Like the title says, how many APs has your group played from start to finish? And how long did they take to play through?
I've only completed one (RotRL), and played a couple more partially. RotRL took approximately a year of bi-weekly sessions.
I've been part of 3 finished ones. We almost got a fourth, but serpent skull's fifth book ate us alive.
-I DM'd Kingmaker to completion in 10 months with weekly sessions and about a month on break.
-I played fully through Skulls and Shackle which took about the same amount of time and was at about the same pace.
-I recently DM'd Strange Aeons all the way through and that took about 6-7 months. We played every week and only missed 2-3 sessions. I owe that short completion time to the AP's more linear nature and having a smaller group of 4 veteran players.
The only ones we've finished are RotRL and CotCT (twice) it generally takes us around nine months of weekly, three to four hour sessions. All of those have been run in other systems though.
When we play Pathfinder we tend to all die at around seventh or eighth level - my impression would be that it would take us more like two years for an AP, were we able to complete one in PF.
Rise of the Runelords
Curse of the Crimson Throne
Kingmaker
Reign of Winter
Iron Gods
Probably Strange Aeons
Kingmaker,jade, serpents
About 40 sessions of 3-4 hours once per week
Current. Mummy 4, Ironfang 2, carrion 4
Didn't complete the following mostly due to lack of enjoyment
Shattered 2, Rise 3,
My first Adventure Path ever (at least if we only count Pathfinder) was Curse of the Crimson Throne, adapted to a Magic: the Gathering setting, where I played a NE devkarin (dark elf) ninja.
Then I played Reign of Winter with an elven Changeling Witch of Time, and it was my best roleplaying experience ever. We played a heavily modified version set on Dragonlance and our GM has continued it witb Witchwar Legacy and planning to go on with the campaign until level 20 (at least I am begging him to do so xD)
I've also GMed Skull and Shackles in a Dragonlance setting and planning to continue the campaign.
I am also GMing Way of the Wicked even though it's a 3pp and planning to finish GMing it someday xD
So far (as either a player or GM):
Jade Regent - took about 3 1/2 years, biweekly
Shattered Star
Council of Thieves
Serpent's Skull
Iron Gods
Wrath of the Righteous
-These all probably took about 4-5 months, playing weekly (sometimes twice a week).
Currently in:
Book 5 of Reign of Winter - About 3 years and counting (yay scheduling)
Book 2 of Hell's Rebels - weekly, sometimes twice weekly
And I've played through the first two books of Carrion Crown twice (group fell apart both times).
For me, it takes my groups about a year and a half to get through an AP, playing weekly barring majority absence (I usually have 5 players).
As a DM, in order of play:
Kingmaker (Completed) w/ Carnival of Tears inserted.
Legacy of Fire (Completed)
Carrion Crown (Finished book 5, schedule upset and not enough interest to resume.)
Council of Theives (Completed)
Reign of Winter (Completed)
Serpents Skull (First book as a solo adventure.)
Skull and Shackles (Book one, similar schedule upset.)
Shattered Star (Completed)
Mummy's Mask (Completed)
Giantslayer (Completed) w/ Feast of Ravensmoor inserted.
Now running first parts of both Strange Aeons and Skull and Shackles.
If were counting all the Paizo APs, I've also run Shackled City and Age of Worms to completion. Also Savage Tide... twice.
Run a lot of modules as well, here and there, usually to test out new classes.
Basically, I've been running two games weekly (Fridays and Sundays) for the last 15 years. Been good times.
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Let's see...
That would be... yes, all of them thus far. We CRANKED through Strange Aeons- marathon sessions actually worked really well for the horror theme, at least for our group.
Serpents Skull (First book as a solo adventure.)
How does this work?
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Carrion Crown only, but looking good for Mummy's Mask and Jade Regent, which are in progress.
It takes my group about two years to run an AP to completion. We meet 2X a month for 3-6 hours.
Sadly, Kingmaker and Serpent Skull ended early and not to TPK. (Serpent Skull im not sad about.)
Hoping to start Iron Gods in a few months and really excited about upcoming War for the Crown.
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Let's see...
That would be... yes, all of them thus far.
That is impressive.
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Let's see...
That would be... yes, all of them thus far. We CRANKED through Strange Aeons- marathon sessions actually worked really well for the horror theme, at least for our group.
I want to join this group.
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I want to join this group.
Do Alaska winters appeal? 'Cause that's a HUGE part of how we do it...
1 (curse of the crimson throne) out of about 9 played. We normally get to somewhere on book 4 or 5 but we play monthly so s full AP can take up to 2 year. My personal feel is that they are too long and a year suits better.
- Curse of the Crimson Throne (GM)
- Rise of the Runelords (Twice. Player, then GM)
- Carrion Crown (GM)
- Jade Regent (Twice, both times GM)
- Wrath of the Righteous (GM, ugh)
Unfinished:
- Second Darkness (Player, probably never gonna finish that one as the GM for it does not seem interested in picking it up again.)
- Kingmaker (Twice, both as GM, started at the same time with two groups, stopped both in module two because I noticed how much I disliked the AP)
Currently playing:
- Reign of Winter (GM)
- Way of the Wicked (Player)
A year and a half sounds about right, modified by the regularity and length of the sessions.
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Finished:
1. Curse of the Crimson Throne (Player)
2. Serpent's Skull (DM)
3. Kingmaker (Player)
4. Skull & Shackles (Player)
5. Reign of Winter (DM)
6. Shattered Star (Player)
Unfinished:
1. Age of Worms - DM'd to the beginning of book 10 (of 12). Ended due to military deployment.
2. Rise of the Runelords - Player to mid-book 2. Ended due to military deployment.
3. Second Darkness - Player to beginning of book 5. Horrible "Memory of Darkness" ended that campaign.
4. Council of Thieves - Player to end of book 5. Campaign ended due to TPK and wanting to move on to something else.
Currently Playing:
1. Iron Gods - Player in Book 4
2. Giantslayer - Player in Book 3
Finished:
Rise of the Runelords (GM)
Serpent's Skull (GM)
Jade Regent (PC)
Kingmaker (GM - Greatest AP ever . . . this one lasted just over three years with heavy modifications to story by myself; players absolutely loved it!)
Currently in:
Shattered Star (GM)
Giantslayer (PC)
In most cases, an AP will take us about 18 months to get through.
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Never been a player in an AP that finished. I GM nearly 100% for my home groups. We've finished Kingmaker, Wrath of the Righteous, and Way of the Wicked. Running WotW again for a different group of players with slight story tweaks to move it fully on to my homebrew world.
The two times I did get to play were Skull and Shackles and Reign of Winter. Both imploded after we lost a few new players due to schedule conflicts.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Finished: Rise of the Runelords (twice, once as player, once as GM)
Legacy of Fire (as GM)
Serpent's Skull (as GM)
Carrion Crown (as player)
Skull & Shackles (as player)
Wrath of the Righteous (as GM)
Currently GMing Shattered Star and playing Reign of Winter, both in book 3.
I also GMed the Age of Mortals 3.5 Dragonlance campaign all the way through, if you want to count non-PF stuff.
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I marvel at all those who said they have finished an AP in less than a year. We're 2 sessions away from finishing Carrion Crown and that's been ongoing for 5 years!
Having a 2-person game and living with the other person involved helps. ;-) All of my larger-group games have taken a lot longer.
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I marvel at all those who said they have finished an AP in less than a year. We're 2 sessions away from finishing Carrion Crown and that's been ongoing for 5 years!
So much depends on frequency of meeting and for how long. I too was astonished that folks can blitz out an AP in 6 months. Then, I learned they meet weekly for 4-8 hours regularly and it starts making a little more sense.
I've finished these APs (as GM if not specified otherwise):
Rise of the Runelords
Curse of the Crimson Throne
Legacy of Fire
Council of Thieves (as a player)
Kingmaker
Jade Regent (as a player)
Skull & Shackles
Shattered Star
Reign of Winter
I'm almost through Iron Gods, too (about half of part 6 is left).
Finished
Curse of the Crimson Throne (GM)
Way of the Wicked (GM)
Giantslayer (GM)
Rise of the Runelords (x2 as player)
Unfinished
Wrath of the Righteous (Player) ended after book 4
Jade Regent (Player) ended after book 4
Serpent's Skull (GM) ended after book 3
Carrion Crown (GM) ended after book 3 when the players couldn't find any motivation for their characters to continue on
Reign of Winter (Player) ended in book 3
Current Games
Wrath of the Righteous (GM)
Shattered Star (Player)
Upcoming Games (after current are finished)
Second Darkness (GM)
Curse of the Crimson Throne Anniversary Edition (Player)
I have all of the APs, so if someone wants stats on what we did *not* finish, here's a complete list...
Rise of the Runelords - Completed
Many "best ofs" for the group here... entire first module, the ogres, xanesha... but this was 3.5
Curse of the Crimson Throne - Completed
Most-liked/remembered AP. In our campaign, the group took positions of power in the city and guided it farther away from Cheliax and more toward Magnimar/Varisia... to the point where a joining of Magnimar and Korvosa was being considered. Also 3.5
Second Darkness - Never started.
The entire thing was released while we were still playing CotCT and I disliked it so much that we skipped it.
Legacy of Fire - Stopped after 3
Demi plane was a big turn off
Council of Thieves - Stopped after 2
Too grey? The group didn't feel they were working toward change like they had in CotCT, poorly set expectations by me.
Kingmaker - Completed
Known as "the only time mounts have ever mattered" AP
Serpent's Skull - Stopped after 2.5 I think... somewhere in the 3rd one
Carrion Crown - Stopped after 2... later came back and made it to 4
Problems maintaining mood/theme with this one
Jade Regent - Stopped part way into 4
After arriving in Minkai, all interest evaporated quickly.
Skull & Shackles - Stopped after 4
Shattered Star - Stopped after 2
Felt too familiar and they were hoping I could do a continued campaign from CotCT, despite my disclaimer that I had no time to do that. (Many years between the two and many life changes)
Reign of Winter - Completed
They loved the earth visit, hated some of the railroady manipulations.
Wrath of the Righteous - Stopped partway through 4
Mythic rules basically killed this one
Mummy's Mask - Stopped after 2
Again, theme/mood issues on my part
Iron Gods - Completed
Is up there with CotCT for the group
Giantslayer - Stopped after 1
Hell's Rebels - Stopped after 4
May return to this one someday. I keep trying to convince them that it isn't like Council of Thieves, but they feel anything after 4 is kind of anti-climactic.
Hell's Vengeance - Never started
Strange Aeons - Currently in part 5
On track to finish by the time RoA starts getting printed
Ironfang Invasion - Probably will not start
After WotR, they have no interest in the army conflict stuff, and the general feel of the thing (outdoorsy/exploration) feels too much like Kingmaker to them.
Ruins of Azlant - This is getting more player interest than Ironfang Invasion.
If you don't mind me derailing a bit, what is your top three APs and what has been the best single adventure from any AP?
Top Three (with a tie for favorite)
1. Curse of the Crimson Throne1. Hell's Rebels.
2. Strange Aeons (I should note that I played in and did not GM this one- and that its status is mostly due to our group's high-pitched squeals of joy at the entire premise- we've logged some serious Call of Cthulhu hours over the years)
Best single adventure: Ohhhhh, that's a tough one... so I'm going to give three that spring to mind in no particular order- note that I'd also be willing to do this for every AP, but that might be taking this derail a bit too far.
-Seven Days to the Grave- Accept no substitutes.
-Breaking the Bones of Hell- SUCH a kickin' payoff to a good campaign.
-Pyramid of the Sky Pharaoh- Awesome on-theme fun.
I think the only AP I played all the way throught was back in the '80s for AD&D: U1: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh/ A1-4: Scourge of the Slave Lords/ G1-3 Against the Giants/ D1-3: (the Drow series) / Q1: Queen of the Demonweb Pits.
I ran Runelords twice. One ended after a long side-quest between books 3 and 4; the other is ongoing.
I am currently playing in Book 2 of three different APs on the boards. All are going well. (Shattered Stat, Carrion Crown, and Legendary Planet).
I have GM'd the following APs to completion:
Rise of the Runelords
Kingmaker
Skull & Shackles
Reign of Winter
Shattered Star
Way of the Wicked
I am currently preparing to run Kingmaker again (heavily modified)
I see a lot of folks stopping APs around book 3 or so. Anyone want to clarify why? I'm curious if the quality drops, novelty wears off, high level play gets slower, or if this is just normal attrition.
I loved RotRL, but I thought the last two installments got a little grindy and I ended up cutting out a lot of the encounters that didn't either directly affect the storyline or were particularly cool. I also tried to modify several encounters into roleplaying opportunities instead of fighting. I suspect the design ethic behind the grindiness was to provide the necessary xp to advance to the planned level, but I wonder if cutting a lot of it contributed to my quicker completion time.
I see a lot of folks stopping APs around book 3 or so. Anyone want to clarify why? I'm curious if the quality drops, novelty wears off, high level play gets slower, or if this is just normal attrition.
I have found a lot of book 3 a bit rubbish TBH. That linked with a sudden rules grind, general burnt out and starting to leave the sweet spot.
I haven't GMed or played as many APs here as most people because I also GM a lot of homebrew stories.
As I have only played/GMed 3 of them my judgment of this is kinda poor, but RoW is the best I have ever played, as I loved the characters, the story and a lot of changes that my GM did to it.
I loved GMing S&S because it is exactly the kind of game I like GMing and it had wonderful characters too.
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I see a lot of folks stopping APs around book 3 or so. Anyone want to clarify why? I'm curious if the quality drops, novelty wears off, high level play gets slower, or if this is just normal attrition.
GM burn out seems to be a big culprit for the two APs that died at book 3-4 for us. Kingmaker got to be a bit of burden for our GM at the time and eventually he stopped having fun. Serpent Skull on the other hand, our GM at that time simply didn't like the AP and felt it was a bit of a mess. Also, he has since decided that 5E is more his style of game and doesn't like high level 3.x/PF.
I will say that two of the APs I ran as GM (Carrion Crown/Mummys Mask) seem to dip hard in the middle books. The writing starts to feel like filler maybe turning the AP into 4 acts instead of the traditional 3. Granted for us it takes about a year to get through 3 chapters of an AP. That's a long time to be playing the same campaign plot.
There definitely needs to be a commitment to keep pushing through, and I think folks who play longer and more often seem to be the ones who get through APs. There is a point where stat blocks start taking up huge amounts of space and you pass through a nice meaty beginning RP section of the AP, and end up with combat dungeon crawl heavy sections of the latter chapters.
I've started many adventure paths as a player (and a few as a GM), but I've never finished one. The closest I've gotten is midway through adventure 10 (out of 12) in "Age of Worms" -- super-high-level play is not my favourite and I was not looking forward to 2+ more adventures of the same thing.
My usual experience is 2 or 3 installments, followed by GM burnout.
I've finished several AP's as DM, but never had the chance play through one as a PC. My group has a core of 4 regular players who have been getting together for years (one of whom I've gamed with for over 12 years) and has had several other long term players over the years. Our group plays weekly for 4-5 hours usually. I've never really kept track of how long it takes to finish an AP, but I guess about a year and a half. So far we have finished
RotL (twice as 3.5 and Pathfinder)
CotCC (as 3.5)
Freeport (excellent 3rd party adventure path by Green Ronin as 3.5 with some converted 3.0)
Shattered Star
Rise of the Drow (very good 3rd party AP by Adventure A Week Games)
Iron Gods (currntly in Book I)
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I see a lot of folks stopping APs around book 3 or so. Anyone want to clarify why? I'm curious if the quality drops, novelty wears off, high level play gets slower, or if this is just normal attrition.
I'll try to provide more details on my list, but some of these were a while ago...
CotCT was so successful with the group that it became the bar that everything got judged by. Back then, I had more time and the post-campaign play with the city of Korvosa itself was fun and fulfilling for the entire group. I have not had the same amount of disposable time at any point since that AP.
Council of Thieves - The group loved the six fold trial, but they got the distinct impression (rightly so) that there wasn't going to be any significant change at the end of the AP. It was often cited later that Hell's Rebels is what Council of Thieves should have been.
Serpent's Skull - The group had difficulties with the railroady introduction, but in actual play, the island part was fun. When the competing organizations showed up, the interest in exploring a lost city evaporated, particularly when they realized it was going to be competitive *and* timed in some respects.
Carrion Crown - Neither the players or I as the DM could get a consistent theme or feel from this one. Also, I think the players wanted more Whispering Tyrant angle than what was there. Mostly my fault, more so than others.
Jade Regent - I really don't understand this one myself. The group was really excited by the caravan thing and the involvement of Ameiko. When they reached Minkai and all that eastern flavor, suddenly no one was interested.
Skull & Shackles - The feast in book four was the turning point. They were happy to be a single pirate ship/group, but when it turned political and they needed to find allies and build a fleet the interest waned.
Shattered Star - This one coincided with some group chaos. The instability basically meant there was no cohesion to the story for most of them as they came and went at times. Also, even though I knew they wanted the connection, I simply didn't have time to tie this into the changes that came about in our campaign because of RotRL and CotCT. Starting with Jade Regent I was pretty much running all of these as-written and modifying treasure to suit the group.
Wrath of the Righteous - As one player put it, "this feels like playing the game with cheat codes". Mythic stuff wasn't balanced, and while they enjoyed feeling overly powerful early on, it didn't take long for the cracks in the system to kill the whole thing. They loved the story and were super excited about doing something else that would have a lasting effect on the campaign world. With more time, I might have been able to balance things out.
Mummy's Mask - One player worked with me to create an excellent custom character for this path and was really excited about it. Sadly, the other three were not as engaged and I again failed to keep the mood and theme consistent to keep the other three interested. This is often cited as one to revisit and finish some day.
Giantslayer - All dwarven group fighting giants. Everyone seemed interested, but the actual adventure failed to hook them in. Part of this was due to starting in a Human town, which was a fairly big disconnect with the themed group. They created these characters long before the Player's Guide was available.
Hell's Rebels - GM failure on not impressing on the group the need to follow through after part four. Also often cited as one to come back to and finish. Again, they loved the "we're bringing about change" story line and most of the story in general was well received.
Ruins of Azlant - Underwater adventuring sounds more interesting to them then fighting off yet another invasion in Ironfang.
To be honest, the invasion thing is starting to wear very thin for the group (well two of them really). Ogres in RotRL, the first module of LoF, parts of Kingmaker, the last parts of S&S, RoW to some degree, WotR, GS, HR, and now II all feature some variation of "invading force". I know this runs counter to their like of having a lasting effect on things, but I get the feeling they want to go back to be adventurers and not being mercenaries/army leaders/political muscle. Also, I did a little bit of post game work in Reign of Winter to allow them to send Baba Yaga away entirely and open the door to a completely changed Irrisen. In a perfect world, we would have played that out, but they were happy with a small end hook to indicate it. One of the reasons Iron Gods and Strange Aeons was successful is that they were more of the adventurer feel than others and also utilized some themes that diverged from standard fantasy a bit.
Many of the above failures included mood and theme problems that are part my problem and part a problem of the content itself. (I found Carrion Crown especially challenging) Some things I am good at and some things I am not. I am glad we've run enough APs to completion to keep everyone happy in general. Only two people who were in the original RotRL/CotCT group are still in the group today and I suspect the group may not last to see War for the Crown, or we'll go thru a lull of limited playing in Ruins of Azlant again.
I see a lot of folks stopping APs around book 3 or so. Anyone want to clarify why? I'm curious if the quality drops, novelty wears off, high level play gets slower, or if this is just normal attrition.GM burn out seems to be a big culprit for the two APs that died at book 3-4 for us. Kingmaker got to be a bit of burden for our GM at the time and eventually he stopped having fun. Serpent Skull on the other hand, our GM at that time simply didn't like the AP and felt it was a bit of a mess. Also, he has since decided that 5E is more his style of game and doesn't like high level 3.x/PF.
I will say that two of the APs I ran as GM (Carrion Crown/Mummys Mask) seem to dip hard in the middle books. The writing starts to feel like filler maybe turning the AP into 4 acts instead of the traditional 3. Granted for us it takes about a year to get through 3 chapters of an AP. That's a long time to be playing the same campaign plot.
There definitely needs to be a commitment to keep pushing through, and I think folks who play longer and more often seem to be the ones who get through APs. There is a point where stat blocks start taking up huge amounts of space and you pass through a nice meaty beginning RP section of the AP, and end up with combat dungeon crawl heavy sections of the latter chapters.
GM burnout was my reason to stop GMing WotW on group and shifting it to a solo game.
At first, 3 of my 5 players were problem players, one of them actively trying to destroy the campaign because that's the way he has fun. Another didn't show any interest on anything and wouldn't learn the basic rules (he was a veteran player) and the third was obsessed with DPR instead of roleplaying and copied builds from the internet and then played them wrong (like playing an Inquisitor and pretending to be the first damage dealer without using spells or judgements).
Then two of the problem players left and I continued with just 2 players. Recently, a new player and a long lost player joined the game and one of the veterans started having time compatibility problems. So I had just one of the players who had started the campaign and two new ones who didn't even know the system or the story.
So I got tired and decided to GM the story for the last player on solo and GM short stories for the others.
Completed? Oh god no, I play with my kids.
Someday, hopefully.
Probably your kids can stay more focused than some of my supposedly adult players.
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Serpent's Skull - The group had difficulties with the railroady introduction, but in actual play, the island part was fun. When the competing organizations showed up, the interest in exploring a lost city evaporated, particularly when they realized it was going to be competitive *and* timed in some respects.
Interesting. The competition and timed events are the only thing that kept our interest up. I was a player and we ended around book 3-4. My GM didn't have very many nice things to say about the AP after leaving the Shiv...
Interesting. The competition and timed events are the only thing that kept our interest up. I was a player and we ended around book 3-4. My GM didn't have very many nice things to say about the AP after leaving the Shiv...
Serpent's Skull - The group had difficulties with the railroady introduction, but in actual play, the island part was fun. When the competing organizations showed up, the interest in exploring a lost city evaporated, particularly when they realized it was going to be competitive *and* timed in some respects.
Personally I struggled as a player with the whole thing. No matter what we did someone knew, many knew, what was going on so by the time you find the 'lost city' there is already a theme park there when we got there it felt!!!. Part 4 I missed out completely as I really wasn't keen on its format. Part 5 and 6 were ok so I did finish the thing.
The only one I haven't finished as a GM was S-Star. Ran the first two parts. Really didn't like part 3 as I was prepping it
How does this work?
Serpents Skull (First book as a solo adventure.)
You can frequently solo adventures with a character 4-5 levels above the baseline. To be fair, my players could optimize a paper bag into a greatsword and still give it decorative etchings and a backstory.
Granted, some class/adventure mixes don't work well, and you always have to watch out for insta-kill effects like paralysis and such. And action economy turns on its head. But overall, it kind of works. My wife rolled a level 5 barbarian and had a pretty good time running around the island exploring while the npc castaways built up a basecamp.
The Shackled City
The Savage Tide
Second Darkness
Curse of the Crimson Throne
Carrion Crown
Jade Regent
and as of tomorrow Serpent Skull
So that's 7.
Aborted
Age of Worms (2x) (deployments and TPK)
Rise of the Rune Lord (deployments)
King Maker (travel)