Adventure Path Subscription

[Steel_Wind]

For those of you in Canada who do the subscription: is it received via Canada Post? That is my preference as things like UPS charge a piece of your soul for cross country shipments.

Yes, it's all United States Postal Service >> Canada Post. No agency brokerage fees or any nonsense like that involved.

 

[Steel_Wind]

What are the best AP's and why?

I've always heard lots of love for Rise of the Runelords and Kingmaker.

How was Carrion Crown? It sounded really appealing to me as it seemed like it would be reminiscent of Ravenloft.

I was at one point set to play in a Legacy of Fire campaign but that group fell apart very shortly after it was setup it seemed promising as well.

That's been discussed here on other threads (look further down the page) and on Paizo's Message Boards ad nauseum. Everybody has their own take, though I can agree that RotRL and Kingmaker get the most love -- at least until Skull and Shackles is released. I'm hopeful that will be more entertaining than Kingmaker was in the long term.

As for Carrion Crown, most of the installments are good, but it suffers from Theme Park Ride design. The plot which drives the PCs from one zone to the next is a reactive follow-the-bad-guy-because-we-don't- really-understand-what-they-are-up-to-yet trope. It feels tenuous and leaves the various volumes feeling a little bit unconnected as an overall AP. You can fix that and improve upon it to be sure, but that's the difficulty with Carrion Crown as written.

While I really liked the Haunting of Harrowstone (final encounter excepted) I'm not such a fan of the Carrion Crown AP overall. There are better APs to go with first. For a first timer, I'd go with Council of Thieves to book 4 -- end the campaign after book 4 -- then start a new AP with Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition.

I can't recommend Skull and Shackles yet as it's not out. But I'm hopeful as all hell!

I wouldn't start at Kingmaker as your fist AP. As an AP -- it's greatest weakness is that it is too damn long. Even playing weekly and allowing for a half dozen cancellations a year, you can easily spend 18 to 24 months playing Kingmaker. Now, some may see that as good value for your money. For me? I want something that falls between 9 months and 15 months total to play, assuming weekly play with 9 cancellations over 18 months - so call that 56 sessions or so, maybe 60 if cancellations arte kept to a minimum. About ten sessions a book, MAX is my limit. More than that and my interest tends to flag and what was new and exciting has long since devolved into been there, done that, power gamer masturbation. Just not my cuppa.

 

[delericho]

I am considering picking up a sub for the upcoming AP Skulls and Shackles. A PDF and physical copy are great on top of the 30% discount. However, I've never played/run an AP. I know they are generally regarded as high quality as far as pre written adventures go.

I've been a subscriber since the outset. Initially I was sceptical, but as I had enough left on my Dungeon sub for 14 issues 'free', I figured I might as well. I was glad I did - the Adventure Paths range from very good to exceptional.

I was wondering if anyone would suggest this route as I find the theme of Pirates and swashbuckling adventure to be quite tantalizing.

Simply put: yes.

How have the previous AP's been quality wise? Are they very railroady or is there room to improvise? What are the best AP's?

As I said, they're all very well done. Several of the paths have been exceptional.

My favourites have been Kingmaker and Serpent's Skull.

One thing to note, though - these are very much Adventure Paths. With the exception of Kingmaker, they all have a very definite story, and the adventures tend to have several parts all of which need to be completed for the PCs to succeed - the players can choose the order of the parts (in most cases), but they kind of need to tackle them all eventually. (Of course, the DM can always let them go wandering off the path!)

I almost did this for Carrion Crown as that Ravenlofty theme really appealed as well, but didn't bite in the end. Is it better to get these via a sub or off the shelf of the flgs?

I was actually a little disappointed in Carrion Crown. There wasn't anything much wrong with it, per se, but I was really looking forward to it, and yet after Kingmaker and Serpent's Skull it just didn't have quite the impact I had expected.

If you're going to start getting the APs, get a subscription. Aside from the obvious benefits (price break, free PDF), you'll also want to make sure you get all the parts, which a subscription easily ensures.

Unless of course you want to go out of your way to support your FLGS on principle.

Lastly, how do the charges work in a sub? Monthly? Or per shipment? I ask because I know Skulls and Shackles was delayed and will get 2 releases in a month (April I think)?

They charge the cost to my credit card each time they ship them. So, in the case of a double shipment, there will be a double charge in that one month.

 

[Feeroper]

Yeah Id say at this point I'm pretty sold on the AP sub. At least for Skull and Shackles. The free PDF combined with discounts is too good a deal to pass up. I'm hoping I can sway one of my game groups to play Skull and Shackles soon after it starts, but either way I want to get ahold of the books as they come out so I don't have to search for them later.

 

[Thotas]

I'm still looking to get a Pathfinder game going, and I've subscribed to the Adventure Paths and am trying to gather up the old ones I don't have yet because even if I don't ever get to play them, they're turning out to be great reads.

 

[Feeroper]

Yeah I have many modules from all D&D editions that I haven't got around to running (and sometimes I know I won't be able to run it for a while or ever at the time of purchase). I still use them to yank ideas/concepts from, or just sheer entertainment. Seeing as most everyone agrees that the APs are mostly written well, I have no issue picking some up even if I cannot run them all.