Keep a Pathfinder Adventure Path Straight

The Adventure Path problem

Paizo writes long, and it writes connected. An AP's strength is that the villain in book six was foreshadowed in book one, that the merchant who helped you in Absalom turns out to be Aspis, that a faction you annoyed early on becomes the obstacle later. That structure is also exactly what falls apart if the GM can't hold twelve months of cast in their head — and no GM can.

Reading ahead helps but doesn't solve it, because the problem isn't knowing what's in the book. It's recalling, live at the table, that this name has weight. A map you add to after every session solves it, because the connection is drawn before you need it.

How Pathfinder GMs use it

• Tag NPCs by book. Tag colours and filtering let you see the whole AP cast at once, or narrow to just the characters introduced in the current volume, which is usually what you want while prepping.
• Map the organisations, not just the people. The Pathfinder Society, the Aspis Consortium, a Hellknight order — each is a faction node whose agents link back to it. When your party burns a bridge with one agent, you can see everything else that agent is connected to.
• Record the party's own web. PCs are nodes too. Adventure Paths reward tying player backstories to the AP's existing cast, and drawing those links explicitly makes it obvious which ones you haven't paid off yet.
• Keep the AP's secrets. The book tells you the twist on page 180. Mark that relationship hidden and it stays in your view and out of anything your players ever see.

Homebrew and Society play

None of this is specific to published APs. A homebrew Golarion campaign benefits more, not less — there is no book to re-read, so your map is the only record of the world. And for GMs running organised play, keeping one campaign per scenario series makes recurring faction contacts and their standing with each table easy to track across months.

Also playing other systems? The tool is deliberately system-agnostic, and there's a D&D 5e page with examples in that idiom.

Where to start

Open an empty campaign and add the cast of your current book, or start from a template whose shape matches your AP and rename it.

Frequently asked questions

Does it support Pathfinder 2e and 1e?

Both, because it doesn't touch the rules layer at all. It stores NPCs, factions, locations, relationships, quests and session notes — none of which changed between editions. GMs converting a 1e campaign to 2e keep their entire campaign map intact through the switch.

Does it have Pathfinder stat blocks or bestiary data?

No. Archives of Nethys and the official rules references already do that better than any third-party tool could. This handles the narrative bookkeeping around them: who these creatures serve, which faction sent them, and what the party has already done to that faction.

How does it help with an Adventure Path?

APs are long — often six books and a year or more of play — and they reintroduce NPCs from book two in book five, assuming you remember them. Mapping the recurring cast as you go, with a tag for the book they first appear in, means the callback lands instead of getting a blank look from the table and a scramble from you.

Can I track the Pathfinder Society or other organisations?

Yes. Factions are first-class nodes with their own relationships, so the Pathfinder Society, the Aspis Consortium, Hellknight orders or a local guild each sit on the map with typed links to their agents and rivals. Leaders are separate nodes, so replacing one doesn't disturb the faction's wider position.

Is it free?

Yes — unlimited campaigns and nodes, the full relationship map, dice roller, initiative tracker and generators, with no account. Pro at $10/month adds character sheets, portraits, hidden secrets, a session journal, quest tracker and PDF export.

Can I share it with my players?

Yes, as a player-safe link. Hidden nodes and hidden relationships are removed from the shared payload entirely, so a party can keep a running map of the NPCs they've met across an Adventure Path without seeing what the villain is actually up to.