# Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Beginner Box



## Morrus (Nov 16, 2014)

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## billd91 (Nov 17, 2014)

*5 out of 5 rating for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Beginner Box*

The box is super-sturdy. The materials are well organized and colorful. The presentation is easy to work through for new players (including my 10 year old). And there's plenty of room for building and playing homemade adventures.


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## Wraith Form (Nov 17, 2014)

*5 out of 5 rating for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Beginner Box*

This takes a somewhat complicated rules system (the PF core rules) and simplifies & streamlines it to it's absolute basics.  Great for kids, beginners, or those of use who want a "lighter" version of 3.5/Pathfinder.


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## TrippyHippy (Nov 18, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Beginner Box*

Arguably the most significant RPG product of the last 5-10 years or so. It was this game, more than anything else, that upset the apple cart in the whole D&D/Pathfinder race. The major criticism of the Pathfinder Core rules were a lack of accessibility to new or casual gamers, being as it was written as a massively comprehensive 500+ page book. The Beginner Box broke the game down to its essence and created a simpler game which remained ‘complete’ in and of itself, but still compatible with the full game. If you wanted more options - you simply opted in for the core - but there was no need to. As such, it was a step above the cheaper, but flimsier D&D Essentials Box set released earlier and meant there was no barrier towards Paizo’s rising ascension in the market. Personally, I didn’t like the art and really wasn’t that keen on the board-based gameplay. The recent supply of D&D 5th Starter set AND free Basic rules for download may have allowed Wizards to finally catch up….but for a moment, Paizo were king with this game. Respected, but not for me.


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## bjmorga (Nov 22, 2014)

*5 out of 5 rating for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Beginner Box*

I'm not terribly familiar with Pathfinder. I've played only a handful of times and it really isn't my favorite roleplaying game. However, this box set is absolutely wonderful. It's the best Beginner's Box I've bought thus far in my short (five year) gaming career. The design, functionality, and amount of material are superior to everything else out there. The adventure is fun, the pre-gen characters detailed, and the rule books are very easy to read and understand. If you're looking for a good "bang-for-buck" ratio, this starter set fits the bill.


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## Morrus (Nov 22, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Beginner Box*

In creating this, Paizo pretty much defined what a beginner box should be. It comes with plenty of content - a couple of books, pawns, dice, character sheets, and a flip-mat.  It's a perfect introductory gift, though it may be a tad pricey for an impulse purchase. If you have the core rulebooks, and already know how to play, you don't gain anything by picking this up; but if you're looking for your gateway product, this is right up there.


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## Zeitgeist (Nov 23, 2014)

*2 out of 5 rating for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Beginner Box*

You have to be impressed with Paizo.  This set is huge, heavy and loaded with all sorts of good stuff.  Well constructed box, awesome artwork, slick books, very colorful and well played out.  I found both books, the GM and Player's handbooks to be helpful and enjoyable even just o look at.  The dice, maps, and extra goodies all made this an impressive package.  I bought this to introduce my kids and spouse to the game as well as to better acquaint myself with the game.  The Core Rulebook which I bought first was just too dense and complicated for me to figure the game out.  I bought this three days later and hoped it would help.  Turns out it did and it didn't.  In fact the idea of this even being needed should have been a clue to me that Pathfinder and I would have a troubled relationship.  IF a beginner's/intro game/box is required I might have to say that your game is probably too complex for most people or too expensive.  Now for what I got in this box I feel the price was good, I actually got mine for $17 brand new!  What a steal.The information in the guides came out confusing and incomplete to me.  They certainly streamlined the game compared to the Core Rulebook, yet they too still did not translate to the actual game itself.  What!?!  The game abruptly leaves you and I felt like I just barely scratched the surface.  It has almost no replay value beyond that initial use.  So after all much it feels pretty worthless.  For this to be complete you have to download the extra PDFs from the Paizo website.  You can get a few extra adventures, a kids friendly guide (called a Kids Track), a Beginner's Guide Transition and Core Rulebook Translation Guide are also obtainable.  Someone told me that these actually come in the new edition of the Box Set?  I cannot say for sure, as I had to download mine.So there is extra stuff out there to make it a better box set, but it is incomplete and the rules require translation and more transition guidance.  Ouch!  I would give this a 2 stars, but it is still average if not better than average in comparison to what is out there.  My kids liked the game, but I even had to make house rules for this one to work and be enjoyable.  My spouse unfortunately was completely turned off to the game, due to the complexity and uncertainty of the rules.  Even with the system simplified down it just stinks.  I judge this not just on the content (because they produce a gorgeous product), but on the game system, which I believe this product is designed to introduce us to.  So despite wanting to give this an average rating I am going to give it a poor rating.


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## Zil (Nov 25, 2014)

*5 out of 5 rating for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Beginner Box*

An excellent starter set for new RPG players and DMs.  The components are excellent with a flip battle-mat (one side of which is the included adventure dungeon - the other being blank), dice, players book, GM book, sample character sheets, and character and monster pawns.  The rules are a stripped down version of the standard game (for example, there are no attacks of opportunity rules) and presented in an easy to follow format ideal for beginners and younger players.   The rules allow you to create characters and advance them through to level 5.  The inclusion of character/monster pawns was a great idea and allows beginners to have miniatures for their games.  I've been tempted at times to use the pawns in my regular Pathfinder campaigns instead of regular miniatures.   The only con I found is that the included adventure is somewhat short meaning a new GM might have to take the plunge into dungeon design sooner than they would like.  Paizo has some additional Beginner Box adventures available on their web site plus there are some suggestions within the GM book on how to to continue the adventure.  Overall an excellent product for newcomers to the hobby.


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## koga305 (Nov 29, 2014)

*5 out of 5 rating for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Beginner Box*

Though I'm not a fan of the Pathfinder system itself, Paizo did a fantastic job putting this introductory game together, and if you want a stand-alone introduction to fantasy roleplaying it's a toss-up between this and the D&D 5E Starter Set.The box has everything a new player needs to start playing with a group - a solo "choose your own adventure," four beautifully illustrated premade characters, rules for making your own characters, a nicely illustrated dry-erase battle map, some fancy stand-up tokens to represent characters and monsters, and a set of dice. The introductory adventure is fairly basic without a deep plot, but there is plenty of guidance on making your own adventure and rules to do just about anything you'd like up to level 5. This set essentially has two major advantages: a new group of players can pick it up and start playing within 20 minutes, and it has enough material for quite a few game sessions without buying anything else. Finally, there is an extra class (the Barbarian), several mini-adventures, and some other nice downloadable bits and bobs on the Paizo website for this product.


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## Forbes (Dec 3, 2014)

*5 out of 5 rating for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Beginner Box*

For anyone who enjoys a solid book in hand with lots of other products to choose from, the Beginner Box is a great entry point. Moving on from there to the other Paizo books is simple enough, and there’s simply no denying that the artwork and production value in all of these products is top-notch—a great way to have the books themselves help deepen player immersion in the game world.


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## JLant (Jan 1, 2015)

*5 out of 5 rating for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Beginner Box*

Strikes just the right balance between accessibility and complexity.  Top notch components will leave newcomers hungry for more.


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## Ezequielramone (Jan 20, 2015)

*5 out of 5 rating for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Beginner Box*

this is wonderful, every piece of the box is beautiful. plus I'm introducing my girl to rpgs trough this.


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## Bugleyman (Feb 2, 2015)

*5 out of 5 rating for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Beginner Box*

In my thirty years of table-top RPGs, this is the most complete starter set I've ever seen.  Re-usable play surface?  Check.  Nice-looking tokens?  Check.  GM advice includes everything from dungeon hazards to map symbols.  Add a dry erase pen for mapping and you're pretty much set, especially if you mine the PRD for stuff to convert.


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## delericho (Feb 29, 2016)

*5 out of 5 rating for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Beginner Box*

Prior to the release of the 5e set, if you'd asked me to describe how to do a Starter Set for an RPG, I would have described the Pathfinder Beginner Box. (In light of 5e, my position has changed very slightly: this box is no longer _the_ way to do a Starter Set, just _a_ way to do so.)

This set very much takes a page from the old Red Box set that I started with back in the late 80's: the core of the set is two booklets, one giving a cut down set of player rules (including, crucially, character creation rules), the other a cut down set of DM rules and a short bestiary. The DM booklet also includes a couple of short adventures. Between them, these two should contain enough material to take characters through levels 1-5, by which point the group should be happy enough with the system to progress to the full-blown Pathfinder Core Rulebook.

In addition to the booklets, the box also contains a fair number of 'goodies' that should retain value even for more experienced users: a two-sides card battlemat, a set of polyhedral dice, and a set of 'pawns', providing a quick and cheap way to represent many creatures on the battlemat - I especially like these. The set also includes a couple of blank character sheets, but to be honest this is probably of little value given the internet!

But perhaps my favourite feature of the set are the pregenerated character sheets, each of which presents the character on a large sheet, with the actual character sheet shown in the middle and various key areas highlighted and explained at the sides, so a brand-new player can grab the sheet and have everything explained to him right there. 

I do have one nitpick with the set. It is my belief that the Starter Set of a game should endeavour, as far as possible, to present the same rules of the game as the Core Rulebook(s). If a rule doesn't fit it can be omitted entirely, but what I _don't_ like to see is a place where the rules are actively different. This set breaks that rule with its handling of 5-foot steps and Attacks of Opportunity - a necessary sacrifice given the complexity of those rules in Pathfinder and the size of this box, but an unfortunate one.

But that's a nitpick on what is a truly great boxed set, and one that I recommend highly to anyone interested in learning Pathfinder.

(I'm not going to comment on whether its approach is better or worse than that of the 5e Starter Set. I think the choice of which _set_ to get will depend on which game you want to learn, but I think both _approaches_ have merit.)


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