Ok, so I'm currently running Crimson Throne, going to knock out Chapter Six here by end of December, then we'll jump back to completing Ch5-6 of Serpent's Skull. We alternate GMs and campaigns - has worked well for GM fatigue, my fiance is running Jade Regent as well.
After I finish Crimson Throne, I want to start planning my next AP before SSk is finished so we can transition smoothly to the next. I have the Runelords minis set, will have the Shattered Star minis set, and our third choice looks to be Skull & Shackles, but lets just focus on Runelords/Shattered Star for the purposes of this thread.
For those who have played/GM'd Runelords, and are currently playing/GM'ing Shattered Star, how similar are these paths? I'm speaking in terms of gameplay: amount of dungeons, roleplay opportunities, interest of story, etc. I get the basic concepts of each, have played through the first chapter and a half of Runelords, and have read parts of the first 3 chapters of Shattered Star.
I'm looking for a strong opinion on either side of whether we should 'definitely' play Runelords, then Shattered Star, i.e. if we'll really be missing out on something epic by not playing Runelords at all, OR if it would be OK to just do Shattered Star and skip Runelords in favor of completing some of the newer, non-Varisia based APs, and just catch them up on the Runelords backstory and what they 'should know' about 'current' events.
Thoughts?
In my opinion, the two paths really couldn't be more different.
They both have dungeons, but I would call Shattered Star much more "dungeon focused" than Rise of the Runelords. RotRL has dungeons, and they become more common in the second half of the path, but even then there tends to be many more overland / event based encounters, and most of the dungeons you do encounter are barely the size of a single floor of a multi-floor complex in Shattered Star.
They both have many roleplaying opportunities. RotRL is great if you want to develop long-term relationships with people and a community, given the importance of Sandpoint. Magnimar and Shattered Star don't really have the same relationship, though you could easily expand this aspect with the Magnimar, City of Monuments book. During the course of the adventures both paths have many opportunities for alliances, betrayals, and other NPC interactions, though my feeling is that RotRL is a bit heavier on these aspects.
The stories really aren't comparable. RotRL foreshadows the overall plot, but exactly what is happening doesn't really become clear until deep into the second half. Otherwise it is seemingly unrelated events strung together by proximity to Sandpoint and some strange clues that they are related. SS, on the other hand, is pretty direct about what you are doing: collect the fragments, rebuild the Sihedron, etc. Both, of course, have plenty of twists and turns and interesting sub-stories in the different chapters.
As for playing SS first, it will probably make the story of RotRL a bit less interesting. Even if the characters don't understand the Sihedron runes they keep finding, the players will know exactly what is up. Thassilon and the Runelords won't be nearly as mysterious, nor the various Thassilonian monsters as unique and scary. That said, it won't horribly ruin the path, and knowing the vague (likely exaggerated) stories about the heroes who saved Sandpoint and found Xin-Shalast, then going back and being those heroes could be an interesting experience. Really will come down to personal preference, I think.
I'd advise playing Rise of the Runelords first. The prime reason for the Pathfinder Society sending the PCs out is directly tied to the plot of RotRL. Playing RotRL first would make players feel more invested in a future SS campaign. It gives players a sense of continuity when the NPCs are discussing events that their prior characters took part in. Considering you just finished CotCT, you would double that feeling of investment if you ran Runelords first.