Our long tyme group recently due to work and tyme issues has sorta seperated from one large group into a smaller group. Our usual DM never gets to play so I told him I would give it a try since I know the rules farely well, get into character and ideas, and could try to push the story... So I ran a one shot society game for him and his wife that took about 4-5 hours and all seemed to go fairly well. Even got some compliments from them for some things I did that he doesn't do. We all had fun which is the major part and I actually look forward to DM'n again. I had to convert the adventure from 3.5 which isn't to hard, but there were one or two parts that I could have done better and it was a small adventure not an entire AP. Anyways... Our old members are starting to get tyme and have the itch to play again so we are going to try and start running with them. However, the current group and that group would rather stay seperate since this game will likely meet less frequently. Our current group is running Carrion Crown and my DM was looking forward to running Skull and Shackles for the next game, but he doesn't think he will be able to run two games at the same tyme. So I told him I would run the game, but he wants to run that AP. I don't know which AP would be best to run being a newer DM. I don't know about running a sandbox game, but dont want to railroad the players. Our group is really easy going and think that we could RP enough without getting to off base. I wouldn't mind converting a game if I had to, but if there are any good APs to run that I wouldn't have to convert I would be ok with that too. We have a very casual experienced group that has been playing for the better part of the last 15 years, we usually work as a cohesive unit but I have no problem with SMALL party conflicts, we usually run good campaigns, I want an AP that will keep their interest and they will WANT to finish and enjoy. We have had to many games fall apart around lvl 10 right as we are getting to the meat of the adventure.
Are there any suggestions? I was looking at maybe Rise of the Runelords, Shadow in the Sky, and/or possibly taking some smaller adventures and stringing them together so we can start higher than lvl 1... that is getting a lil old to some of the players. Anything out there that I should be checking out feel free to point me towards. I dont really know much about DM'n and havent read a ton of APs.
I would recommend going for an AP you find exciting. The overviews in the AP section give a flavor of the overall themes going on in each AP that's out so far, but go for one you personally like. That way, you'll have more fun setting it up for the players, and they in turn will have more fun playing!
I think all of the Pathfinder APs have great merit, and a good job was done in giving them different places and themes to explore. Second Darkness, Crimson Throne, and Legacy of Fire are still 3.5, but at this point I think all three of those have good conversion help on their associated boards, so that shouldn't be a real hindrance.
As a new GM, I got some players together to run the Final Fortress one-shot, then added on the Hangman's Noose module as a final 'test' for them to join the Pathfinder Society. Finding my footing, and feeling I kinda liked the GM thing, I read the non-spoilered summaries of each of the APs to see which I liked best. The only one that caught my eye at the time was Crimson Throne. Its been a blast so far, and we're about to start Chapter 5.
Good luck in choosing!
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If you're looking for low pre time, low stress, I recommend running a Pathfinder Society group. As you no doubt experienced, running a PFS requires less prep time than normal. Things are fairly straight forward, which is a boon to newer GMs will getting use to running the game and being on the other side of the screen. PFS is also neat because it doesn't require a great commitment from everyone, which is great for parties who have members in flux. If someone misses as session or two, he may start to fall behind in experience, but he won't feel like he missed a big part of the story.
If you want to do a full blown campaign, I'm finding "Rise of the Runelords" to be pretty straight forward thus far. Also, "Carrion Crown" (I'm on book there threre) had a good mix of dungeon crawling and RP (though learning how to resolve haunts took me some time and the combat can be harder for players).
I would stay away from Kingmaker only because the open world feel and kingdom building mechanics make it tougher to run for new GMs. Jade Regent can be fun, however, I skipped the Caravan mechanics and focused on the adventure (which was pretty straight forward for the 2 books I played) and RP between the PCs and NPCs (Which is an absolute blast.)
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Curse of the Crimson Throne is the best AP thus far as well as the most varied. If you do not want to convert from 3.5 I recommend either Shattered Star or Council of Thieves. Council of Thieves is very RP heavy, Shattered Star is a dungeon crawler (both have their share of the other of course). Runelords anniversary is good, but a big investment up front money wise.