I’m about to embark on running the Pathfinder Beginner Box adventure and I’ll be taking this opportunity to learn the Pathfinder rules better.

What adventures should I run next after the Beginner Box adventure? Here’s one road map; feel free to give feedback:

Start with the Beginner Box rules and the four iconic character classes. After that, run adventures in this order:

• Beginner Box Adventure in GM Guide (1st level)
• Pathfinder Module: Crypt of the Everflame (1st to 2nd level)
• Pathfinder Module: Masks of the Living God (3rd to 4th level)
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #17: Perils of the Pirate Pact (4th to 5th Level

Around this time, I’d add in the following missing Beginner Box rules and convert over to the Core Rules:

• Attack of Oppor­tu­ni­ties
• Charg­ing on Sur­prise
• Com­bat Maneu­vers and Com­bat Defense
• Con­cen­tra­tion Checks to cast spells

Then I’d move on to

• Pathfinder Module: City of Golden Death (5th to 6th/7th Level)

After this I might switch to an Adventure Path (Rise of the Runelords possibly, the new edition will be out in June) with new characters (opening up possibilities for all the Core classes), or perhaps continue on with the same Beginner Box characters along this path:

• Pathfinder Module: Realm of the Fellnight Queen (7th Level)
• Pathfinder Module: Cult of the Ebon Destroyers (8th Level)
• Pathfinder Module: Curse of the Riven Sky (10th Level)
• Pathfinder Module: Academy of Secrets (13th Level)

There is an XP gap in Crypt of the Everflame (taking you to almost, but not quite, to 3th Level) and Masks of the Living God (taking you to almost, but not quite, to 5th Level), but the Beginner Box Adventure and Pathfinder Society Scenario #17: Perils of the Pirate Pact adventure, plus a couple of random encounters should fill the gap. Similarly, if there are gaps after any other Pathfinder Modules, simply grab a level appropriate Pathfinder Society Scenario, or add in some random encounters. The XP gap in some of the modules in intentional as it is expected many GM’s will add in some additional material between modules.

Other possibilities to fill in the XP gap include:

• Plot seeds in the Beginner Box GM Book for continuing the plot from the intro adventure.
• Short mini dungeon in the GM’s Kit PDF which could be expanded upon.
• Also, if you can’t find modules from Paizo which are appropriate to your game there are a ton of
• Third party modules from Frog God Games, Super Genius Games, or from here.
• Old 3.x Dungeon Crawl Classics modules from Goodman Games. They are out of print and would take a bit of conversion but they are generic enough setting-wise that they can be dropped into almost any campaign.

I’m also strapped for time so I like to use commercially published adventures that will actually save me time compared to writing my own adventures. From the adventures I’ve read and from posts on Paizo’s forums I’ve come up with a stab at how long Paizo’s different adventures take, compared to how many pages you have to read and digest in order to run those adventures. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

• Pathfinder Society Scenarios — 14 Pages for 4 Hours Play (3.5 pages per hour of gaming)
• Pathfinder Adventure Path (e.g. Rise of the Runelords) — 90 pages for 40 hours of play (2.25 pages per hour of gaming)
• Pathfinder Module (e.g. Crypt of the Everflame) — 29 pages for 20 hours of gaming (1.45 pages per hour of gaming)

I’m sure people’s mileage may vary in terms of how long a game takes to run.  For example, not all PFS scenarios are created equal. Some are straightforward mini-dungeons that require almost no preparation, and others involve more investigation additional prep work since simple combat is not the only factor.

Based on the above though, it seems that Pathfinder Modules seem be the lowest prep time adventures to run. My experience is that when there is lots of text (e.g. Society Scenarios or AP) I may read it, but if a few weeks pass before I run the adventure, I forget a lot, and text-heavy adventures require re-reading or highlighting which can be very time consuming.

The new Pathfinder Beginner Box has generated quite a buzz. The fantastic pawns — stiff cardboard cutouts with bases that server as miniature substitutes — have players clamoring for Paizo to issue new sets of pawns.

Want to create your own do-it-yourself Beginner Box style pawns? Here’s a tutorial on how to do just that.

First, find some images you want to use for your pawns. In the example I’m using for this photo tutorial, I use images from the Pathfinder Paper Minis: Pathfinder Adventure Path #1—”Burnt Offerings”.  Those Paizo paper minis have their own method to stand them up using only paper, but they aren’t as attractive and don’t match the new slick Beginner Box pawns.

I created an Open Office Draw template. Download the RPG Hacker Pawn Template here. If you don’t have OpenOffice, you can download the software free here.

The images need to be either the Standard pawn size (28mm wide by 48mm high) or the Large pawn size (48mm wide by 63mm high). I use Gimp to take the image (which can be a screenshot or an image exported from a PDF) and resize it to one of these sizes. Make sure it is at least 200 dpi (though 300 dpi or 600 dpi will also work). Then, paste it into the OpenOffice template.

In OpenOffice, you’ll want make a second copy of the image and then right mouse click on the image and choose ‘Flip’ / ‘Horizontal’ to get a mirror image to use for the back of the pawn.

Once you have the images for the pawns set up in the template, then assemble your supplies. You’ll need:

• Fantasy Flight Plastic Stands (I bought my for about $2 for a pack of 10 here)
• Exacto Knife
• Scissors
• White 3mm Foam Sheet (I got mine at Hobby Lobby — cost $0.99 for one sheet).
• A cutting board

Optionally, you can use a corner punch (also from Hobby Lobby) if you want to use the plastic card technique.

Here’s what the Fantasy Flight stands look like. They work about the same as the black stands that come in the Beginner Box, but they are a little bit tighter I think.

Next step is to cut out the pawn images from the template you printed out. I use an Exacto knife on a hobby cutting board for this.

Now on to cutting the foam out. There are two ways you can do this. The first is to take some plastic card (feels like a credit card — I used a comic book divider from the comic store for this image) and cut out a piece to the size of the pawn and use a round edge cutter from Hobby Lobby to round the corners.

You then use this as a guide to use your Exacto knife to cut out the foam. It is floppy, but don’t worry, once you glue it it will be stiff and feel like Balsa wood.

After I first did this a few time, I then discovered that the pawns themselves make good guides for your Exacto knife, so I’ve not switched to this technique. Whether you use the plastic card or a cardboard pawn, you use it as a guide to cut both the paper and the foam.

Then glue the images to each side of the foam. I use a glue stick, but rubber cement will also work.

Make sure it lines up correctly. You can move it around a bit before the glue sets to get it aligned just right.

One issue I’ve had if I take them out of the stands a lot is that the bottom edge can fray and catch on the plastic stand. So I found a solution.

Put Scotch tape along the bottom.

Then trim it with scissors.

Lastly, insert into the Fantasy Flight Plastic Stands. Here’s the final product. These were my first batch using the plastic card technique. My new pawns using the cardboard pawns for templates look even better. I figure it costs about $0.02 per figure flat, and about $0.25 for each stand. They look pretty good next to the regular Pathfinder Beginner Box Pawns I think.

I totally understand the need to not split the Pathfinder product line by creating an entire new ‘Basic’ product line (see the intense discussion on that here).  Here is what I suggest as an alternative.

Just as there are different XP tracks in Pathfinder Society (so you can stay at 7th level for a long time if you want to), so there could be a different ‘combat complexity’ method, a sort of sanctioned house rule which is called out in future editions of the product. It would be consistent with much of the Beginner Box rules. The “Basic Combat Style” might look something like this: Continue reading

Courtesy of Michael White are homebrewed Swords & Wizardry screen inserts. The three interior panels are here:

• Screen Interior 1
• Screen Interior 2
• Screen Interior 3

Pictured in the thumbnail are these inserts used in Pinnacle’s three panel customizable screen from: http://www.amazon.com/Savage-Worlds-Customizable-Screen-S2P10002/dp/1930855591 . I have both the Hammer Dog four panel at http://www.hammerdog.com/twgs/index.html and the Savage Worlds three panel. I like both.