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Message: <blockquote data-quote="On Puget Sound" data-source="post: 5862917" data-attributes="member: 68988">Your local gaming store probably has an intro night.  Ours runs both a Pathfinder Society and a D&D Essentials table on Wednesday nights (I GM the Essentials) where anyone can sit down and play.  No need to bring a character; we'll even lend you dice (but not THOSE dice...)The basic structure of the game is: you decide (or myabe get assigned, the first time) a character.  You'll have a character sheet, a paper record that indicates what skills and abilities your character has, along with a name, maybe a portrait or some personal history.  Example:  You are Shaleska, a female elf ranger, skilled in woodcraft and an expert archer.Once you know who you are, and who your teammates are, the GM will describe the situation.  This is likely to be in the middle of an existing story; for example in Essentials right now it would be something like "You've come to this town to investigate a magical plague that turns some of its victims into demons.  You've discovered that some crazed dwarf cultists are deliberately spreading the disease, and you've tracked them to what you suspect is their underground hideout.  In the last session, you were attacked by their mudman and air elemental guards as you tried to enter.  You defeated them and picked the lock on the door, but you set off an explosive trap!  No one was seriously hurt, but the cultists must have heard the noise.  The entrance stands open; you hear nothing from within.  What do you want to do?"From here you and your teammates tell teh GM what you want to do, and the GM gives you the results.  He/she may ask you to roll a die and modify it using information on your character sheet (e.g. "make a Perception roll" lets you add your Perception - probably a good number for an elven archer - to the roll, to see whether you saw or heard something).  When a fight breaks out (they always do!) your character sheet will help determine what your defenses and attack options are, but it doesn't define everything. A good GM will let you try things that seem sensible but aren't on the sheet.  So for example, "ranged attack" with your bow will have numbers associated with it to help figure out whether you hit, and what happens when you do; depending on the system you may also have special or tricky ways to use the bow (twin shot, rapid shot, etc).  Most of the time, these are the things you'll do when it's your turn.  But "kick the table that the bad guy is standing on, so he falls into the lava pit" is not going to be on the sheet.  Try it anyway! (Given, of course, a bad guy, a table and a lava pit).As you play, it's fun to define your personality by the way you interact with your team and people you meet.  Do you wisecrack in the face of danger, or are you all business?  Do you have a soft spot for the weak and helpless, or are you only in it for the money?  Do you respect your teammates, or barely tolerate them?  As a lightly armored archer, how do you react when a monster gets all up in your face - panic or confidence?After the first session, if you decide this is for you, you may want to abandon your assigned character and make your own character -- or at least pick up your own set of dice. Those are my lucky ones!</blockquote>

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