Scattered Thoughts on Pathfinder (and Vampire)

Ah, Pathfinder. I have an odd relationship to this game. Though Dungeon Master 4th Edition For Dummies was my introduction to RPGs in theory (aside from Spoony's old videos), and a couple of Fast Play games cut my teeth on basic refereeing, the Pathfinder RPG Beginner Box was my first time running a full-featured RPG - and my first time playing one. Nostalgia is a force more powerful than electromagnetism and more mysterious than animal magnetism, and it has impelled me to revisit the movies and video games of my childhood... but can it compel me to revisit Pathfinder?

Trick question: it already has in the past. On my first occasion of running Drunk D&D (not the occasion I discussed on Alexis' podcast), I attempted to use the Beginner Box for a dungeon crawl with... well, the group of peers I was running at that time can charitably be described as picky and strong-willed. Couple that with various liquors, and it wasn't very much fun for me.

Curiosity later led me to join a full-on, Core Rulebook-and-Friends game. Too dense rules, too many players, and a non-combatant character in a very combat-centric campaign meant that I probably would have dropped out had the game not fizzled in the face of undergraduate engineering homework (not mine, thank goodness). As tempting as the mini paperback editions of the rules are (and as adorable), I've passed on them each time.

Let's shift dimensions a bit and talk about Vampire: The Masquerade. I knew right away that the whole system would probably not be to my taste, especially after puzzling my way through the rebooted World of Darkness core book. Then I happened across this review of the Introductory Kit. It said things that made a lot of sense to me; why do you need 500 pages of fluff and a two-sided spreadsheet when the game's supposed to be all about telling a story? And both Mx. Meier and my own intuition proved correct, as the sessions of my chronicle (all two of them) went rather smoothly when using the thin rules as a guideline.

Getting back on track to Pathfinder: what if the Beginner Box could be used the same way? The format - designed to teach the game to complete neophytes - is certainly user-friendly, and there are enough options even within each class to allow for replay value. There's even more of this with the free GM Kit and Player Pack, not to mention the possibilities that could be shrunken down from the "full" game. But the sleeker, simpler rules would make play go quite smoothly after everyone became familiar with them, much like I've observed with AD&D 2.

Mine doesn't have the "New" book, but don't get too excited - it's
just Beginner Box Transitions, which you can download for free.

The level cap of 5 might be seen as a hindrance, but not necessarily. Keep in mind that a 5th-level Pathfinder character is already strong enough to reshape the world if they play their cards right. Keep in mind also that advancement can be adjusted to be faster or slower. Finally, remember that J. Eric Holmes' Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set - along with Moldvay and Mentzer's versions - was limited to 3rd level, and a number of people have proposed thought experiments where those are the only three levels. Heck, the D&D Adventure System board games only have two levels, and no one complains very loudly about that.

(Besides, how many campaigns have you, Dear Reader, played in recently that got to 2nd level, let alone 5th? I know that number for me is zero without stretching the definition of "recent" to include the first few months of this year.)

And to sweeten the deal even further, both my partner and I have our own copies of the Beginner Box, which means multiple copies of the Hero's Handbook to pass around a table. Hmm... I'm beginning to see some merit in this idea. Just after I purchased a brand new, old-school game, too - but such is the way my mind works.