, a few ancient D&D and AD&D modules for inspiration and a pad of graph paper, a pencil and the dice. Nothing else is necessary, really.
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If you want a minimum of work as a Gm, then go for the modules or AP's written after the Pathfinder rules were finalised. Crypt of the everflame is good as a starter stand alone module (It's set for 1st level characters, written for the new rules by the author of the rules).
That's a good point. The free modules mentioned earlier are great, but they are written for 3.5, not PFRPG, and will require some minor conversion.
I started with the AP's and have never looked back. I haven't been real impressed with Council of Thieves so far from what I have read but all of the other AP's have been very well written in my opinion. I have adventured in Runelords, currently running Crimson Throne, and adventuring in Legacy of Fire.
I like the in-depth plots and long range campaign arcs.
I might recommend Hollow's Last Hope as a good introduction. It's written for 3.5, but as it's OGL. It's also a vicious little adventure, so I love it.
I strongly agree. It's a fun module and it's free. So there ya go.
There are references in the module to the 3.5 monster manual like (mm32) which would mean Monster Manual page 32. But you can just look up the monster in the Beastiary. However, I don't think I ever actually needed to go to the Monster Manual when we played it because the stat blocks were so well designed.
Other than that, a few sets of dice (and some extra d6) and a general flip map are good tools. A couple of minis would be great but you could just make paper tokens as place holders instead of minis. Back in the old days (AD&D first edition) we didn't have no stinkin' minis and we LIKED IT! ;)
Seriously though, just have fun with it and if you're having trouble finding a rule then just fake it and keep playing. The important thing is to have fun.
A really BIG bit of advice I can give is to try to never say "No" to the player. Try saying "Yes and . . ." For example.
Player: "I bet I could just jump over that 15' high wall"
GM : "No you can't"
Sorry try again:
Player: "I bet I could just jump over that 15' high wall"
GM : "Yes, and all you have to do is roll a d20 and add your climb skill. If you can beat a DC25 then you hopped right over. Now, if you want to try to simply climb the wall that would only be a DC 15."
Or how about :
Player : "Can I leap off of the staircase and grab the chandelier and swing across the room to escape the bad guy?"
GM : "No, the chandelier is like, 20 feet away."
How about this instead :
Player : "Can I leap off of the staircase and grab the chandelier and swing across the room to escape the bad guy?"
GM: "Yes, you can try to do that. It's a 20 foot gap but you can try it." [in your mind you quickly make up a DC for leaping a 20' gap. DC 30 sounds good] "Roll a d20 and add your acrobatics skill if you want to try it." And remember that it may provoke an attack of opportunity.
Notice that rather than telling your players "No" you told them "Yes" but let them know that while they can try anything, it may not work. This is a lot more fun for everyone because it doesn't sound like you're shutting down their ideas..
If a player wants to use a spell or a device that I'm not familiar with I won't just say or think "Ah crap, now I have to look it up and come up with a rule for it." Instead I'll ask the player "Tell me about a tanglefoot bag (or whatever the item or spell is)" This keeps the players involved and keeps the game moving and fun.
I'm just three sessions into AP Rise of the Runelords, Burnt offerings.
I'm having a blast roleplaying those "adorable", sadistic and crazy little goblins. I like a lot the twist they are given in this setting.
Core rules --- Check
Bestiary --- Check
That is all that you need to get going from a rules standpoint. I put together a list of Game Mastery modules mini-campaign for new players (and possible play by post) that is centered around Falcon's Hollow.
Campaign centered in Falcon's Hollow 1st - 7th(8?)
D0 1st
D1 2nd
D1.5 5th
E1 5th (maybe-or put it after D4 and scale it up)
D4 6th
D2 7th (moves out into Varisia)
D0 and D1.5 are free (I think that is the 2 that are), and the rest should be available as a PDF file from Paizo.
If you get real interested in the Falcon's Hollow area, "Guide to the Darkmoon Vale" is all about that area, or you could get the "Campaign Setting"
-- david
Papa.DRB