Do you find that the end of an adventure path, the last episode often gets over shadowed by the introduction to the new adventure path?
what do your think?
I know that is the case here because ...
Nope. As an AP nears the 6th book the hype is normally down anyway. The new AP is just picking the tempo back up.
|
Nope. As an AP nears the 6th book the hype is normally down anyway. The new AP is just picking the tempo back up.
Gotta agree. I'd be real curious to see numbers on how many groups actually get to the 6th book in any given series anyway.
An entire AP takes quite a while to run and even if the Path is great, let's face it, life happens. Groups just drift apart, players lose interest, personal conflicts develop, job and/or family issues; all of them can kill an AP early.
And who wants to replay the beginning of one to get to the end when a new SHINY one is usually right around the corner? :)
And that's not even taking into account the groups that just skip an AP due to either a) they're still running the previous AP or b) just skipped it due to a lack of interest.
Only makes sense for hype to be down by the time book 6 comes out and far more folks excited for a new series.
|
Also, while Paizo has an extremely good hand for opening chapters of APs, the quality of "part 6s" is usually more in the "OK" zone, except RotRL and KM finales.
Then again, I just read the final part of JR and it looks like it will join Spires and Screams in the "I'd run this AP just for the finale" group.
Do you find that the end of an adventure path, the last episode often gets over shadowed by the introduction to the new adventure path?
Depends on the adventure path. There's no way that the final installment of "Age of Worms" was overshadowed by the first installment of "Savage Tide", for instance.
|
|
Depends on the adventure path. There's no way that the final installment of "Age of Worms" was overshadowed by the first installment of "Savage Tide", for instance.
Well, AoW was kind of a special case.
1) It was ramped up for a full year (12 installments). People had gotten more invested in it than a 6 month ramp up (the current AP model)2) APs were still new and shiny. You were either finishing up SCAP or playing AoW. That was it if you wanted to play an AP. So it had a pretty big following numbers-wise (NOTE: that's just judging from the board comments. I have no actual numbers of course!)
3) You finished up at level 20+ and got to kill a god. That's kind of an OMG ending compaired to ... well... almost anything. Heh. Certainly compaired to almost anything seen up to that point.
But I agree with you 100% Hogarth, the better the current AP is, the less likely it will be to be overshadowed by the next-best-thing coming down the pipe.
Well, AoW was kind of a special case.
[..]
3) You finished up at level 20+ and got to kill a god. That's kind of an OMG ending compaired to ... well... almost anything. Heh. Certainly compaired to almost anything seen up to that point.
Perhaps ending an adventure path with something that awesome shouldn't be a special case!
|
|
I think that high level design is just generally more difficult than low level design. This can sometimes lead to later issues in an AP seeming not quite as good as the early issues. For me this does not mean they are overshadowed by the next AP, but they definitely have a different feel.
Personally, I also think that playing low level characters is more interesting in certain ways. More danger, more risk or death, more uncertainty. By levels 10+ a lot of the fear of failure leaves the AP's. It becomes about how the characters will succeed more than if they will succeed.
|
|
Nope. As an AP nears the 6th book the hype is normally down anyway. The new AP is just picking the tempo back up.Gotta agree. I'd be real curious to see numbers on how many groups actually get to the 6th book in any given series anyway.
An entire AP takes quite a while to run and even if the Path is great, let's face it, life happens. Groups just drift apart, players lose interest, personal conflicts develop, job and/or family issues; all of them can kill an AP early.
And who wants to replay the beginning of one to get to the end when a new SHINY one is usually right around the corner? :)
And that's not even taking into account the groups that just skip an AP due to either a) they're still running the previous AP or b) just skipped it due to a lack of interest.
Only makes sense for hype to be down by the time book 6 comes out and far more folks excited for a new series.
Interesting you should say that Jenner. I'm currently running book 6 of Carrion Crown (started book 1 in September) and the same group has gone through all of Kingmaker and Legacy of Fire. I have also run book 1 of Rise of the Runelords (waiting for the new version), book 1 of Serpent's Skull (abandoned because none of us liked it), book 1 of Council of Thieves (periodic whenever another player is available to join the group) and my wife is currently running Second Darkness and started book 3 this week having started the campaign in December.
I think since we started playing AP's in May 2010 we have completed 23 AP modules.
I think this is a bit of a vicious cycle. Because the start of the new AP overshadows the end of the previous one, hype for the latter parts die down, and groups decide not to run it to conclusion in lieu of the shiny new one.
Now that I think about it, it really does seem like Paizo is hyping future adventure paths quite far in advance. E.g. even before Jade Regent has finished, they're already drumming up exciting for the next two adventure paths.
Now that I think about it, it really does seem like Paizo is hyping future adventure paths quite far in advance. E.g. even before Jade Regent has finished, they're already drumming up exciting for the next two adventure paths.
Partly marketing: What potential new subscriber is going to sign up to get parts 5 & 6 of a series he doesn't have 1-4 of? If you can get him excited about getting in on the ground floor of the next AP, however....
And partly the fact that by the time book 6 of an AP comes out, Paizo staff are knee-deep developing the next AP and excited about it, whereas they've been done with the previous one for a while so it's not on the top of their minds to promote spontaneously.
Then again, it's not just Paizo staff. There are already people badgering James Jacobs about when the AP after Shattered Star is going to be announced. People want something to get excited about, and the thing they've been talking about for 6 months already isn't it. :)
|
|
Thank you for all of your posts.
I would hazzard a guess that the ultimate combat was in part put out to support both The Jake regent adventure path, and the skulls and shackles adventure path with guns and easterno weapons.
well i am interested in getting my hands on the last installment of the jade regent to see how it turns out.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
My problem is I tend to start thinking ahead to new campaigns I want to run before the players are tired of their characters. This has always been a trend with me, but has gotten worse since Paizo started putting out such awesome stuff. I got Dungeons of Golarion, Dragon Empires, and lots of other stuff burning a hole in my metaphorical pocket while winding up Kingmaker.