The issue isn't with adventures... its with a single adventure that covers 20 levels. To solve your situation, you could just pick up 2-5 smaller adventures and tie them together as you wished. My campaigns would regularly use commercial 'modules' that I would then embellish to make them a consistent storyline.
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D&D 5E Am I the only one that dislikes Adventure Paths?
- Thread starter GameOgre
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The issue isn't with adventures... its with a single adventure that covers 20 levels. To solve your situation, you could just pick up 2-5 smaller adventures and tie them together as you wished. My campaigns would regularly use commercial 'modules' that I would then embellish to make them a consistent storyline.
pming
Legend
Hiya.
I'm not trying to be snarky here, but, if you aren't enjoying spending 10 hours a week on a hobby...why are you doing it?
It's obviously not fun for you to "convert monsters, develop encounters, plot storylines and brainstorm", so why do it?
For me, I actually miss the days of spending an hour or two a day for a week stating up NPC's, monsters, comming up with devious (but fair!) traps and puzzles, jotting down little bits of story and sub-plots, drawing maps, etc. All that "DM prep-time" is half of what I really enjoy about RPG's (the other half is obvious...presenting it all for my players to enjoy...hopefully...).
When did DM'ing prep become "work"? Is this a thing nowadays? I honestly find it quite perplexing that some people continue to DM, yet seem to dislike half of what makes DM'ing fun. I'm not trying to pick on you specifically, TarionzCousin, but I'm seeing this trend more and more over the years.
^_^
Paul L. Ming <-- DM'ing for over 34 years and loving every second of it!
I'm not trying to be snarky here, but, if you aren't enjoying spending 10 hours a week on a hobby...why are you doing it?
It's obviously not fun for you to "convert monsters, develop encounters, plot storylines and brainstorm", so why do it?For me, I actually miss the days of spending an hour or two a day for a week stating up NPC's, monsters, comming up with devious (but fair!) traps and puzzles, jotting down little bits of story and sub-plots, drawing maps, etc. All that "DM prep-time" is half of what I really enjoy about RPG's (the other half is obvious...presenting it all for my players to enjoy...hopefully...).
When did DM'ing prep become "work"? Is this a thing nowadays? I honestly find it quite perplexing that some people continue to DM, yet seem to dislike half of what makes DM'ing fun. I'm not trying to pick on you specifically, TarionzCousin, but I'm seeing this trend more and more over the years.
^_^
Paul L. Ming <-- DM'ing for over 34 years and loving every second of it!
TarionzCousin
Second Most Angelic Devil Ever
I committed to running the game for the group, so I'm going to see it through.I'm not trying to be snarky here, but, if you aren't enjoying spending 10 hours a week on a hobby...why are you doing it?
Even though I knew all of these people and had gamed with each of them prior to the start of this campaign, I had never run for them all together. They seem to have had a creative synergy-type reaction. The fighter and the barbarian are tactical geniuses. As a result, the level-appropriate encounters were all barely a challenge. I have been consistently throwing CR 8 monsters/groups against them at level 5 and it's been about right. In short, they are really good.
The storyline is my own doing, but I allow them to pick and choose where to go. So after they do that, I prep. I've used a couple modules so far, but only 10-20% of each module has made it into the game; I'm creating the other 80-90% and that takes time. I didn't know it would take so much time when I committed. My previous 3.5E/Pathfinder campaigns haven't been so prep-intense. But this group loves combat and only wants enough story to get from Combat A to Combat B. I'm not a numbers-DM, and I need to be for this group.
I'll take a break in a couple months so one of the players can run 5E.
pming
Legend
Hiya!
First part...fair 'nuff.
Second part...hopefully the 5e game will give you a good re-charge...and if you are *really* lucky, they'll all want to drop PF in favor of 5e. Prep'ing for 5e is childs play in comparison against PF.
^_^
Paul L. Ming
First part...fair 'nuff.
Second part...hopefully the 5e game will give you a good re-charge...and if you are *really* lucky, they'll all want to drop PF in favor of 5e.
Prep'ing for 5e is childs play in comparison against PF.^_^
Paul L. Ming
TarionzCousin
Second Most Angelic Devil Ever
At least two of the guys love their characters, the world, the campaign, and have already asked me if I was going to keep running it until level 12±.Second part...hopefully the 5e game will give you a good re-charge...and if you are *really* lucky, they'll all want to drop PF in favor of 5e.
Also, I want all the buildup to the story finale to pay off.
Finally, I need an excuse to use the minis I've bought: several dragons, and the Orcus gigantic mini.
The game must go on!
payn
He'll flip ya...Flip ya for real...
As for APs being the "lazy GMs way", god dont I wish. I spend so much time adapting the APs to my players desires for their characters and the plot, thankfully they absolutely love it and all the custom work I put into it. If anything the AP saves me some time stating monsters and coming up with NPCs. If folks are running them page for page then I can certainly see why they are disappointed.
One of the things being overlooked here is that the APs are easy to mix and match. Sure its going to require some GM elbow grease to adapt one book to the next but its certainly doable. You can have ghost busters for book one, then pirates for book 2, eastern flavor for book three, etc.. The forums over at Paizo offer a wealth of ideas to help you get it done if you dont like campaign style modules that APs offer.
One of the things being overlooked here is that the APs are easy to mix and match. Sure its going to require some GM elbow grease to adapt one book to the next but its certainly doable. You can have ghost busters for book one, then pirates for book 2, eastern flavor for book three, etc.. The forums over at Paizo offer a wealth of ideas to help you get it done if you dont like campaign style modules that APs offer.
Stormonu
Legend
I've been running adventure paths since at least '86, with the AGDQ series (Slavers, Giants, Drow and Demonweb). I always found time to intersperse those adventures with other side quests, modules and the like and I don't think I've ever had a player complain.
Initially, those modules were excellent DM guiding material, giving me ideas for encounters, traps, NPC's and storylines. Later, as my free time shrank I found myself with less and less desire to spend hours making my own stuff from scratch, AP's gave me hours of material on tap to use as I needed. I still throw some of my own stuff into it (ask my players about the gypsy ghoul brothers from Rise of the Runelords sometime...), or give it a minor tweak here or there, but it saves me gobs of time I can better use for painting, finishing video games with my kids (currently, that'd be Halo) or just getting in a good movie or TV series, rather than spending it hunched over a bunch of books to throw together an adventure that'll be finished in an hour or two.
Sure, like a lot of others I'd like to see shorter APs, or even APs that can go off in different directions. Maybe you finish the first adventure module and you can take it in three different directions via three different 2nd level modules, like a super choose-your-own-adventure series.
And I'd love to see someone do a sandbox or two, but those don't lend themselves well to 32 or 64 page booklets without some sort of overarching plot. Those things are better planned from scratch or done on the fly by a DM, not a game designer with a restricted page count.
Initially, those modules were excellent DM guiding material, giving me ideas for encounters, traps, NPC's and storylines. Later, as my free time shrank I found myself with less and less desire to spend hours making my own stuff from scratch, AP's gave me hours of material on tap to use as I needed. I still throw some of my own stuff into it (ask my players about the gypsy ghoul brothers from Rise of the Runelords sometime...), or give it a minor tweak here or there, but it saves me gobs of time I can better use for painting, finishing video games with my kids (currently, that'd be Halo) or just getting in a good movie or TV series, rather than spending it hunched over a bunch of books to throw together an adventure that'll be finished in an hour or two.
Sure, like a lot of others I'd like to see shorter APs, or even APs that can go off in different directions. Maybe you finish the first adventure module and you can take it in three different directions via three different 2nd level modules, like a super choose-your-own-adventure series.
And I'd love to see someone do a sandbox or two, but those don't lend themselves well to 32 or 64 page booklets without some sort of overarching plot. Those things are better planned from scratch or done on the fly by a DM, not a game designer with a restricted page count.
delericho
Legend
I like APs. Indeed, "Shackled City" is one of the 'big four' campaigns I've run - the ones that stand head and shoulders above the many other games I've run as being the best of the best.
But what I don't like is that the focus on APs seems to have led to other adventures being marginalised, or even disappearing. When "Shackled City" was first published, it was in Dungeon magazine where each part was one of several adventures that month, and later the AP was no more than one of three in the month's magazine. But with the Pathfinder AP, it's obviously the only included adventure, and although there's a separate line of Pathfinder adventures they're less frequent.
And, of course, 5e has its inaugural AP plus "Lost Mine of Phandelver" and, at present, no other official adventures. Which is something of a weakness.
So, yeah, I'd quite like to see more standalone adventures, and especially would like to see Dungeon magazine restart (in print or PDF) to fill the gap.
But one other thing to bear in mind about APs: Apparently, an awful lot of people actually buy them to read rather than to run. Indeed, that would be true of me - I now have 16 Pathfinder APs and have actually never played even one session of the game! That being the case, it's not really a surprise they're popular, as a multi-part linear story is probably an easier sell than six not-quite-connected stories would be.
But what I don't like is that the focus on APs seems to have led to other adventures being marginalised, or even disappearing. When "Shackled City" was first published, it was in Dungeon magazine where each part was one of several adventures that month, and later the AP was no more than one of three in the month's magazine. But with the Pathfinder AP, it's obviously the only included adventure, and although there's a separate line of Pathfinder adventures they're less frequent.
And, of course, 5e has its inaugural AP plus "Lost Mine of Phandelver" and, at present, no other official adventures. Which is something of a weakness.
So, yeah, I'd quite like to see more standalone adventures, and especially would like to see Dungeon magazine restart (in print or PDF) to fill the gap.
But one other thing to bear in mind about APs: Apparently, an awful lot of people actually buy them to read rather than to run. Indeed, that would be true of me - I now have 16 Pathfinder APs and have actually never played even one session of the game! That being the case, it's not really a surprise they're popular, as a multi-part linear story is probably an easier sell than six not-quite-connected stories would be.
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