Need Suggestions for Scenario for Beginners

[Swiftbrook]

OK, my son surprised me and asked me to run a Pathfinder game for him and some of his college friends. All basically zero experience. Looking for fun, easy to play PFS scenarios to run in about 3 hours. Suggestions?

[Blackbot]

Three hours?
Without rushing I don't see much of a chance really. 3 hours is tight even for experienced players, and you have to teach them the rules, tell them about the world, let them choose characters etc.
Two question:

• Does it have to be PFS official (as in "they're gonna get Chronicle Sheets and you report it) or do you want to play a PFS scenario more as a basis? If it's the latter you can shorten some scenarios significantly by throwing out "filler" problems and you are more free in helping them along Because you don't have to run "as written").
  
• Does it have to be in one slot? If not, you could just say "Hey, we won't get through this in 3 hours, but if you want we can start this scenario and finish it next week!". This is problematic in a more public setting, but in a home game it shouldn't really matter.
  

[Phylotus]

I would suggest any of the quests, they're a good place to start and can be broken into hour-ish long chunks. They can also be picked back up again to finish later.

Personally, my favorite so far has been the Silverhex Chronicles, so I'd recommend that.

[Leathert]

Any of the 1-2 evergreens might work, if you don't go into the background details too much (First Steps, Confirmation, Wounded Wisp, Consortium Compact).

I myself really like Nightmarch of Kalkamedes for its possibilities of rewarding creative solutions, but not going to recommend that be run in 3 hours.

As Phylotus said, quests might be your best bet, as if the time seems to be running short, just run less than all six of a batch and you should be good.

[Swiftbrook]

Blackbot wrote:

Three hours?

Without rushing I don't see much of a chance really. 3 hours is tight even for experienced players, and you have to teach them the rules, tell them about the world, let them choose characters etc.
Two question:

• Does it have to be PFS official (as in "they're gonna get Chronicle Sheets and you report it) or do you want to play a PFS scenario more as a basis? If it's the latter you can shorten some scenarios significantly by throwing out "filler" problems and you are more free in helping them along Because you don't have to run "as written").
  
• Does it have to be in one slot? If not, you could just say "Hey, we won't get through this in 3 hours, but if you want we can start this scenario and finish it next week!". This is problematic in a more public setting, but in a home game it shouldn't really matter.
  

3 hours was my pessimistic guess. I'm shooting for longer, but I just don't know.

It doesn't have to be PFS but I have a lot of the scenarios.

It doesn't have to be in one slot if they have enough fun and if they can find a second time to get together.

I'm looking over the Silverhex Chronicles, the Beginner Box adventures and Fallen Fortress. I would like a good mix of skills, role playing and combat to give a good taste of the game.

[CrystalSeas]

Swiftbrook wrote:

I would like a good mix of skills, role playing and combat to give a good taste of the game.

You may want to take a close look at Black Fang's Dungeon in the Beginner Box. It has 10 rooms and each room is designed to cover a different aspect of Pathfinder. And in the end, they have to deal with a dragon.