[PF] Recommend me an adventure path

[Wonton]

Hi, I'm fairly new to PF but I've started picking up the new mechanics and new classes and I like everything I see so far. There's one thing I haven't looked at all yet though, and that's the adventure paths. Everything I've heard about them has been very positive, so my question is, which one should I try first? Apparently they can take you from level 1 to level 16, which seems to make them more like extremely in-depth campaign settings with built-in encounters.

Thanks for any and all help and advice.

[deuxhero]

Do you like subsystems?

[Ravenica]

well ive run jade regent, kingmaker and im running skull and shackles for two groups right now and its hella fun

[Wonton]

Do you like subsystems?

What do you mean? Like psionics and stuff? I generally try to stay away, mainly because most of the time they seem to only be introduced as a way of saying "are you bored of the normal rules? try this!", while I think the normal rules have more than enough depth for me.

[Bhaakon]

Some of the adventure paths have a "game within a game" type of thing going on. Kingmaker has set of special rules for the group to manager their kingdom, Jade Regent has a (less fun, IMO, but more optional) subsystem for running a caravan, and Skull and Shackles has ship management and naval combat stuff (don't worry, I'm not spoiling anything that isn't already in the player's guides). Other APs don't have as much rules baggage to be learned.

[Dread Angel]

I've run Curse of the Crimson Throne with great success (my fiancee STILL grumbles at the mention of the Queen, usually with expletives). That campaign is really fun to DM, too. Has a memorable NPCs, a good diversity of quests and encounters, some incredibly awesome boss battles and various fun things, right up to and including having the PCs playing a sport called Blood Pig. Which is pretty fun to run in and of itself.

Recently did a couple adventures out of Council of Thieves, and that path is pretty wicked cool too. Again with some memorable characters, though not quite as much as CotCT in my opinion. However, the second adventure is pretty amazing... How often do you get the entire script to a play as a handout? A play that could very well end up with your character dead...AND you have to actually do well acting! It makes for SERIOUS fun if your players can get into character well. In addition to that, it's set in Cheliax, which is my second favorite spot in Golarion. The Shackles being the first of course.

[Grail]

From my exposure to them, they all have glaring flaws. If you're skilled enough as a GM to patch over them, then they're not too bad. They (at least the ones I've had anything to do with) are laid out very poorly though.

Too many of them try to do horror, but horror doesn't work with the game mechanics, because there are too many ways to circumvent it, and everyone has access to supernatural abilities. One of my mates, writer of Dark Heresy RPG, is running Carrion Crown in 18th century England using Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu and he reckons it's a great fit. But for PF, not so much.

Legacy of Fire and Rise of the Runelords have been passable, but generally pretty middling. Legacy also requires at module 4, for the group to do thing X, if they don't, you've got to GMfiat it so that it happens, or the campaign ends then and there. Never a good way to run a campaign, let alone run it. I know that I had to hoodwink the guys when I ran that part the other day.

[Acanous]

Yeah. Horror only works in D20 if the players want it to, and cooperate.
Or if the DM starts fudging *Everything*.

I remember one horror campaign I played in with a ranger. He impersonated a zombie to bypass a dungeon, bluffed a shadow dragon, intimidated the necromancer, and when faced with a succubus, busted out some things from the Book of Erotic Fantasy.

He still died, but I really should have named him Trololol.

[mootoall]

Rise of the Runelords and Council of Thieves are both pretty universally praised.

[Grail]

Yeah. Horror only works in D20 if the players want it to, and cooperate.

Well, that holds true for any horror game.
However, in d20, there are so many ways to mitigate anything that is portrayed as horrific. Hell, a 4th level paladin is immune to fear... fullstop.

Creaky floorboards, footsteps at night, ghostly chains - they're a cantrip for crying out loud. Magic is so much part of the world, and divine magic at that, that horror is mundane. The undead abomination? The cleric can blast that to a million pieces because he has the literal power of a god that he can channel.

Haunts... they're even listed as a trap, and that's all they are.

Death is often difficult to come by for PC's because the game system isn't gritty, characters can take a pounding from an end of world nightmare at a decent enough level and keep on giving the good fight, getting healed up if they drop too low. If they do die, well, it's just a few thousand gp worth of diamond dust which is just kicking around in someone's sock.

There are no sanity rules worth spit and loss of attribute points is just a restoration away from being repaired anyway.

I love horror rp'ing, it's some of the best rp'ing that you can do, but not in d20. The players have every right not to cooperate when everything about the game they are playing says that they shouldn't.

[Wonton]

Some of the adventure paths have a "game within a game" type of thing going on. Kingmaker has set of special rules for the group to manager their kingdom, Jade Regent has a (less fun, IMO, but more optional) subsystem for running a caravan, and Skull and Shackles has ship management and naval combat stuff (don't worry, I'm not spoiling anything that isn't already in the player's guides). Other APs don't have as much rules baggage to be learned.

I've heard of the first two and their subsystems, but not Skull and Shackles (if it's a pirate-themed campaign though, I'm in :smallbiggrin:). I dunno, I'll give them a read, but I'm a sucker for just good regular encounters and RP, I don't always see the value in adding more rules via subsystems.


I've run Curse of the Crimson Throne with great success (my fiancee STILL grumbles at the mention of the Queen, usually with expletives). That campaign is really fun to DM, too. Has a memorable NPCs, a good diversity of quests and encounters, some incredibly awesome boss battles and various fun things, right up to and including having the PCs playing a sport called Blood Pig. Which is pretty fun to run in and of itself.

Recently did a couple adventures out of Council of Thieves, and that path is pretty wicked cool too. Again with some memorable characters, though not quite as much as CotCT in my opinion. However, the second adventure is pretty amazing... How often do you get the entire script to a play as a handout? A play that could very well end up with your character dead...AND you have to actually do well acting! It makes for SERIOUS fun if your players can get into character well. In addition to that, it's set in Cheliax, which is my second favorite spot in Golarion. The Shackles being the first of course.

Yeah, Council of Thieves is the one I've heard the most about. Encounter design is the most important thing to me, so given your high praise of it, I'll also look at CotCT.