Pathfinder 1E First PF campaign for an old-timer D&D guy

[Marshall Gatten]

I'm itching to start my first Pathfinder campaign after several decades of running D&D, and I'm hoping for recommendations for a good start.

I started with the original Keep On The Borderlands the year it was first published. I've bought and run every new edition up to and including 3.5. But WOTC releasing so many editions in such a short period for what was clearly a money grab got me irritated enough that I decided not to move on to 4.0. Of course, the completist geek in me finally compelled me to buy the 4.0 books anyway, but I haven't read them. They proudly gather dust in an act of geeky defiance.

Which is why Pathfinder seems so excellent to me. I've got all the core books and several of the not-so-core books. I love what I see and I'm eager to start something epic. But there are a lot of choices, and without having read them all already, I figure I'm best off asking for the opinions of you Pathfinder-entrenched experts.

I'll most likely only have three players, and I prefer to play one character per player. So any seriously deadly campaigns for full sized parties will be too much. (I'm considering putting them on the fastest advancement track so that they are soon leveled enough that at, say, 4th level, the party will be able to defeat stuff meant for a full sized 3rd level party. Advice on handling this is much welcomed.)

Two of the players are as experienced (one is perhaps even more experienced) than I am. The third has a lot of experience in certain roles but hasn't been playing long enough to be an "expert" at any of it. The two more experienced players are roleplay-centric. The third prefers action. So a good mix is needed that doesn't drown either with the other.

What I'm looking for is something sandboxy and old-schooly where there are enough adventure hooks to keep them busy at any given level before moving on to the next sandboxy thing for a while, but with some overarching story lines and hopefully an inspiringly epic final goal.

Things I'm considering so far:

I was in on the Autarch Kickstarter for Dwimmermount. It looked very awesome. Two problems: Lots of conversion needed, and (more troubling) the early drafts show that it needs A LOT of work and it gets pretty cheesy at the end. Plus, getting anything like a final version is a hope that just keeps dwindling further into the horizon. I think I've eliminated it from real consideration.

"To Slay a Dragon" looks very promising. This is probably my current fore-runner.

"War of the Burning Sky" is what I'd REALLY like to do, but it's conversion to Pathfinder looks to still be a long way from completion. I can wait a few months, but it looks like it's most likely going to be quite a bit longer than that. (I've sent a PM to Leopold asking if he has any estimates, but I know it's too early to get firm guesses on that.)

I have "The Age of Lords" campaign setting, but no modules or campaigns set in it. If there is a good one that can be recommended, this would be a fine setting to run.


Any thoughts or advice?

Marshall

 

[billd91]

Consider getting the Kingmaker adventure path from Paizo. It's got a lot of sandboxy elements.

 

[Uber Dungeon]

My advice is to keep your D&D 3.5 books on the table. All the 3.5 materiel is backwards compatible. Just needs a little easy converting.
Keep in mind that max ranks for pathfinder is equal to your level where as D&D 3.5 is your level+3. So when you'r looking at a feat or prestige class from 3.5 reduce skill rank requirements by 3 for pathfinder.

listen, search and spot are covered in perception.
Move silently and hide are covered in stealth.
balance and tumble is covered in Acrobatics.
keep that in mind if you see a tumble requirement for something.

Monsters basically convert strait across from 3.5 to pathfinder. You can simply use them like it was a 3.5 game using listen, search and spot for instance. You'll probably find monsters you liked more in 3.5 then pathfinder like skeletons and zombies for instance.

For experience I just use the 3.5 experience system all together because all my players know it.

So yes, I advise the you consider a 3.5 hybrid game. some cool combos come up like the 3.5 scout class + Pathfinder vital strike set of feats

 

[Marshall Gatten]

Kingmaker for the win

Consider getting the Kingmaker adventure path from Paizo. It's got a lot of sandboxy elements.

Thanks for that tip. I looked it up, spent literally several hours going through the tons and tons of community support that has developed for it, and fell deeply in geek love with what I saw.

The next step is figuring out exactly what I need to really get started. I quickly had $150 worth of stuff in my shopping cart (thanks to non-mint sales on some things and pdfs on others, otherwise it would have topped $200), and decided that $150 was waaaay too much to spend on a product I haven't even started running yet.

So, I ask of those who have run it successfully, what do I really need? Obviously, the first module, The Stolen Lands. And the map folio looks to be indispensable. While ordering those, I went ahead and got the second module as well to save on shipping and also to help me know some of the upcoming things that I should try to foreshadow while running the first module. So those are what I have already ordered. But what else is worth spending the coin of an already sadly-depleted wallet?

Items I've considered, and decided to let wait for at least a while are:

• Kingmaker Part 3: The Varnhold Vanishing
• Kingmaker Part 4: Blood for Blood
• Kingmaker Part 5: War of the River Kings
• Kingmaker Part 6: Sound of a Thousand Screams
• Book of Friends and Foes: Assassins in the River Nations
• Book of Beasts: Monsters of the River Nations
• Pathfinder Chonicles: Guide to the River Kingdoms
• Book of River Nations: Complete Player's Reference for Kingdom Building
• Pathfinder Paper Minis - Kingmaker Adventure Path Part 1: "Stolen Land"
• Pathfinder Paper Minis - Kingmaker Adventure Path Part 2: "Rivers Run Red"
• Pathfinder Paper Minis - Kingmaker Adventure Path Part 1: "The Varnhold Vanishing"

How strongly would you recommend getting parts 3-6 before running part 1 in order to avoid creating conflicts and also in order to facilitate foreshadowing of future events? I guess it kind of depends on how flexible they are when it comes to avoiding conflicts. I've read that they are deliberately vague in some areas for that reason. It also depends on how many major things get tacked on without previous mention, like Nyrissa. If it's just a few, then I can probably glean enough info from forums to foreshadow it without even understanding quite what it is I'm foreshadowing. If it's a bunch, then I should get them and read the whole set before starting part 1.

Have you found any of those other supplements to be indispensable to running a good Kingmaker?

Are there any important ones I've missed?

Thanks!
Marshall

 

[Thanael]

Consider adding Ultimate Campaign and Ultimate Rulership (by Legendary Games) for better/tuned/debugged Kingdom building rules. Also the AP and other older books can probably be had for less on ebay or nobleknight.com.

 

[paradox42]

I can see only one thing missing, and it's not critical: the new hardcover, Ultimate Campaign. The reason you might want it is, it has updated rules for kingdom-building and mass combat (Kingmaker pioneered those rules originally). I don't have it myself yet, so I can't actually compare and contrast to tell you whether it really would be better to have than not have.

EDIT: Ninja'ed!

 

[Alzrius]

This is a minor product, but it's also a free one: Hirelings: Into the Wild has four NPCs that can prove useful to your PCs on their initial steps to founding their kingdom.

 

[Marshall Gatten]

By absolutely sheer coincidence, a friend of mine gave me a copy of Ultimate Campaign as a gift just two days ago! She'll be jazzed to hear that it will be so quickly used in a game. I hadn't made a connection between that and Kingmaker, so now I'm even more excited. Very, very cool.

I just downloaded and read Hirelings: Into the Wild. That will actually be a big help. One of the challenges I face is having a three-character party in a four-character AP. A hireling or two (especially if one is a thug or bodyguard) will help round that out.

And I went ahead and got Ultimate Leadership as well, after seeing the positive reviews from practically everybody.

Thanks for the tips!

Marshall