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Hi All,
My group has been playing D&D 4E since 4E came out. A couple of us have also been playing PFS.
We have recently gotten a group consensus to give Pathfinder a try for a few sessions on our normal campaign night.
I as the GM want to run a pre-published module. I am confident and familiar enough with Paizo's quality to know there are a host of good modules available to run. What I would like to find out is what is considered to be the best Pathfinder adventure. I don't care if its an AP module, a stand alone adventure, or even a PFS scenario.
Thanks in advance for your opinions, suggestions and commentary.
Drego
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I suggest Burnt Offerings, book one of the Rise of the Runelords AP. Its fantastic, and has excellent roleplaying encounters along with the combat encounters. It's good enough to stand on its own without the other parts if you dont want to commit, too.
Only real drawbacks are thats its written for 3.5, so you may want to do some conversion to make sure the bad guys dont get slaughtered, and the book has been out of print for a good while, so youd need to either buy the pdf here at Paizo, or buy the book secondhand online, which is likely to run you at least $30, if not closer to $50.
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Id suggest The godsmouth heresy or we be goblins (if a little silliness would go down ok).
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Really, they're all good except a few. Easier to give you a list of modules to avoid.
-Cult of the Ebon Destroyers. Great Vudrani setting, but bad game design.
-Kinda-sorta Second Darkness. (Book 5 isn't good, but the rest are great)
-Into the Haunted Woods. While its not really that bad, its vanilla enough to be boring, imo.
Outside of those, you're basically good with whatever you choose! Second Darkness is a good adventure, outside of book 5, so if you don't think you'll get that far don't worry about it.
I'm running Rise of the Runelords now and its AMAZING!
Short Disclaimer: All my experiences with APs have been with different GMs, so GM style could be somewhat responsible for my opinions of modules.
I would concur with those advocating Kingmaker - it's a ton of fun, if potentially deadly in some cases. Since it's so sandboxy, it's possible for the party to stumble upon something too tough for them to handle without luck and skill - whether just exploring beyond the assumed boundaries of a certain level or due to odd rolls on the random encounter table. Canny groups (or those with lots of metagame knowledge, heh heh) shouldn't get in too much trouble with this, however, nor should higher-level groups.
I've played through the first module in Rise of the Runelords and the first two in Curse of the Crimson Throne. The outdated 3.5 material in both is occasionally frustrating, especially for GMs who aren't good enough with numbers to quickly calculate CMB/CMD off-the-cuff. Level progression is sometimes wonky to boot, since the method of awarding XP is so different between systems. Moreover, the plot of Crimson Throne often leaves players feeling like they're trying to bail a sinking ship with a 2-gallon bucket, and wondering if it might not be worth their time (i.e. it's mostly incompatible with antihero/villainous PCs).
In summary, I can't really recommend Crimson Throne, Runelords has a plot that is quite good if you don't mind a few mechanical quibbles, and you can't go wrong with Kingmaker.
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Hey Drego,
Since there are so many high quality adventures to choose from, like you said, you should probably give us a little more superficial info on your gaming group and what kinda stuff you guys like.
"Burnt Offerings" is great for a nice intro into Pathfinder RPG. But if you guys have been playing a long time and "have seen it all" then it will only be pretty cool.
Kingmaker is a great Sandbox campaign -- in fact, the only really successful Sandbox ever published (Bloodstone Pass was too different to be D&D and the few others just sucked.). But are you guys looking for Sandbox?!
Carnival of Tears, Hangman's Noose, "The Skinsaw Murders," Realm of the Fellknight Queen and Gallery of Evil are all not only spectacular, they're also kinda novel -- great for a group who's seen it all.
"Howl of the Carrion King," "Hook Mountain Massacre" and Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale are spectacular half-Sandbox / half-Great Intro adventures, maybe the best overall for starting something new that can develop into a long term campaign.
But really, what kind of atmosphere or game do you guys enjoy?! -- then we'll be able to really point you in the right direction. If your whole group is into Osirion-flavored stuff, though, it's a whole different set of suggestions.
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Really, they're all good except a few. Easier to give you a list of modules to avoid.
-Into the Haunted Woods. While its not really that bad, its vanilla enough to be boring, imo.
Actually, both groups I ran through Into The...thought it was a great first module.
There are some great comabt encounters (especially the end and the standing stones...), a mystery to solve (an actual whodunnit with clues they can follow), some great roleplaying hooks (the mystery, the encounter by the river, the PITA sherriff, and even Estle the witch), a decent group of enemies to overcome, some Golarion history to interact with, and some cool, very minor named items that are fun to use and won't upset game balance by letting the heroes keep them. (That armor is cool, but I have the BREASTPLATE OF SACRED FIRE!)
And all of the encounters and combats and taverns take place on the Paizo Map Packs (Inns) and Flip Mats (Woodlands)and ALL of the items can be found in the Elements of Power card set, so you can hand the items to your players. (And you find a breastplate that looks EXACTLY like...THIS!)
This is one of my favorite starer adventures as it's quick, fun, combines RP, combat, and skill use, has a mystery, and doesn;t advance the palyers so far that they'll be too high level to handle other 1st level adventures...
For a one shot We Be Goblins is the best afternoon of laughs I've had in a long while.
Realm of the Fellknight Queen. Top choice for a shorter one shot (as opposed to an AP volume).
Burnt Offerings - if you don't mind converting. It's a classic.
Souls for the Smuggler's Shiv - for some great lost island exploration and excellent cast of NPCs.
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if you just need a one-night stand, go with We Be Goblins. It's hilarious, and also a good prequel to the new jade-thingy Adventure Path.
if you want a city based adventure, Council of Thieves kicks ass. a dirty, gritty setting, and great encounters. I'd love to start a new group just so I can run CoT again. Also, if your players like it, part 2 of that AP is the weirdest module you've ever seen and if your players are willing to go with the flow, you're going to have so much fun...
instead, if you prefer a world spanning adventure, Rise of the Runelords is a very intense storyline combined with nasty combat encounters - my favorite adventure path ever.
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Hi All,
Thanks for all the suggestions!
After kicking this idea around some more I do want to stay away from 3.5 modules and try to stick with actual Pathfinder system modules. I know it wouldnt take too much to convert them, but I really have zero extra time on my hands. I need to be able to read, make some notes and just go.
A couple of you asked to know more about the group. We have all been rolling dice for many years. I started back in the AD&D days, and the rest of the gang has roots back to 2nd Ed D&D. So we have all experienced many of the standard tropes in fantasy gaming. And while familiar always has a nice feel to it for us, I am sure a little something different would not go at all amiss.
Normally I write and run my own material, but on occasion I will run pre-published material when I don't have time to write and develop my own material. Now is one of those times. Back in 3.5 I ran Shackled City, and we thought that was all kinds of awesome. I was gearing up for Age of Worms, but then we decided to make the jump to 4E.
Now that we have been playing 4E for a while and with the influence of the PFS players in the group, we are looking to run a few to several sessions of Pathfinder. I know we wont have time for an entire AP, but if there is a particular chapter that stands out from any of them that would certainly be a viable option.
I really like the sandbox approach to gaming, and the group seems to really like it as well. My 4E campaign has recently taken a turn in that direction and we are all having a really good time with it.
I think all of us picked up the goblin module on free rpg day, I think that would be an awesome idea to run, but everybody pretty much read it already.
I already see some suggestions I am going to do some digging on, but feel free to keep the ideas coming.
Thanks!
Drego
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We Be Goblins is hella fun. It's also hella free, and letting your players just cut loose as deranged goblins is wonderful, even if they know what's suppose to happen. Laughter will ensue.
Crypt of the Everflame, Masks of the Living God, and City of Golden Death comprise an amazingly designed "mini-Adventure Path". Running these three in a row, you get a wide breath of play and experience. It starts with a simple twist on a dungeon delve, moves to urban infiltration, and ends with surviving twisted environs while hot on the heels of an evil cult. Underrated.
Carnival of Tears is also excellent if you're looking for a creepy gauntlet of evil fey. It's 3.5 rules, but I did some conversions here. It takes place in Falcon's Hollow, which has a number of great adventures. They too have conversions, and two of the adventures (Hollow's Last Hope and Revenge of the Kobold King) are free to download.
If you want a great sandbox campaign, I really have to +1 the recomendation for Kingmaker. It has plenty of room to add additional sidequests. When I run it I plan on including a converted Caves of Chaos and the fantastic Tales of the Margreve anthology from Open Design.
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Contributor
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As others have said, the We Be Goblins series are great for one-shot adventures.
The first module I ran is still my favorite: Godsmouth Heresy. It's a 1-2 adventure, perfect for introducing new character ideas, and it has a lot of classic dungeon-crawl stuff.
I played Carrion Hill not too long ago, and it's great for a few levels higher with creepy horror flavor. Good mix of mystery and hack-n-slash.
If you want a longer example, The Dragon's Demand is almost a mini-AP that goes from level 1 to 7 throughout its course and has a lot to offer for dungeons, wilderness, urban, and social encounters.
Curse of the Crimson Throne. I believe it's a much better story and game than Rise of the Runelords.
Yes if you want sandbox Kingmaker is your game.
If you want something that is short and different I’d do with Feast or Ravemoor.
I found both Crypt of the Everflame and the Godsmouth Heresy to be pretty standard dungeon crawl material. They are good but standard.
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I second Feast of Ravenmoor. It is well written, and it absolutely nails that ever so tenuous perfect balance of role-playing and combat for a one-shot module.
If you're looking for something a little longer, then I would also suggest Kingmaker like some others have. I am finishing up running Rise of the Runelords now, and I have run Kingmaker in the past. The PCs and myself greatly enjoyed the free-flow sandbox method of adventuring Kingmaker promotes as opposed to the more linear adventure paths, like Kingmaker.
Although, Curse of the Crimson Throne is damn well written, so pick your poison honestly.
Rasputin Must Die!
Actually, that is high enough level that maybe you don't want to start with it, also second to last in an AP.
Maybe I'm not the best guy to be asking, I'm not really into one shots. Carry on.
*Puffs in*
Rise of the Runelords is a great AP, and a very good one to start on pathfinder, one of my favorites.
*Puffs out*