Rise of the Runelords vs. Curse of the Crimson Throne

[Desdichado]

I have all of these on pdf, but frankly, I find that the format sucks, and it's very difficult to actually read these documents cover to cover. I'm going to bite the bullet and pick up one of the two of these adventure paths in print today. I think. I might be convinced to pick up Legacy of Fire instead (is that one finished yet, or is it still missing an adventure or two? I'm a little out of touch; when I discovered that I was struggling to read them in pdf, I stopped buying them.)

Anyway, before I commit myself to spending 120 bucks on hard copies of books that I already legally own on pdf but haven't managed to find time to read, I'm wanting to solicit some feedback on which of the adventure paths you like best and why, so I can make a smarter decision.

The elf adventure path is not really on my radar; it's a pretty distant fourth of four.

 

[Synchronicity]

For the Adventure Paths, it depends what you're looking for. I'll break it down quickly. There will be some spoilers ahead, if that bothers anyone reading this thread.

Curse of the Crimson Throne is a highly urban campaign, with an extremly visible bad guy from the get-go. Much of the opposition is levelled humanoids, moving into undead and devils at the higher levels. I found all the books to be extremly good fun, though people say book 4 can feel a little contrived, in a chained fetch quest sort of way. It is, in my opinion, the better of the two adventure paths.

Rise of the Runelords is a campaign that's high on travel, with the adventurers visiting a new location pretty much every book. It's about delving into the mysteries of the distant past, and learning about the dark secrets of an ancient civilisation. Books 1-3 are damn good, but books 4-6 tend to get bogged down in hack-and-slash encounters with high hp enemies. The opposition is varied, but heavy on giants and arcane spellcasters at the higher levels.

I have played Curse of the Crimson Throne and run Rise of the Runelords, both start to finish. I've also played Second Darkness (the elf one) from start to finish, and am currently running Legacy of Fire, so that's where my opinions are coming from.

My personal recommendation would be Curse of the Crimson Throne. If it doesn't sound entirely like your thing, I'd recommend Legacy of Fire second. Rise of the Runelords may be getting a little sparse in print these days, which Legacy of Fire is the newest path. It's also arabian nights exploration in the desert, and is awesome. I'd rank it with Curse of the Crimson Throne for my favourite of the Paizo adventure paths. Legacy of Fire has 5 books out at the time of this writing, with the final book being released at some point this month.

Sorry this is sort of brief and scattered, I've got to rush off somewhere. I hope this post is useful to you!

 

[Mikaze]

Runelords if you want a more traditional, sprawling high adventure campaign with smatterings of horror here and there, Crimson Throne for an urban campaign leaning more towards intrigue and conspiracy.

They're both good at what they do, but

Spoiler

you'll probably want to add some material throughout Runelords to build up the BBEG, some tips for which can be found in the GM Reference threads in the Runelords forum at Paizo's messageboard.

End spoiler.

Crimson Throne will likely require the gamers to really invest themselves in the setting as well.

Spoiler

The campaign traits in that AP's player's guide go a good ways towards that end, but you really need to get them involved in their city and get them attatched to it before you start. Otherwise there's not much reason for them to bolt as soon as things start. There's another problem for some players as well: It doesn't stay in the city all the way through, so if they're expecting a pure urban campaign they might be frustrated to be torn out of their element during the fourth and fifth volumes. I'M possibly going to run into this since my players have been establishing businesses in the city they want to see flourish.

End spoiler.

Legacy of Fire is definitely a strong candidate though, but it's quite complete yet. One more volume to go, I believe.

Spoiler

It's also the least "dark" of the APs so far. High adventure driven by a bit of romantic fantasy in the background. The setting is a nice change of pace from the usual scenery as well.

Personally, I can't help but push the first volume of Legacy.

Second Darkness though? It's more "traditional" to a point. But I would hesitate to push it

Spoiler

if you've already run a campaign for your players focusing on the drow, like ever.

 

[Desdichado]

Thanks, guys. Urban intrigue is definately more my thing than traditional dungeoncrawl (although horror is always good. I did read most of Skinsaw on pdf before fighting with the format got me down; is there more than that?) So it sounds like Crimson Throne, of which I've read literally nothing yet, is more likely to be my thing. I do really like the Arabian Nights premise of Legacy of Fire, but I'd rather buy one complete AP now and come back to that one later when I can pick it up all in one go.

 

[Mikaze]

Urban intrigue is definately more my thing than traditional dungeoncrawl (although horror is always good. I did read most of Skinsaw on pdf before fighting with the format got me down; is there more than that?)

On horror in Runelords:

Spoiler

A bit more, mainly a potentially very disturbing Deliverence/Hills Have Eyes vibe going on in Hook Mountain Massacre with the horrible horrible inbred hillbilly ogres. And that's the toned down version they actually released!(Nicolas Logue tends to have that effect) Things get more epic and high adventure after that, though there is a brush with Lovecraftian critters towards the end.

If urban intrigue really is your thing though, Council of Thieves

Spoiler

is apparently going to be set entirely in and around a city, unlike Crimson Throne which takes the players out for a good bit halfway through.

It won't even start until August though, so that's probably not much help.

If you go with either Runelords or Throne though, be sure to let your players know about the three major human ethnicities in the area. It's gone a long way towards establishing character identity in my campaign at least(considering how racially charged Crimson Throne's environment can get).

 

[Treebore]

I had to cancel my PF subscription for a while. Fortunately I picked up all the PDF's I missed when they had the 35% off sale, but I got my print copies from Amazon for good discounts, which should save you at least $30.

 

[Desdichado]

Yeah, I agree that Council of Thieves looks even more like my kinda thing than any of the existing AP's. But, since it's not out yet, I don't have to worry about that. Next year I'll think about picking that up all in one go.

 

[Dark Mistress]

Just to comment on Legacy of Fire, the last book of that AP will be out later this month. Then Council of Thieves the next AP starts in August.

This is just a FYI as the OP didn't want to be LoF due to it not being all out. Just pointing out wait a week or two and it will be.

 

[Erik Mona]

I'd like to chime in with a bit of support for what sounds like your decision to go with Curse of the Crimson Throne. For starters, hard copies of many of the Rise of the Runelords volumes are completely out of print. Many CotCT volumes are about to enter this status, so your timing couldn't be better.

Also: Cool campaign!

--Erik Mona
Publisher
Paizo Publishing, LLC

 

[mach1.9pants]

I'd like to chime in with a bit of support for what sounds like your decision to go with Curse of the Crimson Throne. For starters, hard copies of many of the Rise of the Runelords volumes are completely out of print. Many CotCT volumes are about to enter this status, so your timing couldn't be better.

Also: Cool campaign!

--Erik Mona
Publisher
Paizo Publishing, LLC

Yeah I just went ahead and ordered the full set of both from Amazon, after picking up 7 and 8 for a look from my F(not so L)GS. Amazon has them all 'in stock' however haven't posted #3 so I have asked my FnsLGS if they have it. Note if you are in the US they are all available really cheap on Amazon 2nd hand and/or old stock.

Not much use to me in NZ!

Still haven't decided (with the huge ease of conversion/creation in 4E) whether to run PFRPG or 4E. Having looked through the 7 & 8 it would be easy to go 4E, mostly by joining encounter areas. Obviously making NPCs as 4E monsters also easy, probably easier than up-scaling them to PFRPG!