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I had posted in the "kids" thread about my 12 yo son having some initial reservations about the BB after browsing through it. It was a bit overwhelming for him, though he loved the aesthetic look to the product. I have tried to get him to play D&D for about 5 years now with every basic set ever published (including Frank Mentzer's actual play copies I bought from him a few years ago on Dragonsfoot). It just never clicked for him until recently, and the 3.5 game was starting to become un-fun due to AoOs, and him wanting to run all the characters.
We had our first BB session yesterday, and it went over big time with him. The elimination of AoO, the beefing up of 1st level PCs, myself running the other characters (allowing him to concentrate on just his own character), along with a spectacular day of rolling high had him enjoying himself more than any previous session of the 3.5 Basic Set with a couple houserules, barring perhaps the first time we played.
He created his own character, a great axe wielding Fighter, and I ran Ezrin, Merisiel(sp), and Kyra as NPCs through Black Fang's lair.
As I mentioned, due to some spectacular rolls he sped through the dungeon pretty quickly. I also had him make all the d20 rolls for the NPCs attacks/saves, damage etc while I determined their actions. This way he got to roll dice alot.Some highlights:
The 2 Goblin guards were out in one round.
After having Kyra talk about what "humility" is (my son was unfamiliar with the term) the Flame trap in the Altar room nearly killed him and Meri, but they both saved for half damage, I rolled low, and the ruby was taken as they all crawled out to the next room under the sheet of flames.
He threw a bunch of gold in the fountain, and rolled a 10, granting the +2 bonus to AC. Kyra unfortunately rolled poorly, and suffered the reverse. Ezrin and Meri-whatever wouldn't have any part of the fountain.
My son got bold in the we room, guessing it as the lair of a spider, and he strode right in. The Giant spider got off a couple attacks, but missed, and my son''s Fighter took a big chunk out of it, and then Meri critted with her Rapier taking it out.
Ezrin identified the water runes on the Obelisk, but the PCs did not figure out it's magical property, and moved along quickly after writing down the cryptic warning.
The Island encounter was a highlight. My son was not keen on swimming across with or without his armor, and after some good roleplay, and a solid diplomacy check to back it up, he convinced Kyra to remover her armor and swim across, lol. Poor rolls left her sinking halfway to the island, eventually she made her way back to shore, spitting up water, and in need of rest. At this time the reefclaw moved in for a quick kill against a unarmored Kyra on the PCs side of the water. My son won the initiative round and stepped in front of Kyra and critted the creature with his great axe, but in it's last breath lashed out I rolled high, and it left a couple nasty cuts on the Fighter.
After gulping down the potion of healing they found, they moved into the Goblin King's area, and after deciding to to talk instead of risking a fight with 5 foes, the party offered up the dragon toy, the Goblins let them be, and warned them about the dragon (which my son had already deduced there was somewhere in the Dungeon).
Up the cliff went the fighter, who made it up halfway, then fell. Meri then proceeded to make it up with no problem dropping the rope which the fighter and Kyra quickly ascended with no issue. some bad rolls left poor old Ezrin at the bottom, as the 3 skeletons shuffled out of the darkness towards those who made it up. Of course I used this as a cliffhanger, as it was getting late and he needed to get back to his mom's house (we are divorced). He screamed NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO and begged me to continue :O)
We had a discussion about the game on the way home, and he related that other than the good rolling, he loved
1)Making his own character instead of playing a pre-made one (I felt he understood the game better by making his own-it certainly showed up in how he played)
2) LOVED the pawns much better than the minis in the 3.5 set(which I found surprising- so yeah... WE NEED MORE PAWNS PAIZO!). He really likes the artwork.
3) He felt that the character sheet despite the initial complexity was easier to get around and find things during play(he was always flipping over the 3.5 sheets back & forth)
4)The beefed up PCs who could dish out and take a bit more punishment, and had more "stuff to do" (more spells, "powers", etc).
5) He liked the Flip mat more than the tiles of 3.5 set, because we could draw on them with the dry erase markers (I wholeheartedly agree!)
6)He enjoyed combat being more sparse, and enjoyed the traps and puzzles and talking his way out of a fight. The 3.5 dungeon was pretty lame in the way of traps/puzzles, and the combats were more frequent, swingy, and dragged on (c.f. #4)
A huge success yesterday for sure with the BB. I already was in love with it, but now I am even more-so because of how much fun my son had yesterday. I have a feeling we will be finished with Black Fang's Dungeon fairly quickly on our next session, and I have to get my rear in gear to get his next adventure written up, and mapped out (which will likely be a Haunted Mansion ala Tegel Manor, without the all the "wahoo")
Awesome job Paizo- I haven't had this much fun with D&D in YEARS.
P.S. obligatory "we need more BB products/content/adventures" statement! :O)
jeffb,
You haven’t mentioned if your using the free online material for the PFBB, the GM’s kit has a follow up adventure.
I have both kits downloaded. Probably won't use the mine adventure but certainly will be utilizing the other goodies in it! :o)