Dwilimir's page

I’m about to embark on running the Pathfinder Beginner Box adventure and I’ll be taking this opportunity to learn the Pathfinder rules better.

What adventures should I run next after the Beginner Box adventure? Here’s one road map; feel free to give feedback:

Start with the Beginner Box rules and the four iconic character classes. After that, run adventures in this order:

• Beginner Box Adventure in GM Guide (1st level)
  
• Pathfinder Module: Crypt of the Everflame (1st to 2nd level)
  
• Pathfinder Module: Masks of the Living God (3rd to 4th level)
  
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #17: Perils of the Pirate Pact (4th to 5th Level)

Around this time, I’d add in the following missing Beginner Box rules and convert over to the Core Rules:

• Attack of Oppor­tu­ni­ties
  
• Charg­ing on Sur­prise
  
• Com­bat Maneu­vers and Com­bat Defense
  
• Con­cen­tra­tion Checks to cast spells
  

Then I’d move on to

• Pathfinder Module: City of Golden Death (5th to 6th/7th Level)
  

After this I might switch to an Adventure Path (Rise of the Runelords possibly, the new edition will be out in June) with new characters (opening up possibilities for all the Core classes), or perhaps continue on with the same Beginner Box characters along this path:

• Pathfinder Module: Realm of the Fellnight Queen (7th Level)
  
• Pathfinder Module: Cult of the Ebon Destroyers (8th Level)
  
• Pathfinder Module: Curse of the Riven Sky (10th Level)
  
• Pathfinder Module: Academy of Secrets (13th Level)
  

There is an XP gap in Crypt of the Everflame (taking you to almost, but not quite, to 3th Level) and Masks of the Living God (taking you to almost, but not quite, to 5th Level), but the Beginner Box Adventure and Pathfinder Society Scenario #17: Perils of the Pirate Pact adventure, plus a couple of random encounters should fill the gap. Similarly, if there are gaps after any other Pathfinder Modules, simply grab a level appropriate Pathfinder Society Scenario, or add in some random encounters. The XP gap in some of the modules in intentional as it is expected many GM’s will add in some additional material between modules.

I created a tutorial on how to make your own do-it-yourself Beginner Box style pawns.

Here's an image of the finished product.

The two pawns in the middle are from the Beginner Box; the others are ones I made myself using Paizo images.

If you wanted to spend the time you could create a couple of hundred for all the monsters and NPCs you might encounter. I think this technique has a lot of promise. Only thing is you have to know a little about image editing (I use Gimp, but Photoshop will do) to pull this off.

Even if it were fairly straightforward to rewrite the existing rules in a more attractive format, I'm skeptical whether that would substantially increase sales of the Core Rulebook.

The value of re-organization and simplifying the rules (while not changing the rules mechanics themselves) goes way beyond the sale of the Core Rulebook. Most of Paizo's money is coming from other books such as the Adventure Path modules. If you can get more people playing the game, and a new, newbie-friendly format can assist in this, it will broaden the player base and sales overall.

I for one have fallen away from Pathfinder because of just the usability issue. I didn't come from the 3.x days, and trying to master the Core rules is simply too daunting. Beginner Box gives me hope of mastering the rules. I'm a busy dad, and time is precious. I need this usability or I won't be playing Pathfinder, I'll be playing Savage Worlds or something that is approachable for someone new to the hobby who doesn't have a lot of time to pour over the rules.

I for one would love to see the game broken into Normal play (1st - 12th) and high level 13-20. Or maybe even end break at 10th level.

Here's how I'd like to see things play out for CR 2.0.

Have Beginner Box be the main reference for levels 1-5.

Have a new 'Core Rules Volume 1' which covers levels 1-12, with the same Beginner Box clarity and presentation. This would also match the Pathfinder Society level range.

Have a new 'Core Rules Volume 2' which covers levels 13+, with the same Beginner Box clarity and presentation. This would cover all the high-level stuff.

So for newbies, they'd start with Beginner Box. Soon thereafter they'd get CR Volume 1. Some power-players would get (or use at least) Volume 2, but many folks would be content with just Volume 1 and never play past Level 12.

I think this would be a great compromise for those not wanting the dense and daunting 500 page book, wanting something that seemed rules lite and approachable, while not splitting the 'Basic' crowd into a different product line.

And I think this would go a long way to making things easier for GMs. Playing 8th level? Maybe you digest 250 pages instead of 500. At the very least, the book would be lighter weight :-)

I totally understand the need to not split the Pathfinder product line by creating an entire new ‘Basic’ product line. Here is what I suggest as an alternative.

Just as there are different XP tracks in Pathfinder Society (so you can stay at 7th level for a long time if you want to), so there could be a different ‘combat complexity’ method, a sort of sanctioned house rule which is called out in future editions of the product. It would be consistent with much of the Beginner Box rules. The “Basic Combat Style” might look something like this:

-- No Attack of Opportunity
-- No Charging on Surprise
-- No Combat Maneuvers or Combat Defense
-- No Concentration checks to cast spells, you cannot cast spells when you are next to an enemy unless it is a touch attack spell
-- No Ability Damage or Drain (Poisons mostly give the sickened condition or penalties to whatever is affected by the stat they would normally be associated with. Level Drain replaced with an aging effect (touch = +1d6 years to your character's life). Ability damage/drain into a temporary effect which goes away on its one at a rate of 1 per hour.)

That’s it. All else would be the same. The idea here is GM’s could declare “I’m using ‘Basic Combat Style’ at my table to run this Pathfinder Society module,” and players would know what that meant. Also, new products might adopt the friendlier PFBB formatting, but that’s just a style thing.

You’d have one set of rules, but approving a slightly different style of gaming which would let those accustomed to the Beginner Box to continue to play a lighter combat style while still coming into the full game. Sure, you can do this in home games already, but I’m particularly wanting to see out a codified, sanctioned way to run the game which you could bring with you to a convention and still feel like you could legitimately run the PFS game with.

Another way to approach this would be to make the Basic Style the default option for combat (continuing the PFBB approach) and call out "Advanced Combat Style" in it's own section with all the traditional AoO type rules.

I’m sure the list I have above could be improved upon, but I wanted to see if anyone else shared an interest in a sanctioned ‘Basic Combat Style’ option within the game.

Personally I prefer the tokens, because I can make my own. I might be able to fab the pawns, but I'd have to find a source for the plastic bases.

Here's how I'm making my own cardboard figures very similar to what is in the Beginner Box.

Buy some white 3mm craft foam from Hobby Lobby or a similar craft store (I bought a 12" x 18" 3mm sheet of craft foam, called ‘Funky Foam’ from Hobby Lobby; it costs $0.99). It seems like it will be floppy, but don’t worry, it will be stiff like cardboard or balsa wood by the end after you glue on the paper.

Then, find monsters of your choosing (either online, or you can do a printscreen from a PDF and edit out any stray text or colors) and resize to fit the pawn / figure flat size you want. Make two copies of the image. Image tip: Make it 200 or 300 DPI (dots per inch); this is important if you are doing a screenshot which by default is 72 DPI and may look pixelated when you print).

Finally, print out the monster and cut it out to the size pawn you want. Glue (I use rubber cement, but any kind should do) one monster piece of paper to one size of the craft foam. Cut out the craft foam using the paper pawn as a guide. Then flip it over and paste the other monster paper to the reverse.

Finally, once dry (rubber cement dries in only a few seconds, one reason I like it) you can insert it into these bases from Fantasy Flight:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=1400

I actually bought mine here:

http://www.ccgarmory.com/bogaacplst.html

$2.00 for 10 stands. I spent $10 and got 50 of them. Enough for a small army battle!

With a little bit of time in Gimp or Photoshop, and some cutting and pasting, you can crank out very cheap figure flats / pawns similar to what is in the Beginner Box (better, if you want an image on the rear).

Follow my blog at www.rpghacker.com as I will put up a more detailed tutorial on all this when I have time, including (I hope) some templates for the pawns.