No, its not
No, its not
Can you elaborate a little?
With Carrion Crown the only one that really veers away from the story is book 4 (although not that terribly bad, and it still keeps with the overall theme)
I myself love RoW and yes a lot of it is kind of a fetch quest, however the places and stories are so awesome it honestly doesn't matter, and then you have the Hut that ties it all together:) it does tie together quite nicely and is tied at the top of the best ever adventures (in fact Rasputin Must Die! is one of the best adventures ever, for any version, DnD or Pathfinder)
(sorry was going to say that earlier but the little one woke up and demanded attention:-)
i hope that explains it
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I'm running Carrion Crown now and I can assure you that the main protagonists are certainly present throughout the modules. They are in fact the very reasons why most of the modules are occurring.
DM's using the background provided and history sections of the Campaign easily tie the books together. It quickly goes from a final wish fulfilment to a vengeance theme to a we must stop these guys thing.
I find many of the complaints about this AP are from people who want plots to basically hit you over the head every step of the way.
It is a subtle threat, just like a lovecraftian story should be. I cannot recommend it enough.
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No, its notCan you elaborate a little?
Dr. Who isn't a bad comparison - only because Baba Yaga is a ancient witch that travels through time and space and is (almost) invulnerable and (almost) omnipotent.
She gets tricked into a trap at the start of the adventure and your group gets picked to help her out - mostly due to being in the wrong place at the right time (this part of the story is the easiest to modify depending on how much your party would be willing to help an evil witch).
After that happens they get access to her hut which takes them to different worlds, times, and locations to located parts and bits needed to free her from the trap she's in - conversely the adventure has a *huge* amount of variation on locations, creatures, and situations that they find themselves in.
It's not everyone's cup of tea but honestly if you can get into the idea of time/space travel through an artifact the theme and goals of the adventures are pretty well interconnected and there isn't much in terms of 'what do we do now george?'.
That being said it could also be accused of being the most railroad-y AP they have written. Once down the golden brick road you don't really have the ability to step off.
The second most would be Legacy of Fire - after a certain point you are stuck on tracks with no way off for a long time. (I like both FYI - YMMV depending on what your preferences are)
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Reign of Winter is more interconnected than Carrion Crown. The first two modules are as well connected as anyone could want - the second adventure is the very direct continuation of the same narrative and it continues the same theme (just escalates it). Adventures 3,4,5 are all justified by the main story but in practice the group will spend 95% of them focused on things that have nothing to do with the main story. The final adventure is more similar to parts 1 and 2, in that the PCs will be working directly on advancing the main plot. I happen to think part 6 is a serious drop in quality after the amazing rest of the campaign (arguably part 3 is somewhat weak as well, but the rest are incredibly good), because even though it should be the most focused thematically it is actually all over the place, doing some of the most generic high level adventuring imaginable.
@Chorik
That was a very explanation, thanks.
I happen to like doctor who.
I'm running Carrion Crown now and I can assure you that the main protagonists are certainly present throughout the modules. They are in fact the very reasons why most of the modules are occurring.
Do they PCs know that?
DM's using the background provided and history sections of the Campaign easily tie the books together. It quickly goes from a final wish fulfilment to a vengeance theme to a we must stop these guys thing.
Again, do the books do/help with that or must the DM work, on his own?
I find many of the complaints about this AP are from people who want plots to basically hit you over the head every step of the way.It is a subtle threat, just like a lovecraftian story should be. I cannot recommend it enough.
Or you know, some people may not want subtle stories.
Reign of Winter is more interconnected than Carrion Crown. The first two modules are as well connected as anyone could want - the second adventure is the very direct continuation of the same narrative and it continues the same theme (just escalates it). Adventures 3,4,5 are all justified by the main story but in practice the group will spend 95% of them focused on things that have nothing to do with the main story. The final adventure is more similar to parts 1 and 2, in that the PCs will be working directly on advancing the main plot. I happen to think part 6 is a serious drop in quality after the amazing rest of the campaign (arguably part 3 is somewhat weak as well, but the rest are incredibly good), because even though it should be the most focused thematically it is actually all over the place, doing some of the most generic high level adventuring imaginable.
Thank you for analyzing it for me.
No, its not
Yes, it is. The modules barely connect to each other. Module four was a complete de-tour, but also modules two and five have you doing just stuff in-between to get to the end of the module, so that you can gather the clue to where you need to go next. The big bad of the entire AP is a non-entity until literally the last fight. The writers of the AP even acknowledged that they messed up in that regard in the foreword of the sixth module. Modules three is also barely connected, but at least you get to fight the main bad guy organization towards the tail end of that module. Only in module six does the party really catch up with the people who started the events of the entire AP.
Reign of Winter has got a bit more tightly connected plot, as you know from book one to book six what your task is (which Carrion Crown really doesn't do until the end of book three). However, the way of getting there is doing barely connected stuff in books three to five. Book one and two are pretty well connected to each other and book six is... eh. I found it pretty uninspiring.
However, RoW has the single best module Paizo has ever released, which is book five.
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I think that if I could redo Carrion Crown (my players are in book 6) I would try my damndest to make the WW more of a conspiracy theory.
It would be a kind of perilous thread to walk but instead of becoming well known heroes the group would become known for both heroics and a group as eccentric and focused on wild theories as their old friend Petros.
"Oh! You've saved the day and earned our respect! Men in black robes you say? Cult of evil necromancers? Sure, my lords. Whatever you say."
In the end they would save the day and either die or be blasted to another plane of existence, their heroic deeds saving the world never known.
Work to more play up that the Whispering Way is ALWAYS the second hidden hand behind the adventures.
Maybe make the players doubt it themselves somehow.
Could be fun.
A lot of people say that the WW is not visible enough in the campaign. Might work to make them LESS visible.
Edit: Of course there is that bit at the end of book 3...
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One thing that I find works in long campaigns is occasionally doing a "previously, on Pathfinder" section. This is done at the beginning of the game session, and is used to point out key bits of information that allows for long running plot threads to not get lost in the wash.
I can see Carrion Crown could benefit from that in some groups.
Actually, most of the APs could benefit from that in many cases. My group tend to take notes, so for them it's not so necessary.
However, previous groups I've run for really did needs plot reminders regularly between sessions.
One thing that I find works in long campaigns is occasionally doing a "previously, on Pathfinder" section. This is done at the beginning of the game session, and is used to point out key bits of information that allows for long running plot threads to not get lost in the wash.
I can see Carrion Crown could benefit from that in some groups.
Actually, most of the APs could benefit from that in many cases. My group tend to take notes, so for them it's not so necessary.
However, previous groups I've run for really did needs plot reminders regularly between sessions.
That bit is interesting, in some case, some players forget a lot of things almost all the times, for other players, it's a sign they are lacking interest.
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On that regard I couldn't be happier with my players - we have lulls of many weeks and sometimes months between sessions, yet they keep near perfect track of the dozens of NPCs and plot threads in Curse of the Crimson Throne. Other than the names (which admittedly are often weird and hard to remember) they remember just about everything important and many things not important.