Why Am I Here?
When Paizo introduced the Adventure Path in a 2003 issue of Dungeon Magazine, they unwittingly changed the course of history for tabletop roleplaying prewritten adventures. Until that point, the majority of modules written for DnD were open-ended sandboxes that valued location-based descriptions over individual plot beats. With The Shackled City adventure path, Paizo endeavored to create a complete level 1-20 campaign that guided players through a tale of epic proportions. The success of the format led to Paizo creating two more adventure paths for Dungeon Magazine: Age of Worms and Savage Tides. Following their run in Dungeon Magazine, Paizo has continued to publish adventure paths under the name Pathfinder. There have been twenty-six adventure paths under the Pathfinder title and six under the name Starfinder. With so many adventure paths, no single player has any time to experience all of them. With that in mind, I intend to craft unique stories-based on the framework of Paizo's adventure paths in order to bring their content to a new generation of gamers, fantasy-fans, and storytellers.
Before getting into the minutia of this project and its goals, it is important to define what an adventure path is. An adventure path is a long-form prewritten table-top roleplaying game module. It provides Game Masters with characters, enemies, situations, locations, and plots to bring to the table for their players. Traditionally, the Pathfinder model has been to publish six-96 page books per adventure path, although that format is the product of experimentation and continues to undergo slight changes. Each adventure path seeks to provide a unique experience for the players based on location, genre, tone, and individual encounters.
This project intends to chart my own experience reading through this massive amount of work by adapting the content of the adventure paths to a more traditional format: a serial narrative publication that follows a group of heroes as they forge their path through the prewritten scenarios. Think of this as an actual play or campaign diary without actual players or table experience. At the end of each book of the adventure path, I will write a review of the publication to provide DMs with a more granular view of the module itself: its shortcomings and strengths, as well as any potential tips I have for running the game.
I am excited that you have been interested enough to read this far into my introduction post, and hope you find magic and meaning in the stories I have to share. We shall begin at the very beginning (a very good place to start): Issue 97 of Dungeon Magazine from March 2003 with "Life's Bazaar" the first part of the first adventure path The Shackled City. Each edition of this blog shall relay the events of a single part of the adventure, which you can find delineated here. I shall see you then adventurers!
This project intends to chart my own experience reading through this massive amount of work by adapting the content of the adventure paths to a more traditional format: a serial narrative publication that follows a group of heroes as they forge their path through the prewritten scenarios. Think of this as an actual play or campaign diary without actual players or table experience. At the end of each book of the adventure path, I will write a review of the publication to provide DMs with a more granular view of the module itself: its shortcomings and strengths, as well as any potential tips I have for running the game.
I am excited that you have been interested enough to read this far into my introduction post, and hope you find magic and meaning in the stories I have to share. We shall begin at the very beginning (a very good place to start): Issue 97 of Dungeon Magazine from March 2003 with "Life's Bazaar" the first part of the first adventure path The Shackled City. Each edition of this blog shall relay the events of a single part of the adventure, which you can find delineated here. I shall see you then adventurers!
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