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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 9374122" data-attributes="member: 3586">I actually finished running Kingmaker. In PF1.It's what convinced me that Paizo (at least the crew there at the time) were incompetent at designing rules. And barely competent at writing adventure paths.This isn't to say that there isn't good stuff in Kingmaker - there definitely is. The hexcrawling in particular was a lot of fun, with plenty for the players to encounter. But the overall story was so badly constructed, especially as the final enemy comes out of nowhere with no foreshadowing. The less said about the mass combat system the better - which again, comes out of nowhere after an adventure or two of building your nation, suddenly you need an army!(And, after a lot of encounters that were on the easy side, was in full Overpowered mode - that game almost ended in a TPK, but required one PC to roll and confirm a critical hit).If anything exposes the weaknesses of the 6-volume Adventure Path more than Kingmaker, I don't want to know! (Much as some of the more recent adventures at Wizards, designing with a team requires the team to be in communication and on the same plan, and have a plan from the start. Otherwise you get the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy).We played through all of it because I complete adventures, and my players sign up for completing them with me. Moment to moment gameplay is fun regardless, and having the right players together makes a big, big difference.This isn't to say we'll play through everything. A different group I ran tried playing The Abomination Vaults using PF2 rules, and it was a dreadful experience. They were not a fan of the PF2 rules, nor of the lots and lots of encounters where they could barely hit the monsters. (I also had major problems with some of its story beats). We gave up after level 3.I was never happier than when covid struck and I had to give up running Descent into Avernus.But generally the adventure has to really not click with the group before we abandon it. We're five sessions into running Vecna: Eve of Ruin and we're having fun, despite my overall dissatisfaction with components of the adventure.Cheers,Merric</blockquote>

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