You will have to avoid Carrion Crown.
Kingmaker should suit the bill - just change out the few undead into something "evil fey-ish" of the same CR and run with it.
There is a lot of excellent material on the Kingmaker subforum to pillage for expanding Kingmaker.
Hrm...
Off the top of my head, with only some conversion work, you could take a crack at most of the APs. Carrion Crown is the only no-go.
Shattered Star is my first suggestion in lieu of Kingmaker as it is (basically) a classic dungeon crawl-fest. WotR would be my second suggestion, but it's 4 months away, although it should be good old-fashioned "Achilles wanna-be's" kicking demonic kiester and lopping off heads with fun stuff like holy avengers, sunblades and such.
EDIT: Shattered Star 'defaults' to a patron - but one can easily excise the PFS element of the campaign. There is at least one thread discussing this consideration in detail that should do the trick for you.
Ughhh... off the top of my head, none of the adventure paths really seem to really fit the qualifications you pose (might be some spoilers below). If your group did well in Kingmaker, Skulls and Shackles MAY work. Of the others, Legacy of Fire almost strikes me as what might work, or if you go back far enough perhaps the other two Dungeon Aps outside of the Age of Worms.
Rise of the Runelords is out because it heavily features undead and death cults in parts of it.
Second Darkness is out as it assumes you work with the elves and the relationship in play has been noted on the forums as rocky even with your average group.
Curse of the Crimson Throne features a death cult in one part and has you working with various groups at certain points.
Legacy of Fire has you starting out working for a caravan and goes off the rails at one point if your PCs are secretive or paranoid.
Council of Thieves has you working with a rebel group.
Serpent's Skull assumes you work with a faction and also features the rise of the ultimate undead.
Jade Regent assumes close relationships with the main four NPCs (although these can be antagonistic rivalries as long as you don't turn violent on each other) and sometimes working with other NPCs. It's really all about relationships.
Skulls and Shackles assumes you'll try to join the Pirate's Council at some point and also features some potentially key NPC alliances at different points.
Shattered Star assumes you work for the pathfinder society, and assigns you a patron in any case.
With Legacy though, if a DM knows about the transition needed between books 3 and 4, it can be done pretty easily. I feel that LoF is one of the more light-hearted campaigns; after all, the BBEG is simply doing what he's doing because he wants to go out on a date. While the darker themes of slavery and slaughter are sprinkled in, the over-arching 'high adventure' feel of the whole path echos Kingmaker and some of its lighter moments.
As Dreamming Psion mentions, every AP features some controlling group to one degree or another. Legacy of Fire seems like it has the least of these, with a lot of the plot centering around the player's choices. This can create an interesting dynamic, as for the most part the story is on the rails. However, its fairly easy to adapt the scenery to make the players not notice the rails.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Reign Of Winter is really great, I don't recall any undead in it (but I may be wrong) and you don't have a patron ** spoiler omitted **
Oh, there are undead, hard to excise ones. Worse, there are themes that the emotionally sensitive won't appreciate involving children, spouses and certain kinds of squick. RoW - right now - strikes me as likely to touch on subjects that are not advisable for those who are recovering from great personal tragedy.
Legacy of Fire, while requiring some conversion work, seems to be bubbling up as the "Happy Medium".
There are undead in Reign of Winter, but none that are really more than comparably forgettable 'minion fodder'. That said, the first 'leader bad-guy' you run into is an evil Cleric & he is playing around some with some undead minions, but it isn't really any kind of theme.
In retrospect, I might actually recommend against Shattered Star, for that reason. There isn't a pervasive undead presence in it, but a couple of the occasions might hit really close to home.
On the other hand, as Turin mentions, Reign of Winter 'goes places'. That is one of the things I like about it, but then again, I'm not recovering from a deep personal loss.
There are undead in Reign of Winter, but none that are really more than comparably forgettable 'minion fodder'. That said, the first 'leader bad-guy' you run into is an evil Cleric & he is playing around some with some undead minions, but it isn't really any kind of theme.
In retrospect, I might actually recommend against Shattered Star, for that reason. There isn't a pervasive undead presence in it, but a couple of the occasions might hit really close to home.
** spoiler omitted **
On the other hand, as Turin mentions, Reign of Winter 'goes places'. That is one of the things I like about it, but then again, I'm not recovering from a deep personal loss.
Good points about Shattered Star that I'd forgotten. RoW 'goes places' that are cool ... when you're able to handle it. Most of my players couldn't really 'do' RoW all that well.
Legacy of Fire should require the least amount of work to make it suitable to play for the OP's needs.
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Haven't gone all the way through Jade Regent, but beyond a couple of encounters in the first books swamp and castle it doesn't seem undead heavy (downside, it requires the players to be friends or frienemies with the four main npcs)
That's only a downside if you make it a downside.
Haven't gone all the way through Jade Regent, but beyond a couple of encounters in the first books swamp and castle it doesn't seem undead heavy (downside, it requires the players to be friends or frienemies with the four main npcs)That's only a downside if you make it a downside.
Also, if your PC's are willing to riff on Character Concepts/Names pre-selected, the GM's section of the adventures specifically states you can go with the PC's being the key NPC's. So you could have somebody be Sandru, somebody be Shalelu, somebody be Ameiko & somebody be Koya. Assuming you had exactly 4 players of course.
Doing that also nicely side-steps the clunkiness of the Relationships subsystem.
It's been a while but the Serpents Skull AP doesn't have much in the way of Undead. It's not focused on Undead but undead are present in some encounters.
Second Darkness also has some significant undead components in book 3 and some minor points in books 2 & 4.
If you're up for some conversion work, I haven't really noticed too much in terms of Undead or any other particularly squicky themes in Shackled City so far. And, while the party is assumed to be friendly with a couple of people in the campaign, 1) it isn't required for the campaign to work and B) none of those people are really powerful enough to be patrons that could do the work themselves.
I will also recommend Legacy of Fire.
Your only working for a patron during the first book.
IIRC you will need to disregard the part where Almah (the patron) is in a relationship withe the slain fortune teller its not too important any how and only comes up with a successful diplomacy check.
The only undead I can think of is a hecuva (sp?) in book 1 and a few morghs (sp?) in the last few books and they can be changed / replaced with exception to the morgh carrion king.
Just be sure to read ahead and plan on a way to "force" the players to find and proceed after finding the scroll of kakishon.
Other than the classed NPCs there shouldn't be much conversion work to do all of the normal monsters have been updated to PFRPG in beastiaries (to include the monsters inthe APs themselves).
As others have pointed out, avoid Carrion Crown and Reign of Winter. They touch on issues of loss in the family pretty directly. Also avoid Runelords because of book 2.
The "patron" aspect will probably dissuade you from Council of Thieves, Shattered Star, and Second Darkness.
As for what you could run:
Serpent's Skull eventually involves bringing a god back to life/undeath, but it doesn't have any real emotional resonance with it. I'd definitely call it "safe" for your purposes.
Legacy of Fire is also great. It's very "white hat", and definitely the least dark of any Paizo APs.
Skull & Shackles is kindof a wonky AP. It doesn't have any of the specific issues you've highlighted, but it's hard to run in general. But if you've done Kingmaker, you probably have the chops to handle that kind of sandbox.
Jade Regent has very little undead and even if your players don't tend to work well with groups its an easy fix as the supporting group is not all that necessary. And Ameiko is not necessary for the campaign to go forward (and really its better to have a player fill her role anyways)
Halfway through Book 3 been enjoying it.
| 8 people marked this as a favorite. |
Legacy of Fire followed by Serpents Skull gets my vote. I would advise staying away from (besides the obvious of Carrion Crown) Reign of Winter (for reasons well stated) and Rise of the Runelords (and Jade Regent simply because it builds upon it) for a lot of entrenched "family member deaths".
Of important note though. Unless you have good reason from personal knowledge of the player, DON'T shy away from the encounters that are there. Play them just as you would any other, as the DM running the game for everyone's enjoyment. Tell everyone upfront that they are absoutely free to speak if something offends/upsets them. However, let your player decide how she reacts to encounters. If she's withdrawing, convert a few out on the sly. If she's handling it fine, leave it be. Don't walk on eggshells about it, as that will only throw her into the spotlight and make it harder for her to work through her loss. Speak to her frequently about it, away from the table as a friend, not at it as the DM. Let her move through her recovery at her own speed, but let her know you are there if she needs anything. That guarantee is often all that a person needs to feel safe and free to mend.
I say this as a father who lost a daughter. I still cry when I look through our photos. But I was given freedom to grieve, and my old players asked me to DM for them, only weeks after her death. It got me on my feet, thinking, living, and now I hold my son with a deeper love and appreciation, remember my daughter and the strength she taught me to have, and DM things like Reign of Winter without flinching.
Legacy of Fire followed by Serpents Skull gets my vote. I would advise staying away from (besides the obvious of Carrion Crown) Reign of Winter (for reasons well stated) and Rise of the Runelords (and Jade Regent simply because it builds upon it) for a lot of entrenched "family member deaths".
Of important note though. Unless you have good reason from personal knowledge of the player, DON'T shy away from the encounters that are there. Play them just as you would any other, as the DM running the game for everyone's enjoyment. Tell everyone upfront that they are absoutely free to speak if something offends/upsets them. However, let your player decide how she reacts to encounters. If she's withdrawing, convert a few out on the sly. If she's handling it fine, leave it be. Don't walk on eggshells about it, as that will only throw her into the spotlight and make it harder for her to work through her loss. Speak to her frequently about it, away from the table as a friend, not at it as the DM. Let her move through her recovery at her own speed, but let her know you are there if she needs anything. That guarantee is often all that a person needs to feel safe and free to mend.
I say this as a father who lost a daughter. I still cry when I look through our photos. But I was given freedom to grieve, and my old players asked me to DM for them, only weeks after her death. It got me on my feet, thinking, living, and now I hold my son with a deeper love and appreciation, remember my daughter and the strength she taught me to have, and DM things like Reign of Winter without flinching.
+100000000000000000000000000000 Best advice I have seen on a message board in a long time.