Which of the adventure path's would be easiest for a newbie (newbie GM been player for years) to run.
Our current GM does not have the time to run a game every week anymore so I am offering to take a try at picking up the slack.
Carrion Crown is not an option since a couple of the players have purchased and read some of the modules in that series.
Don't want just a dungeon crawl. Several of our players have expressed a dislike of an entire campaign that is just combat.
I will have the Inner Sea Campaign Setting shortly. Other than that I have just the 3 main books. Core Rulebook, Besitiary, and GM guide.
Thx
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Sadly Carrion Crown would be my main suggestion.
With out it the following might work. They are all for PFRPG.
Serpent Skull - though it does get a bit dungeon crawly toward the end.
Kingmaker - is a very good choice it is based on building a country and exploration. But depending on how confident you on with GM skills could be a good choice but it requires more GM work than most.
Council of Thieves - Is the last PFRPG one that is completely out. It is ok.
Jade Regent - It is looking to be a good one, sounds like it might be the most social focused AP to date. But only the first part is out so far.
Then of course there is the other AP's but they are all made for 3.5 rules so would take more work to make them work.
As far as which one I would recommend would depend a lot on how confident you feel as a GM. If you feel confident then I would recommend Kingmaker of those left.
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I would recommend Curse of the Crimson Throne, it is a 3.5 but there are plenty of conversions for the first few modules, and by the time you get past that, you should be comfortable to do the rest yourself. It's a very urban campaign for the first 3 modules, and realistically there was only one module that I felt was Dungeon Crawlish, and out of six that's not to shabby.
...Serpent Skull - though it does get a bit dungeon crawly toward the end.
Kingmaker - is a very good choice it is based on building a country and exploration. But depending on how confident you on with GM skills could be a good choice but it requires more GM work than most.
Council of Thieves - Is the last PFRPG one that is completely out. It is ok.
Jade Regent - It is looking to be a good one, sounds like it might be the most social focused AP to date. But only the first part is out so far...
From what I've read, I don't think I'm up for Kingmaker.
I read on one of the posts that many character types are almost useless in Council of Thieves. Is that not true?
Jade Regent not being done isn't really an issue for me. It will probably be published faster than we complete.
I would recommend Curse of the Crimson Throne, it is a 3.5 but there are plenty of conversions for the first few modules, and by the time you get past that, you should be comfortable to do the rest yourself. It's a very urban campaign for the first 3 modules, and realistically there was only one module that I felt was Dungeon Crawlish, and out of six that's not to shabby.
Unless it is really a whole lot better, I would rather not have to convert just from an available prep time standpoint.
But if you think it is alot better for a noob i will seriously consider it.
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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To be honest, I would probably steer you towards some of the modules, rather than a full AP. There's a three-module series, Crypt of the Everflame, Masks of the Living God, and City of Golden Death, that should take characters from 1st level up to about 7th level. That way, you have less of an initial time (and money) commitment. I think that Crypt of the Everflame is a great intro module as well, from both sides of the screen.
If you need advice on them, the Chronicles Pathfinder Podcast did a few episodes covering these modules, and they have some great GMing advice for how to run them well.
Good luck!
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...Serpent Skull - though it does get a bit dungeon crawly toward the end.
Kingmaker - is a very good choice it is based on building a country and exploration. But depending on how confident you on with GM skills could be a good choice but it requires more GM work than most.
Council of Thieves - Is the last PFRPG one that is completely out. It is ok.
Jade Regent - It is looking to be a good one, sounds like it might be the most social focused AP to date. But only the first part is out so far...From what I've read, I don't think I'm up for Kingmaker.
I read on one of the posts that many character types are almost useless in Council of Thieves. Is that not true?
Jade Regent not being done isn't really an issue for me. It will probably be published faster than we complete.
Council of Thieves is pretty good, but from what I remember it takes more effort on the GM's part to make sure all classes will have chances to shine. I wouldn't say any are useless but some are more suited to it than others more so than most AP's.
As for things like Curse of the Crimson Throne, it is good and there is a lot of conversion work done. But even with it, it would take a bit of time for you to even with that help to make the updates. Plus you would need to print out the updates and take them with you.
So for me recommending things it really comes down to Jade Regent and Serpent Skull. Serpent Skull is pretty easy and it has a nice mix of exploration, RPing, combat and dungeons. But the draw back is it does get pretty heavy dungeon crawl near the end. Jade Regent it is hard to say, it sounds like it will focus heavy on RP, travel, exploring etc which if that stays true means it might fit your needs best. I just can't say for certain if that is or is not true yet until they are all out of course.
Creative Director
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I read on one of the posts that many character types are almost useless in Council of Thieves. Is that not true?
That sounds like player overreaction to me based on false information or changes a GM might have made to the adventure without fully considering the ramifications to those changes.
ALL of our APs are designed so that any class will function in the campaign, and furthermore will have its moments to shine.
Thx guys.
I think I will put it to a vote with the group for Serpent Skull or Jade Regent. If they say no to both I'll offer the Council of thieves.
(If they still say no, i'll let someone else GM...)
I'm not a huge fan of council of thieves, it was actually my first choice to run and I really couldn't engage in westcrown at all...
I'd like to be able to suggest RotR because I am a rabid fanboy... but with the anniversary addition around the corner... Well... Let's just say that'd be my backup choice come next july.
And We Be Goblins is a ton of fun as an introduction to roleplaying, or to the RotR and Jade Reagent APs, so definately check that out.
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We had a complete newbie GM start Serpent's Skull...she actually found it really hard to prep for due to the sandboxy nature of the first book. Her impression, not mine, I have not read it as one day I hope to play it.
We ended up using the three modules mentioned above, with her running Crypt of the Everflame and then going into a rotating GM thing.
Hope that helps.
Curse of the Crimson Throne: A very solid campaign and there have been conversions done for all of the AP, you can find them on the AP sub-forum.
Council of Thieves: I've heard lots of bad things about the AP, although the second module seems to stand out as one of the best single modules from Paizo.
Kingmaker: Very sandbox-y. I've run it until the mid of the second module, but I am abandoning it now, since the story is really not there, due to the sandbox nature of the AP. The only thing I could get excited about was the last module and I am not about to suffer through 3 1/2 other modules to get there. So, if you enjoy sandbox style AP's, this one is good. If you like more story-driven adventures, look elsewhere. Kingmaker also suffers from "1 encounter per day" syndrome, where the party can just go nova on whatever opponent they face, since they mostly will not face another until the next day.
Serpents Skull: This one suffers from heavy grinding as soon as part three rolls around. Meaning that you will face tons of little encounters which consist of enemies who have almost no chance of actually hurting the party, so they just cost you time and the party minimal resources. As D20 combats can take several hours per encounter to resolve, depending on the complexity and the necessary map-work, I am no fan of the AP at all.
Carrion Crown: Out due to reasons enunciated in the first post by the OP. I will run this as the next AP for one of my groups.
Jade Regent: Just started, but so far looks very good. I am going to run this one for my second group, where I rotate GM duties with two other people ( who have their own separate campaigns ).