Which Adventure Path for a first time GM


Pathfinder Adventure Path General Discussion


Hello All.

So, I am the unofficial "leader" of a small gaming group of friends and we all want to start playing an RPG. Long story short, I found Pathfinder and it appears to be a clearly superior product with respect to other RPGs on the market.

I have been "nominated" to be a GM for my gaming group (in actuality, I'm the only one willing to take that plunge). So, I have the Beginner Box and am preparing to run it. I've downloaded some of the Beginner Box extra adventures and am looking over them as well. I also intend on ordering the Crypt of the Everflame module after scouring the forums for advice on this very topic. I've read that running a few modules first is better than just jumping right into an Adventure Path for a newbie GM and group.

Now, to the topic at hand. I am looking for advice about which Adventure Path would be a good one to run for someone who has never GM'd before and for a group who has (almost) no experience with tabletop RPGs. Here are some (what I hope to be) reasonable constraints:


  • Rise of the Runelords is out because I've pre-ordered the anniversary edition and it won't have been released yet.
  • I don't want anything that has to be converted from 3.5. I read that some of the early Adventure Paths were written for 3.5 and would require conversion.
  • My inclination is to want something combat heavy so that there is less roleplaying involved. I think my group would enjoy the roleplay, however, being a new GM, I want to make sure the campaign is something I can handle for my first attempt. I assume I can take on more complex campaigns once I get comfortable.

Also, any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Scarab Sages

I suggest running a few Pathfinder Society adventures. They are meant for short playing sessions, get you right into the action immediately, and some of them are interconnected for short story arcs.

You might find these to be a better introduction than starting an Adventure Path. I would not run Kingmaker as in my experience running a sandbox is a bit more difficult and requires a bit more preparation than running a more straight forward AP. You also asked for non-3.5. This only leaves Council of Thieves, Serpent Skull, and Carrion Crown as options. I have not played any of these 3, so I can't really comment on how they might run for a new GM.

That being said, I highly recommend you try Runelords as your first AP, even if you have to wait a while. My group was introduced to Pathfinder with Rise of the Runelords, and they loved it. I can think of few better APs to be their 1st, so you might consider waiting for it.


Our group played their first adventure path and first introduction to pathfinder period, with carrion crown. There are some roleplay encounters, but the hard ones come later in the AP. Jade Regent is also pretty easy, i would just leave out the caravan junk.


Listening to "The Chronicler" podcast will be a great help it's on d20radio.com and the first 3 episodes go over crypt of the ever flame for GM's in great detail. Unfortunately I haven't played any APs so I can't help more then the podcast.


In your case, I'd probably just wait for Rise of the Runelords to come out; unless you're playing twice a week or something, it's unlikely that you'll be able to squeeze in another full Adventure Path between now and August anyways.

But if you really can't wait, I'd probably recommend Carrion Crown.


I'd go with any AP that doesn't have an economic sub-game built in.


... the Pathfinder community is ridiculously active ... very cool ...

I had not even considered the Pathfinder Society stuff. I had assumed that it was something like D&D Encounters and, indeed, it appears to be something like that - yet more versatile. I clicked around in the modules section and it appears that all the modules come with pre-generated characters. I think this would work very well for my group because it would give us all a bunch of experience with different classes, themes, lore, spells, etc. I am strongly considering this to fill in the time while I wait for the Rise of the Runelords.

I have one further question. I don't completely understand the difference between a Pathfinder Society Module and Scenario. It seems as though a Module is a one-and-done adventure for a single level. While a Scenario is more like an Adventure Path. Do I have this right?


Smackedus wrote:
I have one further question. I don't completely understand the difference between a Pathfinder Society Module and Scenario. It seems as though a Module is a one-and-done adventure for a single level. While a Scenario is more like an Adventure Path. Do I have this right?

The scenarios are all based around the PCs doing errands for the Pathfinder Society and are pretty short; they're designed to fit in one 5 hour session.

The modules aren't necessarily related to the Pathfinder Society and they're longer (maybe 2-3 times as long).

Sczarni

Modules are self-contained Adventures that take you through Beginning/Middle/End of a single story. They may be any level, but typically in the low-to-mid range (1-8 or so).

Scenarios are intended for Pathfinder Society (PFS) play, and include Faction Missions and/or may build on future or past scenarios.

In other words, a Module is like a Made for TV Movie, while the PFS Scenarios are like episodes in a recurring series.

At least, as far as I understand them, I may be completely off base.

For your situation, I would recommend a few low-level Scenarios/Modules to get your feet wet and get used to Character Design and the various rules. I know you said you don't want to convert from 3.5ed stuff, but as a new GM, that is some of the best practice for rules mastery you can do.

Rise of the Runelords (anniversary edition or regular one) is a fantastic AP, and really hits on all the main selling points of tabletop RPGs. I think it's worth waiting for, and would have "training runs" until its release in August.


This is all super helpful advice.

Thanks a ton.


psionichamster wrote:

Modules are self-contained Adventures that take you through Beginning/Middle/End of a single story. They may be any level, but typically in the low-to-mid range (1-8 or so).

Scenarios are intended for Pathfinder Society (PFS) play, and include Faction Missions and/or may build on future or past scenarios.

In other words, a Module is like a Made for TV Movie, while the PFS Scenarios are like episodes in a recurring series.

There are some scenarios that build on top of previous ones, but not as many as you might think.


I've been running legacy of fire, and honestly there hasn't been much to convert. Nearly all of the stuff is in the bestiarys, and there is conversions for most of the important NPCs available. Its a lot of dungeon crawl, and very combat oriented (and the lethality can be high which is fun in my experience).


The Beginner Box is very cool, especially if you have no minis or maps already. Grab a dry erease marker and some blank paper and you are off to the races. Consider running the beginner box scenario, then maybe some bashes or little missions you write to get people an idea of how things work. Then roll up new chracters and start Crypt of the Everflame, it is the start of a nice "mini AP" that ties 3 modules together. From Crypt move on to Masks of the Living God, and then on to City of Golden Death.

You will be able to get multiple sessions out of each module, 2 at the least, many more depending on the length of your session and amount of RP.

This little chain will get you up to level 6, close to level 7. By the time you finish you will probably be fast approaching the RotRL release date. Throw in another 7th level module after that and you should be golden.

Sovereign Court

I second Beginner Box followed by Crypt of the Everflame. CoeE is an extremely friendly first serious module to gently transition into the full Pf ruleset.

Liberty's Edge

Yes, Crypt of the Everflame is glorious! I just ran the first level last weekend; I've GMed 3.5 stuff, but CotEF was our groups first PF experience. We had lots of fun!

Silver Crusade

Also check out the Godsmouth Heresy. It's a nice little dungeon crawl.

As for beginner AP's well probably the most straightforward one would probably be Carrion Crown although it does have a distinctive horror theme. Kingmaker and Jade Regent are a bit tough for beginner GM's due to extra systems put in for Kingdom Building and Caravans respectively. Council of Thieves suffers from not really having a distinctive villain and is probably the most combat light of all the AP's. Serpents Skull is let down by the third adventure which is a tad weak.

My advice for you would be to run Crypt of the Everflame and other modules until the Rise of the Runelords comes out. After you get though that Shattered Star may be just what you are looking for.

Liberty's Edge

To answer your question as to which Adventure Path is best to run for a first time DM that's Pathfinder: Carrion Crown

It is the most straightforward with the least subsystems and runs in a mostly linear fashion but still has enough non-linear and unique aspects to help grow you as a DM. I would stay away from Kingmaker, Serpent's Skull and Jade Regent. Council of Thieves is a pretty good second choice, but is very roleplay heavy. The second book of that is especially.


That was a great deal of extremely helpful advice.

I am reading up on all the different options presented and I have started preparing my Beginner Box night. Depending on how that goes, I will probably be ordering Crypt shortly thereafter to continue building our Pathfinder experience. Hopefully that should last me until Rise of the Runelords is rereleased in the July/August time frame. Can't wait.

Wish me luck and thanks for all the great advice.


Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but had to jump in and extend another round of thanks to everyone who contributed advice.

I've recently found myself in a similar situation as Smackedus: a first-time, de facto GM, with the lot of us being entirely new to RPGs. After stumbling around the internet looking for suggestions on where best to jump in, I happened upon this thread, which is full of great ideas and advice.

I purchased the Beginner Box a few days ago and we're planning our first game this weekend. Hopefully, if all goes well (read: if I don't totally beef it), we'll likely jump into Crypt of the Everflame next.

Thanks again!

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder Adventure Path / General Discussion / Which Adventure Path for a first time GM All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in General Discussion