Others are going to say that 3.5 is going to be difficult but I am going to say go for it. You will likely have little trouble. You might want to make the encounters a little more difficult but they should work fine.
Dungeon diving is simply the easiest thing to run as a GM running city based is tricky because you have so many NPC's to keep track of and there aren't many pre-made scenarios for non dungeon games. The 3.5 stuff will work but remember that you player's characters will be a stronger then 3.5 characters so you may want to make enemies and monsters stronger, a little more HP and a few extra points of AC and to their saves should do the trick.
As far as what to watch out for there aren't many problems at low levels fighters barbs rangers and paladins will be tough in a fight but the party won't have a lot of options at low levels. As long as you keep to the core rule book for races classes and equipment.
For the more story based games rip off ideas form games, movies, and books. Keep the players guessing, they should never know who the real bad guys are plot twists are great and you don't have to be great at it so long as it doesn't seem like you are just making it up as you go along. Player and NPC romance can be hard to pull off we don't play with much romance in our home games so I'm not the best person to come to for advice but remember that a player's love interest makes a great hostage.
Hope you find some of this useful.
Others are going to say that 3.5 is going to be difficult but I am going to say go for it. You will likely have little trouble. You might want to make the encounters a little more difficult but they should work fine.
Ninjas...
Ninjas everywhere.
Well GM skills comes with experience. When I ran my first 3.5 senario I had only had a ½ hour instruction in the rules - and if I didn't knew what "cleave" did - I would wing it. It worked out fine!
Now about your players just killing your encounters with ease - 1) that's ok. Let them feel like heroes now and again. 2) And then sometimes have a boss fight were you don't tell them how many hit points the monsters have - as a GM i "cheat" - it's just more fun for me AND the players if the big baddy isn't killed in the first round. Some Monsters just have a little more HP no matter what the players pull. Until I feel the players have been pressed (maybe a guy is brought down below -1 HP)- then they win with the next attack.
It this fair? - well not if you tell the players - but if survived the big fight and had a hard time of it -it more fun.
Now parthfinder vs 3.5 - depending on which books are allowed - if you have 3.5 core +race series + complete +something - then that's hard!
pathfinder if you are new - you make mistakes - but get better in time...But there are just fewer rules/feat/classes than i 3.5
PF is good for city-adventurers, you just have to scale citizen lvls with PC lvls somewhat. If your lvl 8 character tries to rob a store, there might just be that lvl 10 retired adventurer that comes around the corner.
I have no idea what you mean with romance-campaign but I don't think the social skills (bluff, diplomacy) can help here. I would just roleplay it out, perhaps with the help of some spells (I'm not only talking about charm person [or dominate]). You could require a to invent some new sidesystem if you somehow want dice to affect the romance.
at very low lvl 3.5 to Pathfinder conversion should be easy, or fudged as you deem necessary.
Hello,
I would guess that the popular types of games match popular Japanese TV shows and manga. That makes sense, but I did not know that.
There are things you can do.
1) You will need to change one rule. In particular, it is important to leave people alive even if you win the fight. Both the players and the villains need to know that police are powerful and will come if anyone is killed.
2) Keep only the bad guys that are important. It is okay to send the players to a dungeon if it is very small. They should go there, fight the guards one time, and then fight the villain.
3) You will need NPC love interests. Many of them. These are the people that the story is about.
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I would recommend some of the older Pathfinder adventure paths, like Rise of the Runelords or Savage Tide.
There are also other threads on this forum. Search for 'role-playing adventures' to find what you want.
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First I have to say that your English writing is much better than my Japanese -- better, in fact, than many people you will find on these messageboards who speak and write English as a native language.
Using city adventures should not be a problem for a campaign. I've run campaigns set in Waterdeep of the Forgotten Realms when using 3.5 rules and the players never left the city. A building can serve as well as a dungeon in many cases, though it allows characters to flee and regroup easily if encounters go bad.
If you have concerns about what races/classes will unbalance a campaign, I would advise you to stick to the Core Rulebook, the Advanced Players Guide, Ultimate Magic and Ultimate Combat. Don't allow any outside material to be used. It may be tempting to do so, since you may find it easier to locate translated versions of 3rd party material. Sticking to the core rules will more or less gaurantee a balanced environment.
The easiest way to learn the rules is to read them, then play the game. Unless your memory is photographic you won't remember it all, but you don't have to. Just remember that there is a rule for a particular action and make sure you can locate the rule in the book quickly to refresh your memory.
As others have said, 3.5 modules may give a challenge rating for an encounter that is higher than what is deserved in Pathfinder. As a quick rule, you can subtract one from the CR of an encounter in a 3.5 module to determine the difficulty in PF. Of course, it's best to convert the encounter, but if you don't have the time then just reduce it by one.
Hey yuki,
Regarding your third question, I think a lot of people learn PF/3.5 simply by playing with people who already know the rules of the game. I think even native speakers would struggle to learn the game quickly merely by reading the core rule book. So I would suggest that you be willing to invest some time towards the learning process. Also you will probably make mistakes as you go along; that's okay, just have fun and don't get discouraged.
Alternatively, I'm a resident of tochigi, and I make frequent trips to tokyo. If you happen to live near one of those areas I would be willing to spend a few hours showing you how I play, answering rules questions, etc. Just go ahead and PM me if you'd like to do that.
I understand the difficulties you have with dungeon campaigns--I used the beginner's box to show my (japanese) girlfriend the game, and she enjoyed it but after an hour or so she asked: "Um, can I go back to town now? I want to talk to some people. This cave is lonely!"
Anyhow, good luck with it, and I hope your group gets as much enjoyment from this hobby as we do.