Pathfinder RPG Beginner Box

After a year... We still have a blast with it. Each person is having a great amount of enjoyment in their own character customization and uniqueness that they bring to the game. Although we've gotten the core rulebook, these still come in very handy for having an extra copy of some of the basic rules handy and even as a great refresher if you haven't played for a while - or even when I'm feely a bit lazy as a GM and we don't want to get too bogged down with any of the more esoteric rules.Background: When I was a kid (and through college) I was acquainted with D&D (the basic boxed sets) and eventually AD&D, as well as other rpgs along the way. After about a 15-year long 'break,' this boxed set piqued my interest as something to introduce to my friends and my children.Review:This beginner's box eases you into the game masterfully - with high quality full color soft-cover manuals (Hero's Handbook & Game Master's Guide). Excellent artistry, helps to spark the imagination. Character sheets, pregenerated characters, dice, a glossed 2-sided map, thick card-stock pawns, and dice. Everything you need to play (save a pencil!). All of quality.The Hero's handbook takes readers by the hand and shows them the ropes starting with an intro adventure (reading like a choose-your-own-adventure) to wet your appetite - exposing readers to the basics of a dungeon crawl - combat, skill checks, traps, etc.From there you could use the pregenerated characters (I recommend AGAINST using on the basis that creating one is fun in its own right & is the first step to taking ownership of the experience that you're bringing what YOU created to the game). The book walks you through the process of creating a character. It does this extremely well, not only by guiding you step-by-step but also laying out advice on what would benefit your character, or benefit your play style. It's a brilliant solution for those staring at attributes, skills, feats, etc like a deer in headlights. This is extremely helpful.There are lots of skills/feats/perks that even though this is an introductory set, players can create two different fighters (for instance) that are very different. Additionally there's no "waiting to get to level X, where I'll finally get some cool perks except for more hitpoints." Every time a character levels there is something to look forward to that translates to a skill or perk of your particular class.The Game Master's guide similarly will take the reader by the hand and from a pregenerated adventure, walk with you through it. From there it serves as an excellent advisor on running a game, designing a game, creating encounters, pacing, etc. It is a wonderful resource.The ruleset (I stopped playing rpgs in the late 90's with AD&D v2) - absolutely love the concept of d20 'big endian' (as I personally term it). Just about everything is based off the d20 and the concept of 'the higher rolls rule' helps to make things way easy. Little of the 'roll THIS to do that THAT and you have to roll UNDER/OVER to blahblah).FYI -The pawns (concept) - punch out representations of heros and monsters. They're neat and made out of durable card stock. For kids they can be a distraction who may be tempted to be more enamoured with the depicted hero vs "being their own character." Additionally, besides knowing who is where as far as formation and position in a 'fight' - they can really become disruptive to the flow of gameplay while everything pauses again and again for what I call pawn management... ad nauseum.The dice - they're great, 1 full set - just be prepared that you will have to share until you go out and buy more.Head over to Paizo.com and download/print their character sheet (free)This serves as an introduction for beginners. So if you have experience with RPG's prior, then you will probably tire of the limited rules in short order. The core rulebook ought to be your very next purchase!

This product was exactly what I needed to get back into AD&D. My girlfriend decided that I would be GMing a game for her and a group of our friends, most whom had never played anything like this. I hadn't played AD&D in 15 years and was dubious about remembering anything about what I was doing.This product saved me a massive headache.- The GM guide was an excellent reminder of what I needed to do, it contained a simple beastiary, a beginner adventure with excellent low level treasure. It clarified rules I was hazy on and gave me the tools I needed to get the game going. I could see this being an excellent aid for a brand new GM.- It has little worksheets with premade characters that I could pass around for people to get an idea of what to do. Each woorksheet has a pregenerated character and explains dice rolls, the characters roll in a group, gives ideas about early spell choices, and tips for a new player.- A beginners players guide that really helped people understand (It got passed between friends for a couple weeks before we started our game). One person actually didn't want to play because the game sounded too "Complicated" but after reading the easy to understand guide he was all for it.- Little cardoard standups that depict various monsters and character classes. I used the bases for treasure chests, traps, and other stuff. Really handy for people to get a visual on what is going on. They are pretty heavy duty and the art is really nice.- A decent sized two sided map that is dry erase marker friendly. One side has a dungeon that fits the adventure in the GM guide, and the other side is a blank grid for all your doodling and drawing needs. It was so awesome to have a nice visual aid like that that wouldn't get messed up if I decided to mark something down.- Character Sheets: Sheets for Characters needed to write down Characters on Sheets.- a Set of dice d4,d6,d8,d10,d20,d100- The box it comes in is well made and I am still using it to store everything that came in it along with dice, pens/pencils, etc. Makes for easy transportation from house to house or room to room.Overall I could not be more happy with my purchase and would never hesitate to purchase a similar item.PS: Our group was fighting a dragon and the newest player threw a potion on it...and invisibility potion. He thought it would kill it. It didn't. Good times were had by all.*****Five Stars