Google's Gemini, or whatever their AI is that answers your search before they actually show you links, ranked the Pathfinder 1e adventure paths for me. I asked it to expand it's initial summary to include the full list, but I didn't check if it actually got everything or if it missed one. AI isn't actually as good as it should be at catching everything, which should, of course, be its strong suit.
Commentary came with the AI rankings. It's not mine.
Tier 1: The Masterpieces (S-Tier)
- Curse of the Crimson Throne: Ultimate urban intrigue campaign.
- Hell's Rebels: Masterful political rebellion sandbox.
- Kingmaker: Definitive kingdom-building open world.
- Rise of the Runelords: Classic foundational heroic fantasy.
- Iron Gods: Thrilling high-tech science-fantasy blend.
- Ironfang Invasion: Gritty guerrilla warfare and survival.
- Mummy's Mask: Traditional Egyptian-themed tomb exploration.
- Skull & Shackles: High-seas pirate sandbox adventure.
- Strange Aeons: Atmospheric Lovecraftian cosmic horror.
- War for the Crown: Intricate high-stakes political espionage.
- Wrath of the Righteous: Epic mythic-power demonic warfare.
- Carrion Crown: Gothic horror anthology style.
- Legacy of Fire: Classic Arabian Nights genie tale.
- Reign of Winter: Whimsical plane-hopping folklore journey.
- Return of the Runelords: High-level epic trilogy conclusion.
- Ruins of Azlant: Fascinating underwater colony survival.
- Shattered Star: Direct old-school dungeon crawl.
- Tyrant's Grasp: Grim apocalyptic survival finale.
- Council of Thieves: Disjointed city-based organized crime.
- Giantslayer: Repetitive and exhausting giant combat.
- Hell's Vengeance: Highly restrictive evil-aligned campaign.
- Jade Regent: Frustrating caravan mechanics subsystem.
- Second Darkness: Jarring mid-campaign tonal shift.
- Serpent's Skull: Disappointing lost-continent jungle exploration.
Now, I don't pretend to be a fan of the same things as the mainstream. Seeing Carrion Crown down at B-Tier when I think it's probably the best one in many ways was weird. Why is it niche? It has the same themes as Curse of Strahd, which is largely seen as the best 5e campaign. Seeing Strange Aeons as A-Tier, when I didn't even think it was as good as Carrion Crown (although maybe I had higher expectations of it too) was weird. And I had the impression that Council of Thieves was relatively well received, but I guess not. Given that all that this AI answer is is scraping reddit posts and whatnot.
Anyway, for funsies, I did the 5e campaigns too, including the modular ones, which Gemini wanted to exclude at first.
S-Tier: The Masterpieces
- Curse of Strahd: Unmatched gothic horror sandbox.
- Lost Mine of Phandelver: The gold standard of entry-level D&D campaign design.
- Tomb of Annihilation: The pinnacle of 5e hex-crawl survival and lethal dungeon design.
- Keys from the Golden Vault: Widely praised as one of the best overall anthologies. It provides heist-focused standalone missions that are phenomenally easy to run and incredibly player-driven.
- Waterdeep: Dragon Heist: Exceptional urban roleplay and sandbox element mechanics.
- Candlekeep Mysteries: A library-themed collection focused on episodic investigations. Universally loved by DMs for its versatile, "plug-and-play" formatting.
- Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden: A gritty, isolationist sandbox praised for localized survival dread.
- The Wild Beyond the Witchlight: Whimsical feywild adventure celebrated for its brilliant pacifist run options.
- Storm King’s Thunder: A sprawling giant-slaying sandbox that captures classic grand-scale fantasy.
- Ghosts of Saltmarsh: Nautical-themed compilation mixing classic modules with robust seafaring rules. The town itself functions well as a campaign hub, though the maritime chapters require work to link up smoothly.
- Tales from the Yawning Portal: Recreates legendary, lethal old-school dungeons like "The Sunless Citadel" and "Tomb of Horrors." Great for tactical hack-and-slash tables but totally barren of connective narrative narrative tissue.
- Quests from the Infinite Staircase: A collection of updated classic 1e/2e modules. Highly creative sci-fi/fantasy concepts, though it relies heavily on the DM to fill in structural gaps.
- Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus: Spectacular Mad Max hellscape with an opening chapter that feels detached.
- Dragon of Icespire Peak: Reliable quest-board-style layout that works cleanly but lacks a grand plot spine.
- Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep: Compelling narrative backed by great rival NPC mechanics, tuned specifically for Exandria fans.
- Out of the Abyss: Brilliant Underdark survival escape that loses momentum in its clunky political second half.
- Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel: Culturally rich, vibrant settings packed with imaginative standalone lore. Panned slightly by community rankings due to highly inconsistent adventure scaling and balancing issues.
- Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage: An immense, deep megadungeon built for combat tacticians that leaves roleplayers wanting more.
- Princes of the Apocalypse: An elemental dungeon crawl that drags under confusing sandbox pacing.
- Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk: Shifts a beloved classic into late-game cosmic horror dungeons that feel tonally jarring.
- Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen: A rigid, rail-thin military campaign targeted mostly toward setting purists.
- Tyranny of Dragons (Hoard / Rise): Written before core system rules were locked, plagued by railroad structure and severe math imbalances.
- Spelljammer: Light of Xaryxis: Community-panned for a brief, linear runtime and a tragic lack of robust ship-to-ship combat.
- Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos: Tries to build a magic university school simulator but lacks compelling structural mechanics, leaving the DM to track a dizzying calendar of events.
Once again, I strongly suspect that if I were to tier these, my results would be significantly different. But reading these summaries at least gives me an expectation of what the campaigns are going to be like and about. I find that minor spoilers like this are less important to me than having expectations that aren't met, i.e., if I think a campaign should be a certain thing, or I expect it to be a certain thing and I'm not aligned with the designers, I'm more likely to dislike it than if I understand what they're trying to do and how the community thinks that they did. A lot of the problems that the community will bring out, like math problems with Tyranny of Dragons, literally won't be noticed by me at all, both because I read the campaign and I'm playing in it, but I will never and would never run it. Also, the "culturally rich, vibrant settings packed with imaginative standalone lore" of Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel is much more likely to come across as obnoxious woke garbage to me. We'll see when I get there, I suppose.
At this rate, sometime in 2030. Sigh.
No comments:
Post a Comment