Pathfinder 1E Pathfinder 101

[Glade Riven]

This New Years ended 2011 with a first - I got to teach a bunch of "n00b" friends how to play Pathfinder and get a game started. While I've taught people how to play before, this is my first time scratchbuilding an entire group - and with my extent of roleplaying for the past year being mostly discussing game theory on Enworld rather than playing due to a move separating me from my original group, there was some rust to scrap off.

Now, the smart thing to do would have been to pick up the beginner's box, but me being crazy enough to step up to the challenge I did this with a single Core Rulebook and a laptop full of PDFs. That ment choosing which minor rules to ignore (encumbrance and skill penalties from armor, mostly), which rules to cover later (basics first), and making sure to teach the important stuff first.

We slogged through the hard part (learning character creation and what numbers mean), and one of the players retired before we got to the good stuff because she worked in the morning. Spun the the two remaining players through combat (which worked well) and the first hocking of swag. That ended in an impromtu fistfight since the druid kept failing his diplomacy to haggle and he insisted on causing trouble. The session ended with the druid lying face down in the gutter.

The first session was short and sweet, ending just into the new year. My band of n00bs enjoyed it so much that after sleeping off the effects of the party (and a certain player getting off work), we played again.

It started decently enough. The player that missed the first session was the druid's real world wife. Her character was introduced by finding his character knocked out faced down in the gutter. A failed perception check, and her character thought that his had been drinking excessivly instead of getting his butt whooped. A tavern scene and a few NPCs later, everyone was heading out to the woods.

And then I nearly killed the party.

I wasn't exactly prepared for a second session so soon, which is where being a bit rusty comes in. Along with being tired and fuzzy-brain. It didn't help that the druid kept trying to be was a frontline fighter and was reduced to 0 about 3 or 4 times in the same battle. He's a player that learns things the hard way, and will now remember his role is to cast spells. Ended up ignoring bleed rules there...

The win was close, the players learned a few things, and we ended there. Another n00b will be joining the party next time, and everyone is entheusiastic to learn and play more.

Overall, a good (if a little brutal) start to a campaign.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Sounds like fun. I think that (having survived) the players will ave that sense of worry/fear which can make a campaign so much better. It is really hard IME to bring the PCs to the brink and let them get out, esp with 3x and early. But if you do good things result.

And yeah the BBox rocks: no AOOs, concentration checks (just can't use ranged or spells within 5') etc etc. Much better for noobies ... gutsy move thumping down the 2kg Core Book in front of them!

 

[LogantheBard]

Love stories like this! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Glade Riven]

Oh, I kept Attack of Opportunities...by having a few enemies dumb enough to provoke them. One way to teach new players what to do is to have the baddies show them what not to do, so that the new players can take advantage of it. Having bad guys willing to run away helps keep people alive. Not every foe wants to fight to the death, especially when over half of their number goes down. Borrowing 4e's minion system helps (although not so much for first level parties, as most appropriate challanges die in a hit, two at max).

I've got Core in PDF form too, so I'm going to print off all the information for their classes (except spells) for them. The druid has an android phone, so there's an App for that and he's willing to write his stuff down (thankfully - I hate having to wait for players to look up their spells in combat).