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Today was rather interesting, and a first for me as a gamer. Which, I am rather proud of how the day turned out.
My aunt came to visit my mother, and she brought along my two cousins who are aged 20 and 17. The oldest cousin brought his girlfriend (age 19) with him, as they seem nearly inseparable. The Youngest cousin knows I play computer games, so he came downstairs to my room and we started talking about what new computer games I’ve been playing (Skyrim mostly). His brother wandered down after a while and sat bored in my recliner while we geeked out. A little while later, the girlfriend goes looking for my oldest cousin and finds my room. She sees the Middle Earth poster on my wall and states she loved the movies. I tell her about the books they are based on and show her where they are on my bookshelf. She’s only seen the movies, but is a big Harry Potter fan of both movies and books. While looking at my bookshelf she pulls the Pathfinder Core Rules book off my shelf and asks what that was.
So I explain what Roleplaying Games are while she is flipping through the book looking at the pictures. She was intrigued by the cover at first, drawn to Seoni and asked who she was. I explain about the Iconics and how they were used as examples for the different types of characters people can play. By this point she has reached the Class chapter and stops on the picture of Amiri for the Barbarian.
“That’s me! I want to be her!” she states emphatically. “Will you teach me how to play?”
I’m stunned for a bit, I’ve never encountered anyone this excited to learn an rpg, and wanting to play right then and there. Not to discourage her from the hobby, I agree. She tells both my cousins they are going to play with her and that she is going to be a Barbarian named Amiri. I pull out my Beginner Box and let them look over the character sheets and Player’s Handbook while I start writing out Amiri on one of the blank sheets since she isn’t one of the Iconics in the BB. A few minutes later after hurriedly transcribing a character sheet for Amiri, we sit down and play. So, my oldest Cousin chooses Valeros (Fighter), his girlfriend is Amiri (the Barbarian), and the youngest is playing Ezren the Mage. To round out the party I send Kyra the Cleric along as support played by me.
I run them through the intro dungeon in the Beginners Box. Amiri quickly asserts herself as the group leader, and surprisingly enough, does a very good job of it. The first encounter with the goblins takes a while due to explaining the rules and how the game works. They move into the next room do some quick scouting. They hear the goblins squabbling and not wanting to leave enemies behind them they charge once again into a fight for which the Goblins are no match. As I read the flavor text for each room and encounter Amiri absorbs it all, and plans accordingly. She didn’t miss a beat with anything. She noted down each bit of information and fully explored that area before moving on. Even the room with the Fire trap, she got how to bypass it without taking any damage. She’d seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, so she caught on to the Magical Voice’s instructions. She even commented on the movie reference.
They work methodically through each room. After the quick work with the Goblins I started doubling up on the monsters, adding 2 more Spiders (total of 3) to the Spider encounter and a second Reefclaw in the water fight. Even so, they steamrolled through all the encounters, their rolls were just amazing. Once they were satisfied there wasn’t anything left on the main floor, they go back into the goblin throne room. Amiri uses the Potion of Levitate and floats up to the shelf and ties a rope for the others to climb. They then cautiously advance into the next room where the piles of bones pick themselves up off the floor and advance on the would-be grave robbers. The original encounter was with only 3 Skeletons, but with the ease they were blowing through everything, I upped them to 6 Skeletons lead by a Skeletal Champion.
This fight did not go the party’s favor at first. Losing initiative to a bunch of Skeletons (no one rolled above a 4), and Amiri taking 3 solid hits (one a crit), knocking her down to 2 hit points. Worried she was going to fall to a bunch of “dry dusty bones” (her words), Amiri rages for the first time and proceeds to kick some Skeletal booty.
After the fight, they decide to take a rest here before moving on. They still hadn’t found what would leave behind a large black fang, so they knew something was still in here. Plus the graffiti on the Wall mention something about a wyrm, and Amiri had a pretty good guess as to what that meant… Still, before moving into the next chamber, Amiri gathered up the skulls and thigh bones of the Skeletons and tossed them down into the Throne room. She didn’t want those “Boney Bastards” (her words again), coming in behind them while they were exploring. I think the Skeletons creeped her out.
They then move into the final room and are attacked by Blackfang the Black Dragon they were sent to find. Initiative is rolled. Ezren hits Blackfang with his Magic Missile. Valeros charges the dragon with the Dragon-Bane Longsword and scores a good solid hit. Amiri goes next, raging and charging the dragon with her Large Bastard Sword. She rolls a natural 20, confirms with a natural 20, and then rolls 8s on all 4 d8s for a total of 35 points of damage… Blackfang dies in a spectacular display of Barbarian fury! And since he rolled a one on his Initiative roll, never got to attack…. Amiri then proceeds to take its head as a trophy just in case no one back in Sandpoint believes her. She asks if the hide could be made into armor, for which I reply I’m sure someone in Sandpoint could make such an item for her. She then proceeds to skin the dragon. Once done she asks me what the dragon wings were like? I said, dragon wings are usually batlike, but tougher, and she then asks if she can cut the membrane out from the wings. I said sure, and ask why she wanted it. Her reply was simple. To make soft leather boots and gloves to match with her new black dragon armor of course!
I ended the game there as my mom and aunt got home about that time. As a parting gift I gave Amiri my copy of the Pathfinder Beginner’s Box, for which she was overjoyed. She was talking about how she was going to get her two girlfriends to play since they liked Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings too. Her excitement and exuberance was so awesome to see, and was really cool to have been a part in that. My two cousins had fun, but I don’t think they enjoyed it as much as she did. But here’s hoping I’m made a new gamer out of her at least.
They live several hours away from us, and I've already gotten two calls from her already on their drive home asking rules questions and how things worked. I’m going to email her some websites for her to go to, and offered to answer any questions she might have, she just needs to call.
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YourSwordisMine wrote: Today was rather interesting, and a first for me as a gamer. Which, I am rather proud of how the day turned out. This is awesome, and inspiring. I love particularly how you gave her the BBox when you were done; sharing the hobby is the best part, be it with friends or strangers.
I played a couple of AD&D games as a kid, with a friend of the family 4 years older than me. Sadly, I didn't have another opportunity until this year to play a tabletop RPG, almost 30 years later. While it's difficult getting a group together, I picked up the BB, am slowly going through it and the enormous amount of info on Pathfinder and Golarion. So far, I've played 3 PFS games, but my only GMing experience has been leading first my son, and then my husband through the solo adventure. Complete with maps and minis, tho ;)
My son is only seven, but he's had a blast (despite far less luck with the dice than Amiri), and he's eager to play again. Right now I'm in the midst of designing an adventure tailored to him, before leading him through BlackFang's dungeon later this month. It's so much fun to play with enthusiastic people, keen to learn and roleplay.
Thanks for the story!
wackyanne wrote: YourSwordisMine wrote: Today was rather interesting, and a first for me as a gamer. Which, I am rather proud of how the day turned out. This is awesome, and inspiring. I love particularly how you gave her the BBox when you were done; sharing the hobby is the best part, be it with friends or strangers.
I played a couple of AD&D games as a kid, with a friend of the family 4 years older than me. Sadly, I didn't have another opportunity until this year to play a tabletop RPG, almost 30 years later. While it's difficult getting a group together, I picked up the BB, am slowly going through it and the enormous amount of info on Pathfinder and Golarion. So far, I've played 3 PFS games, but my only GMing experience has been leading first my son, and then my husband through the solo adventure. Complete with maps and minis, tho ;)
My son is only seven, but he's had a blast (despite far less luck with the dice than Amiri), and he's eager to play again. Right now I'm in the midst of designing an adventure tailored to him, before leading him through BlackFang's dungeon later this month. It's so much fun to play with enthusiastic people, keen to learn and roleplay.
Thanks for the story! That is awesome anne! I sometimes wish I had kids so that I could show them the wonders of RPGs like I experienced when I was 11 or so. Good luck and enjoy these special memories!
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Looks like I’ve created a monster lol! I just got off the phone with Amiri again. She was talking so fast I could barely keep up she was so excited. Evidently she is out shopping with her two girlfriends right now. I had told Amiri yesterday that Barnes & Noble would be a good place to look for game books, and that’s one of the stores she drug her friends into. She asked the clerk where the Pathfinder books were and he led her to that section. Evidently he was a Pathfinder player as well, and with his help she bought a few things:
Core Rules
Advanced Players Guide
Gamemastery Guide
GM Screen (Seoni was on the cover)
Character Folio
Ultimate Combat
Ultimate Magic
Ultimate Campaign
Bestiary 1
Pawns: Bestiary 1 Box set
NPC Codex
Pawns: NPC Codex Box set (She now has a pawn for Amiri and Seoni)
Rise of the Runelords hardback.
I think she cleaned them out! I am a little shocked she would drop $400 on a game she’s only played once, especially as a new player. I mean, I do that all the time, but then I’ve been gaming for 30+ years. I’m amazed that teaching her how to play yesterday would have such an impact on her. That is an amazing feeling to say the least.
Ha! Outstanding. I'm looking forward to the new edition of the BB hitting the UK so I can buy it for friends.
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So, a bit of an update.
I've been speaking with Amiri every day this week, upwards of 2-3 hours a day. The endless bombardment of questions has been awkward as I and not that familiar with Pathfinder but I've been answering the best I can. She has devoured just about every book she's bought, she knows the rules better than I do, so I've been mainly offering advice on how to GM and just talking gaming in general. She met another gamer girl so they've been talking as well. Amiri's level of excitement and enthusiasm is so wonderful to see.
Amiri will be running her first game this Saturday. She'll be starting with Rise of the Runelords. She'll have 6 players in total, and they've decided to just use the Iconics from the NPC Codex so that everyone can just hop into playing without having to make characters. This might be a good idea for everyone involved. My two cousins will continue to play Valeros and Ezren, and they'll keep the items and Exp they earned from Blackfangs dungeon. The new girl will be playing Merisiel. Her two Girlfriends will be playing Seelah and Kyra. Kyra's older brother (evidently he's played RPGs before) will be playing Seoni. A very well rounded group, Fighter, Paladin, Wizard, Rogue, Cleric, and Sorcerer.
I'm sure I'll get an after action report after the game. I myself am very much looking forward to how it went.
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YourSwordisMine wrote: I'm sure I'll get an after action report after the game. I myself am very much looking forward to how it went. If anyone in her group is into creative writing, turning their sessions into a campaign journal can be a lot of fun, and would be fun for us to read.
I second this suggestion. I campaign journal would be really fun to read and to put together if they like writing. I wish more of my players were into creative writing...
Did she ever let you know how the campaign went this weekend?
I heard from my Younger Cousin (who played Ezren) about the first session. Evidently things didn’t start out to well… Amiri started a new job on Monday, so that’s why I’d not heard from her yet.
I need to give a little bit of a background about my oldest cousin whom Amiri is dating. My cousin was born a crack-baby, and because of that he has some behavioral problems… This was compounded a few years ago when a stupid doctor explained it to him… So now he uses it as an excuse to be an even bigger a#%+~$!. He is now 20, and he is not the nicest person to be around a lot of the time… At least, my urge to punch him in the throat has lessened since he started Amiri. She has been a somewhat calming influence on him, but I still can’t understand why anyone would want to spend time with him, let alone date him… I’m family, so I have an excuse to deal with him… Luckily it doesn’t happen very often.
So, according to the younger cousin, Amiri had jumped full on ubergeek with all her books. She spent hours reading and preparing for her first game. She called me several times so this wasn’t a surprise to me. Unfortunately, during this time, Amiri and my older cousin hadn’t had sex in the week leading up to the game. The way my younger cousin described it they were usually at it like rabbits. This of course had the oldest cousin in a bit of a fit since if the world isn’t revolving around him 24/7 he gets pissy… Of course, being the Drama Llama that he is, he waited till the group had assembled on game day to throw his temper tantrum…
The game was being hosted by one of Amiri’s friends brother. Said brother used to be a bouncer and proceeded to “bounce” my cousin across the room, and then drug his unconscious form out into the front lawn. Of course my younger cousin found this highly amusing, but Amiri was quite upset. Still, everyone calmed her down, my cousin was being a dick and what he got was well deserved. My cousin usually gets away with his b@*+$%!!, but the host wasn’t having any of it; not in his house anyway.
My cousin was only out for a little bit, and the host told him he could come back in and join the game once he cooled down… Being the entitled moron that he is, my cousin called the police… When the cruiser arrived, the Officers talked to the host for a few minutes while my cousin raved that he wanted the host arrested. Evidently the Host and the Officer knew each other from the Bouncing job. Since my cousin was still raising a stink, the officers told him if he didn’t shut out, they would arrest him… That of course was that and the cops left a sputtering cousin in the front lawn. Incensed, my cousin drove home in a huff, stranding his brother and girlfriend at the hosts house…
Suffice it to say, things didn’t get off to a good start… About this time, the hosts partner got home from work. Everyone encouraged Amiri to not let my cousins stupidity ruin her game. From the way my cousin explained it, a lot of this reassurance came from the Host and his partner. So, after some time to calm down and compose herself, Amiri started Rise of the Runelords for her group.
I don’t have a lot of details since my younger cousin couldn’t talk long but I gather it went very well despite the whole mess with his brother. The host was playing Seoni, and his partner took my older cousins place as Valeros. There was a lot of roleplaying as Seoni and Valeros were flirting outrageously. I’ve not played or run RotRL, so I don’t know what it entails, but it sounds like they got some roleplay and a combat in before game was called for the night. Since only a few of the group had ever played a roleplaying game before, the combat took a bit longer, but that’s expected for a new group. But from what it sounds like, everyone had a great time. The host drove my cousin and Amiri home after the game. He seems a cool guy.
Despite everything that happened, it looks like everyone wants to keep playing. I think they are going to play again next Saturday. I’ll update more after I get a chance to talk with Amiri tonight.
Glad to hear that it sounds like it had a fairly decent end to this chapter of the story. Still think a journal would be pretty cool, though.
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