We're VERY early in the preliminary stages of designing this game, and there's really not much more for us to say about it now other than "We're doing it."
What would be more valuable to us would be: What do YOU the customer hope to see in a Pathfinder introduction game?
As someone who just ran his 12 year old through her first adventure, I would have loved to have had a a Pathfinder lite to run for her. Here are a few of the things I would have liked to have had in a PFRPG basic
game.1) Fewer skills. I've always thought the 3.x/Pathfinder skill list is unnecessarily long. 10, maybe 15 skills max is all we really need. Many gamers end up using the same 5-10 skills and the others just take up space on the character sheet anyway.
2.) Feats are something else that seems pointless in an introductory game. My groups always take feats like toughness, any proficiency they need for weapons and armor, and still spell/silent spell/combat casting. After those they never give their feats a second thought or use them in-game. I know there are players that utilize feats regularly, but not using them has never impacted any game I've ever played. A new player doesn't need to be overwhelmed with a bunch of feats.
3.) Magic. My daughter and many of the newer players I've known don't get the resting to relearn magic spells that you already know. They also don't like stopping during a game to decide if they need to drop certain spells or alter their list.
We solve this issue by making spell lists static. Once you know a spell the only way to replace it is when you level up. You can choose to "forget" or erase some spells and replace them with a new ones, but only during level up.4)Another problem I've heard from newer players is with spells per day/spell slots. We use Spells per day as a total that is not affected by level.
For example, your spells per day are 4 zero level, 2 first level and 1 second level, that gives you a total 7 spells per day.
That means you can cast...
I agree with nearly everything in this post... I've run children's games as well as games for new gamers and all of the things that Capt. D has listed hold true.
A few posters have stated that they don't think Paizo ought to create a set of rules that is for a less strenuous system, but rather try for some high-gloss, easy to digest intro game that can attract the younger generation. IMHO I don't think that these games necessarily have to be mutually exclusive.
Seems to me that Paizo's strength is their writing. Their adventures and support material are top-notch. The rules were built on the shoulders of a preexisting system. Why not just pare them down a bit (back to many of Capt. D's suggestions) and use the result as both a complete game, in and of itself, as well as a tool used to introduce / lure the new gamer to the table? The existing core rule book could be the natural extension or "next step", should the player be interested in taking it.
A complete, rules-lite (to over use an OSR term) PF game, with which you could jump in and play any of the PF material (past, present and future) would be a massive win for the company as well as the community. Something that would be portable enough to fit in a small shoulder bag (Digest-sized books anyone?), that you could break out and get playing w/in 30 minutes (character generation and a brief explanation of game / adventure) would be so incredibly useful.
I've lost my youngest daughter's interest due to the complexity of the game. She loves imagining each scene, the NPCs and how her character interacts. But when it comes to selecting spells or pouring through a long book in order to look up a description of something, she's done. My eldest has a better attention span and is much more patient. I don't think that these two are corner cases either, probably quite the opposite in fact.
Why not make a game that allows them to imagine right away, rather than directing them to learn rules first? I'm not adverse to rules...I'm adverse to pausing play for any reason. Long character creation w/ too many choices, huge long lists of feats, skills, spells, etc. seem to kill the initial desire. While this may appeal to many, it's not an inducement, and is often an impediment to others.
I applaud Paizo for trying their hand at this very difficult task. No one is harder to please than a demanding game audience. We're a finicky bunch...