|
Has anyone ever done a short handout or something to introduce newbies to the game world?
I'm going to be GMing Rise of the Runelords for a new group, most of whom have played other versions of the game, but only one of whom has ever dealt with Pathfinder before. I don't know if he's ever played on Golarion, or just used the game rules in other settings, and it sounds like he's only played a little Pathfinder, mostly sticking to older 3.5 rules. I know the game world fairly well from playing a ton of Pathfinder Society over the last two years, even though this will be my first time doing an adventure path as either a player or GM, so I'm definitely the Golarion expert in this group.
I've already told them to download the Players Guides for Runelords (both the original and anniversary edition), but I don't know most of these people well enough to know how much prep work they'll do in advance. With 6 players, I'm expecting a mix of people who don't download them at all, some who download and skim them, and some who actually read them all the way through.
We'll be doing a character creation session as a group in a few days, and I'm planning to help them come up with character back stories that fit into the game world. Needless to say, this means telling them about the game world.
I was going to show them the big map of the Inner Sea region from the Inner Sea World Guide, and tell them some basic history, like Aroden, the founding of Absalom, Cheliax and its relationship to Varisia, etc. Then I'll focus mostly on Varisia and Sandpoint, using info mostly from the AP and its Players Guides. But it occurred to me that I'll be throwing a lot of info at them at once, which is why I was thinking that giving them a handout sheet of important information would be useful, both to help it sink in and give them something to reference later.
I'm thinking a single page is probably ideal, from the standpoint of being short enough that I'm sure people will actually read it. Maybe two pages, if some of it is bullet points for easier reading. Now I just need to decide what information to put on this and write it up.
Has anyone here ever done something similar they'd be willing to share?
|
|
I like using the 4 page spread for the region in the ISWG, which I've done in another adventure path. This gives the players their "common knowledge" of the region, and in keeping with the medieval/renaissance level of information the rest of the Inner Sea map is by word of mouth only. Perhaps a look at the smaller fold-out map from the back of the book if there are "learned" classes among the party.
I've never needed to do a bullet point page, which is an excellent idea for your players, because mine have played a lot of PFS.
The Inner Sea Primer is designed to be an introductory point for players.
The Inner Sea Primer is designed to be an introductory point for players.
I wholeheartedly agree with this. When I was running RotRL, I ended up buying copies of this one Christmas right after it came out for my group. It is an excellent product that gives you a quick snippet of all the Inner Sea (there's a half page write up on each country in the IS).
There's even a couple of excellent world flavored archetypes for fighters and wizards.
|
|
The Inner Sea Primer is designed to be an introductory point for players.
I know about that book, but it's bigger and more expensive (because it's not free) than what I'm looking for.
Two of my players have never played a tabletop RPG before, so they're likely to be busier trying to learn the rules than anything else. Others have played D&D in other versions, but not Pathfinder. And I don't know them all well enough to know if some might be the "show up and play" types who don't want to spend any time on reading and prep between sessions.
That's why I'm looking for something so short that everyone can read it in 5 minutes while we're making characters together as a group. And I mostly just need info on Varisia, Sandpoint, and Magnimar, though a tiny bit of common knowledge stuff about the rest of the world would be good, too.
You know, I feel like an idiot for not checking the Inner Sea World Guide until Randuril suggested it. I own that book, and I use it for the big map and for specific feats and spells that my PFS characters use (Infernal Healing, Varisian Tattoo, Dervish Dance), but I just haven't ever had the time to sit and read it. I should have thought of it as a reference for me to look at in this case, and maybe pull some info to give the players.
You should also check out PathfinderWiki then! :D