I have a group which has become attached to the PCs which they are using in a small home brew campaign which is coming to a close soon. While I've already determined that they won't be able to move on with these characters due to reaching to high a level to start anything non-home brew, it brings up a question that I can't find an answer for here.
Is it possible to run an adventure path (or modify it in some manner) so that the PCs from that campaign could resonabily move on to another adventure path? Or should I be looking at other products like modules mixed with home-brew plots to achieve such a thing? Are there any particular adventure paths which might lend themselves to such a thing easier than others?
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Woo, boy. There's not really a straightforward way to run more than Adventure Path with the same PCs - they take characters from level 1 to 15, and would require complete rewrites to accommodation high-level characters. However, most of the APs include a section in their final book on how to continue the campaign - giving plot hooks, examples of high-level threats, etc.
You could also go the old "you're all depowered and are back at first level!" route, but not all players appreciate that approach. Having the new characters starting as students/children/relations of the original party may also work.
You know what, I didn't even realize there were hooks in the back of the final books. Never read completely through one before. Those would be excellent ideas.
I also like the idea of having them create connections at first level (families, friends, cohorts) and then playing out one of those if they'd like. In fact, while Leadership for everyone gets a bit unwieldy for five players at 20th level, it does provide them with NPCs of their own creation at a decent level if they didn't want to jump all the way down to 1st.
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All of the adventure paths are written to start at Level 1 and end somewhere around Level 14-16. Because of that, it would take a whole lot of reworking to run one adventure path as a direct sequel coming right after another one.
It's not just a matter of altering encounters or beefing up monster stats; the sort of plots that make sense for low-level characters just don't work for high-level characters. Characters at the end of an adventure path have just done some incredible, world-shaking things; they can't just go back to protecting a small town or exploring a few tiny ruins.
So I think if you have a party that doesn't want to start new characters after the AP is over, you'd be better off coming up with something yourself. You'd probably have to do less work to write your own stuff that you would have to spend trying to rework an existing AP.
However, at the end of every adventure path, there is always a section titled "Continuing the Campaign", full of ideas for how to keep the campaign going past the normal end. These are things that you'll have to flesh out yourself, but I've found that they generally have some pretty cool ideas.
There is the age old - the gods (insert big bad) take your power and you have to start over. There was a D&D console where the "heroes" of an age passed were brought back from the dead without their full power and had to start over.
The character's experiences and thus what shapes them does not change, but their power level does. Could be something your group could be talked into doing.
I also love continuing campaigns in the same world as previous heroes with new characters so the players get to feel their characters influences.
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There is the age old - the gods (insert big bad) take your power and you have to start over. There was a D&D console where the "heroes" of an age passed were brought back from the dead without their full power and had to start over.
The character's experiences and thus what shapes them does not change, but their power level does. Could be something your group could be talked into doing.
I also love continuing campaigns in the same world as previous heroes with new characters so the players get to feel their characters influences.
If you do decide to do something like this, you should *definitely* run it by your players first. I have known players who would rather see their characters die than see them reduced back to first level.
How about the children of the characters?
They just follow the footsteps of their parents and at an annual meeting someone comes over and says to the parents there is a huge threat and we need you. And the father looks at his fat belly, his shacking hand and says, don´t you think I am a bit old, sick etc for that. But I have a great lad who is more than willing to help you out. His older brother stays with me but his younger brother is more than willing to help you out!
Of course, the son simply adores his father and tries to follow his manners as closely as possible!