So, apparently an online friend of mine is interested in Pathfinder after hearing my GF and I talk about it a lot. I'm now going to be DMing a 2 PC party (+GMPC if necessary) via PBPost (given the time difference between California and Sweden). Setting him up as a two-weapon warrior ulfen, to his request, with a bastard sword and an axe. He was pretty cool with me restricting him to a fighter to start with, easiest class to play to learn the most basic rules.
Only problem I'm having... I've never introduced someone completely new to TTRPGs before. At the same time, I haven't DM'd a game for more than 1 person for a while now.
I'm thinking of starting the pair out at a sort of 'academy training hall' kind of thing, to go over the basic rules first and get him used to it. From there, I was planning some MMO style beginner quests via clearing giant rats from tavern basements, finding missing persons, some investigation, perhaps a little political diplomacy, and retrieval missions. The final bit of this mini-adventure would basically put together most of the stuff learned earlier, culminating in a fight against an amount of goblinoids that would be more comparable to something a 4+ PC party would fight.
Start the numbers and difficulties small, and generally increase until there's almost as much failure as there is success. Don't want to reinforce any idea that failure is this horrible thing that should be avoided at all costs in every situation.
He's a pretty mature guy, plays a lot of PC games (from Age of Empires to Warcrafts to Call of Duty to Baulder's Gate and Elder Scrolls). Trying to ingrain in him that while failure isn't always totally horrible, there isn't, in general, a reset button. Already talked with him about stats and power gaming, and he's assured me it won't be fun for him without a real threat of PC death, and finds steam-rolling encounters sounding boring. So, this sounds promising, but what is said and what is done and learned are sometimes two very different things.
Oh, I'm using an array of 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11. Not sure if I should fluff the numbers up a bit, for one thing.
Mainly, I'm just worried about throwing too much at once, or reinforcing some potentially negative aspects of the game (such as GM vs PCs and "Winning the game"). Anyone have any particular ideas on how I should go about this?
One thing that kind of worries me though, more of an amusement than anything. Seems to believe that a fortress of kobolds armed with tanglefoot bags and alchemist's fires, with a lot of pit traps and catwalks in the rafters, would be fun and rather easy at level 1, lol. Tried explaining to him that it was a stage I built for my last group of 8 power-gaming (and confrimed-cheating) munchkins, didn't phase him much xD.
I think the ranger is the best intro class. It slowly introduces lots of concepts, one level at a time (monster types, bonus feats, terrain, spellcasting, wand usage, animal companions) and it has lots of class skills--and skills newbies tend to use a lot: Perception, Stealth, Survival, Climb, Intimidate, Swim, etc. Also good BAB and 2 good saves mean he will most likely hit and survive perils.
I would also suggest introducing a variety of opponent types: kobolds, rats, and vermin, for example, would introduce tricksy humanoid fights(or Diplomacy/Intimidate), dumb beasty fights, and relentless bug fights. He might get some alchemist fires from the kobolds, and then use them against a swarm. Stuff like that.
Also try to introduce CMB/CMD, F/R/W saves, etc.
How read character sheet.
How to plan level progression are key.
How to find the SRD!
Brief encounter with tripping and grappling.
A simple starting class (ranger, fighter)
A simple notation system (to hit = bab+str+feat+magic-power attack, etc)
Low initial pressure to RP (use accents, pspeak in first person, etc)
Pause to explain what just happened.
Detail out any house rules.
Model a few social encounters before play (bluff, sense motive, diplomacy).
how to read abbreviate stack block (eg, a bestiary entry)