spellingmistax's page

First off I would like to thank everyone for the rapid response as well as the helpful advice. Some of it has so been embarrassingly obvious that I can’t believe I did not think of it myself. Crystal Seas suggestion to look at getting the Beginner Box and simplifying the rules falls into this category. I will try to get a copy of that Box.

Paying attention to the details, remembering the names of NPC’s, place names etc is not something I would have thought of as making his game enjoyable. I knew back story was a thing but I never considered having it tie in with the story. Not worrying about optimising my character but picking skills and feats that compliant my backstory is something I should have thought of but did not.

As to the ‘Power Gaming’ please remember your getting my point of view of what he is saying. I may be misrepresenting what he means. I do know that in the first game we struggled mightily against an ‘easy’ encounter (I can’t be sure but I believe he fudged some damaged rolls so as not to kill us all) and in the 2nd game we blended our way through a ‘hard’ mob. It could simply be a case where he was frustrated with having these encounters being too easy. He may not yet have found that sweet spot between a stupidly easy encounter and one that will kill us all. Or it could be the dice just haven’t averaged out yet, it could also very easily be this:

“It could just as easily be that the GM hasn't figured out how to handle certain things, or isn't past the frustration of being in a role where they're supposed to lose pretty much every time.”

I just don’t know. I will ask. Since I am so new to this game I can’t really give any more info because I do not know what would be relevant and I would prefer not to spam this tread/forum with random nonsense from an obvious newbie.

My main realisation is that I am treating this game as if it had winners and losers. Rather than one of a shared experience. He sold me on this game because it was something different, that it was a shared story not a competition. If I want to win at something there are many other games I can play. I need to remember this.

"Have you looked into playing any local PFS games?"

If practicable I think I will. Not even sure if there are any.

SmiloDan and Quoth13 I will steal your advice verbatim and suggest it as my own. Thanks 

To everyone else who have responded but I did not mention, thank you I have read and will apply it all as best as I can. I will be reading what has been suggested and I will give the podcast mentioned a listening to.

Hello all. I have recently been convinced by my brother to start playing "Pathfinder Roleplaying game" and we have had two ‘test’ games so far. Both were absolutely hilarious, so I plan to keep it up.

The first two sessions were ‘prequels’ to the main campaign. We used them to find out how the rules actually worked in practice and to find out each players game style. The next session (the 3rd) will be the start of the real campaign.

In the first two games we were woefully inept at understanding even the most basic of rules. I expect us to be comparatively much better this time around. I do understand how flanking works now but I am still a little shaky on attacks of opportunity for example. (Trust me that is a massive improvement) I have done some reading on my Class and have a basic understanding of how to play her. I am pretty sure that I am misreading or misapplying at least half of all the rules that deal directly with me and I cannot guess what my brother must try to learn since he is running it all.

The meat of this problem is that every player at the table, the GM and the five of us that make up the party, have very little to no experience with table top role playing games. My background is mostly in wargames (think 40k, Warmachine etc.) and board games (Settlers, Twilight Imperium, Avalon etc) so I am no stranger to gaming it’s just that this is a completely new system, style and experience for me. I have nothing similar to draw from.

Talking about the game with him between sessions he has told me that he is really enjoying GMing but that the mechanics and our ‘power gaming’ are beginning to overwhelm him. I really do not want this game to become a chore for him and I would like him to look forward to them as much as I do.

The question then is this, how can I, as a PC/player, help him, as a GM enjoy the game? or at least make it easier for him to GM when we play.

Any advice to help with this particular problem from those who have more experience (At the moment that means you) would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry if this subject has already been dealt with to death.
On another note to keep things easier at the moment we are only allowed access to the core rule book for classes/races etc.