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Since I have seen a bunch of negativity, I thought hey lets have a look at the good stuff. So here's the question. What is your Favorite of the Adventure Path's and why do you like it so much ? I collect them all through my local game store, and so I have them all, I haven't run them all, and so figured --Hey, lets see what other's enjoyed !
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I’m in a weird boat where I adore the setting and plot (especially the ending!) of Iron Gods but hate that it’s mostly a lot of hyper-lethal dungeon crawls.
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Curse of the Crimson Throne and War for the Crown are my two favourites.
I like the trope of fighting a corrupt government, I think. I also think they both do a good job of mixing up the adventure themes and moods (my players get bored easily).
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I always go with the less-popular "Serpent's Skull". I loved this AP because:
1) I had a fantastic, engaged group of players that were really interested in the game and expanding on it.
and
2) I put in a LOT of work to flesh out all the factions exploring the lost city, the exploration and the lost city itself.
Lots of work but totally worthwhile!
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I really liked Serpents Skull too (although our game was weird from the start as we used DCC rules).
I like the one that constantly starts bizarre arguments and also Strange Aeons.
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I think Curse of the Crimson Throne is my current favorite. The way that the story of the city keeps moving even as you address pieces of the various crises is really engrossing. And as soon as the players buy in to the idea that the city is worth protecting - well, the stakes are high and the threats are immediate.
I particularly like the way its various characters and factions are so well interwoven through the first three books. It really feels like a cohesive whole rather than three separate adventures that happen to be near one another.
Curse of the Crimson Throne
The ongoing NPCs really make this consistantly well-written adventure path.
Paizo tried to do this again with Hell's Rebels, and were mostly successful.
I always go with the less-popular "Serpent's Skull". I loved this AP because:
1) I had a fantastic, engaged group of players that were really interested in the game and expanding on it.
and
2) I put in a LOT of work to flesh out all the factions exploring the lost city, the exploration and the lost city itself.
Lots of work but totally worthwhile!
Serpent's Skull is one I actually want to do in PF2, but I keep hearing that the middle part needs more work.
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I know the mythic rules gets some dislike(and that book 5 opening.....), but I really liked Wrath of the Righteous. The NPCs felt just the right level of interesting and recurring, without feeling like it was their show. It felt epic, and grand, and the chapter 1 opening is possibly the best opening I've seen in an AP. It took a lot of work to rework some parts, but I think that's true of almost any AP. I'd love to run it again someday, but would probably need to scale back the mythicness.. I followed the leveling/tiering as written and the PCS get ahead of the power curve too much.
Also looking forward to re-running Kingmaker in 2e.
I know the mythic rules gets some dislike(and that book 5 opening.....), but I really liked Wrath of the Righteous. The NPCs felt just the right level of interesting and recurring, without feeling like it was their show. It felt epic, and grand, and the chapter 1 opening is possibly the best opening I've seen in an AP. It took a lot of work to rework some parts, but I think that's true of almost any AP. I'd love to run it again someday, but would probably need to scale back the mythicness.. I followed the leveling/tiering as written and the PCS get ahead of the power curve too much.
NielsenE, Would the rework of a PF2 conversion improve the AP?
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Iron Gods, because it's Iron Gods.
Assimilation is eminent.
Resistance is futile.
Iron Gods, because it's Iron Gods.
Assimilation is eminent.
Resistance is futile.
You are not a borg. You are one of us.
We are the Paizomatrix.
Lower your shields and surrender your ships.
We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own.
Your culture will adapt to service us.
Resistance is futile.
I know the mythic rules gets some dislike(and that book 5 opening.....), but I really liked Wrath of the Righteous. The NPCs felt just the right level of interesting and recurring, without feeling like it was their show. It felt epic, and grand, and the chapter 1 opening is possibly the best opening I've seen in an AP. It took a lot of work to rework some parts, but I think that's true of almost any AP. I'd love to run it again someday, but would probably need to scale back the mythicness.. I followed the leveling/tiering as written and the PCS get ahead of the power curve too much.NielsenE, Would the rework of a PF2 conversion improve the AP?
That's a tough question. First its a mid-late life PF1 adventure that uses a lot of non-core classes for npcs. Also goes very deep into high level outsiders with high class levels, which while I think PF2 will handle, I'd like to see some slower/organic growth towards those builds to understand how they work before trying to convert it.
With regards to the Mythic tiers, its pretty easy (ie the AP gives guidance) for how to remove them for the first 3-4 books, after that the power curve typically needs some extra help to the PCs. I think if I were to try it, its the campaign where I would do some form of gestalt/bonus class feats, in place of mythic, probably starting in book 3 (at least IIRC there's a good narrative event there, instead of the book 1 event). The finale should feel epic, both harder and more capable than a usual level 20. So I think we need time in the system to figure out what that looks like now, even if home ruled.
There was only one dungeon/encounter area across the entire AP that just felt wrong/boring to my PCs. So the AP has great bones/stories/encounters, just the mythic rules were too exploitable. I also had a mix of player optimization levels (a fairly optimized unchained summoner, and a VERY optimized archer... then a fairly non-optimized cleric and paladin.)
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Hell's Rebels is a favourite of mine. The group I had for it was amazing and became incredibly invested in their characters, the city, and the NPCs. The story is great, feels open but still fairly straightforward with what to do. So many NPCs that some will get lost in the shuffle, but that's okay as it allows the players to focus and interact with the ones that they want to without the AP suffering for it.
Mummy's Mask is also up there for me as I really like the three distinct parts. It's a mystery done in a way where information is slowly revealed to the party rather than leaving it up to the players to solve a puzzle. The AP seems to be overlooked a lot. The board for it isn't very busy but I think that's more because it's a solidly written AP that doesn't have GMs scratching their heads/trying to fix it. My players assumed it was a dungeon crawl (because it starts off that way), then thought it became a horror survival game... now they're halfway through the third book and have realized that the type of game keeps on changing.
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Mummy's Mask is also up there for me as I really like the three distinct parts. It's a mystery done in a way where information is slowly revealed to the party rather than leaving it up to the players to solve a puzzle. The AP seems to be overlooked a lot. The board for it isn't very busy but I think that's more because it's a solidly written AP that doesn't have GMs scratching their heads/trying to fix it. My players assumed it was a dungeon crawl (because it starts off that way), then thought it became a horror survival game... now they're halfway through the third book and have realized that the type of game keeps on changing.
Oddly, this completely sells me. I might have to buy the PDFs now. There were some mediocre comments about this AP which dashed my hopes TBH. As a grognard of the old Desert of Desolation series, I'll take another look.
Back to the OP (and not in order).
Carrion Crown. This scratches some Ravenlofty itches without the Fear/Horror mechanics. A solid framework, but tying up the story better is a must IMHO.
Kingmaker. Old school hexploration which doubles as a good plug and play foundation to expand just about anything. I'd still run this with kingdom building and mass combat rules in the background.
Skull and Shackles. I'd run part one of Serpent Skull as a prequel here and "rescue" the shipwrecked via the Wormwood.
Other notables would be CotCT, RotR, Serpent Skull, Iron Gods and possibly Strange Aeons.
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Oddly, this completely sells me. I might have to buy the PDFs now. There were some mediocre comments about this AP which dashed my hopes TBH. As a grognard of the old Desert of Desolation series, I'll take another look.
The only reason I gave it an honest look was because all of my players said they wanted me to run it due to it taking place in the equivalent of ancient Egypt. I'm incredibly glad they talked me into it. (And no, it's not just undead and traps. Yes, undead are a main enemy but they're varied enough that it doesn't feel like the same thing over and over again. Having someone decent at traps is kind of required. But having a PC that can do research in a library is also required.... and there's some good politics during one of the books... I could go on forever about how much better Mummy's Mask is than people give it credit for, but I won't.)
And since you like hexploration you'll enjoy a part in the middle of the AP ;)
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Oddly, this completely sells me. I might have to buy the PDFs now. There were some mediocre comments about this AP which dashed my hopes TBH. As a grognard of the old Desert of Desolation series, I'll take another look.The only reason I gave it an honest look was because all of my players said they wanted me to run it due to it taking place in the equivalent of ancient Egypt. I'm incredibly glad they talked me into it. (And no, it's not just undead and traps. Yes, undead are a main enemy but they're varied enough that it doesn't feel like the same thing over and over again. Having someone decent at traps is kind of required. But having a PC that can do research in a library is also required.... and there's some good politics during one of the books... I could go on forever about how much better Mummy's Mask is than people give it credit for, but I won't.)
And since you like hexploration you'll enjoy a part in the middle of the AP ;)
it's a really good AP.
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Mummy's Mask is also up there for me as I really like the three distinct parts. It's a mystery done in a way where information is slowly revealed to the party rather than leaving it up to the players to solve a puzzle. The AP seems to be overlooked a lot. The board for it isn't very busy but I think that's more because it's a solidly written AP that doesn't have GMs scratching their heads/trying to fix it. My players assumed it was a dungeon crawl (because it starts off that way), then thought it became a horror survival game... now they're halfway through the third book and have realized that the type of game keeps on changing.
Oddly, this completely sells me. I might have to buy the PDFs now. There were some mediocre comments about this AP which dashed my hopes TBH. As a grognard of the old Desert of Desolation series, I'll take another look.
Back to the OP (and not in order).
Carrion Crown. This scratches some Ravenlofty itches without the Fear/Horror mechanics. A solid framework, but tying up the story better is a must IMHO.Kingmaker. Old school hexploration which doubles as a good plug and play foundation to expand just about anything. I'd still run this with kingdom building and mass combat rules in the background.
Skull and Shackles. I'd run part one of Serpent Skull as a prequel here and "rescue" the shipwrecked via the Wormwood.
Other notables would be CotCT, RotR, Serpent Skull, Iron Gods and possibly Strange Aeons.
Oh Mummy's Mask is so fun. I actually bought the PDFs of Desert of Desolation and converted them and ran them as an additional part of the path! Basically, after book one or two (I'm forgetting which now), I injected them joining a caravan over to Lamasara in order to sell off all their grave looting (er archaeology) from the first book, and turned it into sort of a tour of every desert thing I could get my hands on.
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I'm in the middle of a Giantslayer read through atm. I'm also outlining a RotR/Giantslayer hybrid campaign while I'm at it. Basically keeping RotR books 1-4, extending 4 into book 4 of GS, merging GS book 5 with the Drow in Shattered Star book 5, and a combined finish of book 6 of both RotR and GS. Think a modern GDQ series.
After this is done, I'll purchase Mummy's Mask for sure. Thanks for rekindling my Ancient Egypt spark (Savant, Yak, and Phaedre).
Do I have to pick one?
I can narrow it down to three, with countless runners up. In no particular order:
-Hell's Rebels
-Strange Aeons
-Reign of Winter
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My Personal Top 5 Today:
Curse of the Crimson Throne
Hell's Rebels
Strange Aeons
Mummy's Mask
Iron Gods
Strange Aeons.
Book 1 was good. Book 2 was excellent. Book 3 was an absolute masterpiece, books 4 and 5 were a little weak by comparison, but still very good, and book 6 returned to the reality bending weirdness of book 3.
Just... don’t trust the penguins.
My player's enjoyed Kingmaker the best, but that was mostly the sandbox feel. I really like Strange Aeons and Council of Thieves myself.
Currently running Reign of Winter and only one of my players knows about the nonsense that is book 4 so I'm excited! My players just hit book 2 which is where we converted to 2E which they are liking quite a bit.
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Reign of Winter.
You are not done. ;)
The OP asked for the "why" also.
The only Pathfinder AP I have GMed (and am still in the middle of) is Iron Gods. It is by default my favorite. Its set in a non-standard fantasy location (Numeria), has enemies you won't find in any other adventures (robots, aliens), and really scratches my Star Wars itch, even though its not specifically from sci-fantasy. Some of my players took my suggestion and created characters based on a sci-fantasy theme (Guardians of the Galaxy).
I also have run Age of Worms from Dungeon Magazine. While not Pathfinder, it was from Paizo. It was the first 1st-20th level campaign I had ever DMed. I liked it alot because it was a fairly straight- forward fantasy storyline, and was supported by Eberron conversion notes from Keith Baker. I even created a soundtrack CD complete with track list and cover art for all of the players who took part in the campaign, whether they played through the whole thing or not.
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No love for RotRL? It used to be a regular favorite around here.
From the ones I've run, it's Curse of the Crimson Throne along with Hell's Rebels. City-based APs are always a good thing (see also Shackled City from way back when). Jade Regent and Legacy of Fire are also great.
Will probably run War for the Crown next, looking forward to it!
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Reign of Winter.You are not done. ;)
The OP asked for the "why" also.
You get to spend a whole book cutting your way through White Guards, what's not to like?
More seriously, I like Russian folklore and think it was captured well. I like the underground maneuvering/manipulation of the Iron Guard by the Heralds in Book 2. I liked the art and aesthetic of the books themselves. I liked the proto-Mythic feel and the scope to implement the mechanics free of the need that Wrath of the Righteous felt to showcase the full gamut (and thus the ridiculousness) of the new system.
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I have a certain fondness for Ironfang Invasion, Hell's Rebels, and CotCT. At heart, they're all about being the backbone of an insurgency, and the later written ones have actual rules to let you lead it.
I still have Hell's Rebels and War for the Crown ahead of me, so I can't really comment on them, except that I love the concepts of them.
Of the ones I've played, the two that most stand out are Jade Regent and Curse of the Crimson Throne, both of which were excellent. Both also had their faults, but the good outweighed the bad significantly.
Just do something to buff the end boss(es) of Jade Regent, because I GM'ed that campaign twice and both times they died way too quickly.
I've only run one AP so far - Rise of the Runelords - for two different groups - and have enjoyed doing so. Even with the AE it had a few weak spots but I still like it.
Of the ones which I've read/skimmed and will/could run in the future: Reign of Winter, Mummy's Mask, Curse of the Crimson Throne, and Jade Regent top the list.
Iron Gods, Strange Aeons, Shattered Star, Return of the Runelords, and Ruins of Azlant share second place.
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Loving my run of Strange Aeons right now. The lovecraftian themes are fun, and it presents challenges for players beyond combat if you incorporate horror and fear systems. This one won't be for everyone, but if you and your players want a game that plays like a good thriller movie, this should work for you.
On the other hand -
I will always be willing to run Kingmaker. No adventure path I've run required more customization and preparation from me as the DM, but every penny returned a pound. Similar to Strange Aeons, Kingmaker presents challenges for players beyond combat - in this case, roleplaying a nation. Between players that enjoy politics, players that enjoy Game of Thrones, players that enjoy all things Fae, and fans of Lewis Carroll/Dodgson, this was my first favorite AP and will always be on that list.
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Haven't seen it mentioned, but I just started running Ironfang Invasion.
So far, I love the back to basics feel of it, classic monsters, classic wilderness adventure, I'm running the first book with some jury rigged hexploration mechanics. Still in book one, but I love how varied the AP is: from Fey woods survival, to mining country and open plains, medium-sized city, into the Darklands, dwarven sky-citadel, Darkblighted forest, and finally extraplanar adventure! Love the classic fantasy feel of it. Very Hobbit/Fellowship/Two Towers in feel without being too derivative. I love the showcase of awesome, classic monsters and how well-integrated they are into the storyline - behir, gorgons, gugs, harpies, wyverns, owlbears, trolls, satyrs and fey of every stripe, and of course, dragons - if your party would be stoked to fight pretty much the entire bestiary, this is the AP for you!
Love that classic monster races like the hobgoblins, bugbears, barghests, medusas, duergar, naga, morlocks, minotaurs, and so on get so much screen time and fleshing out in this AP. Love how it hits so many of the classic fantasy adventure mainstays - helping the city under siege, surviving the primeval forest, the isolated wizard's tower, infiltrating the evil underworld, treating with a stubborn dwarf kingdom, cleansing a blighted land. Loved how menacing and intelligent the main enemies seem to be, for much of the AP they always seem one step ahead of the PCs despite the blows the party inflicts. Can't wait to dig deeper into this one with my party.
Before this, my group had just finished up CotCT, so Ironfang seemed like the perfect contrast to the more self-contained urban adventure of Curse.
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War for the Crown. Hands down. I have enjoyed when it hasnt been about fighting. Ive enjoyed the intrigue. I have never been more proud in the changes Ive made on the fly in an adventure.
The character building has been amazing. My players seem to really enjoy it. I feel like Ive never told a better story in gaming bar a few Call of Cthulhu games.
Also, Taldogis.
@Billy Buckman -- now you're making me want to get into an Ironfang Invasion campaign . . . going to have to wait until after I move, though.
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1) Rise of the Runelords - The one and only. Was just an absolute blast to play through and run.
2) Jade Regent - I'm in a game of this right now and whoa! This is just so much fun.
3) Kingmaker - I'm in a game of this one as well and, despite my first character having just died and I needed to reroll a new character, the journey is fun.
4) Reign of Winter - Ran this one (sadly not to completion due to scheduling conflicts) but the adventure was quirky. Had I completed it it may well have been higher.
5) Wrath of the Righteous - Only campaign here I have not ran or played in but I read this and just fell in love with the epic scope of it all.
6) Second Darkness - Various issues aside, this was just so much fun to run my players through. The intrigue they got up to top-side and underground is still talked about to this day.
7) Iron Gods - Only ran this one partially (same issue as Reign of Winter) but this could have been a truly epic one had we finished it.
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Rise of the Runelords will always be number one for me. The villains were so incredibly awesome with such compelling backstories. Some of them were truly sympathetic stories of social outcasts & seeking acceptance. And for just pure evil, I don't think my players have ever wanted to kill bad guys more than the Grauls and the Kreegs...