Today I posted more or less the following on the Paizo board:
Assuming we want a Starter Set to be for people new to the game (not OSR, not White Wolf, not Indie), and we want to keep the current Core Rulebook (thus we cannot have a BECMI style sequence of products), and based on what I saw when I introduced new players to my D&D 3.5 games, I suggest the following:
1. No skills. Keep five typical rogue skills like Search, Open Lock, Disable Device, Stealth and provide a table with skill rank per level.
2. No feats and class abilities. Keep sneak attack.
3. Four classes. Fighter, cleric, sorcerer, rogue. Sorcerers are easier to play than wizards.
4. Keep all the levels. We’re not doing a BECMI sequence so no need to limit them.
5. Keep all the races. Everybody understands racial ability bonus, language, and speed.
6. Add a tiny winged humanoid race. I’ve had two people joining my groups wanting to play a faery. Make them sorcerers.
7. No combat maneuvers.
8. No attacks of opportunity.
9. No 5ft step.
10. Ganging up on single enemies grants automatic +2 for flanking and sneak attack for rogues.
11. Start with four sorcerer blood lines and provide a suggested sorcerer spell selection based on the theme. Make a nice table so people can look up which spells they know based on their level. Picking spells is hard for people who haven’t read the book.
Essentially, all the things we left out can be added later, piece by piece, from the Core Rules.
#RPG
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I posted almost this exact thing on the Paizo boards. great minds think alike.
– Geek Gazette 2010-09-30 21:11 UTC
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Hehe, cool. By the way, I loved your girl’s question regarding playing “normal D&D” ie. Pathfinder instead of a game for kids. ¹ Reminds me of the label “The original adult fantasy role-playing game for 3 or more players” (on the Holmes Basic cover) ² and “Dungeons & Dragons is a fantastic, exciting and imaginative game of role playing for adults 12 years and up.” (in the Moldvay Basic Introduction) ³ and “The Original Fantasy Role Playing Game For 3 or More Adults Ages 10 and Up” (on the Moldvay Basic cover) – this kind of stuff appeals to kids because they want to be like adults. 😄
– Alex Schroeder 2010-09-30 21:42 UTC
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Well she’s watched up play since she was 2 so all she really knows is 3e. That’s been what we’ve played almost exclusively for the past decade. While she didn’t dislike 4e and I’m warming up to the Essentials line (big improvement as far as I’m concerned), she knows that it isn’t the same D&D that my group has been playing since she was a baby. Like I said she must have been paying a lot more attention that I gave her credit for. She’s actually been bugging me to run an adventure tomorrow. Of course it isn’t like she has to twist my arm too bad.
– Geek Gazette 2010-10-03 01:14 UTC