What the best modules based on whatever criteria you want to judge, combat, story, RP encounters, art etc?
My personal top five (not having read CoT, CotCT, or LoF):
1. Smuggler's Shiv: Such an amazing opening to an AP. Can be played in several different ways too.
2. Sound of a Thousand Screams: Love the way it reads like a demented Fairy Book story.
3. Children of the Void: Great mix of horror and Sci-Fi. I read this an thought of Aliens.
4. Trail of the Monster: Speaking of Horror, awesome flavor with one of the best NPCs ever at the center of the story.
5. Stolen Lands: Fun and new wayto start an AP and the BBEG was also quite cool!
A few of my favorites:
Seven Days to the Grave (CotCT 2)
Having helped out in CotCT1, the PCs begin to see their city fall apart around them. They get to help out the best they can and ending the current threat to the city at the end is very satisfying.
Howl of the Carrion King/House of the Beast (LoF 1 & 2)
These two work best because they go so hand-in-hand. LoF 1 having the PCs liberate Kelmarane and then having to defend it in LoF 2 makes for great motivation. Along with a fun weapon in 1 and a superb crawl in 2, this is quite the opening. Design-wise, I would argue it's still the best opening to any AP.
A couple of my favorites that haven't been mentioned yet:
The Sixfold Trial (CoT #2): Excellent adventure, featuring both a theatrical play (with full script included) and an extradimensional dungeon.
The End of Eternity (LoF #4): Kakishon is an awesome place, and once I get around to running this campaign I'll probably expand this part of the AP to take the place of book #5 as well.
The Skinsaw Murders - an absolutely fantastic haunted house.
Souls for Smuggler's Shiv - Lost-style sandbox
A slightly older thread on the same topic:
You favourite adventure within an AP (sic)
My favs are:
1-Haunting of Harrowstone
2-Wake the Wathcer
3-Smugglers Shiv
4-Stolen Lands
5-No others really stand out at this time
My favs are:
5-No others really stand out at this time
Really. Then you have obviously not played the pure, distilled awesome that is "Seven Days to the Grave."
Skinsaw murders, hands down.
For 90% of the module I agree. However, the final battle is still too much of a potential TPK for my liking.
...it was James:)
I second the votes for Souls for Smuggler's Shiv and Seven days to the Grave, but I must confess that I have a soft spot for Skeletons of Scarwall. It runs a bit like Ravenloft on speed.
Sound of a Thousand Screams must be the best part 6 of any AP, but I have only read it, so I don't know how it runs in actual play.
I'll agree with the folks in the other thread who liked Whispering Cairn from Age of Worms. I also quite liked The Sea Wyvern's Wake from Savage Tide.
I, too, love me some Smuggler's Shiv. However, I am noticing a distinct lack of Jade Regent lovin'. Is it because people haven't had a chance to play it yet? I mean, say what you want about it as a path (I certainly have), but the adventures are great!
Brinewall Legacy is an amazing low-level adventure. Nice mix of exploration and dungeon crawling, with lots of memorable encounters and characters. It would make a great one-shot, or start of the campaign.
Hungry Storm is about 50% caravan encounters, and the caravan rules don't work. The overall enemies of the campaign are a forgotten sidenote, and the random encounter table really needs to just be ignored or you can miss out on vital foreshadowing. That, despite this, I have yet to see someone who disliked the adventure should really say something.
Not to denigrate Night of Frozen Shadows or Forest of Spirits, of course. But I can't really say my favorite adventure in an adventure path is "the adventure path," now can I?
...it was James:)
Yeah, blame him... :-)
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RotRL:
1. Skinsaw Murders - Best "haunted house" ever, final battle, Pett's deranged ideas.
2. Burnt Offerings - likely the best level 1 adventure I ever ran. Also, it kicked Golarion off big way. James Jacobs is a master of "opening" adventures.
CotCT:
1. Seven Days to the Grave - Nick Logue, please come back. All will be forgiven if you write more gems like this one.
2. Skeletons of Scarwall - Castlevania meets D&D, likely the best old-school dungeon crawl Paizo ever put out.
SD
errrr....
1. Children of the Void - oozes atmosphere, memorable encounters, aliens in D&D!
LoF
1. End of Eternity - pocket wazoo world that's just so delightfully weird and breathtaking. Some great sandboxing here.
2. Howl of the Carrion King - pugwampis. Pugwampis. PUGWAMPIS! EEEEEEERIK MONAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
CoT
1. The Sixfold Trial - Pett does it again, the whole "theatre play" part is so incredible that you want to run this otherwise so-so AP just for that one adventure
KM
1. Sound of a Thousand Screms - Final modules are usually of the average variety, but this one steals the spotlight. Amazing locales and encounters. Bit short on interaction with NPCs, but still the best "part 6" out there. KM is a great AP, and the final adventure fits perfectly.
SS
1. Souls for Smuggler's Shiv - Takes a tried gimmick and turns it up to eleven. Great way to start a campaign, superb NPCs, oh why is the rest of this AP so "meh"?
CC
1. Haunting of Harrowstone - Again, Paizo's amazing talent for AP openings shines. Classic horror adventure.
2. Trial of the Beast - Pett really likes those trials, does he? Defend a Frankenstein's monster in a court, how cool can that be?
JR
1. Brinewall Legacy - Again, a marvelous starter by James Jacobs. How it ties in to RotRL and how James planted seeds of this AP 4 years ago - pure genius.
2. Forest of Spirits - Princess Mononoke meets Ju-on and goes on overdrive. I love the mash-up of themes in this one oh so much.
We'll see what they do with the hardcover remake of Runelords. Maybe she's toned-down a smidgen...
I should add that almost all the APs' first modules are always crafted with a lot of attention and very rarely disappoint. I think the only one that I don't think particularly fondly of might be the first part of Council of Thieves, and even it is enjoyable enough to not have complaints.
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A tough question, since so many are worthy, but let's see... The six best, for each part of an AP.
1. Howl of the Carrion King. While LoreKeeper is absolutely right in that all of the first modules are top-notch, this stands tall even among the others (though my favourite will probably change with the seasons and the phase of the moon). I especially love the pugwampis. I've rarely seen a creature rouse such visceral hatred and rage in players.
2. Seven Days to the Grave. It's often said that disease epidemics don't work in a setting with the default D&D magic level assumption. This module puts the lie to that claim, and does it with style and panache.
3. The Hungry Storm. A little something to make the party respect the weather, a little dragon hunting, a little BBEG that just... won't... die all make for a memorable and tough adventure.
4. The Wake of the Watcher. "Reverse Innsmouth" indeed. I love how it can still throw a curveball to people like me or my players who know Lovecraft's work forwards and backwards.
5. The Final Wish. The best of the sixth issues, in my opinion. Jhaavhul is among the more memorable AP villains, there's an air of high fantasy about the entire story, and I just love the encounter where the party slaughters a hundred gnolls.
Hmmm... This is a tricky one, because there are certain sections of some of the modules that are personal favorites but don't extend to the module themselves so:
Seven Days to the Grave
The Edge of Eternity
Burnt Offerings
Trial of the Beast
Escape from Old Korvosa
Those would be my top five, whole modules that I just love.
The Skinsaw Murders: The haunted house and investigation is fantastic, I can do with out the excursion to Magnimar (even though it is one of my favorite cities).
The Spires of Xin Shalast: The haunted cabin in the mountains. I do like the city, but it isn't intriguing like the cabin.
That's all I can think of actually at the moment.
I would have to say in no particular order
Hook Mountain Massacre
Fotress of the Stone Giants
Stolen Lands
Haunting of harrwstone
In APs I've played or DM'd, the best in the path:
Age of Worms- Kings of the Rift
Savage Tide - Tides of Dread
Rise of the Ruinlords- The Skinsaw Murders
Legacy of Fire - House of the Beast
Council of Theives - The Six-Fold Trial
Kingmaker - Stolen Lands (so far)
Highly acclaimed adventures from other APs:
Curse of the Crimson Throne Seven Days to the Grave
Second Darkness Children of the Void
Serpent's Skull Souls for Smuggler's Shiv
Carrion Crown Trial of the Beast
