Hello Forum,
I've got lots of experience with GMing, and I'm wondering if this might actually be a detriment to the Beginner Box experience. I'm afraid that I will accidentally apply too many of the Core rules out of habit.
I wanted to ask if anyone has ever dissected the CRB vs the BB, and made a list of the most common rules that are absent in the BB. This is sort of a reverse engineering I'm looking for. As opposed to asking what rules do I use in the BB experience, I am asking if anyone knows "what rules do I leave out?"
I understand there are MANY rules that show in the CRB that are not present, but I was referring more specifically to skill use and combat.
Anyone have any tips for keeping me on track with the BB?
The big one for me were the Attacks of Opportunity. My son wanted to move past a goblin so he could stab another goblin. I told him he couldn't . He asked why and...
... I realized there's no reason not to in a BB game.
As JGray says, the biggest is the lack of AoO: most actions that would provoke an AoO are just not allowed while adjacent to an enemy (ranged attacks, spell casting other than touch attacks, etc.). The other notable change to combat is the lack of combat maneuvers, character's dont have a CMB/CMD.
As for skills, they all work the same, except there's a lot less of them. The one whose absence confuses me most is Survival, it seems a fundamental part of adventuring so it seems odd to leave it out. Also missing is Use Magic Device, Intimidate, Sleight of Hand, Handle Animal and Appraise, but these can mostly be substituted for by other skills (Spellcraft, Diplomacy, Stealth, etc).
Most of the simplification in the Beginner Box comes from reducing the number of options in character creation, and easier stat blocks for monsters to make the GM's life easier. The options that are in there function mostly identically to the full game, although they may be presented differently: for example, there's no direct reference to BABs, but they are built into the stats of the classes that are available.
Overall, I'd say just go for it. Read through the Combat section of the Hero's Handbook, the rest you can run as in a full game. Just keep a copy of a character sheet in front of you so that you know what skills are available, and to point your players to the right part of the sheet when they need some help.
As long as it's fun don't worry too much :)
Having someone who knows the core rules at a BB table seems more like an asset than a liability.
While the BB has this long list of actions that are just disallowed, if you instead allow it but grant an opportunity attack, it's not that much more complicated.
I mean, it is way more complicated to explain and teach, which is why I was very pleased with the way the BB did it. But ance you do know it, it's non more complicated to actually use.