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Three adventures into Age of Ashes, I'm liking it. The exploration so far seems to be a good mix of being about the location, and about the inhabitants. I am also finding it somewhat reminiscent of Reign of Winter, like an echo or reflection. Having a magic transportation mcguffin really takes the travail out of the travel, for better and for worse. From the description of Extinction Curse and Agents of Edgewatch, I want the next AP to be less local and have more of a feel where the voyage is the adventure, like Jade Regent, but warmer, ideally. Some possible road trip suggestions:
1. The change to Taldor's succession law interests Qadira and the Padishah empire decides not to just delegate the diplomacy. The PCs somehow distinguish themselves in the capital of one empire in adventure 1, the middle of the AP is escorting a diplomatic mission with a caravan subsystem, and the final adventure is all about making a good impression on the host nation, and justifying their decisions in the earlier adventures, with consequences like at the end of War for the Crown depending on how they behaved. In particular, adventure 6 is kind of like the now-canon diplomatic outcome of Vault of the Onyx Citadel, but with plenty of expectation management along the way to make clear that the diplomatic outcome is the correct end goal. Don't really care if the trip is east-bound or west-bound.
2. An NPC patron in Azir questions the Laws of Man and decides to go on a spiritual pilgrimage, or maybe has been a heretic for some time and is found out. Maybe they have to disguise themselves as merchants until clear of Rahadoum, or maybe they are the chosen family of an NPC cast out for theism. The adventures are as much about an arduous journey as they are about an interior striving for a connection to the divine. Don't really care if the final scene is attending the patron's joymaking in Pangolais, lighting candles at Iomedae's temple in Absalom after seeing the sites of all the Acts, donating Zen and the Art of Broomstick Maintenance to a grand temple to Nethys, or drinking in a random tavern where they all kick back and celebrate hitting the best Caydenite bars in the Inner Sea.
3. Somewhat less like Jade Regent and more like Age of Ashes but an inversion of Skull & Shackles. In adventure 1, the PCs are clutch help in a relatively cosmopolitan port such as Absalom, Katapesh, Niswan, Quantium, or Mechitar. Convinced they are just the freaks the ship needs, they join on to a ship that looks like a sailing vessel, but once out of sight of land is revealed actually to be an airship. The plan is to explore places like the Impossible Lands, Holomog, Murraseth, and other parts of southern Garund. In any case, the PCs are always the A-Team Away Team. Don't really care if the PCs return to their point of origin or make Anthusis or Senghor their destination, but at the end of the AP, I'm left with a feeling like I was just part of a blend of something new, Sinbad, Dragon Magazine's The Voyage of the Princess Ark, and Gail Carriger's The Custard Protocol.
Extinction Curse should be a road trip - you play a traveling circus - but I thought the whole appeal of Agents of Edgewatch being a police procedural is how hyper-local to Absalom it would be.
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On reflection, I think Extinction Curse, Agents of Edgewatch, and the yet-unamed AP could make a trilogy of sorts.
1. Trying to get to Absalom in EC.
2. In Absalom in AOE.
3. Leaving Absalom?
So maybe another AP where they are Pathfinders, like in Shattered Star. Pai-shay Wonderseeker keeps a chapterhouse in Absalom. The Firebrands are big in Absalom and the LO Character Guide text mentions they will have material in that book, so maybe they could be a patron. Or maybe they work for the Arcanamirium. Diplomats or knights of Lastwall going around the Inner Sea trying to rally opposition to Tar-Baphon might be viable.
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Extinction Curse should be a road trip - you play a traveling circus - but I thought the whole appeal of Agents of Edgewatch being a police procedural is how hyper-local to Absalom it would be.
It's a traveling circus, but it's just on the Island of Kortos, iirc.
Which is fine and fun, you get to see lots of interesting stuff, but it is on a small-ish island.
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Extinction Curse should be a road trip - you play a traveling circus - but I thought the whole appeal of Agents of Edgewatch being a police procedural is how hyper-local to Absalom it would be.It's a traveling circus, but it's just on the Island of Kortos, iirc.
Which is fine and fun, you get to see lots of interesting stuff, but it is on a small-ish island.
Adventure 5 goes Darklands. Not sure where adventure 6 is set.