I recently picked up a gently used copy
of the Pathfinder Beginner Box at a game convention flea
market. After examining its contents and reading the rulebooks I
realized it’s an outstanding example of the introductory
roleplaying game ideal.
I’ve had the Pathfinder Beginner
Box on my Amazon wish list for ages, more out of a curiosity with
the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game as an Open Game License
interpretation of everything players loved from third edition
Dungeons & Dragons (and argued by some to rival D&Ds’
popularity and sales) and my longtime fascination with introductory
game sets to tempt newcomers into the adventure gaming hobby. The $35
price tag kept it on my wish list as just that – something I’d
like to have, but nothing immediately essential to my gaming or
writing – but then I found a used copy for $15, a reasonable price
I couldn’t pass up. To my delight I discovered the Pathfinder
Beginner Box handily satisfied most of my criteria for an
introductory roleplaying game...to the point where it even got me
excited about playing.
Defining
the Ideal
An introductory roleplaying game has
some very definite goals regarding its target audience and source
material. It must distill the essentials of an established game
system and present them to non-gamers in a basic format so newcomers
can easily comprehend them...quite possibly exciting and inspiring
them to continue playing and eventually graduate to the game’s full
version. Designers engage in a balancing act between presenting a
game’s core mechanics in an often simplified manner and yet
retaining the allure and play style of the original material.
What do I consider elements essential
to an introductory boxed roleplaying game ideal?
A Complete & Extended Play
Experience: An introductory game should provide players with
everything needed to play – player and gamemaster books, dice,
character sheets (and pre-generated “sample” characters), maps,
and scenarios – and not just run a single adventure with a handful
of pre-generated characters, but explore original character creation
and scenario-building for an experience that lasts more than a few
game sessions. It must go the extra mile beyond a basic quick-start
version of a game, which often consists of pre-generated characters
and core rules enough to run a sample adventure; such quick-start
products often omit character generation and advancement rules,
gamemastering advice, and other niceties of full games. They’re
more intended to market a new game to established gamers than to
newcomers to the hobby. A good beginner game includes everything
required to become fully immersed in play beyond a single session.
Step-By-Step Rules: A good
beginner game does not consist of a reference book or tome of rules
but an experience. Many game rule books assume a previous knowledge
of or experience with roleplaying games and, as they’re often
written by gamers, adopt certain style and organizational convention
that aren’t always effective in teaching new players about
adventure gaming. A good beginner game presents clear, concise rules
in a logical learning sequence, each section building on the previous
ones, at a pace and in a graphic style to make things clear for both
learning the rules and referencing them later. This approach often
incorporates a “programmed” solitaire tutorial adventure
demonstrating core game concepts from the players’ perspective, and
possibly a similar scenario to guide would-be gamemasters (frequent
readers know I’m an advocate of solo adventures both as a teaching
tool and for fun).
Inspiration: An introductory
product must inspire players. Without a continually fueled
excitement for a game players might not find the enthusiasm to read
through all the carefully presented rules, “sell” it to their
potential player-friends, and run at least one game. Additional
inspiration can help drive energy toward more than one play session.
Where does one find inspiration in an intro game? Evocative, color
artwork of character types, monsters, locations, and equipment remain
essential to help players visualize a game in which most action takes
place in their imaginations. Maps offer ideas on areas to explore.
Setting resources – accompanied by numerous illustrations – can
offer a host of ideas to expand the play experience, like a sample
adventuring base for characters, scenario design tips, and lists of
monsters, treasures, equipment, and locations to enhance play.
High production values on all the
components puts a sheen on a beginner product that says the company
really cares about the game; they’re not enticing newcomers to the
hobby with some cheap knock-off of a core game, they’re tempting
new players with some of their best-looking work.
Pathfinder
Meets the Standard
The Pathfinder Beginner Box
meets all my criteria for a great introductory roleplaying game. The
box includes everything for extended play, starting with a one-page
flyer outlining what players need to read first if they’re on their
own, seeking to play a hero, or hoping to run a game. Other
components include a book each for players and gamemasters, four
pre-generated hero folios (four pages each with character sheet and
stat explanation), four double-sided blank character sheets, a full
set of polyhedral dice, more than 80 cardstock “pawns” showing
color images of heroes and monsters (with a handful of stands), and a
poster-sized, “flip mat” with the sample dungeon on one side and
a gridded sand-surface on the other to scale with the pawns and
laminated for use with dry-erase markers. Everything’s full color
with quality artwork and material.
The comprehensive components don’t
fulfill the “complete and extended play experience” qualification
by their simple existence. The execution and contents of both the
Hero’s Handbook and Game Master’s Guide offer all
the mechanics for creating and running characters through adventures
up to fifth level. Aside from offering comprehensive information
about races and classes, equipment, spells, skills, and feats, the
Hero’s Handbook provides advancement rules and an overview
of how to play the game. The Game Master’s Guide offers a
host of resources beyond the nuts and bolts of game mechanics:
explanations of different environments in which heroes can adventure,
gamemaster tips both general and tied to game elements, 44 monsters
with complete stats and encounter notes, a map and description of the
region and a base town from which heroes can set out on quests, and
some adventure hooks keyed to the regional map.
Both rulebooks take an approach that
walks readers through various gameplay processes while immediately
immersing them in the game. A 23-entry programmed solitaire tutorial
adventure leads off the Hero’s Handbook, primarily
demonstrating combat rules but touching on other game elements.
Character creation walks players from one concept to the next, first
race, then class (including spells and advancement), providing
helpful suggestions at every turn; reference lists of skills and
feats compliment those provided and explained with each class and the
pre-generated characters. To help readers identify with the kind of
characters they might like to play, the Hero’s Handbook uses
questions and comments keyed not to game terms but familiar fantasy
stereotypes everyone understands. For instance, the cover of the
rogue pre-generated character states “Play this rogue character if
you’d like to be good at:” and then lists a host of basic yet
appealing qualities, like “sneaking,” “being a swashbuckler,”
and “discovering secrets.” The Game Master’s Guide leads
off with a full group dungeon crawl that gives each location a clear
and well-organized one-page treatment; the format allows for a
mini-map of the area noting monster and treasure positions, an
illustration, monster stats, treasure information, and tips for
handling the game mechanics for most situations characters might
encounter there. Page organization walks through the basics in order,
from what characters see to how they interact with challenges there.
Both books employ an almost comic-book approach in visual style:
short paragraphs, lots of in-column sidebars, graphic headers.
The Pathfinder Beginner Box
certainly offers plenty of inspiration by getting readers excited
about creating heroes, running adventures, and playing the game.
Full-color illustrations demonstrate what heroes look like and what
kind of adversaries they face. Everything gets an illustration no
matter how small: weapons, armor, equipment, monsters, and magic
items. (Sure, most of these pieces are probably drawn from other
Pathfinder products, but “original” nonetheless to
adventure gaming newcomers). Inspiration isn’t simply visual. The
chapter on adventuring “environments” offers numerous menus and
descriptions (in both narrative and game terms) for elements in
dungeons, cities, and different wilderness terrain. The all-too-few
pages on Sandpoint – the adventuring base town – and its
environs, as well as a few plot-hook ideas, still excite readers with
a concrete example of a starting-character setting reminiscent of the
classic “Keep on the Borderlands” environment.
I’m no newcomer to fantasy
roleplaying games. I even immersed myself in the third edition of
Dungeons & Dragons when it released in 2000, played it a
few times, and wrote some published material for it under the Open
Game License. Even though Pathfinder’s game engine remains
based in that Open Game License content, it’s presentation in the
beginner box managed to rekindle some boyhood enthusiasm in this
often jaded gaming veteran. While reading its contents I found myself
seriously considering gathering some friends and giving it a try.
Though it’s quite a bit beyond what my four year-old son, the
infamous “Little Guy,” could comprehend right now, I’m
definitely keeping the box around for some future time when he’s
keen and interested enough to really enjoy the experience. That might
not be far off...he’s already seen the box and cover illustrations
in Daddy’s office, wondered what kind of game it is, and asked
when he can try playing it.
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