Duration of pathfinder modules?

[Gunphantom]

Hello and thanks for any replies. I used to DM 5e, and it takes WoTC years to come out with meaningful expansions so I quit a while ago. I got the itch to DM once again, and I was looking into playing pathfinder 2e. How long is the game length of these chapter orebuits? rough estimate? Like in 5e mines of phandelver you can expect playing 1nce a week for it to take roughly 6 sessions total. Googling duration / game time / play time brings up nothing as paizo has spammed all of the internet with no real information on run time, and before I decide to invest 400 into new pathfinder stuff I want to make sure it is worth it.... at $25 per 4 levels it seems expensive >.>

[Zacchaeus]

This, I think, is kinda like how long is a piece of string type question.

A lot depends on how long each session lasts and how efficiently your players get through encounters and how much of the material gets missed out/hand-waved and a number of other factors - like how much of the rules you stick to. Each group is different in all of these respects.

I doubt my group, for example, would get through Lost Mine in six sessions; it would most likely take about three months or longer.

I haven't played any of the PF Adventure Paths (yet), but each section is 96 pages long so a complete AP mounts up to nearly 400 pages. My group have been playing Dungeon of the Mad Mage and it's taken over a year and that's about the same kind of length. But YMMV.

[Trenloe]

As @Zacchaeus says, time is based off how your group plays. If they like role-playing then to complete an Adventure Path part will be longer than groups who move quickly through role-playing encounters. Hence why it's rare for publishers to state a run time.

In my experience, as me and my group like role-playing, an adventure path part can take anything from 10 to 15+ sessions. But your experience could be different...

As @Zacchaeus also mentions - there's a lot of content in each part of an adventure path. With the whole adventure path providing a massive amount of content. $25 per part is not expensive IMO, but only you can determine what is worth your money to provide you and your group many, many hours of gaming enjoyment.

Also keep in mind that you get the PDF included in your FG purchase of Paizo products (or the cost of the PDF taken off the FG purchase price if you already own the PDF).

[Kermit1013]

Sadly, I'd have to agree with the above - times could vary wildly depending on your group - but, curiously, my experience has been fairly consistent using fantasy grounds over the last 6 months, so I'll throw this in - using the Age of Ashes adventure first module as a guide, using a 6 person party (2 larger than the base recommended but still fairly common for rpg groups) of very enthusiastic role players...
every major encounter took about 2 hours to play out - between RP, kibbitzing (fweeble, off-topic discussion, whatever your group calls it), tactics and strategy and looking up rules clarifications (and wrestling with the FG interface kookiness), every major encounter took about 2 hours. Using 4 hour gaming sessions as our general model, it took about...and it all sort a flows together in my head so don't quote me on this...about 16 sessions, or 4 months of once-a-week gaming sessions to run through the first module. I had originally anticipated about 6 sessions...but my group took WAAAAAAYYY longer with most encounters than I expected.

Now, keep in mind, almost NONE of this is a feature of Pathfinder 2.0 particularly - this is almost all the way in which my group chose to handle encounters. There was a LOT of pre-strategizing (lets sneak up - lets sneak around - lets talk to them - lets give them food...etc), some encounters were bypassed very quickly (talky instead of combat can really speed up an encounter) other encounters would balloon as a running battle would emerge drawing in 2 or 3 encounters at a time (I tend to run my games very organically, and will sometimes have monsters retreat into other encounters dragging the party into a running battle, which significantly increases the combat time as things get very complicated)

That, and this was all online, over discord - keep in mind that not being able to see and talk to each other simultaneously significantly slows down game in some ways (although depending on how easily distracted certain group members can be, it might speed things up for you) but overall, I've been running pathfinder 2.0 for about 6 months now, and yah, about 2 hours per serious encounter seems to be fairly constant...FOR ME...(and my groups) - if you run your game in a different way, with different people, odds are your timing will also be different

all that being said, I highly recommend pathfinder 2.0 just from a personal standpoint - I'm loving the new system - it's not perfect (Paladins...erhem, I mean Champions, could get a little love) but overall I'm finding it to be a very nice middle ground between what I consider to be the too-streamlined DND 5th ed and the too-complicated Pathfinder 1/DND 3.5

[Bolorokenpay]

I agree with the estimate above. I am running Age of Ashes with 5 players and we play once a week for about 2 hours. We are just now wrapping up the second book after 1 year of play.

[Blahness98]

I know this is the 2e forum, but I'd figure I'd toss in my two cents. I ran a few different APs for PF1e. Mummy's Mask took about 2.5 years with my group playing roughly a session each week (things happen, some sessions were skipped, but 4 hour sessions and text based). Started another AP, Reign of Winter, and that lasted into the third book before my group got and I got sick of all the blindness debuffs and the constant swapping of maps in the third book. I think that took about 9 months total for the three books (once again, 4 hour sessions, text based). The Return of the Runelords game I am playing in now started in February (using voice and 3.5ish hours weekly) and we are just starting book 3.

The APs Paizo puts out do have a lot of content, but you will have to keep the players on the rails for some of them and they might chafe at the thought of that.

[stephan_]

I would agree with Kermit1013. For my party (also six players), each book of Age of Ashes so far took roughly 15 sessions (except the first book which we did in 10), each roughly 3.15-3.30 hours.

[Larsenex]

My group started Age of Ashes and played 5 hours per session 2 or 3x a month. We just now are starting the 3rd module and are going to take a break from the AoA campaign at this time.
My gripe was the leap from AP2 to AP3 was contrived. My players decided to ignore the plot line (no reason is given to explore the various gates) and wanted to go free form. In fact they talked about taking control of the nearby town which was an entire session of talking one day.

The group is 10th level. Lots of content in the Ap's I have all 6 of them. We are starting a new campaign which is more home brew but I am going to plug in the really nice one shot pathfinder adventures that SM has on the market for 4.99 each. Those are worth every penny.

[Gunphantom]

Thanks all for the replied, extremely helpful for most lol. I was looking for a rough estimate, I understand games are based off of time / what the players do. I just needed to make sure if I am spending 25 a book I get at least 4 months of play "roughly 16 4 hour sessions" while my gripe isn't really on the individual book price, I just want to make sure if I buy the entire series that I will get a good amount of play out of it. Larsenex thanks for telling me about the one shots. Those I tend to squeeze in between somewhere in a module to mix things up.

[KILLGORE]

I have run 4 Pathfinder adventure paths and only 2 until the bitter end. And they can get ugly. But they are fun. The 2 end games were once per week for 4 hours per term. One was online in FG, the other was on a table. Both were similar in time and VTT vs table mattered little. Both took almost 2 years. They are a serious investment. While they proclaim certain events, theres a lot in between that takes time. Leveling up being the big one. I have run the other 2 in Starfinder and they went to the 3rd and 4th module and both took a year to get there. So I would expect they would be the same.
I would read the whole AP because some of them are boring. You wont know that from the covers.... I would pick one you like a heavily modify it to your taste because your going to spend a lot of time there.... I could say more but you need to drive the car first and then we can chat....
The other thing I have to mention is player commitment. Players really dont realize how much time they are telling you they are going to invest. 2 years of showing up to someones else's game for 4-5 hours per week for 2 years? Just saying, It's hard keeping the right people. In my Curse of the Crimson Throne AP I went through 15 people.... Its really hard on the GM.
I am currently running the Age of Ashes for what was started just before the pandemic broke out (march of 2020) and now in December we are at the very end of the 2nd module. So i expect second edition to be the same amount of time.
I would stick with the Pathfinder modules. Or play a Module or two of an Adventure Path and not the whole thing. I would also modify them because I think they are a little soft these days trying to market to every conceivable person on the planet. Some parts are really bad and some are great. I would turn the bad parts into something you want to do and then tie the ends back into the module. Even if it doesnt sound right, players think it might be some mystery to come later....

[hawkwind]

Im just about to start book 5 of Age of Ashes, we play two to two and a half hours a week and we started in November 2019 also we often fit in two or more encounters a session

[Kermit1013]

Im just about to start book 5 of Age of Ashes, we play two to two and a half hours a week and we started in November 2019 also we often fit in two or more encounters a session

lucky bastard. I wish like hell I could get my current group to settle for an hour per encounter. Gave my mad druid a staff with an animate hand as a little bit of "flavor" for the encounter - my party spent 40 minutes making skill checks to find the staff after the battle, chase it down as it tried to run away, investigate it (we have an investigator in the group - ask me sometime about how that inflates game time spent), skill checks to determine it's power, nature, and history - I may never create "flavor" for any of my encounters ever again.

[Farnaby]

Second Darkness took us 4 years at once a week with time off for Christmas and summer holidays.

[danbala]

If you play weekly for 2-3 hours a session expect each volume to take about 2-3 months.

[Honken]

I did play the Plaguestone module in about 30 x 3 hour sessions. And i don't like to push my players to battles. I like to meander quite a bit.

/H