Pathfinder 1E Your Pathfinder campaigns - running Adventure Paths, published adventures, or homebrew?

[Mallus]

I tried to run the first part of the Skull and Shackles AP for the Pathfinder campaign I began just before the holidays. When we pick up again later this month I'm ditching the AP in favor of custom written adventures, with no arc to start with. I realize I'm more comfortable DM'ing like that.

The AP wasn't really a good a good fit for me or my group. The homebrew I'm using is a little too idiosyncratic to simply drop in a whole campaign arc. I'm better off, prep-time wise, from stealing bits and pieces --ie, encounters and maps-- from published adventures.

And I have a (somewhat heretical) confession to make: I don't like the way Paizo products are written. They seem to use roughly tens times as many words as needed, the writing's dull, and the organization is... antithetical to the way my brain works.

Maybe I've been spoiled by some of the better OSR books and the classic AD&D modules I've been reading for my other game. And to be fair to Paizo, I had the same problem with most of the 3e books I bought. They too had an eye-glazing verbosity.

 

[Perram]

I run a lot of APs, they are really strong adventures that are very fleshed out, and they save me a lot of time as a GM. That doesn't mean I shackle my players to the rails, and a lot of the paths are written expecting the players to be creative.

I also do home brew, and add custom adventure content to the paths to fit my player's needs.

 

[Crothian]

Our last three campaigns with Pathfinder were all Adventure Paths and we've yet to do a non AP with Pathfinder.

 

[DaveMage]

I've played PCs in the Adventure Paths, but right now I'm running Slumbering Tsar from Frog God Games.

I prefer the sandbox style of Slumbering Tsar to the APs because with the APs, I sometimes feel I'm trapped in a plot whereby with ST the plot is completely up to the PCs.

Of course, it helps that Slumbering Tsar is amongst the best adventure products written, well, ever.

 

[Stormonu]

Running APs primarily, though I have run one PF adventure.

I don't have the time or inclination to homebrew my own adventures anymore, its easier to just pick up a premade and run with it. I do sometimes make slight adjustments, but they're usually cosmetic on-the-fly stuff.


The one thing I've been irked by is the "end-boss" encounters. You can be merrily cruising along in the adventure and the BBEG comes up like a brick wall. Its fine for the hardcore players who want a tough end fight, but it annoys the heck out of my casual players (and me).

 

[Scotley]

I am currently running a 3.5 homebrew with a co-DM. A 4e homebrew and two Pathfinder games both using adventure paths. I've run various published adventures over the years, generally with positive results, but the majority of my DM'ing has been adventures of my own design. I seem to fit the profile of your question. I think the convenience of the AP's is certainly a factor. I'd run a Pathfinder homebrew if I had more time to design. World and adventure design is an important part of the fun for me.

 

[Jester David]

I ran one non-Paizo Adventure Path. Now I'm doing homebrew. But when we reach a nice endpoint I plan on switching to a Paizo AP.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

I've been a Pathfinder AP subscriber since the beginning so I pretty much have them all. I pretty much only intend to run AP's and published adventures from here on in unless I'm running an introductory game.

I've done the whole homebrew thing and in the end the players could give a crap about all of your details and fancy schmancy NPC's. They dont care if you created them and the scenario or someone from Paizo did it. All they care about is if the scenario and the NPC's is engaging and the adventure is fun.

And frankly as a GM like being able to interpret and bring to life written material as it's much easier than writing my own.

Also I love a world being fleshed out via the adventures and not via a series of world books or fiction. Adventures feel organic. World Books and Fiction feel like homework.

 

[DaveMage]

The one thing I've been irked by is the "end-boss" encounters. You can be merrily cruising along in the adventure and the BBEG comes up like a brick wall. Its fine for the hardcore players who want a tough end fight, but it annoys the heck out of my casual players (and me).

Yeah, that was another issue I had with the APs I've played. We played the 3.5 Rise of the Runelords and some of the encounters there were fine, but some of them would have blown away casual players and one of them did blow us away (TPK) even though we've played for 20+ years. Same thing in Serpent's Skull (although our GM was very good about making allowances that at least gave us a chance).

 

[ggeilman]

I run pretty much non-TSR/WOTC/Paizo modules. I prefer third party be it Judges Guild, Necromancer or Frog God Games. So I have never run an Adventure Path. My wife started running Carrion Crown but that didn't work out too well. The party wasn't interested in solving puzzles or doing any investigating. They just wanted to go right to the prison and take it on.