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The Kingmaker AP was a very unique experience. There is a ton of world building and kingdom management mechanics to explore, which can lead to a very different experience depending on the group you are with. Most of the game is a sandbox where you have total freedom to operate, so creative RP and outside the box thinking can lead to a satisfying experience.

Party: We had 5 players with a good mix of classes. A few of us had focused on charisma skills which can really help move things along. There were times that every class could shine though, and everyone made an impact.

What I liked:

1. Exploration: there is an entire country out there to explore, so much to do!
2. Kingdom building: you get to build and manage a kingdom, a unique and sometimes tedious experience. But I love the details.
3. Lots of RP opportunity if you drive it that way, but not necessary.

What I didn’t like:

1. Sometimes felt a little too easy.
2. The final boss was not well connected to the rest of the story.

This was truly a unique adventure, and I think the enjoyment really comes from how your party drives it. There are a lot of opportunities for creativity.

I really enjoyed The Hyperion Cantos, and the first few Dune books I read a long time ago (may reread these now). Can anyone recommend some other books (or series) along these lines? Huge stories on an epic scale, space battles, cool future tech, etc.

Very cool application of LLM to screen potential protein-drug interactions.

The backstory for Yoon (2e kineticist iconic) is out now. I'm really digging the art here, excited to see the character sheets when available.

Pretty cool demo

looks like they already reached their goal

Interesting article, I wonder how much longer new language models will be detectable like this.

I want to kick off posts here with a short review based on my experience playing the 1e adventure path Rise of the Runelords (RoTL, anniversary edition). It took a few years for our group to get through this one and I really enjoyed it.

Party: We had 4-6 players at any one time, and a mix of classes throughout the adventure. Nobody was min-maxing, and I found that all PCs had opportunities to shine. Later levels went much easier with a full arcane caster in the party. Early/mid levels it helped to have 1 or more PCs that can go toe-to-toe with large+ creatures.

What I liked:

1. Range of genres: early on there were strong mystery and horror themes, near the end it was more wilderness exploration.
2. Good dungeon crawls throughout.
3. Good mix of combat difficulty gave the feeling of high fantasy, where one minute you can be smashing face and the next you are barely hanging onto the ropes. The dynamic flow added tension and excitement.

What I didn't like:

1. Not a lot of RP.
2. I don't always enjoy the highest levels of play (this one went beyond 16). At these levels it can get into the territory of 'which wizard kills everyone first'.
3. The Runeforge felt out of place
4. There wasn't a recurring big-bad throughout the story, just a series of more powerful big bads that did not always tie together well.

Overall, this was one of the better APs I've played or ran in 1e. The variety of themes, locations, and story elements leads to a dynamic and well-balanced adventure.

I created this community as a place to discuss the Pathfinder ttrpg. I'll start up with a few posts reviewing 1e adventure paths I've played or run over the years. I'm looking forward to growing this community!