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Specific advice relating to starting Age of Ashes can be found Here, etc.
My general advice would be:
(1) Any encounter with an intelligent being can be made into a role-play opportunity. Just because the book says, "attacks immediately" doesn't mean you have to play it like that.
(2) To avoid the players feeling railroaded, get ahead of them and make sure the thing you want them to do is the thing they will want to do. Typically ask yourself (a) What would a good person who wanted to help people do? and (b) What would a selfish person who just wanted to acquire loot do?
Most PCs fall into one of those categories.
If all else fails, don't be ashamed to say, "You know, if you don't do (x) you'll be missing out on the adventure..."
(3) The AP should provide the hook, eg, AP-specific background traits. You can try getting the players to introduce themselves to one another in character (when appropriate).
(4) Don't sweat it. You're all there to have fun.
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I agree with the advice to run a published adventure first. It can be very daunting to create your own adventures, especially when it is your first time. My own first steps into GMing were all home brew stuff and for the most part they SUCKED with all capital letters.
A full AP can be quite a commitment though... consider agreeing to the first book of Age of Ashes with the option to land the plane there. It is a satisfying arc, and with a little modification you can cut out the plot hooks to the next books of the AP. Or not. You could even leave the hooks there but do something other than Age of Ashes to continue on.
My point is this.. a full AP is a big bite to chew. If it is your first time GMing, be kind to yourself and take a small bite first. By having an agreement at your table that you'll run the first book and then see how you (and they) feel about continuing, you don’t have the pressure of feeling like you HAVE to go the whole 6 books. As you progress through the first few chapters of book 1 you'll het an idea of how you feel about it, and you can then decide as a group to play chapter 3 as is and go the distance with the whole AP, or else modify/scrub chapter 3 and simply end it as a short but fun campaign.
I do find satisfying endings to be better places to stop than “well we had huge dreams but it fizzled before we got there...”
To add on to what people have said, I really enjoy working character stories into APs. It all depends on your players, however, and how willing they are to work with you.
I keep a word doc running with NPCs and factions that my PCs are tied to. I jot down very short "arcs" for them to go through based on their backgrounds and how they've been roleplaying at the table. Then I look through the AP to see where the best place to connect those pieces could be. Sometimes this involves writing in new material or adjusting published material, but it's worth it to have your players suddenly realize that the villains involved in their backstory were behind a bunch more.
And AoA has a LOT of great factions to tie into backstories and really engage your players. Just read ahead, take notes, and be ready to throw it all out the window and take whatever "table magic" you get.
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Looking for advice on:
1 How to make sure there is enough role-play opportunities in the AOA AP
2 Ideas to make sure they don't feel railroaded
1. There are a LOT of roleplay opportunities even inside the dungeon-y areas of AoA. Beyond that, the town that serves as their homebase can be greatly expanded upon. Each volume even includes a more in-depth blurb of notable townfolks.
2. This is the downside to many AP, but AoA in particular is one where motivation in each adventure is specifically stated as "hopefully the player's sense of adventure will spur them to investigate the next portal!" or words to that effect. If they don't stay on rails there's really not much else for them to do other than repair the citadel. Utilizing and expanding the Haunting Visions background, even if no one specifically took it, might provide more motivation, but it's still a pretty one-trek AP.
This got a bit long, but I think my general advice is to really, really not sweat the small stuff. You can get bogged down in minutiae, and that's when things start to slow to a crawl and the game starts to feel more like a chore.
You will forget a rule.
You will accidentally reveal a plot hook or character motivation.
You will absolutely truck a PC with a monster or a crazy crit and they will die.
You will have moments where you need to let the party goof off for a second.
You will have moments where you need to get the adventure back on course and make a decision when nobody else knows what comes next.
You will forget a piece of treasure hidden in a paragraph of text.
etc., etc.
- Adjudicate things not necessarily in favor of the party, but in favor of excitement and fun. Turn to the rules if a character is going to die or something critical is going to happen, but otherwise make as fair a call as you can and look up the rule when you have a minute. If it feels like it'll be more fun, buck the AP or the rulebook; this isn't a competitive game, there's no reason to strictly adhere to RAW in your home game if the table would have more fun doing things differently.
- If you're running an AP, read that sucker a few times. Take a couple notes if you need. Adjust things to suit your group and their tastes. I make tons of revisions to APs and I'm sure many people treat them as a foundation rather than a narrative that's set in stone.
- Create alternatives, even if those alternatives might not be strictly RAW. If something might be impossible, present paths around it. Allow for smart solutions and dumb solutions, and let players' actions have consequences for good or bad
- Be cognizant of what each character's "thing" is and how they're going to "do their thing." Don't stymie a character if they seem to be stealing the spotlight, but present scenarios where another character might shine. In each session I try to set up a "big moment" for every character if I can--if it makes sense--and make sure that everyone can look back on a cool thing their character did
- Quick breaks are healthy, I think. Five minutes to disengage from the game can be really nice.
- My groups don't tend to be distracted, but if people are on their phones a lot or on a laptop or whatever that can be hard as a DM. It can feel like people aren't engaged, especially when they miss a bit of plot that you've carefully described to them. It's up to you and your group to figure out whether you're all going to be present or if you're going to have a game that's a bit more loose, but I think that's an important thing to establish at the outset so expectations are clear
- HAVE A SESSION ZERO. Get together before you start the campaign. Have a big long sit down where everyone talks about their characters, where you describe how the campaign will go, what the ground rules are, whatever home rules you might use. Don't treat it as a "bonus session" or as something entirely optional; treat it as the very first, very real session of your game, and it'll go a long way towards making the whole thing smooth
- You aren't the party's enemy, you don't win when they lose. You're their Adventure Guide. You're there to facilitate fun and steer the ship as best you can, but a captain will have a hard time doing that without a crew. Talk to your group, be a bit democratic, but don't be a pushover. Let things be tough, let the dice fall where they may, because those moments are exciting even if in the moment players might think they're doomed
- Finally, remember that you're also a player, and you're also there to have fun. Don't stress.
You'll get a feel for the RP, but if you're worried that there isn't enough you can always add in NPCs to interact with, or adjust encounters to have an RP resolution. If you treat combat as a spectrum and not as a binary "we are either fighting 100% or we are not" then you can have enemies surrender, try to parley, do things in their own self interest even if the AP doesn't contemplate it, etc.
I haven't read Age of Ashes, but for a lot of modules and APs I usually add in a sort of prologue that gets the characters firmly established as a group. These tend to have a bit more RP, and gives players a chance to start figuring out how they're going to play their character and interact with the other characters.
APs also tend to have more small encounters, and many of them can be a bit superfluous or interrupt the flow a little. I'd say feel free to take out some combat encounters if they don't advance the story and if your players are a bit combat fatigued. As an example, in the Serpent's Skull AP I'm planning on taking out a random sea urchin in the first adventure that doesn't really add anything and interrupts what's otherwise a big moment in the story with... Surprise! Sea urchin...?
I also advance characters' levels instead of having players track xp, so taking out encounters doesn't change any advancement opportunities. My players just don't care for tracking xp, but many do; YMMV
Good luck! Be kind to yourself!
Edit: Oh, and if you haven't already, brushing up on relevant Golarion lore is also really helpful. It gives you some context as a DM so you can make the world feel more alive for yourself and the group. Having the players look at the AP's player's guide can help a lot too
Biggest fear is that the AP feels like there is 17 combats per session
Unless your sessions are unusually long or your combats are unusually quick, that can't feasibly happen.
Of course, that means the same material might turn out to be enough for three or four sessions of nothing but combat. But at least you'll have time to work on it.