Pathfinder Newb

[Fionavar]

Heya all,

I have decided to get back into RPG and have opted into Pathfinder. I will be GM for a group of about 6 and have purchased the Core, GM Guide + Bestiary #1. Any advice, resources, suggestions would be great. As well, any module that might be a good intro as GM would also be gratefully welcomed! 

[greylord]

Intro for a GM, best intro for GM's and players in my opinion, by far, would be the Pathfinder Beginner Box.

 

If you are experienced with RPGs, Crypt of the Everflame is a good introduction to Pathfinder and bridge between it and D20 products.

[Fionavar]

Thanks Greylord - I have lots of RPG experience. I use to play the Paladium & D&D Basic all the way upto 3.0. So the Crypt of Everflame would be a good module for me as a GM to the world of PFRPG & for people new to RPG in general?

[greylord]

Thanks Greylord - I have lots of RPG experience. I use to play the Paladium & D&D Basic all the way upto 3.0. So the Crypt of Everflame would be a good module for me as a GM to the world of PFRPG & for people new to RPG in general?

 

It's actually an excellent module for an introduction to Pathfinder from those who have done rpg's before. It's made to be compatible with 3.X edition of D&D, but also pathfinder, and introduces items via sidebars as it goes along. It gives hints and other things, yet is basically a simple dungeon crawl for beginning characters.

 

It introduces via sidebar differences that Pathfinder has introduced such as New Stats, how to grapple, changes with monsters, and other such details. It also has pre-made characters if you have completely new players, so that they don't even have to make characters to play, they can just pick up and play the pre-mades and go on the adventure.

 

Not the best for a group that is completely new to RPG's, but if you are familiar with RPGs already, then it's no problem to run and is great for introducing Pathfinder to new players as well as those who have used other RPG systems extensively but are new to pathfinder.

[Fionavar]

Thanks greylord - sound slike exactly for what I am looking!

[Fionavar]

Ths btw greylord! We have had our character creation night and I am hoping to run our first game night in September!

[mkreku]

Seriously, you need to record this on film and send it to me. I just can't picture adults sitting around a table with a a pen and paper, impersonating orcs and elves.

 

Maybe there are movies of this on Youtube already? Time to go a-searchin'!

[Fionavar]

You must try it I suspect before judging

[sorophx]

Maybe there are movies of this on Youtube already? Time to go a-searchin'!

there's actually a feature-length indie film that fits your description. it's good too! I just can't remember the title...

[SigmaBunny]

Seriously, you need to record this on film and send it to me. I just can't picture adults sitting around a table with a a pen and paper, impersonating orcs and elves.

 

Maybe there are movies of this on Youtube already? Time to go a-searchin'!

 

You haven't lived til you've seen an in-character discussion between two people about the nature of magic. Of course, I'm of the opinion you haven't lived 'til you've been in a roleplay yourself, so I may be biased.

[Mamoulian War]

I am in a same group, like you with the difference, that our group is completely new to PnP. We played little bit with beginner box, and we are slowly learning new rules from the core rulebook, to spice up our games. And me as a GM, I am trying to learn some stuff from one IRC Pathfinder Society group in Australia. Awesome guys and very friendly towards PnP noob, like me. It helped me a lot to have our local games running faster The only problem is 9 hours time difference, so I am able to play with them only once or twice a month :/

 

I would like to ask If you already had some sessions, or if greylord find this post, that what kind of modules or adventure path would you recommend, to virgin roleplayers I read the Crypt of the Everflame module, but unfortunately, I do think it is little bit complex for newbies Another choice I have available at the moment is the Master of the Fallen Fortress and Council of Thieves Adventure Path... And of course few other free to download modules from Paizo. (If you have a very good recommendations, I will not hesitate to purchase that as well)...

 

Any recommendations would be awesome, thank you all

 

and to mkreku: Nothing beats the experience to see adult guy to roleplay Barbarian with INT 8, who does not have a clue what is a difference between dog and an elephant trying to solve a mysterious murder and interrogate the suspect :D One of the funniest experience in gaming I had last few years

Edited September 30, 2012 by Mamoulian War

[TheMaskedFerret]

Mamoulian,

 

If you want a basic intro to Roleplaying and Pathfinder, i would suggest that you start them off making Pathfinder Society legal characters, and then run them through the intro modules that are free on Paizo.com. They give a good opening mix of investigative, puzzle, and combat encounters (you do have to watch the 5th encounter of the 1st module. it can be deadly).

 

You can then step into your own house campaign, or you could play the Pathfinder Society modules (of which there are a large number). You should be able to string several together to for decent story arcs, or you can just take several modules (such as Master of the Fallen Fortress) and run those.

 

- TMF

[Mamoulian War]

Thank you for recommendations. The problem now we have is that the guys are to much smash happy, today they got facerolled by Mimic encounter in the Beginner Box Bash Tomes encounter, because they did forgot to speak to the woman after they have healed from unconsciousness and wanted to kill the cat

 

That's why I am little bit afraid to introduce them to Master of the Fallen Fortress because of the Bat Swarm and one or two other encounters which could be to much deadly to them Same with the Hollow's Last Hope module, very interesting module, which I have almost whole converted from OGL to PFRPG, but there are few encounters, that could go very wrong with them

 

Meanwhile I played First Steps 1 and 3 so I think they are pretty good mix of everything like you said, but I bet, the biggest problem will be the Encounter in the Cheliax Lady bedroom FS3 looked little bit easier to me, but maybe it was more powerful party

 

Thanks again

Edited October 22, 2012 by Mamoulian War

[ravenshrike]

I am in a same group, like you with the difference, that our group is completely new to PnP. We played little bit with beginner box, and we are slowly learning new rules from the core rulebook, to spice up our games. And me as a GM, I am trying to learn some stuff from one IRC Pathfinder Society group in Australia. Awesome guys and very friendly towards PnP noob, like me. It helped me a lot to have our local games running faster The only problem is 9 hours time difference, so I am able to play with them only once or twice a month :/

 

I would like to ask If you already had some sessions, or if greylord find this post, that what kind of modules or adventure path would you recommend, to virgin roleplayers I read the Crypt of the Everflame module, but unfortunately, I do think it is little bit complex for newbies Another choice I have available at the moment is the Master of the Fallen Fortress and Council of Thieves Adventure Path... And of course few other free to download modules from Paizo. (If you have a very good recommendations, I will not hesitate to purchase that as well)...

 

Any recommendations would be awesome, thank you all

 

and to mkreku: Nothing beats the experience to see adult guy to roleplay Barbarian with INT 8, who does not have a clue what is a difference between dog and an elephant trying to solve a mysterious murder and interrogate the suspect :D One of the funniest experience in gaming I had last few years

Which makes no sense as an INT of 8 would be at worst an underperformng high school student. Sayyy, a bit smarter than Britney Spears. Remember, at INT 3 people can talk. Badly, but they can talk and people by and large understand them.

[Mamoulian War]

Yeah but according to Core Rules, when doing point buy character generation (which is required for PFS which I played), minimum ability score you can pick is 7. So it would be little bit hard for me to see roleplaying a character with INT score of 3.

 

And underperforming high school student is very relative term as well, because what is considered for underperforming in one culture might be very stupid person in another culture and pretty smart in another culture...

[JayDGee]

My advice to any new gm is to start small have a very small linear story set up with controlled combat conditions.

Defending a town from an attack sort of Scenario. They cant escape and they cant avoid it.

 

After your first session is done get a bit more creative, start to have avoidable combat scenarios and the potential of multiple quest lines.

 

Always be aware your players will surprise you, in ways you cant think of yet they will try to ruin your plans.

Sometimes even to their own detriment. If they are experienced role players they will view the gm with distrust.

Feel free to use that to your advantage.

 

For example a paranoid group will view the mundane with more suspicion than the sinister.

Give lots of detail to seemingly innocent npc. Then have it do nothing. Watch them try and justify the murder of a simple town person for no other reason than they are suspicious.

Then chase them across the nation as the paranoid murderers that that are,

[redneckdevil]

ow god this has been an enjoyable read. I myself am totally and fully a virgin in pnp and just met some guys the other nite at the place I worked at and they invited me to their sessions. They told me they using pathfinder and ive been reading to not seem to idiotic when I first show up but im guessing things will click in place when I get their and hands dirty. Granted I have been reading EVERYTHING so granted im lost of course.

But I agree, I wish I could find some good pnp shows on youtube or something so I know what im gegting into. Im pretty excited

[Ross_Witchen]

Hello to all forum members.

 

I just started buying these Pathfinder RPG books, to study the game. I'm pleased to find it paletable. It is a worthy child of the 1-3.5 edition family of D& D.

 

A friend suggested I take a look at it, after learning I was finding a hard time finding something new to play...in this period of depressing PC gaming options of 2012/2013.

 

I noticed this new edition tries to sell its simplification efforts by adding suger and pachachutes to prospective gaming customers...for example dumping the cruel cross-class rules of 3.5, to allow anyone off the street to max out on whatever skill takes his/her fancy, without too much effort. It follows the style of World of Warcraft..when that game began populating limitless graveyards on their maps, so that the dead player only had to walk 10 steps in the world to get back to his/her dead body (in 2008?).

 

Still, snobbery or crusty 'ol gamer remarks aside, I am pleased with the game.

 

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I have a question about: Casters using a Feat to allow a different Primary stat to be used to effect their arcane spellcasting class. I am currently interested in a search for such a option, that will allow Wizards to draw their spell power from charisma. This search is out of curiousity mostly, and not for power-gaming purposes. I would like to be tempted with a class that is a no-nonsence arcane caster that is eager to indulge in a sence of comliness-based vanity.

 

So far I've seen only DM-special house rules comments to such effects in google searches. I also read of near-relevant topics that spoke of sorcerers whos sage type bloodloines drew off intelligence instead ( which doesnt help me).

 

Does anyone here know of a feat or even a class..that allows for a vanity-wizard option..who can cast 9th lvl arcane spells by lvl 20. I specified 9th level, so that noone pointed out the duel class presige options out there that offered a weak lvl 8 spell possibility..as I have seen such classes in my books.

Edited January 18, 2013 by Ross_Witchen

[Raithe]

I'd say that's pretty much of a non-entity beyond house rules.

 

If you want an arcane caster with that whole force of personality behind his arcane might, you have the sorcerer.

 

The wizard's use of spells is always about how smart they are. You can still put a high stat in charisma and then roleplay it out as being involved (especially if you're going for that enchanter/manipulative type) but it wouldn't have any mechanics effect on the way you cast spells.

[Greensleeve]

Seconding the advice given above in this thread. 

 

I'm afraid I can't give much advice on modules, but I do know that my personal favourite when introducing people to 3.5 was the introductory Eberron module. I had a lot of fun with that. 

 

May I also point towards http://d20pfsrd.com/ as a brilliant resource.

[Mamoulian War]

I run as an introduction for my friend the First steps series of PFS, they have really enjoyed it, but is it normal to play 4 hour designed adventures for 8+ hours for completely new players to PnP gaming, or is our group the prime example of suck-fest?

 

I would like to ask as well which Pathfinder Adventure Path would you recommend me for new players... I have atm Council of Thieves, Kingmaker, Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition and Serpent Skull... I am willing to buy more and I have no problem of converting Adventure Paths made for 3.5 edition into PFRPG edition...

 

Any advice appreciated, thank you...

Edited February 21, 2013 by Mamoulian War

[greylord]

I run as an introduction for my friend the First steps series of PFS, they have really enjoyed it, but is it normal to play 4 hour designed adventures for 8+ hours for completely new players to PnP gaming, or is our group the prime example of suck-fest?

 

I would like to ask as well which Pathfinder Adventure Path would you recommend me for new players... I have atm Council of Thieves, Kingmaker, Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition and Serpent Skull... I am willing to buy more and I have no problem of converting Adventure Paths made for 3.5 edition into PFRPG edition...

 

Any advice appreciated, thank you...

 

It's actually common.  We end up playing 4 hour designed modules sometimes for days...just depends how far off the deepend we go. 

 

On the module, it depends on how confident you are feeling as a GM right now.  I'd go with either Council of Thieves of Rise of the Runelords...leaning more towards Rise of the Runelords.

 

Kingmaker is absolutely awesome...but it will be more intensive on the DM than the others you list since it's more of a sandbox type module (meaning that the players are basically allowed to do just about whatever they want and you have to make stuff up on the fly to compensate). 

 

There is another module that's pretty straight forward that you could give a shot with, it would be an easier module probably due to it being made for 3.5 D&D (but other than that it's somewhat compatible) called Expedition to Castle Ravenloft.  That module in many ways is a pretty straightforward railroad (meaning players typically go as per what the module tells you to send them).  It's also open to making stuff up on the fly though if that's what you like to do...so easily expandable.

[redneckdevil]

Ok so I did my very first dm session today..officially of course. Started out doing the beginning dungeon in the starter kit but I tweek it to where we all started in sandpoint since I am using the quest to springboard into rise of the runelords.

Was alot of fun. We spent about man 2 hours introduction in sandpoint alone. Was pretty funny. Rolling with a magus, sorcerer, and a fighter and im stepping in as a cleric. The fighter has awesome dex, str, con, int, was just downright lucky in those but bombed bigtime with cha. Everything is like 18s n 17s but his cha is a 5. We had so much fun having the townfolk react to his looks and cha, downright funny as hell. Had to step in and let his str mod be used in intimate checks only to give him a chance.

 

But man, its just nice to do alot of prepwork like a couple days worth on a dungeon and then nite before just throw out the town for starter as something just to change it up and have it flesh out like it did. Was amazing and gratifying, im really liking my group. We eventually got to the dungeon and got up to them being ambushed by the spider and called it right when they got ambushed.

 

Anyways just wanted to give a heads up on the progress and my first newbie run as a dm.

[Mamoulian War]

Thanks Greylord for your recommendations, I still have trouble with some DM stuff, but our group is very witty and they are always surprising me with some kind of crazy ideas, which I have to improvise :D

 

So I think when we are ready and play little bit more modifies PFS scenarios, we will move towards Rise of the Runelords.

 

(Next on my purchase list is Curse of the Crimson Throne and Carrion Crown Adventure Paths, if we will have enough fun with our group)

 

Unfortunately one has big troubles with roleplaying his character, he says stuff which lot of times breaks the immersion of the gameplay and I do not know how to push him in right way :/

[greylord]

Maybe have a character that is more like himself?  Or maybe have the others guide him?  Good Luck with him.

 

I once had a friend who came and basically got drunk before we were halfway through, at which point he got very out of character.  So, we let him play an Ogre so when he got drunk, his character was appropriate...