The Adventure Paths: The Best Ones Are?

All of the AP's up to and including Legacy of Fire are 3.5 rules and not Pathfinder. So the DM will need to convert them to Pathfinder. However, to rate the AP's based on flavor/mechanics/appeal/style, here is my list with 1 being the best:

1. Legacy of Fire(sorry I loved Al-Qadim and Kingdoms of Kalamar, so how can I not like this) DMing
2. Rise of the Runelords (it just has pretty much every main genre thrown in. Want mystery, check; Want horror, check; Want fantasy, check; Dungeon crawl, check; Hack'n'Slash, check. Yes, you may have to slug thru some parts you may not like, but it is not your typical long wait nor is it totally boring.) Played
3. Kingmaker (So far, I like it because to me it feels like RotRL by including many types of genres, but it does it by giving the players the ability to control when the events will happen. My biggest problem is not the AP itself, but the hype people place on it. Is it a sandbox, sorta as you still have to accomplish the tasks provided to achieve the final X to unlock the next book or end of campaign.) DMing
4. Serpent's Skull (From what I have read, this may just beat out all of the AP's to date. I am eagerly awaiting the final books to render a final verdict, but I think Paizo has done a great job with this AP so far.) Read
5. Curse of the Crimson Throne (Great story, poor execution.) Playing
6. council of Thieves (Have not read or played but this AP holds more appeal to me than Second Darkness)
7. Second Darkness (doesn't do it for me and probably will not ever pick up the AP to read)

I would like to one day check out Paizo's other AP's from when they wrote Dungeon Magazine.

Let me preface all this with the note that I haven't played any of these APs. My current lack of a gaming group means my sole RPG experiences these days come from reading the adventures and *wishing* I could play them.

I got a late start into Serpent's Skull, only just now getting the first three books. However, I'm *really* liking the way this campaign is growing and it might be my favorite of the bunch. It has a good mix of adventure types: survival, expedition, dungeon, and even some politicking, yet each adventure keeps to a consistent theme and doesn't feel at all patchwork. As an added bonus, it not only explores more of Golarion's forgotten past for the fans, but the "forgotten past" part of means it's easily translatable to other settings.

Kingmaker's high on my list, too, despite not living up to my very high expectations. On just the read-thru, it feels kind of repetitious. If I were a player, I don't know how long I could tolerate "we go another hex, what do we see?" and the often unconnected series of lairs and monsters that pepper the region. Heaven help me once my PC becomes a noble and I'm still expected to sludge through bogs and fetch dragonfly wings for my subjects so they can make capes. Fortunately there's enough nobility-based adventures in the later books (the festival, the war, the alliance with the Nomen, etc.) that there's still a campaign there, but I'd likely cut out all the hex-crawling from books 4 and 5. And although the campaign takes place over in the forgettable corner of the map (far away from my beloved Varisia...at least Serpent's Skull has an option for letting players be *from* from Magnimar), the exploration, kingdom building, and epic finale (combined with even more epic ways to continue past the end of the adventure path) make this a campaign worth making some allowances for.

Honorable mention goes to Curse of the Crimson Throne, but not the one y'all are familiar with. The Crimson Throne I have in my head, heavily adapted to include elements from Rune Lords and Second Darkness (and even Bloodsworn Vale), is all levels of awesome. I can't really recommend CotCT based on my personal adaptations, but I'm such a huge fan of Varisia as a mini-setting that it's worth the cutting and pasting to make the most uber-Varisian campaign I can.

You can throw away the Kingdom building, which is what the Hex exploring is for in the background.

Hmmm... Kingmaker is pretty darned wonderful, with a nice sandbox. Even better it has settlement rules which don't assume that the PCs are all high level adventurers. And fey who are not all cute and friendly....

Curse of the Crimson Throne. Mmmmm. Why plague is still to be feared in a world with healing magic. Intrigue, urban adventuring, and an NPC hero who may or may not end up being an ally of the PCs. Plenty of hungry undead, curses, and a shapechanger or two.

The Auld Grump

concerro said:

You can throw the Kingdom building, which is what the Hex exploring is for in the background.

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True, but the kingdom building's sort of the point. I'm only thinking that hex-by-hex exploration might get a bit old after six levels or so. By then, I'd certainly be willing to allow my hypothetical players to spend build points to send their army out to claim hexes while the PCs did nobility stuff like deal with Varnhold or visit Pitax. And if the army comes back and says "yikes, there was a big, wangering giant!", the PCs can make a special trip out to make it stop.

I've not played any of them, but I have read through the first parts of RotRL and was impressed by the talent on display.

However, not enough impressed to want to run it. Instead, it struck me more as something worth stealing ideas and scenes from.

With that in mind, I would appreciate it if people mentioned the particular modules or scenes of the AP that they felt worked the best and were most enjoyed and well remembered by their group.

The exploring can be done away with also. I would have skipped over a lot of it to get to the posters(quests), if my players did not want to do the exploring.

Celebrim said:

I've not played any of them, but I have read through the first parts of RotRL and was impressed by the talent on display.

However, not enough impressed to want to run it. Instead, it struck me more as something worth stealing ideas and scenes from.

With that in mind, I would appreciate it if people mentioned the particular modules or scenes of the AP that they felt worked the best and were most enjoyed and well remembered by their group.

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One in particular that comes right to mind is from the second module in The Council of Thieves AP. It's called The Six Fold Trial and one chapter is devoted to a death play titled "The Six Trials of Larazod." What is a death play you may ask? Imagine acting in front of an audience with a chance that you can actually be killed during the performance. My players told me it was one of the most memorable sessions they ever had. Each one played a character in the play, said the lines and then fought for their lives.

re

Crispy Critter said:

One in particular that comes right to mind is from the second module in The Council of Thieves AP. It's called The Six Fold Trial and one chapter is devoted to a death play titled "The Six Trials of Larazod." What is a death play you may ask? Imagine acting in front of an audience with a chance that you can actually be killed during the performance. My players told me it was one of the most memorable sessions they ever had. Each one played a character in the play, said the lines and then fought for their lives.

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That sounds interesting.

Dark Mistress said:

These are all very good.
1) Rise of the Runelords
2) Kingmaker
3) Curse of the Crimson Throne
4) Serpent's Skull (this one is not all out yet so it might be moving up the list)

These are good
5) Legacy of Fire
6) Council of Thieves

These are ok
7) Second Darkness

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I almost completely agree with Dark Mistress, except that I enjoyed Curse of the Crimson Throne the most; I'd swap it and Rise of the Runelords on that list.

Crimson Throne had great villains and NPCs; you got to spend a lot of time in the city of Korvosa which rewarded investment in the setting; it did have its overly linear bit in the middle but the adventure came out and said "Hey GM, this is linear as written, you'll need to mix this up a bit." I don't need a printed adventure to give me more sandbox, I can toss random encounters with the best of them.

Having said that, Kingmaker is also awesome and is my #2 - it's not just a random sandbox, it's a cool Golarion flavored sandbox.

Runelords was classic too. Serpent's Skull may end up beating it, time will tell.

Legacy of Fire was nice and Arabian flavored but just didn't have as much zazz. And Council of Thieves started to get a little boring.

Second Darkness had several good chapters but was very ill conceived in chapters 4-5. It's still ok - I am using the first two chapters as part of my non-Second-Darkness campaign - but it's definitely the least good of the APs.

As for the older ones, you don't list them but I count them, I'd put Savage Tide and Age of Worms up in the bottom of the very good category, and Shackled City in good around CoT.