This or Kingmaker 1E for group experienced with 1E, but new to 2E.

[Hermano]

Hi all players!

My group and I are experienced d&d players, various editions, but have just played one Pathfinder AP (Iron Gods) and never touched 2E.
After trying the computer game we are interested in Kingmaker.

Is it a hard start for a group completely new to 2E? Should we play the 1E with familiar rules to get the most of it?

Any guides or tips to give us an easy start?

[Phntm888]

If your group is interested in trying 2E, I absolutely think you should give the AP a try in 2E.

There are a lot of differences from 1E to 2E, but most of the changes are fairly well explained, and the 3-action economy is a massive improvement over 1E.

The hardest part of moving to 2E, I've found, is that 2E is much more focused on the group's tactics as opposed to individual character builds. Character optimization is much less important, and a highly optimized character isn't significantly better than a non-optimized character. If your players work well together already, they shouldn't have too much of an issue. If they typically each do their own thing in combat and don't usually work together, then the learning curve will be much steeper and they'll probably struggle a bit at the outset until they learn how to work together. It's important that they communicate with each other about their characters' abilities and figure out a way to use them in concert.

Since everyone would be new to the system, don't be afraid to let someone who's unhappy with their character rebuild the character or retrain some aspects of their character for free. It's more important that everyone have fun.

[keftiu]

There’s a small mountain of additional content in the 2e version, but it ultimately comes down to which system your group prefers more - especially considering the new Kingmaker has a 1e Bestiary. Do you want a game with countless options that clever players can break in half (this is not a negative to many people, to be clear), or do you want a tighter-balanced game that demands team tactics? That’s really the split.

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

If your group prefers to play 1e there's heaps of expansions in the forums, and in my profile.

Honestly there's no wrong choice here as long as you and your group are happy.

[keftiu]

DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:

If your group prefers to play 1e there's heaps of expansions in the forums, and in my profile.

Honestly there's no wrong choice here as long as you and your group are happy.

Dudemeister’s additions are widely beloved. I’m still bummed 2e didn’t steal the Clockwork Kingdom version of Pitax.

[Kasoh]

Since your group already played Iron Gods, if there's still an itch to have technology items because Numeria is sort of close to the River Kingdoms, 1e might be the way to go as the Technology Guide isn't ported. You could get by with Inventors and Gunslingers probably, but zap guns and chainsaws are out.

Otherwise, either version will probably play just fine depending on how much the group is willing to learn a new game.