what do I need?

[redneckdevil]

Ok first off im a bit of a noob at pen and paper pathfinder but I really enjoy. So much im thinking of starting my own games for pathfinder games.

The question is, what exactly do I need?

What books will I need, where can I get maps and ideas for campaigns, and how many and what dice will I need?

I know this is alot but if someone can point me to the exact books ill need and so forth I would greatly appreciate it so I can start gming games for my kids.

Thanks in advance.

[smithereen]

You will need a Core Rulebook and several full sets of polyhedral dice (usually sold in sets of one of each size) - those should be available at any decent geek shop for <$100. They are also on Amazon but can be expensive or slow to ship, depending on where you live.

 

As for campaign ideas, read books! Play video games! Browse forums! Hell, I have a stack four times has high as I have groups to play with of ideas! If you are totally stumped, I think there are several dozen published campaigns as well. I've never played any, but I've heard Kingmaker is very good, and still in print.

 

Also, you will want to know about these sites, they are invaluable for checking rules on the fly and posting info, respectively.

 

I've played a tonne of pathfinder since it's come out, and there are some veteran RPers on this site, and I'm sure you can get more advice than you can use if you ask.

[melkathi]

You need dice. Loads of dice. A roleplayer can never have enough dice. A GM even less so.

[Gorth]

Friends. You are going to need friends or at least people you think you are going to get along well with, even if you take turns to make mistakes, errors and wasting each others time by accident with getting grumpy, irritated or starting to bicker. Almost as important as dice.

[Raithe]

The Core Rulebook as stated is the important one.

The Bestiary is helpful for all the monsters provided..

 

If you don't want to put the effort into creating a world of your own (which sometimes can turn out a bit awkwardly, especially first goes) then Pathfinder's "Inner Sea World Guide" provides a rather nicely done campaign world.

 

One of the things Paizo do is to run "Adventure Paths" where over a 6 month period they publish a linked campaign adventure arc. Each month is a different adventure , and over the course of the entire thing you can take the pc's from 1st level to 15th-20th (depending on the particular Adventure Path). They generally provide all the world detail you need to run them, assorted extra backgrounds that might relate, and a few ideas for filling out things between the adventures. The Kingmaker one that's been mentioned is interesting, but adds element of "kingdom building" rules and a lot of fuzzy areas to work with, so might not be the best for someone/group starting out.  They recently released the collected anniversary edition of Rise of the Runelords adventure path, which is much more of the "traditional" style of campaign adventure that might be worth a look just to see how it feels.

 

Regardless, as has been said, if you're willing to hash around with it yourself, all you need are the core rulebook, some dice, and friends willing to give it a try.

[redneckdevil]

Ty yal for all the advise! Right now looking up the info yal posted. So far I got a few friends who might run it with me but I honestly think my core group will be my kids who are 5, 6, and 9. Granted im gonna do the math part for them lol.

 

Now I was looking and 2 quick questions. The campaigns I can buy, do they come with game maps I can use? Also was thinking of buying the 4 premade charecter minis but was wondering if I bought a brick would that be enough minis for a bout 4 people playing or should I double up with 2 bricks? Granted I know I dont have to have the minis, but seeing how my kids are younger, I feel itd be easier for them to connect and identify to the game.

 

Again thanks so much for yals answers and responses

[Raithe]

Pretty much any book that provides a campaign world, or an adventure will have a slew of maps in it relating to whatever it's talking about.

 

Oh, if you're just looking to explore it all for young kids like that, there is a "Pathfinder Beginner's Box" which covers the basics, the dice, and a few other useful things. They also have a bunch of free pdf's that you can get hold of..

 

http://paizo.com/beginnerbox

 

Edited January 28, 2013 by Raithe

[redneckdevil]

well just an update, thanks to all the info I got a hefty amazon order coming in the mail soon lol.

My kids are excited and ready to try it out and lo and behold I found out 2 of my good friends used to play dnd wayy back in the day and would love to run again.

 

Again thanks yal for all the info and wish me luck as a newbie thats not only still learning the game, but gonna be hosting and creating campaigns for us. Damn im excited

[melkathi]

Just remember that its a game and about having fun. Don't stress over it.

[Raithe]

Rule 0 - It's about having fun, not following the explicit letter of the rules..

[Malcador]

Don't drink while playing, that leads to arguing. 

[melkathi]

Don't let the players read the rules. That will give you more freedom to play it loose, which benefits them as well

[redneckdevil]

keep the advice coming! lol

ya so far (thank u obsidian!) im trying to come up with encounters and situations and plan different variables just incase soemthign goes unexpected lol.  trying to come up with main idea for the quests and then filling them in and then what i fill in make sure i have backup plans and c&c for stuff that happens expectenly and unexpectenly.

 

right now for my first "real" campaign, im stealing a story from an ingame tes book (the one about a thief who recruits a mad fighter who speaks giberish only to have in the end it wasnt gibberish at all but dire warnings) and adding alot and taking alot out to fit.  even coming up with ways to get the players out of the "door that isnt a door" scenario and such.

 

 

also do have a question.  as the DM i want to play a charecter as well so i was thinking of setting everything up with my half elf rogue who would be my charecter but have a "mad" cleric as  a npc whos our healer (who seems harmless at first but i have big plans for him in the future and also gonna use him as a springboard for starting quests up).  i know i am a DM so i will know what gonna happen and as a rogue i really hate to basically "perception" lay everything out on the map for everyone.  So im thinking a way to prevent that would be that my rogue is being hunted so hes being really cautious so he basically stays with the "crazy" healer and makes the other people scout and whatnot.  Secretly its so he dosent get ambushed away from the party but tells them that since he has the map and hes the one paying, the other players are doing the work.  

how does that sound?  i mainly wanna play as well but so far im gonna be stuck as DM so any advice in how to play the game but not automaically spoil it for the others being a high perception rogue?  i know im gonna have to play my charecter void of the knowledge that me the DM has and thats fine, i just wanna not automatically "perception" spot every encounter for the other players and void them of chances of getting into traps or ambushed.  i want them to get into traps and ambushed dammit! lol

[melkathi]

I would advice against having your own character. In my experience it always turns into more trouble than its worth. It is very hard to balance between not helping the players too much and not turning the npc into annoying and useless. And in the end you don't eally get to play the same way the others do anyway.

 

I prefer having a larger number of npcs who may each at some point or another join the pcs for a short while, but never long enough for the pcs to fall into a routine with them and either depend on the npc too much or start thinking of the most clever (read: violent) way to get rid of them.

 

If you think of it from the Computer Game perspective: its trying to find the balance between the npc who in god mode kills everything while you just run after them and hardly get a chance to hit anything and the npc you have to protect but who has suicidal AI and will die within seconds if you don't manage to kill all enemies as they spawn.

 

But you are already thinking about how to make the npc work, realizing that it comes with problems, and seem to be on the right track. That's more than quite a few "experienced" GMs can say of themselves

 

I would say that basically any npc could come with baggage (and I don't mean playing team shrink in a Bioware RPG ). Any benefit should have its cost. With the rogue being hunted, you are opening up some ways to make the campaign more spicy down the road.

[redneckdevil]

that is fantatsic advice.  sadly i kinda figured that for the most part I myself wouldnt be able to play but be stranded in the role of "generate substance for everyone else to enjoy".   buts thats ok.   i think i will only roll "my" charecters in the game plan only when it spices things up and mainly just come up with npcs like u said join the players only for a short while.  i guess i can play my rogue in solo campaigns that i come up with.......but if i being fair and not cheating, is it allowed for me to do that?  leveling up charecters or npcs in the background and such outside of the group campaigns as long as i stay true and fair and not just ezymode my way to fantatsic loot or die and be somehow risen later etc etc?

[smithereen]

The best campaigns I ever ran had NPCs heavily involved with the party, and often fighting together with them. If they don't turn into a Mary Sue, they can add a tonne of flavour.

[redneckdevil]

Thanks, that is definetly a charecter type I wanna stay away from. Right now before my books come in im gonna draw heavily from obsidians charecter designs as in the charecters being real lr natural warts and all and if someones really "good" or heavy influencing things, I want there to be things u dont like about the charecter. As in u maybe willing follow behind someone amd may agree with a majority of things, but there will some things that arent Rosy that may lead different people to like or hate a certain charecter. Granted I can not even compare with them but im using them as a example to try an follow.

 

Also just bought neverwinter nights 2 complete so that shoukd give me a better angle and feel for the world and culture hopefulky and give some ideas.

[rjshae]

The rule I learned is: let people play what they want. Don't force a particular alignment on them, or class, race, ... whatever. They're more likely to stick around that way, and to enjoy the experience.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

When you play, feel free to play by house rules if you do not like a particular rule or feel there should be a rule governing something. Above all, make sure the game fits the audience, some people want to do dungeon crawls, some want combat simulators, some want to role play, often most want to do some mixture of the three. Take in to account what the players like to do when you start a campaign.

[Raithe]

Discussing a general "theme" to the campaign can be good, both so everyone knows what they all want (individually and collectively) and it should help with establishing a group of characters that won't be wildly out of place. Such as running what turns out to be a city based political campaign with a group that includes a bunch of wilderness type players.. or a pirate/sea based campaign where no-one actually knows how to sail or swim....

 

A fish out of water can be fun to play from a certain standpoint, but it can be a tad awkward learning how to play if most of their skills and abilities aren't immediatly useful without too much thinking.

[melkathi]

We played a campaign at some point. Things started with the southern province of the kingdom going all quiet. No traders, travelers or messengers... Thus the queen sends an expedition to find out what happened. Part of this expedition the PCs, including yours truly.

Turns out we are playing some sort of zombie apocalypse scenario. Undead swarm us from everywhere. Our cleric was playing for the first time ever. The more experienced players asked her to use her Turn Undead ability. She tells the DM that she'll do just that. DM replies "Sorry, but the deity you chose does not grant that ability."

 

I think there was some sort of point I was going to make... ech, just make sure that if the players know less of th system than you, that you give them a fair chance to build a character and that they know if a choice they are making is important.

[redneckdevil]

ya, im gonna have some undead in a campaign im putting together. One decided on playing a magus and ones decided on a fighter, then theres my rogue and then the mad cleric.

The cleric im really trying to get down because hes gonna play an important role in future games. Right now I havent gotten my books yet but studying the app I got. I want his domain to be madness. Im trying to figure out with him being nuetral or CN if his channel spells can heal but still have the aura of madness. Also trying to figure out since he will be my npc, how many spells he gets when he levels up because I was thinking of picking one healing spell and one necro spell everytime he levels up. Once I get my books ill figure out if im able to or not.

But ya setting him up as a quest springboard at times and eventually if je survives til the end, to set him up as a pre-boss right before a "boss". Basically he wont be difficult to defeat but will leave the party at a very nasty position when the boss does come into play.

[Greensleeve]

I tend to be in a somewhat similar position to you. I want to play, but have to GM. I found a great way to get out of that, which is to simply change your perspective. Look at being a GM as being the guy who gets to play everyone else in the world, whereas the players are limited to only a single character. You won't get to go as in depth as you might as a player, but you'll have a greater range of characters to play, from stupid monsters, to super intelligent liches, to guard sergeants. 

[redneckdevil]

Ya, thats the outlook im coming to hence why im coming up with all these npcs and trying to make them feel different and alive so I can enjoy playing them. I recently got the starter kit and have been running with the premade quest and dungeon setup. My buddy came over and we finished it after 2 sessions and I coukd tell I needed alot of work, but kept reading and did one for the kids and them being between 4 and 8, I did better and only had one walk away to play video games but the other 2 keep bugging me everyday to play somemore..

I think im gonna use my kids as geinie pigs to beta test my campaigns before we throw down as a group.