Moving On...


Beginner Box


Our group is fairly new to RPGames. We're taking turns learning a system and explaining it to eachother through a campaign. It's my turn now, and I've chosen the Pathfinder system. I want my players to really love it and get into it, without blasting them with rules from the get go. So I've bought the Beginner Box and I'm running the dungeon this weekend. But as I said, our group is fairly new to Tabletop Roleplaying, but I'm afraid they might get bored if I leave them in the safe environment of the Beginner Box for too long, without (for example) Charge, Bull Rush or Disarm options.

So my question to all you BBox-DM's out there...
When did you feel like your players were ready to take it to the next level and suffer the full extent of the Core Rules? How much time did you spend with the Beginner Box, teaching them the basics? Did you run a couple of adventures, adding rules as you progressed (and if so, which ones?) or did you immerse them immediately in a full PF-module, like Crypt of the Everflame?


There is only one actual adventure in the Box, but there are the tools to make more, especially if Blackfang escapes from the PCs. That first adventure can take anywhere between 2-5 hours, depending on if you all opt for character creation, how fast they burn through the rooms, if they do much role-playing, etc. If your group has taken several hours (or even multiple sessions) to complete that first dungeon, I would guess that they're going to have a fairly good grasp on the simplified rule set by then.
If your group opts to make their own PCs instead of using the pregenerated ones, then it sounds like they're hungry for more and might be more willing to jump in than you realize.
If your group opts to use the pregenerated characters, that is still a good way to learn rules, but they won't have experienced the character creation process. This is actually a decent segway into encouraging the players to pick up the Core Rulebook and make fresh new characters of their own design, for your new campaign.

Talk to your group before game and give them the option to use pregens or make their own PCs.
Talk to you group after the BBox quest and see how they feel. Let their input be your guide instead of it being your arbitrary decision to move to the Core Rulebook. You can progress as fast or slow as they're willing to progress with you. I say play it by ear. Listen to feedback, if certain rules are too much for everyone to wrap their heads around -- cut them out for a game or two.


on a side note, holy cow the Beginner Box throws way too much loot at the party for being level 1 heroes. There are gems, potions, wands, dragonslaying swords, it is not consistent with the amount of treasure your party should expect throughout the rest of the game. I recommend noting that to the players, or simply thoroughly reading the adventure, and cutting out some of the loot.

Spoiling new players with loot is bad. Their focus for future games will be on how many magic swords they got instead of how awesome the storytelling and roleplaying interaction was.

The Beginner Box is good, but if I have one complaint it is the loot. Its like buying a 16 year old kid a Lamborghini for his first car. Just a bad idea!


Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

My beginner box group consists of 4 brand new players and one experienced player. We've had 3 sessions total, and inbetween, I've talked a little bit about whats going to be coming in the full book. They all seem hesitant about it, so until we run some more adventures, we're probably going to be sticking with the box.

Its alright though, I have a campaign planned out for them. Black Fang and Fatmouth both escaped, so I have plenty of hooks to go with.


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Why does it have to be all or nothing? If one of your player's asks if they can disarm an opponent add the disarming procedure, same with charging or bull rushing. Let your players lead you and use the rules to tell the story of their characters. I run a campaign using just the Basic Box, Bestiary and limited feats and options from the core rules just because that's all we need. Make the game into whatever's fun for you and your group. :D


Echoing Woo's post above, I'd recommend phasing the Core rulebook in as required, rather than switching from Beginner-only to full-Core all in one fell swoop. Choose a session where, for example, attacks of opportunity get introduced. Spend a few minutes before that game explaining AoOs and get people used to them before deciding which concept(s) to add in the next session. Or even decide you don't want AoOs in your game at all!

The rulebook is a toolkit, pick the parts you want or need, ignore or change anything that doesn't work out. Don't be afraid to experiment, either - try out rules from the book and see how the group feels about them.

If the players are getting bored due to lack of options, phase some new options in earlier. If they're getting overwhelmed, slow down on the introduction of anything else new. Let the group lead your decision on what to introduce, and when.


#1 Rule - Keep'em poor and hungry...you'll be glad you did :)

And I agree with the above.

Use the Core rulebook like a supplement. Don't introduce it like 'here's a whole bunch of new you have to learn' but keep moving them in that direction as a reward little by little. There's plenty of material to keep them busy and there are some who never completely convert over to the full rules but a good GM learns to tinker with things and make them fit. All the material works with the BB...you might have to alter something here and there but if it keeps for a happy gaming group you might be surprised. As they see the potential for their characters to grow they might beat you to introducing the full rules themselves.

Most important: Have Fun!

(Don't forget to download all the goodies here for the BB if you haven't already...and the 2 free pdf zines can add a big boost of ideas to build your first campaign with)


Thanks everyone. Last saturday we played our very first Pathfinder adventure: the beginner box Black Fang Cave. I took some time explaining a couple of rules and luckily all of them had watched these 'Pathfinder Basics'-video's I had found on youtube.

When I read the rules before we started, it all made a lot of sense and it seemed so simple, but as soon as they appeared in the game, we had to recheck everything. I thought the transition from Beginner Box to full core rules would go very fluently, but I see now that this will indeed take more time.

I encouraged my players to use the Charge maneuver every so often, I teached them about flanking and cover and we even had a little encounter with some Attacks of Opportunity. I found out these are pretty hard when your party is fighting in a cramped little cave, and it makes the combat a little stiff, since nobody seemed to be able to move anywhere without provoking a AoO.

Anyway, we had fun and learned a lot. I kept the loot to a minimum as Zedth suggested, I added the rules they needed when they asked for something special like Woo suggested and I'm already learning about the rules necessary for running Crypt of the Everflame - Beginner Box Style.

Thanks a lot, guys. If you still have suggestions for which rules to add first and which ones to keep until later, I'd sure appreciate it.

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