Pathfinder 1E Thinking of Buying Pathfinder

[TheAuldGrump]

Great advice has been given so far, I just wanted to chime in!

While I have not played 30 years (I'm on my 23rd now), I have played all incarnations (including a lot of 4e) as well. I just started playing Pathfinder at the beginning of this year (2011) and fell in love with it instantly!

I enjoyed 3.5, so it was familiar to me once we got going, which was great. I ran a 6 month campaign before getting too busy to continue (for the last 6 months), but I am beginning a new PF campaign in January (2012) and am very excited!

Again, great advice has been given and many books have been mentioned, but I wanted to suggest one that has not yet. I just picked up the Inner Sea World Guide which is the campaign setting for Golarion and it is amazing. With you only just now considering getting started, you may not need this book yet (hence the other books mentioned initially so far), but if you are looking for a new setting definitely check this book out

I've been a big fan of Mystara since I first started playing. One of the great things about that setting is the idea that it has "something for everyone", and this setting is similar.

Anyway, I hope you give Pathfinder a shot and enjoy it as much as my players and I have

Weird... I am not a huge fan of Golarion... but now I have a strange desire to try bringing the Orcs of Thar into Golarion.... Thanks for that! There were some very good bits to Mystara, Glantri and Thar chief among them, for me at least.

The Auld Grump

 

[Aramax]

Do not buy the DMG it is very very basic,it is the only Pathfider that I was disapointed in

 

[Aaron L]

Archetypes add a new layer of flexibility to a system that I already loved for it's adaptability to character to concepts; I love Pathfinder. And that's even before things like the Magus class (I'm a sucker for Fighter/Mages.) Traits are also an added bit of flavor I like.

I never payed any attention to Golarion until I started hearing that it was pretty Lovecraftian, and when I finally realized that the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods were referred to directly and there were cults of Shub-Niggurath and Yog-Sothoth hidden all over the place, Golarion became a LOT more interesting to me. Then I got a hold of Wake of the Watcher and saw the details of the Old Cults and descriptions of Deep Ones and Hounds of Tindalos and even Spawn of Yog-Sothoth... I was hooked. There's even a Cthulhu cult! And Gugs and Shoggoths are in the core bestiaries. And reading about Ustalav and its' parallels to Lovecraft Country, like the Sincomakti School of Sciences (anagram of Miskatonic) just makes me squee with geeky joy.

As you can see I am a HUGE Cthulhu Mythos fan and this element to the campaign world is enough to sell it to me all by itself. So now I not only love the game system, I love the game world too. I'm quite happy about that.

All that and the stuff about the other planets in the solar system and the system of Gates that connects all of them (except one,) and the Dark Tapestry out in space where the Outer Gods dwell... I just love it to pieces.

 

[SeaJay]

Archetypes add a new layer of flexibility to a system that I already loved for it's adaptability to character to concepts; I love Pathfinder. And that's even before things like the Magus class (I'm a sucker for Fighter/Mages.) Traits are also an added bit of flavor I like.

I never payed any attention to Golarion until I started hearing that it was pretty Lovecraftian, and when I finally realized that the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods were referred to directly and there were cults of Shub-Niggurath and Yog-Sothoth hidden all over the place, Golarion became a LOT more interesting to me. Then I got a hold of Wake of the Watcher and saw the details of the Old Cults and descriptions of Deep Ones and Hounds of Tindalos and even Spawn of Yog-Sothoth... I was hooked. There's even a Cthulhu cult! And Gugs and Shoggoths are in the core bestiaries. And reading about Ustalav and its' parallels to Lovecraft Country, like the Sincomakti School of Sciences (anagram of Miskatonic) just makes me squee with geeky joy.

As you can see I am a HUGE Cthulhu Mythos fan and this element to the campaign world is enough to sell it to me all by itself. So now I not only love the game system, I love the game world too. I'm quite happy about that.

All that and the stuff about the other planets in the solar system and the system of Gates that connects all of them (except one,) and the Dark Tapestry out in space where the Outer Gods dwell... I just love it to pieces.

Wow! Seriously, I had no idea all that was in the setting. We're in the Kingmaker campaign right now.

Golarion just got better

Thanks for sharing

 

[Dysturbed]

They are useful if you are playing and want more options. They are not needed and I'd wait on them.



Piazo if you are not aware puts out adventure paths in their Pathfinder monthly magazine/book. Each is 6 books of linking adventures that covers a campaign from first level to around 16 (not all of them end at the same level). Kingmaker is one of these adventure paths that has the PCs hired to explore some wilderness and they eventually claim the land for themselves and build their own Kingdom. It seems to be the best regarded of the adventure paths and I'm having a blast playing it.

But it is not needed at all to run the game.

I also reccomend listening to the Pathfinder Chronicles Podcast if you are going to run Kingmaker they had alot of good suggestions to make it better.

 

[JeffB]

Here's my take on the stuff I have bought so far for PF:

I'm a KISS type of person when it comes to gaming, and for me the Beginner Box is perfect. A+++++++++. This is my new system of choice, and I'm buying a second copy as I'm already wearing out the spine of the GM book.

I have the core rulebook, but I avoid it like the plague, except for reference of a spell, item, etc. The core game (and 3.x) is not the kind of RPG I want to run.

I get some use out the Bestiary of course, but have not bothered with B2 or B3-just don't seem to be offering the types of foes that float my boat. Or rather not enough in each book to warrant a purchase for me. I'll pick off the PFSRD as needed.

The GMG IMO is an excellent book if you are not into crunchy fiddly rules stuff (which I am not). It reads like a textbook, but there is some good stuff in here for world/adventure building. The NPC stats chapter, and the random tables have come in handy for me on the crunch side of things. Got this barely used for under $20 through an Amazon seller, well worth the $ I paid, but @ full price,probably not-YMMV.

Flip Mats and map packs have gotten my gaming dollar and will continue to do so.

I have the GM screen, but rarely reference it using the BB-just there to hide my stuff. I'm sure much more useful for a Core Rules game. Big beefy construction.

The recently announced Box O' Pawns has got me really excited, and that is a must buy for me.

Crypt of the Everflame- good intro module for players coming from 3.5. The plot to me is a little silly. Haven't decided yet whether I will use it. May play better than it reads.

Osirion- really wanted to like this as I have a fondness for Egyptian style themes/adventures: has a few good ideas/adventure plots, but overall not much meat, and lots of bland filler.

I'm not into the scripted out Adventure Paths **. Not my style. Cannot help there.


**not sure why this autolinked to something on ENworld.

If they start offering more BB adventures/products I'll be down for those.

 

[gamerprinter]

Do not buy the DMG it is very very basic,it is the only Pathfider that I was disapointed in

Because I love horror gaming, the GMG features Haunts which are a combination of undead and traps, where a spell effect is imbedded into a ghostly location or object, and the spells within the haunt come off in a weird, ghostly manner - haunts are a favorite party encounter of mine already.

Agreements on the other books as well. Though I will probably also pick up the Inner Sea Guide, I tend to run my own home brew worlds, so it will be more for inspiration than the world we play in.

I'm also a freelancer with my own line of 3pp products for Pathfinder published through Rite Publishing - Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story setting. You need to look at the various 3pp's supporting Pathfinder for extra bits of goodness and options. Companies like Super Genius Games, 4 Winds Publishing, Frog God Games and Rite Publishing (and many more) are really worth looking at. Most of it is high quality stuff, rarely over the top and expanding on many of the basic and advanced rules of Pathfinder.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

I'm playing PF for the first time ever as well. We started the Serpent Skulls AP when I joined a new group after moving to Las Vegas this summer. I've been playing D&D for over a decade starting with 2E through 4E and can say that I am really enjoying Pathfinder immensely. It's a lot of fun and has the perfect mix of fluff and crunch for my gaming taste buds.

Happy gaming!