The title says it all, but I talk too much, so here are all the details:
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I started my family on "Curse of the Crimson Throne", and it has been, quite simply, the best-written and organized set of adventure modules I've had the privilege of GM'ing. Yeah, we loved it THAT much. I may even run a second group through it just so I can play it all out again. A riveting story, strong NPCs, a wide variety of approaches, and lots of roleplaying make it incredibly fun to run.
Unfortunately, we're 5 months in and getting deep into "Skeletons of Scarwall" (did I mention I add large amounts of player/NPC interaction and side travel?), so it was time to start prepping a second group on a second path. We made the mistake of choosing "Council of Thieves". It's a path that just doesn't play right for us. "Your PCs do this because it's the right thing to do, even though the people asking you to do it are kind of wimpy jerks. Now you're going to do this because it's what we've written down." Very little motivation, and fairly cardboard NPCs. I spoke to another group, and they hated "Council of Thieves" as well, for exactly the same reasons we did -- lots of combat, virtually no motivation for the characters to actually be doing anything they're supposed to be doing. "Oh, it's for the good of this Lawful Evil city," doesn't cut it all that well.
So I figured I'd get a third adventure path, but I've found summarized reviews of full adventure paths hard to find. (For example, Amazon's reviews are one book at a time; not useful for a full path). It would be really nice for Paizo to host a simple review/comments page for each Adventure Path, but I didn't find anything beyond the message boards. I was hoping someone might be able to point me to something beyond, "Read a couple hundred posts from the discussion board for each path and decide which path sounds right for your group." (I'm buying paths because I don't have much free time, and my group strongly prefers my GM'ing to anyone else's, so I've got to buy my paths instead of writing them... oh, and I'm absolutely addicted to them...)
Joe
Each adventure path has its own subforum. Usually there's plenty of discussion of the pros and cons of that path, but it might be a case of information overload!
Gorbacz --
Absolutely, positively, perfect!
Everyone's nuts for Kingmaker -- it doesn't sound like the kind of AP my group would enjoy, but I have yet to see a less-than-stellar review of it. I'll have to read that board and look into it more deeply. "When everyone else loves it, your job as a GM is to make it work with your group. Or blame everyone else for having poor taste."
And Hogarth, yes, that's my issue. I don't want to spend 15 hours trying to determine which AP to get next.
We were looking at Jade Regent, but Yay Aargh Yah Aargh could either be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on the party's sense of humor at TPWOs.
Joe
Senior Software Developer
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Currently reviews are tied directly to individual products and any given adventure path isn't a separate product in our system, so we're kind of in the same boat as the Amazon reviews you've mentioned. We may be adding the ability to review other things at some point but for now, I think the forums are your best bet. You might try posting a question in the main adventure path forum, describing what you're looking for in an adventure path, I bet you'll get some good feedback here.
You may want to spend a few minutes browsing in the "Pathfinder Adventure Path General Discussion" forum. It's fairly common to find threads there which rate or compare the adventure paths.
Regarding Kingmaker, I actually skipped buying that one when it first was published - I just wasn't that interested in fey or kingdom building. Then I spent time reading threads on the Kingmaker forum, ended up ordering the whole path, and dropped my plans at the last minutes to run another one (Serpent's Skull) in order to do Kingmaker instead. We're nearing the end of chapter 1, and we love it! On the other hand, because it's a sandbox-style adventure, it does require more work from the DM than a more linear plotline.
I also have to agree with Gorbacz's quick summary. Building on it - If I were you, I'd start by considering the following narrowed list:
RotRL - Particularly if you have time to wait until the compilation. Great NPC stories, and some really innovative individual adventures. Chapters 1 and 2 are amazing; my group loved chapter 5 as well. (Chapters 4 and 6 are "ordinary" rather than excellent - I ended up modifying them heavily.) If you run this path, consider finding ways to connect the PCs' backgrounds to some of the key NPCs.
KM - This path is worth the effort, and there are lots of threads with helpful tools/advice. Players really seem to enjoy the feeling of ownership in the setting. This path has possibly the best 6th chapter of any adventure path. If you do run this path, some advice - get the author's original turnover of chapter 5, and read threads about eliminating the "magic item economy" (you'll easily find threads about both of these in the Kingmaker forums).
CC - Very solid. Includes investigations, putting together clues to solve mysteries and understand NPC motivations, dealing with interesting NPCs... However, this path needs players who are interested in investigating; it would not be recommended for a group that prefers to solve all problems with violence. If you run this path, read the thread(s) about Adivion Adrissant (sp?) to make sure you foreshadow him before the end.
JR - This path actually looks very solid, too. I haven't read the last two chapters yet, but I've been very impressed by what I've seen so far. This path has a good mix of combat, great adventure sites, and truly engaging interactions with NPCs. It also has a prequel adventure ("We Be Goblins!") that lets you introduce the path in a truly unique way.