New GM - Just ran the Beginners Box for my family
Well, just ran the first 3 rooms of it, at least.
It's my step-son's 10th birthday this weekend, and for it he requested that we play "D&D". I... I've not been an active player since the pandemic started, and the whole debacle with the OGL really made me decide I didn't want to spend money on the 5e DMG. So, with his blessing, I went with Pathfinder instead.
There were six of us, three adults playing iconic, two 10 year olds playing custom characters, and me behind the screen. Of us all, only the 2nd kid - my step-son' s cousin - was an active D&D player. The rest had dabbled over the years, but hadn't played in a while.
I'm surprised how well the 10 year olds took to it. I've heard people complain about the game being a little more frustrating for people with less patience, due to the abundance of described mechanics, but the 3 generic action point system made combat... Well, not a breeze, since the oversized party still struggle deith the first encounter, but much less co fusing than the "3 separate action pools" of 5e.
I did hand wave away a few rules, just because I wasn't about to tell the birthday boy that circumstance bonuses don't stack when he and the party are struggling to make contact with some ROUSes, but for the most part it went spectacularly well.
It took 3hours to get to the end of the 2nd encounter, but the kids seemed to have a blast, mad were putting up a fight when told we had to pause the game for bedtime.
Ok the whole, I'm very impressed with the whole experience. I can't wait to continue the box!
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