The group I've joined recently (within the past year) is starting to think about its next adventure once _Expedition to Castle Ravenloft_ wraps up. The DM has decided he needs a break, and I volunteered to don the mantle; however, there are a couple of points that must be addressed.
One: I've only played in about twelve (give or take) sessions of D&D 3.5.
Two: The last edition I actually DMed was 1e.
Third: My knowledge of the rules is fair, so I want to start at first level to get my bearings.
Since one of the players has read all the Pathfinder adventures (and I really enjoyed reading the first PF--great work all around), and the "retiring" DM is interested in playing in the Shackled City, I think that is going to be the next adventure.
Now, to my question. . .
Can any of you "old salts" give a greenhorn some advice? The players are familiar with the rules, so I imagine that they'll be understanding at first. What should I anticipate with regards to some of the requirements a 3.5e has?
Thanks in advance.
If I might ask a question first. Are you and your players concentrating on using just the 3.5 WotC rules, or are you going to try using the PRPG Beta Playtest rules? Your answer is fairly important in us "Old Salts" being able to answer your questions.
While I may not give much advice, I can imagine there will be several who will offer many suggestions. One thing I would recommend is familiarize yourself with the class rules and the combat rules. There are a few differences between 3.x and Pathfinder RPG, so it is imperitive that you decide which rule set you will be using.
I am a fairly new DM myself so I have picked up a few pointers from just reading some of the posts here on these boards. I recommend you do the same. Not everything will strike your fancy but some will. Do not be afraid to ask for clarification or further advice.
Welcome to the wonderful world of DMing.
Just to complete my DM friend over here: If you like to DM, if you find yourself really enjoying it, then, my friend, like me, you may never ever want to be a player again.
Welcome.
Silverhair, to answer your question, I would have to say that we are going to stick with 3.5e for the time being. Only one player has read the new PFRPG cover to cover (pixel to pixel), and, while I am not new to dming (d&d & ad&d 1e), I am relatively new to the 3.5e rules. I don't want to have to try to run the game and worry about translating from 3.5 to PFRPG.
One of my main concerns is using (fairly and appropriately) the skills and feats of the encounters and NPCs. I also want to make sure that my adjudications are as quick and smooth as possible.
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If it's up to you, I would strongly recommend using the 3.5 rules system, instead of joining in the Pathfinder playtest.
- The Beta rules are incomplete and silent about many, many topics on which it is transparent to the 3.5 SRD beneath it.
- The adventure was written for all of 3.5 available at the time, not just the core SRD rules. (Pathfinder, on the other hand, is operating strictly in a SRD environment.) So Shackled City will be referencing classes, monsters, and abilities that aren't part of Pathfinder. Backwards-compatibility is supposed to be an important design goal, but you'll be on your own as to how to incorporate some of that material into a Pathfinder game system.
- Some things in the Beta rules just don't work right. That's to be expected: it's a playtest.
- In August 2009, the actual Pathfinder RPG comes out. It'll patch a lot of rules questions either by defaulting back to 3.5 or making some other change that Jason and the design team think will work better.
First order of business: have fun. It's not brain surgery: if you mess up, nobody dies.
There's loads of good DM advice in print. The book "Being a Dungeon Master for Dummies" is full of good advice. So is "Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering" published as a little pamphlet by Steve Jackson Games. If you've got backissues of the old Dungeon magazines, see if you can track down Monte Cook's and Wolfgang Baur's articles on game-mastering.
For Shackled City in particular, are you playing from the Dungeon magazine version or the hardcover? How many player characters are you working with?
There's an entire section of these boards dedicated to problems, issues, side adventures, NPC's, modifications, and solutions that the Paizo readership community has discussed. I'd read through a lot of those boards as you run your party through this adventure.
Woo hoo! Roll dice, have fun.