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As bad as that sounds, I'm looking for an AP that will regularly push my players along the railroad until the very end. No sandboxes. They don't do well with them. They get frustrated when there's no blinking signs pointing them to where they have to go next. We've already had to quite one AP when it landed in sandbox territory. This immediately throws out Kingmaker.
Two of the players in my group are also in two other groups, and they're currently doing Rise of the Runelords and Strange Aeons.
I was wondering how Giantslayer was. I've heard Legacy of Fire is pretty railroad-y in parts.
EDIT: I was just reminded that Legacy of Fire is 3.5, not Pathfinder. Never mind. With that said, not Paizo APs, but Pathfinder APs. Thought I'd correct myself.
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As bad as that sounds, I'm looking for an AP that will regularly push my players along the railroad until the very end. No sandboxes. They don't do well with them. They get frustrated when there's no blinking signs pointing them to where they have to go next. We've already had to quite one AP when it landed in sandbox territory. This immediately throws out Kingmaker.
Two of the players in my group are also in two other groups, and they're currently doing Rise of the Runelords and Strange Aeons.
I was wondering how Giantslayer was. I've heard Legacy of Fire is pretty railroad-y in parts.
EDIT: I was just reminded that Legacy of Fire is 3.5, not Pathfinder. Never mind. With that said, not Paizo APs, but Pathfinder APs. Thought I'd correct myself.
Shattered Star is pretty rail-roady story-wise and is a series of dungeons which even at their most open present pretty clear paths.
Jade Regent can be very railroady, and there's helpful NPCs to either point the way or get kidnapped whenever your player's attention is flagging.
I'm running Giantslayer, and there are small sandboxes throughout it, which might not fit your group's style.
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Carrion Crown is the only AP I've played in, but I have to say it felt pretty railroady to me as a player.
I'm running a modified version of Giantslayer and I would agree it has some sandboxy points in some areas.
As far as I know, there are no APs with railroads in them.
Perhaps, another genre like Call of Cthulhu, or perhaps an old Eberron adventure.
Now that I got that out of my system.
Reign of Winter is pretty linear.
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As far as I know, there are no APs with railroads in them.
Perhaps, another genre like Call of Cthulhu, or perhaps an old Eberron adventure.
Now that I got that out of my system.
We are trying to "train" him not to do that.
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I'm gonna throw in Mummy's Mask. There's a bit of sandboxiness around the middle (decide which order to explore the city in Vol 2, research stuff in Vol 3, hexploration in Vols 4-5), but most of the plot has big blinking lights saying, "go do this dungeon next". Also, in the later volumes the dungeons can get very long so you can't stray away.
Shattered Star is really railroady. Every chapter is: go to important NPC, she tells you where to go, go there, kill everything, take important item, go back to her for another direction.
Being paths they are rail roady
We are in parts 3 of mummy mask and it is my fav of the rail road APs so far.
Of the ones I've played Shattered is the most RR.
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As bad as that sounds, I'm looking for an AP that will regularly push my players along the railroad until the very end. No sandboxes. They don't do well with them. They get frustrated when there's no blinking signs pointing them to where they have to go next. We've already had to quite one AP when it landed in sandbox territory. This immediately throws out Kingmaker.
Two of the players in my group are also in two other groups, and they're currently doing Rise of the Runelords and Strange Aeons.
I was wondering how Giantslayer was. I've heard Legacy of Fire is pretty railroad-y in parts.
EDIT: I was just reminded that Legacy of Fire is 3.5, not Pathfinder. Never mind. With that said, not Paizo APs, but Pathfinder APs. Thought I'd correct myself.
Well, not an adventure path, but the Pathfinder Society scenarios are pretty railroad focused. And they do share an ongoing plot of the players being pathfinders. Each one is self contained, but you could certainly stitch them together without much effort.
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Well, not an adventure path, but the Pathfinder Society scenarios are pretty railroad focused. And they do share an ongoing plot of the players being pathfinders. Each one is self contained, but you could certainly stitch them together without much effort.
Truthfully that's what caused this entire mess. They're all PFS players. They're so used to being pulled by their noses that they don't know anything else and it's frustrating for them to figure stuff out on their own.
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Well, not an adventure path, but the Pathfinder Society scenarios are pretty railroad focused. And they do share an ongoing plot of the players being pathfinders. Each one is self contained, but you could certainly stitch them together without much effort.Truthfully that's what caused this entire mess. They're all PFS players. They're so used to being pulled by their noses that they don't know anything else and it's frustrating for them to figure stuff out on their own.
Hmmm....well, you could still use the PFS scenarios, and just add a roleplayed "downtime" section, and carry over more of the gear. Sad, but does seem like that's what they are looking for. At least for now, but after a while, they might start flexing their creative muscles, and it might start working well.
Personally, I'm always annoyed at the PFS scenarios in that they don't let me persue some of the more questionable ideas I have to complete the mission.
Could start with the missions, and then allow them to derail on their own. Just ignore the limits of the scenario and allow them to pick fights with NPCs that aren't given stats (you'd need some prepwork for this), or when the mission fails give them in-game consequences for their failure. After a while, I suspect they'll get used to playing with less rails, and they'll embrace playing a normal adventure path. Just thoughts.
I recommend Rise of the Runelords. I don't think I was ever without a very clear idea of where I needed to go and what I needed to do.
Not sure about the rest of Curse of the Crimson Throne, but the first two books are very straight-forward so far.
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Hmmm....well, you could still use the PFS scenarios, and just add a roleplayed "downtime" section, and carry over more of the gear. Sad, but does seem like that's what they are looking for. At least for now, but after a while, they might start flexing their creative muscles, and it might start working well.
Could start with the missions, and then allow them to derail on their own. Just ignore the limits of the scenario and allow them to pick fights with NPCs that aren't given stats (you'd need some prepwork for this), or when the mission fails give them in-game consequences for their failure. After a while, I suspect they'll get used to playing with less rails, and they'll embrace playing a normal adventure path. Just thoughts.
I can't give the specifics (was hoping to PM you), but unfortunately it wouldn't work out in the way that one would hope.
I recommend Rise of the Runelords. I don't think I was ever without a very clear idea of where I needed to go and what I needed to do.
Two of them are currently in Book 6 of Runelords with another group.
Two of them are currently in Book 6 of Runelords with another group.
No luck with that then.
The players ended up going with Mummy's Mask just from the synopsis of the first adventure. It was pretty unanimous actually. Hopefully this goes well.
It's a lot of fun, but I'd be loathe to call it a railroad, particularly in the beginning. However, as Samy mentioned, there are often signs indicating the direction you should take, but not always. I suppose once you get to the hexes you can just march around from one to the next (which my guys did) hoping not to hit the end section too early... :)
Giantslayer is the same way, in fact, except for books 3 and 4, which are pretty heavy sandboxes (less book 3 than 4, however) and can easily result in a lot of missed opportunities. The final dungeons in both books are worth the price of admission, IMO. We're in the final dungeon of book 4 now.
Hell's Rebels seems to be a mix so far. I won't start for a few more weeks... as if I haven't said that before. It relies on NPCs rather heavily to "direct" the action, however.
I feel that Reign of Winter wins this on default by being the one where PC's have a geas put on them to force them to complete the adventure.