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Hey there,
I'm relatively new here and looking to get my RP on. I'm just unsure how to go about it and from what I've seen the stickies aren't really helping with what I'm unsure on.
So I'm neither new to tabletop RPGs nor to Play by Post games (though mostly in a more narrative, freeform setting), but I'm admittedly pretty new to Pathfinder (I dabbled in 3E when it came out but that was a good while ago). I'll frankly admit I've never been a huge fan of D&D/D20 type games but I did buy the big Humble Bundle pack a couple months back and found myself sucked in by the world and the modularity of Pathfinder in comparison to 3E and I'm itching to play in that world. Especially Cheliax, believe it or not. I'm a sucker for people putting functioning 'Evil' countries in their settings (such as Ghelspad's Calastia).
Now my main exposure to D&D was AD&D 2nd Ed back in the day, so I'm really iffy on the whole Free/Swift/Move/Full Action system but I'll get the hang of that eventually. I just really feel like it'd be rude to just throw a character at someone looking for players and then be the bottleneck of the group as I'm coming to grips with those systems I'm not used to. So I'm just wondering how you'd usually go about this. Do people post games aimed at newer players? Are you expected to not show up around here before you have a good handle on the game? Do you just give fair warning that it might be rough going for a while there or do you just jump in?
How good of a grip on the game are people expected to have and what's a good way to go about joining one if you're brand new to the rules and probably not even cognizant of some of their finer points?
Bonus question: Characters. Does it help to have them created ahead of time? (And where do I start? I have like half a dozen Chelish characters in my head and equally as many Elves and then some others and they all want out!)
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I think as long as you post that you're relatively new to the game when you post a character, you should be fine(I might not specifically say you've never been a huge fan of D&D/D20 games, but that you played AD&D 2nd and don't really know Pathfinder's system). A decent number of games post that they're specifically looking for/accepting new players, so I'd recommend looking for those.
You might also try PFS (which is Paizo's organized player). Those tend to be shorter adventures, so might help you figure out if you like it. PFS is also designed/intended to be friendly to newer player.
When you get into the game, you could (assuming this is true) post in the Discussion thread and let the other players know you're open to guidance and suggestions. Even now, I'll sometimes ask my fellow players for advice on spell selection or picking feats just to get more feedback and ideas I may not have thought of. Nothing wrong with doing that at all.
As for characters, typically, yes, you do want them created ahead of time. Now this can be a bit tricky depending on what type of games you're trying to get into. If you want to play in an Adventure Path, there will typically be specific expectations for the character so that it fits into the campaign. (That's often something like you have a reason to care about the village you're in.) Now, a lot of character concepts can be adapted to fit different campaigns, so I would suggest building a few characters you're eager to play and be ready to tweak the background to fit the campaign you're applying for. PFS characters tend to have a little more freedom to be whatever they want (as long as they're part of the adventuring Pathfinder Society), but I think their backgrounds tend to not come up quite as much as those in longer-form campaigns do.
Hope that helps.
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Adding a few points to the excellent answer of Jacob.
- Stay away from any campaign labelled 'Mythic' and/or 'Gestalt/Tristalt/whatnot'. These are over-the-top, high-level games which produce extraordinarily complex characters and you will feel your lack of 'system mastery' if joining one of those really badly.
- Be upfront with the GM / fellow players. Nothing is causing a game to break apart as fast as different expectations. If I was your GM and knew that you are a newcomer, I'd try my best to explain rule-stuff more in-depth (or at all) than if I knew nothing of it. Asking others players for insights is also a very good idea, ESPECIALLY if it comes to spell selection and/or feats and traits.
- If you feel like it, build your first character and head over to the Advice Section of the Forum and ask people for their opinion (stating that it is your first one and you're new to PF). There are always people around who love to comment on builds and give input.
- Keep your background flexible and focus more on the actual character of your character ;-). This will let you adapt your concept easily to various campaign settings, while still playing 'your' character. You stated that you are in love with Cheliax as an evil country. Go with 'comes from Evil Country' in your background, which may or may not be Cheliax.
- Stay away from classes/options that are at the outer end of the PF system, e.g. Psionics as their rules are often not very clear and/or confusing and/or problematic (at least in my experience).
- And lastly: don't wait too long for 'the perfect game' to crop up. It may not come in a while and if it does, there's no guarantee that you will make it in. You will usually make it into a game in something like one out of four cases - if not less.
Cheers and have fun on the boards :-)
GoW
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Cheliax you say?
May I entice you?
That's... probably far beyond my scope and ability at this point in time (and I'd strongly assume there's a bunch of stalwarts who'd do a better job at this than I ever could). I'll still throw something at you but since you're looking for one player only I'd probably feel bad if I ended up with the spot.