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Dave Bernazzani (@rpggeek)
United States
Plainville
Massachusetts
I wish to provide legendary service to the RPG community to help grow our hobby and enrich the lives of gamers everywhere.
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I grew up in the era of the venerable Red Box from TSR. As a gateway to adventure, the Red Box gave everything a person could want to get them started in the hobby. Simple, easy to digest rules. A full set of dice. An adventure that would provide months of enjoyment. And enough rules to bring the player through the first few levels of play... whetting their appetite for more. The rulebook fueled the imagination of players everywhere. In the years since those early 80s TSR box sets, big-market games have grown more complex and cumbersome. The extra detail and piles of options were great for players already well versed in the D&D universe. But for new players, you were pretty much only going to get into the hobby if you were taught by patient friends. Going to the bookstore and seeing multiple multi-hundred page books was daunting! Even as a long-time player of AD&D 1e, I felt intimidated by the third edition of the Dungeons & Dragons line. Over the past decade, Wizards of the Coast has tried various beginners sets with mixed results. Most were either too simplified to be a real introduction to the game or were somewhat incomplete in their providing good guidelines or adventure content for new GMs. Nothing they did captured the spirit of the original Red Box which remained the holy grail of entry points into the fantasy RPG realm. In 2010 Wizards decided to actually try and bring back a spiritual sequel to the venerable Red Box with a new Red Box (same cover art) but the contents fell far short of the lofty original (only covering 2 levels, characters and rules that were largely incompatible with the core 4e - in the end it was a dead-end product with little shelf-life).
Enter 2009 and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Paizo has produced a fantastic streamlined v3.5 ruleset as their core moving forward. It's a fantastic core rulebook - but at almost 600 pages it is a tome. Handing this monstrous book to a new player is pretty much a guarantee that they won't ever get into this great hobby with the new flagship fantasy game. Feats, Spells, Skills, Traits, Combat Maneuvers, piles of core classes and races and options. It's daunting - if you've never played an RPG before you would be at a severe disadvantage trying to learn the game from this behemoth. While the book is the cornerstone of my gaming library (I've got 2 copies now - one for home and one for travel!) it wasn't the right book to attract new players into the game.
Fast forward to late 2011. Paizo now sits on top of the fantasy RPG world as the current best selling RPG outstripping the latest edition of Dungeons and Dragons. But they weren't satisfied with having the largest share of the fantasy RPG market - they set out to expand and grow the player base (which is good for business and good for the hobby). With the goal of helping new players get into the game, Paizo created the new Beginner Box.
At a retail price of US$34.95 they have packed the heart and soul of the best box sets which have come before. For the first time in almost 30 years we see an introductory box set that does the game justice. When you pick up the box you can just feel the heft - you know you're getting some serious stuff inside! The game contains two major rulebooks - a 64 page Heroes Handbook which gives players access to the first five levels (somewhat streamlined) of the iconic classes: The Fighter, Cleric, Rogue and Wizard. It also comes with a 96 page Game Master Handbook which details an adventure to run along with copious notes about how to run the game from behind the screen. A large Paizo-quality flip-mat is included for battle encounters (you use dry or wet erase markers on this) and a set of 80 thick and colorful cardboard pawns with all the heroes and tons of monsters for use at the table. A set of polyhedral dice and a stack of character sheets completes the goodness in the box. Oh, and there are large 11x17 versions of the four iconic characters (Ezren, Merisel, Kyra and Valeros) with a character sheet pre-filled in the middle and explanation notes for the players around the edges. A nice touch! (you can also print this from PDF online so you don't damage anything in your set... should you want to keep it pristine like I do!).
The books are easy to read - colorful (utilizing some of the best art Paizo had available from other books) and very descriptive. All glossy pages attract the reader - simple diagrams and a very clear layout shows the user just how to play (including a solo adventure for those totally new to the hobby). The Beginner Box game is streamlined but doesn't feel overly watered down - just the more complex edges have been filed down to make it manageable. The books cover only those four classes (Fighter, Wizard, Rogue and Cleric) but up to 5 levels so you'll get plenty of playability from the box. Some of the complexities of the core Pathfinder rules are not here - no combat maneuver/defense, no attacks of opportunity, a slightly simplified skill list (i.e. not as many skills) and generally reduced spell and feat lists to cover only the most popular choices. The simplifications are good compromises to get people into the game - and adding those rules back in is a fairly natural extension if your group wants to migrate up to the full Pathfinder core someday.
The introductory adventure they give is simple but effective and is extended online by a continuation adventure. Plus, of course, you've got the entire line of Paizo adventure materials to play with along with a decade of 3.5 support that would work with only very minor modifications.
Couple that with immediate online support for the box. Paizo has released not only the streamlined character sheet in PDF but a bonus Player's Pack that details a fifth iconic class (the Barbarian) along with new options for players who want to take their existing characters in new direction. The GM gets a new free GameMaster pack that has an extended adventure and more GM tips and tricks along with new magical items and monsters. I've printed these out and they fortunately left room in the sturdy box to place these extra materials (with a bit more room for additional materials to come out soon).
Paizo is going to continue to support the line. They have already released the iconic miniatures pack to go with the iconics and are going to release additional pawn packs to support an ever increasing number of NPCs and monsters in the game.
Hero Lab (the official character generator for Pathfinder produced by the fine folks at Lone Wolf Development) now supports the Beginner Box. They supply an entirely free version which allows you to create and customize and print a full-blown Beginner Box character (obviously limited to the classes and streamlined features in the box set). Paizo made sure this was a freebie so Beginner Box players could get a good set of character generation tools going right from the start. Nothing is hidden behind a paywall. Typical of Paizo - they give away almost as much material as the sell. I always feel good when I give them my money for such good support.
Folks, in my opinion the Beginner box not only captures the spirit and essence of the original Red Box D&D from yesteryear, it goes beyond it. It's a little more money than some other introductory box sets but when you see all the good material you get, you'll be glad they didn't skimp. The cost also includes all the free giveaways online and a free character builder plus the ability to graduate up to the Pathfinder Core when you're ready... there is absolutely no reason not to recommend this to someone wanting to get into a traditional fantasy RPG. I give this my highest recommendation - and although I'm a huge Paizo fan boy I think the general consensus is that Paizo (once again) got things right. If you're even thinking about getting into the game, this is a product that will give you your best shot at enjoying the system so many of us consider the defacto fantasy RPG. Don't miss out!
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Medievalbanquet
United States
Wellesley
Massachusetts
And if you never have, you should. These things are fun and fun is good.
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Great review. Can you use other adventures with the basic set?
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Dave Bernazzani (@rpggeek)
United States
Plainville
Massachusetts
I wish to provide legendary service to the RPG community to help grow our hobby and enrich the lives of gamers everywhere.
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medievalbanquet wrote: Great review. Can you use other adventures with the basic set?
I've had no problem doing so. I'm playing D0: Hollow's Last Hope (from 2007 - D&D 3.5 rules) with the beginner box both in PBF and last night we played live and had no problem. A few minor tweaks but if you've got any sort of GM experience you should be able to do those tweaks on the fly. This box set is highly compatible with the Pathfinder core which is highly compatible with D&D 3.5.
Dave
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Kris Vanhoyland
Belgium
Genk
Limburg
@RetakeME3 - We deserve a better ending!
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wavemotion wrote: I'm a huge Paizo fan boy
Shame on you Dave! Here's some  , buy yourself a  badge, on me 
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I think you are doing a disservice to the Beginner Box with your title, not unlike Paizo itself that sees it as an entry point.
Unlike Pathfinder which is way too much cluttered, the beginner box is glorious in its streamlining, and is an excellent product by itself. As you wrote, it is the true heir to the red box; the spirit is there, but the rules and presentation are modern (unlike in the "retro-clones"). There is little doubt that people picking Pathfinder after playing the Beginner Box are up for a nasty surprise.
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Daryl Wilks
United States
Peshastin
Washington
"Love killed the dinosaurs."
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Great reveiw, this may be just what I'm looking for to get back into role playing after 25 years!
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Luke Stirling
Australia
Southbank
Victoria
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Scruffdog wrote: Great reveiw, this may be just what I'm looking for to get back into role playing after 25 years!
Do it!
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Keith Koene
United States
New Holstein
Wisconsin
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Just picked this up yesterday. Both my kids are at an age that they have shown an interest in RPGs. I took them to a D&D Adeventures session at a not-so-local game store and both kids enjoyed it. We have also played a game or two of Castle Ravenloft, and a couple of Wiz-War. I haven't been a GM in over 20 years so the BB seemed a perfect fit. Can't wait to get into it.
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Mark Buetow
United States
Du Quoin
Illinois
Best game company ever?
GMT Games, of course!
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kkoene wrote: Can't wait to get into it.
You'll have to take all the stuff out first and even then you'll need to be a pretty small individual.
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Thouis Jones
United States
Arlington
Massachusetts
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Quote: There is little doubt that people picking Pathfinder after playing the Beginner Box are up for a nasty surprise.
This hasn't been our experience. My son (9 yrs. old) went from the Beginner Box rules to the full rules without much difficulty, though we did take the transition in steps. The framework that the BB builds is basically the same as full Pathfinder (with a few minor differences).
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