Gather round all those with interest to hear my tale of BB success.
A little bit of background for you, I am fairly new to roleplaying myself. I played 3.5 once or twice back when I was in elementary school but didn't follow through with it as other interests took up my time. I'm in university now and have had a huge desire to pick it up again. This year I started a playing in a Pathfinder game with a group I found through a local MeetUp group. We play every second week but this just wasn't enough, so I picked up the beginner box, (I already have the Core as I purchased it in preparation for the game I am playing in.)
After reading though the books (all of the BB and lots of the Core), and a bit of canvasing my friends for players I finally put together a group and just last night we had our first session! I didn't want to run with just the pre-builts and wanted them to have some more options so i helped them all generate characters. One of the players has played 3.0 before so adapting to PF wasn't too hard for him, he got his character created with a few questions. I worked ahead of time with another player to get her character built, her only experience being a 3.5 campaign almost 8 years ago. The other two players had never played any form of table top RPG, though were comfortable with the setting from countless video RPGs. It took us about an hour and half to get their characters built from the core rules. We also had one of the players girlfriend's come over a little bit before we were about to begin, She had never played before either and was fine with using a prebuilt.
When as was done we had a party that consisted of:
Half-Elf Paladin - (newbie player 1)
Half-Elf Sorcerer - (newbie player 2)
Gnome Druid w Tiger companion - (played 8 yrs ago)
Dwarf Bard - (3.0 experienced)
Human Fighter (prebuilt) - (newbie player 3)
I ran the BB dungeon for them, and i will spoiler out the rest as it may reveal plot details.
I had them start out in Sandpoint, The Rusty Dragon, in classic "you are in a tavern..." form.
Eventually meeting the mayor, and the sheriff, and getting some spotty details of attacks in the region, rumors of a great beast, and a large black fang found by a farmer after his cattle were attacked.
On the way to the dungeon i had them ambushed by a few rabid dogs, I wanted to show them the flow of combat before getting right into the dungeon. I am ignoring AoO for now, I will eventually add them in though. We are using the complete set of skills from the core book however, I wanted to start with full character sheets.
The party blew through the first few chambers pretty easily, mostly due to the paladin... He took the greataxe as his weapon, rolled excellent stats and is hitting at +5(STR:4 + BAB:1) for 1d12+6 dmg. One shotting any goblin in his path. (rules lawyers... is there anything i am missing here?)
The goblins in the ambush were destroyed, however none though to inspect the beds for the key to the chest, instead opting to smash it open losing the potion in the process(no one had Disable Device).
The party successfully deciphered the fountain and gained some bonuses, after the fighter charged ahead and drank before thinking about it and took some minuses.
When we got to the trapped chamber the sorcerer thought to mage hand the gem away from the altar before anyone could get close enough to activate the trap. The pally scooped it into his backpack before anyone could examine it. (getting the fire resist bonus though he does not know it)
The sorcerer also likes to cast dancing lights into every room, which eliminated the spider's element of surprise in it's chamber. I am going to have to do something about this in the future.. cantrips, jeeze.
No one could figure out the stone pillar. The druid and fighter got distracted by shinys and the ambush by the reefclaw worked out very nicely.
We then moved on to the goblin throne room and i thought i might be able to get a little bit of roleplay out of them, however they were very much in the "kill it and take its stuff mode." Combat dragged a little bit here when the PC's couldn't roll to hit a thing. Eventually the goblins were vanquished, the wand of CLW used up to heal the party, and the loot successfully looted.
We were pushing 1am by this point so we called it for the night, i liked this point to call it as we still have the "boss" fight to go and i think it will keep the players interested and looking forward to playing again.
My GM abilities are still very much in development, but my players all said they had a fun time, especially the ones who had never played before. They are all looking forward to playing again.
Throughout the game I ended up fudging a little bit here and there, not so much with dice rolls as with rules allowing them to do things they maybe shouldn't have been quite able to. For example: we had noone with Disable device to unlock a chest, and after smashing open the first one and destroying the potions the paladin had the idea to use acid to erode the lock. I couldn't find anything in the rules for this but i figured why not? So i had him roll, he got a 5 so i let him get the treasure out but said the gold got destroyed by the acid. What do you think? Did i stretch too far here?
I am now coming up with ideas for further adventures, the BB GM book has some good plot hooks for adventures around Sandpoint that i may use.
I might also pick up a module, though i haven't decided whether to wait for a lvl 3 module or go with a lvl 1 module. Any recommendations or experiences for further adventuring after the BB?
Well there you have it, part 1 of my Beginner Box Success story. Thank you Paizo for making such an accessible introduction to the world of fantasy roleplaying!
I give this two thumbs up.
Very cool, and good luck with your further adventures.
It sounds like you have a very interesting group and I really wish I had your luck finding female gamers lol.
We actually had another girl who was going to play the rogue pre-gen but she had to bail early. I also had another couple interested but I just didn't have the space to accommodate them.
I am going to adjust the XP and loot to advance the characters a little faster than standard I think. We wont be able to play very often and i don't want them to lose interest with stagnant characters. More powerful PCs with better magic items means I can use some of the awesome looking, but higher CR, Minis from the Battles set sooner :D
I like that Feast is set close to Sandpoint, perhaps I will use the BB extras or maybe a modified PF society module to get us to level 3.
Thought I would post an update here, even if it is only a venting of my excitement.
We are getting together again this Saturday to finish up the dungeon and move on to the next challenge. We will have a new player joining us, not sure what he plans to play yet. I've asked them to answer 5 basic questions about their character, rewarding them with 2 Traits apiece if they do. I asked:
Who do you know? Where are you from? Why did you become an adventurer? What are your goals? How do you achieve your goals?
I am hoping that by getting them to think about who their character is they might start to think like them in game more. I've also given the Fighter a chance to bring in a new character if she would rather not play a pre-gen.
To get things running a little smoother during combat I found some 4.5"x6.5" colourful cardstock at a dollar store. I then made up a little chart and printed out some very clean and easy to read reference cards that record all of their combat related numbers. The front has Init, Speed, AC, HP, Saves, BAB, CMB, CMD, and a base melee and ranged bonus. The back is a nice big table to record your weapons, and some room at the bottom to record your base stats and bonuses. I think these should fair well with my players and result in less of, "where/what is my init/ac/fort again?"
After this, they will be called, or sent, or somehow wind up in Magnimar to learn of the disappearance of a certain tax-collector sent to Ravenmoore. I'm planting some family and contacts connecting Sandpoint to Magnimar in order to get them there.
I am also working on building some notable NPCs. I found a wonderful NPC worksheet posted by a Youtuber GM that is really helping me flesh out my characters. I want to give the players more options to explore the town, rather than only the dungeon.
If anyone has any suggestions or perhaps pointers to a resource I might have overlooked everything is appreciated. What I am looking for now is tips on putting together a larger plot. I have some ideas of how i am going to tie things into a larger story/main villian but if you have any tips on certain things to think about or be cautious of I'd love to hear them.
Something else that I would love to get my hands on is some generic NPCs. Not Stat-Blocks like in the NPC Gallery, but a few words on the personality, something easy enough to grab and roleplay for a few minutes, or just some inspiration to build off for non-combat encounters. This may be asking a bit much, but my time available to prepare is limited and this would be a huge benefit.
Well, thanks for reading anyone who has made it though to the end. I will update again on how our session goes this weekend for anyone who may be curious.
All 6(or is it 7 issues now?) of Wayfinder can be found here on the Paizo site and I believe are free to download. If you don't use the NPC's I would still highly suggest picking them up as they are very good reads.
Thanks Mathpro18, going to check these out. I love free stuff!
Thanks for the updates! Sounds like you're having fun. I recently introduced 4 newbies to the BB and now we're just trying to coordinate the next time we all can get together again (stupid real life!).
I found a wonderful NPC worksheet posted by a Youtuber GM that is really helping me flesh out my characters.
Do you mind posting a link? I'm very curious. In our next session I also plan to let the PCs explore Sandpoint and want to begin introducing them to long-term NPCs.
- Niilo
Thanks for the updates! Sounds like you're having fun. I recently introduced 4 newbies to the BB and now we're just trying to coordinate the next time we all can get together again (stupid real life!).
I found a wonderful NPC worksheet posted by a Youtuber GM that is really helping me flesh out my characters.Do you mind posting a link? I'm very curious. In our next session I also plan to let the PCs explore Sandpoint and want to begin introducing them to long-term NPCs.
Here is the video, the description contains a mediafire link to the sheet. I just write the template out in my notebook whenever I make a new NPC. In the video he explains how you can use the sheet to organize your NPCs.
I have also discovered that the "Combat Manager" program has a repository of NPC stat blocks in addition to monsters. Even if I don't use the program for combat tracking it is awesome to add your npcs/monsters to an encounter, save, and load later for easy reference of all the stats you need.
EDIT: I forgot to paste the link! NPC Worksheet by TowerGuardDM
Thanks!
Something else that I would love to get my hands on is some generic NPCs. Not Stat-Blocks like in the NPC Gallery, but a few words on the personality, something easy enough to grab and roleplay for a few minutes, or just some inspiration to build off for non-combat encounters. This may be asking a bit much, but my time available to prepare is limited and this would be a huge benefit.
If you can find a copy of the 1st Ed AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide or the 4th Ed. Hackmaster Dungeon Master's Guide*. They both have a series of tables to quickly generate personality traits.
Grab an index card, add a name, occupation, a brief physical description (probably random generators for those too) makes some roles and add them to the card. Done. I realize you said you didn't have a lot of time, so I'm not sure it that's helpful. But thought I'd throw it out there anyway. :-)
Take care,
Harry
* It's pretty much identical since 4e Hackmaster was based on 1st/2nd edition AD&D. Hmm... The 2nd ed DMG might also have it.
Yeah i have been lurking these forums hard for DMing advice. Trying not to ask all the same questions that have been asked a hundred times.
I found a pretty neat book for NPCs, Masks: 1000 Memorable NPCS. I cant remember the website or the publisher right now but google will tell you for sure. They even have a sample PDF with some sample NPCs. Might have to consider picking this up in the future.
Thanks Harry, tables full of things are exactly what I'm looking for. I can piece it together, having ideas in front of you is such a help though.
Another update for anyone who is interested.
We had another game this past weekend, ended up having to postpone until Sunday. However we still had a few people unable to attend. The new player we were going to get had to work, and the Bard was busy running an event. Our fighter was also busy... still unsure as to whether or not she will show up again.
I did manage to get 3 of my players back however, and things ran even smoother this time. Combat was not quite so clunky. The combat cards i made up really seemed to help them, less time spent scanning the sheet for a specific modifier.
We left off with 2 rooms to go in the BB dungeon, The party was breezing through last session, so they decided they would leave the fighter behind to "guard their pile of loot" in order to keep the PC out of harms way. (Coming back to a dead character would not be good way to get her excited to continue playing.) They kept the bard along to perform and give them the combat bonus.
Black Fang was taken down fairly easily, mostly due to all of the critical fumbles I rolled against them. I managed to fly him out with a few hit points left to fight another day.
Once we got back to the town, I let the bard and fighter tag along to collect the rewards as promised. Then the two absent PCs went to the tavern and spent the day drinking and taking to the locals (I'll have them do some knowledge checks and give them some interesting news/rumors to convey to the party on their return).
The reduced party then did some exploration of Sandpoint. They checked out my halfling run general store, my dwarven armorer, and the Sczarni down by the docks. They met with a Sczarni collector who sent them to retrieve a relic from the Old Light (I ran the Relics BB Bash scenario for them).
Had some fun with that one, the sorcerer ended up falling unconscious into the pit. And once the gang showed up the evil cleric almost TPK'd them. Luckily the druid stayed conscious and manged to revive the Pally.
So depending on what they do with the relic they just got they may gain some reputation with someone, the sczarni, possibly the church or the academy. The paladin helping the sczarni is a bit of an issue, but they haven't been observed doing anything explicitly evil yet. And they were sent to "retrieve" not "steal", so the Pally is seeing it as his duty to complete the task that he agreed to perform. (maybe he will have a moral issue if they go to the church to find out more about it.)
Part of posting this progress for me is to get ideas flowing for what i might do next. If anyone is curious about something that happened or i have planned feel free to ask. I might not know but then it will help me to explore something i might not have thought of or bring the focus to something that i can expand upon.
Thanks for reading
well just a question I have, are you planning on having this turn into a longer running campaign, or just stringing a bunch of modules together?
good to see new people getting into the game though, hope you guys continue to have fun :)
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One thing we did for 3.5 to help newer players keep their weapon info straight (and keep track of which one they were actually using ;-) was:
1) Fold a 3x5 card in half length-wise to make a 'tent'.
2) Write the name of the weapon on the bottom half of the card. (So that when the tent is standing on the table the name can be read.)
3) On the side facing the player, write the 'to hit' value (with all applicable modifiers) and the damage (with all applicable mods.).
4) Write the crit. 'zone'.
5) Any other notes, like range increment if applicable.
When a player changes weapons for whatever reason, they replace the card with the desired weapon. No weapon card means they aren't carry a weapon. We planned to expand this to other held items like torches and lanterns. (I think we might have used it to indicate a shield being used as well.)
(This also prevented a few of those 'But I said I drew my sword.' ;-)
Take care,
Harry
well just a question I have, are you planning on having this turn into a longer running campaign, or just stringing a bunch of modules together?
good to see new people getting into the game though, hope you guys continue to have fun :)
I am kind of stringing modules together, however I'm changing things here and there so that it will fit into a longer campaign. Basically i have a BBEG in the works who is spreading his influence around the region, pulling the strings. (For example, he didn't send Black Fang to Sandpoint, but he did send the cleric to Ravens Watch to help the dragon once he learned it was in the area.) I'll drop hints here and there about him but they wont get to fight him until they are at least lvl 8 I'm thinking, not solid on that just yet.
I see lots of side quests, most of them contributing something to the larger plot, some of them not. They are going to be playing Feast of Ravenmoore once they hit level 3, we will have to see how that plays out before I grab another module.
This is something I've been wanting to try out for a long time and i'm very happy to be playing. I looked at a couple different systems, but once I found pathfinder and it's amazing artwork, great rules, and superb default setting I was sold. Then I found the incredible community and now there's no looking back.
Harry that is a great idea, I think i will have to implement something like that. I had a hard time remembering who was holding what and there was only 3 players at the time.
During our last game there was a bit of weapon confusion. The sorcerer could never remember to load his crossbow, and the paladin tried a couple times to shoot his longbow when he was holding his great axe.
This might be a better question for the rules board, but how do you handle weapons carried? How many weapons can a character reasonably have available to pull out at any given moment in combat? I know it takes a move action to sheath (or a free to drop), and another move to draw, and they would be limited by their carrying capacity. But do you use any rules for how much stuff they can strap to their bodies?
I guess this might become a non-issue with a handy haversack.