My lady and I are both in the older crowd 40+ as well. We both played the first scenario the other night in under an hour and a half. It was a "nail biter" and we had a blast.
I think RPG's don't work two player. This game does a great job with Monster whacking and Charactor development. And I love the art.
Thanks Mike, Vic and all the others. And all the folks on the message boards who help with odd questions that come up.
So I'm only 37, but I play this and the Beginner Box with my kids. This is my fist card game too, though we often play with an ordinary deck of cards.
I think the PF card game does a great job of simulating the RPG experience and I love that I don't have to do all the GMing prep and I get to play not just GM all the time. The card game even has me excited about GMing again. We have enjoyed some of the crossover between the crd game and the beginner box, particularly Sandpoint and Black Fang.
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I'm 40, but a lifelong gamer. The most complicated game my 36 year old wife plays is Uno. She just simply has other interests and generally sees gaming as being unproductive. She has tried to play a 'real game' about once a year, enjoys the time, doesn't have interest in playing again, etc.
We spent the last five years watching -everything- from Star Trek (including the animated series... did you know there was an animated series?). We only got to watch one, maybe two, episodes a week, had a baby in there somewhere, etc. Well, we finished. Deciding on what to do to replace that time, we decided we'd switch off. On Sunday nights (one of our three 'us nights', we'll try a game I'd like to introduce her to; on Tues and Thurs, we'll watch a show she chooses (so far, it's Dexter, thankfully).
Enter Pathfinder. For some reason I have yet to fathom, this game clicked with her. The first Sunday, she stated that it'd be better for her if we played again on Tuesday so that she can remember the rules and learn them as habit. Now we have plans to swap every other 'us night' between shows and PACG. After finishing the intro scenarios, she went out of town for a week. One of the first things she said she was looking forward to when she got home was to start the adventure pack so she can get more of the story.
Pathfinder saved my family! Not really, but a little. >.>
So, I'm in my late thirties myself and a lifelong gamer. My wife is in her mid-... yeah. She never really identified as a gamer until the last few years. First it started with video games, she would watch a friend and I play the games and she would give advice (Top-left from Shawn Of The Dead). Then we got a Wii and she tried a few games herself. Next came board games. When a friend started having a game night for us couples she really started to like them. Catan was a favorite, so was Elder Signs. She loved the Game of Thrones game but it was a bit long for us to play regular.
Then PACG came out. She knew I was excited about it and I think she wanted to try so I could play it a bit before we brought it to game night. She was hooked. We play most every Sunday now, occasionally other nights as well. When we have kids I hope to pass on my love of games and now that she's into it as well, I think we have a chance.
Great game!
I along with the rest of this post it seems have been role-playing for ages (on and off since 1st ed) my wife has played a one off beginners game and liked the idea but leaves the gaming to me (its her chance to have a night to herself). The board game I hoped would bridge the gap and give us both something to play together once a week over a bottle of wine or 2, something that has been lacking for a while.
Got the game last week from the book depsoitary UK at last, been on back order (I would use them again, cheap and EVERYWHERE was out of it any anyway). Played 2 solo games to play test it then played it this afternoon with the wife.
We loved it. Easy game to learn, wife picked it up fast, cards explain everything. We lost the 1st scenario but will play again and win this time. We intend to make it a once a week game. The Wife even said maybe we should role-play more next time.
I think you managed to do what you set out to do and bridge the gap. Thank you Paizo for a truly great game and helping us have more quality time together instead of sitting with our laptops and watching the TV!. Please keep it up and add more AP's every year.
Just finished playing through the Perils mini-Adventure with my wife. She said she enjoyed it, and would play again, but it wouldn't become one of her favourite games.
Her concerns were:
- lack of coherent story and progression from Scenario to Scenario (I explained that the first Adventure was just a 'training mission' of three unrelated quests - but there is a general lack of narrative in the game. If Paizo or a fan group put together a 'story book' of some kind to read before each Scenario in the AP (I'm thinking something like the Mice & Mystics book) then that would be the most unspeakably awesome solution to this... any volunteers?)
- locations and their relative positions seemed a bit random (I didn't press this, but personally think you just need to use a little imagination. And a lot of imagination when you fire an arrow from the Town into an underground Shrine...)
- she was frustrated at having to throw away most of the cards she found each scenario to get back down to her deck specification, and pined for a shop or something where you could sell/buy things (I tried to rationalise this for her too, but personally I understand that this is a card game with inherent limitations and a shop mechanic would be... complicated to balance, to say the least. Having said that, the Descent 2e shop mechanic seems to work quite well - you get x random 'shop' items you can buy and can selling your equipment for half value to fund your purchases).
- she was concerned that character progression was too slow (again, I think this is because they were training missions where you only get one feat reward, the rest are cards).
However, she did want to play again some time so we'll see if she gets hooked as we get in to the Adventure Path proper.
I also think the 2-character game is way too easy, so I might suggest we run two characters each on the AP and see how this goes!
The Adventure Path addresses the problems with the narative you describe, as do some of the Fan Scenarios (or at least that is what I was aiming for with the Vhiski Trilogy).
Character progression certainly picks up once you get into Burnt Offerings - we spent a lot of time debating which feat to choose for our characters, which would be best for the party, etc.
and having to discard most of the cards you acquire - this both represents encumbrance and maintains the balance and uniqueness between characters. If there weren't these limitations Valeros could carry a bunch of spells and use them as potions to become very similar to Ezren whilst still maintaining his effectiveness in combat. Nobody wants that.
I agree with all of that, to a point (I've already played through the first Adventure both solo and with a group).
There is a general lack of narrative, though, which is why I mentioned the idea of a Story Book to flesh things out.