What were your favorite / least favorite elements about Rise of the Runelords AP?

[William Bryan]

This inquiry is for players and GMs alike who have played through/GMed the Rise of the Runelords AP.

GMs: please use spoiler tags when necessary.

There are 2 intentions of this post.
1. For others to be able to make an informed decision of whether this AP will be a good fit for your players as well as to see if the AP style works with the GM's storytelling style.
2. For Paizo staff to be able to keep track of what their customers/fans think of the APs and use the information to improve the APs in the future.

[William Bryan]

The first thing I loved about RotRL..... the reinvention of several iconic (goblins, ogres, etc.) as well as underused monsters (stone giants). This brought them to life in a way that was both unexpected AND more sinister for my players. They were also more fun to run as a GM.

The second thing was that the main villain was at his core just a human wizard.

plot spoiler:

Obviously, being an immortal 10,000 year-old wizard that has mastered aspects of Leng and it's denizens is arguably MORE than just a mere 20th level human wizard. lol

I know that my players didn't treat him as just that which built upon his mystique.

I loved the pacing of the AP. The players had many opportunities to either take their time OR hurry, hurry, hurry

plot spoiler:

For me as a GM, that didn't effect the overall plot much at all. Although sometimes it had a "this is way too convenient" affect on my players

All in all, I think that RotRL was one of the best campaigns I've GMed in my 21 years of gaming. A lot of that had to do with my players but much of it had to do with the AP content which was-at the time-mind blowing!

What my least favorite things were about RotRLs...

Sins of the Saviors (#5) occured to my players as something that they felt didn't need to happen within the storyline.

plot spoiler:

After they found the info within Jorgenfist, they wanted to to straight from Jorgenfist to Xin-Shalast. It took a lot of divine intervention-ing from me to convince them to go back to Sandpoint so that they could take care of the whole Scribbler senario.

The first senario within #5 was great for my players as well as myself BUT I had to pull teeth to get them there. In retrospect, I wouldn't have resisted them and let events unfolded naturally [commence evil laugh]

[zylphryx]

I gotta say I have been enjoying running this over the last couple of years for two groups, one of adults, one of kids (with some of the content dialed down for them of course ... especially in HMM).

For the issue you had with #5:

Spoiler:

having any of the folks abducted in Sandpoint being present in the stronghold gives a solid reason to return to Sandpoint. With the Giant attack coming from multiple fronts at the start of that installment, having at least a few folks get taken is not a stretch.

My personal favorite section of the AP was:

Spoiler:

the haunted house in the Skinsaw Man. The haunts were a nice element and really screwed with some of the players. In the adult game, one player had a rather naive cleric with a cleanliness fixation who quickly developed a phobia of anything mold or fungus oriented ... she was the only one in the room with the portraits when she finished cleaning the last painting and was engulfed in fungus ... also walked into the yellow mold AND ended up eating the fungus in final chamber.

And the BIRDS! Holy crap! Both groups felt trapped by the birds. It was AWESOME!

Least favorite section of the AP was:

Spoiler:

the demiplane in Sins of the Saviors. There were aspects to it that were really quite good (especially gluttony), but as a whole, I felt it was lacking a bit. That and it took the adult group almost a full session just to figure out how to get out of there. The kids are in the FotSG right now, so they will be coming to it soon enough.

[Moonbeam]

It's a good initiative to start threads like these!

I already wrote my comments about Rise of the Runelords a while ago in this thread.

I'll post comments about the other AP's I played when I have time.

[Ultradan]

I'll start by saying that my group is nearing the end of the fifth book and they've stated to me the other day that this (adventure path) was the best thing they ever experienced in a role-playing game... So cudos for that Paizo!!

My favorite things:

spoiler::

The fact that they made things a bit more sinister... Like the goblins slicing dogs, and eating the face of that poor chap in his kid's bedroom. The whole Skinsaw thing, the ogrekin/Graul incident, and the ogres in Fort Rannick. Loved it, loved it, loved it! And all the new Golarion/Varisia stuff; Exploring this new land at the same time as my players. Awesome stuff!!

My least favorite things:

Spoiler::

Would be the whole fairy thing near the end of Hook Mountain Massacre. It was a detour I ended up narrating as I tought it would kill the pace of my game. Not much, I know, but that's it. I liked almost every aspect of the Path.

I've recently started re-reading Curse of the Crimson Throne and will most likely put my players through that next.

Spoiler::

I'll probably put a 10 to 14 year gap between this Path and the next... I'll re-use a few lesser characters from Rise of the Runelords, just for continuity's sake.

Good job folks!

Ultradan

[godsDMit]

Least favorite things about RotR: Lots of magical treasure that is of no use to the party cause of sizing.

Favorite parts so far:

In Burnt Offerings:

Spoiler:

Yeth Hounds: In the first fight with the Yeth Hounds, they made 3 of the PCs run away, leaving only 3 PCs to deal with them.
During the fight with Nualia, the same 3 PCs failed the Bay saving throw, and had to run away. This could have resulted in a tpk for the party, as Nualia dropped (ko'ed, not killed) one party member, and had the other 2 who didnt run away down pretty low. If she had downed those three, I dont think the other three could have taken her.
I did have her statted as a level 6 Antipaladin, though, so that might have impacted that somewhat.
To this day, mid-book-3, several players still say 'I hope we never have to fight those things again.' alot.

Skinsaw Murders

Spoiler:

The townhouse:
While in Foxglove Manor, one of the pcs found the Hat of Disguise, and kept it, using it to infiltrate Aldern's townhouse with the appearance of Aldern Foxglove.
I barely kept a straight face long enough to describe him walking into the main room and seeing Aldern, Iesha, and a servant (cause I got lotsoplayers) in the room. He promptly flipped out and called for backup.

[Ambrus]

Our group has been playing RotR for over a year and a half and we've recently started in on Fortress of the Stone Giants. I've been playing the group's all-purpose spell caster and tactician.

First off, I have to say I'm really enjoying the campaign despite any issues I may have with its content. It's a generally well-written and dynamic adventure path which touches on many classic elements of fantasy adventuring and our gm presents it with skill and aplomb. I really appreciate the foreshadowing, well-thought out schemes of the bad guys and the various opportunities to outmaneuver and thwart them. That being said there are a few things that bother me about the AP.

Spoiler:

The AP seems somewhat repetitive in nature. Both Burnt Offerings and the Skinsaw Murders feature homicidal locals wantonly murdering their fellow townsfolk. When Sandpoint's sheriff approached our group at the beginning of the second module (a few scant weeks after the end of the first module) to inform us that there appeared to be a murderer on the loose in town several of the players incredulously blurted out "ANOTHER ONE?!?" The first was Chopper, the second and third were Tsuto and Nualia respectively, the fourth was Aldern, followed by countless ghouled residents. I like to joke that Sandpoint's primary exports and imports are homicidal psychopaths.

The Hook Mountain massacre features a fortress and cave system manned by giants and topped-off with a stone giant spellcaster; which is immediately followed by Fortress of the Stone Giants with a bigger fortress and cave system manned by larger and more numerous giants and also topped-off with a stone giant spellcaster.

Both Burnt Offerings and Fortress of the Stone Giants begin with raids on Sandpoint. This modest town and its residents seem to be threatened with destruction so regularly that, every time some new threat appears, I find myself tempted to sit back and let the place get wiped out just so that "save Sandpoint" won't be available as a plot hook in the future.

In addition to its repetitive nature, I find the AP's relentless pacing a bit stifling; between rushing to prevent one calamity or the next there seems little time to rest, roleplay or craft magic items.

Also, as previously mentioned, the AP features a lot of giant-sized or evil/cursed magic items. Most of the party's gear had to be commissioned between adventures due to the lack of usable treasure.

Lastly, as an aside, I wish I'd known before starting just how gritty/grim/horrific the AP was; I'd have made a correspondingly gritty PC rather than the lighthearted gnome with which I began. As someone on these boards once astutely said, I sometimes feel as if I'm sporting sparkly underpants in an abattoir.