I should note that I was cleaning up my reddit account (read: deleting all my comments before deleting the account) and found this from a bit ago. Thought I’d preserve it for posterity
Age of Ashes is a level 1 - 20 adventure path dealing with a threat uncovered hiding under a keep the players take over. It travels all over the inner sea region, so you have a nice variety of settings. It does have some balance issues in books 1 and 2 but if you decide to run it it’s easy to fix them. I ran this and it was quite fun, especially the last 3 books are excellent.
Extinction Curse is a level 1 - 20 adventure path. The party plays a group of circus performers who get drawn into an organized threat to the isle of Kortos. It struggles to keep the circus theme relevant and has some real balance issues. I’m enjoying it as a player but I think there are better APs.
Agents of Edgewatch is a level 1 - 20 adventure path. The party plays members of the Edgewatch, the city guard for Absalom. They have to track down serial killers and conspirators. This one has some rough spots not just on balance but also in terms of content.
Abomination Vaults is a level 1-10 adventure path, and is the most recommended adventure for new groups. It takes place in the same town as the Beginner Box so you can easily run both and there is even some threads of connectivity between the two. It’s a megadungeon, but that doesn’t mean it’s just kick in the door and fight. A motivated party can peacefully resolve many encounters as they delve deeper under the lighthouse to figure out what is causing the mysterious light to emanate from it after 500 years.
Fists of the Ruby Phoenix is a level 11-20 adventure path. Would not recommend for new players as starting at level 11 would be overwhelming. This is a fighting tournament adventure. It goes some wild places as teams of fighters are dropped on an island to duke it out for the chance to enter the tournament proper. Very fun, and some of the cooler set pieces in any adventure, works alright as a follow up to Abomination Vaults or other 1-10 APs as the party’s exploits would be likely to have earned them an invite to the tournament.
Strength of Thousands is a level 1-20 adventure path. The game takes place over decades as the party starts as students in the Magaambya academy. Everyone is a spellcaster of as least some kind, and gets some extra abilities to allow any class to have some spells to cast. Very role play heavy and extremely well done.
Quest for the Frozen Flame is a level 1-10 adventure path. The party is from the Broken Tusk tribe, wandering the frozen tundra searching for something that was taken from them. It’s a wilderness survival AP that has a heavy emphasis on exploration.
Outlaw of Alkenstar is a level 1-10 adventure path. You play outlaws in the clockwork and steam powered city of Alkenstar, setting up a plan to get back on the real villains here.
Blood Lords is a level 1-20 adventure path. The party plays wannabe “blood lords”, officials in the undead court of Geb. This is an evil or at best lawful neutral AP, good characters need not apply. It oozes gothic horror from every pore. Players can easily fit in as undead characters like a ghoul, skeleton, or mummy, but living characters work here too.
Gatewalkers is a level 1-10 adventure path. The party is a group investigating why they all lost their memories of the moment they stepped through a teleportation gate, and their newfound connections to strange powers. It is a really fun start to an adventure path, one of the stronger Paizo has written and I think it will be seen as one of the better adventures Paizo has written.
Kingmaker is a level 1-20 adventure path that was converted from 1e officially by Paizo and Legendary Games. It is a rewrite of the 1e AP by including content from the Owlcat video game. It’s about the party being given a charter to explore and claim an untamed land for themselves. It’s fun, I ran it twice in 1e, though kingdom management got tedious after a while for my groups. Others have really enjoyed that aspect though.
Stolen Fate is a level 11-20 adventure path. Not even destiny itself is safe when powerful forces seek to seize control of the future, and now it falls to a band of heroes selected by the power of a magical Harrow deck to step in and ensure that fate is not stolen from the world! Already noteworthy in their own right, this new band of adventurers finds themselves quickly swept up in a race to gather and control the scattered cards of a powerful, mysterious artifact tied to the destinies of all who live on Golarion. It’s a race that must be won, for to lose means all possible futures fade save for one—a stolen fate meant to bring power to a very select few and leave the rest of reality in ruin!
Thanks for the summaries!
We’ve just started Abomination vaults after farting around in absalom for 4 levels.
I’ll have to keep an eye on Fist of the Ruby Phoenix as a follow up. Who doesn’t love a good tournament arc?!
Oh what were you doing in Absalom for so long? My players are level 3.5 in AV after doing the beginner box, so roughly halfway through the second level. I found a supplement to the game that adds some extra bits and fleshes some of the story out, and one part has them going to Absalom, which I think I’m going to add in, just for a bit of exposure.
Was considering FotRP as a follow up to AV assuming we make it that far. But that’ll be a while down the road.
We played through the Beginner Box too. Then the group sorta just decided to check out Absalom.
I was making it up as went and that got a bit tricky with work and stuff so I lured them back to Otari for AV.
We’ve done one session and I think they’re enjoying being super overlevelled for the moment.
I’m running milestone levelling so I’ll slowly match the difficulty to really make to lower levels seem quite dangerous
I love how much Paizo fleshed out the lore. I picked up the Lost Omens book for Absalom and it is packed! That could be useful if you ever need reference material.
Because AV is one of the earlier APs, it’s a little difficult. It won’t be terrible if they’re one level higher than what’s recommended by the milestones.