Hey there! So as the title says I’m looking for a adventure path to help me set up my first campaign! First time jitters aside, I really need help finding one that can be easily edited to fit Undead and Demons as the main “Bad Guys” but also Angry Fye, Magical Beasts, maybe Elementals as threats but not necessarily “bad guys”.
Was liking what reviews I saw of the “Carrion Crown” but not 100% sure. Any suggestions from the more experienced GMing crowd would be helpful!
Carrion Crown does have lots of undead, and there is a main bad guy that is trying to be freed who does have some demon traits.
But honestly, I'd stat with the first adventure path and run them in order. supposedly there is a huge overlying story to them, although I haven't seen it yet.
I modified an AP once, with increasing intensify - and IMO: A heavily modified AP combines the worst of both worlds. You have to do a lot of work, and you still have the backbone of the AP where everything new / modified must be made fit.
I'd create my own campaign around undead and demons etc., and steal ideas, stat blocks and maps from Carrion Crown where it fits. Tyrant's Grasp is an undead focused AP, Wrath of the Righteous is all about fighting demons - so they are natural sources for more material. Reading the official book descriptions in Paizo's store might already help and comes for free. The same applies to the official Player Guides.
For a first timer, I'd go with something more like a dungeon crawl. Maybe Mummy's Mask.
Well it seems like I’m just gonna have to make my own then. Outside of the wikis and GM books, is there somewhere/something to help a first time GM?
Do you want to run a pre-written campaign, which is what an AP is, or write your own homebrew. The first takes less work, but does restrict you to playing what’s written, though with room for a bit of customisation, but as SheepishEidolon says, there is only so much you can re-write before you are doing more work than a pure homebrew, as you try to wrestle the plot into position.
If you do decide to run an existing AP and neither you nor the players know the world, start with Rise of the Runelords. It is the first one, so has strong elements of introducing the world, and doesn’t assume background knowledge, and it’s a really good story.
Whilst a lot of the APs have themes to them that suggest specific opponents (Pirates! Giants! Demons!), most of them have a mix of encounters, that at the start may not be the theme of the AP - e.g. Jade Regent, the ‘oriental’ adventure has a book 1 that is mostly goblins.
If you would rather have your own overarching plot, have a look at some of the stand alone modules and see if they can be slotted into your plan. Gallows of Madness is designed for starting characters and is a good springboard for then moving off into a bigger adventure, which you write yourself.
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Gallows of Madness is also designed to help teach Pathfinder 1st edition. It’s a good start.
If you want demons then Wrath of the Righteous is the module for you.
If you want undead then it is Mummy’s Mask.
How much GM experience do you have? It will really influence what people recommend.
Also, how much pathfinder experience do you and your players have?
And how familiar are you/they with Golarion?
For you first campaign watch yourself that you don’t bite off more than you can chew by doing major overhauls of an AP.
Carrion Crown could be modified to that without too much difficulty. Books one, a chunk of the three, five, and six are all undead heavy with an occasional demon mixed in on the last two. Book four can be rewritten with a demonic antagonist rather than eldritch horror.
Mummy’s Mask is almost as heavy on undead and more prone to mixing in demons than Carrion Crown. Elementals are fairly common and are a mixture of antagonistic or neutral. But it is almost devoid of fey type creatures and with the Egyptian theme awkward to add them in. Although as a new GM you may want to find a way to cut out the research parts of book three rather than learn a whole new rule subset.
Although a warning for if your players are also fairly new, both of these are notorious for killing PCs. Undead have a lot of tricks between energy drain and other death effects that can quickly overwhelm characters that aren’t protected.
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For a new GM I'd suggest Mummy's Mask for a few different reasons:
1) It's pretty straight-forward with a really good story.
2) Undead as the main enemy, with elementals and some magical beasts but, sadly, doesn't have many (any?) fae.
3) Adventure Paths are a HUGE undertaking and not many groups complete them. Mummy's Mask is ridiculously easy to change into a two book story rather than running all 6 books.
4) It's so much fun! Ancient Egypt inspired setting, zombies, mummies, skeletons, nearly every kind of undead you can think of!
It doesn't have everything you're looking for but I don't think any will. But I really can't suggest Mummy's Mask enough. I love it.
Alternatively, you could run just the 3rd book of Kingmaker ("Varnhold Vanishing") as it has undead and fae. Elementals and demons would be easy to add in. It would be a level 7-10 adventure (I think) where the group is sent to a town to investigate why the capital hasn't heard anything from them for a few weeks. (Or, you know, the group is travelling and comes across Varnhold then take it upon themselves to investigate.)
As mentioned, Mummy's Mask = undead, elementals, in the mid-books some demons that can be expanded on, and there are points before and after where demons could be easily be swapped out for some of the planned encounters.
But being desert, not much fey. May have to introduce a few related side-shots to include them.
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Crimson Throne. The overall main villain is a demon. There's several long undead segments. Also it's one of the better APs they've published.
Carrion Crown has lots of ghosts, vampires, werewolves, a Frankenstein monster, all the classics. Plus a whole Lovecraftian section with the deep ones and the cult of Dagon. It was fun enough to play, but there's no cool memorable scenes that really stand out to me from it.
I will second the don't play wrath of the righteous as your first ap. It was a fun one, but horribly broken, and uses a bunch of extra rules to make things more complicated.
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this is horrible advice IMHO. for a newbie, do NOT try to add the clusterf*** that is mythic rules to an already complicated enough rule system
If you want demons then Wrath of the Righteous is the module for you.
That's why I posted loads of follow-up questions.
I agree, WotR is a terrible idea for a first time GM but if he's got a 4-star PFS GM whose also run six modules and played a dozen PCs from first to twentieth level, well then things are different.
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this is horrible advice IMHO. for a newbie, do NOT try to add the clusterf*** that is mythic rules to an already complicated enough rule system
If you want demons then Wrath of the Righteous is the module for you.
That's why I posted loads of follow-up questions.
I agree, WotR is a terrible idea for a first time GM but if he's got a 4-star PFS GM whose also run six modules and played a dozen PCs from first to twentieth level, well then things are different.
Literally the second sentence is "I’m looking for a adventure path to help me set up my first campaign!" So I'm not assuming they're a 4star pfs gm
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Literally the second sentence is "I’m looking for a adventure path to help me set up my first campaign!" So I'm not assuming they're a 4star pfs gmthis is horrible advice IMHO. for a newbie, do NOT try to add the clusterf*** that is mythic rules to an already complicated enough rule system
If you want demons then Wrath of the Righteous is the module for you.
That's why I posted loads of follow-up questions.
I agree, WotR is a terrible idea for a first time GM but if he's got a 4-star PFS GM whose also run six modules and played a dozen PCs from first to twentieth level, well then things are different.
Me neither, I was presenting the other end of the scale to display the breadth of unknown possibilities.
It’s a common rhetorical approach intended to emphasise how little we are in a position to assume.
Sorry if I was being obtuse.
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Can someone clarify terms please? Been playing for years, but always home games or other custom campaign worlds. My current group is only just now using pre-generated material, for a newer GM as well. I've been using AP for all pre-made stories, and now I'm sensing that's incorrect. So, what are the different categories/types/names of pre-written campaigns?
In my experience ‘published adventure’ is the closest you’ll get to a catch-all term.
APs are adventure paths, pre-written adventures that take you from the beginning to the end of an adventuring career. I think the term may have even been coined by Paizo back in the Dungeon Magazine days.
Paizo call their shorter one-off adventures ‘modules’ and the even-shorter pathfinder society adventures are ‘scenarios’.
Adventures you can play in one evening are often called one-shots and longer, connected adventures (whether home-brew or published) are usually called campaigns. I’ve always assumed that was due to the hobby’s wargaming roots.
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Can someone clarify terms please? Been playing for years, but always home games or other custom campaign worlds. My current group is only just now using pre-generated material, for a newer GM as well. I've been using AP for all pre-made stories, and now I'm sensing that's incorrect. So, what are the different categories/types/names of pre-written campaigns?
There were 24 adventure paths that paizo published for 1e.
I would highly recommend against Carrion Crown. The first 2 books are meatgrinders and parties getting wiped out might put y'all off of wanting to play.
Mummy's Mask is also kinda spooky when it comes to killing your party.
Rise of the Runelords is a pretty great starter AP. It's got all your classic staples. Turbo Evil Wizard Big Bad Evil Guy, dragons, goblins, giants, a spooky mansion, etc.