iamtim's page

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?

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!

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*.

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!

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. :)