Welcome, would-be adventurers. My name is Jeven. I'm the headmaster of this school. I've had, what some consider, a successful adventuring career. I've battled trolls, stolen from dukes and lords, toppled tyrannical governments, slain dragons, and even met a goddess or three. Instead of meeting an untimely demise, instead of living lavishly on my own island, I decided that I would open this school to help budding heroes such as yourselves grow, and be ready for the dangers that lie out in this world.
The trials and tribulations you face here will not be easy. The instructors I have gathered here to help me teach have been through hell and back. Some, more literally than others. Listen to them, learn from them. Perhaps you may live to see the day where your dreams come true. All of you have come for your own reasons, whether that be money, power, respect. Some may wish for vengeance, some may even seek to rule their own kingdom one day. It does not matter. When you leave here - excuse me. If you leave here, graduated, and not a wash-out, then you will have within your hands the ability to shape your own destiny.
So pick up your blades and bows, open your spellbooks, pray to whatever deity you wish. The time for learning has begun.
The pilot. The first blog post. It is a bit intimidating, I have to admit. But instead of whining about that, let's get started with an introduction, shall we? My name is Tom. I've been a nerd my entire life. Video games, anime, fantasy novels, science fiction novels, you name it. Tabletop RPGs, however, have been a relatively recent inclusion in my life. About five years ago, my group decided we'd give Dungeons and Dragons, 4th edition a try. And we, the nerds, loved it.
You see, for us it was an easy transition from (insert Theme Park MMO here) to DND. When we were younger, say Junior High School kids, we tried it, but couldn't wrap our minds around it. "What do you mean, I can only cast two spells a day? Cross-class skills? Feats?" It was overwhelming for a couple of kids without a teacher, before everyone had internet in their homes. So the box was left on a shelf for a long time, collecting dust.
4th Edition was our gateway RPG. It was the medium we used to tell the fantastic stories that we wanted to tell. It wasn't long, however, when we started to run into problems with the game. Combat would drag on. My group swelled to something like eleven players. With my mind still stuck in MMO mode, I could not fathom being stuck at level 1 for 10+ encounters. We slowly started drifting back to MMOs, including some new free-to-play game called League of Legends.
Then, one evening, I was walking around Barnes and Noble. I was dreading a two hour drive I'd have to make the following day. I was glancing through the RPG section, looking at the various 4E books, when something caught my eye. You see, I've heard the name before. A supposedly improved version of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, the game we gave up on. Its name was Pathfinder.
The massive tome, with its beautiful cover, looked to me like a treasure trove full of knowledge and endless possibilities. The high-quality artwork continued throughout the entire book. The character iconics filled with me excitement about playing their portrayed classes. The book seemed to be edited perfectly, with everything clearly displayed. I sensed I would have little difficult thumbing through the book to find a ruling. I made the decision to purchase the book. It has, single-handedly, shaped my gaming life to what it is today.
My gaming group became just as hooked on the game as I was. As a result, it has become our preferred system. Occasionally, we dabble in other systems. Shadowrun, Traveller, and DND Next to name a few. But Pathfinder...that's where my pride and joy rests. Hundreds, if not thousands of hours of my time had been dedicated to prep, research and play. And I enjoy every second of it.
I decided to start the blog for a few reasons. First and foremost, I've had a tough time finding a blog that was exclusively for Pathfinder and its players. Most blogs that are updated relatively regularly are general for RPGs, such as Gnome Stew. The other reason, and probably the more important one, is that I felt that I needed a creative outlet for myself that was away from the Game Master's chair. It's an opportunity for myself to kind of work my way through various problems that I will set forth in the Pathfinder RPG, such as figuring out exactly what a Barbarian is, and what it does(which is going to be our first class feature). While all of this is going on of course, the most important thing I can do is give you guys something entertaining to read.
I'm going to try to put forth an effort to churn these things out as often as I can, hopefully to the tune of at least two or three a week. I want to build a community of readers who can help me as well as each other. If I say something dumb, wrong, or just plain weird, feel free to let me know. I'm new at this, and any criticism would be much appreciated. My goal is to help budding and veteran players alike, and the most effective way I can accomplish that is with input from you guys.
Chances are you've found this blog because you're already a Pathfinder player, but if by some miracle you're not, here's a few links that will help get you started.
Paizo - This is the website of the guys responsible for bringing this epic RPG out into the world. They have an easy-to-navigate store which will make it easy for you to pick up their wonderful products.
The Rules - One of the coolest things about the Pathfinder RPG is that all the rules for the game are completely available for free online! Alternatively, you can go to this site for another resource document. If you're looking for just the core rules, it doesn't matter which site you go to. Whichever you prefer.
That's it for now. Feel free to leave a comment and let me know how I'm doing, and what you'd like to see. Thanks guys.
No comments:
Post a Comment