Well, sounds like I have to go against most folks and say that I absolutely hated Age of Worms. It just seemed to reinforce everything that was driving me up the wall about 3.5, and some of the massive plot holes were absolute killers for me as well.
My big issue with most (all?) of the Paizo APs is there is too much moving around. You only get to spend 4 - 6 levels in any one place, and most of that is spent in the dungeon, so there is very little opportunity to actually put down roots and get to know the NPCs.
Are there many APs which do allow you to spend a long time in the same place? Shackled City may be the closest that I can think of (whilst not thinking that much about it, admittedly).
My really successful homebrew campaigns (which shared some correspondences with adventure paths) have involved a lot of interaction with NPCs at a permanent home base.
Are there many APs which do allow you to spend a long time in the same place? Shackled City may be the closest that I can think of (whilst not thinking that much about it, admittedly).
Curse of the Crimson Throne. 4 out of 6 of the adventures involve being in Korvosa. One of the two is a lot of 'wander around and see the sights" kind of adventure, so you can handwave a lot of that, and the other is a dungeoncrawl so you can shorten that at your leisure.
Savage Tide is by far my favorite - I loved the city bit (actually started a spin-off campaign in Sasserine), but the pirate bits are also very good. Just starting on the planar explorations - the first adventure is a little slow, but I expect things to pick up again.
This group loves all the socializing and diplomacy, the recurring characters and drama. I think they'll go wild over the city of succubi.
The affiliations have worked well for us so far, tough they certainly become less relevant out among the planes. They added motivations besides 'beat the next adventure', which was very nice. I found them a bit complex to keep track of tough, and they were by no means fair and equal.
Currently running Rise of the Runelords, I must say that one is not nearly as interesting. Looking forward to Curse of the Crimson Throne but not had time to work on it yet. A friend is about to start Shackled City which could also become very exiting. Age of Worms, while certainly epic, is a bit too dark for my tastes.
The last 2 paizo paths (drow and effret respectively) have not really exited me, so I ended my subscriptions. And after what I read here, I must admit I've not even read the 4E Dungeon path. And War of the Burning Sky seriously needs a good presentation here - I followed a banner and there was precious little information.
I had to have a read of this again - I enjoyed (or definitely found it very thought provoking) the first time I read it and with time, it is still a fantastic insight into your thoughts at that particular point in time. I think a follow-up in regards to the new Pathfinder ruleset (3.75 if you will) would be incredibly interesting if you had the means and inclination (which I'm guessing you and your group most probably don't but heh...).
My Group are currently in the Spire of Long Shadows of the Age of Worms AP but I have been waiting for the Pathfinder Core Rules to come out to continue this. I'm interested to see if the changes address some of the issues you found and that have already come up.
Anyway, our group has found the Age of Worms adventure path to be a lot of fun. As DM, I had the opportunity to collect the entire path pretty much before starting it so I've been able to adjust things so it fits together as a whole, a little more cohesively than otherwise. I upped the contribution of Balabar Smenk in particular. So even though, the group were going all over the place (I've even placed the SOLS on the Isle of Dread and included several features from the Savage Tide path), having a consistent villain (who they defeated at the halfway mark) has made up for the lack of a homebase as such - although they do have the basement of the crooked inn all laid out how they want it.
Anyway, could not recommend the Age of Worms highly enough. I think APs are like anything though. The DM needs to invest in it and the players need to invest in it and make it their own. If you just woodenly follow an AP, it is never going to be as much fun.
I notice that the adventure paths quality depended a lot on the DM running it, maybe more than the adventure path itself. Everyone in our group runs his campaign, but not everyone is good at it. , and three picked up the adventure paths.
Shackled City was a lot of fun, despite initial problems more of a "mechanical" (or insufficient powergaming) nature.
Savage Tides is also nice, but I absolutely agree - Sassarine is a wasted opportunity. I suppose we won't see much more going on there, since Paizo won't be able to produce any more for Greyhawk, and Greyhawk is no 4E setting (at least not yet).
Shackled City and Savage Tides were run by the same DM, with Savage Tides being converted to 4E at some point.
Age of Worms was terrible. Overpowered monsters, tons of undead, and a DM that just can't bring the story or NPCs to life (or straight?). MerricBs blog entry really spoke to me.
Rise of the Runelords (converted to 4E) so far has been nice, but it suffers from very irregular play since the DM can't come as often as the rest anymore. But I think he is doing good work with it.
Curse of the Crimson Throne (also converted to 4E) I am not so excited about. It is run by the Age of Worms DM, so I don't know how much is his fault and how much the adventures. If we weren't willing to follow the individual adventure plots, the most logical thing for us to do would be very different.
Like actively and publically opposing the Queen, and not running some errants and finding missing people or whatever it is we're currently going after.
I remember we also played some kind of Forgotten Realms Adventure Path (Four from/for/of Comyr?) many years ago. I barely remember was it was about, but the general fuzzy feeling is positive.
The enjoyment to Shackled City surprises me. I only came in at the very end of the Lucky Monkey jaunt, and the entire adventure of Flood Season, and I hated it so utterly much. Maybe it was the group, but it was just an utter and complete unimaginative slog for me.
[sblock]I was playing with a new group. Apparently, everyone accepted the party could rest in the dungeon (or leave and come back) without any problems! No molestation during rests, no movement of enemies, no nothing! I was stunned when the party attacked the two guards in the guard shack, sand "Well, the druid cast two spells. We better rest." That group really drove home the 15 Minute Work Day to me.[/sblock]
Well really, ANY game depends on the quality of the DM. The DM quality is the single most important thing about any RPG. So, that goes without saying.
Looking at Paizo's website, I really love the look of Kingmaker (Paizo's adventure path after the Cheliax focused one). That's the kind of campaign that really makes me go "Oooo".
I had to have a read of this again - I enjoyed (or definitely found it very thought provoking) the first time I read it and with time, it is still a fantastic insight into your thoughts at that particular point in time. I think a follow-up in regards to the new Pathfinder ruleset (3.75 if you will) would be incredibly interesting if you had the means and inclination (which I'm guessing you and your group most probably don't but heh...).
Seems unlikely at present, yes. OTOH, I may have some insights on 4e via the HPE adventures in the future. (I've reviewed each of H1-3; H3 was reviewed after playing it; you can find the review here).
My Group are currently in the Spire of Long Shadows of the Age of Worms AP but I have been waiting for the Pathfinder Core Rules to come out to continue this. I'm interested to see if the changes address some of the issues you found and that have already come up.
Ditto. I've got them (well, parts 1-5) and I find my brief read-throughs a huge improvement over Second Darkness (the first part of that was botched, and I never warmed to the rest).
I missed out on Paizo Pathfinder APs #1 and #2, but I'm a subscriber now. (Unfortunately, without a discount, I can't justify subscribing to the RPG).
The one really interesting thing about LoF is that a year passes between part 1 & 2 of it - a very nice trick.
I've just started running LoF for our group and so far it's been fun. The player's are definately hating the pugwumpis though and they haven't even meet them in their lair yet. As Merric mentioned there's a year of downtime for the characters to do things but forgot to mention that if things generally go well the characters will be given one of the buildings in Kalmarane they help remove the bad influence from. This gives them a home base to prep from and have fun with in downtime. Haven't read ahead to see if Kalmarane stays a focal point for the campaign though. I do know that there's a trip to the planes later like most APs.
As far as other APs, I've only run the first chapter of Savage Tides before having to move. It was fun but wish I could have finished it. I have the other APs from Dungeon but have only skimmed them and found Savage Tides to hold my interest the most.
Also many moons ago I did run the GDQ series and it was glorious and my favorite. I really need to pull them out and run them again, but for now I'm enjoying LoF and look forward to see how it plays out.
Well, sounds like I have to go against most folks and say that I absolutely hated Age of Worms. It just seemed to reinforce everything that was driving me up the wall about 3.5, and some of the massive plot holes were absolute killers for me as well.
, and three picked up the adventure paths. 
and they haven't even meet them in their lair yet. As Merric mentioned there's a year of downtime for the characters to do things but forgot to mention that if things generally go well the characters will be given one of the buildings in Kalmarane they help remove the bad influence from. This gives them a home base to prep from and have fun with in downtime. Haven't read ahead to see if Kalmarane stays a focal point for the campaign though. I do know that there's a trip to the planes later like most APs.
