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I saw pathfinder 1 at my FLGS and was blown away! Awesome production
did I buy it? no, sorry.
you see I am running D&D games for my kids and their friends ages 8-14.
I really wish my adult friends who like RPGs had schedules that could mesh with mine...
anyway I quote Mr Jacobs here:
"... Pathfinder is not necessarily intended for young audiences. Our solicitations for the product to distributors suggest ages 16 and up. Our market research indicates that the average age of our customers is in the late 20s. Mature elements will continue to appear in Pathfinder now and then as a result. I suspect STRONGLY that sanitizing Pathfinder so as not to offend anyone would result, overall, in a loss of business for us, based on the fact that in Dungeon, the darker and grittier adventures routinely won us the most praise and support from our customers."
so what about the game mastery modules? same setting right? is the content aimed at the same maturity level? my son loves your goblin song and artwork. he came up with the idea that he wanted to play a goblin character who goes on adventures and his friends said cool lets do it.
I have never run monstrous pc's before but I am winging it.
I hope there will be some gamemastery products aimed at a slightly younger audience I do buy the item cards and map packs, the kids love that stuff.
tom
I saw pathfinder 1 at my FLGS and was blown away! Awesome production
did I buy it? no, sorry.you see I am running D&D games for my kids and their friends ages 8-14.
I really wish my adult friends who like RPGs had schedules that could mesh with mine...anyway I quote Mr Jacobs here:
"... Pathfinder is not necessarily intended for young audiences. Our solicitations for the product to distributors suggest ages 16 and up. Our market research indicates that the average age of our customers is in the late 20s. Mature elements will continue to appear in Pathfinder now and then as a result. I suspect STRONGLY that sanitizing Pathfinder so as not to offend anyone would result, overall, in a loss of business for us, based on the fact that in Dungeon, the darker and grittier adventures routinely won us the most praise and support from our customers."so what about the game mastery modules? same setting right? is the content aimed at the same maturity level? my son loves your goblin song and artwork. he came up with the idea that he wanted to play a goblin character who goes on adventures and his friends said cool lets do it.
I have never run monstrous pc's before but I am winging it.I hope there will be some gamemastery products aimed at a slightly younger audience I do buy the item cards and map packs, the kids love that stuff.
tom
Hi Tom! I think D0 Hollow's Last Hope is a great choice for your son and his friends. It's very kid friendly and very very cool.
You should browse the follow-up adventure D1 Crown of the Kobold King first before continuing on though...it might be slightly too dark for your tastes (or for your kids).
Hope this helps!
I have to second the recommendation for D0 Hollow's Last Hope (available as a FREE download here at Paizo). I hope to begin running a game for my 10 year old nephew and his friends in the next month or so. If they choose 3.x as their system, I am definitely beginning with D0.
The later GameMastery modules have struck me as a bit more mature than I would like to run for them as-is. However, the adventures (D1, D2, and W1) are good designs, and may just require some minor story tweaks to alleviate any maturity problems.
If I do decide to use them I would happily share the changes I made, if you have an interest.
Unless you strictly don't want anything you think is inappropriate for your kids in your house, there's also always the option of altering the context of situations without losing any of the mechanics.
For instance, if you don't like the sacrificial alter, don't make it an alter. Make it a throne or a treasure room, and say the sacrificial victim is just a captive. You can then run the encounter with just as much pizazz through skilled DMing, and still use the majority of the unique and high-quality settings/characters found in published products to get the overall feel of the adventure anyway.
Sure, doing that can get a little hairy with some of the more complex plots, but if you're running modules it'll be less work than the Pathfinder campaigns, and if you're working with kids you might not need to sweat the details quite as much anyway.
One of the strengths of RPGs opposed to things like movies or other venues of entertainment is, of course, the fact that you get to control what appears "onscreen." While Pathfinder certainly contains mature elements, and is overall a PG-13 product (to use the USA movie rating system), when you're running it you don't have to include parts that are too racy or violent or inappropriate for your game. Unless your players are reading over your shoulder, they won't realize what you've changed.
Thanks for the replies. I will check out the suggested modules, hollows last hope and crown of the kobold king.
I'd suggest running both Hollow's Last Hope and Crown of the Kobold King... but have them be seperate by around a month or so.
First the PCs get to cure the Blackscour Taint in D0.
Then they get a little downtime in town to enjoy being celebrities. Have them meet all the "little people" in town, specifically that group of kids that hero-worships them.
Of course, it is their newfound fame that inspires the 5 kids from D1 to go off and play at being adventurers... and of course get captured by the Kobolds.
Which makes the hook into Crown of the Kobold King that much more personal for the PCs.
It'd be a nice mini-campaign to run for your kids, and there should only be a few things in D1 that need to be tweaked or removed for the audience.
Hi Tom! I think D0 Hollow's Last Hope is a great choice for your son and his friends. It's very kid friendly and very very cool.
You should browse the follow-up adventure D1 Crown of the Kobold King first before continuing on though...it might be slightly too dark for your tastes (or for your kids).
Hope this helps!
Unfortunately Tom, I think we need more information on what you consider appropriate before completely answering this, by the time I was 10, I was watching Braveheart and Beastmaster - these are still the fighting I imagine when I describe things at the table... Some households there would be years before this was allowed.
I do still recommend d0 and d1, don't get me wrong
Yes, what exactly are you leaning away from? For the most part, I haven't seen anything that isn't "adult" really. Just violent and dark and a DM can tone that down.
If you follow these forums you will have seen the word war over the sexual politics and the "abortion clinic" in the pathfinder series. I seem to recall reading something of an npc character in one adventure gets chopped into bits in something of a serial killer murder mystery. These adult themes are not appropriate for kids. It is quite different from the fantasy violence of monster slaying that usually forms the basis of typical adventures.
I have read hollows last hope and will be running it soon. My favorite adventure has been "the sunless citadel", as far as things for my kids to play in. I am also getting ready for running the shattered gates of slaughtergaurd. A fairly typical dungeon crawl with minor wilderness travel and some urban rpg elements.
I guess what my original question meant to ask was if the gamemastery modules were aimed at the same market as the pathfinder series or if they were a bit less intense in thematic elements. The title "seven swords of sin" makes me think my kids might not be mature enough to deal with the issues present in the themes. I like to keep the moral elements in my games black and white. Obvious good and bad characters so my kids know who to fight and who to talk to. When the line starts to blur the game can really go south and the kids end up disappointed and confused.
The point is to have a fun adventure without emotional content when dealing with under 15 year olds.
I do not believe the elements that stirred up the bee's nest are essential to the plot of the 1st Pathfinder. I have not read it cover to cover, but the good and bad guys seemed pretty black and white to me. Sexual preferences and 'abortion clinics' could easily be left out and none would be the wiser.
I do not believe the elements that stirred up the bee's nest are essential to the plot of the 1st Pathfinder. I have not read it cover to cover, but the good and bad guys seemed pretty black and white to me. Sexual preferences and 'abortion clinics' could easily be left out and none would be the wiser.
There is an abortion clinic in D1?
There is an abortion clinic in D1?
no, it's in Sandpoint - Yes, I see how these are sensitive for some people, but as stated, they are mroe background information that you can choose not to include in your campaign, or it you want to leave it open for when they are older and it is an 'ok subject' just play those characters normally for now, and leave that part of your Sandpoint map a broken down building - the clinic can be built later... I haven't gotten through the entire adventure yet, but I don't think that it actually visits said clinic, personally I think the Goblin invasion is a great encounter for younger groups, as the antics are very similar to those my 10 year old brother tries every once in a while. (altho his aren't quite as lethal)