I actually just finished running Legacy of Fire, and just wrapped up book one of Jade Regent last night so have some extra info:
Jade Regent should really be pitched not as "the Japanese AP" and more as "the Oregon Trail AP." If the PCs are all planning around samurai and ninja and oni and so forth, things are going to be uncomfortable for a good chunk of it. If everyone's prepared for a long arduous international journey through untamed wilderness, they'll get more of what they expect.
Jade Regent is probably the most linear, and most episodic of the bunch. Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on your group, and what campaign you're coming off. Personally, I'm digging the constant changes of scenery and general flavor adventure to adventure.
The whole Key NPC bit is a little odd, but there's a lot of flexibility with it. Mechanically, it's important to remember that (I'm pretty sure at least) the gift/insult rule is one die roll per NPC per level, not just one per level, since otherwise I don't think it's actually possible to reach the top relationship level with more than one person, and the rules seem to suggest that's doable if you really work at it. Lot of experience to be had from this stuff.
In terms of the actual impact on the game, I'm running with an oversized party, so I'm actually having a really hard time giving everyone the chance to hang out. With the standard four, it might be easier, but you really need to take the time to toss out quick little one on one scenes, and you have to use your own judgement about when they sit things out and when they tag along. You really want to have them along for some actual adventuring here and there to establish them and make them feel real, but you don't want them stealing the spotlight either, so it's good to try and come up with excuses that keep most of them occupied most of the time. i.e. these three are going to guard the wagons while everyone else pokes around, but this one really wants to tag along and see what's up.
Light book to book flavor spoilers:
Oh, and the caravan rules need houseruling. Short version- Up a stat every level, up damage dice every level. Past that, get real descriptive with caravan combat, and the bookkeeping is pretty much just a set-it-and-forget-it thing when you first get started.
Meanwhile, with Legacy of Fire...
Someone dumped stat conversions for everything on d20pfsrd which is a huge help if you don't want to revert to 3.5 rules.
The fact that the late-game enemies are so telegraphed kinda makes it a cakewalk, difficulty wise, although the final boss largely makes up for it.
Book to book, again...
The set pieces on the other hand are generally awful. The rest of the AP has such a strong sense of forward momentum that a bunch of little side dungeons can feel like wastes of time. The players I was running for inadvertently skipped the majority, and didn't really have much fun with the exceptions (book 1 and 4). I just made up for it in periodic story award XP (they get plenty of loot regardless), which were necessary anyway since converting 3.5 to Pathfinder's fast track is a close fit, but still leaves you consistently behind the curve.
Steve...
Yeah, we didn't have those disconnects. Let's take a few of them on.
You wonder why they take a caravan instead of a ship. Remember, the first leg of the trip started as a 500 mile trip to Brinewall. First, the PCs are connected to the four NPCs as an assumption (it should be one of the traits they take.) including Sandru who owns the Caravan. Another factor was that no one returned back from Brinewall ... so going with the support of a caravan makes a lot more sense than just being dropped off by ship. The text points out that taking a boat is significantly more expensive, and they're unlikely to find anyone to take them to the ruins known for being dangerous across those parts.
Once they are there, and they know they have to press on, there are a number of reasons they take the caravan. The closest port, Riddleport, is hundreds of miles away and not a nice place. They'd have to go WAY down to Magnimar to charter a ship.
Those are just from the book and maps. A GM may also make up other feasible reasons for them to go over land (let's admit it. In MOST of these adventure paths, things are pretty linear, and players sometimes want to go off the given track for a variety of reasons. It's part of the GM's job to point the main road as the most attractive. I think the AP does a decent, though not perfect job of that. I've run this part twice, and no one has ever wanted to take the boat route...but if they did after being presented all the above, plus the fact that Sandra and other NPCs prefer the caravan for various reasons, including better protection should they be accosted on the way, the GM may need to improvise.
I must echo what was said earlier about the progression of events making no sense. Trying not to spoil anything, but the bad guys go to great lengths to pull off what is basically a commando strike half a world away to eliminate a threat to their power.
Yet, throughout the campaign they often only make token, local efforts are made to stop the PC's. It is very strange.
LOL...that's a LOT of adventure paths. Heck, that's most dungeons. If you do normal perception take 10 checks for baddies, technically, a battle in one room can trigger a lot of other encounters. Why DOESN'T these BBEG's bring all their minions and attack all at once with them? THere CERTAINLY makes the most sense.
Well, maybe, but you'd have a lot of dead parties, hahahahaha
So we make excuses saying the BBEG was planning in a room, didn't hear, things happened so fast, they didn't have time to prep, etc.
JR does the same thing. They aren't the best excuses, but they are there.
When the party finds the Seal, it's in a warding box. Opening it tells the baddies where the party was at, but does not tell them where they are going. They cannot send a huge army based on a one time flare. However, they put one of their people on alert, in Kelsgard, figuring the party / Ameiko may come that way.
When they do, I imagine Kimandatsu figures she can take them . Not to mention the five storms probably don't have a great way to send hundreds of oni to Kelsgard on a moment's notice. Obviously, she reports the party's position at that point, and tries to take them in her stronghold where she doesn't have to worry about intervention from Kelsgard. My party had a HELL of a time overpowering ALL those ninjas (I DID rule they got them all at once, hahahahah).
I'm in book 3 now. The oni are not all knowing, and the party hasn't opened the box since. So, they have an idea they may be coming...but the book is very clear that if the party takes their sweet time going across, because of the weather, the oni will get less suspicious, presuming the storms kill them. I haven't been through the whole thing yet, so my comments end there. Again, I know it's not the DEEPEST plots in the world or anything, but I haven't had issue just yet with players questioning all of this terribly. And if they did, the NPCs I have in the party can help shed SOME light on it.
I will fully admit, I don't have players that try to go TOO far outside the box. Just a wee bit, hahahahah. I would love to hear some other issues...but I think the two major ones you bring up ARE addressed to some extent in the books (and require some GM work in other areas. I have some critiques for the AP, especially book 1. But that's a post for another day, hahaha.
Just to add to the boat problem, acquiring the family sword in Kalsgard is also a goal for the PCs and a reason to continue with the caravan as far as there.
The ship option isn't really viable until after Kalsgard. Isn't Arcadia in the way?
We had the ship discussion a few months ago, the thread is here.
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That said, I don't mean to turn every AP discussion thread into a marketing advertisement for Legendary Games. There are product forums for that. And you (or anyone else reading along here) should feel free to ignore anything we've done which doesn't fit how you plan on running your version of the campaign. Read the...
Oh, ho-ho! Neil, don't you DARE qualify the stuff you're doing at Legendary Games with anything approaching an apology, my friend! Seriously, if there was a subscription option at Legendary Games I'd be signing up yesterday!
The only complaint I have is purely selfish - I keep devouring the stuff you guys produce and then whine because I WANT MORE, DAMMIT!! :)
The things that really blow my skirt up, though, are the pregen characters - Gothic Heroes and Imperial Heroes are up there with bright copper kettles and brown-paper packages tied up with string - and the side adventures.
My players had already blown through Haunting of Harrowstone before I got ahold of Murmuring Fountain and Fiddler's Lament, but I'm currently modifying Murmuring Fountain to run during Broken Moon, I love it that much! :)
Keep up the good work!
The only complaint I have is purely selfish - I keep devouring the stuff you guys produce and then whine because I WANT MORE, DAMMIT!! :)
Ask and you shall receive. Many of us are already hard at work on all the plug-in's we're doing for a certain kingdom-building AP. In the pregen series, I'm doing a new one called Conquering Heroes which I've more than halfway finished. Hugo Solis has turned in all the art and I believe Jason put up a preview of at least one of the characters already.
Indeed, I am working on a low level Jade Regent plug-in right this very second... This time next week it will be in Mr. Nelson's hands for development and layout. Art is already done and maps turned in!
I'm thinking of running either the LoF AP or the Jade Regent. Not sure which. I want to know the good and bad apsects of each AP. In this Jade Regent. So fire away.
Based on another post i Just posted on, I'd simply like to add that I like this AP because you're group isn't given a room full of Goblin Babies to cause you trouble.
Instead, you can be a goblin, at least if you play the "prologue" adventure.
There is a 'goblin baby' (or hobgoblin children) dilemma in book 4. Which my group solved with a fireball.