Our group started playing the Carrion Crown Adventure Path almost two years ago and we are about midway through the final book. We'd played 3.5 and 4e for years before, always with homemade adventures, so this was not only our first taste of Pathfinder but also our first taste of premade adventures and we have loved it so far.
However, after two years of horror and fighting undead at every corner, I as GM have been itching to try something different. Our group will likely take a small hiatus from Pathfinder for a few months before picking up something as long as an AP again. But if/when we decide to do another AP, I'd like to do one that's radically different from Carrion Crown.
So what APs are very different from Carrion Crown? I've heard good things about Mummy's Mask and Reign of Winter for example, but are they also undead heavy and another travelogue respectively?
Please give reasons if you can; broad, moderate spoilers are fine as I researched a lot about the APs before we settled on Carrion Crown, but don't go into too much detail; I may be a player in it. Two years (for us) is a big commitment to GMing I may not take again so readily.
Thanks in advance!
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I recommend Kingmaker. While there's a few undead here and there, the main enemies tend to be more fantasy-standard (trolls, brigands, fey, enemy armies, etc) than horror. It's also an extremely customize-able AP. If you don't like what's on the Grid, you can change it, add to it, or what-have-you. It IS a lot more open-ended than most APs, so if you're looking for a more linear experience, something else might be better, but from my readings of KM, it looks like a blast (just started Book One as a player). If you're going to GM it...
I recommend foreshadowing the BBEG more heavily. She doesn't make much of an appearance at all until the end of book five/beginning of book six, and it's kind of disorienting to have her suddenly appear. Maybe have some weak connection between some of the other enemies and her?
Also, there are a lot of cool modules that can be easily added in or subbed for other events. Realm of the Felnight Queen can do a great job of foreshadowing the BBEG of KM with just a little editing, for example.
Of course, I'm a little biased, since I've been on a Kingmaker kick the last several weeks.
I'll second Kingmaker - as a player, it's been an amazing experience and exceedingly different from the horror-themed Carrion Crown that I'm running as a GM. It's excellent in every regard so far.
Skull and Shackles seems like it would be about as far as you could go in another direction, being all about swashbuckling pirates on the high sea.
Although there are undead in it (some of which later play a prominent role) Council of Thieves is an excellent AP in which you stay in (or very near to) a single city from start to finish, with the goal of saving it from destruction. (There's a bit of a bait-and-switch there, though, as it looks like you're trying to save it from Thrune at first... you are not.)
Hope that helps!
Yeah Mummy's mask is quite filled with undead.
I recommend RotRL and Jade Regent.
It seems to me that "horror" and "road trip" are the two most obvious themes of carrion crown. Looking for the opposites of those, I think I'd recommend Council of Thieves.
Kingmaker is the most obviously "different" of all the APs (I don't think its similar to any of the others, personally).
I can't put my finger on why, but Legacy of Fire is the other suggestion that keeps popping out of my subconscious as being "not like carrion crown at all".
Thanks everyone! Kingmaker seems like a big hit, it was one of my top picks before we settled on Carrion Crown. Council of Thieves I know the least about and that might be a good thing if I end up being a player instead of a GM.