Do you have to do this in FG2 or can you just run things at the table without any computer aids? I have found that using just the sheets as printed (with the errata) and the books works just fine and is actually a lot easier.
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The first time I ever played an rpg, it was many years ago, and I, as you, was the gm (or dm as it was back then in that case).
My advise is to read your module carefully and review the various situations it may present (skill checks, special monster abilities, spells used, how traps work, ect) and try to read how they work in the core rule book.
Also, know what your player characters (PCs)abilities are and how they work - ask your self how will those PCs abilties affect the encounters in your module. This could lead to more research into the magic system, reviewing weapons and rules for them, ect.
You will miss somethings along the way, but thats ok because the main goal of the event is to have fun. Also, if you get a chance to play the game with veteran gamers, that can be totally valuable to you and learning about the game.
Id focus on the basic rules especially how combat works and how the characters your players are using work. If you don't have the basic combat round down and how the players and the monsters you will be interacting with work its going to be a long day. Prep time is key to being a gm. Most of the time your going to have to spend at least an hour or two a week prepping. For less experienced players like your self that goes up because you need to get a firm grounding in the rules.
I like computer aides like hero forge but if you don't know how to use them the can make things more complicated. Until you get the rules down you might want to just write them out by hand or type them out(learn the rules through repetition).
Lastly don't be afraid to look stuff up when your not sure and ask your players for help. Some of them might learn the rules faster then you or know some areas better then you. Having learned several different table top games you just need to immerse your self in them and it comes with time.
Good luck hope some of that helps.
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Have you considered checking out some you tube videos of actual play? You might even be able to find one of the published adventure you are doing. I cannot help but think you might be better off using the contents of the box then introducing more work by trying to use new software. Though I did see an above post claim there is errata, looking that up would still be good.
Have you checked if you might be able to get into a game of Pathfinder Society Organized Play anywhere near you? Heck, you might even want to shoot an email your the Venture Captain near you asking if s/he could point you towards a game master or veteran player near you to help out for your first game.
Some very good advice given to you already, I second the "know the module in and out" advice, and possibly checking out videos of other gameplay, but I'd like to add in a caveat:
Remember that you and everyone else is taking time out of their busy lives to have fun. With you! You're supposed to have fun, too. Focus on telling a story and providing an environment that all your players will enjoy, and that they will come back to.
Do NOT be afraid to admit you don't know a rule; even people who have been GMs for decades get rules wrong when the rulebook is hundreds of pages long. Don't spend 10 minutes of game time searching for the rule in the book or arguing about it; make a ruling that seems the most correct, and if you find out later you were wrong, you can deal with that.
Ok so you have the beginners box, i havent looked into myself but knowing paizo it is laid out in a straight forward manner. Read through the adventure once or twice to get a feel for it. Run a mock session by yourself if you have to, it will help you understand it better, learn by doing and all that.
What it sounds like is fg2 is whats worrying you the most. Check youtube for a tutorial video. I know when i started using maptools (another program like fg) it was confusing. I found several tutorials explaining the basics which were simple enough once i saw it explained. Keep it as simple as possible at first, you can always add more features as you gain confidence with the program.
If there isnt one in the box already, make a cheat sheet of the most common combat rules, attack rolls, damage, and the more basic spell mechanics. This should all be in the instructions but have alot of it in one place can help.
Expect alot of hiccups during the first game, both on your end and theirs. If something comes up and you cant figure it out, like a rule, make something up for the time being. Write it down and after the game or during a break try to look it up.
And finally remember, its a game, youre there to have fun. Even if your playing it "wrong" , youre still playing and thats all that matters. Welcome to the club and good luck.
I will tell you a secret. The rules are there to make things easier when things turn complex. If this is your very first foray, only put in the things that provide a clear structure for you. Everything else can wait until you are ready for more. See... At first, the problems you face are simple: how do I attack the orc? What do I do if my friend is unconscious? With time, these questions grow more advanced, until you get to things like: if I close my eyes, can I attack a wizard's square to counter his mirror image spell?
The important part here is that every level of familiarity brings different questions. Do not try to master it all at once.
Use the beginner box rules, but above all, understand what you are there to do, and listen to what your players say. You will find that they keep telling you what they want out of playing - so cater to that. If they want to haggle about a sword, do that. Tell each other stories, let them. Bash orc, give it to them. As a GM, just keep listening to all of them, and you won't go wrong.
* If you are a note person...take notes. When I DM I have a word doc open with bullet points (some DMs have binders/notebooks full of entire campaign storyline in bullet points and stuff) of each thing more or less in the order I want it to go.
* Look at a each character sheet and go over a couple of the encounters (the times they fight something or have to solve a problem) and think how you would use the abilities of the character to solve the problem. This gives you a better understanding of both the encounter and the character.
* Make sure you have read the ENTIRE adventure at least once..probably twice or even more depending on your understanding. Knowing when and how things progress is great even if you do not remember the fine details.
* In that notes part make sure you have either your own notes on the random knowledge check or perception check DCs noted so you don't have to look thru half a paragraph to remember what the DC was to see the secret door..or you can highlight them with a bright highlighter too.
* HAVE FUN!
* I have been skypeing with my old group across the country for over three years now. You will sometimes talk over eachother, their will be technical problems, and if you use group video sometimes it will look like a translated 80s japanese samurai movie. Have fun with it and don't get frustrated.
* Again HAVE FUN! If you like GMing and storytelling being a GM is extremly rewarding...designing fights, puzzles, random people, heroes, villains all in your own created story and world (or golarion, eberron, etc.)
*D20PFSRD is probably giong to be your most used resource. Know it, love it and it will make your and your player's life easier.
Like anything else this will get easier with practice. By your 8-10 session you will have all the basics down and be able to run and prepare for sessions with little difficulty. In the meantime give yourself plenty of time to prepare and game.
I recommend picking up one of the many Paizo modules/adventure paths if this type of thing catches your interest to run next. They are amazing fun and well put together. Once you have finished a full path or a couple of modules try making your own campaign if you feel comfortable enough.
A website I also recommend, if you really get into this, is ObsidianPortal.com as it is designed for GMs to post all their information and PCs/NPCs in one collective site.
Finally, welcome to the RPG gaming community. We are a loud opinionated bunch and proud of our hobby and eager (probably too much so) to show off our knowledge. Never be afraid to ask any question on the forums even if you think "EVERYONE knows it". Happy gaming and good luck.
Sorry for the double post but I have a warning that all GMs understand:
*Sometimes your players will go places that you have no idea what is there or why they are doing it. You mention a fuzzy rabbit in the field to give in ambiance and they end up following the damn thing into Hell. It happens. It's usually called left turning. As a new GM do not be afraid to tell your, also new, players that the rabbit they want to follow has nothing to do with the story and you are not prepared.
Once you and your players have more experience they can follow the damn rabbit down the forest path, over the mountain and into the Evil Demon Sorceror's lair to save the world instead of turning right to go talk with the old man about saving the princess (their original goal).
Okay so I need some advice to getting into this pathfinder and RPGs like this. Though i hear Pathfinder is the best so i wish to stay with this one.
i have never played a game like this before in my life, ever. Neither has anyone i'm going to play with. I am using the Fantasy Grounds 2 to set up our session. we will be doing the blackfang dungeon thing straight out of the beginner box i was gifted by a friend who knew i was interested in getting started with some of these things (however this friend has no idea how any of them work, no one i know does)
This is like, a new confusing world for me. i managed to get some tokens (which dont match the ones in the game masters guide :c) to represent the goblins, the spiders, the skeletons and blackfang(the black dragon token is very fitting), and i clumsily punched in all the info from the pregen character sheets (the character sheet in FG2 doesnt match the pregen character sheets, im so confused as to if i even did it right) and i have the map set up on FG2 with masking and all that, but thats about it.
i know i messed some stuff up, like my wizard's spells are all in 'special abilities' (that thing to the right of feats) -.-
I have little experience in any of this, i've been messing around for hours, making some project, but the actual thing is going to be so daunting, especially as a first time GM of stuff i've never done, i dont even know the rules that well~
So what advice do you have to give me?
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TL:DR Version - i got some stuff set up, possibly incorrect, everything is daunting, can i have advice from the veterans about how to do this smoothly?
===========Thank you all!
Welcome to gaming Number 7! First things first. Since this will be your first session ever, pick a spot in your adventure to end for the night. If your adventure is broken down into "Chapters" that would be a good spot, so long as the Chapter isn't that long. Point being, I find it easier to remember a short list of stuff, than trying to remember everything in the entire adventure. It provides a good point for you to produce your (first ever!) cliffhanger. YAY!
Second. Try to think of things cinematically. Sure it's really easy to say "You swing your sword. It hits. Roll damage please". Players usually get into the game if you can give a little cinematic description to really good hits "Your overhand chop bisects the orc's head. For a second, each eye scan's the room quizzically before the body falls over in a wet heap!" Even regular hits can have an exciting "zing" to them if you have time.
Third. Most important is that you and the players have fun. Remind them that sometimes a mistake will be made. You may not play fully within the rules each and every second of the game. But if you guys are having fun, no one will care.
Study, study, study, of course. But, I must add, when I started playing around '87/'88? Like I knew what the rules were! I swear I have no idea where of half of what I thought were rules came from. Shared misconception between all of us, I suppose. You and your friends are going to have to discover this together, and share what you learn. Maybe one of your players will end up a better DM/GM than you.
I was in this exact same boat once. Before I ever played D&D I had to DM classmates who had also never played. Make sure you have fun. System mastery can come after that.
My best times playing were when I was the only one with the book, or a clue, and when I made incredibly stupid rulings/calls the players would look at each other, shrug and move along.
Good times :)
I love the old chestnut that when you have kids you're a kid as a parent, and as they grow so do you. So by the time that you have your snit together they're teenagers and hate you no matter what you did/say.
You're a kid as a DM, but your players are as well, so no worries. Eat, laugh and just enjoy the time. They're not seasoned enough to know when you flub.
p.s. When all else fails roll a die behind your dice screen, shake your head and look right at one of them with a sad look on your face. That is enough to get everyone's attention. Then move on like it never happened.
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Don't be afraid to ignore rules if everything is "going well".
Trying to include everything all at once is really hard with very little payoff. Just stick to the basics.
1. Set the scene, ask the players what they want to do.
2. If they all want to do something at the same time, go around in a circle and don't give "results" until everyone's had a chance.
3a. If they want to do something that isn't terribly important (like bust down a door outside of combat) don't even look up the door hardness or anything, just say yes. As you learn the rules, you'll find that in most cases Pathfinder makes things easy when they should be easy... busting down a door outside of combat, for instance. You can spend ten minutes proving with math that a determined guy with an axe can chop a door down, and the rules will support you, but you can also just make the call. Making the call is more fun.
3b. If they want to do something and there are real consequences and a chance of failure, roll some dice. This is mainly for things that are not repeatable — breaking down the door in one swing (because multiple swings will alert nearby enemies) or jumping over a pit... If you know the rules in question, use them. If you don't know the rules off the top of your head, make them up.
4. Every time the players succeed, shake your fist at the heavens and pretend you're really disappointed that you're "losing". In truth, you want them to win, but you need to be the face of the defeated for them to fully enjoy it. ;)
5. If you're ever truly stumped and you don't feel right just making it up, tell the players "discuss your tactics for a bit while I look up some things."
Good luck! It takes a special kind of person to step up and GM, but really giving it that first shot is the hardest part. Everything else comes with practice.
D&D is a Game. Games are supposed to be Fun. Important thing is to make sure everyone (including you) is having fun.
Outside the Gygax crowd we pretty well had just about the first campaign (pre-ordered the first printing of the original 3 vol set). We thus had no one to lean on, no boards. We made LOTS of mistakes. But we had LOTS of fun. (We thought that if you knew a spell you could cast it every round, etc).
Have fun. Make mistakes, laugh about them later.
Like all the others said, don't be afraid to make little mistakes. If you don't know a rule, just let them roll some dice, with an attribute or skill that feels appropriate and make your call based on the result. No need to get everything right from the start. Once you learn the correct rule, you can implement it later. Chances are, your players are never going to notice the change if it's not something big like the attack roll.
An important thing is, to get your players to learn some of the rules over time too. For one thing, they can help you out if you can't remember something and on the other hand, nothing is as unnerving as having to hold back because a player just can't remember the rules and makes stupid decisions in combat.
(I know, some people here are going to say "let them suffer for it, kill them for their mistakes, if they are really stupid, then they'll learn." However I have a really hard time killing of a char because the player didn't know the rules properly. If they make stupid roleplaying decisions, hell yea. But if the player of the Wizard in the first or second session forgets, that that enemy over there, with grapple and 10ft reach can grab him and probably kill him a lot, if he walks through this square over there... killing a PC for something like that just doesn't feel right.)
Aside from that, you got the part about this board right.
Whenever you have a problem, no matter if you're stuck in a plot and need ideas, or one of your players is referencing some obscure rules-combination, just post here. The people around here will most certainly help you. There are many people around here with 20+ years of RPG-experience under their belts who are more then willing to share it. Read, be inspired, use these guys as the place you want to go as a gm, they'll gladly help you, just like they did with me, when I began GMing and still do all the time.
Just don't ever ask any questions concerning the over- or underpoweredness of Synthesist-Summoners or Monks, if you're not prepared to watch one of the most drawn out arguments the internet has ever seen.
Good Gaming to you.
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This is like, a new confusing world for me. i managed to get some tokens (which dont match the ones in the game masters guide :c) to represent the goblins, the spiders, the skeletons and blackfang(the black dragon token is very fitting), and i clumsily punched in all the info from the pregen character sheets (the character sheet in FG2 doesnt match the pregen character sheets, im so confused as to if i even did it right) and i have the map set up on FG2 with masking and all that, but thats about it.
I think the bolded part is the big issue for you. You're trying to mix together tools from two slightly different versions of the game.
The game in the Beginners Box is a stripped-down version of the regular PF rules, and as such, certain things have been simplified or left out completely.
I gifted my box to a friend to play with his daughter, so I don't have the physical copy, but I do have the pdf version from being a subscriber.
Taking a look at my pdf copy of Ezren, the example Wizard from the Beginners Box, and comparing it to the standard PF character sheet, I can see straight away that there are differences.
The skills list is quite short, being the skills they believed would most likely be used in the example missions.
Much of the maths behind the rest is the same (like, how his attack bonus and saves are calculated), but in different places on the sheet.
Some of the abilities don't go into an explanation of how they came to the figure they did, like his 'Hand of the Apprentice' attack. If you see the right side of the sheet, they tell you it's '1d20+3 to hit', but not why (It's because he's aiming it with his mind, so uses his Intelligence bonus instead of Strength). The difficulty of the saving throw vs his Burning Hands is 14, but again, it leaves out the explanation for another day (it's 10 plus spell level [1], plus his Int bonus [3] = 14).
This is understandable, given that the point of the box set is to get everyone playing in a short amount of prep.
If you were playing this character through several sessions, you'd see him grow more powerful, intelligent and skilled, his attacks would become more accurate, more difficult to resist, and you'd get the chance to pick more options (skills, spells, and feats), but all of that is left for another day, to let you get that first game completed.
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I would echo what Tim Hanson wrote; don't try to rely on the FG software, if it's set up to adjudicate the rules from the regular RPG, as it could start asking you for rolls for advanced rules you've not got (like prompting you to make Attacks of Opportunity against enemies moving past a PC).
You should be able to switch off the auto features, and play just moving the tokens around, describing what the players see, and using the dice roller to settle the results of any rolls that are needed, using your physical rulebook for reference.
Rather than trying to fill out character sheets made for the regular version of the game, copy, print or scan the pregenerated characters and pass them round (or email them to) the players, with the info already filled in.
Don't get bogged down debating who's got the 'best' character; emphasise that they'll do best working as a team, allowing for the fact some PCs will shine in different situations.
Let them know it's a practice session (or two), and once the basics have been understood, they'll get a chance to make a PC that fits their ideal alter-ego that lives in their head.