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I'm relatively new to Pathfinder, but have been playing RPGs for 15 years prior to this, only as a DM. I don't have a ton of time to write my own material now that I'm not shirking my homework in high school to write the greatest Eberron campaign you've ever read, so these days I make use of published adventures.
When I began my collection of Pathfinder Adventure paths, I picked up Rise of the Runelords, Wrath of the Righteous, and then signed up for the subscription, so I have Giantslayer coming in the mail. When on the Paizo website a few days ago, there was a rather large article about a number of products that have a limited number of copies left, and to my dismay, many of them were adventure path volumes that I really also wanted to acquire.
Based on reading the short descriptions of many of them, I had it narrowed down to Mummy's Mask, Reign of Winter, and Shattered Star that I was truly interested in, but I saw that a number of other AP volumes were going out of print as well, like a few (if not all) of Serpent's Skull, Carrion Crown, Iron Gods, Council of Thieves, Jade Regent, and even as I write this I see that Carrion Crown vol. 2 has been stricken from the list.
What I would like advice on is this: Were I to be able to only get an entire path of one of these that are going out, which one do you guys recommend? The group that I recently acquired are 3 people who have never played an RPG before, and one guy who played back in 2nd ed. D&D, and who thinks that rogues have a "stealth mode" like in WoW, so he may as well be starting over from nothing anyway.
I would like to assume that they would play anything I brought to the table, and my running Wrath of the Righteous is really going to test that form what I've read about it here on the forums, so when considering another AP to get, I'm really open to anything. Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions.
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That's true about the PDFs, but I like having all the stuff on a shelf. I like having the poster maps, I like being able to flip through the books, all of that kind of thing. I was considering Skull & Shackles, and volume 1 of that is oop, so I'd have to get the PDF of that, but what I'm talking about here, is if any of these adventure paths are really worth owning as the books. Sure, I could have just downloaded the Rise of the Runelords PDFs, but I bought the big expensive collector's edition, cause I like owning the printed material. I'm not above just buying the PDF, but I'll take the printed volumes if I can get it.
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Rise of the runelord is the one that I would recommend but guess if you have ran it before, you might as well run Shattered Star, the older player of 2e might enjoy the classic dungeoncrawl feel of it, while the new players have nothing else to compare to and would just enjoy the AP.
I've not run any of the ones I actually own yet. I briefly described each one to the group, and they chose Wrath as the one they wanted to do. The 2e player just said that all he cared about was that he got to fight a dragon at some point, but they were interested in the story of Wrath.
I know how you feel when it comes to wanting print, but it's not always possible. I have a large collection of Paizo AP's, and some are a mix of print and pdf. I'm missing the first two books in Curse of the Crimson Throne, the first book in Council of Thieves, and the first book in Skull and Shackles, so I had to buy pdf versions of those. I already resigned myself to never getting print copies of Kingmaker or Carrion Crown. If it makes a difference, Paizo has been clear that they are 100% okay with people printing out a copy of the pdf for personal use. You can even have it professionally done at a print shop. It won't be as nice as the softcover with a proper spine, but it'll get you by. It's also possible to find some leftover physical copies at other online retailers or in brick and mortar stores.
For your question about those specific AP's you mentioned, I'd recommend the AP's in the following order, based on availability:
1.) Jade Regent. Only the 1st book is out of print, with books 2 and 4 non-mint-only at this point.
2.) Serpent's Skull. Only the 4th book is out of print, with book 1 in non-mint-only. Book 2 has fewer than 100 copies left, which is why I would recommend hopping on it if it interests you. Personally, I find it much more annoying to have a volume missing from the middle than one of the ends, but oh well, you might get lucky and find a reasonably-priced copy of the 4th book somewhere.
3.) Council of Thieves. Only the 1st book is out of print. There seem to be plenty of the other volumes left for now.
4.) Tie between Mummy's Mask and Iron Gods. Both are good but both have a lot of copies left, so no huge rush.
5.) Carrion Crown. Personally, I'll wait and get them all in pdf rather than have 3/6 missing. It'd mess up my bookshelf. Yes, I know I have issues. T__T
P.S. This'll probably sound hypocritical coming from someone sitting next to 72 AP volumes (plus Shackled City, Rise of the Runelords Anniversary and Emerald Spire), but you don't actually have to get all of them. Each one will probably take 1.5-3 years to play through so unless you like to read them for the sake of reading them (which I do), you might be better off picking just the top few most appealing of the old ones.
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Cuuniyevo, this may be nitpicky, but I noticed that you left off reign of winter from your rankings. Is that because it isn't very good? Another thing I was hoping to get out of this thread was sort of a general recommendation as to how good the adventure paths are themselves. So is your list based just on availability, or does it also have something to do with content?
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Also keep in mind eBay and Amazon as options. I only started playing Pathfinder proper about three years ago, but I've acquired every AP volume except for Kingmaker through a combination of ordering new/used from Amazon and ordering entire APs for less than cover price on eBay (except for Carrion Crown and Kingmaker which are much rarer, you can usually pick up any of the APs for between $70 and $100 on eBay, which is a decent bit less than cover price).
When you say $70-100 on ebay for an adventure path, I think all 6 volumes, but I looked at bastards of Erebus and wormwood mutiny, and they are in the $70 just for the one volume. Maybe that is due to popular demand?
Just start with Giantslayer then if you want something in print. It's a fairly straight forward type adventure. If you want something exotic - Iron Gods and Wrath of the Righteous are still out there.
There are also plenty of great modules that work alone or can be combined to make an adventure path of their own. Crypt of the Everflame is always the perfect place to start with new players, but it is out of print as well. However, the sequels Masks of the Living God and City of Golden Death are still available.
Cuuniyevo, this may be nitpicky, but I noticed that you left off reign of winter from your rankings. Is that because it isn't very good? Another thing I was hoping to get out of this thread was sort of a general recommendation as to how good the adventure paths are themselves. So is your list based just on availability, or does it also have something to do with content?
Sorry about the omission, I guess I was mostly responding to the secondary list you mentioned…
…like a few (if not all) of Serpent's Skull, Carrion Crown, Iron Gods, Council of Thieves, Jade Regent, and even as I write this I see that Carrion Crown vol. 2 has been stricken from the list.
I have not yet run Reign of Winter, but from what I've read of it so far, it is quite interesting. Since volume 1 is in the "25 or fewer left" category, yes, I would advise picking it up if you're interested in that AP. The other volumes still have enough copies left that they could wait for now, if you're tight on cash. While we're on it, Shattered Star also has a pretty good number of copies left.
For reference, Shattered Star volume 5 is currently inbetween 250 and 500 copies left. Back on October 4th, 2013, there were between 500 and 1000. Back on Feb 20th, 2013, it was also in that 500 to 1000 bracket. The items that are less than 100 tend to go fast, but if something's in one of the upper brackets, it's usually safe to hold off on. Also, non-mint copies are not included in these numbers, according to Paizo staff.
For my personal taste, Jade Regent, Skull and Shackles, Mummy's Mask, Iron Gods, Legacy of Fire and Wrath of the Righteous are my top picks for subject material, but there are parts I like about all of the AP's.
These days it's fairly cheap to print and bind your .pdf files.
I recently purchased the full 7-book Way of the Wicked in .pdf file format and promptly went over to my local print store and had them print and bind them for about the actual purchase price of the individual books. Yeah, I paid for each book twice, once to buy the .pdf file and once to print/bind it, so in total it was more than just buying the printed copy would have been, but the .pdfs were on sale so it wasn't a whole lot more.
Edit: Oh, hey, forgot to mention, they're spiral-bound so I can open them up and lay them flat on my table. Totally worth the extra price; I wish Paizo would make spiral-bound APs...
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Oh, hey, forgot to mention, they're spiral-bound so I can open them up and lay them flat on my table. Totally worth the extra price; I wish Paizo would make spiral-bound APs...
that's exactly what I wanted to do if I ever had them printed. Were they able to get the cover the same thickness as the ones Paizo prints, as well as the same material for the pages? My Wrath of the Righteous vol. 1 feels like it is going to fall apart soon, and I'm thinking of having it spiral-bound.
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With all due respect Liz, if Paizo were refusing to make a product available in any form [and giving the public the impression it would not be made available in the foreseeable future] I would no longer consider said behavior piracy.
"I don't consider it against the law" doesn't sound like solid leg to stand on.
Also keep in mind eBay and Amazon as options. I only started playing Pathfinder proper about three years ago, but I've acquired every AP volume except for Kingmaker through a combination of ordering new/used from Amazon and ordering entire APs for less than cover price on eBay (except for Carrion Crown and Kingmaker which are much rarer, you can usually pick up any of the APs for between $70 and $100 on eBay, which is a decent bit less than cover price).When you say $70-100 on ebay for an adventure path, I think all 6 volumes, but I looked at bastards of Erebus and wormwood mutiny, and they are in the $70 just for the one volume. Maybe that is due to popular demand?
I just listed Bastards of Erebus on eBay for $5 starting bid.
I collected all the AP's about a year or 2 ago. The most expensive one I found was rivers run red. All the others I found for cover price or less via ebay/amazon. If one is going for a higher amount, it will likely drop down at some point.