Aspiring GM - Adventure Path Advice

[Lanathar]

Hi all

As the subject suggests I am aspiring to GM for my group in the near future(and take over from existing GM - give them chance to game etc)

I have relatively little GM experience (the odd session of 3.5)

I am looking for adivce on which Pathfinder adventure path to run. I was hoping to choose one that can be run straight from the book (so no 3.5 era ones)

Our group has played Runelords and is part was through Kingmaker so those 2 are not options.

I was considering one of:
Council of Thieves
Skull & Shackles
Shattered Star

Are any wildly inappropriate / tricky to run for a new GM?

I appreciate any advice

Thanks

L

[Lanathar]

I have tried to assess the feelings from the reviews but thought I would ask advice from the boards. What I have gathered (and I understand no AP is going to be universally well received):

CoT:

+ve:
Seems like an interesting gritty environment

Seems to cap around level 11 per the books (and I start to dislike very high level play)

Second chapter (play) seems awesome and highly regarded

-ve:
I understand characters are rebels/freedom fighters. Seems like it could limit character concepts unnecessarily

Highly mixed reviews of first chapter (both from ease on GM and interest for players). And a strong first chapter will be important to get people to stick with it

Skulls:

+ve:
Pirates are cool

I manage those NPC voices :P

Some solid reviews

Adventure start would seemingly allow for any concept

-ve:
Again first chapter has its critics (too many skill checks becoming boring)

SS:

+ve:
Up to date AP

Links to Runelords

Pathfinder Society hook seemingly allows for all character types (as long as they perform society functions)

-ve:
May require more resources on Pathfinder Society (not really keen on this)

Potentially too large a departure from 'sandbox' nature of recent Kingmaker game (although some players have considered Kingmaker too open atm)

[OmegaZ]

You should be alright with any of these from a mechanical standpoint, but Council of Thieves does have some story/writing problems. I have played a bit of Skull & Shackles and it seems pretty involved for a beginning DM, so I would personally recommend Shattered Star. Shouldn't NEED to get any of the books on the Pathfinder society, but they can't hurt.

[ANebulousMistress]

I got ahold of the first volume of Shattered Star (yay reading in bookstores) and from the looks of it you don't need to acquire more resources on the Pathfinder Society.

My only reason for not recommending SS outright is the fact that the entire AP isn't available right now so I don't know how its ending stacks up against the impressive beginning.

[Garm Sumner]

I have not gotten a chance to read through Shattered Star, but I enjoyed the quick read through I did of Skull and Shackles (I have not had a chance to GM it).

But then again, I've been really into pirates since I ran Dungeon Magazine's Savage Tide Adventure Path! (Made by Paizo!)

[Lanathar]

I have outlined the overviews for the 3 paths to one of my potential players.

They like them all but are drawn to Council of Thieves. Can anyone expand on what the potential story/writing issues apparently are?

Additionally are Council of Thieves and Shattered Star reliant on players with a generally 'good' or at least helpful bent

Because some of the people I game with have a rather self serving style and may not see the need to do things for 'the good of the city/country'

From that side would Skull & Shackles (and obv Kingmaker) be the sort of paths more suited as it allows players to work towards more personal ends?

Or are those challenges non existant/easy to overcome in the other paths (and I'm just over thinking things?)

[Icyshadow]

I think you should find out about what kind of story the players would prefer.

You probably also read up on what the "flaws" of a given Adventure Path are,
so if you do choose it you know what to watch out for and which things you might need to tweak.

[hanez]

Some of the AP's in general can be hard for a new GM. I have found many of them to be daunting, with too much background text that had no relevance to my players and too little focus on dealing with what the players might actually want to do.

My advice would be to take it 1-2 adventures at a time, and not go too far ahead into a story your players may not want to follow. Take the first adventure of an AP and read/modify it until you think your players will love it. Only look at the next one when you have hooked them and are starting to think about transitioning, take the AP one adventure at a time.

Skull and Shackles and Shattered star seem like good candidates for new DMs. I'm running Skull and Shackles right now and am having to do signifigant work to make it fit for my players (I don't think it fits with their idea of a pirate). My personal favorite recommendation for DMs with a simple enough story, and straightforward fun and engaging adventures was Age of Worms. But that is 3.x not PF, so if that might be an issue depending how closely you adhere to the rules.

[Coridan]

CoT is probably the best if your players love to roleplay, whereas shattered star is a definite dungeon crawler. Shattered Star requires less work for the DM, but an involved DM can turn it from a good AP to a great one.