Teaching new players

[Sunlight]

Hi all, I'm about to embark on a quest to teach some 5e players about 2e, but there is so much information, I just have no idea what to omit for the first pass. What would be your main important points to tell them? Obviously some big things like crit success/failure, and skill proficiencies, but what else would you tell them?

[Arachnofiend]

Weird take but combat maneuvers. I've been involved in teaching a few different groups so far and my experience has largely boiled down to:

"Fights are a slog, you just attack and miss forever"

"This enemy has a bad fort save, try grappling it"

"Oh, I understand now"

[Ravingdork]

Step 1) Get the Core Rulebook.

Step 2) Read it.

Step 3) Present any questions you may have to your GM.

Step 4) Profit.

Simple enough instructions that most new players can easily grasp.

If they can do it for 5e, they can do it for PF2e.

[YuriP]

Here I will consider that you are the GM just because the GM don't have another choice than be the responsible to read the entire CRB (Core Rulebook).

I agree with Ravingdork, get the CRB and read it. You will need to understand the most part and options of any RPG you are GMing.

Make a 0 session and help the players to create their chars, just say that they need to do like they done in 5e. Let them choose a class (and the "subclass" options if available), choose a ancestry (race) and an heritage (subrace) and choose a background, select their free ability boost, choose what available feats they want for level 1 combination (an ancestry feat and a lvl 1 class feat if your class allows) choose the skills and choose the spells if available.

During this creation phase while they are completing the character sheet you will be explaining how proficiency works, probably they will ask about actions symbols and you will explain how the 3-action system works (that there's no move specific actions but 3-actions that they will choose how they will be used in their turns and there's also one-reaction by default but the chars need to know some reaction to trigger and so on)

Then let's go to play (the best way to teach any RPG system is playing it).

The DC checks are basically the same of any D20 system. The only difference is that have 4 degrees of success. Let them discovering this during the rolls.

During the gameplay you will explain how initiative works, you will explaining again the 3 action system, you will show that's there's no attack of opportunity by default they are a class/creature specific reactions of many others possible reactions in the game, will showing how MAP works and explains that many times is best use an non-attack action because the MAP-10 usually don't worth the action used (when you will recommend to use other actions before or after like Demoralize, AID Recall Knowledge).

This will the doubts and responses will come naturally. Many of them will learning and enjoying the game naturally during this entire process.

But there's some things about common mistakes of new players coming from other D20 systems.

Enforce the need of team work. Many older systems don't enforce this like PF2. Usually each char is autonomous that sometimes interact with each other like healing. While in PF2 the team work is almost essential for survival and do something that may help your allies is so good just if it was helping yourself because everyone have the same objetive and PF2 mechanics strongly profits the teamwork.

Explain that in PF2 is normal to hit and take some damage (they probably will be surprised of how much they will take and do damage). The secret of things here is that have a good AC or a good bonus changes the critical frequency and that matters too.

All encounters are designed to be made at full health. Let them use their out of combat abilities to full heal between encounters. Enforces this remembering that beginning an encounter without being full healed could be fatal.

For offensive casters I recommend to reserve the top level spellslots to AoE effects and usage the debuff low-level spellslots in the stronger opponent to help other players. This usually make a better experience than try to reserve your best spells to bosses and then notice that they probably are most effective against a large number of mobs and you have passed the most encounters using cantrips against them. This one thing that makes many casters feels weak in the game when compared to other systems.

Still talking about casters. Explain they that combine save with attacks are probably the best option they have while don't have access to sustainable offensive spells like flaming sphere. That usage of your 3-actions to cast things like Electric Ark/Chill Touch + Strike with a weapon is pretty effective as damage dealing.

Constantly remember they their skills actions like Demoralize, Trip, Grab and how this could be useful in many situations (it's fine to give such tips even during encounters once they are still learning).

Remember them that tactical gameplay is very important and way more useful than in D&D. Usually, specially in earliest games, creatures able to do Attack of Opportunity are rare. This makes easier to flank their opponents or to keep the distance if you are a ranged character.

In these earliest games don't restrict the changes. They will made mistakes in their choices so let them to change anything they want for free now. If someone don't like a spell, allow it to swith it to other and do the samething to everything since feats to class and ancestries. When you have played enougth sessions and feels that they learned and are dominating tha game system is when you can enforce fixed choices and retraining rules.

And that's it. The best way to IMO to teach new players is playing. Don't need to be afraid. The game will work way more easily and smoothly than you think.

[breithauptclan]

For players:

1) Learn the basic mechanics. Things like character creation, and the action economy.

2) Understand the encounter design. Challenging fights are actually challenging. Attacking an enemy's actions or bonuses are just as valuable as attacking their HP. Defending yourself and assisting allies is also necessary for survival and success.

3) Build for non-combat too. There is more to the game than just killing things. And you are given some build options that are intended to be used for that instead of just increasing your combat power. Skill feats being the most obvious. Don't worry that you can't find a good combat-worthy skill feat. Pick something that sounds fun to do when not killing things - it won't make you less powerful at killing things.

For GM:

1) Learn how to build and balance encounters correctly. When the Encounter building tables list a Severe threat - that is actually a severe threat. When a creature level is listed as a moderate boss - that is actually a moderate boss. Neither of those should be what the players encounter every time they have to draw weapons. You will want to know this even when following a published adventure because some of the earlier adventures didn't follow this very well and you will want to adjust things.

2) Learn how to set DC. There are both Basic DC and DC by level tables. Use both. And remember to use the task's level when choosing a DC - not the character's level. Using the character's level all the time makes the players feel like they never actually improve as they level up. Again needed even if following published adventures. You never know what your players are going to try and do.

3) Learn how to build non-combat encounters. Victory Point skill challenges are a fantastic way of doing that. Again, this is useful even if using a published adventure. You still never know what your players may come up with and sometimes it is something more complicated than a single skill check is suited for.

[Fumarole]

Starting with the Beginner Box is widely accepting as a good place to start.

As far as actually playing, though? They should heal up between encounters when possible, and any character can do this with the medicine skill and a bit of investment. They should find something to do with their third action other than attacking, which is rarely useful. Play as a team.

The GM should be generous with information given out with a successful recall knowledge check, and this will tie into characters using their third action for something more useful than attacking.

[Dancing Wind]

Start with the Beginner Box.
The two-level dungeon in that set is designed to illustrate most of the important rules for PF2.

Have your players watch the excellent 'Combat And Tactics' videos put out by Knights Of Last Call.

Combat And Tactics

With those two tools, your group will be ready to play any published adventure.

[Ectar]

5e players will already understand the core concepts of general rpg playing. So the first things would be the broad stroke differences:
4 degrees of success/failure, 3 action system in combat, concentration if you have a caster (in particular if they played casters in 5e), multiple attack penalty, and AoO isn't a university thing. Maybe the types of bonuses and penalties and how they don't stack.
After that, a lot of things can be safely ignored until someone asks or it becomes relevant.

As the GM, you can do a lot of showing (in lieu of telling) as well.
5e players might not think to use some of their skills in combat, since it's so vague in 5e. So having an enemy rogue Feint then score a big sneak attack or have a mighty barbarian intimidate a PC before attacking can be really good learning opportunities.

[Kelseus]

Another thing that I found helpful when we first switched to P2 was printing out the pages from the CRB with basic actions. There are a lot of things a PC can do what isn't just stride/strike. Having a few cheat sheets like that on the table for easy reference helps to make the night go smoother.

[Chris_Fougere]

Having just done this my biggest piece of advice is to not approach it with the idea of "it's like 5e" If you do then the players will get tripped up on things that aren't the same (like Dex not adding to damage for finesse weapons, for example).

Treat it like it's its own thing. Use the beginner box and the pregens so folks get a feel for things. There's a ton of value in that.

[Sanityfaerie]

I would encourage people to *not* start out trying to play a blaster-caster. It's a classic archetype, and a lot of people want to play it, and it's the one that's least likely to work out well for very new players. If their big cool caster image is a buffer or debuffer or healer or utility or whatever, then that's great, but if they walk into it wanting to be the person who casts the spells that make the people fall down, then they are likely to feel frustrated. Save any attempt at that kind of character for once they have an understanding of how the system works in general.

I will note that some classes are more complicated than others and, in general, new players are probably better-served playing the less complicated classes. The extra complexity does not, in fact, come with extra power. It's there for people who enjoy the extra complexity for its own sake. In general, if you do "core rulebook" you'll be fine there, though you might also want to avoid wizard for your first time out.