D&D General Best Adventure Path (spanning 10+ levels) of all time?

[Frankie1969]

Large but straightforward question: what is the best collection of pre-made adventure content that follows a full story arc from small-time local heroes (preferably starting at level 1, no higher than 4) to world-hopping legends (preferably reaching 20, no lower than 14)?

Not just in 5E. Any edition, including 4E, PF, 13A, or any other system similar enough to translate.

YMMV, but my personal criteria for "best" are:

1. well-written plot with logical motivation & consequences,
2. well-written NPCs who merit emotional investment,
3. well-written scenarios, preferably organized like instructions not like a novella,
4. well-balanced & interesting challenges, and
5. not overly complex to DM (Zeitgeist gets dinged on this last point).

I don't know what my answer would be. I have fond memories of (TA)GDQ but I know it doesn't stand up well by modern standards.

 

[Starfox]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Curse of the Crimson Throne yet. It's for Pathfinder, but I found it pretty easy to convert to 5e on the fly. Plotting and NPCs are stupendous. Admittedly it might be a little shaky on your third and fifth points, and the "Skeletons of Scarwall" part is waaaay too long and needs some serious editing. (Sorry, Steel_Wind). But overall, a truly epic story.

I played Curse of the Crimson throne, and it's ok, but I feel Hell's Rebels does a similiar theme better. Crimson Throne has that bait-and-switchin parts 4 and 5 where a party of city adventurers are suddenly supposed to live out barbarian challenges. Quite odd. This kind of bait and switch was common in the early adventure paths, Savage Tide had several (one at the start leaving town, another going planar) but Jade Regent (also Paizo) takes the prize!

The correct answer is Rise of the Runelords.

I converted RoR to 5E to learn and try that system, and that may have colored my opinion as we didn't like 4E. Still, my analysis is that RoR is a series of linked horror films - from children of the corn to haunted house, to urban horror, to slasher flic and so on. There was a too much gore for my taste.

On the history of adventure paths, I'd say the old G- D-Q series, literally the first series of adventures published, were a kind of adventure path. Even more so if you started with the (later published) slaver series. Lets just say that adventure & campaign writing has improved since then.

 

[humble minion]

I converted RoR to 5E to learn and try that system, and that may have colored my opinion as we didn't like 4E. Still, my analysis is that RoR is a series of linked horror films - from children of the corn to haunted house, to urban horror, to slasher flic and so on. There was a too much gore for my taste.

I really liked the general story arc of RotRL, and actually toyed with a complete reskin and port of it to 5e Dark Sun, with the Runelord being replaced by a lost sorcerer-king who fell into some sort of torpor or quiescence after completing the genocide that Rajaat assigned him. But it would have been a LOT of work for a campaign that I was unlikely to ever run, and I would have had to re-do almost all of the maps to get rid of all the forests and lakes and so on which are completely un-Dark-Sunnish, so the project petered out.

So Karzoug Gnoll-Eater slumbers on undisturbed in a forgotten mountain fastness far to the south-west of the Tyr Valley...

 

[Starfox]

reskin and port of it to 5e Dark Sun

What was to gross for my game would be prefect for Dark Sun.

 

[humble minion]

Some products which don't get talked about enough in AP threads though, are the Al-Qadim boxed sets. Most of them had an campaign booklet with a series of linked adventures that formed a campaign - though given the boxed sets were generally geographically themed, the adventures weren't always tightly linked enough to be considered a true adventure path, and the adventures themselves were often small and consisting of one fairly moderate dungeon.

Thousand And One Adventures was a good one, where the PCs were trying to unravel the history of a despised undead caliph of the past while dealing with a cult of flame mages. Assassin Mountain, where the PCs got involved in intrigue and treachery surrounding the leadership succession of an assassin brotherhood, and then there's Caravans, where the PCs try to reunite a star-crossed pair of childhood sweethearts late in life, with the aid of a prophetic magic carpet that eats poetry. My favourite was Ruined Kingdoms though. I can't say it's a genuinely good campaign out of the box because it jumps all over the place thematically and needs a lot of fleshing out, but the main storyline of reincarnation and legacies and awakened ancient evils, and its amazingly memorable first encounter have nagged at me to run it forever.

 

[Matchstick]

It probably doesn't fit all the criteria but if I were going to pick something like that for a new campaign I'd do Eyes of the Stone Thief. Unique premise and it can be engaged with almost constantly (or sparingly) pretty much all the way up from peasant to hero.

 

[edosan]

So everyone talking about these Pathfinder campaigns is making me want to take a look - what’s the best way to get these? What are the best versions of Runelords and Crimson Throne to get?

 

[Steel_Wind]

So everyone talking about these Pathfinder campaigns is making me want to take a look - what’s the best way to get these? What are the best versions of Runelords and Crimson Throne to get?

The Anniv Editions of both RotRL and CotCC for PF1 are the definitive versions of each to get. They are available in softcover and in PDF from from the Paizo store, (though I think they are out of the hardcover, at least mint versions of same.) You can find the hardcover out in the wild elsewhere for sale in the Usual Suspected places (FLGS, Amazon, et al).

paizo.com - Pathfinder Adventure Path: Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition (PFRPG)

paizo.com - Pathfinder Adventure Path: Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition Pocket Edition

paizo.com - Pathfinder Adventure Path: Curse of the Crimson Throne (PFRPG)

paizo.com - Pathfinder Adventure Path: Curse of the Crimson Throne Pocket Edition

If you are planning on running them under a different game system (5e, say), I would suggest just getting the PDF from Paizo.com, though you know best how you run your games and so which version you might like to buy. Perhaps you would be content with the softcover? Only you know what you need and prefer.

 

[MNblockhead]

I'd ding this pretty heavily on point #4. It was a sandbox of various different levels but part of the party's goals are laid out by the card reading that could (and did) lead the party into challenges very inappropriate for their level.

That was a feature not a bug for me and my group.

It creates a feel of danger and needing to find your footing in this new dangerous place the PCs have found themselves in.

 

[MNblockhead]

Am I the only one to never see or use these?

Nope. Totally missed the voting arrows until @CleverNickName pointed them out.

 

[MNblockhead]

Well, if you're on a mobile device, the arrows are down here, at the bottom of the post. Maybe that's why some folks haven't seen them?
↓ ↓ ↓

Nope, on a laptop. I'm just apparently not very observant.