Curse of the Crimson Throne vs. Council of Thieves

[Brian Torrens]

Hi All,

I am a long time roleplayer/wargamer/boardgamer and I have just recently started reading the Pathfinder system and I plan on starting a campaign sometime later this year. I have my eye on the Curse of the Crimson Throne as a campaign, but I'm flip-flopping between it and Council of Thieves. I like the idea of an urban campaign and I have been leaning towards Curse only because it has some adventures outside of the city as well. I'm curious what everyone thinks about the two adventure paths. What does everyone prefer? Are their any pitfalls in either path?

I have been building some cardstock terrain from Worldworks and I have a large collection of metal miniatures as well (lots of metal Confrontation figures, Reaper stuff, pre-painted plastic stuff), so I plan on having lots of 3D encounters.

[Azure_Zero]

Curse of the Crimson Throne does require some updating,
but it is darn good and has a little of everything,
it uses the fast XP progression,
and each stat is important and used during the whole AP

AP part focused stat: Ability Score
“Edge of Anarchy” focus stat: Dexterity
“Seven Days to the Grave” focused stat: Constitution
“Escape From Old Korvosa” focused stat: Intelligence
“A History of Ashes” focused stat: Strength
“Skeletons of Scarwall” focused stat: Wisdom
“Crown of Fangs” focused stat: Charisma

------------------------------------------------------

Council of Thieves does not require updating, and has tiefling options,
it uses the medium XP progression.

[DM Jeff]

I GM'd both the campaigns to completion for the same group of players. Sticking with my regular style, they enjoyed Curse of the Crimson Throne heads and tails over Council of Theives. Not sure what it was, but Curse was a lot more fun to GM as well.

[Wyrd_Wik]

I haven't ran CoT but have run Crimson Throne. Excellent AP from start to finish and the best one I've read/ran. I made only slight changes (mostly cutting encounters in Scarwall) and had a good group. My only note is the AP only works if all the party members have some sort of real stake in Korvosa to want to protect it. The Guide is a great resource.

[hogarth]

I think Crimson Throne has a more interesting storyline than Council of Thieves. To be fair, I've only played the beginning bits of both of them, but my experience jibes with what I've heard other people say.

[Brian Torrens]

What Guide books are helpful? I have (so far), The core rulebooks (Player's, GM's and Bestiary 1&2) as well as Ultimate Magic, Ultimate Combat, Advanced Players Guide, Inner Sea World Guide and Inner Sea Magic.

Any other books or tools you would recommend that would help in running the Crimson Throne adventure path?

[Azure_Zero]

For players and GMs (Free PDF) must have
Curse-of-the-Crimson-Throne-Players-Guide

For GM and players helper products
Guide to Korvosa
Harrow-Deck
Curse-of-the-Crimson-Throne-Map-Folio

[Douglas Muir 406]

I'd vote for CotCT. Urban fun, but lots of stuff outside the city as well. I played through 2/3 of it and my players absolutely loved it. (Haven't played CoT but have read it, and honestly it doesn't look as good.)

Caveats: 3.5, so you must convert to PF. This is not hard, and there are plenty of conversions online, but it is a thing.

Part 4 is a notorious and obvious railroad. Part 5 is a huge dungeon crawl through a castle full of undead and traps. Part 6 needs some work to be as good as it should be. None of these are unsurmountable, but FYI.

Doug M.

[MerrikCale]

Crimson Throne is the better choice

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

I ran the sixfold trial between books 1&2 of curse of the crimson throne. My players loved it.

[Callous Jack]

Brian Torrens wrote:

I have been building some cardstock terrain from Worldworks and I have a large collection of metal miniatures as well (lots of metal Confrontation figures, Reaper stuff, pre-painted plastic stuff), so I plan on having lots of 3D encounters.

There's also paper minis for anything you don't have in Crimson Throne.

Just sayin'...
:-)

[Brian Torrens]

Callous Jack wrote:

Brian Torrens wrote:

I have been building some cardstock terrain from Worldworks and I have a large collection of metal miniatures as well (lots of metal Confrontation figures, Reaper stuff, pre-painted plastic stuff), so I plan on having lots of 3D encounters.

There's also paper minis for anything you don't have in Crimson Throne.

Just sayin'...
:-)

I forgot about those, thanks! My miniature collection is quite extensive, but I actually like using the paper minis to fill out encounters. Of course I only see parts 1-4 covered. I suppose that paper minis for part 5-6 were never created? That's a shame!

[Callous Jack]

Brian Torrens wrote:

Callous Jack wrote:

Brian Torrens wrote:

I have been building some cardstock terrain from Worldworks and I have a large collection of metal miniatures as well (lots of metal Confrontation figures, Reaper stuff, pre-painted plastic stuff), so I plan on having lots of 3D encounters.

There's also paper minis for anything you don't have in Crimson Throne.

Just sayin'...
:-)

I forgot about those, thanks! My miniature collection is quite extensive, but I actually like using the paper minis to fill out encounters. Of course I only see parts 1-4 covered. I suppose that paper minis for part 5-6 were never created? That's a shame!

Hey, I'm glad to hear you like the paper minis! I'm currently working on the Crimson Throne set and hope to have set 5 (Skeletons of Scarwall) out soon! I will be getting to #6 after that!

[Douglas Muir 406]

Sixfold Trial is pretty awesome: the PCs have to survive a "murder play", in which they're actors in a play full of monsters and things that are really, truly trying to kill them.

Council of Thieves also includes "The Infernal Syndrome", in which the PCs race to stop a catastrophic meltdown... not of a nuclear reactor, but of a magical system powered by a captive pit fiend. Fail, and the pit fiend is freed to destroy the city...

But while those two bits are pretty wow, the rest of the AP is nothing special. (And, to be perfectly honest, while Infernal Syndrome has an incredibly cool high concept, it needs some work at the room-and-corridor level.)

CotCT is more consistent throughout -- there are some soft spots, but most of it is good to excellent. It also includes several seriously cool bits (the plague stuff from the second module, fun with the Shoanti in the fourth). Also, while there are a lot of places where CotCT can be improved (right at the beginning, there's a lot more you can do with Gaedrun Lamm, the first villain), there are a lot fewer places where it /needs/ work; it is, on the whole, a better designed AP.

Doug M.

Doug M.