Hello, I'm trying to get into GMing for my group, and I'm wondering, what might be a good adventure path or module or whatever to start with? (I'd rather not try and build my own campaign just yet)
Hard to go wrong with "Rise of the Runelords"...
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One complaint about the path is that the overarcing story is not clear to the players - they usually just feel like they are going from place to place killing things.
There is plenty background for the GM to enjoy, but not much to reveal to the players until later in the path.
Otherwise, it's a solid classic path to begin with.
Our first AP has been Serpent's Skull. It's pretty good, though the sandbox portion at the beginning can be a mite confusing if you do like we did and beat the final boss before we even knew who she was.
But it's fun and easy to pick up and play.
Rise of the Runelords (RotRL) can take 6+ months to run. Might I suggest starting with a low level one shot module like Mists of Mwangi. A one night session set in Absolam with a few follow up adventures you can run later.
Isn't Mists of Mwangi a Pathfinder Society one? Is it easy to do those as not-PFS?
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Rise of the Runelords (RotRL) can take 6+ months to run. Might I suggest starting with a low level one shot module like Mists of Mwangi. A one night session set in Absolam with a few follow up adventures you can run later.Isn't Mists of Mwangi a Pathfinder Society one? Is it easy to do those as not-PFS?
It is one of the Pathfinder Society ones. It is the one I started my new group with. I have since moved on to the modules, and then homegrown. I had my players choose factions and whatnot so it ran seamlessly. Plus it has the treasure tables already built, and the challenge rating pre set up, the XP is "Play 3 times and you level". So its really easy to pick up and play.
But if you ever plan on playing in official Pathfinder Society games, I would steer clear of the scenarios and stick with modules. But many of the modules have been approved for official play.
To clarify what I was asking, if I run it with normal pathfinder rules, rather than society (XP progression would be the same, though) will it still work? As far as I know, PFS mostly just changes crafting, but I figured I should ask to be sure.
One complaint about the path is that the overarcing story is not clear to the players - they usually just feel like they are going from place to place killing things.
There is plenty background for the GM to enjoy, but not much to reveal to the players until later in the path.
Otherwise, it's a solid classic path to begin with.
I can 100% agree with this statement as I'm currently playing in a RotRL campaign for the first time... We're in the third book right now, and it just feels like we're running around chasing clues with no idea of why we're doing it - besides that people are dying. (Which doesn't feel like the best justification to my character who served in the military and saw many people die in war...)
I'm also GMing Curse of the Crimson Throne for the same group. I love the adventure path! My one complaint is that it has yet to be converted to 3.5e (I know Paizo is busy) which makes it harder to DM because I'm constantly having to convert everything to Pathfinder from 3.5e.
If you don't mind doing the bit of extra work though, I think Curse of the Crimson Throne is a GREAT adventure path, though book 4 is a bit of a lengthy chain of quests, and looking ahead at book 5, it's a long dungeon crawl, but I know my players are going to love that.
NOT serpent skull. Chapter one is FINE... severe weaknesses are emerging in chapter two, and unless you really want to fill in all the blanks (NOT working out that well in my group so far) I'd try something else at first. I hear a lot of good talk of Crimson Throne.
Really? I found the opposite. In my opinion the AP GREATLY improves after you get off of Smuggler's Shiv.
Here are my suggestions, and reasons why.
Rise of the Runelords, Burnt Offerings. The first segment of this adventure path is really solid. Nice dramatic start that lets character become familiar with each others capabilities and introduces you to the town and NPCs. After the initial fight, you have a quest, a motivation, and a defined reference point for interaction. "Hey you're the one who cut the goblin in half with an ax. I'm the one who did the sleep spell." Why is the woman being nice to you? Because you saved her daughter from a goblin, like two hours ago. What are we doing here, trying to figure out why they attacked us.
The adventure is the classic dungeon delve with a safe town for base camp, and works well either as a one-shot, part of the adventure path, or starting point of your own campaign.(I used this as a alternative starting point for Jade Regent actually.) Foes are varied and classic: goblins, undead, evil outsiders, etc, with plenty of dungeon action. This has it all. Plus, plenty of material available on the surrounding area. A- for 3.5 because of conversion difficulties. A+ for the Anniversary Edition version.
Kingmaker, Stolen Lands. This adventure path installment is also great, but in different ways. This one was my first experience DMing and playing RPGs. No one in our group had played before, and I'd read the books, so I was nominated, talk about sink or swim.
Anyway, Stolen Lands is in many ways the opposite of Burnt Offerings. The initial encounter is well, not really defined. You travel to a outpost on the edge of civilization. There is a fight that takes place fairly quickly, but no set reason why the characters are together, why they were given this rather open quest anyway, or what they are supposed to do about things. This lets your group really put it's own spin on things, and encourages the players to find interesting ways of creating the party. This harkens back to the days of Keep on the Borderlands and early editions, and it worked well for us.
The adventure is also very different in that rather than set encounter areas, usually reasonably sized dungeons, where you battle clearly defined foes, you are instead given a area roughly 1/4 that of the state of maine to explore, that is filled with animals, bandits, and almost anything really. How you interact with these is pretty open as well. Do we kill the bear, ignore it, feed it, or talk to it? What about the bandits, especially when you look at the river freedoms. Weather can also be a real challenge, which strikes some players as boring and stupid, and others as really cool.
Stolen Lands works great as place to practice your DMing because it throws you into a hex map full of encounters and empty space let's you have at it. You'll have to improvise, and that can be one of the most helpful things for a new DM. This is the classic venture into the unknown with nothing but wits and whatever's on your back. Chances are good you'll be days away from help should you need it, so plan accordingly. Also one of the places where mounted and ranged characters really get to shine.
A, only because it is a bit more complicated than other starting adventures.
One complaint about the path [i.e.: Runelords] is that the overarcing story is not clear to the players - they usually just feel like they are going from place to place killing things.
There is plenty background for the GM to enjoy, but not much to reveal to the players until later in the path.
Otherwise, it's a solid classic path to begin with.
The Anniversary Edition does a much better job of connecting the chapters. Also, it's kind of up to the GM to reveal the very interesting backstory to the players via interrogation, documents they can find, etc. Of course, that can be challenging if the PCs coup de grace every bad guy after the fight is over...
Another nice thing about Runelords that I thought would be good for the OP: you can end the AP at the end of just about any chapter. Just make the boss be the BBEG of the story so far, and you have a satisfying ending, even if no Runelords actually rise!
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To clarify what I was asking, if I run it with normal pathfinder rules, rather than society (XP progression would be the same, though) will it still work? As far as I know, PFS mostly just changes crafting, but I figured I should ask to be sure.
You can run all PFS scenarios without organized play/organized play rules. If you don't use the (in Game) Pathfinder Society, however, you will have to come up with adventure hooks for your group.
I you are hesistant to start out with an AP, which is a long time commitment (not to speak of the money), the Modules 'Crypt of the Everflame', 'Mask of the living God' and 'City of Golden Death' form a nice campaign arc. Crypt of the Everflame is also a great beginners Adventure.
For single Adventures, Murder's Mark is one of the best adventures from Paizo I have read so far, though I have not yet played it. The Godsmouth Heresy is a coll Dungeon Adventure and with the Kaer Maga Installments of PFS (City of Strangers 1+2 and Feast of Sigils) and the 'City of Strangers' setting book it can easily be expanded into a short campaign.
If you are willing to make what little adjustments are necessary for D&D 3.5 adventures, the Darkmoon Vale line is neat, too (Into the Haunted Forest, Hollows Last Hope, Crown of the Kobold King, Carnival of Tears, Revenge of the Kobold King, Hungry are the Dead, possibly followed by Tower of the last Baron and Treasure of Chimera Cove).
'Hangman's Noose' is a great Horror/Mysterie module for 1st level Characters (3.5), while 'Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale' is easily a mini campaign in itselff, albeit it starts at level 6.
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If you're looking for a good one-shot, I'd suggest We Be Goblins. It's hilarious and awesome and free in PDF.
Otherwise, I'd start with Rise of the Runelords. As other people have mentioned, you can really easily go "off the rails" with that one and start inserting your own material at any point.
If you do go with RotR, be sure to get the Anniversary Edition. It's up to date with Pathfinder rules and updated all-around.
Cheers!
Landon
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Haunting of Harrowstone, part on of the Carrion Crown AP, has a nice creepy vibe and is very good at setting the mood. For the most part players will be spending time excercising thier thinking and research skills and all the combat scenarios are unique and involve a good amount of thinking rather than "I swing my Axe."
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To clarify what I was asking, if I run it with normal pathfinder rules, rather than society (XP progression would be the same, though) will it still work? As far as I know, PFS mostly just changes crafting, but I figured I should ask to be sure.
Yes, it will be largly the same. A good story with hooks, bad guys, good guys, room layouts, and treasure. You can totally ignore the PFS specific rules, factions, and faction quests and still have a good game. I left the faction quests in mine, it really made the players feel as if they were being covert and had a purpose.
Kingmaker is a pretty unusual style for a commercially published adventure, but I think it represents an absolutely vital campaign style: the open ended hexcrawl sandbox. It needs the players to make it be about something.
Many commercially produced adventures and campaigns end up pretty linear, railroading you from one combat to the next. Admittedly some are a bit more sophisticated than that, but only a bit. For a commercially produced campaign, people generally want all content to be used, and that means it has to be linear. They're not going to include lots of detailed areas that are likely to be skipped entirely.
But the campaigns that GMs tend to make themselves, are often much more wide open, with no clear idea what the players might do, where they'll go, or which side of a conflict they join.
I've personally never done a good hexcrawl campaign, so I'm very excited about starting (as a player) in Kingmaker. I love the wide open "make it what you will" atmosphere around it.
With another group I'm playing Council of Thieves, and that's definitely highly linear and railroady. That could be because of GM style, but Kingmaker definitely strikes me as a much more important or defining style of campaign.