All sound awesome and get great reviews and fit the style and type of adventure I like to play. So....I guess I'm looking for any persuasive argument one way or the other. Rise of the Runelords is coming out as a complete set this summer, correct?
Do any of them demand that you use the Players Guides and create characters just for the campaign or can you use existing characters?
All of them start at level 1, which might make shoehorning in preexisting characters difficult. Other than that, none require Player's Guides.
2nd Darkness did *not* get a great review. Not saying you shouldn't play it, just speaking to your comment that they "all" did.
Runelords will be cheaper to buy the whole thing ($60 instead of $120 for the two others).
Runelords is relatively straight-forward fantasy. 2nd Darkness starts off "buckaneer" and quickly turns into "selfless James Bond". And Carrion Crown requires heroes who can take a lot of social abuse.
Hmmm...how much buccaneer is involved in 2nd Darkness?
All the PCs are still 12st or 2nd level. We have only done a couple home made adventures so far.
Which of the three is more action packed? We tend to not get into a lot of political intrigue, sneaking around stuff.
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I'd totally go with Second Darkness, if only because Runelords is coming out in August with PF rules & updates.
SD gets a lot of flack, mostly because it's one of the earlier APs, but also because it "changes gears" several times (start off as pseudo-criminals trying to make a living in a seedy dock town, then go off island exploring & treasure hunting, then get thrown into political shenanigans with a shadow-war and Black Ops style missions).
If the GM reads through the SD boards & makes some simple changes (like make the Elves not such jerks & ease up on the whole Riddleport Ganglord angle), it is a fun & well-written path.
It can also generate a lot of anger from the players, if you simply run it "as written" and don't make concessions for their agency.
Carrion Crown is also fantastic (and already out, and fully PF rules), with some of the best dungeon-delving adventures & wicked NPCs ready to go.
Honestly, you can't go wrong with any of them, so long as you "play around" with SD a bit.
Rise of the Runelords was the one we were leaning towards but it sounds like it'd be far more economical to wait until July.
So Carrion Crown has some pretty solid dungeon adventures?
If we decide to wait until July for ROTRL, is there a module or two that is pretty great?
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Runelords has a great storyline and is a lot of fun to run and play. I am hoping they convert it if it is to be re-relased.
Second darkness is a pretty heavy hack-n-slash, through I have only run it through mid-way into book 2. It has been fun so far, but run as is, it doesn't have too much for the characters to develop on.
I have not run or played Carrion crown, but have ready through the first and second books in preparation and it seems like it is quite fun. It is a bit heavier on the roleplaying.
For modules, in the time till you get the RotRL, you can run the Kobold King modules (Hollows Last Hope, Crown of the Kobold King, Revenge of the Kobold King)
So Carrion Crown has some pretty solid dungeon adventures?
Yes, it has solid dungeons. It *also* has a *strong* focus on investigation and RP. Carrion Crown is great for groups that like mixing playstyles (like mine). But it is *not* great for groups that want something somewhat straightforward or heroic.
Based on the bit you've said about yourself and group: definately go RotRL. To tide you over until July, you could buy the first PDF of RotRL (it's called Burnt Offerings) and run that until the hardcover comes out. The first book is kindof disconnected from the rest of the series (until the very end of the book), so you shouldn't miss out on anything important if you just run it in isolation like that. And unlike the later books, it doesn't have any "needed errata" that you'd want to make sure to get from the hardcover. You can safely run it as-is.
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Rise of the Runelords was the one we were leaning towards but it sounds like it'd be far more economical to wait until July.
So Carrion Crown has some pretty solid dungeon adventures?
If we decide to wait until July for ROTRL, is there a module or two that is pretty great?
The first chapter of Carrion Crown -- The Haunting of Harrowstone -- is considered by some folks to be the best dungeon crawl they've ever played. I can personally vouch for it being a pretty awesome dungeon crawl. The following chapters are very diverse in their gaming styles, but I've greatly enjoyed GMing everything so far (we're in the middle of Chapter 3).
You could run Haunting of Harrowstone as its own standalone adventure very easily with just a few minor plot modifications.
Shar Tahl is also right about the modules he's mentioned. Crown of the Kobold King is a really good dungeon for 2nd level characters. I'm running it right now.
Keep in mind that both HoH and CotKK will normally take characters to 4th level if they're run as written.
Rise of the Runelords was the one we were leaning towards but it sounds like it'd be far more economical to wait until July.
So Carrion Crown has some pretty solid dungeon adventures?
If we decide to wait until July for ROTRL, is there a module or two that is pretty great?
The first chapter of Carrion Crown -- The Haunting of Harrowstone -- is considered by some folks to be the best dungeon crawl they've ever played. I can personally vouch for it being a pretty awesome dungeon crawl. The following chapters are very diverse in their gaming styles, but I've greatly enjoyed GMing everything so far (we're in the middle of Chapter 3).
You could run Haunting of Harrowstone as its own standalone adventure very easily with just a few minor plot modifications.
Shar Tahl is also right about the modules he's mentioned. Crown of the Kobold King is a really good dungeon for 2nd level characters. I'm running it right now.
Keep in mind that both HoH and CotKK will normally take characters to 4th level if they're run as written.
That's a good idea. So it wouldn't be too much fuss to run Haunting of Harrowstone as it's own adventure?
I'm not too worried about what level they are as they aren't opposed to retooling their PCs if needed and some may even want to make new ones when ROTRL comes out.
I'll check out the Kobold modules and Harrowstone to use in the meantime.
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Absolutely!!!
Haunting of Harrowstone is creepy, gothic, and has a fantastic large dungeon as the central "plot" of the adventure.
It is very reminiscent of "old school" games, where you'd go explore a level, head back to town, repeat.
The NPCs and "town that don't trust you" mechanic are workable, and allow for Good, Neutral, or Evil parties to triumph, depending on their decisions & skillsets.
Then you just run it as a "ghostbusters" type adventure, where the mission is to clear out the haunted place, and ignore the other 5 books of the AP.
Heck, if you wanted to do that, Edge of Anarchy (Curse of the Crimson part 1), Shadow in the Sky (Second Darkness part 1), and Bastards of Erebus (Council of Thieves part 1) are all very solid, fun adventures.
They all introduce various PF rule concept things like CMBs (you'd have to convert CotCT and SD to PF rules), attacks of opportunity, spellcasting and martial styled foes, and other "basics".
It's hard to go "wrong" with any of the Adventure Path part 1 books, honestly.
Runelords has a great storyline and is a lot of fun to run and play. I am hoping they convert it if it is to be re-relased.
Second darkness is a pretty heavy hack-n-slash, through I have only run it through mid-way into book 2. It has been fun so far, but run as is, it doesn't have too much for the characters to develop on.
I have not run or played Carrion crown, but have ready through the first and second books in preparation and it seems like it is quite fun. It is a bit heavier on the roleplaying.
For modules, in the time till you get the RotRL, you can run the Kobold King modules (Hollows Last Hope, Crown of the Kobold King, Revenge of the Kobold King)
I just went ahead and downloaded Hollow's Last Hope. Looks promising, thanks for the heads up!
Absolutely!!!
Haunting of Harrowstone is creepy, gothic, and has a fantastic large dungeon as the central "plot" of the adventure.
It is very reminiscent of "old school" games, where you'd go explore a level, head back to town, repeat.
The NPCs and "town that don't trust you" mechanic are workable, and allow for Good, Neutral, or Evil parties to triumph, depending on their decisions & skillsets.
Then you just run it as a "ghostbusters" type adventure, where the mission is to clear out the haunted place, and ignore the other 5 books of the AP.
Heck, if you wanted to do that, Edge of Anarchy (Curse of the Crimson part 1), Shadow in the Sky (Second Darkness part 1), and Bastards of Erebus (Council of Thieves part 1) are all very solid, fun adventures.
They all introduce various PF rule concept things like CMBs (you'd have to convert CotCT and SD to PF rules), attacks of opportunity, spellcasting and martial styled foes, and other "basics".
It's hard to go "wrong" with any of the Adventure Path part 1 books, honestly.
Well I am glad you guys mentioned that because I hadn't even thought about it. I was thinking it would have to be all or nothing. We want to do a big long campaign and Runelords sounds like our type of campaign but in the meantime we'll look into some of these others to run as a one-shot.
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Runelords has a great storyline and is a lot of fun to run and play. I am hoping they convert it if it is to be re-relased.Have you been living in a box for the last nine months? ;-)
apparently so! very nice!