|
The only path I have completed all the way through is the Age of Worms, and I was the GM.
It was a lot of fun, but a brutal campaign. I ended up killing a lot of characters without even trying. On player went through 12 characters in 21 levels. For the record, I am not a killer DM. I even nerfed several encounters.
I am currently playing characters in PbPs of Shackled City, Rise of the Runelords, Kingmaker, and Skulls and Shackles. So far, all of them are a lot of fun, but it's also quite early on in each campaign. None of my characters are higher than 5th level.
My favorite of them so far has been Carrion Crown. I like the gothic horror elements and love the roleplaying/ investigation aspects of the game.
I have run the council of theives all the way through. It was fun, but I wouldnt say it was my favorite. I am currently playing in a kingmaker game which has been a lot of fun. With the right group there is nothing like it. You are building a new country, the room for roleplay and interesting story is significant. My group drafted an actual constitution for our fledgling nation which has served for an interesting tool for roleplay and character interaction, and the fact that we are BUILDING the nation, has gotten me and the other players personally invested in the game, the story, and the characters. Its a difficult adventure to run as it is very open, and thus the dm has to do alot of prep or a lot of improvising. But I think if you can swing it it is worth it.
I also recently started playing in a skull and shackles game, which has been a lot of fun, because well, pirates, you get to be pirates. And best of all I am playing a ninja (class) pirate (occupation) just to make the internet collectively blow a gasket
There have been a zillion threads on the subject, but what's one more? :-)
My overall favourites are probably Age of Worms and Savage Tide. Out of the PFRPG adventure paths, I'll vote for Carrion Crown.
So far Kingmaker has been my favorite.
Rise of the Runelords is pretty awesome. It's fairly classic fantasy, and is probably on the easier side as far as running it. It also has a massive amount of support material at this point (Pawns, Minis, Cards, Maps, Flip-mats).
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Curse of the Crimson Throne is the best AP in my opinion. Runelords and Kingmaker are close second, Carrion Crown and Legacy of Fire fight for the third spot, Jade Regent and Skulls & Shackles are flawed gems but gems nonetheless, Serpent's Skull and Council of Thieves don't really float my boat and Second Darkness should be best avoided unless the prospective DM is ready to rewrite half of the metaplot + 1 whole adventure.
Shattered Star, so far, looks very good. Here's to hoping it joins the podium.
Kingmaker actually sounds really, really cool. I love cooperative world building, but my goal here is to have something easy to run. Read the module; run the adventure. I’ll have to keep that one in mind for the future. I'll have to look into Skull and Shackles. Hard to beat a ninja pirate. :)
Yea I completely agree with you. It is probably the most engrossed I have ever been as a player. Drafting the constitution was a really interesting experience (there is a thread about it in the kingmaker forums), and its really interesting how the fact that the primary author of the nation's constitution was also the nations lawful minded general. It is also one we play less frequently because of all the prep work the dm has to put in since we can almost go anywhere in an adventure during any session. Its non linear nature means you have to be aware of and prep for everything in the module each session, and more, since new elements will be introduced in the collective world buidling that happens as a reasult of the nation being created.
Curse of the Crimson Throne gets my vote, and it's worth the rules-tinkering needed to update it to PF.
However, for ease of use, I recommend Rise of the Runelords- and it even has a snazzy update to the current rules with all of the adventures in one place.
1. Shattered Star
2. Skull & Shackles
3. Rise of the Runelords
4. Carrion Crown
5. Age of worms
These are my choices, in that order. Breaking them down in reverse order:
AoW is one of my all time favs, a hardcore classic "Save the World" game, which is why it makes the list at all, being prePF.
CC I really liked because of it's Gothic horror theme, a favorite of mine and also how it kinda plays like Pathfinder vs. the Universal Monsters. It comes in at number four because the last couple of adventures don't seem to hold together so well.
RotR F*****g ROOOOOOOOCKS! one of the best AP's of all times I'm actually getting the special edition for Xmas, and truly believe it will stand the test of time, so why not number one? Because it does it's job almost too well and it's job was to introduce us to Golarion and the Paizo's take on D&D, and that's not a bad thing, hell it has become my goto AP for introducing new players to both table top gaming in general and PF specifically, but it keeps from the number one spot.
S&S is number two because it admirably fulfills a number of things I've always wanted in an AP. Pirates YARGHHHH! because YES MORE PLEASE :-D lol, I have also always wanted a credible Evil campaign where being an SOB is a Virtue and this one is that in spades, and finally because I've always wanted a game where the Characters become rulers of a powerful kingdom in the end and this AP achieves this goal very well.
Finally, Shattered Star... now some may think I'm jumping the gun since only the first two installments are out but this is looking to be a major world altering AP and is the first one revolving around a Major Artifact. But the main reason it goes to number one is that it is the first AP that I believe is worthy of the reincarnation of my personal most iconic character as well as my brothers, and it will finally give us the opportunity to reincarnate them into Golarion and play them together.
if you want to run it out the box, then pick a PF one not an older 3.5 one
KM is brilliant if the party wholly buy into it, and its 'difference'
I really like the 'plot' of JR thus far, but really arent liking the relationship bit, or the caravan. I have not bought into them for various reasons
CC is a good selection of modules but the linkage between them isnt a bit weak, IMO
I have found SS a tad annoying with its subgames
Have only read S-Star as i intend to run it
Was really psyched about Sk&Sh, as we all love Pirates, but eh potential GM didnt like it,a dn he gave us a few peeks and entusiasm waned quickly. Im not sure overly fantasy pirates is for us!
Id go CC or JR
Kingmaker - the players and the dm have be more involved to be the best, otherwise
Legacy of Fire - especially when the planar stuff begins
I've also played the Crimson Throne and dm-ed the Runelords, Runelords has more interesting monsters.
Not sure about the pirates and the jade regent AP, pirates would be my last choice it seems.
The ones I'd strongly recommend, in order of publication:
Age of Worms
Rise of the Runelords
Curse of the Crimson Throne (so far, I'm a player but my DM doesn't show any will to go on in this AP... *shakes fist*)
Carrion Crown
Skull & Shackles
In the "niche" APs, I'd say Kingmaker benefits from a very good rep (but I haven't read it since I'm hoping to play it one day), though it's sandbox-style, so it might not be everyone's cup of tea. Shattered Star looks great so far, but it has a strong emphasis on dungeons, so same reasoning applies.
Of the AP's I have read or partaken in:
I loooooove Rise of the Runelords. It has all the classic elements of D&D with some really twisted plot developments.
Curse of the Crimson Throne was a really good campaign as well, however the plot is very formulaic, but it still makes for an epic and exciting story for a group of characters.
Legacy of Fire is really good and brings a whole arabian nights theme to the campaign.
Carrion Crown, has that really different dark and gothic feel to it, but I tend to agree with some other posters that the adventures feel a slightly disjointed at times.
One common trait that all the AP's share is some really deep story line, LOTS of stuff going on behind the scenes, interesting and memorable NPC's and just all around awesomeness. I reallt don't think there's a wrong choice, no matter which one you go with, you're group will have a great experience.
|
|
Savage Tide rocks. Very Classic feel, rich in Blood War/Classic D&D settings and villians theme. It's a good chance to rub elbows with alot of the classic Big baddies from D&D lore, and kill lots of them.
It also has a pretty varied series of adventures, everything from city intrigue to saling, to siege defense and dungeon crawling, all the way to invade the outer planes with an army. You really go from nobodys to Heaven Shakers in the course of 20 levels.
I think Skulls & Shackles is actually my favorite. Each adventure feels like something completely new.
My players love Kingmaker the most though.
Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition is great, the group I am DMing is only into book 3, but are having a grand time. We've had no deaths, but enough close calls and scary situations to keep the PCs alert and interested.
Carrion Crown had a great premise, but in my opinion it starts to fall apart the farther you go through it. If you play the books as individual modules they are interesting and fun, but otherwise it's a lot of "your princess is in another castle/follow the ever distant villain" crap. Also, this can be a rough one for less experienced/optimized groups. We played through the first two books and had six deaths among four players before they finished book 1. The only reason two people survived the final fight was because one ran away and hid for part of it while the other two who were still alive fought on, only for the coward to return in time to let off a single magic missile.
I've heard good things about Jade Regent, but have not read my copies as I passed them to someone else who intends to run it.
As for non-Paizo APs: I've been through War of the Burning Sky twice, once as DM and once as a player. It was quite fun, but occasionally had frustrating moments for the DM and/or player when it came to information the party could/would miss. If you run this, read through the beast of a book once and take lots of notes.
I am just about to finish playing JR part 1, this week apparently.
I really like the premise of the adventure, and despite neither liking the two mini-games in it, the basic adventure is robust and interesting enough, to not let that get in the way
Somebody above posted that their is
all the AP's share is some really deep story line, LOTS of stuff going on behind the scenes, interesting
this is the one great weakness I find in APs, and worse in PFS,. There is just so much stuff the party never find out about. I see too much background as 'a great adventure i never got to play'. weak-sauce indeed
we are going straight into JR2, which i am looking forward too, and then into SeSk 3, which i am very wary off given it had so many authors, and poor reviews. I hope the GM for that can make it work
.....I do feel after 33 years of gaming i am becoming a grumpy old gamer!!
I'm running CotCT and JR now.
CotCT is still at chapter one and looks pretty good so far. I know that many people disliked chapter four of that one, so we'll see what my players think.
JR is wicked cool if you like ninjas and vikings (who doesn't?). Right now my players are battling their way through the big dungeon in chapter four.
I've ran several APs before. Here's my verdict:
Shackled City: Great stuff, although it's a bit on the dungeon-y side. Chapters 11 and 12 were a slugfest, though. 8/10.
Age of Worms: VERY epic campaign. Avoid if you dislike undead. Has no real weak spot; each and every chapter was quality stuff. 9/10.
Savage Tide: Starts off great, but later on the whole "you must ally with things of unspeakable evil" plot derailed it. 6/10.
Legacy of Fire: Awesome, although we didn't care much for the extraplanar chapters. 7/10.
Kingmaker: After the initial excitement, we found out that the sandbox approach really doesn't work for us. Especially for me, but I also dislike sandboxes in video games. 4/10 (YMMV).
I'm also player in a heavily customized RotRL campaign. It's pretty cool, but too many giants.
|
|
How long is a piece of string?
This question rears it's head from time to time on these boards and there is no simple answer to it. As you can see from the above, opinion is divided but here's the real answer:
Every one of the AP's has the capacity to suck or be great depending on your preferences.
Everything on here is opinion. For example, RotRL and Kingmaker are often lauded as the best but I consider both to be massively overrated. My vote instead goes to LoF and Carrion Crown. But that's just my opinion and YMMV.
Here's what to do. Choose 3 of the AP's you like the look of, present the overview of the setup to your players and then choose one based on the general consensus.
Bear in mind that Second Darkness, Serpent's Skull and Kingmaker require extra effort to run. The first two because the contain problematic plot issues that need fixing and the last one because of it's sandboxy nature.
Simple.