The best depends on what you like, thematically and level of difficulty. My group really liked Rise of the Runelords, but it was sometimes a bit too easy. Skull and Shackles required more replaying scenarios with trickier scenarios and generally more challenging monsters and barriers. We haven't finished Wrath of the Righteous but I think the theme is great and the difficulty is definitely up there to where if you get just a little unlucky it feels really punishing.
Personally, I am hoping that the OP scenarios for Rise of the Runelords hit the sweet spot of the great story and interesting scenarios with just the right level of challenge. So, if you're trying to decide which set to start with, I would recommend Rise of the Runelords. There's also great fan content to go with it.
Would you say that WotR is the hardest one of them all? I'd definitely want some challenge and not something I can beat once i have a few items
Wrath of the Righteous will definitely present the highest challenge. However, if you plan on a group of 6 characters, WotR goes from 'challenging' to 'kicking you in the face and laughing while doing it'. That set scales terribly for 6 players in way that just feel un-fun.
Start with Runelords which is easy, then you may choose
- Shackles medium difficulty
- Rigtheous hard
Would you say that WotR is the hardest one of them all? I'd definitely want some challenge and not something I can beat once i have a few items
If you have a group of somewhat casual players, maybe don't start with Wrath. If you get Runelords, there are a number of threads on bgg with ideas to tweak the difficulty level. A simple one is to just shuffle an extra monster into each location. You could also try the linear variant. I also recommend the adventure guide for whichever set you try, available over on bgg. They give more background and story for each scenario.
Good luck!
They are all great. Here are some comments about them:
Rise of the Runelords
Theme: Classic fantasy.
Difficulty: Generally, regarded as the easiest of the 3.
Variety: Scenarios offer the least variety in terms of how to win. About 1 per adventure.
Replay ability: At least 1 community made adventure path that reuses the RotR cards. Organized play scenarios coming sometime soon.
Notes: Original terminology. Cards says "use your Arcane die". Steps are "Before the encounter" and "After the encounter" which caused some confusion. All things you can figure out from reading the rules, but which some people didn't find naturally intuitive. Aside from that, the simplest mechanics.
Skull and Shackles
Theme: Fantasy on the high seas.
Difficulty: Generally, regarded as the middle of the 3.
Variety: Increased variety for scenarios.
Replay ability: Organized play scenarios. At least 1 community made adventure path that reuses the RotR S&S cards.
Notes: "New" terminology. Cards say "use your Arcane skill" and "before you act" and "after you act." Adds ships as a mechanic, which comes with plunder.
Wrath of the Righteous
Theme: Mythic/Demons
Difficulty: Generally, regarded as the hardest of the 3, especially in larger group counts and at lower levels.
Variety: A bit more than Skull and Shackles. Lots of weird stuff going on.
Replay ability: Organized play scenarios.
In general, which characters you play will impact how difficulty a game you have, especially if you are opening up character choices beyond the adventure path you are playing. If you played 6 arcane casters (especially 6 sorcerers) you'd probably find it unbelievably hard. And the number of players will impact that as well. 1 player Merisiel or 1 player Kyra are regarded as pretty easy.
Notes: Add mythic paths, armies, powers on the adventure and adventure path cards.
Really, in my opinion, you can't go wrong.
Skull and Shackles
Theme: Fantasy on the high seas.
Difficulty: Generally, regarded as the middle of the 3.
Variety: Increased variety for scenarios.
Replay ability: Organized play scenarios. At least 1 community made adventure path that reuses the S&S cards.
Notes: "New" terminology. Cards say "use your Arcane skill" and "before you act" and "after you act." Adds ships as a mechanic, which comes with plunder.
What you meant.
Yup. Copy paste error.
Would you say that WotR is the hardest one of them all? I'd definitely want some challenge and not something I can beat once i have a few items
Although you may think that you want a good challenge, I'm not entirely sure that Wrath is the best set to get your feet wet with the Pathfinder system. I would go with either RotR or Shackles first. Just remember when you are getting trounced by Demon Trees and armies and everything else demonic that the difficulty scale of Wrath is weirder than the other two.
Wrath of the Righteous it is!
Its is your decision, of course, and WotR's fine if you'd play by yourself, or with other so competitively-minded as you. If you count to play the game with friends or family members which might be more casual players, I'd urge you to reconsider. You can find stories around the forum how WotR can completely turn off new players and cause veteran players to shelf the game while the psyche recovers...
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Actually I should have posted this as details, but my friend owns Rise of the Runelords and we have completed up to the 3rd adventure I think. And so far for us it has been really easy to complete (except for an ally scenario in which you compare your allies to the villain), so I wanted a base set for myself with the most challenge, for around 2-4 players.
Sergio- did I meet you at MidWinter in Milwaukee? ;)
If so- glad to see you're taking such an interest in the sets!
-- Steve
Given the easy->medium->hard progression in difficulty and the slight increase in complexity and variety there's a lot to be said for playing them in release order.
Think of it this way, coming to S&S (having played RotR) with the understanding "it's like RotR but harder and with ships" is kind of exciting, whereas coming to RotR (having played S&S) with the understanding "it's like S&S but easier and without ships" is a bit uninspiring.
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It's like S&S, but with a greater focus on fighting traditional foes like goblins and giants, instead of handling reefs and storms and geese in the rigging :)
Can we stop pretending that WotR is hard? Yes, it is hard initially, but the difficulty drops dramatically by the time you hit AP3. If you look at the whole of the AP, S&S is just as hard, if not harder.
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I'd be more concerned about the Armies in AD2 than the base scenarios, especially since they fixed the Elven Entanglement.
Skull & Shackles is the best base set - decent challenge and great opportunities to nab good cards (PLUNDER!). Also, it has my favorite card of all time - the Letter of Marque, which is so awesome.
Runelords is a classic - the first set. It is a bit too easy. But it's better than...
Wrath - easily the worst set. There are spans of several scenarios where you will just be slogging through punishment.
Part of this is preference, of course. I fully admit that I am an addict of getting good cards, and without getting my fix in Wrath it just turned boring. Later on it got better, but in my personal view there is a bit too much meh.
Can we stop pretending that WotR is hard? Yes, it is hard initially, but the difficulty drops dramatically by the time you hit AP3. If you look at the whole of the AP, S&S is just as hard, if not harder.
Can we stop pretending that one man's experience is indicative of all player's experience? There's plenty of evidence on these forums that a lot of player do find it RIDICULOUSLY difficult (or at least particular scenarios)and I can only assume you haven't been playing with 6 characters. (And sorry, but I don't find the approach "split your party for the near-impossible scenarios" as any less damning for the game - if it says on the box "6 players', it can very well expect to be judged on those merits)
Can we stop pretending that WotR is hard? Yes, it is hard initially, but the difficulty drops dramatically by the time you hit AP3. If you look at the whole of the AP, S&S is just as hard, if not harder.Can we stop pretending that one man's experience is indicative of all player's experience? There's plenty of evidence on these forums that a lot of player do find it RIDICULOUSLY difficult (or at least particular scenarios)and I can only assume you haven't been playing with 6 characters. (And sorry, but I don't find the approach "split your party for the near-impossible scenarios" as any less damning for the game - if it says on the box "6 players', it can very well expect to be judged on those merits)
It's not just one person's experience. The overwhelming response from veteran players (players who fiercely complained about the difficulty of the early scenarios) was that AP 3, 4, and 5 were quite easy (I'm not including 6 because I haven't seen as much discussion of it, not because of its level of challenge). The tools players have available at that stage of the campaign trivialize a lot of the content.