Pathfinder Beginner Box

My entry into Pathfinder was with the Beginner box.

What is in the beginner box?

• Game Master Guide-96 pages
• Hero's Handbook-64 pages
• Transition Guide (Next Step)
• Map-double sided dry erasable
• Pawns-80
• Set of Red Dice-1 set of 7
• Premade Characters-4

Here's a clip from Paizo going over the contents of the Beginner Box.

Game Master Guide

The Game Master Book is 96 pages, and is designed to get players from level 1 to level 5. It has amazing paper quality with some of the best artwork and layout I have seen among any roleplaying books, including any other books Paizo has released.

It starts out with a scenario, Black Fang's Dungeon, that uses the included flipmap and pawns(leaves you with plenty of unused pawns for future adventures). Next it has a section on game mastering, which as a new game master I found very useful. Subsequent chapters deal with how to use monster stat blocks(extremely basic), magic items, environments, a couple pages on the town of Sandpoint,  a gamester's reference, and where to go from here which gives you ideas on creating your own adventure with Sandpoint being the hub. It is an amazing first step, and in my opinion the best value on the market. Is it perfect? No, it isn't perfect, there were times reading through it that I was not sure what was going on. It was answered later, but there were times I was confused. There is also a lot of information in the book considering its length.

Hero's Handbook

The players book has 64 pages, and starts with a short solo experience. It was a choose your adventure with some dice rolling. I think it is a great way to structure an intro to players. It gives some flavor and gives examples of how dice interact with the game. It also allows you to open the box and not have to have someone else around to start to experience some basic concepts.

In subsequent chapters it guides you through creating a character with basic races, and then into classes. Included classes are Cleric, Wizard, Fighter, and Rogue(pre-generated characters are included enabling you to jump straight into playing), with a basic selection of equipment, feats, skills, supplies, and spells. The next section is on how to play the game, which is 16 pages. It starts with how to play and ends with how to die and level up. Really dying is a couple pages before the end, but I like putting those in the same sentence.

Transition Guide

I have not fully read the transition guide yet, but it introduces a couple new concepts that are different in the full game, talks about going to level 6 and beyond, and how to read a stat block. Talking about the stat block....I still don't know how to read and understand all of the different stat block sections. I have a question out on the message boards now and hopefully will have that question answered today!

Pawns and Flipmat

I used to think that you had to have metal minis(I used to play a little 40k and Warmachine-Oh, and Warmachine is a far superior game), and I also play boardgames. You are probably saying "why is he mentioning that?" Last year a game came out called "Dead of Winter" and it had pawns instead of plastic or metal miniatures. I felt like the artwork added so much more than what minis would add since most minis are unpainted. An unpainted mini might as well be a piece of cardboard with a  name on it. Okay, I'm exaggerating a little, but it did change my mind on mini's vs pawns. It added so much flavor and the price is right!!!!! The pawns are relatively inexpensive and add great flavor. I absolutely love them! The flip mat is awesome and I'm sure I'll get some extra use out of it in the future. I want as much flavor to be in my games as possible, and as little dry erase map creation as possible because I like the pretty maps!!!! 

Overall Impression:

Overall, everything is high quality with amazing artwork. Did I mention that the artwork was great. Also, the layout is the best I have seen. Compared with the core rule book, the bestiary, or the game mastery guide, it makes them look like a preschooler made them. I really like the layout and the artwork. It is a really great start for roleplaying.

What could they improve on? The dice aren't to hot, but I understand price goes up quite a bit as you get nicer looking dice, and it's something that is an opinion. I'm sure someone out there is yelling "Awesome red dice!!"

If you're just starting out, this a great place to start. Also, it is pretty inexpensive in relationship to boardgames with a price of $34.99. Not bad at all!