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I ran the demo/solo from the Hero's guide for my 10 and 5 year old (my 8 year old watched). Both of them just came home from school today wanting to play again. I think we're going to head in the mine from the supplemental before doing the main scenario.
Note: I had the goblins get 'wounded' and run off rather than the usual murder-n-take-their-stuff approach ;) We did kill off the skeleton king
I'm also cutting out the magic items from the print outs and handing them to them so they don't have to write down and reference.
Jay Hafner
Lakewood, CO
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My 10 yo will be DMing me and my 5 yo through Black Fang's Dungeon in a little while. It is his first DMing experience.
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SPOILERS
My daughter just had her character feed 25 gp to the gold elemental and tell it to leave. (online download scenario). I had the elemental leave.
It's amazing how kids can think outside the "just kill it" box ;)
They were both captured by the giant black widow and spun into webs..I did a dramatic pause and a fade to black. I went and got a drink of water.
.."BUT DAD!"
..and then I had them wake up in town, having been rescued by the dwarf miner that they were nice to earlier.
My 10 yo will be DMing me and my 5 yo through Black Fang's Dungeon in a little while. It is his first DMing experience.
I'd like to hear how it goes for a new GM. I think I started GMing around age 11, but had no clue how to fill in the blanks of the outside world. (like the keep on the borderlands).
Good for you all!
I just got hold of the box for my kids as well - but I can't open it yet because I'm saving it for a Christmas present! D'oh! :P
Same here.
I have a suspicion we'll have a few kiddy RP stories over the Christmas break...
'findel
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You guys are making me want to have kids. >.<
You guys are making me want to have kids. >.<
Seconded.
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...Hmmm maybe this thing will need to be 'play on arrival' rather than wait under the Xmas tree! The house Hobbit will love it.
...Hmmm maybe this thing will need to be 'play on arrival' rather than wait under the Xmas tree! The house Hobbit will love it.
I thought the same thing, so I let my kids play today 13yr old already a pfs player with 'his own' books (sheesh) and my 7 and 6 yr old.
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...Hmmm maybe this thing will need to be 'play on arrival' rather than wait under the Xmas tree! The house Hobbit will love it.
Yeah this thing isn't making it to Christmas. 8 and a 9 year old already interested, and memories of the '81 Basic Set at their age are flooding back already. No way this even stays under wraps til Thanksgiving.
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Something that we parents quickly discover playing with the kids: When do things with our kids, they love us more, we love them more, and we understand them more.
On a related note, my 10 year old daughter said to me, "Dad, you're really good at playing this game. How come you know so much about it?"
I told her, "Because I was practicing a whole bunch of years so I could be good when I finally got to play with you kids."
:)
jh
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On a related note, my 10 year old daughter said to me, "Dad, you're really good at playing this game. How come you know so much about it?"
I told her, "Because I was practicing a whole bunch of years so I could be good when I finally got to play with you kids."
:)
That's awesome :D
My story:
I don't have kids to play this with (yet! but we're expecting any day now), but I played through the Box with my wife this weekend. This is a woman who, even a month ago, regarded my interest in RPGs as 'ew!'. But I talked her into it, walked her through the solo adventure in the Player's Book and then Blackfang... and she had a lot of fun and wants to play more (after presenting her with several options, she chose ENWorld's Zeitgeist AP for me to start running her through).
After all the holiday "hullabaloo" (say that 5x fast) my church has a game day (and I've just learned about this from our online "messenger") anyway... the idea is to bring a favorite game, a snack to share, and have a few hours of fun... basically unwinding after the holidays. I'm seriously thinking of buying this, reading up on it (yes, I know PF, but getting familiar with the BB wouldn't hurt I'm sure) and taking this along to "share" with some of the kids at my church.
All the shared stories I'm hearing have me rather eager to try this out with a group of kids (since like some others, I do not have kids of my own).
Thanks everyone for sharing your stories of the PF BB. Very inspiring and heart warming.
Cheers!
~Dean
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While fighting the dragon my 9 year old son (playing Valeros) managed a critical power attack at just the right moment. The Cleric was out of channels and spells, they drank the cure potion and Valeros had just taken 10 points of damage the previous round. I was thinking the dragon would have to just fly away. But they actually killed it. He was cheering and sooo excited.
I was running the party while my son DMed and I kicked the Dragon's but pretty good without taking any damage. He rolled nothing higher than a 5 for the dragon attack rolls and Valeros hit him for 25 in one hit.
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While fighting the dragon my 9 year old son (playing Valeros) managed a critical power attack at just the right moment. The Cleric was out of channels and spells, they drank the cure potion and Valeros had just taken 10 points of damage the previous round. I was thinking the dragon would have to just fly away. But they actually killed it. He was cheering and sooo excited.
Haha thats funny while fighting King Fatmouth and the goblins my 13yr old (fighter) gets into an argument with my 7yr old daughter (cleric) over who gets the magic ring. She refused to heal him. All the while my 6yr old (wizard) was holding the treasure. I had to take a time-out to explain why they're a PARTY. funny stuff.
I'm going to buy one for my 11 and 10 yr niece and nephew - when they visit from Florida we usually play Heroquest since the PFPRG rules are a bit too much for the younger kids. I'm sure they'll be happy with this version before I bring them up to speed to PFRPG in a few years.
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I have a couple of questions for those who've begun playing:
1) I haven't purchased the BB yet, but I have downloaded the PDFs. My son and I already play Axis & Allies, so I think he'll enjoy it if the learning curve isn't too steep.
My question is: From the time you open the box, how long does it take to actually start playing the game?
2) Is anyone's daughter playing? If so, does she like it? Does it seem like she'd stick with it?
Thanks
~Keith
Chief Technical Officer
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From the time you open the box, how long does it take to actually start playing the game?
Our intent was that, if you go with the pregenerated characters, a new group can start playing in less than 15 minutes, and we have heard from people who say they've managed to do just that.
>>1) I haven't purchased the BB yet, but I have downloaded the PDFs. My son and I already play Axis & Allies, so I think he'll enjoy it if the learning curve isn't too steep.
My question is: From the time you open the box, how long does it take to actually start playing the game?
If you've run or played pathfinder, you can just have the kids grab a character and then start reading the "Solo" adventure. That's about 2 minutes. When it comes to rolling, you start explaining only what you need and go from there.
If you don't know how to play Pathfinder, then you're going to need to play the solo yourself first and read through the GM's guide (2 days to let it soak in).
>>>2) Is anyone's daughter playing? If so, does she like it? Does it seem like she'd stick with it?
Here's the deal with kid-girls: They pick girl characters. The same is true for boys - they pick boy characters. Here's to hoping there will be dual-artwork on future stuff! When I run talisman, I have printed out pictures of girl fantasy characters (Fiona from shreck, Xena, etc) taped over the male images on the cards..otherwise the kids would not choose those cards.
As to the themes (in my 30 years experience of running convention games for girls, gals, ladies and my own kids): Dungeons generally do not appeal to girls as much as interactive stuff. One of my girls enjoys the "imagination" part of it, the other one isn't really interested in RPGs.
My boy..yea, he just likes to kill monsters and cause cave-ins and make stuff blow up.
jh
..
>>>2) Is anyone's daughter playing? If so, does she like it? Does it seem like she'd stick with it?
Well my daughter watched a game, thought it looked like the coolest thing ever, and then went and had a look at the CRB.
After a bit of shuffling and explanation she came up with a Male Elven Bard/Jester using a Flute that also used the Flute as a weapon.
I guess a male elven bard is pretty girly.
She was 10 at the time, so mileage may vary.
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If you don't know how to play Pathfinder, then you're going to need to play the solo yourself first and read through the GM's guide (2 days to let it soak in).
I have not played PF, but I am an OD&D/1E guy, so at least I'm not brand new to RPGs.
That said, I'm glad you suggested the solo adventure and giving myself a couple of days.There's no need to be in a hurry.
Dungeons generally do not appeal to girls as much as interactive stuff. One of my girls enjoys the "imagination" part of it, the other one isn't really interested in RPGs.
My daughter (10) won't care for the hack/slash/explosion part, but she is very quick-witted, so she may really enjoy dungeon traps, tricks, riddles, etc.
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This is all encouraging stuff to hear. I am planning on running a game for kids age 7-12 at my FLGS starting sometime after Christmas. My kids will be two of these and I will be advertising for the other too. Parents will of course be encouraged to stay and watch. I'm counting down the days until Christmas so I can give my two daughters the gift that lasts a lifetime.
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I ran the demo/solo from the Hero's guide for my 10 and 5 year old (my 8 year old watched). Both of them just came home from school today wanting to play again. I think we're going to head in the mine from the supplemental before doing the main scenario.
Note: I had the goblins get 'wounded' and run off rather than the usual murder-n-take-their-stuff approach ;) We did kill off the skeleton king
I'm also cutting out the magic items from the print outs and handing them to them so they don't have to write down and reference.
Jay Hafner
Lakewood, CO
How well do the 10 and 5 year olds play the game together? (I'm thinking of my kids in the when they reach that age...)
That's always just whatever the family dynamic is.
We're doing black fang with some friends tomorrow. We'll shoot for a 2 hr session this time. We'll see what we get :)
jh
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I just played the intro solo adventure with my 9 year old son. He played the female elven Rogue, Merisiel.
Oddly enough, before I even opened the box, I asked him, "If you were to play a fantasy game, would you want to play a human, dwarf, or elf?"
"Elf."
"And would you want to play a Fighter - like a warrior, a cleric - like a priest of a god with spells and healing powers, a rogue - a thief like Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, or a Wizard?"
"A rogue, daddy."
"And would you want to play a male or a female?"
"Eh, I'd play a girl."
So Merisiel it was.
And he had a blast. It took me about one minute to explain that he'd be rolling a d20 plus modifiers, and we were playing through the solo adventure within one minute. He needed for me to point out where some stats were on the sheet from time to time, and he wanted to reroll a perception check 3 times (I just said that they took 10 minutes apiece, so he spent a half hour in the room with the kidnapped child,, having to roll perception and stealth checks since he didn't want to wake the kid. He was convinced there was something hidden in there.
But he almost critted on the goblin (20 and then a 7), and he critted on the skeleton king twice (20 and another 20, 19 and a 17), killing him in two rounds.
The kid is a natural.
So, I'm overjoyed. I'm the guy whose wife vowed to never let my kid play D&D. Today I told her that when I start up the after school Pathfinder Beginner Box program at my son's school (named "Pathfinder," of all things), I wanted Caeden to have the option of playing, if he wanted to. She said okay.
He gave me a hug before he went to bed. He hasn't hugged me in a long time.
Life is good.
- Rich "Rebis" Crotty
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This is a great thread. I'd never played DnD before three months ago. I pretty much ignored it all my life. The closest that I ever came to playing it was looking at the Combat Log in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and commenting on how intricate and interesting the system was.
Fast forward to this year, my girlfriend has been playing since she was in middle school. She's been DM'ing for several years now. She finally talks me into joining her game and seeing how I like it. I struggled through the character creation and the numbers on the sheet; but, I got a lot of help and figured it out.
Three months later and I'm fully hooked. I mention my story here, not because I'm a kid, nor do I have one. I'm a twenty-eight year-old attorney who can't wait for his next session. She says that when I'm researching the system and building my character have the grin of a kid with its new Christmas present.
This game isn't just about magic. It is magic.
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She says that when I'm researching the system and building my character have the grin of a kid with its new Christmas present.
This game isn't just about magic. It is magic.
Wow. Now I'm the misty-eyed one. That was beautiful.
And I had the same grin on my face as I was reading your post.- Rich
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I wanted to hold off on introducing a dragon (I'll make that a big event later), so I ran a homemade scenario for my kids, ages 7, 9, and 11 this past Sunday. All of us are new to Pathfinder. We had a great time and a everyone picked up on the rules and relevant numbers very quickly.
I knew my sons would like it, but was worried about my daughter not being as enthusiastic. The first thing she said? "Can we play this every week?"
Hooked!
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My daughter is 2, so a little bit young for playing the game.
But she loves to look at the pictures in the Monster Books. Bestiary I and II, WotC Draconomicon etc.
Her absolute Favorite at the moment is "Dragons Revisited".
She already knows the colours of the Dragons and the names of the Examples.
Me, pointing at a Dragon Head:" And what is this?"
She:"Loaralis a Blue Dragon"
My daughter is 2, so a little bit young for playing the game.
But she loves to look at the pictures in the Monster Books. Bestiary I and II, WotC Draconomicon etc.
Her absolute Favorite at the moment is "Dragons Revisited".
She already knows the colours of the Dragons and the names of the Examples.
Me, pointing at a Dragon Head:" And what is this?"
She:"Loaralis a Blue Dragon"
That's where I'm currently at with Operation Indoctrinate. Whenever my daughter (who's about the same age as your daughter) points to my shelf of gaming books, I eagerly pull one from the shelf and we'll spend some time looking at the shiny pictures. And she does that a lot. :D
But yeah, I bought the Beginner Box mostly as a means to introduce my family to the Gamer Nation and reading the posts in this thrad makes me very optimistic about the box.
So thanks guys for sharing your experiences. Looks like Paizo scored yet another touchdown.
Just arrived, playing now.......
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I just got done running my daughter through the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure dungeon in the Hero's Handbook. She's eight, and we just played on the tabletop with the goblin & skeleton pawns and the Merisiel mini to be her character Iris. I brought out the pink sparkly dice I bought her. She rolled a natural 18 on her first attack and maxed out her damage die to take the goblin down in one blow, made her Reflex save against the trap and her Perception check to avoid the mold, and while the fight with the skeleton king took several rounds, she never got hit and never had to use her healing potion. As soon as we got done and she had totaled up her gold, she started begging, "Please, can we go on another adventure right now?" I told her next time (for Black Fang's Dungeon), we'd use a map like she's seen us doing with our usual group and she'd travel with a party (the other three PCs being played by her dad), and she insisted, "I'll be the leader because I have the most gold!"
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Due to some money issues I have to wait until Christmas. However, I will be starting a gaming group at the Elementary School I work at right after Christmas Break. I have already started whispering in the little ones ears and they are getting excited. I am hoping to get maybe 10 to 15 of them in on it maybe more (with principal approval). I will surely keep everyone up to date on how this turns out...
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You all might want to check with each other and see who lives near whom, and maybe try to start a kids gaming group. I have found over the years that putting youngsters in with adults has mixed results, particularly if the players do not have children of their own. We had a little gaming group with Thom Riccio's daughters and my youngest daughter. It gave us some nice playing time with the kids. They are now "adults" 18-20, live far away from each other and still are best of Facebook friends.
ran my niece through it with a few of her friends, and my 8 year old niece actually refused to break character while she was playing Kyra(Who she decided to play as because she, "Has a pretty name"). Her friends and her had A BLAST, and now want to play almost every day
Ran my two daughters (10 & 12) through the choose your own. The skeleton king knocked out the youngest, but the rogue slipped in and finished the king off.
Played Black Fang with a gaming buddy of mine, his two daughters and my two. My youngest wanted to let the goblin king go and find out what he knew of the dragon but the others refused. After Black Fang kicked everyone's butt, they retreated to the king and let him go.
This weekend the three of us are headed to the FLGS for PFS' Blood Under Absalom. We'll see how BB characters work in a PFS game. Hoping that the geek factor won't be too high.
Next week is a Maptools game with my brother, his son, and my two girls: Master of the Fallen Fortress and then Frostfur Captives. (Michael - I'm in Denver as well. Would like to join you if we didn't have two games scheduled already!)
For Christmas, that group will be visiting the grandparents so my girls will get in a face to face game with their uncle and cousin. They'll be level two by Christmas. (Assuming they live. They might learn what a "rat bastard DM" is first.)
I got my 12yo boy one of these. I think Paizo has totally done a bang up job with this set. I have the core PF books, but I personally do not like running any 3.x games and gave up on them not long after 3.5 surfaced. I have a wife and two kids and not enough time in my life to play, let alone prep for a typical 3.X/PF style game.
However I finally have got my son into D&D with the WOTC "black dragon" basic 3.5 set. I have added in some bits from the PF core rules (like cleric's channeling, sneak attack works on undead, AoOs-stupid in retrospect, and a few other things) So I figured the BB would be a next great step for us both.
His evaluation- he LOVES the look of the product, and the art for the items, and monsters. I'd say it reminds him of his pokemon and other video game cheat books that he buys (reminds me of them anyway).He did get overwhelmed flipping through the player's book when he started reading the skill descriptions & combat section. He immediately let me know that he was getting a bit frustrated with the rules when we have been playing, and asked if there was a simpler version of the game. We had a discussion about older D&D games, what he liked/disliked about the rules we have been playing, etc, and at the time I decided Swords & Wizardry with some house rules, or Moldvay Basic would be a better choice. I think the gist of his concerns were combat was bogging down, he got a bit overwhelmed with all the info on his character sheets, modifiers, and AoOs- he likes the combats, but he also wanted to get on with the exploring the unknown (just like his old man).
After 2 days of pouring over my retroclones, working on some houserules, etc . I've realized that the big issues he has are largely my own fault. I never should have bothered with AoO's, The WOTC 3.5 box dungeon sucks (it's all combat really), and I should be playing a bigger part in actually playing the other characters as NPCs (and through their actions-teach him combat tactics as well as proper exploration "etiquette") instead of leaving him to coordinate all 4 as PCs (which he wanted to do from the get-go, I should have refused really).
The Beginner Box does such a good job of teaching the game, that I have decided that I will be running it when we start over again this weekend. I plan to have him create a character (he wants to make a fighter), run him through the solo, then on to Black Fangs dungeon, with me playing the pre-gens as NPCs, and have him just concentrate on what his PC needs to do. I will be sure to update this after our next session to let everyone know how it goes.
At any rate, I'm totally giddy over the BB and while I know there are no plans for a "expert set" detailing a few more levels of play, more items, feats, monsters, etc., using the BB rules and format, nor any plans for BB stand alone modules, I would totally throw Paizo my money left and right if they did so.
Sorry for the disjointed post :(
This is all very cool stuff. Thanks for sharing.
I got the beginner's box as part of my sub. Now I'm off to kidnap some children to play it with. ;)
Eh. Just kidding. Don't alert the authorities!
M