Of the currently published Adventure Paths, which is the "easiest" for a GM to run?
I have all the APs printed by Paizo, but this is for a friend who is right now very frustrated with running Second Darkness for our group.
I would say given the APs I've looked at running
Curse of the Crimson Throne.
Mummy's mask
Reign of Winter
Rise of the Runelords
Jade Regent
Curse of the Crimson Throne is awesome, but I wouldn't say it's the easiest to run, since you'll need to do conversions from 3.5 to Pathfinder rules. Unless you want to play with 3.5 rules, obviously. :)
Of the Adventure Paths that I've read, I'd agree with captain yesterday and say Rise of the Runelords, Mummy's Mask or Reign of Winter would be fairly easy, at least early on (I've not read Jade Regent). There's no extra rules for these paths, so it's easy to pick up and play (with appropriate prep, of course!) Iron Gods might also be an option: you need the Technology rules, but they're pretty much just magic item rules with a few tweaks.
From my experience I'd say Rise of the Runelords, though Reign of Winter is close.
Curse of the Crimson Throne is awesome, but I wouldn't say it's the easiest to run, since you'll need to do conversions from 3.5 to Pathfinder rules. Unless you want to play with 3.5 rules, obviously. :)
Of the Adventure Paths that I've read, I'd agree with captain yesterday and say Rise of the Runelords, Mummy's Mask or Reign of Winter would be fairly easy, at least early on (I've not read Jade Regent). There's no extra rules for these paths, so it's easy to pick up and play (with appropriate prep, of course!) Iron Gods might also be an option: you need the Technology rules, but they're pretty much just magic item rules with a few tweaks.
Sadly, we just finished the Rise of the Runelords in 3.5.
If her Second Darkness finally falls apart, I will suggest either Reign of Winter or Mummy's Mask.
I can definitely say NOT Legacy of Fire. It's got a lot of wonderful things in it, but the GM needs to be on his game to make some of the railroady bits not stick out.
Kingmaker is potentially hard, but if hexploration and improvisation are things you are comfortable with, it might be among the easiest.
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Choose something without new rules introduced for the campaign.
Runelords is very straightforward, as long as you understand haunts for the second part.
Carrion Crown has been very easy to run, but I am finding that I need to push the main plot reason for investigating certain parts a fair bit. It's easy enough to do though.
Those two would be my choices for easiest that I own.
I also suggest RotRL or Jade Regent*, i have DMed the first and played the second and they are quite easy on the DM.
*just ditch the caravan, they are broken anyway
I also suggest RotRL or Jade Regent*, i have DMed the first and played the second and they are quite easy on the DM.
*just ditch the caravan, they are broken anyway
I'm running Jade Regent right now and it doesn't seem very easy. Then again, it's our first AP, I have 7 players, and I modified the caravan rules instead of ditching them....so the fault could entirely be mine.
Having a blast though.
I also suggest RotRL or Jade Regent*, i have DMed the first and played the second and they are quite easy on the DM.
*just ditch the caravan, they are broken anyway
I'm running Jade Regent right now and it doesn't seem very easy. Then again, it's our first AP, I have 7 players, and I modified the caravan rules instead of ditching them....so the fault could entirely be mine.
Having a blast though.
It might be the 7 players, what's giving you trouble? The AP seemed pretty straightforward.
I'd actually say Shattered Star. I'm running it over Roll 20, and so far the biggest issue has just been trying to resize the damn maps.
Curse of the Crimson Throne is awesome, but I wouldn't say it's the easiest to run, since you'll need to do conversions from 3.5 to Pathfinder rules. Unless you want to play with 3.5 rules, obviously. :)
Of the Adventure Paths that I've read, I'd agree with captain yesterday and say Rise of the Runelords, Mummy's Mask or Reign of Winter would be fairly easy, at least early on (I've not read Jade Regent). There's no extra rules for these paths, so it's easy to pick up and play (with appropriate prep, of course!) Iron Gods might also be an option: you need the Technology rules, but they're pretty much just magic item rules with a few tweaks.
Sadly, we just finished the Rise of the Runelords in 3.5.
If her Second Darkness finally falls apart, I will suggest either Reign of Winter or Mummy's Mask.
Ease to run is probably not a good criteria to use here. One person's easy is another's tedious or even hard. More important would be which AP's engage her - simplistic example, if you don't like your fantasy mixed with sci-fi, Iron Gods would not be a good choice regardless of how "easy" it might be to run. If you're not passionate (on some level) about the material, any AP will be a challenge to run.
Running amok into dangerous speculation but if her campaign is "falling apart," that suggests some other problems beyond "run difficulty" - it points to some challenges in the social structure with the players, some broader lack of commitment to the AP style itself, etc. Maybe even she doesn't really like Second Darkness herself. If those aren't solved, they'll show up in the next campaign too.
Running amok into dangerous speculation but if her campaign is "falling apart," that suggests some other problems beyond "run difficulty" - it points to some challenges in the social structure with the players, some broader lack of commitment to the AP style itself, etc. Maybe even she doesn't really like Second Darkness herself. If those aren't solved, they'll show up in the next campaign too.
I bolded the relevant parts.
The problem arose because of the HORRIBLE bait and switch between Children of the Void and The Armageddon Echo.
She quite liked the first two books (Pirates!), and we players obliginly made Piratical characters. If you are familiar with the AP, you can see where the trouble starts.
So perhaps the Skull & Shackles would work, but I'm suspicious of the naval combat system.
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^Wait, but isn't Second Darkness SUPPOSED to bait and switch?
Think of it less as a bait and switch than as a more serious analog of one of those classic (1990s) Simpson's episodes that starts out with something that seems totally unrelated to the main plot that then unexpectedly but cleverly leads into the main plot . . . .
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I'd actually say Shattered Star. I'm running it over Roll 20, and so far the biggest issue has just been trying to resize the damn maps.
What, your adventure path has MAPS? Count yourself lucky, in my campaign we had to draw everything out ourselves. Both ways in snow!
It's a mega-module (lvl 1-12) rather than an AP, but Emerald Spire is incredibly easy to run both for the players and the GM. All areas are pre-mapped, the plotline is straightforward, and apart from the occasional stat block the book contains all the information you need. I've occasionally cracked the bestiaries, but that's pretty much it.
I'd happily recommend it to a gm who's using VTT or wants a game but doesn't have time/patience for a lot of prep.
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^Wait, but isn't Second Darkness SUPPOSED to bait and switch?
Think of it less as a bait and switch than as a more serious analog of one of those classic (1990s) Simpson's episodes that starts out with something that seems totally unrelated to the main plot that then unexpectedly but cleverly leads into the main plot . . . .
It's very hard to keep players motivated through the switch though. I am running Second Darkness as a 1 on 1 now and the way I'm handling it is the PC is a forlorn Elf who has ties to Elven royalty but doesn't know it so the "switch" is more of a "revelation".
Rise of the Runelords and Carrion Crown are both fairly straightforward Adventure Paths, and good ones at that. Be forewarned that if you choose Carrion Crown, you will want to double your efforts at making sure your PCs have strong motivations for pursuing the adventure and its investigation. Making them personal motivations works very well, I have found. And also that the third book can get a little freeform in the Lodge, which is kind of its own murder mystery dinner theater (or was for my group). You'll want to be on your A game for that one because there's a lot of latitude for players to take advantage of the setting there.
I'm running Jade Regent and I would not say it's easy, due to the caravan and NPC's even when not using the rules that go along with them.
I'd say Rise of the Runelords, Carrion Crown, Reign of Winter, Shattered Star, and Mummy's Mask are the easiest. None of them have extra rules, nor do they need to be converted from 3.5 to Pathfinder.
I would recommend Shattered Star after RotRL. And hey, there'r even some awesome maps someone created specifically for PbP use.
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Jade Regent and Shattered Star would seem to be the easiest to me - they have the railroad built in!