Richard Pett's evil brain...and some First World creatures.Truly a ferocious opponent.
Indeed.
And what's the subtype of the final boss...?
Type? :D
Type? :D
You're the guy that was posting in the Kingmaker thread asking about Ranger favored enemies. Also saying you don't want spoilers. I'm sorry, but what you're aiming for and going for is dishonest and effectively lying to your GM.
Things change and now I'll probably be DMing that, but I don't have the AP yet.
Regarding Kingmaker: I would caution people starting on this one to limit item creation, ESPECIALLY if you use 3.5 materials like Magic Item Compendium. Near infinite down-time and new item-creation rules that allows anyone to make anything as long as you pimp your spellcraft makes for a VERY overpowered party.
I was foolish enough to allow all 3.5 materials, and with the spells, items and plethora of feats from those books, combined with some hardcore min/max players, this train is barely even in the same plane of existence as it's rails.
We are currently at the beginning of part4, but as it stands, they could easily kill everything in part 5. In most cases before the baddies would even get to act on the first round. Means lots of work for me, and the classic 3.5 optimization arms race I have come to loathe.
Oh, and part 6 is probably the best darned adventure module I have seen in my 17 year history of game-mastering.
Oh. look, I made a thread about that just two days ago. ^^ Good to know that my fears seem to have to come to pass in your campaign, which gives me much more incentive to ban the feats for the PC's in my Kingmaker campaign.
BTW, do a gear reset, i.e. some old-school "You are trapped in an anti-magic zone, all your gear is now mundane", if everything else breaks. Sucks for the players and for you for a time, but if it saves the campaign from having the last wheels completely jumping off the rails, then it's worth it. Happened to me the last time when I was still playing second edition, i.e. before the turn of the millenium, heh.
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Here's my perspective
RotRL: Flawed, but an amazing first try that i still think back in with fondness. #4 was the worst of them, and even then it was aiming towards a specific homage, so it's hard to blame it. Had some really, really great, iconic villains, Karzoug, Nualia, Xaneesha, Mokmurian, Erylium, all real winners. Same with the NPCs, like Shalelu, who shall forever be remembered. Established pathfinder as doing something creative and different. I managed to finish it. Would run it again for another group; it's just that awesome. I remember hanging on every word and detail, coming up with awesome side quests, and how much support it got in those web enhancements.
CoCT: If RotRLs had the best villains, this had the best allies/characters. Korvosa feels like a true city all laid out on the page. The Cressida, Vencarlo, Laori (especially Laori), Trinia, and Ghost Mom were all very, very memorable. So were the Red Mantis. This one also had the best plot, helped along by the "cutscenes." #4 was also the irritating one in this, because of all the frustrating "do this for this guy, so you can do this for this guy" crap. Only got halfway through Escape before my little brother lost interest (being a jerk) and without him, his friends didnt go along.
SD: Started out really, really strong. Good opening in Riddleport, great flavor, great betrayal. got even better on the island with the aliens. started to go to crap at #3, but even that was good. It's just that much of it seemed...standard. uncreative. by-the-numbers. #4 was cool in concept, okay in exceution. #5 as mentioned, was shit. #6 was just standard high level fight the badguy. My players liked Kwava and Samaritha, and were glad to see Shalelu again.
Second Darkness failed to have a interesting villian that the party didnt even meet until the end. Karzoug was a face in the background all through RotRL, and his evil schemes just seemed...more personal. He wasnt commanding an entire race, but you kept meeting cells of his agents as time went on, kept seeing that damn symbol, before finnaly he harried and insulted you from the end of #5 onwards. Illeosa was also around from square 1, and was an obvious villain from 3 onwards, always in the background, always the clear source of the evil. gave the players a wonderful sense of purpose.
LoF: Cant say much about it, didnt read it
CoT: Great to read, not so great to play. seemed to me it was CotCT 2.0; catching lighting in a bottle. It failed. Characters were less vivid, plot less interesting. YES, sixfold trial was awesome. the final adventure was pretty good. too. But it also suffered from SD's absentee villain. my player's flat-out-hated the first adventure, couldnt get through it, and we scrapped the whole thing in favor of focusing on my 4E eberron game.
Kingmaker: OMFG, SO F*&@INGAWESOME. If I had a complaint, I'd say that it could have done with more vivid and cool NPCs in addition to the regular joes, as well as having those NPCs play a greater role beyond that first adventure. But then, that's what a DM is for.
I also would have liked to see the Cyclops empire play more of a role. They seemed cool; ancient empire of oracular creatures who worship the 4 horsemen, and kept lots of slaves, and had big bestial versions as gods/strongmen, and definitely went in for the stepped-pyramid style worship.
Kingmaker had lots and lots of good ideas, but some of it seemed less...fleshed-out. That Hirelings PDF was a great thing, and I wish paizo still had the time to do Web Enhancements for their APs like RotRL. I realize that the staff has a lot more on it's plate now, but Kingmaker could benefit from a little extra material to flesh out some adventure locations, the Cyclops Empire, or Numerian Barbarians (the tiger lords would have been way cooler if they were directly from numeria, with a raygun or two among them. as it stood, they were just...dull.) But, that's what a DM is for.
I've read these but have only GM'd ROTR so far. But, just from reading them:
ROTR: GREAT Adventure. Lots of room for Roleplaying (it took my party almost 3 months playing once a week to finish the first Book alone...). Fun monsters, interesting locales, and a plot that keeps the heroes as heroes (until #5). A great intro to the world of Golarion.
COCT: Korvosa is a great city and this looks like a terriffic urban adventure. I admit that Skarwall looks like a long, boring Dungeon Crawl, so I'll probably edit it. But the rest of the scenarios look great.
SD: I like the first 3 adventures (I'm running Armageddon Echo as a side quest in my ROTR campaign. Shelelu will bring the heroes in...and one of the characters has the Celwynvian Trait already.) But the last 3 books look long and fairly frustrating. Though all of my players want to take a run at Treerazer...
LOF: Great setting and background. Like others, I'm not sure how my players would deal with the "escape from another plane" scenario 2 books ina row. But the end boss (and the boss that comes after him if the players aren;t careful) are great!
COT: I liked the sixfold trial. But the rest of the scenario never really grabbed me as a GM. Not enough Cheliaxian stuff and too much Westcrown adventureing. Wstcrown just isn't interesting enough to support 6 books.
KM: Love every part of this. If I wasn't running ROTR, I'd be doing this one. Great new rules, Sandboxing done right, and a chance to ally with Kobolds!
Honestly, I don't quite get the love for KM Ep. 6, outside of it being "all end bosses" based on the level of detail lavished on the major foes. I can't help but feeling it's at least 2, and maybe 3, episodes compressed into a single adventure.
If I ever run CotCT,I would move Skarwall to Citadel Vraid say that in ancient times Vraid was known as Skarwall. Have the back story that the hellnights were aware that some evil was rising in Korvosa and that Vraid was the key to stopping it. In their hubris they awoke the evil in the citadel and the survivors limp into Korvosa and ask the Hero's for help.
If I ever run CotCT,I would move Skarwall to Citadel Vraid say that in ancient times Vraid was known as Skarwall. Have the back story that the hellnights were aware that some evil was rising in Korvosa and that Vraid was the key to stopping it. In their hubris they awoke the evil in the citadel and the survivors limp into Korvosa and ask the Hero's for help.
That's a very, very good idea. Only slight problem I see with it is that the party will be too nearby to Korvosa and might interfere with things happening there. Since the party will probably have near and dear NPC's there, seeing how those are struggling may lead to unwanted consequences.
Then again, PC's have access to Teleport at this level, so that could possibly be happening anyway. But it sounds like a great way to make Scarwall seem belong more to the campaign.
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Rather than Citadel Vraid, perhaps another, similar, but slightly father away Citadel?
Lost to time, or long ago reclaimed by the dark and sinister critters within?
Mandraivus can be a precursor Hellknight, as well as some of the PC Level'ed monsters.
Vraid just seems too "next door" to Korvosa, although that DOES succeed in keeping the party very connected to the city.
Honestly, I don't quite get the love for KM Ep. 6, outside of it being "all end bosses" based on the level of detail lavished on the major foes. I can't help but feeling it's at least 2, and maybe 3, episodes compressed into a single adventure.
I actually think they should do that more often. The last AP in any case should contain help on running things as long as possible. I think that KM6 does that especially well.
Under the what were they thinking category, I have to add the sixth installment of Kingmaker. The BBEG is barely a factor for five modules. I suppose it fits the theme, if you interpret the theme as exploration rather than king-making. And each of those combats, while exceptionally flavorful, is going to take 1+ hours, making it a six month adventure for weekly campaigns. The fact that there's duplication of encounters makes that problem worse. I think I'll just scale that way down when I run this AP and sub in the good ideas, which were the "after the module's over". Frankly, I'd much rather have had more on Brevoy's machinations and less First World tom-foolery.
This has been interesting reading as I have read all of the APs but not played nor DM'ed them. We are painfully slow and meet erratically so I am still DMing Shackled City and playing in Age of Worms.
Come to think of it, there are 3 more APs that I think bear some mention in all this discussion: Shackled City, Age of Worms and Savage Tide. My group is in 13 Cages so we are getting towards the end. Been wondering if I should go for the Dungeon Mag trifecta and run Savage Tide next or forget about it and get with the times and run one of the later APs.
Anyone care to add those first 3 APs to the mix and compare and contrast those with all that has come later?
Honestly, I don't quite get the love for KM Ep. 6, outside of it being "all end bosses" based on the level of detail lavished on the major foes. I can't help but feeling it's at least 2, and maybe 3, episodes compressed into a single adventure.
The fact that it is all end bosses is one of the things that drives me towards it. It has enough detail to be the framework of a campaign, but it leaves much of it up to the GM to run. I can add things and fill in any details I want. I can modify the AP very easily, and add custom encounters without worrying too much that I will disrupt the main plot. And the whole time, my players feel as if the world is reacting to them, instead of them reacting to the world. I think the AP is really well designed for an experienced GM or anyone who wants to make the game their own but has a hard time driving their players on a consistent path.
Anyone care to add those first 3 APs to the mix and compare and contrast those with all that has come later?
I have not yet read or played through Shackled City or Savage Tide (although I plan to, eventually!). Age of Worms I can compare though.
The main difference is the length of the campaign compared to the newer APs. 12 instalments, while each is shorter than one Pathfinder AP part, ends up taking a very long time to get through. Especially the later ones, when the party is approaching 20th level or beyond.
The first adventure (The Whispering Cairn) is one of the best thought-out dungeon crawls I have ever seen, with a lot of unique challenges and encounters. Unfortunately the third part (Blackwall Keep) was a huge let-down in comparison. In general, that seemed to be a theme throughout; just about half of the adventures were very nice and unique (such as Prince of Redhand), while the other half felt more like speed bumps. There are some very memorable NPCs in the campaign, such as Lashonna and Zulshyn, which bring nice roleplaying opportunities to the table.
The campaign is very undead-centric in the last half of the series; players should be informed of this so they can avoid making enchantment-based casters or other suboptimal choices for such a campaign.
In the end, I'd give Age of Worms as a whole a 6 rating compared to the later APs.
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I wasn't going to weigh in, but the few critics of Kingmaker 6 have spurned me on. Having the ultimate sandbox expand into a realm where anything is possible flavored with primeval prototypes is just awesome. Political machinations will never satisfy like slaying a dragon in the final act, just my opinion...I will weigh in with my players' reactions when we get there.
Have not played or run Shackled City(looked fun but long) or Age of Worms, but I almost finished running Savage Tide before player attrition and backwards incompatibility with Pathfinder Beta made it too much of a hassle. Savage Tide was great fun, though, and I love that Serpents' Skull is like a spiritual sequel done better(by the look of the first volume and the Sargava companion.
Crimson Throne was big on atmosphere and read like a great novel, but there was way too much of Cressida summoning the players and sending them out again and the whole adventure felt rushed. We stopped in the middle of the plague because none of the players cared that the city was in peril...again... and it was becoming a pain to convert to Pathfinder on the fly. I want to try this one again with more of a Kingmaker/Oblivion feel with found quests or a job board instead of the near-constant errand boy vibe the beginning has. I think this one could be my favorite behind Kingmaker once I tackle it the right way.
I haven't played far into Legacy of Fire but I'm not moved by the story or NPCs so far. Possibly a failing of the GM, possibly a snap judgment about an adventure that begins with a fire in the desert and a whole lot of wasted water putting it out.
I played very briefly in Council of Thieves and probably would have enjoyed it more if the entire group was sold on the rebel uprising thing instead of finding out about it moments into the AP.
Kingmaker has reignited my love of gaming and, very possibly, is making me a better storyteller. I have nothing but love for the whole thing and the entire format of the AP.
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Honestly, I don't quite get the love for KM Ep. 6, outside of it being "all end bosses" based on the level of detail lavished on the major foes. I can't help but feeling it's at least 2, and maybe 3, episodes compressed into a single adventure.The fact that it is all end bosses is one of the things that drives me towards it. It has enough detail to be the framework of a campaign, but it leaves much of it up to the GM to run. I can add things and fill in any details I want. I can modify the AP very easily, and add custom encounters without worrying too much that I will disrupt the main plot. And the whole time, my players feel as if the world is reacting to them, instead of them reacting to the world. I think the AP is really well designed for an experienced GM or anyone who wants to make the game their own but has a hard time driving their players on a consistent path.
I agree with this one hundred percent.
I decided to switch my avatar to a piece of art that Paizo owned as well as to something that was more reflective of the Pathfinder era rather than the Dungeon era, glorious as it was.
I remember you from the GH threads on the AOL forums. Boy was that a long time ago. That was my first exposure to SKR also, who I think was the voice of TSR on the forums. Not sure. Too long ago. Getting old as we speak.
This is a great thread, but it would be even better if it went like this:
"I loved X AP, except for Y part. I fixed this by..."
Those of us who have not run someof these yet would be very well served if DMs would post some of their recommendations for fixes. I'm sure Paizo would benefit from this type of feed back also.
Thought part 6 was a rail road? So, what did you add to hook your players instead?
Just my 2 coppers.
This is a great thread, but it would be even better if it went like this:
"I loved X AP, except for Y part. I fixed this by..."
Those of us who have not run someof these yet would be very well served if DMs would post some of their recommendations for fixes. I'm sure Paizo would benefit from this type of feed back also.
There are quite a few of those threads in the individual Adventure Path subforums.
There are quite a few of those threads in the individual Adventure Path subforums.This is a great thread, but it would be even better if it went like this:
"I loved X AP, except for Y part. I fixed this by..."
Those of us who have not run someof these yet would be very well served if DMs would post some of their recommendations for fixes. I'm sure Paizo would benefit from this type of feed back also.
Good info. I haven't gone looking for them, but I will now. Thanks.
Regarding Second Darkness:
The railroad is a problem, and especally the weak links between the issues was a problem.
One issue I haven't figured out: How could Allevrah's notes, found at the end of "Memory of Darkness", possibly lead the party to "Descent into Midnight". Allevrah had been an elf planning to bomb the drow, she wouldn't have been planning to desroy the elven capital until after she transformed to drow and took over one of the drow houses. The notes from "Memory of Darkness" couldn't possibly lead the party to "Descent into Midnight". Maybe I am missing something?
The whole thing is a cluster of shame. I can't remember exactly, but I just had Alicavniss tell the PCs where she was and the excursion in Memory of Darkness was to find the notes on how to stop the glyphs.
The biggest problem of all is this:
Chekhov's advice to Schoukin: "If in the first chapter you say that a gun hung on the wall, in the second or third chapter it must without fail be discharged."
In Second Darkness, the bad gals have the means to drop a significant meteor on the planet. The players know the threat exists at the end of the first AP. In my opinion, the fifth act should have had a collapse-of-civilization impact, and the sixth act should have been dealing with the aftermath.
Clearly if the APs are supposed to exist in Golarion, you can't exactly destroy Golarion during one AP and then pick up the next AP as if nothing happened... but I play the APs in a homebrew world, and it seems a shame not to destroy the world, when this AP so clearly calls for it.
The players losing and being wiped out with no chance of success since it's written into the sixth book as the main basis for the storyline.... uh, no thank you.
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Regarding Second Darkness:
The biggest problem of all is this:
Chekhov's advice to Schoukin: "If in the first chapter you say that a gun hung on the wall, in the second or third chapter it must without fail be discharged."
In Second Darkness, the bad gals have the means to drop a significant meteor on the planet. The players know the threat exists at the end of the first AP. In my opinion, the fifth act should have had a collapse-of-civilization impact, and the sixth act should have been dealing with the aftermath.
Clearly if the APs are supposed to exist in Golarion, you can't exactly destroy Golarion during one AP and then pick up the next AP as if nothing happened... but I play the APs in a homebrew world, and it seems a shame not to destroy the world, when this AP so clearly calls for it.
Talk about comparing Hand-grenades to Nuclear Bombs. Seriously I doubt that Chekhov's advice applies to things that devastating in scope. Obviously you wouldn't mention the bomb without the threat of its detonation, but beyond that saying that because you want to tell a story about heroes stopping a Nuclear explosion requires that the explosion will happen is ridiculous. You negate an entirely valid direction for the story to take. Namely success.
Graywulfe
This has been an enlightening thread to read. I'm about to start a new Pathfinder campaign and I'm considering which AP to run (having already decided I want to run an AP).
I've ruled out the Dungeon Magazine AP's, Rise of the Runelords, Second Darkness, Council of Thieves and Kingmaker for a variety of reasons (a participant has GM'd or played it, I'm already GMing it or simply because of bad press).
That leaves us with Curse of the Crimson Throne, Legacy of Fire and Serpent's Skull to choose from. No one knows enough about Serpent's Skull to truly know how good it will be, so that really leaves us with CotCT or LoF. I own most of LoF and just purchased all of CotCT, and now I need to choose.
Both sound amazing, but I can only run one. So what's your advice?
Keep in mind that I'd like to set whatever we play in my home campaign, not in Golarion and that I'm an experienced and older GM with experienced and older players.
What do I do?
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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This has been an enlightening thread to read. I'm about to start a new Pathfinder campaign and I'm considering which AP to run (having already decided I want to run an AP).
I've ruled out the Dungeon Magazine AP's, Rise of the Runelords, Second Darkness, Council of Thieves and Kingmaker for a variety of reasons (a participant has GM'd or played it, I'm already GMing it or simply because of bad press).
That leaves us with Curse of the Crimson Throne, Legacy of Fire and Serpent's Skull to choose from. No one knows enough about Serpent's Skull to truly know how good it will be, so that really leaves us with CotCT or LoF. I own most of LoF and just purchased all of CotCT, and now I need to choose.
Both sound amazing, but I can only run one. So what's your advice?
Keep in mind that I'd like to set whatever we play in my home campaign, not in Golarion and that I'm an experienced and older GM with experienced and older players.
What do I do?
I'd say give LoF a go, just as the opportunity to play around with a campaign flavor and setting very different from most (unless you were big Al-Qadim fans back in the day).
If you want to play it safe, Curse of the Crimson Throne is probably the way to go. Those who like Legacy of Fire, like it a lot. But it leaves some people cold, apparently.
That leaves us with Curse of the Crimson Throne, Legacy of Fire and Serpent's Skull to choose from. No one knows enough about Serpent's Skull to truly know how good it will be, so that really leaves us with CotCT or LoF. I own most of LoF and just purchased all of CotCT, and now I need to choose.Both sound amazing, but I can only run one. So what's your advice?
You can't really go wrong with either; they're both great :)
The advice I will give is this: Try to read the whole AP through before you start, or at least be a good deal ahead of where you are currently playing. This will help you keep focus where it should be, and give you ideas for foreshadowing (plus you will probably find some things that are unclear or that you wish to change; better to do it beforehand than while playing through the module!.
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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Clearly if the APs are supposed to exist in Golarion, you can't exactly destroy Golarion during one AP and then pick up the next AP as if nothing happened... but I play the APs in a homebrew world, and it seems a shame not to destroy the world, when this AP so clearly calls for it.
I think there's also the potential problem of not providing the PCs an opportunity to stop the plan - if you go with the Chekov's gun advice, it's not that the gun must kill someone, just that it must be fired (or, I would argue, play a role in the story - the gun could be in the pocket of someone and add tension to a scene because the audience knows the character could use it to kill someone, and the other characters don't).
I think Chekov's gun being fired is done way too often in media these days - if the badguy has a doomsday device/ultimate weapon/etc., they will get a chance to use it, and the fact that we, as the audience, know this, means that there's never any suspence about whether it will happen. The only questions are how much damage will the device/weapon do and how arbitrary will be the means of stopping/reversing it.
Now, all that said, blowing up the world would be extremely awesome. I don't necessarily think it would work as part of the AP because it either assumes PC failure or denies them an opportunity to be heroic. It seems to me that it would serve much better as a way to continue playing after the PCs fail to stop the plot.
One more thing - the gun is actually fired in the course of Second Darkness (and has been fired before). The firing happens in the second module with the meteor that crashes. I thought the PCs got to look back in time and see the original meteor crash, so there's also that. The gun is fired, and it's effects are shown, it's just that the PCs need to be given the opportunity to stop the final shot.
There certainly is alot of bad feeling towards Second Darkness - I almost feel bad that it was where I jumped in to getting the APs. I thought it had some cool images and worth running, with a bit of work to soften the sudden change in tone and the rail-roading later in the arc. While it may suffer compared to other APs it's certainly a lot better than other modules I've purchased and actually run in the past.
I'll give my players the chance to chose SD, KM or playing another system entirely.
Cheers
Mark
Are either CotCT or LOF difficult to port over to a home setting (which contains both European and Arabian analogs?)
Are either CotCT or LOF difficult to port over to a home setting (which contains both European and Arabian analogs?)
It should not be difficult at all. For CotCT, all you really need is a metropolis near a river or the ocean. For LoF, all you need is a desert with a mountain range nearby.
To bring this thread back to its original purpose:
I feel that Council of Thieves has received a bit too much criticism; I quite enjoyed it, even if it may not have had quite the same punch as some of the other APs. I liked The Sixfold Trial and The Infernal Syndrome very much; both contain a lot of unique ideas and encounter areas.
There is a host of great roleplaying opportunities throughout the entire AP, and even many of the enemies make for great roleplaying encounters. I also like that the PCs don't gain levels quite as fast as in most of the other APs; it is refreshing to have the PCs being able to use their new class features for more than a few encounters before reaching another level.
Where it probably fell short for those who criticize it is the first adventure being somewhat lacking (most of the APs start out with a very strong first adventure, which would make this a bit of a contrast), and that the final BBEG (Ecarrdian) is very far in the background throughout the entire AP, barely even being mentioned before the last encounter.
Overall, I would rate this AP somewhere between a 7,5 and an 8. It has some flaws, but in general I found it to be very enjoyable.
Through all of this talk I think one conceit must be made clear and that is every adventure must be customized by the DM for their group.
Given that truism, I think you will find all of the APs, including SD, have what it takes to be a great campaign for your group. As a GM, it sort of depends on how much work you want to do for you your group. Thankfully each APs forum has some incredible advice for GMs (Big-time kudos!) looking to run that particular AP.
If you expect an AP to be everything your group needs out of the gate, I think you will be disappointed, but that goes for every RPG product (see conceit above).
My personal experience:
I am currently running RoRL, and have been for almost two years. I think it is a high-quality classic campaign with some very interesting and creative riffs on the theme.
I have read all of the other APs and found them all solid, so I don't think I can offer any useful comments. But I do believe SD has enough really cool pieces to work with, just a needs a few tweaks. I also found CoT to be a really cool feel, with an interesting and subtle storyline.
Upon thinking about it a bit more, I guess the main, unsaid criteria used in this thread is something like, a rough scale of how much work a GM will have to do to customize it for their group. At least that is what it seems like.
Cheers!
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Second Darkness doesn't need "a few" tweaks - it needs a ton. Rewriting of adventure 5, partial rewriting of adventure 3, a big honkin' problem with adventure 4 if your group has a Paladin or some other balls to walls LG character, finally changes to metaplot.
That's several days of work there, something I sadly don't have. And it kills me, because some of the stuff there is pure gold...
Are either CotCT or LOF difficult to port over to a home setting (which contains both European and Arabian analogs?)It should not be difficult at all. For CotCT, all you really need is a metropolis near a river or the ocean. For LoF, all you need is a desert with a mountain range nearby.
I don't know CotCT.
LoF is a great game, but it requires work to convert to some preexisting setting.
The biggest is the faith of Rovagug. If you have your gods very strictly defined and for some reason your pantheon can't support him, this will require work to get involved.
As a corralory to that, fitting in the spawn of Rovagug potentially has a setting impact.
(And there's one encounter that depends on Lamashtu, but you don't lose much by cutting it.)
I hope you have gnolls in your setting. Otherwise, look elsewhere. They really can't be extracted.
Finally, if you haven't heard yet, LoF involves plane-hopping. I have no idea how your cosmology is set up, but the AP involves a trip to a private demiplane, as well as the City of Brass (on the fire plane). The City of Brass could just be changed to be a "far away city", but the demiplane really has to stay a demiplane.
Hope that helps. (It's a great game, with a really epic feel. The only non-gritty AP in the series, really.)
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RotRL: loved the first two adventures but decided to bail out after the level of gruesome went far beyond what I wanted to handle at the time.. might come back to it eventually
CotCT: we're in the middle of Scarwall atm and decided to take a break - the adventure itself is not as engaging for me as a GM (kinda railroady and I was still learning how to cover the tracks when we started) but the PCs created such a tight and interresting party that makes the whole adventure one of the favourite ones for my group. I just hope I'll be able to provide an ending worthy of remembering.
SD: didn't play, don't really care for it after so many bad reviews but I might use first two for something else entirely
LoF: my personal favourite. I love the feel, the story with no specific villain until later in the game, the exploring, etc. ATM we're in the middle of 4th installment and I am a bit wary of the City of Brass as big dungeons slow things to a crawl (thats why we kinda decided to pause in Scarwall for a while). The party is not as tight as in CotCT even tho the group is identical but there is still enough time for their development.
CoT: I started this as a filler campaign for three PCs (three tieflings) and from a purely roleplaying standpoint it is a gem. The players really got into it from the start (although I am sorry for not making the whole freedom fighter angle more natural). The game time simply flew with so few PCs and they made an excellent team. We also did first half of the Sixfold Trial in a single session (together with auditions, whole preparation proccess and reading the entire play in 7 hrs) and they loved it. We're now waiting for another opportunity to continue and see how the story will develop.
Kingmaker: We only had a few sessions sofar and I have a feeling that the whole sandbox style might make sessions very dragged out. I liked the contained sandboxy part in LoF but I usually like having an overall arc. so I guess it will be interresting to see what happens and I'll have to take it as a challenge. The group seems quite excited and I do like the opportunity for them to be the movers and the shakers of an AP.
SS: I was tottaly psyched about it after it was anounced because I love games with Indiana Jones feel. But after going trough the first one I think I'll have to wait for the rest, just to be sure it really is what I hope.
CC: now that is something both me and my group just can't wait to get our hands on :D I just hope we will be able to finnish CotCT and LoF before it comes out.
I can't really put grades to each AP but I can say each has its own *thing* about them and that diversity is something I thoroughly enjoy, together with my players.