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Starting a new campaign in two weeks, looking for opinions on which one to start. We have already played CotCT and RotRL. Our GM has suggested one of the following: carrion crown, skulls and shackles, shattered star, giantslayer, ruins of azlant.
Of these which one would you recommend most? If not one of these, then please could you suggest another. Thanks all.
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I am in a Skulls and Shackles and a Shattered Star.
Skulls requires an ingenuitive GM to get through the first book, and I find there are a lot of moments that leave much to be desired.
That said the right group could make the game properly awesome so long as your GM is happy to let you guys ignore the plot completely at points.
He will also need to do quite a bit of work in the first book to make sure all your characters literally do not die.
Shattered Star is honestly the best AP I have taken part in to date. The story is awesome.
My vote would be for Star
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I genuinely enjoyed Carrion Crown, there are a couple of caveats:
1) For the first book make sure everybody is clear on the haunt rules. If anybody (particularly the GM) is unsure how these work, things aren't going to go smoothly.
2) There's a bit in the last book about "yeah, we should have been foreshadowing the villain earlier on, here's some ways you could do that if you're reading this far enough in advance"... so do that.
Honestly though, it's a blast. Book 2 of that one is as much fun as I've had with a Paizo adventure.
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just a few cents;
1-carrion crown really is, as mentioned, problematic when it comes to overarching plot. The DM can easily fix this by looking at book 6 first and then work backwards - as it is, it's almost like you just go fight the bad guy in book 6, kinda just because. but he's easily inserted into the previous 5 modules if you know he's coming.
2-some people really like pirates.
3-some people really like shattered star. others complain that's its basically a set of kinda uncoordinated dungeon crawls. i dunno, haven't read it, but that's what people here have said.
4-giantslayer is great, except for where it isn't (cough... book 5... cough). if you want an old-style, fight orcs and giants and dragons campaign, it's really good with that. books 1 and 2 in particular are fantastic.
5-ruins of azlant is turning out really baller. wide variety of enemies, a cool setting, lots of fun stuff. however, you will have to get deep into the underwater combat mechanics for some of the material (UNDERSEA ADVENTURES CAMPAIGN SETTING book has them), and that might put people off. but so far, it's a great AP.
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My group is this close ---> < --- to finishing our Rise of the Runelords campaign that I've been GMing for over 4 years. So we're looking for a new campaign to start, too. This time, I'll be playing, not GMing, but I was thinking of starting a similar thread to this to get some opinions and recommendations for the group. We've never done any other AP. And obviously, we're pretty slow, but we've had 4 members of the group stick with it from beginning to end (and just as many coming and going along the way).
Does anyone know much about Kingmaker? Our GM for the next campaign has expressed curiosity about it. Also, I picked up most of Council of Thieves (5 of the 6 books) for next to nothing in a sale once, and haven't read it, so I was considering giving him that.
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Starting a new campaign in two weeks, looking for opinions on which one to start. We have already played CotCT and RotRL. Our GM has suggested one of the following: carrion crown, skulls and shackles, shattered star, giantslayer, ruins of azlant.
Of these which one would you recommend most? If not one of these, then please could you suggest another. Thanks all.
Since you have played RotRL...you can keep the feeling of Runelords and such by doing.
Shattered Star-> Ruins of Azlant.
Both Kingmaker and Council of Thieves is excellent.
KM might want to foreshadow the main baddie more. As a player, it's been amazing.
CoT has some serious issues, though it really is phenomenal in some ways.
First, it has "scale" problems - book four is so daggum epic, that neither five nor six really eclipse it. Also, book two has a major portion that is (a highly enjoyable) railroad that is able to be skipped, but which will vastly change the tone and style of how the game progresses for that entry.
Also, it really, really needs to be enforced to the players from the start: the goal of the crew they are joining is NOT to rebel against Cheliax, but to "make Westcrown a better place" - there is a specific sub-goal for that, but I'll leave that for the GM to communicate. It is important, OOC, though, that the players get that the point of that AP - the "win" condition - has nothing to do with breaking free of Cheliax. There is an NPC that gives a really passionate - but confusing - speech in the beginning. The idea was for an awkward moment, "Do we really want to associate with these people?" followed immediately by a, "Well, we kind of have to, now." but the effect was to sway many groups to said NPCs way of thinking which, without heavy rewriting by the GM, isn't possible.
Finally, the GM will need to take a heavy look at the game mechanic in book 6. Probably make it look and work more like a prestige mechanic (if you have it), and probably find ways to give a few (like 3-7) extra points in each books.
Starting a new campaign in two weeks, looking for opinions on which one to start. We have already played CotCT and RotRL. Our GM has suggested one of the following: carrion crown, skulls and shackles, shattered star, giantslayer, ruins of azlant.
Of these which one would you recommend most? If not one of these, then please could you suggest another. Thanks all.
Since you have played RotRL...you can keep the feeling of Runelords and such by doing.
Shattered Star-> Ruins of Azlant.
Also, by the time you're done, you'll likely be able to hit "Return of the Runelords" - what is intended as the "final" entry in the "three part" idea of "Runelords" series (Rise-otR, ShSt, and Return-otR; CotCT is semi-required for ShSt, though). The Varisia series also (sort of) includes Jade Regent, and Giant Slayer is a "neighboring" AP (though not in Varisia itself, and possibly separated enough that it feels different).
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Also, by the time you're done, you'll likely be able to hit "Return of the Runelords" - what is intended as the "final" entry in the "three part" idea of "Runelords" series (Rise-otR, ShSt, and Return-otR; CotCT is semi-required for ShSt, though). The Varisia series also (sort of) includes Jade Regent, and Giant Slayer is a "neighboring" AP (though not in Varisia itself, and possibly separated enough that it feels different).Starting a new campaign in two weeks, looking for opinions on which one to start. We have already played CotCT and RotRL. Our GM has suggested one of the following: carrion crown, skulls and shackles, shattered star, giantslayer, ruins of azlant.
Of these which one would you recommend most? If not one of these, then please could you suggest another. Thanks all.
Since you have played RotRL...you can keep the feeling of Runelords and such by doing.
Shattered Star-> Ruins of Azlant.
Jade Regent is a spinoff from Rise.
Giantslayer does kinda take place in the neighborhood, but to my recollection, there's nary a Thassilonian in sight, and it doesn't have anything to do with Rise or the others.
Jade Regent is a spinoff from Rise.
What I was trying to imply, yeah, but good clarification. Since they both start in Sandpoint. :D
(Though Jade Regent clearly goes elsewhere pretty quickly. XD)
Giantslayer does kinda take place in the neighborhood, but to my recollection, there's nary a Thassilonian in sight, and it doesn't have anything to do with Rise or the others.
Indeed. Technically, it might actually visit Ustalov (depending on the ending you get...), but - technically! - it also might... ah... "pass through" (as it were)... Varisia (admittedly extremely briefly... one hopes; again, depending on the ending, and a GM's interpretation of geography - man spoiler-free discussion makes things weird).
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Giantslayer does kinda take place in the neighborhood, but to my recollection, there's nary a Thassilonian in sight, and it doesn't have anything to do with Rise or the others.Indeed. Technically, it might actually visit Ustalov (depending on the ending you get...), but - technically! - it also might... ah... "pass through" (as it were)... Varisia (admittedly extremely briefly... one hopes; again, depending on the ending, and a GM's interpretation of geography - man spoiler-free discussion makes things weird).
technically, I THINK that the last 2 or 3 books actually does take place in Varisia - but you are deep in the wilds where no man may safely tread, so it's kinda beside the point.
one fun thing about Giantslayer is that if the PCs lose (or heck, if they win), and you've played Rise, there's a really cool way to set up a connection between Giantslayer and some of the things that happen in Rise, all of which is explained at the end of Giantslayer... if you want to do a third campaign in the same world based on prior events.
but that's really ambitious.
Yup~!
Which AP of all these is the most challenging?
Which AP of all these is the most challenging?
You want a real meat grinder I hear Iron Gods likes to grind them up. But I avoid Tech and Occult stuff so I never played it. Only have heard from a few others that it can be brutal.
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if you want challenge way of the wicked is probably one of the best for that imo
But that requires playing evil characters which is not a thing that's going to ever happen at some tables. Paizo APs which assume a range of alignments, generally goodish, are a lot easier on everybody.
Like legitimately in my games if the premise of an adventure is "let's be evil" at least three of us are probably going to decide "I'm going to try to redeem myself" by the end of the 2nd session (or as soon as they realize "wait, I'm the bad person here, aren't I?".) Since, IMO, "playing evil characters who are aware of this fact and aren't trying to be better people" is possibly the least interesting thing I can think of to roleplay, since it lacks any semblance of verisimilitude and doesn't scratch any sort of fantasy itch I've got.
In terms of "gauging difficulty" some of them have an issue with a huge difficulty spike early on, but become pretty trivial later. I think the Paizo AP with the best overall high difficulty curve is Reign of Winter, since it gives a "you're out of your depth" vibe throughout (though the first book could be a little less harsh).
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Which AP of all these is the most challenging?
Of those not mentioned, Reign of winter probably, especially books 1&5
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being a goodie two shoes simply to be a goodie two shoes is way less interesting role play then i'm evil and not willing to change myself i have goals to achieve and they need to be achieved
Well, "being bad for the sake of being bad" (i.e. playing in something that has "EVIL CAMPAIGN" on the label is a lot less interesting (to me at least.)
Since consider the entire literary canon of great heroic characters- How many would you deem *actually evil* who are not on a redemptive or "gets their comeuppance in the end" kind of arc?
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Which AP of all these is the most challenging?Iron Gods can be quite challenging, at least until the point that all the melee types have adamantium weapons to by-pass robot hardness. Even after that, some of the later encounters can be pretty darn challenging.
Giant Slayer is a real death-fest as far as combats are concerned. You start out with your first encounters being falchion wielding orcs, and not too long after that, you're up against Giants. It isn't that the combats are all super thought intensive requiring tons of strategy. It is just that the typical opponent has such a huge attack bonus relative to party level that it's tough to avoid being hit a lot just through having high AC, and when they hit, they all hit HARD. We finished book five not too long ago, and we've had more than eight character deaths so far (I've lost count).
yup. The boss encounters in Giantslayer are BRUTAL. Bosses get criticals too, you know.