There is a lot to play with the Savage Pathfinder set, especially with Rise of the Runelords done out as a complete conversion, so that is six entire modules that your group has to start with, which is a heck of a lot. But where do you go from there?
Since Paizo still sells a lot of 1e content, let's fill up our PDF shopping carts and figure out the best books to buy to support a long-term Savage Pathfinder game. I suppose this is why we have Savage Pathfinder, so Paizo has people buying1e materials for a completely new game, and they can keep the older edition content earning money. It is an intelligent strategy, and I hope the Pinnacle and Paizo team does more adventure path conversions and possibly more bestiaries and supporting books for the system.
I will be there to buy.
More Kickstarter! Advanced Player's Guide, Bestiary 2! After that, the Ultimate collection and Bestiary 3! I am sure you guys could work up "seasons" of tiered content to make into boxed sets and Kickstarter them one at a time.
Please more!
Inner Sea World Guide
https://paizo.com/products/btpy8ief?Pathfinder-Campaign-Setting-The-Inner-Sea-World-Guide
What else do you recommend first? Yes, some world information is presented in the Savage Pathfinder companion, but nothing beats having the original campaign guide to the setting to get the grand view of things. This is also one of those books heavier on raw information than its rules. As a general rule, I recommend against books that are more rules than information - unless you are grabbing a bestiary for inspiration and different types of monsters you could convert into. Maps, nations, history, geography, and setting info are all great and instantly usable in a Savage Pathfinder game, so this is an easy recommendation.
Inner Sea Gods
https://paizo.com/products/btpy94wj?Pathfinder-Campaign-Setting-Inner-Sea-Gods-Hardcover
Another good book, especially if you are interested in pantheons and the world's religions, is the Inner Seas Gods book. This one is more info than rules and gives you a good overview of the world's belief systems if these will play a significant part in your game. This one is a little less useful than the World Guide but still compliments that book nicely with an overview of the divine pantheon.
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| Aroden, God of Gamemastery |
And where else are you going to find the God of Gamemastering, Deadlands huckster, and the one responsible for this campaign, Game-Master of the Gods, Savage Aroden?
"Fun is what I decree, and fun is what shall be had by all! - GMG Aroden"
Location Books, As Needed
https://paizo.com/store/pathfinder/setting/campaignSetting
There are quite a few books focused on one location, and those will be helpful if your campaign swings by those places. These would be number three on my list to get, but only if you need them. They rank high because they are excellent guides to many areas, but I can't give a list since your game may be located anywhere in the world.
Get them and use them if they are helpful to you. Otherwise, they are skippable if you are just playing through adventures and not doing continuing campaigns in these locations. They will be more useful if you plan on flipping the adventure paths on their heads regarding outcomes and plots.
Adventure Paths, Great, Some Work Needed
https://paizo.com/store/pathfinder/adventures/adventurePath/first
From here, I would start collecting PDFs of other adventure paths. After you finish Rise of the Runelords, you will probably have a good idea of how to convert things and how to present a good challenge level to different ranked players and parties. And the paths never directly convert in one-to-one; the designers said if there were series of rooms bunched together, make them all one fight and sort of doing some intelligent optimization of encounters and fudge a lot if the challenge is too complex or too easy.
Treat them as stories to play through and settings to visit, and when an encounter comes up, you should make up a good and exciting fight without worrying about getting the conversion perfect. Reskin a griffon to be the hell beast monster you need, use those stats close enough, give it a breath weapon and some immunities, and done. Again, once you complete Runelords, you will have a better idea of balance, and those boss monsters can be reskinned and tweaked as needed to build challenges.
You have many to choose from, and while you could use the 2E adventures to keep the game classic feeling, I would stick with the classic 1e adventures. Luckily all adventure paths start at a low level and take you up in levels as you go, so they should scale and present a more straightforward progression of conversion.
And yes, the above is the "mythic" adventure path, but honestly, the story is more important than an "extra power" subsystem they tacked onto the base game. Just say, "the heroes are the heroes, " use the story, and don't worry about mythic power.
Beware the Railroads!
How I am running these is never to assume success. The adventure paths are always written in this single path mentality, and they tend to tell you "what happens if you fail." And typically, the next one in the series assumes victory over the previous. I will let players fail these adventures and continue their lives. Even if they wipe, bring in a new group on a new arc and continue the story another way.
With Savage Pathfinder and God of Game-mastery Aroden running the show, the fun will be seeing how everything gets derailed and off-track. This also creates a dynamic living world that does not assume success and solving all the problems.
[Spoiler] The Worldwound path also has this apocalyptic ending should the players fail, and even I would treat that as a possibility and not set in stone. Things will worsen in the area, but not to world-ending levels of campaign-wrecking destruction.
There is one section where the demons fight the orc nations where they should have left room for the orcs to be the ones to go in and solve the demon problem, given help from the characters, and that would be an epic follow-up to a failed ending that the book never takes into account.
They assume the orcs lose, and that is it, but it is much more fun to take the ending and turn this into a new beginning, and perhaps even an orc-focused campaign with Savage orc PCs, like a World of Warcraft Horde experience. [End Spoiler]
If the adventure path railroads an ending or outcome, kick it off the tracks and make up a better one that is savage, pulp, and fun. If the players go another way, let them go!
Aroden decrees all shall have fun and experience grand adventure! Aroden also does not believe in predetermined outcomes! Now go forth, and be heroes! The world is yours!
Hardcovers, Use Care
https://paizo.com/store/pathfinder/rulebooks/first.
I would use care for a lot of the hardcover rule books. The bestiaries are probably the best pickups of this group, but you will need to convert things. There are online tools to do some of the essential work to get you started, so you won't have to do a lot of heavy lifting, but you still need to account for special powers, attacks, defenses, and if the monster is a wild card.
The NPC Codex and Villain books may be helpful for basic types of NPCs, which should convert by their levels to the system pretty straightforwardly. The stats will be worthless, but the writeups, classes, and gear will be helpful. They may be beneficial as starting points and for pictures of NPCs, so get them if that interests you.
I would stay away from technology books since you got everything you need in Savage Worlds Core and Deadlands, gunslingers, and sci-fi gear. And this is if you allow any of it in your world, or you want to keep it more fantasy and down to earth. Personally, I am happy leaving Pathfinder 2 to the steampunk setting, and 1e is supposed to be a fantasy setting, and that is how I am keeping it.
Pawns, If Needed
If you play with pawns, I would recommend getting any you like. You can even use 2nd edition pawns in a pinch, so don't worry about picking up 1st edition ones unless you are collecting. Most of the time, you need something cool to represent PCs and close enough ones for monsters and NPCs.
That is if you are playing offline. If you are on a virtual tabletop, you will be doing something else entirely. You may have these from your other Pathfinder games, and you can easily make do with figures or pog-type markers.
Hard Data and Stories over Rules
Maps, world data, towns, NPCs, and other system-neutral background data should be a higher priority over rules. You can probably skip a gear, magic, and class expansion books. Stories are always great since those are what you will be retelling with the new system.
The basic Savage Pathfinder books are 90% of what you need to play. Everything else is background data or story content.
And remember, you are not "wasting money" if you have a total party kill, fail an adventure path, have things not come out how the adventure path says they should, or have the players devise a better way to solve something that changes everything. The rules system is already completely changed, so the adventures and outcomes should also be. Leave the adventure path half-resolved and come back to it later if you wipe. Make up a new part and insert a new group of heroes there.
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| "Next time, we solve it a different way." |
Maybe team up with the bad guys. Maybe go Kingmaker on a path where you aren't supposed to. Maybe ignore everything and just adventure in the area. Maybe join a faction and mess things up, betray them, and take over yourself. We felt like preset computer game scenarios when we played these adventures, and we had to follow them beat-by-beat.
Not anymore.
The rules have changed.
Literally.
The fun of a second playthrough is this: seeing how crazy things get, changing things, screwing everything up, breaking the adventure, finding new paths and places to explore, and generally making the experience your own over the module writer. This is like a second playthrough of Grand Theft Auto where you get silly and try to break everything and do new things, so have fun with these adventures, and do not be afraid to try something that ruins everything and forces the referee to take things in a new and fun direction.
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