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That premise honestly sounds a ton like the beginning of Rise of the Runelords. Why not just run Rise of the Runelords? O.o

Because I don't want to buy Rise of the Runelords and I don't really feel comfortable running modules/adventure paths. I never seem to know them as well as I know stuff I've put together myself (even if the stuff I put together myself relies on stuff from modules/adventure paths) and it's harder for me to be smooth and go with it if the players go "off track."

So... just a finance and comfort thing is all. :)

It went REALLY well, Llefser. We're only able to play about once a month, and I'd greatly overprepped... which isn't a bad thing. But at this rate, I've got the next 4 months worth of sessions just sitting there ready to go.

So there are 3 PCs - a Human Wizard (Illusionist), an Elvish Rogue, and an Elvish Fighter. I've tossed in a Dwarvish Cleric NPC for some healing. I ran the Deadly Mine adventure with all the little bits about the candle and the players took the bait hook, line, and sinker (although they did catch me up on one thing; if the mine had been abandoned for such a long time, why did the dwarf miner found by the elemental totally step over a burning candle to start looking at the gold flecks in the wall? Wouldn't a candle - obviously a sign of recent activity - give him pause? As a long shot I had the dwarf miner tell them that he saw it and was a bit concerned until he saw the gold flecks in the wall and then his greed took over.)

When they got back to town and reported to the mayor and sheriff, they started giving each other glances and talking about coincidences; finally they told them that a few nights ago a stock of candles had been taken from the cathedral, and that last night weird noises and candlelight had been seen from within a mausoleum.

That's as far as we got... next session (the 10th of next month) will find them looking into the mausoleum part of the Beginner Bash: Terrors adventure, and they'll find out that Shalelu spotted two thugs delivering a couple of boxes to some dude out by Raven's Watch; she'll have investigated and found a dropped candle (which matches that found in the mine and the mausoleum.)

Good fun!

Thanks, Don Walker, but it sounds like you didn't read my post. My group and I are very experienced so I'm not looking for assistance with the hook or how to handle players who don't take the bait. I'm looking for ideas to create a believable connection between two unrelated adventures.

OberonViking, I like the idea of Abstalar's stolen candles and Shalelu spotting Thelsikar out by the ruins. The party has a cleric and a rangeresque fighter, both of whom are acquainted with Abstalar and Shalelu, so that just might be what I need.

Thanks!

So this Saturday I'm starting a Beginner Box game. The players are all experienced players and were, at one point, part of the longest running gaming group with which I've been involved (although most of these players haven't gamed for a while).

I'm running the Beginner Box for two reasons: 1) its layout and presentation is GREAT, and 2) I hadn't received my copy of the Core Rulebook before we started making characters. We're going to transition to the Core Rulebook as the characters level.

To make it easier on me, I'm using mostly published Beginner Box adventures, twisting, modifying, and stringing them together into a longer campaign. Here's what I've got so far:

Thelsikar, the evil cleric of Lamashtu, is planning to destroy Sandpoint as a sacrifice to Lamashtu by unleashing summoned monsters on the town. He has two things in his favor: a ritual which binds an evil spirit to a specially prepared candle and summons it into a consecrated receptacle, and a deal with Black Fang for whom he promises to make a growth potion if Black Fang will attack Sandpoint.

Here's some detail on the ritual: the evil spirit summoned is bound to the candle yet exists in a body (the receptacle); this can be a corpse, a body-shaped collection of rocks, etc. As long as the receptacle is animate, the candle cannot be extinguished.

So here's what I've got so far: the game will start with the Deadly Mine adventure from the GM Kit. The elemental is Thelsikar's first attempt with the ritual, so the characters will find a burning candle which they can't extinguish until the elemental is dead. When they return to the mayor and sheriff with the miners, the sheriff will recall someone reporting to him flickering lights in the mausoleum, and the sounds of movement. He will ask the adventurers to investigate. This is the Beginner Box Bash: Terror adventure (at least the mausoleum part of it). Of course, the monsters will be zombies - not skeletons - and the characters should find more of the candles.

Now here's where I'm stuck. I want to flesh out Ruins of Raven's Watch from the GameMasters Guide and make that the next stop, which will lead to Black Fang's Dungeon as the "boss dungeon". What I'd like to have happen is for the candles to lead the characters to Thelsikar somehow, which leads them to the Ruins where they find him. I was thinking that maybe one of the shops could have sold Thelsikar the candles (which gets them the name), but then routing them to the Ruins is giving me a problem.

So. Anyone have an idea?

If he uses your work in something he releases publicly, he'll have to acknowledge your work... it's required by the OGL. :)

This may not be a strictly Beginner Box topic, but Paizo? What are the chances we could get - either as part of the Beginner Box download "collection" or as a teaser for some other product - a Sandpoint gazetteer?

I'd love to have a bit more information on this awesome little town and its hinterlands than what's in the Beginner Box. I'm just starting a Beginner Box campaign that - thanks to the new Transitions document - will become a Core game once the characters level a bit. Sandpoint is going to be the characters' home area, with most of their adventures for the foreseeable future taking place in Sandpoint or its hinterlands.

If something like this already exists, I'd be much obliged if someone could point it out to me. :)

Thanks!

This is... rad. I'm starting up a BB campaign which I plan to transition to the Core rules after 5th level. Thanks for this!

Well, this is totally pedantic, but I wouldn't call it "multiclassing" for the BB; I'd call it "class switching" and limit it to one class switch over the 5 levels the BB covers.

Then I'd make sure that not only does the character take on the strengths of both classes, but the weaknesses as well. BB wizards can't cast spells in armor, so characters who switch class to a wizard (or from a wizard) can't cast spells in armor either.

That's just my $.02. :)

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. There's also the seed for that Ruins of Raven's Watch adventure in the GM's book which is tied to Black Fang. I'm going to flesh that out, although I'm not sure if I'm going to run it before or after the actual Black Fang adventure. It could be a great lead-up to it, the characters find the evil priest and his plans which lead them to the dragon.

But yeah, definitely lots of dragon foreshadowing. :)

I'm starting a monthly-ish BB game for which we're doing character creation right now. To start us off, I'm going to run the basic BB adventures - the one in the GM's book, the GM's PDF, and some of the Bash's - first, tying them together in some way using the character's backgrounds.

I'm thinking I'm going to run the mine adventure from the GM's PDF first; these are all experienced players and if I throw a dragon at them - even a small one like that in the GM's book adventure - I'm going to get dice hucked at me. :)

So I figured I'd run the mine adventure, then a couple of Bash's, then the Black Fang adventure once they've got some XP and play-time underneath them.

Anyone see any issues with that approach?

In the Hero's Handbook, page 43, it is stated that Fighters automatically get the Toughness feat at 2nd level. On page 23, there is no mention of Fighters getting the Toughness feat.

Which is correct? I assume that the feat description is incorrect and Fighters do not automatically get Toughness, but *shrug*.

3rd: Before the game, take a d20, roll it 20-30 times and write down the results on a sheet of paper in order. Then, whenever an NPC needs to make a roll, like a Bluff for example, you can just look at the 1st number on the sheet and cross it off. This lets you prevents you from giving anything away by rolling dice.

That's... genius. I've been GMing for years and never once did I think of that. Super good idea.

As mentioned several times in many places, the BeginnerBox is a great system for E5/E6 games. Has anyone considered importing the "slow" advancement table from the full rules (on http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/classes.html in the PRD) for E5/E6 games?

Hey, did y'all know that Lone Wolf released a free "starter edition" of their Hero Labs software, which is for the BeginnerBox alone?

That's really sweet!

Why not just copy/paste what you want your players to have from the online SRD?

Oh, wow, I was going to ignore the pawns in favor of scouring the 'net for the D&D miniatures I wanted until I saw the mention of the Bestiary Box above. That's really cool, I must have one. :)

Yeah, I'm already selling a bunch of old games so I can get the full rulebook... and the bestiary... and a whole bunch of other PF stuff. Heh.

Oh, wow, this is some great stuff. (Yeah, I know, late to the party. Sue me, heh.)

I've been running a near-monthly Swords & Wizardry game for the last year or so, but the players are all Pathfinder-heads. While they enjoyed S&W, it just didn't have enough "game" for them, so they convinced me to convert to Pathfinder.

I've been a D&D DM for a long time, but I was discouraged with 3.5 came out and started running older editions. I never got into Pathfinder, D&D 4.0 or any other new games until I got the BeginnerBox to help re-acquaint me with the 3.5-esque system.

Paizo, you've hit a winner with the BeginnerBox. It's... really good. The rules are good, the presentation is good, the playability is good... it actually makes me want to run, which is something I haven't felt since I picked up Swords & Wizardry a couple of years back.

So, kudos. Good job. Right on. And all those other congratulatory quips. :)