Introducing Some New Guys to PFS - Advice Requested

[Jorin]

Some friends of friend of an in-law have asked me about getting them started in PF.

I talked to a couple of them about it. I think they might like it. They have tried some of the other gaming staples like Heroclicks and War Hammer, but they seem to want something with more of a story to it. They tried D&D 4ed a couple of times, but it just seemed to fall apart.

From the descriptions, I don't think it was particularly dissatisfaction with the system as much as poor GM’ing. Nothing against the guys trying to do it, they just didn’t have any experience and were immediately trying to jump into creating everything from scratch. The other complaint/issue was that everything seemed to take forever to get anything done.

Rather than trying to teach them PF and how to GM all in 1 weekend, for these guys I am thinking PFS sounds ideal. There are a couple of local groups that they can go to and get more exposure on how things work. Then when one of them wants to try being GM again; most/many are relatively simple, short, and detailed on what the GM can or should do. Plus the short scenario length gives a fairly rapid sense of accomplishment. Later if they really get into it as a group, they can start making up their own stuff.

So these guys don’t know PF at all yet. The closest game they have tried is D&D 4ed. But that does give them the basic idea of how an RPG works for PnP games as opposed to a computer game. They are all reasonably intelligent and educated adults. I do not expect the rules to be too difficult for them (other than the same confusions everyone has) especially if they stick to the CRB for awhile.

My current plan is to:

• Make about 4-6 PC’s that are fairly simple to understand and play using CRB only. I will also have the pregens available, but I’m not sure how well the pregens will do without any veterans with more robust PC’s.
  
• Go over some of the very basics on how to make a skill check, weapon attack, or cast a spell.
  
• Ambush in Absalom – That gives them a couple of very basic fights. After it is over, review what did or didn’t happen. Give some tips or pointers on other things they might have tried.
  
• The Confirmation – Gives a more extensive variety of types of opponents, combats, and potentially a peaceful interaction.
  
• In Service to Lore – I know this is an old one that some people have still mentioned to use as an introductory teaching scenario. Looks kinda boring though (might be just me). Nothing in it really jumps out at me as obsolete, but maybe there is something better. Do you guys still think this is a good one to use?
  
• We Be Goblins – Amusing and gives you some easy exposure to another class or abilities without worrying too much about whether the character dies or not.
  
• After that, they would be ready for second level. They could stick with the PC’s I provided or I could help them build some others at 2nd level. I could suggest some purchases and things to save for in the future.
  
• I will email them some links to registering their PFS numbers, downloading the Guide to Organized Play, the poorly named Additional Resources Page, maybe 1 or 2 of the noobie advice threads.
  
• They’ll be ready to join their local PFS community, if they so choose.

I think that would be more than enough to get through in one weekend (if we even make it that far).

So… Does that seem like an adequate plan? Any suggestion on different scenarios to teach with? Things to particularly remember to tell them or explain?

[Zach Klopfleisch]

Don't let the Iconics' reputations get you down: They're just fine at first level: You don't need a 20 Str Barbarian to get past a CR 2 or 3 encounter, Valeros does just fine, Lini's pet is better and even Harsk can get the job done with his axe. The only real problem is that not all of the casters have Spellcraft trained but they have Detect Magic, so you might have to bend the rules on identifying magic items if you want to give them access to those handy potions they just found.

When I'm GMing for new players, I like to tell them "Tell me what you want to do, and I'll figure out how to do it within the rules." Starting with a short teaching game of Ambush in Absalom is not a bad idea, it should teach the basics but it can also go pretty long and be frustrating as Goblins are notoriously hard to hit and the space is tight, limiting the number of PCs who can participate at once. Whatever you do, explain what's going on as you do it: "The goblin uses a free action to 5' step away from you to here, so you cannot take an attack of opportunity. Then he uses his move action to draw an Alchemist's fire and a standard action to throw it at you, making a ranged touch attack rolling an 8 and adding his ranged attack bonus for a total of 12. Your touch armor class is listed here, is it higher than 12?"

The Confirmation is a wonderful scenario, with some good, difficult combats and healing is provided. It's also got multiple types of encounters, including social and combat and a tag-along NPC.

First Steps is very much a training scenario: It gives you some simple combats; puzzles; traps; puzzles interrupted by combat; introduces DR, Fast Healing, invisibility, and poison; introduces environmental hazards; has puzzles that can be solved in multiple ways with different types of skill checks; introduces non-combat interactions with NPCs and face-related skills; and has a tough combat with a potentially dangerous enemy. About the only thing it doesn't introduce is darkness. I think it's a great introduction to the various facets of the game and all the different types of jobs a Pathfinder Field Agent can expect to do.

Last bit: 3 scenarios sounds like an awful lot for a weekend, that's a good 12+ hours of play time, probably more due to having to teach your players everything. I might set expectations to Ambush in Absalom and one, maybe 2 scenarios.

[Jorin]

Zach Klopfleisch wrote:

... Last bit: 3 scenarios sounds like an awful lot for a weekend, that's a good 12+ hours of play time, probably more due to having to teach your players everything. I might set expectations to Ambush in Absalom and one, maybe 2 scenarios.

Oh, I very much agree. I would think it very likely we won't get any where near that far. But I'm told they sometimes get kinda OCD (their description, not mine) and game all weekend with their other games. So I figured I'd go ahead and get several ready. Even if they wanted more, I would be completely burned out by the time we got all 3 done.