Adventures of the Kingmaker Adventure Path - Which one's the best of the bunch?

[Windjammer]

I've been awaiting something like the Kingmaker adventure path from Paizo for quite some time, but for reasons totally unrelated to the product they finally released I missed out on it. (Not least because I had so much else on my schedule, both non- and gaming wise, but also because I had so much else Paizo product I bought over the years to catch up on. I try not to buy too much stuff in advance, since nothing beats the joy of reading a book you've JUST bought.)

Now, I realize eventually I'll most likely get the whole bunch, but if you had to recommend a single instalment of the current adventure path, which one would it be?

I'd kindly ask you to (also) give a recommendation that is solely based on the actual adventure and not the accompanying sections, even if these add (considerably) to the campaign itself. I hear there's exploration and city building rules in some, but right now I just want to dip into a very good module, and save the plunge into the rules-bits and fiction add-ons for much later.

Just for comparison, I picked up a tendency among Council of Thieves customers that Richard Pett's module was pretty outstanding (if also highly unusual and, in that regard, risky for some groups).

As always, rationalized preferences are much more helpful to outsiders, though I'll as gladly hear which modules worked really well with your group just because.

Thanks for your input!

[ericthecleric]

I'd recommend part 1 (Stolen Lands). That way, if you run it and your group likes it, then you can continue with the rest. You couldn't really go back if you started with a later one.

[Erik Freund]

I thought the "best" module was #6, but it's not very representative of the series as a whole (and you'd be missing so much context it'd be hard to follow), so I'm not going to recommend it to you. Also by Pett, since that seems to matter to you.

The 2nd best, IMO, was #4, Blood for Blood. Nice exploration, nice sub-mechanics, interesting variety of situations, cool NPCs, all around good fun. It's the book I loan out to people to entice them to enjoy the game.

Third best would be #2, and it's also the most sandboxy and give you a really good idea about "what Kingmaker could be like." It's probably the most representative of the campaign, but it also doesn't have a strong narrative thread, so it's harder to enjoy as reading material. But it also has the greatest possibility to get your creative juices flowing.

In short, for your purposes, I'd get #4 or #2.

(And not #3 or #6.)

[stuart haffenden]

#2 for all the reasons above and because it has the Kingdom building rules.

[Are]

I thought #1 and #2 were equally good. In fact, I think the two of them together makes for the strongest start to any AP to date :)

[thenovalord]

Are wrote:

I thought #1 and #2 were equally good. In fact, I think the two of them together makes for the strongest start to any AP to date :)

2, on so many levels

[PJ]

thenovalord wrote:

Are wrote:

I thought #1 and #2 were equally good. In fact, I think the two of them together makes for the strongest start to any AP to date :)

2, on so many levels

Dude just get all of em.Each has it's strengths and some are written better than the others, but together... fantastic! Just my 2 cents. :))

[Major__Tom]

From what I've seen, this is far and away the best adventure path Paizo has done (full disclosure, we have not done the Thieves one yet).

Adv #1 - nice sandboxy feel, players feel like they have real control, and can pick up XP for exploring - a nice bit of nostalgia going back to 1st edition.

Adv #2 - Still sandboxy, and they get to build a kingdom! Way cool.

Adv #3 - More of the same, but a real nice BBEG - good challenge.

Adv #4 - Introducing some mass combat rules, PCs get the feeling of being powerful rulers, pretty cool.

Adv $5 - the best of the bunch, for two reasons - A totally fantastic tournament, very well written, to start things off. Stuff to challenge nearly all the PCs. Follow it up with WAR! As someone who tried the battlesystem rules - I mean spent weeks running large battles, the improvement in the rules is so pronounced it's awe inspiring. That's why it's so good. They took something that players avoid like the plague (due to the battlesystem rules), and made it both playable and fun.

Adv #6 - Still very cool, although of the group, it's the closest to some of the other adventure paths. But you need lots of big bad monsters for the PCs who have finally reached relatively high level.

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

Windjammer wrote:

I've been awaiting something like the Kingmaker adventure path from Paizo for quite some time, but for reasons totally unrelated to the product they finally released I missed out on it. (Not least because I had so much else on my schedule, both non- and gaming wise, but also because I had so much else Paizo product I bought over the years to catch up on. I try not to buy too much stuff in advance, since nothing beats the joy of reading a book you've JUST bought.)

Now, I realize eventually I'll most likely get the whole bunch, but if you had to recommend a single instalment of the current adventure path, which one would it be?

I'd kindly ask you to (also) give a recommendation that is solely based on the actual adventure and not the accompanying sections, even if these add (considerably) to the campaign itself. I hear there's exploration and city building rules in some, but right now I just want to dip into a very good module, and save the plunge into the rules-bits and fiction add-ons for much later.

Just for comparison, I picked up a tendency among Council of Thieves customers that Richard Pett's module was pretty outstanding (if also highly unusual and, in that regard, risky for some groups).

As always, rationalized preferences are much more helpful to outsiders, though I'll as gladly hear which modules worked really well with your group just because.

Thanks for your input!

I suggest you start at book one. If you're still having fun continue on to book two. You could stop there if you like.

Or continue on to book three...

[molten_dragon]

Windjammer wrote:

I've been awaiting something like the Kingmaker adventure path from Paizo for quite some time, but for reasons totally unrelated to the product they finally released I missed out on it. (Not least because I had so much else on my schedule, both non- and gaming wise, but also because I had so much else Paizo product I bought over the years to catch up on. I try not to buy too much stuff in advance, since nothing beats the joy of reading a book you've JUST bought.)

Now, I realize eventually I'll most likely get the whole bunch, but if you had to recommend a single instalment of the current adventure path, which one would it be?

I'd kindly ask you to (also) give a recommendation that is solely based on the actual adventure and not the accompanying sections, even if these add (considerably) to the campaign itself. I hear there's exploration and city building rules in some, but right now I just want to dip into a very good module, and save the plunge into the rules-bits and fiction add-ons for much later.

Just for comparison, I picked up a tendency among Council of Thieves customers that Richard Pett's module was pretty outstanding (if also highly unusual and, in that regard, risky for some groups).

As always, rationalized preferences are much more helpful to outsiders, though I'll as gladly hear which modules worked really well with your group just because.

Thanks for your input!

I'm currently running the AP for my group. We've made it through the first two books, and are partway through the third. I own all 6, and have looked through them.

My best suggestion of the ones I've actually run is Part 3, The Varnhold Vanishing. Parts 1 and 2 are pretty good, and the sandbox feel is certainly different, but my players and I both felt that they were too focused on the sandbox aspects in those modules. There isn't really much of a plot to those first two books, the PCs are just kind of wandering aimlessly with vague ideas that they need to explore the area and expand their kingdom. The Varnhold Vanishing improves on this quite a bit. It's still pretty much a sandbox adventure, since there are no time limits and they can go wherever they want to try and figure things out, but this module adds in a strong plot hook for them to follow, and it's a nice one as well. For having a nice sandbox feel to it, but still a great plot hook and cool enemies, I would vote this as my favorite of the modules I've run so far.

Of the books I've looked through but haven't run yet, Part 5, War of the River Kings looks just spectacular. It starts with an awesome tournament and some political intrigue, and things quickly go downhill into a war for the survival of the kingdom that the PCs have spent the last several years building. And unlike many war type adventures where the PCs are not really involved in the major battles, this one has them leading armies in set-piece battles. I'm majorly looking forward to this one.

[caelum]

If you think detailed reviews would be helpful, they are available for the first four adventures on RPGGeek:

Stolen Land
Rivers Run Red
The Varnhold Vanishing
Blood for Blood

My personal take is that #6 is the best, but it is not at all representative of what Kingmaker is about. The most representative one is #2, because it includes both sandbox exploration and kingdom-building (and the rules for the latter), but it also has the least plot of the bunch. #4 and#5 are good because they do the best job of blending the two aspects. #1 is good for exploration and has a nice capstone encounter. #3 has a good dungeon crawl but again is not ver representative.