Pathfinder 2E AP Sales numbers?

[Maenalis]

AV and Kingmaker are very popular right now because they have Foundry integration ...

I bought Age of Ashes, we played it, but I rewrote huge chunks of it and didn't finish it at the end, overall I was very disappointed,
I also bought Agents of Edgewatch although I like the idea, after reading it I realised that it is not something my group would like to play.
I was just looking for more information for our next AP, (which is probably going to be the WotC 5.5e AP next year, if they release one) APs aren't cheap and I hate to buy something that I don't use.

 

[Kichwas]

There are so many choices that it can come down to what kind of adventure you want. They cover a lot of different themes. For almost every one of them I've heard both very good and very bad reviews. If the theme is the one you're group is into it will be good. If not it will be bad.

But I would also look at them for variety issues. On average they take a very long time to complete and so I think this can hurt an AP like Abomination Vaults. 10 levels that can take a full real life year to complete all in the same light house tower and it's "basement" can be a bit rough. I was fine playing it but I've seen two group burn out halfway through because they needed a change of scenery.

So when I run one, I'll be looking at how many different locations and subplots it has. Gate Keepers and Stolen Fates both seem good here. But I've read a number of people disliking Gate Keeper's plot being too straightforward.

Some of them have very strong themes. Like Blood Lords. If you're players can't handle being in an evil campaign you need to avoid that one. We almost ran it for comedy - cartoon like villain PCs and such. But that probably wouldn't have worked out.

 

[Maenalis]

There are so many choices that it can come down to what kind of adventure you want. They cover a lot of different themes. For almost every one of them I've heard both very good and very bad reviews. If the theme is the one you're group is into it will be good. If not it will be bad.

But I would also look at them for variety issues. On average they take a very long time to complete and so I think this can hurt an AP like Abomination Vaults. 10 levels that can take a full real life year to complete all in the same light house tower and it's "basement" can be a bit rough. I was fine playing it but I've seen two group burn out halfway through because they needed a change of scenery.

So when I run one, I'll be looking at how many different locations and subplots it has. Gate Keepers and Stolen Fates both seem good here. But I've read a number of people disliking Gate Keeper's plot being too straightforward.

Some of them have very strong themes. Like Blood Lords. If you're players can't handle being in an evil campaign you need to avoid that one. We almost ran it for comedy - cartoon like villain PCs and such. But that probably wouldn't have worked out.

I rephrase it: I am disappointed in the Pathfinder APs (the ones I know), so I am branching out to other games.
I was thinking about giving them (Pathfinder APs) a last chance, so I started looking for unbiased reviews, but Paizo "cannibalized" their "journalists", and everyone is working for them one way or another.
Most reviewers only review adventures once they have played them anyway and APs take a long time to playthrough. (We are currently neck deep in Kingmaker 2e and I am glad if we finish the rest in a year).

I saw many previews, flip throughs and even a few post action reports, but no reviews.
I tried googling for answers, search reddit, browse forums and after not finding anything of interest, I thought I come here and ask for sales numbers. In the hopes that I might find perhaps something exceptional out there, that I am not aware of. There are so many APs, if there is one which is "selling well" I might have looked into it better (I would have probably just bought it, to be done with it).

In hindsight it was a mistake, my apologies.

 

[Velderan]

So when I run one, I'll be looking at how many different locations and subplots it has. Gate Keepers and Stolen Fates both seem good here. But I've read a number of people disliking Gate Keeper's plot being too straightforward.

I'll definitely have some thoughts on Stolen Fate soon. My group is about 80% of the way through Abomination Vaults and I'll be running Stolen Fate for them as a follow-up. I bought the Foundry modules already and from looking through what is there, it's the same top notch work I saw in AV and the Beginner Box. I haven't done much with the books but skim through so far, but it looks like it will be fun.

But you're right that they release a lot of stuff really fast. I'm very interested in Season of Ghosts and Battlezoo's Jewel of the Indigo Isle also looks fantastic. A couple of my players have asked about Kingmaker. A pity we won't ever be able to play them all.

 

[Staffan]

I have heard a lot of good things about Strength of Thousands, and I was considering running it for one of my gaming groups. The main reason I have decided against it is that I'm kind of burned out on long campaigns, and I looked at the fact that we've been playing Age of Ashes on and off since 2019 and we're only just over half-way through it – and that's more of an issue with the adventure path concept itself than that particular AP.

 

[payn]

I have heard a lot of good things about Strength of Thousands, and I was considering running it for one of my gaming groups. The main reason I have decided against it is that I'm kind of burned out on long campaigns, and I looked at the fact that we've been playing Age of Ashes on and off since 2019 and we're only just over half-way through it – and that's more of an issue with the adventure path concept itself than that particular AP.

I had a run of great luck during the PF1 era. Ran many APs and took about 2 years to complete one. Group met every other Friday for a decade strong. Was good times and I cherish them. Pandemic did us in, and havent quite had the stability in gaming since.

Though, yes if it took 5-6 years to complete an AP, I dont think id sign on either.

 

[Velderan]

I had a run of great luck during the PF1 era. Ran many APs and took about 2 years to complete one. Group met every other Friday for a decade strong. Was good times and I cherish them. Pandemic did us in, and havent quite had the stability in gaming since.

Though, yes if it took 5-6 years to complete an AP, I dont think id sign on either.

Yeah, I don’t think I’d even remember how it started after 5-6 years. My group gets through an AP in about 18 months playing weekly for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. I’d rather play longer each week but going a week between sessions keeps things fresh in everyone’s mind.

With Paizo basically releasing 4 APs a year assuming 3 parts per AP, it’s impossible to play them all. With us having the next one picked out (Stolen Fate), whatever we play after will realistically be about 2 years from now.

 

[payn]

Yeah, I don’t think I’d even remember how it started after 5-6 years. My group gets through an AP in about 18 months playing weekly for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. I’d rather play longer each week but going a week between sessions keeps things fresh in everyone’s mind.

With Paizo basically releasing 4 APs a year assuming 3 parts per AP, it’s impossible to play them all. With us having the next one picked out (Stolen Fate), whatever we play after will realistically be about 2 years from now.

Yeah back in PF1 era it was 2 APs a year. Some didnt interest me so it wasnt a big deal to not run them all. The bonus of 4 APs a year is that you get twice as many offerings.

Question for ya PF2 players, do the APs still do subsystems? Like chases, haunts, kingdom building, etc..?

 

[Maenalis]

Question for ya PF2 players, do the APs still do subsystems? Like chases, haunts, kingdom building, etc..?

Yes, but some are EXTREMELY poorly balanced. The kingdom builder rules (for example) both for 1e and 2e are abysmal, horrible, awful, terrible.

The Circus management rules from extinction curse looked fun, varied, thematic and interesting. I didn't try them, but they look like a lot of fun.
The agent of edgewatch "Police mechanics" are a little bit forced, but okay-ish (and I wouldn't really call them a subsystem).
I don't remember a subsystem from Age of Ashes, there is a very short "subsystem" for building your castle, but that was very-very short/brief and basically not usable as written (imho), I replaced it with a complicated homebrewed subsystem, based on the 3e Stronghold Builder's Guide (and sprinkled in some Ars Magica Covenant builder).
I don't think Abomination Vaults has subsystems, but I haven't read it, only flipped it through.
I haven't read the other APs.

 

[Kichwas]

I'm very interested in Season of Ghosts and Battlezoo's Jewel of the Indigo Isle also looks fantastic. A couple of my players have asked about Kingmaker. A pity we won't ever be able to play them all.

There's a massive spoiler to Season of Ghosts right in the first few pages of the adventure. So it's hard to talk about that one if you have it and have read past the introduction.

I'd also warn anyone who expects to be a player in Season of Ghosts to never even dare thumb through the pages because the spoiler is so "THERE" that you will have trouble not seeing it on just a one second glance.

That said, Season of Ghosts reads like it has a lot of potential.

Kingmaker can serious drag. Recognize that the name is accurate. That's very important. You will spend a major part of the game just planning out kingdom development - do we claim this piece of land or that one, how do we respond to graffiti vandals in that village over there, can we recover from a plague outbreak, do we have enough lumber to build an orphanage, etc. Did we pick the right 'kingdom skills', where on the town map do we want to place the general store, etc.
- Once you reach kingdom foundation you will spend more time doing this than playing your characters.

I think Abomination Vaults is very well made, it just suffers from a problematic concept: 10 levels in the same building. Like... this is Covid lockdown to an extreme. It was a great intellectual challenge to make a mega dungeon that has a solid consistent plotline and tone. But... that's actually a bad thing when it comes to playing it.

I'm guessing Sky King's Tomb is the better dungeon, because it's not a dungeon per se. It just has some "we're in the basement again?" content to it. But it's new and "nobody" has run it yet. It had the misfortune of coming out in 2023 when everyone was talking about WotC hiring an actual real life "we're reformed now" death squad to go after a Magic the Gathering Player, and ORC licenses rather than Dwarf ones. Nobody had mental bandwidth for dwarf stories even if they were really good ones.

I'm probably going to go in for Crown of the Kobold King or something though. An adventure rather than an Adventure Path.

I don't think most people even realize Seven Dooms for Sandpoint came out. But it did. It's a weird sequel to the very first Adventure Path Paizo ever did back when they were just starting and hadn't even put out Pathfinder yet. You're not meant to run the same characters. But it's set in the same place as that old adventure, but decades later. Again, I think this one has potential but it slipped in right after Season of Ghosts with almost no conversation about it and it's so new that it's doubtful anyone has finished it, if even anyone having started it.

Gatekeepers looked really interesting when I flipped through it, lots of travel. But perhaps too much. You spend a decent amount of time on another planet. You get the lore you need for the adventure itself, but no more. Meaning you're thrown into a place to gawk around, so some stuff, and then move on. Which feels like wasted opportunity.