These decks, which according to the press release will be geared toward casual and competitive players alike, will have a MSRP of $11.99.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the pre-constructed “Class Decks” that Cryptozoic has been releasing since 2010. These decks appear to be in the same vein, but include “monster heroes” or two iconic leaders from World of Warcraft: Jaina Proudmoore and Sylvanas Windrunner. I find the fact that three of the five decks announced will be “monster” decks exciting. The monster faction debut in the Throne of Tides set. This will give players that wish to run a deck with a monster hero an inexpensive means to do so. I can’t wait.
The best beginner RPG product ever?One of the gifts I received this holiday season from my sister was the Pathfinder Beginner Box by Paizo Publishing. This week, I had the oppurtunity finally gather some friends at the table and put it through it’s paces. In this post I detail my impressions of this remarkable game product.
Presentation
The first point I have to rave about this boxed set is that it is simply stunning to my eye. Beautiful high-fantasy artwork is all over everything, from the cover of the box to every full-color page of both the Player and GM books. The box itself is a sturdy, heavy duty cardboard box. The books, both softcover, are very clear in their presentation, and lavishly illistrated. Tables of magic and mundane equipment, which could have simply been dry text lists, included many small illustrations. This is a fantastic aid in capturing new players’ imaginations!
The character sheets included in this set are also very good. The set includes four pre-generated characters (wizard, cleric, rogue, and fighter), replete with illustrations of the the characters, back story, and all of the character stats relevant to a new player. The pre-generated character sheets benefit from sidebars on either side of of the main stats calling out key elements of the four characters. These sidebars could be organized a bit better, but this is a minor concern. The included blank character sheets are also very nice. The spaces to write information are big and clear, and well organized.
Additionally, the set includes four sheets of thick cardboard stand-ups to represent the characters, NPCs, and of course, many, many monsters. The thickness of the cardboard is great, as the stand-ups are not easily tipped on the table. As with everywhere else in this box, the artwork on these stand-ups is first rate.
Lastly, the box includes one of Pazio’s GameMastery Flip-Mats. This poster-sized, thin but glossy 24” x 30” cardboard surface, is a blank grid surface on one side and a detailed layout of the box set’s included adventure dungeon on the other. The glossy surface handles wet and dry erase markers well. The beautiful dungeon layout side is great for just getting into the action, while the blank side is an indispensable tool for a new GM drawing his or her own encounters. When the mat is first unfolded onto the table, it takes a bit of smoothing out, but it will lay flat after a few minutes.
Below is a video from Paizo detailing the contents of the box:
Rules
The Pathfinder game system is based on the d20 system that brought the world the Dungeons & Dragons 3.0/3.5 era. As such, it claims complete compatibility with that system. However, it is clear the designers of Pathfinder took care to streamline it. The list of skills has been pared down, monsters have clearer stat blocks, and the the spell-casting classes included here have more abilities. These remind me somewhat of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition “at-will” powers. This is a good thing. Both the player of the cleric and the wizard loved that they had more options for their characters, and felt these abilities complimented the classes’ more powerful spells well.
As the the Game Master, the player tasked with “running” the game, I found the presentation of the rules, the descriptions of terrain, magic items, monsters, and information about the proposed starting location, Sandpoint, clear and interesting. More importantly, I found them inspiring. As I read descriptions of locations and monsters, rather then scratching my head about how to implement rules, I was increasingly excited about building adventures and encounters of my own. This is probably the highest compliment I can give any Role-Playing product.
One last note on the rules: This boxed set does pair down the more strategic (complicated) elements of the full Pathfinder game. While the players at my table found this refreshingly fast-paced, other groups with some experienced players may find it a bit crippled. Being a beginner product, I think it was a very wise choice. In two sessions, none of my players missed the rules for attacks of opportunity or grappling. They were too busy having a good time.
At the Table
As a way for me and my friends to celebrate my buddy’s birthday, we gathered to try out the adventure and characters included in this box. My three friends were familiar with the the D&D3.5 rules (and regular D&D 4th players), so they weren’t coming at this as completely new RPG players. I was the only one that had read all of the rules included in this box, however. It could not have gone better. After giving the players some time to review their characters and ask questions as we ate some pizza, we got into the game. As a group, we were impressed at how fast-paced the game was. We concluded the ten encounter adventure in about two and a half hours. Combat moved quickly, and satisfyingly. The group started getting into the role-playing of their characters rather quickly, and enjoyed some banter between themselves and eventually with some of the dungeon’s more comedic residents. I thought, and my players agreed, that the experience felt like exploring a dungeon, full of open-ended mystery, rather then just moving from combat to combat.
When the adventure concluded, and I asked for feedback, it was overwhelming positive. So much so, we decided to play again the following night! (Paizo has some free supplementary PDF material for the box set at pazio.com/beginnerbox). One of the players could not make it for this second adventure, and in his stead, my other friend’s wife opted to join us. This was her first role-playing game ever. She took on the mantle of being the party’s fighter for the evening, and rapidly got the hang of it! She caught on so well and so fast that by the adventure’s dangerous final battle, she was berating the party’s somewhat craven Wizard - IN CHARACTER!
Conclusion
This box set is an incredible value. At $34.99 MSRP, you get a lot of role-playing. The box provides challenges and character options through 5th level! Through our two games, Two of my players had characters that had 2/3 of the experience points they needed to get to level 2. As I’ve had time to look over the material, I don’t feel restrained by the subset of materials offered here. This is a nice change from the last starter product I explored, the new “Red Box” for Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition. The quality of the content in the Pathfinder Beginner Box is something I absolutely recommend to any curious players of another RPG system, or someone looking to get into the hobby.
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 6:56AM;)
Pop culture news website ICv2 has posted that game publisher Cryptozoic will release new “Champion” decks for the World of Warcraft TCG this Spring.
One of the gifts I received this holiday season from my sister was the ;)
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