Please Help


Beginner Box


I am new to this and have always been really hesitant in trying to play. As a kid I always read the Lone Wolf adventure books, but never indulged into a fantasy realm other then playing video games.

Is there a why i can get introduced to the game and style by plying solo campaigns? where do i find solo adventures?

Can the adventure packs be played solo? Also the adventure packs are for all different leveled characters, what if i'm at a level 10 but want to play a AP thats rated for level 1-6, or vice-versa.

I'm really excited to learn and play, just need some direction and guidance.

thanks for your replys.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

In the beginner box there is a 'choose your own adventure' type of read through.

However, playing with others is a much more interesting experience. If you don't have anyone to play with locally, try the play by post boards here at paizo (http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/community/campaigns/recruitment).

If play by post isn't to your liking you can also try finding others to play via skype or google hangout.

Or, ask around at your local gaming/comics/book store to see if there are any regular Pathfinder events that they know of. Playing in person with a group of people is really the best experience from my point of view.

Regarding a level 10 character playing a level 1 adventure ... that's not really going to be very much fun because your character will overpower every encounter in the module.


Try this
http://www.gog.com/gamecard/the_temple_of_elemental_evil

This is a 3.5 pc game released in the early 2000's.

It is the closest approximation to actual table top play I have found.

It needs to be patched with the circle of eight mod pack

http://www.co8.org/

I you like this game ou will probably like pathfinder


+1 to everyone's suggestions. They are all great avenues. I myself was a lover of the Lone Wolf books when I was a teenager in the 1980s, partly because I never found a group to play with (until very recently).

Also, I am going through Ray Dyer's conversions of classic 1980s D&D modules in his "Realm" series: a series of modules he made for Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures a "Do It Yourself" adventure toolkit using the same engine for SSI's Gold Box series. What the fan community has come up with is professional quality and a joy to go through. My only caveat is that they are based on D&D 1st edition rules.

Temple of Elemental Evil is based on D&D 3.5 so is very close to the Pathfinder rules, and the fan mods have stabilized the game and are overall excellent.

Silver Crusade

You also might want to check out the links to the left for Pathfinder Society Organized Play. It doesn't support solo play, but you may be able to find a game near where you live. This has the advantage of having other people to teach you the rules if you're new to the game. I know you asked about solo adventures, but give the team games a try. One of the most rewarding things about this game is that you never know what your fellow players will do...


Kobold press did a Party of One line of adventures. A solo PF adventure each.

You'll need the Beginner Box (or Pathfinder Core Rule Book) though...


Everyone else' has pretty much covered the "how to get a game going" part, so I'll chime in on the Adventure Path stuff.

Adventure Paths are generally designed for 3-4 players. They can be run solo, but it'll be more difficult. And you still run into the same problem you do playing Pathfinder alone anyway...it's honestly kind of pointless. Half the fun is interacting with other people and their characters, and another 25% is being kept guessing about what's around every corner. So you lose out on the majority of the experience by playing alone.

As for starting APs at higher levels, you'd have to do some major tweaking. Starting at level 10 in a level 1 adventure effectively means you're Superman versus a bunch of what might as well be baseline humans unless you up-level everything to match you. Keep in mind that the max (normally) level in Pathfinder is 20, and most Adevnture Paths end at around 15 or 16, so you've jumped ahead half of the maximum level progression and 75% of the normal AP run already on that.


Also know that the rpg Tunnels and Trolls (by Ken St. Andre) has an option for solo play (as in "No GM Required").

Sure, it's not Pathfinder, but it's still a fun game.

Dark Archive

There are also some Lone Wolf multi-player gamebooks which might be of interest. From what I can tell, they take the plotlines of the original guidebooks and turn them into a role-playing game.

Lone Wolf Gamebooks


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Some will strongly disagree with me about this, but I have found that a good way to start, when there are no players available, is to create a party of characters yourself and run them through adventures yourself.

Obviously, this is not a substitute for playing a REAL game, with actual players. As Rynjin pointed out, there's no interaction and no guessing what's around the corner. However, it does give you a fun way to learn the rules, and the resulting confidence will help you run a game when you DO finally get the opportunity to play with real players. I have learned the rules of many RPGs, including Pathfinder RPG, that way, before going on to use those RPGs to run campaigns with real players, and I found that my solo campaigns helped me.


Aaron Bitman wrote:

Some will strongly disagree with me about this, but I have found that a good way to start, when there are no players available, is to create a party of characters yourself and run them through adventures yourself.

Obviously, this is not a substitute for playing a REAL game, with actual players. As Rynjin pointed out, there's no interaction and no guessing what's around the corner. However, it does give you a fun way to learn the rules, and the resulting confidence will help you run a game when you DO finally get the opportunity to play with real players. I have learned the rules of many RPGs, including Pathfinder RPG, that way, before going on to use those RPGs to run campaigns with real players, and I found that my solo campaigns helped me.

That basically was my path -- create my own parties, simulate battles. I even imagined characters and their own personalities sometimes. It filled the time until I found a group I could GM myself.


And, there are online tools that you can find that will randomly generate and populate D&D 3E and 3.5E dungeons that can give you some element of surprise.

Another alternative might be to try a third or 3.5 edition D&D video game, such as the "Neverwinter Nights" games: they will be set in a different game world and the rules will be slightly different (fewer and different options), and you'll have to pay a little more attention to see how the rules work when the computer does the work for you, but it should be just close enough to give you a fair idea of how the Pathfinder rules generally work.

Of course, I'll agree with those above who would probably say that even this not as good as sharing a good plot and carefully-crafted surprises from your own imagination with friends and family, but, as also mentioned above, running dungeons for yourself, perhaps with a little help from computer technology, can still be a fun way to learn the rules.

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