I'm about to run Jade Regent, our first adventure path, and following it up with Rise of the Runelords. I was wondering what to buy besides the AP itself. There are gazetteers and map folios, pawns and miniature, player companions and campaign settings, and item and face cards. What do you consider essential, useful, cool, and don't-bother?
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I bought the RotRL anniversary edition. I also made sure to purchase the pawn set, to add to the bestiary 1 pawn set that I already have they have been working out well. I did buy the face cards, my players actually look forward to seeing the cards pop up from behind the screen and they actually talk to the cards like they are actual people (after they chant puppet show). Btw they are all in their late 20s early 30s lol
Just a heads up... Jade Regent is an indirect sequel to RotR. If you're playing those, you would find it easier to play Rise first.
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I really love the pawn sets that go with the APs, so I'd recommend grabbing them. We didn't have any minis apart from a couple we used for PCs before so it was an affordable option to upgrade from washers and pennies for monsters and npcs :3 Otherwise we just use the AP. There are a lot of good community resources for RotR too if you look through the boards. Our GM used a couple handouts and sidequests that the community had come up with for the AP.
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Are you a "high income, but don't want to waste shelf space" person, or a "low income, don't want to shell out for anything I don't have to" person? I'm not looking for an answer, I'm just going to list everything I use and how useful I find it:
"ESSENTIALS"
(0) These messageboards. Golden. Pure, unadulterated, gold. The people here are the best. As long as you stay on the AP boards and don't get involved in the Advice, Rules, or Off Topic forums. :-P
(1) The AP. Preferably in hard copy. Nothing like the feel of paper.
(2) Pencils, dice, and paper.
(3) A computer with network access so someone can be referencing the PRD for you while you run. We have a "rules monkey" at every game except the one I run, and I wish I had one. Looking up stuff in the books is tedious. Honestly, between buying the Core Rulebook, APG, and Bestiaries, and just getting a cheap netbook and using your neighbor's wireless connection, I'd go with the latter.
"ALMOST ESSENTIAL"
(4) A vinyl battle mat and markers. I honestly don't know how people play without one (or Virtual Tabletop software), but some people say they don't need 'em.
(5) Hero Labs. I don't know how we existed without it. It keeps everyone aware of the rules, and makes tracking characters dirt simple. But don't be fooled by the seemingly-low initial price tag; once you get all the Pathfinder add-ons you're looking at somewhere around $200. But we've payed the $10 per additional license to put it on machines at every host house and we e-mail the characters around, so it's been well worth it for us.
"STUPID EXPENSIVE, BUT AWESOME FUN"
(6) The WizKids minis for the AP. These are available for RotRL. I'm disappointed that they're woefully incomplete (only maybe 2/3 coverage of the creatures in the AP), but the minis that are there are wonderfully evocative of the feel of the AP.
"MAYBE"
(7) The printed AP map folios. The ones for Kingmaker and Crimson Throne were invaluable. We never used the one for Carrion Crown, and I've barely used the one for Rise of the Runelords.
(8) The interactive PDF map folios. My friend had a 24" color printer and we printed all the maps at scale (1 square per inch). Awesome to play on, and great wrapping paper post-play. He lost his printer, and we no longer use them, though we're trying to set up a TV to display them.
(9) The pawns. They're a lot cheaper than the figures, but they're still nice and sturdy. Again, they're not complete, which is my huge gripe about them. And I just don't like them much. But my players do.
"NOT WORTH IT"
(10) The Paizo pre-printed flip mats. They just don't lay flat, aren't all that reusable, and have just been an out-and-out disappointment to me.
(11) The paper minis. They're practically free. But most of them are cartoonish (I really hate to insult the Paizo staffer who did this out of the goodness of her heart, but I have to be honest and say I didn't like the art on them), and they're a HUGE pain to put together. Unless you enjoy arts and crafts, they're more work than they're worth.
I'll post again if I think of anything else. But honestly, I spent perhaps $900 running RotRL, and the only thing I regret spending was the money for the flip mats. (Don't forget the book is $100 and the WizKids minis were $600, so it's not as insane as it sounds.)
EDIT: The Fumble deck, for both PCs and monsters. Worth. Every. Penny.
By contrast, the Critical Hit deck ISN'T worth it because it's too deadly to apply to players unless you're in a high-kill game. I figure if the players get to use it on the monsters, the monsters should get to use it on the players, and I just don't care for that many PC deaths in my game.
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Just taking a moment to voice my support of pawns for AP's. It really helps having some visual markers that are both affordable and evocative simultaneously. This goes for AP pawns as well as Bestiary/NPC pawns. Pawns are an idea that took way too long to hit this hobby imo, and even longer for me to find out about once they did. That'll teach me!
<3 pawns.
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OK, seeing all the love, I'm just going to thumbs-up the pawns after all. (Especially because people seeing my post are going to do, "Pawns Subscriber and he's not in love with them, hmmm?"
Just a heads up... Jade Regent is an indirect sequel to RotR. If you're playing those, you would find it easier to play Rise first.
Thanks for the heads up, Michael. I've actually read RofRL, so I knew about it but if I hadn't you just saved me from a huge headache.
I'm going to see how JR plays out and then adjust RotRL accordingly. Most likely, replace the Kajitsu's with a different family.
Just taking a moment to voice my support of pawns for AP's
I love pawns. I have the Bestiary 1 and NPC Codex pawns. I wondered if the AP Pawns were useful. The RotRL set looks like it has a lot of overlap with the Bestiary one.
Then again, all those goblins with alternate artwork makes them so tempting. Not to mention actually having Shalelu and Ameiko and the Skinsaw Man in all their cardstock glory.
(10) The Paizo pre-printed flip mats. They just don't lay flat, aren't all that reusable, and have just been an out-and-out disappointment to me.
Huh! Interesting. I actually have a couple of the flip mats. The huge creases in them are a pain and they don't lay flat without some coaxing, but they get the job done. I've never used a vinyl mat. I guess that's something I should look into.
Thanks for all your other recommendations and insights, Nobodys Home. You're right to say that these messageboards are essential, as I'm already discovering.
i find the AP pawns 100% worth it! even if slightly less then complete (one more "page" of pawns per set would be nice)
I'm running WotR right now and I find having the Worldwound book to be pretty useful. Each AP will have a "wondering monsters" or "random encounters" table in the beastiary and it's pretty common for them to have monsters that are in the Campaign Setting book for the region the AP is in, like the Grimslake in WotR, that isn't in the PRD. The older the AP is the more likely the extra monsters will be in the Beastiarys i.e. on the PRD.
To summarize: Buy the Campaign Setting book for the region you're in, you won't regret it.
I say skip the player companion, since these are more like splat books and many of the crunch is not particuarly well balanced.