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Some of us already pointed out it should help with internal consistencyPeople have claimed that, but I am not sure I buy it. How should it help?
ISTM, consistency or lack thereof in APs has more to do with how they are written and edited than how they are published.
Because spreading them out over 6 or 3 months means that the individual chapters are all in various stages of development at any given time. With publishing as a single volume, all individual parts will need to be in roughly the same stage of development so that the lead person can edit the whole thing at once instead of in pieces spread out over time.
-Skeld
Yes, but publishing them over 3 or 6 months does not force them to spread the writing over 3 or 6 months. They could theoretically write it in exactly the same way they will be going forward, and then just hold onto the later parts for longer.
Although admittedly, it is psychologically easier to get something done in a certain time frame if you have a genuine hard deadline. Plus there is the longer period between paying the writer and selling the product, which I had not considered before. So, fair enough.
The editing is the big difference. The authors of the current APs are absolutely writing them simultaneously, we know that to be true. But when it comes time to edit them, they have to be edited as their own separate books. That makes it very easy to do something like miss out on a character name being spelt differently in different books of an AP, or a continuity issue where you/important NPCs start off in a slightly different context than you ended off the last book in, etc. These sorts of issues will be much more straightforward for editors to address when it is a single book that is edited simultaneously.
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One other possibility is that multiple authors could better divide their areas of expertise.
The 5th module of the Ironfang Invasion adventure path had a weird gap in its story. The module began in the dwarven Sky-Citadel of Kraggodan, where the PCs had ended the previous module. Their dwarven ally Karburtin Lightbrand persuades them to run an errand for Kraggodan to go to the Blighted Region deep in the Fangwood in order to discover the fate of the missing goddess Gendowyn, Lady of Fangwood. After 2 pages of establishing this plot hook, the scene jumps 75 miles north to deep in the Fangwood. My players objected to that, because that 75 miles would be heading through territory conquered by the Ironfang Legion and they wanted to fight the legion on the way north. So I wrote new material for that journey.
Perhaps author Amanda Hamon Kunz skipped that journey to reduce the page count. Or maybe she skipped it because she would have had to review the first three modules and the overall invasion plan in order to write material that fits the main theme of the adventure path but would be only a side theme to Prisoners of the Blight.
With multiple authors writing simultaneously on the same book, we could have had one of the earlier authors: Amber E. Scott, Ron Lundeen, Benjamin Bruck, or Thurston Hillman--write the journey through Ironfang territory while Amanda Hamon Kunz would focus on the Blight. The contributions of different authors do not have to be sequential; instead, they could specialize.
And page count would be easier, too. Currently, all three modules in an adventure path have the same length. But with all three in a single book, the length could vary. If the middle 2nd-module section needs to run long to tell its story well, cuts could come out of the 1st module or 3rd module rather than the 2nd module to fit the page count.
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Page count would be easier, too. Currently, all three modules in an adventure path have the same length. But with all three in a single book, the length could vary. If the middle 2nd-module section needs to run long to tell its story well, cuts could come out of the 1st module or 3rd module rather than the 2nd module to fit the page count.
The is a very good point, and one that had not occurred to me.
The more I sit with the AP changes, the more I think they are very much a net positive.
I think the AP change will be great. Having separate books often means that there is summary material at the beginning of each later book that wouldn’t be necessary in one book and sub systems that run between books are less likely to get dropped in later books by authors who might not know how exactly it is supposed to work while they are doing most of their work.
Yes, but publishing them over 3 or 6 months does not force them to spread the writing over 3 or 6 months. They could theoretically write it in exactly the same way they will be going forward, and then just hold onto the later parts for longer.
Books 5 and 6 were often still being written when book 1 was sent to the printers, so...
One other possibility is that multiple authors could better divide their areas of expertise.
-snip-
And page count would be easier, too. Currently, all three modules in an adventure path have the same length. But with all three in a single book, the length could vary. If the middle 2nd-module section needs to run long to tell its story well, cuts could come out of the 1st module or 3rd module rather than the 2nd module to fit the page count.
Two pretty good points, and they can be combined too.
One other possibility is that multiple authors could better divide their areas of expertise.
The 5th module of the Ironfang Invasion adventure path had a weird gap in its story. The module began in the dwarven Sky-Citadel of Kraggodan, where the PCs had ended the previous module. Their dwarven ally Karburtin Lightbrand persuades them to run an errand for Kraggodan to go to the Blighted Region deep in the Fangwood in order to discover the fate of the missing goddess Gendowyn, Lady of Fangwood. After 2 pages of establishing this plot hook, the scene jumps 75 miles north to deep in the Fangwood. My players objected to that, because that 75 miles would be heading through territory conquered by the Ironfang Legion and they wanted to fight the legion on the way north. So I wrote new material for that journey.
Perhaps author Amanda Hamon Kunz skipped that journey to reduce the page count. Or maybe she skipped it because she would have had to review the first three modules and the overall invasion plan in order to write material that fits the main theme of the adventure path but would be only a side theme to Prisoners of the Blight.
...
It was handwaved on p8 "At this point, the PCs likely have access to magical means of transportation, such as greater teleport or overland flight."
Expectation IMHO is that if the party didn't have access to that sort of magical transportation, that Karburtin could play Uber-driver for them.
But yes it did seem like a big assumption and side quest.
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... After 2 pages of establishing this plot hook, the scene jumps 75 miles north to deep in the Fangwood. My players objected to that, because that 75 miles would be heading through territory conquered by the Ironfang Legion and they wanted to fight the legion on the way north. So I wrote new material for that journey.
Perhaps author Amanda Hamon Kunz skipped that journey to reduce the page count. Or maybe she skipped it because she would have had to review the first three modules and the overall invasion plan in order to write material that fits the main theme of the adventure path but would be only a side theme to Prisoners of the Blight.
...It was handwaved on p8 "At this point, the PCs likely have access to magical means of transportation, such as greater teleport or overland flight."
Expectation IMHO is that if the party didn't have access to that sort of magical transportation, that Karburtin could play Uber-driver for them.
But yes it did seem like a big assumption and side quest.
I converted Ironfang Invasion adventure path to Pathfinder 2nd Edition rules, which has more restrictions on teleportation. Teleport, spell 6, can transport only 5 people. The party had 7 PCs and 2 animal companions. Furthermore, both full-rank spellcasters had primal tradition, which is worst at transportation. They typically summoned Phantom Steeds for long-distance travel.
Nevertheless, I did provide alternative transportation for reaching the Fangwood. After the players negotiated peace between Kraggodan and Molthune, General Cadmius Ortho offered the party a ride on a Molthune ship down the Inkwater River to the Fangwood. The party accepted the offer, except that they asked the ship to make a side trip up the Platter River so that they could free some villages from Ironfang control. They wanted to fight the Ironfang Invasion on the way north rather than effortlessly reach their destination via a spell or a ship.
I have noticed that Paizo modules assume that the PCs seek adventure for the sake of adventure. The modules skip the mundane stuff, such as routine travel, or spice up the routine with random encounters. My own players, in contrast, adopt a goal, Adventure is only the means. Their goal in Ironfang Invasion was to free Nirmathas from the invasion. Their goal in Strength of Thousands is to apply their growing skills as students and researchers to help common people. Their goal in Starfinder's Skitter Shot series was to run a successful salvage and rescue business. They immerse themselves in the narrative and find excitement in pursuing a theme that is not pure adventure.
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When both Pathfinder and Starfinder had monthly Adventure Paths, those were the only two monthly periodicals that I subscribed to. When Starfinder shifted from monthly softcover books to hardcovers, I had all 51 softcovers and got the first two hardcovers, but the joy of flipping through a print book when it arrived in the mail every month was gone. It seems to me that there is already a glut of hardcover adventures on the market. After 2 hardcovers, I canceled my Starfinder AP subscription. As mentioned above, this decision may help local stores keep a whole adventure path in stock but it hurts subscribers.
It is more disappointing that the Pathfinder Adventure Path is following in the footsteps of Starfinder because there is more history behind it and (for my mileage) the quality of the campaigns was better. I have the current 220 Pathfinder APs and continued to enjoy them as the premiere monthly periodical in the world of fantasy RPGs. Oh well, it had a good run. Clearly the decision was made years ago and can't be changed now. I suppose that l will continue the subscription for at least one or two hardcovers and see how it goes, but l suspect it will fizzle out like the Starfinder AP.
Anybody have good suggestions for a new monthly fantasy RPG periodical to take up?