I wanted to ask all those who play the game with their wives and girlfriends if your significant other was already interested in Pathfinder(or RPGs as a whole) or did they come to like it gradually? I've tried to introduce my wife to PACG and she is willing to try but she has no experience with rpg's of any kind or fantasy as a whole and doesn't really see what I see in it. Just wondering if anyone could offer any tips from their own experience. As it is I'm pretty lucky, my wife has come to like the hobbit/lotr and goes to Rennaisance faires, but It would be awesome if we could share Pathfinder as well. I'm not looking to force her into anything but I noticed a lot of posts about people who play with their wives and gfs and wanted to ask for some insight, thanks : ).
My wife is a board gamer, not an RPGer. She's played in the odd adventure at Gen Con, but she's not one for open-ended campaigns or acting in character, etc.
That being said, she loves PACG. It's one of our favorite games, in fact. She's a nerd, to be sure, but not really on the Swords & Sorcery thing like I am.
The game has really good mechanics, and presents a pretty fun challenge. Hopefully your wife will like it as much as mine does :D
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I bought it when it was released... my gf practically assaults the mailman when an expansion arrives in the mail. She loves the game,I dare say more than I do...she played it once and never looked back ,all games in comparison that I buy,they have to meet that pathfinder "bar" in order for her interests to peak. I've converted her from digital to classic.
My wife is not one for RPGs (she's played a few sessions of 4E) or non-traditional board/card games. Gradually, she's begun to play hobby games with me, sticking to those that are of the simple to learn/difficult to master variety. I persuaded her to join a PFACG session one night after all but one member of my group bailed last minute.
The three of us had a session that went well, and my wife immediately insisted we play again, then again. She doesn't actively seek out sessions, but she is always up for joining any session I get together. Her favorite is Merisiel, as she likes the concise options available to the martial characters (no vast selection of spells to work through).
My wife has never played an RPG. She enjoys boardgames, though probably only lightly by most game community standards. She enjoys playing PACG with me. She even mentioned how much she missed her characters during the wait for deck 6. So we started a second group.
I'd chalk her enjoyment up to a few things:
- She started with simple characters. Merisiel first, Amiri second. In our second run through, she is playing Lini and Seelah. Merisiel and Amiri are much simpler. Spells require an extra step and also probably bring in the "one card of each type" rule more than a character like Merisiel or Amiri would.
- She played female characters. Not that she wouldn't play a male character, but remember, she isn't into RPGs or anything that has given her a context for anything like playing a male character. It was easier for her to relate to a character the more it was like her. Merisiel also lets her pretty much avoid experiencing bad things for a while.
- I did all the setup. I made it so she didn't have to do any of the work to set the game up. She could just sit and play. Once she realized she liked the game, she helped with the setup, but I didn't want to say, "Hey, try this game with me. But first, we have to spend 10 to 15 minutes getting it ready."
I think she just largely likes having something for us to do together. We have little kids, so we have to do things at home most nights. This is something fun that we can do once the kids are in bed.
I play with my girlfriend. However, she is the one who got me into RPG's so I don't really have much advice here.
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You're assuming people reading this forum are males with female partners ;-)
For what it's worth, I play it with my housemate and we are both into RPGs, but he is less into card games than I am, but we both love PACG.
Thank you all for sharing,and I would like to take this moment to apologize to Chimpy and anyone else that I excluded through my oversight. I would like to amend my request to include the opinion of anyone who plays the PACG with a significant other(of any gender) who is not usually inclined to these kind of games, sorry if it seemed like I was leaving anyone out. It might also be worth it to mention that to my wife "gaming" means three things: Monopoly, Scrabble, and UNO ; ).
The first time we played I did the same as you Hawkmoon, in regards to set, I thought she would get bored before we even got to the game. The funny thing is she said she didn't get it, it seemed like "just picking up cards". Next time I think I'll involve her in the whole set up process and add in some story telling. I may even wait until I get my class decks so We can go through them and read the back stories to see if there's a bigger chance of her finding a character she can relate to.
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My wife has never played an RPG in her life. I don't really think she'd have the patience for it...not sure I would at this point, either, unless a lot of the rolling and rule lookups were computerized.
I was able to convince her to try PACG because there was a character that had a lot of pets...especially cats.
My girlfriend had played Pathfinder before I met her, and I'd been DMing and playing for years. She's now involved in my weekly RPG game (and we go to board game nights together), and so playing PACG together made sense. We both enjoy it a ton.
Even for people who aren't gamers, PACG is a fairly easy game to learn and have fun with, as long as they have someone to teach them the game and encourage roleplaying. I even got my mom to play some with me, and she had a lot of fun. One of the best feelings ever was after the first session with my mom when we sorted out our decks and she handed me her deck and said, "So I get to use these cards tomorrow?" My parents moved shortly afterwards, so we only got through Perils of the Lost Coast, but it was a nice bonding time right before they moved.
Edit: The second paragraph doesn't directly relate to the topic, but I thought was still relevant to the spirit of the question.
I wish I could get my fiance to play, she was not a gamer of any sort before me. I've been able to get her to play a few deck builders, but she says PACG doesn't interest her, which is unfortunate since its the game I enjoy playing the absolute most.
I've tried everything to get her to give it a try, but its a non-starter.
Wife plays board games and PACG, but she isn't really into games that require more bookkeeping, like RPGs and MMOs. She also loves Elder Sign, which actually has a similar feel but less depth.
My wife has always enjoyed fantasy elements and majored in Math in college, so Pathfinder ACG is really a nice fit for us... Now. It wasn't always that way. She has always been a little weary when I have tried to get her to try one of 'my games.' The first time we played, she didn't like the game all that much, actually, and died near the end of the first scenario. I will give it to her for trying again, though. It has quickly become one of our favorite things to do together, and it would be hard to find a week in the past 4 or so months that we haven't played at least 3 scenarios.
She definitely came around to the game more slowly, but she is really enjoying it now. She actually doesn't care for the story all that much, because she feels that at this point it is too light. She actually enjoyed the numbers and the creation of characters.
I actually play with my wife and my 2 older children (11 (son) & 9 (daughter)). My wife has no interest in RPGs, but loves board games & card games. I think the real reason she plays is the children are so into this (along with me :)). This was a good way to meet 1/2 way between RPG & card games, so it worked out.
-Andrew
Your 2 cents are worth quite a bit to me alcatraz thank you ; ). Also thank you to everyone who has weighed in so far, I really appreciate it : ). I' m lucky in the fact that my wife is very open to my hobbies and even joins in on a few. I don't know why exactly but this Is one thing i'd really like us to share but I guess you can't have everything ; ).
I introduced the game to my boyfriend a while back, and we had a pretty good time with it. He's a blast to play with because he names all his allies, and does his best to explain how certain cards got in certain locations (like falling bell in the Woods).
I introduced the game to my boyfriend a while back, and we had a pretty good time with it. He's a blast to play with because he names all his allies, and does his best to explain how certain cards got in certain locations (like falling bell in the Woods).
I do that as well : ). When I play alone I keep a quest journal and write it as if I'm a chronicler traveling with the characters, I try to capture everything that happened as well as supply names to allies( and some weapons) for added fun. Some times I even expand on the Character of the allies And give them back story.
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Our group likes to give story behind encountering certain cards in certain locations. Of course, we only do it when the combination just doesn't make sense (falling bell in the woods), and it's less "Hey, let's think of a cool thematic reason the bell is here", and more "Alright, there's a bell hanging in the woods. How messed up and insanely funnily stupid of a reason can we come up with, that is actually possible?"