| Spinkler |
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So some quick(?) background so people can understand my experience...
I'm a very (very very) experienced CRPG player. Been playing RPGs on computers and consoles for about 25 years.
I've dreamed of partaking in table top RPGs (D&D specifically) since I discovered D&D about 20 years ago now, but none of my friends were ever interested. I own both Hero Quest and Space Crusade, got them when I was quite young right near their release, and had a fair bit of fun fooling around with these two basic tabletop RPGs during my teens.
About 10 years ago I had my first (and really only) experience with hardcore tabletop role playing with Vampire: The Masquerade and had a *heap* of fun with it. Our GM was very experienced, having played tabletop for most of his life and nearing 30 years old, which made for an incredibly streamlined experience which was very memorable.
Now a few of my friends have picked up the Pathfinder Beginner Box and after being asked to GM for them we've just worked out way through the first quest. They seemed to enjoy themselves and were hungry for more so with some prodding from the PCs I agreed to improvise another map. I found improvising to be quite difficult due to my lack of experience, but everything turned out okay. My friends had quite a challenge overcoming the final boss and after I rolled a 100 for one of their loot checks they found some excellent treasure.
So my friends *seemed* to be having a good time, but they were getting tired and a little bored by the end of it all and I realised that my story telling skills left something to be desired. This obviously wasn't an issue with the pre-written quest in the beginner's box, but during improv I found it very difficult but did my best.
So I'm left with a few questions that I'm hoping the community can help me with. Firstly, I notice there are a *lot* of books.
(1) Which books should I be looking at for a decent amount of content? Something as nicely laid out as Black Fang, formatting wise, would be brilliant - with maps of the current area printed up the top right, and the creature stat boxes on the page to save me flicking through the bestiary would be ideal for us while we learn.
(2) Should I be bothering with maps? My experience with Vampire: The Masquerade was actually mapless, but was a lot of fun. I presume these maps help a lot with tactics, and if executed correctly will probably add a lot to the experience.
(3) How on earth can I become better with my story telling? I know I should be describing areas in detail and using a lot of adjectives, but my mind tends to just lock up when I'm presented with a blank canvas. Are there processes to go through to start to flesh out custom stories?
It should be noted that I've already downloaded the free PDFs that tie into the beginner's box and I'm planning to have them run through the follow up campaign in the "Beginner Box GM Kit" PDF.
Thank you so much to anyone who sat through this and read my massive wall of text. I really want to bring this experience to life for my friends and I'm guessing a lot of it will come with experience, but if anyone could offer some tips regarding my 3 points above I'd appreciate it so much. :)