Just starting out. What products to buy?

[oreet]

Hi everyone.
While not new to RPGs, I am new to Pathfinder. In about 2 months I will start DMing a group of 6-9 players in a monthly Pathfinder game. I am trying to figure out what materials I, and my players will need to buy to be ready.

Here is what I already have:
-I picked up Bestiary 1 from Borders during a going-out-of-business sale.
-A large collection of D&D map tiles
-A large collection of monster miniatures
-A full set of dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, and percentile dice)

So as a DM, what other materials (specifically Pathfinder books) will I need?

What materials would each of my players need to purchase? It seems that the regular Core Rulebook would cover everything that the players would need, unless they want to play one of the newer classes, like Witch or Alchemist (which would require the Advanced Player Guide, Ultimate Combat, or Ultimate Magic books).

There is also the new Starter Box coming out at the end of October. Would that be better for people to get, or should they stick with the actual hardcover books?

Several of the players are couples, so there will be a lot of book sharing to help keep costs down.

Short version:
Myself and a few others are starting Pathfinder soon. I am looking for a shopping list of Pathfinder books/products for myself (the DM) and the players.

[Gorbacz]

How proficient with 3.5 are your players? If not much, stick to the Core first and introduce Advanced/Ultimate stuff later on.

Beginner's Box will be likely a great intro for inexperienced players. Depends on your group, really.

Do you plan to run homebrew, APs, modules?

[Mark Sweetman]

Are you setting the game in Golarion? - or another setting?

Will you be following an AP? - or a homebrew game?

[oreet]

Gorbacz wrote:

How proficient with 3.5 are your players? If not much, stick to the Core first and introduce Advanced/Ultimate stuff later on.

Beginner's Box will be likely a great intro for inexperienced players. Depends on your group, really.

3 of the players used to play Advanced D&D (not sure which version number) back in the 80s/early 90s.

The rest of the players have no Pen & Paper RPG experience at all except for a one-shot Warhammer 40k thing I did 2 months ago (Broke Chains, the Black Crusade preview for free RPG day).

My only Pen & Paper experience is a little Warhammer 40k RPG games (Dark Heresy and Black Crusade) and a lot of experience with D&D 4th edition (I DM a weekly game for over a year now).

Gorbacz wrote:

Do you plan to run homebrew, APs, modules?

I might start it off with a module or so to get used to the system, but most likely everything will be Homebrew setting/story. That is how I do our Dark Sun setting D&D weekly game. I come up with ideas for things to send the players on, and they take it from there what they want to do with the information presented.

[oreet]

Mark Sweetman wrote:

Are you setting the game in Golarion? - or another setting?

Will you be following an AP? - or a homebrew game?

I might not be familiar with AP/Homebrew stuff.

The players will be living in whatever the default "world" is in the Pathfinder game, but I won't be buying/following pre-made adventures. I might start us off with one, and use that as a jumping off point, but everything else I'll be creating.

[Gorbacz]

If your players don't have any experience with 3.5 I would wait for the Beginner's Box. It's right around the corner, and it will likely be a far better introduction to the ruleset than the somewhat intimidating Core Rulebook.

[Mark Sweetman]

AP is short for Adventure Path - which is the monthly adventures that Paizo put out. But as you state you'll be putting together a custom game.

Strongest recommendation is for yourself (as DM) to pick up 'Inner Sea World Guide' at least as a PDF. It contains all the background on the various regions in the Pathfinder default world (which is called Golarion). It has a run down on all the major races and how they fit in, are perceived, etc.

For the players - core is all they need at the start. Another great resource for them will be the PRD (Pathfinder Reference Document) which can be accessed off the left menu in this site. It is a free repository of all the content from the Core rules, APG and Ultimate Magic. (will probably have Ultimate Combat added to it later as well).

[oreet]

Thanks guys.

Now do you think it would behoove the players to each get a box? or just get one to share?

[Vanyc]

I have recently started DMing a game with totally new players to any kind of roleplaying game, and found that there was a huge amount of scope to be found within using only the core rule book and the bestiary.

Whilst it is possible that the Core Rulebook might be a fairly intimidating book, the characters only really need to know the first 5 or 6 chapters in order to be able to almost totally gen up characters, as they will not be doing much in terms of magic items for quite some time.

The APG, UM and UC are all amazing books and I would wholeheartedly recommend them all, but at the very beginning there is not much need for them. Let the players get through one campaign first, and then maybe introduce all the other options.

Ultimately though, you know your players best. If you don't like any of the advice given to you here, then feel free to throw it all out and do it your way.

After all remember Rule Zero. Your game, your rules.

[lordfeint]

oreet wrote:

Thanks guys.

Now do you think it would behoove the players to each get a box? or just get one to share?

They really don't need to get one at all.

Of course, you could buy a single box if you wanted to just have it. (I plan to)
But basically, you have almost all the resources you need right at your fingertips online.
For Free!

As mentioned above, the PRD is perfect for any player. Old or new.
Check it out here... http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/index.html