I have been running the Shackled City Adventure Path for my group online using Virtual Table Top software since the beginning of 2007, and because we are getting close to the campaign, I gave them a bit of information about the other Paizo Adventure Paths released since Shackled City and allowed the to vote to determine which campaign we would be playing next.
I thought I would share the results along with some of the general thoughts about each from the group. I'm interested to see if anyone else has done anything similar with their groups, and if so, what the results were.
I also wanted to post the information here so the people at Paizo could see it. I know 6 players and 1 GM is not really a statistically significant sample size, but a lot of the feedback I've seen on these boards are from GMs who have read the entire adventure path and seen their strengths and weaknesses. These opinions are very much "first impressions" from my players with access to only a general synopsis, level range, etc, so it feels to me like it represents more "what sounds cool" than the merits and weaknesses of the adventures themselves.
Each of my six players was instructed to select their top three choices from a list consisting of both the Pathfinder and the old Dungeon Magazine adventure paths along with a paragraph or two synopsis of each. Their top choice was worth 3 points, the second worth 2, and the third worth one point. The adventure path with the most votes would be what we selected.
Here is how the results turned out:
1) Kingmaker - 12 points (3 1st, 1 2nd, 1 3rd): All but one of my players was intrigued by the idea of creating and running a kingdom. There was interest expressed in seeing how the mechanics of running a kingdom would work, as well as interest in some political action. My group really enjoyed the chance to help to elect a new Lord Mayor in Foundation of Flame, and it seems to have whet their appetite for more political fare. One player also mentioned that a friend of his had played in a Kingmaker campaign and had been raving about it.
2) Savage Tide - 7 points (2 1st, 1 3rd): Savage Tide was popular with several of my players for three reasons - for the swashbuckling style of the campaign, the starting setting near Cauldron, and for the fact that it, unlike the Pathfinder adventure paths thus far, is designed to go to level 20.
3) Legacy of Fire - 6 points (1 1st, 1 2nd, 1 3rd): The support for Legacy of Fire came exclusively from the fact that it was a desert campaign. One of my players indicated they had been wanting to play in a desert setting for a while, another indicated it was an interesting change from the standard D&D setting, and the last picked it because he really likes Dark Sun, and it seemed somewhat similar to him in setting if not in theme.
4(TIE)) Serpent's Skull - 3 points (1 2nd, 1 3rd): The players who voted for Serpent's Skull cited interest in its premise of the exploration of a jungle city along with the shipwrecked start as reasons for selecting it. Swashbuckling seems to be very popular with a group. The expected level range of 1-18 also probably helped.
4(TIE)) Age of Worms - 3 points (1 2nd, 1 3rd): Support for Age of Worms came mainly because it offered a full level 1-20 progression. Several people in the group mentioned that they were dissappointed that the Pathfinder adventure paths didn't reach 20th level. The people who mentioned that said that the lower level range felt less "epic" to them.
6(TIE)) Second Darkness - 2 points (1 2nd): Only one person picked Second Darkness, and he didn't pick it because the idea of a Drow war sounded exciting to him. Instead, he chose it because he liked the sound of Riddleport as a background for a campaign. He indicated that the idea of adventuring in a "wretched hive of scum and villainy" sounded really cool.
6(TIE)) Curse of the Crimson Throne - 2 points (1 2nd): The person who voted for Crimson Throne really enjoys political stuff, so this campaign seemed like a good fit for him. I think Crimson Throne might have done better if it did not have so much in common with Shackled City themewise (struggling against a corrupt government, etc). Kingmaker probably also drew a lot of support away from people who liked that kind of campaign with its promise of letting the players run their own country.
8) Rise of the Runelords - 1 point (1 3rd): Only one person voted for Runelords, and the reason they provided for selecting it was actually that they had previously played part of the first module with another DM who had not done a good job, so they wanted to give it another chance with a different DM to see how badly it was butchered. Other than that, there wasn't much interest.
9) Council of Thieves - 0 points (No votes): Nobody was interested in Council of Thieves for several reasons. The most common reason cited was the low level range (1-13) compared to all the others. Several players were dissappointed that most of the choices did not get to 20th level, and they felt that this simply didn't get far enough to feel worthwhile. Another player indicated that the setting sounded really grim and depressing, and that the idea of working hard in the hopes of just maybe making a city in an Evil Empire a bit less crappy to live in just didn't seem like fun.
Eric "Critic of the Dawn"
Could you post the paragraph or two synopsis that you gave your players?
-- david
Papa.DRB
Keep in mind that Savage Tide and Age of Worms are twice as long as all the another APs in your list. ST and AoW are both 12 parts the other APs are 6 parts.
I get the impression your group will like Savage Tide the best. If your campaign will be Greyhawk based you really can't beat Savage Tide. I feel every D&D group should play through it, especially if you are Greyhawk based.
Years from now having never played through Savage Tide will be like having never played through the G-series or D-series. Something will always be missing from your D&D DNA.
Savage Tide is good but I don't see why you think its particularly better then any other AP?
Its not actually twice as long as the Paizo APs because each individual Paizo AP is longer then each installment of Savage Tide. Savage tide is probably around 33% longer though there is something closer to an exact answer based on the word count of both products.
Beyond this Savage Tide is good stuff but making it work requires that the group navigate a number of hurdles. I suspect you had a group that interfaced well with Lavinia. At least I'd think that would be close to a requirement for this to really go down well. More then pretty much any other AP Savage Tide acts like a novel. Its, to a great extent, Lavinia's story with the PCs playing major roles in that story.
On the upside if things do work for this group your set up for some awesome scenes but it requires a group that, early on can handle something that at least vaguely resembles taking orders. The Savage Tide threads are full of 'my players hate Lavinia, what should I do?'. Mainly because players like their NPCs to act deferential and subservient and tend to contemplate gutting like a fish any NPC that does not display these traits.
More so that any AP before or sense this one is on rails. Stay on the rails and you get amazing scenes but there is a lot less freedom of action then you'd get with even a normal AP (and APs are railroady to begin with).
Could you post the paragraph or two synopsis that you gave your players?
-- david
Papa.DRB
David, the brief synopsis that I gave to the group for each was pretty much directly copied and pasted from the synopsis of each adventure path in the Paizo store. With that in mind, there's no real point in repeating it here - poke around the paizo store for 5 minutes and you can get the same information.
In many cases, these synopses included minor spoilers about the general structure of the campaign, but considering the group was selecting an Adventure Path that most interested them, this doesn't strike me as anything likely to be very disruptive.
The only thing I added was the starting location (for those with access to the Campaign setting or the inclination to look it up on Pathfinder Wiki), the approximate level range of each campaign, and what sort of enemies were most prominent in the adventure path.
Eric "Critic of the Dawn"
Keep in mind that Savage Tide and Age of Worms are twice as long as all the another APs in your list. ST and AoW are both 12 parts the other APs are 6 parts.
I get the impression your group will like Savage Tide the best. If your campaign will be Greyhawk based you really can't beat Savage Tide. I feel every D&D group should play through it, especially if you are Greyhawk based.
Years from now having never played through Savage Tide will be like having never played through the G-series or D-series. Something will always be missing from your D&D DNA.
I've read each of the Adventure Paths, from Shackled City to present, so I'm familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of each.
I was originally going to move on to Age of Worms, then to Savage Tide, Rise of the Runelords, and so on in order, but because Shackled City will probably have taken just over 4 years to finish when we reach the end (playing online is slower than in person) and 8 new adventure paths had been released in that time period, I decided to allow the players to make the choice instead so as to maximize their enjoyment.
In this case they have selected Kingmaker, so that is what we will play. For what it's worth, I agree that Savage Tide is an awesome adventure path, and I'm sure the party would have loved it as well if it had come out on top. Who knows - maybe in another 3 or 4 years they'll pick Savage Tide as the next choice!
Eric "Critic of the Dawn"
6(TIE)) Second Darkness - 2 points (1 2nd): Only one person picked Second Darkness, and he didn't pick it because the idea of a Drow war sounded exciting to him. Instead, he chose it because he liked the sound of Riddleport as a background for a campaign. He indicated that the idea of adventuring in a "wretched hive of scum and villainy" sounded really cool.
Whoa. Would he ever have been disappointed.
Cool thread - interesting to see how your group thinks when the options are presented.