Fists of the Ruby Phoenix Pre-Adventure

[Jera]

So I was recently gifted the Fists of the Ruby Phoenix AP by a friend who found it in a second-hand store. The adventure looks quite fun, but it's not really my style to start a party off at level 10/11.

I'm looking for a nice adventure/set of adventures to take the group from 1-10, and wanted to know what others had run in this scenario.

I'm also okay with adapting a 1E adventure as long as it feels appropriate.

[PossibleCabbage]

There are three APs (two complete, one complete next month) that take you from levels 1-10. One is a megadungeon (abomination vaults), one is a wilderness exploration story (quest for the frozen flame), and the other is an urban story where the PCs are on the wrong side of the law (outlaws of alkenstar). Any of those can feed into Ruby Phoenix if people want to take the themes of those characters into "tournament for the world's greatest fighters."

I think there's another 1-10 AP coming early next year too.

[Calpal]

Just throwing it out there that starting the adventure at Level 11 does have some advantages.

The style of game and the characters you'll probably want to build for Ruby Phoenix is pretty different from what you might want to build for some of the other Level 1-10 adventures. There are some backgrounds and lores that are very specific to the campaign and your players might not get as much out of it if they are from a completely different part of the world.

If you want to convert some 1st Edition stuff there was a module that took place 10 years prior titled "The Ruby Phoenix Tournament" that might act as a prequel. Many of the events of that module are referenced in the AP. Additionally, there are a bunch of 1st Edition Pathfinder Society modules that take place in the lead up to the "Ruby Phoenix Tournament" module. They took place in the "Year of the Ruby Phoenix" PFS season.

My group started up right at Level 11, and aside from adjusting to high level play it didn't feel like starting a campaign halfway through.

[Qualidar]

I was just thinking about this the other night. There are 1e PFS scenarios (in season 3) that are set in Tian Xia. Perhaps running them through those would work. I know 3 of them are linked, so the levels are probably concurrent, but running lower level ones first would work too. Perhaps a trip through the PC’s backgrounds as they grew up together, with years between the adventures.

[Watery Soup]

My players had only played as high as 8th before jumping to 11th. It was no problem.

I think jumping straight to 11th when the players have only played 1st-3rd would be a problem.

I think jumping straight to 11th when the GM hasn't GMed or played up to 8th-10th vicinity is definitely a problem.