Taking the Hook: How easy it for the players to accept the Path


Pathfinder Adventure Path General Discussion

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Recently my group started the Skull and Shackles AP. We wanted to play "the Pirate AP" but none of us made PCs that wanted to be Pirates. This has caused some issue with wanting to continue the AP.

On the other hand, we also are playing Carrion Crown and we had a better time buying into the "stop the Evil People"

So what APs have had easier or hard to accept hooks to play?

Which APs should players make characters to the story, and which ones are better for a "random group of adventurers"?

Silver Crusade

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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Who goes into Skull and Shackles with a character who doesn't want to be a pirate?

That's like walking into a normal Pathfinder game with a commoner who is really interested in the economy of rutabaga farming. Sure there's rules to support it, but that's really not what Kingmaker is all about.

Pretty much all the APs have a great hook except Second Darkness, which does a terrible bait and switch (be selfish criminal pirates, but then go and selflessy save the jerkwad elves). Council of Thieves has a similar issue, where the opening encounter makes the PCs believe they're going to start rebelling against House Thrune, but really they're just going to take down a conspiracy of criminals.

But as far as I can tell, the rest of the APs, tend to be pretty straightforward as far as what to expect as a Player and as a GM in the player's guides.


I would say they all work best when players make characters tailored to towards the story (or at least to the area/region/theme of the AP). That said, while I'm not familiar with all of the APs, I imagine that Rise of the Rune Lord, Legacy of Fire, and Shattered Star would probably work for those with no direct ties to the story or location.

Dark Archive

Getting someone to run a specific AP and then refusing to make characters that fit in the AP is a jerk thing to do. All of the APs will be a lot more fun if you make characters that are invested in the story from the get go.

Reign of Winter is more friendly to randomly assembled PCs, but in my group we're all from Irrisen, and it's been much more fun.

I think Rise of the Runelords would be another good fit, but I've never actually read or played it.

Scarab Sages

The players need to want to take the hook, even if its weak and barely there (Carrion Crown, I'm looking at you). They should know they're playing in an "Adventure Path" not a sandbox campaign. The campaign was *designed* to be mostly rail-roady, and the players need to have that in mind when creating their characters and their characters' personalities and motivations.


The player companions do a good job of telling the characters what to expect from an ap. There should be no issues unless people are being obtuse or actively being contrary.

Ill agree second darkness is an exception to this and I believe james jacobs has referenced it as one of the aps he'd like to re do.

One thing ill note though is in the case of skull and shackles some groups have apparently really struggled with the I'm a mostly helpless slave part at the starr. For my group and I suspect a lot of others it reinforced what it was intended to but at the end of the day pick an adventure path suitable ro your group.


Rise of the Runelords is a great fit for a "random group of adventurers". There are all kinds of reasons that player characters of a variety of races, classes, backgrounds, motivations and goals could be in Sandpoint at the beginning of the adventure path.

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

We did not realize that as characters we did not want to be "Priates" till about half way though book two. Events transpired that made us want to be "Slave Liberators" instead of pirates. Thus no desire to go up the Shackles power ladder.


Shattered Star is an AP for a random group of advanturers, but then again this AP is also a series of dungeons so that might not be for your group.

Scarab Sages

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Andrew Harasty wrote:
We did not realize that as characters we did not want to be "Priates" till about half way though book two. Events transpired that made us want to be "Slave Liberators" instead of pirates. Thus no desire to go up the Shackles power ladder.

That's a perfectly fair evolution for your characters to take. My group actually did this too. They started freeing all the slave ships they found and resettling all of them at Rickety Squibs and setting up a Free Republic.

The AP is actually perfectly geared for this. Want to defend the freed slaves and stop the slave trade? Take over the Shackles power structure. There are hints at the first couple of books that the antagonists are working with Cheliax to establish order in the area and Cheliax is the central power of slave holding. So you have by going off-script character wise effectively made the central storyline MORE powerful, not less.


I have to agree with Duiker- while it would definitely require some rework on behalf of the DM, I think deciding to become slave liberators (or even Privateers) still works with the existing structure of the AP overall.


Andrew Harasty wrote:
We did not realize that as characters we did not want to be "Priates" till about half way though book two. Events transpired that made us want to be "Slave Liberators" instead of pirates. Thus no desire to go up the Shackles power ladder.

Check this out:

Skull n Shackles for good characters


the hook for reign of winter is terrible, I think the hooks are really where a gm needs to do his work to make the ap's work well and be memorable.


I made a character for S&S that didn't want to be a pirate, and it worked out great. You get shanghai'd, so it's not problem. You can't all not want to, though... Why are you even there? What campaign traits did you take? Did you even read the players guide?

The Exchange

NIghtrider wrote:
the hook for reign of winter is terrible, I think the hooks are really where a gm needs to do his work to make the ap's work well and be memorable.

Most of the problem can be solved by simple communication prior to the game, with the GM explaining what kind of AP the group is going to play. For example, in Reign of Winter, the GM should inform the players that the characters should be suitable for winter environments, willing to help and protect people, and hopefully with a fair bit of wanderlust. You make sure that's the case, and you get a part of adventurers ready and willing to bite into the hook the adventure has set up.

I do agree though that specifically in Reign of Winter the hook is really messy, with the initial part of the adventure being a boring "you are hired to investigate someplace dangerous" and the hook for the rest of the campaign relaying on forcing the PCs to act.


You need to outline a bit of what is going to happen so the pc's fit. Also stuff like 'this AP really cannot cope with evil pc's, paladin, mounts, etc' or....this mod is heavily driven by a lot of npcs, railroad, sandbox and such.


Andrew Harasty wrote:
We did not realize that as characters we did not want to be "Priates" till about half way though book two. Events transpired that made us want to be "Slave Liberators" instead of pirates. Thus no desire to go up the Shackles power ladder.

How in the world did that happen? The best way to get people to take the hook is go "we're running a pirate campaign, you'd better want to become king of the pirates!

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Mavrickindigo wrote:
Andrew Harasty wrote:
We did not realize that as characters we did not want to be "Priates" till about half way though book two. Events transpired that made us want to be "Slave Liberators" instead of pirates. Thus no desire to go up the Shackles power ladder.
How in the world did that happen? The best way to get people to take the hook is go "we're running a pirate campaign, you'd better want to become king of the pirates!

It sort just happened after the fact and a quirk of our own making. Each of us had sizable RP back story but in the end each of us were of the opinion that "We don't mind being pirates." None of our characters wanted to lead. By the time we got though most of book two, we sort of realized that "good ol' piracy" was not our goal anymore.


As the main person in my gaming group who has the time to DM (but not enough time (or the inclination)to create my own campaign), I run APs all the time, and we all just have an agreement. I will DM, but it will be a published AP (or something similar). I let the players vote on which one they want to play next. In return, they agree to create PCs that fit the AP, and to follow the plot. It works great for us.

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