Like I say, what's everyone's favorite adventure path? (Or maybe author?) I'm in the middle of Crimson Throne right now and its amazing. DMs really into it. I imagine this might be a bit of a silly question, depending on how many APs each person has consumed personally. But I'm curious regardless.
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Rise of the Runelords. Classic. Also, I had an awesome GM for it.
Next up would be Second Darkness. I actually DM'd this one. I got quite into reading the adventures, I couldn't put them down.
I like CotCT in theory, but the actual PDFs are so dense with info, I have to force myself to read them.
I have DM'd SCAP, AOW, RotR, and currently CotCT they were all great and memorable for both myself and my players. CotCT and SCAP probably are the stand-outs for me but the others are superb in their own special ways.
I have played in SD and STAP and both were wonderful and memorable in so many ways and so different in scope and mood they are reall hard to compare, but being as I am a Grayhawk super-fan STAP get's the nod
When CoCT is over I move to the other side of the screen for Jade Regent and am really pumped for that. The next AP I plan on DMing is Serpents Skull and it looks great as well.
Savage Tide and Age of Worms. Picking just one would be like picking my favourite child. If I had children, that is.
I've played in a truly great CotCT game so I am partial to that AP.
Currently I'm playing in a Carrion Crown game in book two and it has had its ups and downs so far, but we will see where it goes.
If I had to call a favorite though, I'm putting my vote in for Jade Regent, as I really have fun running the game and my players seem to be enjoying themselves. Lots of opportunities for 'drama' and 'high adventure' spread all throughout the campaign. Really good stuff!
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32
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Curse of the Crimson Throne. Yeah, I know I'm boring - but it is the most popular AP since the dungeon days for a reason. It was a perfect storm of great setting with good support material (Korvosa got its own book!), authors, daring writing (I doubt paizo would put Grey Maidens, The King of Old Korvosa or Illeosa's lover into print anymore) and binding the party into the story with recurrent NPCs and locales.
I have not seen better since, and doubt I will soon. Jade Regent had potential, but it lacked daring. Carrion Crown had potential, but failed to pull me in as tightly. Council of Thieves had a great location and decent support material, but stumbled on too many fronts.
Top 3:
- Kingmaker
- Legacy of Fire
- Curse of the Crimson Throne... or maybe Savage Tide...
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I have DM'd SCAP, AOW, RotR, and currently CotCT they were all great and memorable for both myself and my players. CotCT and SCAP probably are the stand-outs for me but the others are superb in their own special ways.
I have played in SD and STAP and both were wonderful and memorable in so many ways and so different in scope and mood they are reall hard to compare, but being as I am a Grayhawk super-fan STAP get's the nod
Sorry, noob question: what do SCAP, SD and STAP stand for?
AP = Adventure Path.
SC = Shackled City, SD = Second Darkness, ST = Savage Tide.
I'm going go to say Jade Regent. Getting past certain NPC and caravan issues, it just had a great mix of exotic locales, coherent story, and fun adventures. Some of the formatting improvements didn't hurt either.
It is a close contest, though, with Legacy of Fire and Kingmaker. And I've really got my hopes up for Skull and Shackles.
We've been playing Rise of the Runelords for two years now (and finishing it with in the next session). My players really had a blast with it; As did I. Classic monsters, neat dungeons, great locations. It's something every fantasy roleplayer can relate to.
So, for now anyways, it's Rise of the Runelords.
But... We're starting Curse of the Crimson Throne after this. And so far (as a DM), I've enjoyed reading it just as much as RotRL. We'll have to see how the adventuring party takes it.
Ultradan
On a side note, I've flipped through The Jade Regent AP, as I was recieving it. I must say that I really find it difficult to get attached to it. Everything is so... How can I put this... Orienty (lol!). I'm having trouble remembering the names, the classes, the monsters, etc... It's like to alien for me. I'm constantly flipping back and forth trying to remember what or who it is their talking about in the text. I must be getting old. Ha!
1-Carrion Crown
2-Kingmaker
3-Serpent Skull
4-Rise of the Runelords.
Those are all that I've played/GMed
My favorite two are CoCT and Savage Tide, in no particular order. I think Legacy of Fire is probably number three and Jade Regent and Rise of the Runelords are the next two.
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Legacy of Fire was a good one in that is covered a lot of classic high fantasy things that are rare in most adventures. But you have to like the idea of Arabian style adventures to get into it.
Curse of the Crimson Throne. Yeah, I know I'm boring - but it is the most popular AP since the dungeon days for a reason. It was a perfect storm of great setting with good support material (Korvosa got its own book!), authors, daring writing (I doubt paizo would put Grey Maidens, The King of Old Korvosa or Illeosa's lover into print anymore) and binding the party into the story with recurrent NPCs and locales.
I have not seen better since, and doubt I will soon. Jade Regent had potential, but it lacked daring. Carrion Crown had potential, but failed to pull me in as tightly. Council of Thieves had a great location and decent support material, but stumbled on too many fronts.
This. I absolutely love CotCT. What's especially interesting to me is that none of the adventures in the path are superior stand-out adventures like say Whispering Cairn, Burnt Offerings, or Souls for Smuggler's Shiv. But they all build on each other in such a great way that you have a truly magnificent adventure path.
I'll chime in with another vote for CoCT. A great setting, characters, background and of course conflicts that worked together well in a unified campaign arc.
Though I'd disagree about the stand out adventures Seven Days to the Grave is probably my favourite of any of hte paizo adventures. Plague is scary.
Savage Tide was fun and am enjoying running CC currently.
1. Kingmaker by far
I am very much looking forward to the new pirates adventure for similar open-world reasons. :)
My top 3 in order...
Kingmaker
Positives - Great backdrop throughout (locales, creatures, and plots), carving out a kingdom (plot 1), great BBEG at the end (plot 2), yet Sandboxy enough to add your own personal touches and expansions.
Negatives - I personally pass on the Kingdom Building/Mass Combat sub-rules but kudos to the bookkeeping types who enjoy this. There former is semi-broken as far as magic items go, the latter seems unfinished. BBEG could use some foreshadowing.
Rise of the Runelords
Positives - All the classic monsters (goblins, giants, dragons, evil wizards, etc), with multi-style adventuring (wilderness, urban, investigation, etc), wrapped up in a great plot. Best starting town in any AP so far imho.
Negatives - Needs more Sandpointy goodness in the second half.
Carrion Crown
Positives - Well rounded supernatural/undead horror-themed AP. Great ending that reminds me of RttToH. Something for everyone here with lots of Combat and Role-Playing opportunities.
Negatives - BBEG needs a little foreshadowing to make it truly epic. Overall plot hooks between modules is a tad thin. Beginning module Trust sub-system is "meh". Wake needs to be more Creature from the Black Lagoon-ish and less spacey.
Despite Runelords having the least flaws for me, I still give top honors to Kingmaker. It's the overall theme that wins me over, the fey flavor, the locales ("hexploration" appeals to my grognardation), the adventuring as you experience a new kingdom forming with frontier towns and outposts, and the best end volume to any AP yet. I've got so many ideas to expand this one, it makes my head blow up.
Thomas and Austin, would you mind expanding on your views of Second Darkness and Serpent's Skull? I haven't read much of either, but it seems like these two rarely receive high praise on the reviews I've seen.
Could you guys go into a little detail about what put these campaigns at the top of your lists?
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The APs I have or am DMing.
1. Curse of the Crimson Throne - The people who played this still talk about it and we are planning to do a high level follow on campaign cleaning up all the loose ends the group left undone.
2. Rise of the Runelords - played this as it came out. I do agree more Sandpoint in the second half. I think one of the problems with this one is that the characters really enjoy Sandpoint and then are taken away from town for much of the AP.
3. Serpent Skull - We have played this for a year now and are just getting ready to go into Chapter 3. I am loving this AP.
4. Carrion Crown - Love me some Gothic Horror.
I also DM'd half of SD. I like SD - there are some problems with it that are discussed in detail elsewhere on the board. My group did not continue after the second near TPK. Most of the reason we did not continue was one player who just argued all the time and worked against the party more than four the party. He made a multi-classed character who was a 1st level fighter and a 6th level sorcerer. All his spells were not those that would help a group but only help himself be a better fighter. Being he did not take more levels in fighter he would go down in a round or two and then the party had to use a bunch of resources to heal him for him to get knocked down again. It was crazy. It made the whole thing not fun for the rest of the party and the group fell apart and we moved on to other things without the trouble player.
I do not read any of the AP's I am not running so I cannot speak to any of the others.
I am a player in Legacy of Fire - we are only into Chapter 3 but I have enjoyed it so far. I am playing tomorrow and I can't wait.
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@ Fletch,
I think the problems of SD have two causes: First, a couple of the authors who were suppose to write some of the later volumes didn't meet deadlines (or something) and Jacobs, Mona et.al. had to rush to get dependable writers at last second to write those volumes. So internal consistency, and creative development suffered.
Second, we consumers had such a huge expectation of a campaign where...
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As far as Serpents Skull, I've never heard problems with that one. And personally, I'd rate it pretty high. It's the perfect Dwellers of the Forbidden City redo.
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Shackled City Adventure Path....
Age of Worms AP.......................
Savage Tide AP..........................(still avoiding spoilers)
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Rise of the Runelords...............
Curse of the Crimson Throne...(still avoiding spoilers)
Second Darkness.....................
Legacy of Fire..........................
Council of Thieves...................(still avoiding spoilers)
Kingmaker...............................
Serpent's Skull........................
Carrion Crown........................
Jade Regent........................... (Still awaiting final volume in the mail)
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Shackled City Adventure Path....
Age of Worms AP.......................
Savage Tide................................
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Rise of the Runelords...............
Curse of the Crimson Throne..
Second Darkness.....................
Legacy of Fire..........................
Council of Thieves...................
Kingmaker...............................
Serpents Skull.........................
Carrion Crown........................
Jade Regent...........................
Totally stole your formatting lol.
Few points I want to make
Shackled City had an awesome story and premise but too few opportunities to let the players find any of it out, and too little foreshadowing of baddies except the beholder.
Runelords is overrated. Was a collection of completely unconnected adventures, good individual adventures but poor as a campaign. The title is also a lie lol
Crimson Throne missed an A+ because of Scarwall
Books 4-6 of Second Darkness look awesome, but 1-3 are so terrible I can never get a group to them.
City of Brass section of Legacy of Fire was disappointing and it was a bit too obvious in the railroading.
Carrion Crown is fantastic.
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Wait...you think that Scarwall is a poor part of CotCT, RotRL and AoW were the second-worst APs and that the second half of Second Darkness is OK?>
Well, you don't dispute the preferences, but...
Scarwall was an atrocious dungeon crawl mixed between boringly easy encounters (wandering undead) and crazy overpowered bosses (danse macabre).
The parts of Second Darkness where you are infiktrating the drow society look fun, but I cant say forbsure since we cant reach them.
Age of Worms overall plotline of merging gods and whatnot wasnt very thrilling.
RotRL I explained, I ran it through book 4 before it petered out, eventually I rewrote huge chunks of it, you can see it in my DMs Cut thread on the RotRL board.
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Well, you don't dispute the preferences, but...
...if you like story-focused adventure paths, don't mind a certain kind of railroading and have a (heavy) dislike for big dungeons...
Though even then, I can't imagine what you could find so horrible about SD 1+2. ^^
But as this isn't about arguments but about preferences, here are mine:
1. Age of Worms
2. RotRL
3. Curse of the Crimson Throne
Now this ranking has mostly to do with the fact, that SD is the last AP I 've read completely and that I therefore cannot objectively judge the later APs. I've yet to find part of any AP that I don't like, so it is quite possible that the ranking isn't up-to-date.
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Though even then, I can't imagine what you could find so horrible about SD 1+2. ^^
The players guide and first adventure lead you towards being a group of rapscallion and rather selfish adventurers and in book 3 you do an about face. So I guess they werent bad by themselves but the AP as a whole is rough.
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Legacy of Fire is my favourite. Least favourite was Serpent's Skull.
In order I would place them:
Legacy of Fire
Carrion Crown
Curse of the Crimson Throne
Rise of the Runelords
Kingmaker
Second Darkness
Council of Thieves
Serpent's Skull
Jade Regent is not included as I haven't really read or run any of it yet.
As to who is my favourite AP author, I think I (and many others) will say the mad scientist of AP's himself- Richard Pett. There is always something in a Richard Pett adventure that makes me chuckle at the sheer mad awesomeness...
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Thomas and Austin, would you mind expanding on your views of Second Darkness and Serpent's Skull? I haven't read much of either, but it seems like these two rarely receive high praise on the reviews I've seen.
Could you guys go into a little detail about what put these campaigns at the top of your lists?
Sorry for the delay in response.
I loved Second Darkness as a DM first and foremost because the AP read like a novel, instead of an instruction manual. I'd lay in bed, reading much farther into the AP than I needed, just to find out the story. In short: it had me "hooked" as a GM.
I actually didn't mind the slight lack of cohesion: it allowed me to add things in and change things without worrying about derailing the entire plot. I could improvise my own story pieces as I went along, without having to consult the AP to make sure I didn't stomp on some future plotpoint.
I ran it at the same time as CotCT, so I suppose I compare it to that. CotCT seemed like I needed to have everything in perfect order, or the entire campaign would collapse.
Also, the ending of books 3 and 6 of SD are just.... freakin' epic.
The players guide and first adventure lead you towards being a group of rapscallion and rather selfish adventurers and in book 3 you do an about face. So I guess they werent bad by themselves but the AP as a whole is rough.
This is totally true, though, and something you need to deal with ahead of time.
Shackled City Adventure Path....
Age of Worms AP.......................
Savage Tide................................
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Rise of the Runelords...............
Curse of the Crimson Throne..
Second Darkness.....................
Legacy of Fire..........................
Council of Thieves...................
Kingmaker...............................
Serpents Skull.........................
Carrion Crown........................
Jade Regent...........................
Of the dungeon APs I only played the last chapter of AoW but I've read them all. AoW was a real meat grinder, one player went through over 10 PCs. I love the themes to Savage Tide but I haven't been able to talk anyone into playing it since its really long (everyone was very sick of AoW by the end) and would be a bit of a pain to convert.
RotRL is on the schedule for when we complete Serpent's Skull. Part 1 and 2 are awesome and I'm looking forward to seeing how they look in the Anniversary edition.
CotCT is my favorite. Parts 1-3 are all excellent. I almost ran it instead of CC. Not as crazy about the second half of the AP but it is still good.
SD. We had lots of fun with this one but I know Parts 4 and 5 were heavily rewritten by the DM.
Legacy of Fire. Great themes and the early adventures were quite memorable. Being unable to resupply during chapters 4 and 5 left us going into the final showdown with no gear.
CoT. A bit dissappointed with this one. Even having finished the campaign I'm not sure I could tell you what the meta plot was here. Lots of good roleplaying encounters and a few memorable battles keep it from being a total dud.
Kingmaker. We abandoned the Kingdom making rules after we figured out how to game the system. A huge variety of encounters over the course of the campaign. The last chapter feels a bit tacked on serial boss fights are fun!
Serpents Skull. Great themes with lost cities and dark jungles. Some chapters are awesome and others need some work to make them awesome. We're just about the start Chapter two so I'll have to wait and see how it turns out before assigning a rating.
Carrion Crown. I DM'd this one. I really like parts 1-3 but was less impressed by 4-6 so I wrapped things up after Part 3. I like APs that can be wrapped up fairly cleanly at earlier points. We had lots of good roleplaying opportunities. I was a little disappointed that no one figured out what that all of these events were related until it was spelled out for them near the end of Chapter 3.
Jade Regent seems to get better as it goes on which is odd for me as I tend to find the earlier AP chapters stronger. Chapter 5 could be expended to make an entire campaign in itself. The plan is to run this one after RotRL so it could be a long time before I get to play it.
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As to who is my favourite AP author, I think I (and many others) will say the mad scientist of AP's himself- Richard Pett. There is always something in a Richard Pett adventure that makes me chuckle at the sheer mad awesomeness...
For authors I gotta go
David Noonan (Zenith Trajectory), his adventures are not only cool but the easiest to DM, everything is written so perfectly organized. I know it could just be awesome editing but the other adventures I have read of his (especially Last Stand at Outpost Three) are also done incredibly well.
Wes Schneider (Seven Days to the Grave) I love all of Wes's adventures
Nic Logue (Hook Mountain Massacre) He is the king when it comes to creative adventures
In order, my top three -
Carrion Crown - I like horror in it's many and varied forms. I actual only had purchased Wake of the Watcher to get the Mythos material, but then I went back and got the 1st 3 chapters because I was intrigued. Only negatives: Wake of the watcher was only marginally connected to the rest of the series, and if anything Too Much Mythos material was crammed in. I found that it ran smoother when I cut the about a third of the encounters and focused on the Mi-Go and the Skum / cult of Dagon.
Rise of the Runelords - Lots of potential, though, as has been mentioned prior, the adventures aren't really connected, but still solid.
Savage Tide - Great but a little long, still looking to run it again with a new group, only this time I plan to braid in a couple of the adventures from the upcoming Skull and Shackles AP and possibly throw in some ties to Wake of the Watcher from Carrion Crown as well.
I would put my top 3 as follows
Kingmaker
Jade Regent
Carrion Crown
now it should be pointed out that that i didn't number them because they are essentially tied for me. all three of them have their own style and feel so can't really be compared to each other.
My top 3:
1- Curse of the Crimson Throne
2- Carrion Crown
3- Kingmaker
I'm torn between Kingmaker and Curse of the Crimson Throne, so my vote goes to both.
Kingmaker
Pros
- Putting the PCs in charge of their own realm makes for an interesting change of pace from standard campaign fare, and allows for some really player-driven storytelling
- A largely wilderness/outdoors campaign lets certain characters (i.e. cavaliers) shine more than they might in a "standard" campaign.
- The kingdom building rules are a thing of beauty.
Cons
- Sound of a Thousand Screams fits kinda oddly with the five adventures before it, at least without some heavy foreshadowing added by the DM (Having failed to do that myself, I suspect I'll probably just be swapping it out for something else in my campaign).
- There's the occasional curiously-worded monster (It's probably an overreaction on my part, but the Dancing Lady's made me wary of any creatures with Tome of Horrors in their statblocks).
- Also, Kingmaker makes me wish Paizo would publish an Advanced Kingdom Guide already. Making me pine for a product that doesn't exist is a negative point, isn't it? :)
Curse of the Crimson Throne
Pros
- Interesting campaign backdrop.
- Probably the most memorable cast of NPCs (and a surprisingly strong BBEG) from any campaign I've been involved in.
- Fun dungeons.
- Individual adventures that work great as part of the AP and stand strong on their own merits (especially Seven Days to the Grave and Skeletons of Scarwall).
- Also, there's great potential for continuing the campaign or starting anew in a follow-up.
Cons
- I really have to reach to find one here, really. It's 3.5, so some updating is required. But that's more a "fault" of the time it was published in than a flaw with the AP itself. Besides, PF updates can probably be found easily enough on the forums here.
1-Carrion Crown
2-Kingmaker
3-Serpent Skull
4-Rise of the Runelords.Those are all that I've played/GMed
ditto for me all round!!!!
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In order of preference
Curse of the Crimson Throne - Great overall story
Rise of the Runelords - Classic adventuring
Kingmaker - The ultimate in sandbox adventures
Carrion Crown - So far, very creepy (Haven't read this one all the way through since I am playing in it)
Jade Regent - I would love to play or run this but most of my group is not into Asian themes
Council of Thieves - While there are problems with this one, I love urban adventures and I have been able to expand on it a little
Legacy of Fire - Lots of elements I like but, didn't really grab my attention
Second Darkness - Lots of really cool stuff but it would take a lot of work on the DM to make it all work together
Serpent's Skull - Again, seems like a lot of work for a GM
I am REALLY looking forward to Skull & Shackles but I have no idea if I could get a group together for it.
I have a large squishy spot in my heart for Rise of the Runelords, though I have been following Paizo's stuff way back from the Shackled City days. :)
3 Favorites, in Order-
1. Crimson Throne. Yes, it has its warts, and some definite growing pains are in evidence (and I HATED leaving the city to go prance about with the Shoanti), but it has a solid story through-line, memorable NPCs both benign and malign, and a nice "classic" feel.
2. Jade Regent. Takes a little while to really get traction, but once it gets into gear, it's a pile of fun. I'm not wild about the caravan rules, but thankfully, they're not horribly vital. The "unusual" setting is a huge part of its charm for me.
3. Rise of the Runelords. Mostly for sentimental reasons. It's really more of a collection of adventures that get you in shape to face Karzoug, but the quality of each individual adventure was so friggin' good. And I still remember the fist-pump we all did when we took down not Karzoug, oh no, but the Scribbler. A fun, challenging series of events. I retired my ranger's character sheet from this one.
3 Honorable Mention-
Kingmaker- I loathe the bookkeeping inherent in the kingdom-building, and the fey BBE comes out of left field, but the part of me that bought Birthright back in the TSR days had some fun with this conceptually. Varnold Vanishing, though, is simply a delight for me.
Carrion Crown- I am still a Ravenloft junkie- but I feel that this AP suffered from trying to hit up too many fairly diverse tropes in the course of a single campaign. The werewolves, in particular, did nothing for me.
Legacy of Fire- I have little in the way of true problems with this one... but it simply didn't ding my trolley.
3... other ones.
Second Darkness- Not terrible, but I feel that moving from space debris near Riddleport to mucking about with the elves and riding around in drow corpses was a bit of a thematic jumble. In my estimation, the weakest AP.
Council of Thieves- Not gonna lie, the only thing I have against CoT is that Crimson Throne handled a civic rebellion in a way I enjoyed more. Felt a bit like a less-successful retread, for all of the legitimate differences between the two.
Serpent's Skull- I wanted to love this one, I really did- and taken in component parts, it rocks, and hard. But I feel it jerks the PCs along by strategic abuse of NPCs a bit too much.
You know what, Cole? Thanks for resurrecting this thread. I really enjoy these little mini-critiques of all the APs and it was fun to go back and reread them.
I especially hearing the lone voice reviewers who manage to find something good about APs which other players aren't so fond of. It makes me want to go back and look at some of my old Pathfinder books with a fresh eye.
Plus its funny to realize that it's been long enough for me to feel nostalgic over Shackled City.
I think my favourite so far is Legacy of Fire, though I have quite enjoyed all of them. I've DMed RotRL, CotCT, SD, and LoF. I'm partway through DMing CoT and SS.
I asked my wife, who has played in all of those except Serpent's Skull and instead is playing in Kingmaker, and she said that her favourite AP was Second Darkness. I ran it as written, but the players all played agents of the Winter Council.