Dawn of a New Age - The Conversion of a 13-Year-Old Nephew

[innerdude]

On a whim, I brought my Pathfinder Core Rulebook, Bestiary, and Golarion Campaign Setting with me on vacation to visit my sister and her family this weekend. I have a 13-year-old nephew that I’d been itching to introduce to “proper roleplaying” for some time, and I knew my brother-in-law had been an “old school” D&D player back in the day, even though he hadn’t played in 20 years (apparently I didn’t realize quite how “old school” he actually was. He showed me today ORIGINAL COPIES of the 1st Edition DMG and Monster Manual, a 1981 AD&D Player’s Handbook, and a real, original copy of “Keep on the Borderlands.” Any guesses on what these items might fetch on eBay at the moment?).

In any case, even though I am a long-time 3.x player, my GM experience is actually fairly minimal, so I worried about making a good impression on my nephew. Trusting to Paizo’s free “Hollow’s Last Hope” module for 1st-level players, I set my sights on providing some “old school” fun for my brother-in-law, while hopefully hooking my nephew in the process.

And what a blast we had.

In three hours, we only really had time to create characters, and get them up to the Timber Camp in the module, but by the end of the session, my nephew was literally BEGGING to keep going, and for the next several hours, all he could talk about was, “Are we going to play Pathfinder again tomorrow? You’re not leaving early are you? We have time to play again, right?”

And after some initial “ramping up” to some of the new rules, my brother-in-law said at the end, “This brings back sooo many memories. Thanks for the fun time!”

So mission accomplished there!

However, I did want to share a few comments, and get some feedback from other players/GMs about helping ease in new players.

• I realize now what people say when D&D 3.x / PF is more “complex” than other/earlier systems. My bro-in-law commented several times about it (Skills? Feats? Weapon proficiencies?). In comparing 1e and PF, even though the “core” of the system is the same, there’s just a lot of layers of “stuff” that 1e doesn’t have.
• I realize now as well why people talk about wanting to streamline character creation. If creating my nephew’s 1st-level Dwarf fighter had taken literally 2 minutes longer than the 40 minutes we spent, I think he would have bailed before even giving it a chance. EVERY PLAYER’S HANDBOOK out there, regardless of system, needs to have a small checklist for creating a new character, just with reminders for all of the little things that a new player has no idea that they should do, as well as to remind a fledgling GM how to aid said player.
• My bro-in-law was much more forgiving in creating his 1st-level monk. In my mind, this seemed to support the general idea that the 1e to 3e jump is still in the 75th percentile of compatibility.
• We didn’t use minis at all in the three hours, even though I had battlemats ready to use if necessary.
• They had a fun, interesting encounter with two informants from the Timber Camp (an encounter added on the fly by me, the GM, with some serious rules “hand waving”).
• The Pathfinder Combat Maneuver system was AWESOME (watching a monk grapple another unarmed foe was a BREEZE mechanically).
• For a freebie, “Hollow’s Last Hope” is a fun, easy-to-incorporate 1st level adventure. The plot hooks are ample to get the characters moving, but I never felt like I couldn’t take things in other directions if needed.

So, overall, a great session.

That being said, what are some other things GMs have done to help “ease in” new players to their games?

 

[haakon1]

My bro-in-law was much more forgiving in creating his 1st-level monk. In my mind, this seemed to support the general idea that the 1e to 3e jump is still in the 75th percentile of compatibility.

I agree 1e and 3e play styles are compatible. Characters are also convertible, especially if you can find the old 2e - 3e conversion rules WOTC did when 3.0e was new. (2e being mostly the same game as 1e.)

As for introducing new players, with your little group, I'd:
-- Ask your brother-in-law if he has old character sheets, and would like to convert to 3e/Pathfinder, to be NPCs, or to play at higher levels. This might go a LONG way to making him a fan.

-- Consider playing the Keep on the Borderlands under 3e rules. Converting isn't that hard, and I'm sure some fan or WOTC have a conversion out there somewhere.

-- Give the players some background and hook into the setting. You are from X village, this is your family, your equipment came from these folks giving it to you, etc. Work with the players on this -- let them make the calls, but guide as necessary.

 

[Thanael]

(apparently I didn’t realize quite how “old school” he actually was. He showed me today ORIGINAL COPIES of the 1st Edition DMG and Monster Manual, a 1981 AD&D Player’s Handbook, and a real, original copy of “Keep on the Borderlands.” Any guesses on what these items might fetch on eBay at the moment?).

lol: You'll have to go back some more time to get real oldschool. Those 1E AD&D books are probably not worth much (depending on condition and printing, there's an obscure print run of each that is worth quite a lot though). The 1E AD&D core books had huge print runs. Keep on the Borderlands is probably the least rare of all D&D modules ever, as it was included in the old OD&D "Red Box". There are some books from the OD&D and 1E AD&D era that are collectibles though. Point him to the The Acaeum website if he wants to check the worth of his books.

For introducting new players to 3E or PF i would suggest using pregenerated characters (let them choose amon gseveral and perhaps customize a bit).

 

[Heathen72]

Nice, work man, reminds me of my first time playing basic D&D with my family!

 

[Henry]

Glad to hear new blood is being forged still.

 

[Truth Seeker]

Here, here...

 

[Windjammer]

• I realize now as well why people talk about wanting to streamline character creation. If creating my nephew’s 1st-level Dwarf fighter had taken literally 2 minutes longer than the 40 minutes we spent, I think he would have bailed before even giving it a chance. EVERY PLAYER’S HANDBOOK out there, regardless of system, needs to have a small checklist for creating a new character, just with reminders for all of the little things that a new player has no idea that they should do, as well as to remind a fledgling GM how to aid said player.

This, a hundred times this. Both the 3.x Handbooks and the Pathfinder Core Rulebook expect you to have picked up that very same game from elsewhere - as in, Starter Kits. Seriously, the authors/publishers of these books do not want new players to pick up the game from this book. Pathfinder is in a slightly more forgivable situation since they clearly were going for extant 3.5 customers rather than drawing in new blood. However, what aggravates the situation with PF is that no Starter Kit for it exists; but I think one is in the works.

In the end, though, you're absolutely right, and that a simple, workable check list would do the job. PHB 3.0 had such a check list, but it wasn't really up to the job (neither is 4E PHB's, for that matter).

 

[innerdude]

Windjammer--Thank you for agreeing with me!

Seriously, I'm no stranger to D&D, going back to the BECMI days. And maybe it is some of the additional "complexity" of the 3.x / Pathfinder rules (which is actually a strength to me, not a weakness), but I constantly found myself doubling back trying to help my nephew and bro-in-law with the next / previous step of character creation.

"Oh crap, we need to do feets--or wait, should we do skills first? But oh yeah, what class are you? Oh but wait, have we finished all the ability score adjustments?"

Obviously, we eventually got it worked out, but seriously--how hard would it be to have a short checklist right in the very front of the Player portion of the PF Core Rules?

I know I could download one, I suppose, or make one myself.....but I think this is a small thing that needs to be in the core rules. I can't possibly imagine a first-time RPG player trying to make their way through character creation in Pathfinder RPG without one. IIRC, the Star Wars Saga rulebook has a great 2-page checklist right at the front of the book that does this, so why not Pathfinder?

Paizo, I love you guys, but can you fix this? =)