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After a prolonged absence, I found myself revisiting my collection of 1st edition adventure paths and reminiscing about the memorable experiences they offered. Admittedly, I didn't run as many as I had hoped, but there were true gems like "Burnt Offering" that left a lasting impression.
I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the best 2 or 3 adventures at each book number. For instance:
Book 1:
Best Adventure
Second Best Adventure
Another Noteworthy Adventure
Book 2:
Top Pick
Runner-Up
Another Standout
And so on, covering all six books.
If you have an overall favorite book, feel free to share that as well.
After a prolonged absence, I found myself revisiting my collection of 1st edition adventure paths and reminiscing about the memorable experiences they offered. Admittedly, I didn't run as many as I had hoped, but there were true gems like "Burnt Offering" that left a lasting impression.
I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the best 2 or 3 adventures at each book number. For instance:
Book 1:
Best Adventure
Second Best Adventure
Another Noteworthy Adventure
Book 2:Top Pick
Runner-Up
Another StandoutAnd so on, covering all six books.
If you have an overall favorite book, feel free to share that as well.
Don't get your hopes up. Check out this thread.
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Book 1:
Best Adventure: Rise of the Runelords: Burnt Offerings - this sets the standard for an opening of a Pathfinder AP in my mind. Fun hook, good mystery, lots of classic goblins, and a fully fleshed out starting town.
Second Best Adventure: Serpent's Skull: Souls for Smuggler's Shiv - Man if the rest of the AP had lived up to the first book, this would have been an all-timer.
Third Best Adventure: Strange Aeons: In Search of Sanity - Possibly the best hook out of all the APs, and the most fun as a GM. Needs player buy in, but then that whole AP needs buy in by its very nature.
Book 2: This one is tougher because book 2 tends to be one of the stronger across APs.
Best Adventure: Curse of the Crimson Throne: Seven Days to the Grave - This is probably my favorite single AP volume. I love the plot, I love the dungeons, I love the collapse you see the city take in real time. I've run this book three times and loved it each one.
Second Best Adventure: Carrion Crown: Trial of the Beast - I love, love, love the trial aspect of this book, and the final dungeon is incredible.
Third Best Adventure: Shattered Star: Curse of the Lady's Light - This may be a controversial pick, but I love the dungeon in this book so much. That and it's ties to my second favorite AP and the incredible trap (if you've read it you know the one) make it a top 3 for me.
Book 3:
Best Adventure: Wrath of the Righteous: Demon's Heresy - If Seven Days to the Grave isn't my overall favorite, this one is. It introduces my favorite NPC in Golarion, it lets you feel the horror of the Worldwound, and it has an incredible end villain. Best book of my favorite AP.
Second Best Adventure: Tyrant's Grasp: Last Watch - The race against time and inevitable failure in this book set the stakes for the rest of the AP.
Third Best Adventure: Abomination Vaults: Eyes of Empty Death - This whole AP is great, but the conclusion is fantastic.
Book 4:
Best Adventure: Shattered Star: Beyond the Doomsday Door - Yeah, the second volume of Shattered Star to make my list, deal with it. The AP as a whole is badly connected, but the books on their own are very good. This has the best dungeon of the dungeoncrawl AP, and some great characters.
Second Best Adventure: Wrath of the Righteous: The Midnight Isles - Dealing with abyssal politics and exploring the Porphyry City? Fun as hell. Getting to do your part to redeem Nocticula? Classic.
Third Best Adventure: Return of the Runelords: Temple of the Peacock Spirit - Man what a fun adventure. I still want to see the villain at the height of his power, but this was a great way to encounter him when he's not the BBEG of the whole AP.
Book 5:
Best Adventure: Curse of the Crimson Throne: Skeletons of Scarwall - Best megadungeon in Golarion, great thematics, fun encounters.
Second Best Adventure: Reign of Winter: Rasputin Must Die! - We all know why this one ranks so high.
Third Best Adventure: Rise of the Runelords: Sins of the Saviors - Again this is one that is made great by a great dungeon. The Runeforge is just an incredible place with so much flavor.
Book 6:
Best Adventure: Return of the Runelords: Rise of New Thassilon - I get why Tyrant's Grasp came after, but this should have been the finale of 1E. It bookends the beginning, middle, and end of the era so well, and has lasting ramifications for the setting. Plus the time travel aspect of the adventure is just fun.
Second Best Adventure: Strange Aeons: Black Stars Beckon - The set piece of this final adventure is what makes it fun.
Third Best Adventure: This is harder because of the APs I've read all the way through (which sadly is not all of them) most need a lot of work to make the last book wrap up satisfyingly. And that's really kind of the point of an AP. By then the final book should mostly be about the players you've been with for over a year in most cases (or three or more in some cases). That said, I'm going to end on a very controversial one.
Tyrant's Grasp: Midwives to Death - Again, this one needs a LOT of player buy-in to not make the entire table mad, but I personally love the stakes and story of this one.
Ah, this makes me look forward even more to GM'ing Return of the Runelords. I've been prepping the 2E conversion for the last months. Just finished adjusting opponent stat blocks for 3, 5 and 6 players, since I got 6 players but it has become pretty normal that some people can't make it to a session. Still got months to go before we start, since we are currently in Strange Aeons where I get to be a (terrified, because low will save class as a PC) player.
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Book 1:
Best Adventure- Souls for Smuggler's Shiv (Serpent Skull): First off, this fits in any campaign as a starting point (fantastic prelude to Skulls and Shackles btw, imagine getting rescued by the Wormwood). Great low-level monsters, some cool NPCs, and a starter dungeon all in one.
Second Best Adventure- Edge of Anarchy (Curse of the Crimson Throne): The start of this has been controversial semi-recently in the forums but it's easy to change for those offended GMs. Fantastic urban adventuring with very memorable NPCs like Burnt Offerings below.
Noteworthy Adventure- Burnt Offerings (Rise of the Runelords): This one needs no comment. Many consider this the gold standard; I agree somewhat but also disagree. From a sourcebook/adventure perspective, omg yes! That said, in both of my playthroughs of this volume, we barely met a third of the town beyond the Rusty Dragon and supply runs at Vinder's and Savah's. Everyone important knows where to find us LOL. One of my current players is an apprentice of Quink and even he comes to see us at the Inn most of the time. No fault of the adventure mind you as the party dictates the pace, but it seems overkill to me so far. Besides for the Shayliss entanglement, there's not much reason to visit other parts of the town. My players love Sandpoint but it's because of Ameiko, Hemlock (a pc is a fellow Shoanti and town guard), Quink (a player's mentor), and Shalelu (who is not even a resident).
Book 2:
Best Adventure- Seven Days to the Grave (Curse of the Crimson Throne): CoCT is by far the best of the urban campaigns (when comparing to Legacy of Thieves, Hells Rebels/Vengeance, Shattered Star, etc.) IMHO. This one has great NPCs and enemies reminiscent of Burnt Offerings among other great set pieces.
Second Best Adventure- The Skinsaw Murders (Rise of the Runerlords): The haunted Foxglove Manor is worth the price of admission alone.
Noteworthy Adventure- Curse of the Lady's Light (Shattered Star): The first low-level killer dungeon by Mike Shel IMHO, if you're like me and thinking along the lines of ToH and Mud Sorcerer.
Book 3:
Best Adventure- The Varnhold Vanishing (Kingmaker): I don't think we need an explanation here. Great mystery, awesome lore to discover, etc. They tried to repeat this in Ruins of Azlant but threw a junk ball there.
Second Best Adventure- The Hook Mountain Massacre (Rise of the Runelords): A very complete adventure. Raid an Ogre homestead, liberate an occupied Fort, save the region from an intentional disaster, etc. Solid from beginning to end.
Noteworthy Adventure- Assault on Longshadow (Ironfang Invasion): Think new and improved Book 1 of Ironfang but with options this time! Instead of a tickets for the "Fleeing Railroad", you can now prep for the invasion and win or lose the town all in your own "What If?" comic book.
Book 4:
Best Adventure- Ice Tomb of the Giant Queen (Giantslayer): Frost Giants! Undead Frost Giants! This one made me feel some vibes from "Ancient Blood" by Grant Boucher in Dungeon Magazine #20 (1989). Adding most of this into my ROTR home campaign.
Second Best Adventure- Endless Night (Second Darkness): The closest we got to D1-2: Descent into the Depths of the Earth, and D3: Vault of the Drow. A great Darklands/Underdark romp. I miss Schneider's stuff.
Noteworthy Adventure- Valley of the Brain Collectors (Iron Gods): Mike Shel is an old favorite of mine since Mud Sorcerer's Tomb (spiritual successor to Tomb of Horrors) back in Dungeon magazine. All of his work is gold IMHO. That said, in my campaigns all Mi-Gos are replaced with Illithids which fits this particular campaign well considering the old Spelljammer stuff.
Book 5:
Best Adventure- Into the Nightmare Rift (Shattered Star): Great mix of enemies, powerful dragon, and some Leng on top. Great high level adventuring and it works great in almost any campaign. I'm using most of this in place of Runelords #5 in my regular Runelords game.
Second Best Adventure- Skeletons of Scarwall (Curse of the Crimson Throne): I agree that it's Paizo's best mega-dungeon volume of any AP while still remaining relatively self-contained (You could end other campaigns with just this book with a little modification). Also, I could do without the Orcs in the beginning. Books 2 (Shel) and 4 (Leati) of Shattered Star are awesomesauce too in their own right but they feel more like the chapters they are.
Noteworthy Adventure- Rasputin Must Die (Reign of Winter): Normally, I'm against mixing my fantasy with our earth type of stuff but this AP grew on me after reading it. Plus, it's Brandon Hodge who has become a personal favorite of mine.
Honorable Mention- Prisoners of the Blight (Ironfang Invasion): Had to add this. Book 5 of any AP is usually the weakest volume for me, but this one has a solid mix of stuff that I may cannibalize into Kingmaker book 5.
Book 6:
Best Adventure- Sound of a Thousand Screams (Kingmaker): Awesome Planar adventure and a fitting endcap to the campaign.
Second Best Adventure- Shadows over Gallowspire (Carrion Crown): If Tomb of Horrors had a baby with Skeletons of Scarwall, you would get something like this. Great high-level adventuring and yeah... Hodge again.
Noteworthy Adventure- Sanctum of the Serpent God w/The Thousand Fangs Below (Serpent Skull): Both volumes are on big chapter to me. A great endcap culminating in a lost city. I hate Urdefhan, so I replaced them with Drow which scratches the old school itch.
*** I want to mention all of Tim Hitchcock's stuff is gold too. But I didn't want to go too far into honorable mentions. Kingmaker 1, Reign of Winter 3, and Iron Gods 5 off the top of my head atm.
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Alright, I'll try (haven't read all of them, saving some for retirement):
Book 1:
1st place: Burnt Offering (Rise of the Runelords): It's got everything, from oldschool dungeon crawling to high fantasy forgotten temples, even a bit of horror with monster in a closet trope and dark rituals and what's not. It's the MCU Iron Man for PF Adventures.
2st place: Edge of Anarchy (Curse of the Crimson Throne): The way to hook the players in, the early villains and how the story unfolds are just awesome. I always play the BBG early on as a victim of circumstances and drips her into madness and evil only in the final scene.
Noteworthy: Hell's Bright Shadow (Hell's Rebels): It's gives the 2nd place a run for its money. Also best PF villain ever imo.
Book 2:
1st place: The Shackled Hut (Reign of Winter): This one emphasize the best parts in Reign of Winter, the Russian-like feel, the scary fey-like nature of everything, the shapeshifting Winter Wolves, to hags, trolls and even a dragon.
2nd place: The Thrushmoor Terror (Strange Eons): This one feels like it's the best example of how to drive the notion of 'unwelcomed strangers' to its pick. The cult is awesome and scary, the detective work is great, the monsters are scarry and the fact that the PCs don't remember make it REALLY easy to modify as one see fit to enhance backstories and what's not. This one is the best opportunity to make PCs of all kind to feel like real people and not just character sheets.
Noteworthy: Seven Days to the Grave (Curse of the Crimson Throne). I am not a fan of ailments in PF, they are so easily removed, but if there's ever been an adventure that force you to feel the old-school scare of plagues, this one does. Most of the encounters work very well as well.
Book 3:
1st place: The Hook Mountain Massacre (Rise of the Runelords): The most scary adventure of the OS PF, and the most rounded. It has a clear start, middle and finish - with nasty encounters, first 'Better run and not fight it' encounter that is brought to the PCs (and while I usually not a fan, it does make the setting feel 'bigger' than just what's going on with the PCs). Horrid, funny, vicious, tragic. Love it.
2nd place: The Armageddon echo (Second Darkness). While it needed much revisiting with PF rules, the theme itself - of a trench war between elves and a race that was considered a myth is intense, the fact that you're not only fighting the Drow but vicious allies like Demons and an Aboleth was also welcomed and the visit to the echo of the distant past was the final chef's touch.
Noteworthy: Runeplague (Return of the Runelords) - I considered very hard if I wanna place this one here, but decided to go with it cause it hit all the right notes.
Book 4:
1st place: A Song Of Silver (Hell's Rebels) - It also got everything. Evil vs Good to the best of both abilities, the PCs reap the fruits of their efforts early on in the AP (and then comes the several twists in the end) and the best villain, again, in Paizo entire legacy.
2nd place: Valley of the Brain Collectors (Iron Gods) - Bring them critters in! the Brain collectors rule supreme as antagonist, and spread in some other nasty aberrations and you got yourself a fine piece of instant horror sci-fi fantasy adventure.
Noteworthy: Blood For Blood (Kingmaker) while not the best of what this AP had to offer, it truly stands out as the PCs kingdom becomes truly their own, as adversaries, both wicked or just crazy, threaten them all.
Book 5:
1st place: Tide of Honor (Jade Regent) I think this is the true beginning of the PCs purpose in this AP. Until now they were basically traveling - this is where they suppose to work, and while I could expand this book to 300% of its content and still I won't feel fulfilled, the missions with the missing Geisha, the barbarian warlord and the evil Daiymo just strike as close as one can get in high level Adenture.
2nd place: Doorway to the Red Star (Strength of Thousands) I know it's an unpopular choice but I really dig how the PCs come to this place in the AP, and the fact they are able to face legendary threats in such exotic ways and still stick to the landing is impressive.
noteworthy : The Price Of Infamy (Skulls and Shackles) finally the PCs coming full circle and hunt down the man who was a pain their side for so long. The fact that he conspire against the whole isles with the devils of Cheliax is just a bonus.
Book 6:
1st place: The Six-Legend Soul (War for the Crown) I wasn't a fan to all of the AP, but the ending is just magnificent. The final chapter of the most political adventure turns to an epic conclusion of a story of not just the PCs their friends and enemies, but the whole nation.
2nd place: Midwives to Death (Tyrant's Grasp) The end of PF1 truly feels like and ending more than any other AP. Almost like saying goodbye to an old friend.
Noteworthy: Rise of New Thassilon (Return of the Runelords) As the only one of 2 1st Edition PF Adventures Path - this one felt much more fulfilling than WOTR. The whole run is a crazy one but this one hit home.