Is Crown of the Kobold King a Good Starter Adventure?

[Reynard]

For a group mostly new to PF2E, but well versed in RPGs in general and D&D in particular, is CotKK a good starting adventure to get a feel for PF2E as a system and what it offers?

If so, is there any specific advice you would give for running it?

If it matters, I am still deciding between Fantasy Grounds and Foundry to run it. I know Foundry is supposed to have better PF2E support than FGU, but I also don't know Foundry, like, at all.

Thanks.

[demlin]

You can get into Foundry for the price of the FGU Core Rulebook. Should be a no brainer, especially because using FGU means you've got loads of money.

As for the adventure: it starts off in a hub area with lots of locations that will require improv or homebrew. You will need to prep quite a bit to make it run smoothly, disregarding the system altogether.

It might be easier on you to just start with the Beginner Box and move on to Abomination Vaults, especially because both have fantastic and cheap Foundry modules. Otherwise you can just free community maps like https://www.reddit.com/r/dungeondraft/comments/1174esr/menace_under_otari_2 _floors_24x30/ or https://foundryvtt.com/packages/av-maps-remake-by-narchy.

[Reynard]

demlin wrote:

You can get into Foundry for the price of the FGU Core Rulebook. Should be a no brainer, especially because using FGU means you've got loads of money.

That's an... interesting assessment.

Anyway, I have been using FG for 5 years or so, so I have a pretty big investment in it. I already own the PF2E CRB and Bestiary1 in FGU. I also own Foundry already because I intended to learn it earlier this year but did not end up having the time.

Quote:

As for the adventure: it starts off in a hub area with lots of locations that will require improv or homebrew. You will need to prep quite a bit to make it run smoothly, disregarding the system altogether.

If you can't use PF2E for homebrewing and improv, there isn't much point in playing it.

[demlin]

Reynard wrote:

If you can't use PF2E for homebrewing and improv, there isn't much point in playing it.

What I'm trying to say is: the Crown of the Kobold King isn't straightforward to run. It's more of a sandbox that you need to fill in the blanks right away from session 1. There are multiple starting points and quests that can be triggered depending on where your players go in town, all roughly leading to the same outcome. Your players are basically thrown in right away without any guidance.

The Beginner Box is a straightforward dungeon crawl that teaches concepts room by room and is easy to prep. You'd need to translate that sorta into Crown of the Kobold King.

[Davelozzi]

I’m going to disagree, I think it is a very solid starter adventure. Good home base starter town in Falcon’s Hollow, plenty of hooks, a solid wilderness to explore, and a dungeon that is large but split up into multiple separate quests so it doesn’t feel like a big megadungeon grind. I think it’s a great place to start that can easily be expanded into a larger campaign but doesn’t lock you into a full AP from the git-go.