Hmmm...
I'd have to say it's a tie between Iron Gods and Jade Regent. Love both the themes and the execution.
If I absolutely had to pick one, I'd let Jared Blando's sweet, sweet maps push me towards Jade Regent. I miss him... :-(
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As someone pointed out, the enjoyment level of an AP series depends a lot of the quality of the players you play with. My favorites would be:
1) Legacy of Fire (great story coupled with a great group of players)
2) Jade Regent ( the theme coupled with a group of players who made me laugh)
3) Serpent's skull (book 1 was meh, but the rest were a lot of fun).
Hmmm...
I'd have to say it's a tie between Iron Gods and Jade Regent. Love both the themes and the execution.
If I absolutely had to pick one, I'd let Jared Blando's sweet, sweet maps push me towards Jade Regent. I miss him... :-(
Where has he been, I agree, I love his maps.
I like Carrion Crown.
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#1 Curse of the Crimson Throne
#2 Reign of Winter
#3 Iron Gods
Honorable mention: Kingmaker
I have to go with Iron Gods. I love the setting and mix of sci-fi and magic. The entire campaign feels fresh and exciting.
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In my group, we are running through all of the AP's in order of release and we are in the final module of Legacy of Fire. So far, here are the results:
Rise of the Runelords:
Great campaign for introducing Golarion and the Pathfinder system. The second module (Skinsaw Murders) was definitely the favorite of the campaign. The PC's bonded will with several of the NPC's and all in all it was a decent campaign with one exception. Runeforge....the 5th module was like quicksand made with molasses. It took forever to get through and really just felt like one endless dungeoncrawl. Which is fine if you like endless combat, but we were having a hard time staying focused with session after session of grinding through it. After that though, we enjoyed the final chapter.
Curse of the Crimson Throne:
Hands down the best campaign we may have ever played or is at least tied for first place. Fantastic and memorable NPC's, Nice variety of quests and locations. Chase rules are always fun when used and bloodpig remains the groups favorite game to this day. Even two campaigns later we talk about this AP constantly.
Second Darkness:
We also enjoyed this one quite a bit, but I think a large part of that was having a Mwangi Ekujae(sp?)Elf Summoner in the party who really helped drive the plot on the players side. We had some memorable moments such as the "tower battle" in the second module and the entire module set in Ziirnakaynin (sp?) was also a blast. The key to this one is to really push the urgency of the built in deadline for the plot. The PC's should always feel like they are running out of time and under pressure.
Legacy of Fire:
We've had fun in this one so far, partially because we all love Arabian Adventures / Persian style adventures and secondly because as a lark, we decided to open up our normally highly restrictive racial choices to allow, well, anything. As a result we've got a Kasathan Fighter, Kitsune Ninja, Medusa Sorceress, Goblin Alchemist, Bat Skinwalker Investigator, Gnoll Barbarian of Sarenrae and an extremely nerfed Serpentfolk Oracle of Sarenrae. With that combination of characters, everything becomes entertaining. We are looking forward to the conclusion as it should be fun, but the party has really learned to hate wishes. LOL
Next up: Council of Thieves.
Am I the only person to not like Kingmaker? It was fun as GM, but I didn't like it when I was a player compared to others. The psuedo-sandbox hex crawl is really dull for long stretches of just mechanical rolling of dice and the kingdom making rules can be exploited.
I find that the "adventure" parts (parts with scripts and characters and plot hooks) are well done, but I wasn't all that wild about it because I can do "sandbox" by myself.
Speaking in terms of what I've had the most fun playing/running, I have to go with Kingmaker too.
Though I think most of the APs have been fantastic, with only a few dipping down to merely very good -- e.g., Serpent's Skull after book 2, Council of Thieves after the first couple books, Mummy's Mask. IMHO, the only AP to dip below "very good", quality wise, was Wrath of the Righteous, which I found wasn't really playable without a huge amount of DM work. But even there the plot, NPCs, etc, were great; it was just the mythic rules that were problematic.
From the ones I have personally run or played in:
1) Curse of the Crimson Throne
2) Serpent skull
3) Shattered star
4) Kingmaker
5) Iron Gods
4) Jade regent
5) Wrath of the Righteous
From the ones I've only read through:
1) Carrion Crown
2) Reign of Winter
3) Skull and shackles
4) Mummy's mask
5) Rise of the Runelords
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Listing the APs in chronological order, here's what we have so far (with the first number being the number of people who picked it as a favorite, and the second number being how many times it appeared in someone's top 3):
1st Rise of the Runelords: 8 (14)
2nd Curse of the Crimson Throne: 18 (22)
3rd Second Darkness: 1 (3)
4th Legacy of Fire: 2 (5)
5th Council of Thieves: 0 (1)
6th Kingmaker: 18 (20)
7th Serpent's Skull: 3 (8)
8th Carrion Crown: 8 (12)
9th Jade Regent: 4 (11)
10th Skull & Shackles: 5 (11)
11th Shattered Star: 1 (3)
12th Reign of Winter: 4 (10)
13th Wrath of the Righteous: 4 (11)
14th Mummy's Mask: 1 (1)
15th Iron Gods: 7 (14)
16th Giantslayer: 0 (1)
17th Hell's Rebels: 3 (7)
This sorts the top APs into three tiers:
Tier 1 (18+ favorites):
Curse of the Crimson Throne
Kingmaker
Tier 2 (7-8 favorites, and at least 12 "top 3"s):
Rise of the Runelords
Carrion Crown
Iron Gods
Tier 3 (4-5 favorites, and at least 10 "top 3"s):
Jade Regent
Skull & Shackles
Reign of Winter
Wrath of the Righteous
Some Notable Entries:
--Curse of the Crimson Throne: The 2nd-4th APs have the disadvantage of not being converted to Pathfinder, making them much more difficult to play, and thus less likely to become favorites. And yet it's still one of the two favorites.
--Iron Gods: As SheepishEidolon mentioned, APs that have been out longer have had more time to become favorites. And yet Iron Gods, which has only been out for about a year, has already moved its way into the second Tier.
--Hell's Rebels: For an AP that's just coming out, and so one that relatively few people have had an opportunity to play, this is doing remarkably well.
Tier 1 (18+ favorites):
Curse of the Crimson Throne
KingmakerTier 2 (7-8 favorites, and at least 12 "top 3"s):
Rise of the Runelords
Carrion Crown
Iron GodsTier 3 (4-5 favorites, and at least 10 "top 3"s):
Jade Regent
Skull & Shackles
Reign of Winter
Wrath of the Righteous
This is about what I expected, on almost all counts.
I'm a bit surprised to see Wrath in Tier 3, given all the controversy and hostility it got on the forums and the general air of dislike for Mythic, but quiet support is often a lot less noticeable than vocal outrage, and the opposite extremely uncommon.
Kingmaker -
It introduced Kingdom building rules, though enhanced by later enhancements by those rules. It had no set timeline, and allowed the PCs a great deal of freedom to pursue their own interests. It helps if the PC group is very driven and knows what they wish to accomplish.
I had the most fun as a player with Kingmaker. Sure, the hex mapping could be a slog for some players but it appealed to the old completionist console gamer in me. Being able to play a PC who should not be in any position of authority over others at all being in a position of authority over others made it all the richer for me!
Council of Thieves has a special place in my heart because I love urban campaigns, and the second book in that AP is my favorite single volume amongst all the APs. Not to mention that the ending is so tragic if you build it all up the right way from the beginning, although I acknowledge that as much as I appreciate the irony of a tragic ending for a major pair of NPCs (and an entire city, at that) in the same campaign where opera plays a significant part, your average player doesn't want to close an AP on a tragic note. That compared with some of the APs clunkier moments make me choose Kingmaker as my favorite instead.
I expect once I finish reading through all of Hell's Rebels that may replace Kingmaker.
I'm a bit surprised to see Wrath in Tier 3, given all the controversy and hostility it got on the forums and the general air of dislike for Mythic, but quiet support is often a lot less noticeable than vocal outrage, and the opposite extremely uncommon.
The adventure itself is widely praised, given the cohesion of the plot and the appeal of the NPCs. The Mythic rules are potentially a big problem but they do have their defenders, and some DMs have altered them in ways that they feel are more balanced. All in all, I'm not surprised.
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Indeed, I ran the whole of Wrath of the Righteous for my group and they still claim it to be their favorite module ever for a variety of reasons, but chief among them are that they could level all the way to 20th level, they got to take a hand in something that was genuinely "epic" in terms of the Golarion setting, and because it satisfied their desire to be the good guys that bad guys fear. That last part was a lot of my doing as I flipped the usual model of plucky PCs eking out a victory against dangerous and confident adversaries to demonic hordes treating the PCs with a mix of adulation and horror - the former because of the carnage they have wrought, which demons love, and the latter because of the carnage they are poised to cause to them at the moment, which most demons don't.
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Reign of Winter was a blast to run (and I went through the trouble of converting it to mythic)
Reign of Winter was a blast to run (and I went through the trouble of converting it to mythic)
RoW seems to be one of the APs most suited to Mythic. IG is the other really obvious AP, in my opinion.
Kingmaker. Then Iron Gods. Then Legacy of Fire.
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We're talking about Mythic, and nobody mentioned Serpent's Skull? ^_^
If possible, replace the scroll on Smuggler's Shiv with one that will reincarnate someone as Savith herself.
That's the short version, of course. I have much more detailed plans...
--Hell's Rebels: For an AP that's just coming out, and so one that relatively few people have had an opportunity to play, this is doing remarkably well.
Well, my vote goes to Curse of the Crimson Throne as well, which was my absolute favorite until Hell's Rebels came out. I can't give a final verdictt on HR yet, since I am still waiting for the last two modules (the printed version, that is). But from what I've read in volumes 1-4 of this AP, I can only conclude that it is the best I have ever read from Paizo. I'm truly impressed with many aspects of this scenario and it has surpassed my (high) expectations. As written, I'd have to place it above Curse, I guess, but since I also like converting material to my own style and preference, CotCT - which we are still playing - has been a pleasure so far.
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We're talking about Mythic, and nobody mentioned Serpent's Skull? ^_^
The reason I'm a bit hesitant to label SS a Mythic AP is that, in order to reach a satisfying climax, you'd have to have the PCs finish what Savith began. If one Mythic hero was able to incapacitate a full-blown god, a group of them should be able to kill him under the right circumstances (before Pharasma's throne!), but that requires actually statting out said god, and Paizo is reluctant to do so. Then again, this is for a homebrew campaign...
Okay, while it would take some work, you could do SS as a Mythic AP. Personally, I'd do what WotR did and have the PCs somehow discover their potential at the end of the first adventure. There's nothing to say that Vyr-Azul and his favoured minions couldn't be Mythic, or that one or more gods couldn't secretly back some mortals to prevent Old Snakey's return.
Skull and Shackles, definitely.
Easily Kingmaker! Secondly though is the Mummy's Mask game I'm currently running.
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An interesting thing is how people simply haven't all experienced all of the APs...I think if I hadn't played Curse of the Crimson Throne first, I might have been more generous with Council of Thieves, for example.
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I've ran Carrion Crown, the first 2 books of Rise of the Runelords and am in the process of running Legacy of Fire and Mummy's Mask. I am currently playing in Curse of the Crimson Throne and Wrath of the Righteous.
My favorite will likely always be Carrion Crown - likely due to it being my very first game as a GM and the PCs that were in it were very memorable. So many fun stories that we still share today.
I'm thoroughly enjoying all of the various stories so its hard to list out which are better than the others for me. That said we are looking forward to continuing through our list of APs we want to play (Skull & Shackles, Reign of Winter, Giant Slayer, Iron Gods, Shattered Star, Hell's Rebels, Hell's Vengeance and likely many more to come).
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Having finished my detailed read-through of Hell's Rebels, I've decided that it's one of the best AP's and is entering my favorites list, taking 3rd and moving Kingmaker out of my top-three.
That puts my top-grade AP's list at:
1. Curse of the Crimson Throne
2. Iron Gods
3. Hell's Rebels
4. Kingmaker
5. Reign of Winter
Opinions on Hell's Rebels:
+ It delivers the best urban adventure path. Curse edges it out in terms of APs overall thanks to Scarwall and having higher high-points, but Hell's Rebels is better at being specifically-urban (it does leave the city too sometimes, but not for the same sustained duration). HR also doesn't have the same size of large-dungeons that a lot of other APs have; I like those when they're executed well, but there's probably some players who would prefer an AP that keeps the dungeons smaller or more city-building-integrated like HR does.
+ It is the best AP for social interaction. I like some of Curse's NPC's better than the ones in Hell's Rebels, but Hell's Rebels has a very strong set and offers more social-encounter opportunities throughout the path.
+ It seizes the crown in terms of best villain integration. Barzillai is by far the most integrated-through-the-campaign villain out of all the APs.
+ It has no low-point adventures. Every installment is quite strong. Every other AP has parts that are worse than the weakest parts of Hell's Rebels.
+ Infernal contracts!
- It doesn't have the same sort of high-point moments that my top two APs have. It stays consistently very good, but doesn't reach quite the same levels of exceptional as Crimson Throne or Iron Gods.
- The atmosphere of the final battle is weird. I like the dungeon, and I think it fits in with the plot well. The weirdness comes from how the PCs are up against Barzillai, trying to prevent his triumph, but Barzillai doesn't *feel* on the verge of triumph during the fight. He *is* on the verge of triumph, but physically, he's bound in chains and being tortured. Mephistopheles is letting the PCs in to fight him, and Barzillai, once his manifestations back in Kintargo are shut down, can't really do anything about them attacking until they're physically in the room with him. There's a strange dichotomy going on between re-fighting the villainous mastermind on the eve of his ascension and mercy-killing an in-many-ways-impotent threat that you've already beaten. This isn't entirely a complaint. Narratively, it makes sense. There's just something weird about the vibe it would give me as a player.
An additional plus that's more specific to the AP at present as opposed to the AP in the long-run:
+ I like how Hell was presented and think it serves as evidence that Paizo hasn't backed down from a willingness to go 'dark' sometimes.
On the note of items:
I'm sort of questioning the decision to drop the magic-item double-page section from the APs. Having read APs with it and now having gone back to APs without it, I find that it has actually been something I've used to absorb some of the 'flavor' of the areas the APs take place in. Having locally-related items adds another layer to the places the adventures take place in, adding to their overall character. I'm not sure what I'd want it to go back in at the expense of, but I'm kinda missing it.
In reply to Cole:
I agree that order matters and has probably had some impact on my views of Adventure Paths. Crimson Throne probably reduced my opinion of Council too. What I'm finding almost more-interesting, though, is that Hell's Rebels, despite being a much better AP, has actually been slightly *improving* my opinion of Council. It adds better perspective on Cheliax as a whole, provides some interesting parallels between Kintargo and Westcrown, carries some similar themes that end up being handled in different ways, and delivers on some of the 'gaps' that seemed to exist in Council. I'm actually starting a re-readthrough of Council based on this and may post some comparison between it and Rebels once I'm done (or I may wait for Vengeance to end and do a three-way comparison).
1. Curse of the Crimson Throne - With the possible exception of book 4, this is pretty much perfection personified.
2. Rise of the Runelords - Classic, awesome, all around great.
3. Carrion Crown - This is probably as high as it is for me because we had a Ravenloft pro run it for us, top notch.
4. Kingmaker - Lots of fun, everyone loves making their own kingdom.
5. Skull and Shackles - I generally prefer more heroic style campaigns myself, but this was some solid fun.
1) Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition (as written, maybe with some more expansion of Xin Shalast).
2) Kingmaker (with the kingdom building in the background).
3) Skull and Shackles (with Souls for Smuggler's Shiv from SS as a prelude).
4) Carrion Crown (with a bit less emphasis on the Underworld movie aspect in the Ashes at Dawn volume).
1. Reign of Winter: I love the Story and Book 5 is outstanding
2. Hells rebels: judging only from reading but this AP seems to be so good
3. Carrion crown
4. Rotrl
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We are almost to issue #100 ! What is your favorite adventure path thus far? Vote now.
It is a straight up tie between Reign of Winter and Carrion Crown. If I had to choose which one I love more, Reign of Winter will just edge out Carrion Crown. I love the Winter theme and the whole concept surrounding it.
Runelords Anniversary edition was a fun run, but Hell's Rebels is far and away the best one for me so far. No contest.
Skulls and Shackles has a great concept, but the middle third is just a bit swampy and unfocused for my liking.
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Curse of the Crimson Throne is my absolute favorite. I am currently running it for my group and took the opportunity to spice up certain NPCs and enemies with newer classes or archetypes. I see a lot of people saying part 4 is troublesome, but for my group I think it will great as our sorcerer is a Shoanti-Varasian half blood who is very proud of her Shoanti side. The immense culture shock of actually being considered an outsider by the tribes will likely propel the story forward more than it would for other groups.
The Queen of Spiders D-Q-1 Night Below
Oh you mean Paizo APs?
At present that I have run or played Kingmaker and Rise of the Runelords
Carrion Crown was meh but Chapter 3 and 4 looked solid.
Want to play BADLY Iron Gods and Reign of Winter.
Currently running Mummy's Mask with a ton of added Egyptian older content
furtively scribbles extensive notes on thread.
Oh, pardon me! I thought this was the "What is the TOUGHEST* Adventure Path thus far? Vote Now!"
*Also Hoping for Most Sadistic
For me, it's one and the same. Skull and Shackles.
Not much love for Giantslayer?
Thats the one I most want to play. Maybe I'm misguided?
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Not much love for Giantslayer?
Thats the one I most want to play. Maybe I'm misguided?
I wouldn't worry too much about what peoples' favorites are... I've read every Adventure Path (except Reign of Winter and, ironically, Giantslayer) and they're all just fine.
Heck, my favorite, Second Darkness, is generally considered the worst. I still love it. ^_^
Not much love for Giantslayer?
Thats the one I most want to play. Maybe I'm misguided?
GS is a good ap, first module is really good if you can get above certain less than gritty characterizations that make little sense for a place like Trunau, the rest is good and quite challangening although there are a few things I would have done differently.
As for what's my favored AP I got to get on the Kingmaker bandwagon too. Honorable mentions for Hell's Rebels and WotR.
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I'm digging Hell's Vengeance so far.
Curse of the Crimson Throne, although I am biased because I'm running it and enjoying it so much.
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Just added up the votes.
During my summation, I ended up having different results than SheepishEidolon and Porridge did when I got to their posts. We're probably counting differently, so this is how I did it:
- I counted first place votes only.
- If someone was tied between two AP's, I gave each a half vote.
- Otherwise, I did not count where a poster had no clear preference (some of you just listed a couple APs and wrote out pros and cons). That's interesting information, but it means no clear favorite.
- I only counted votes for PF AP's.
- I am sometimes an idiot; just ask any of my PCs. It's possible that I miscounted at some point.
And the results so far:
24 Votes: Curse of the Crimson Throne
21.5 Votes: Kingmaker
These two are clearly the two favorite APs by a long shot.
9.5 Votes: Carrion Crown
7.5 Votes: Rise of the Runelords (Regular or Anniversary)
7.5 Votes: Skull & Shackles
7 Votes: Iron Gods
6.5 Votes: Reign of Winter
5 Votes: Wrath of the Righteous
These seem to be a "middle tier" of popular AP's.
3.5 Votes: Jade Regent
3 Votes: Serpent's Skull
3 Votes: Hell's Rebels
2 Votes: Legacy of Fire
1 Vote: Second Darkness
1 Vote: Shattered Star
1 Vote: Mummy's Mask
1 Vote: Giantslayer
1 Vote: Hell's Vengeance
Some people loved these but apparently they're not everybody's cup of tea.
I counted no votes for Council of Thieves or Strange Aeons (which obvs isn't out yet). I was hoping to glance at the list and get some insights into "what makes an AP good" or "what kind of APs does everyone like", but the only thing which is obvious to me is that there are a wide range of tastes and preferences, and that there are good AP's for everyone!
Skull and Shackles. So fun.
Last night our group killed Bedu Hanji and an ocean giant in an epic showdown. It's not in the script, we just wanted to.
Huh, how epic would it be to run the AP's in the order that they appear in roloz listing rather than by release date, allowing the adventures to affect the ones played later in varyibg degrees?