What's a good AP for a group that's never used APs or modules before?

[mkenner]

Our group has been playing D&D for a very long time and we've had a tradition of writing our own adventures. I've only ever run two prewritten adventures before. However I've seen some of these new APs and they look great so I'd like to try something new and give running an AP a shot.

I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good one to use.

I was originally thinking Kingmaker, since it seems like a fairly sandbox and open-ended game with plenty of opportunity to introduce your own content. However one of my players has told me that they really don't like playing politics and running communities/kingdoms in RPGs so it might not be a good match.

Also do they need to be set in Golarion or could they be converted to a homebrew world? If they can be converted, how difficult would it be?

Not including myself, we have three regular players with a lot of experience and two other newer players who may not be able to make it to every session.

[Matt Thomason]

No specific recommendations from me, but I would advise downloading the free Player's Guide for each AP and reading through to get a better feel for each, and how closely it's tied to Golarion. Some may be set in a geographical area that's close enough to one in your world, or that can be easily transplanted - especially if the AP is based in a city or a few smaller locations rather than requiring an entire country.

[Lifat]

Kingmaker has a lot to do with running a country, so if your players dislike that then I do believe kingmaker will be a bad fit.

How easy it is to convert an AP into a homebrew world really depends on two things:
1: The AP and how much detail it has about the world. I'd say that most have a fair amount of detail about the country they are set in (with the exception of kingmaker that is almost entirely set in wilderness area).
2: How detailed your homebrew world is. The less detailed it is the easier it will be to convert the AP because fewer details from the AP will conflict with the details of your world.

[Douglas Muir 406]

I like Kingmaker a lot. Note that while that AP requires that SOME of the players do politics and building, it does not require ALL of them to -- some of the PCs can play it as a straightforward sandbox adventure. Alice wants to rule; Bob wants to build towns and manage stuff; Carla likes the politics; Don just wants to go on adventures and fight things? Okay, so you have Queen Alice, Bob the Mogul, Prime Minister Carla, and Don who is a famous adventurer who is their friend. If Don wants he can be Commander of the Royal Guard or some such, but that's not required.

Some of the APs are more tightly tied to Golarion than others. Among the popular APs, on a scale of 1 to 5 (where 1 is "not at all" and 5 is "it would be very hard to run this outside Golarion"):

How hard to reskin?:

Rise of the Runelords -- 4. It's built around Golarion geography and history. (It was intended in part to be an introduction to the setting, after all.) That said, you can scrub it and fit it into a homebrew setting without too much work, as long as there's an ancient menace roughly equivalent to the Runelords in your world. There'll be some additional work if you don't have close equivalents to the relevant religions (Desna, Norgorber, Lamashtu, etc.) since these play a part in the plot.

Curse of the Crimson Throne -- 2. Most of it is in one city. Does your homebrew setting have a port city that could have an evil Queen? Bam, you're there. The only reason it's not a (1) is the fourth module, which takes you into the wilderness for a bit.

Kingmaker -- 1. Honestly, there's nothing in this AP that has to be set on Golarion. Most of it is spent exploring trackless wilderness! It's helpful if you know that the River Kingdoms are over that-a-way, but it's really not necessary.

Carrion Crown -- 3. You're wandering around Golarion, but only in one specific region (Varisia). If you can fit a Transylvania/Gothic region into your homebrew, you're well on your way. The historical background is about the Whispering Tyrant but, you know, super powerful evil liches are a fairly standard BBEG.

Jade Regent -- 4. I like Jade Regent, but it's a trek all over Golarion's geography.

Skull and Shackles -- 5. You need the monstrous unending storm, the kingdom run by devil worshippers, the lost colony... yes, this could be reskinned, but it would be a significant effort.

Reign of Winter -- 5. It's very Golarion-centric.

Shattered Star -- 5. It's all about the Pathfinder Society and chasing all over Golarion (and elsewhere) after the Rod of Seven Parts. I mean, the Sihedron Rune. Fun and all, but you'd have to work to reskin it.

Wrath of the Righteous (so far) -- 2, I would say. Yes, the Worldwound, but the idea of the Blighted Land is not a new one; any home brew setting could include a horrible Abyssal incursion.

Or so ISTM.

Doug M.

[notabot]

Legacy of fire is probably the easiest to reskin. Generic desert area under trouble, spend a good chunk of the campaign outside of the prime material. That being said its a 3.5 based AP, so some conversion required.

[LazarX]

I would suggest you try some modules first before sinking into an AP. Such as the Crypt of the Everflame trilogy, or Dragon's Demand which is kind of a mini-AP.

[mkenner]

Thankyou everyone for your suggestions and advice. Special thankyou to Douglas Muir for the very detailed breakdown of their compatibility.

After a look through the player's guides, I think I'm going to give Carrion Crown a try. Our group loves horror and it seems like it would reskin well to a homebrew setting.