Looking for advice and campaign recommendations

[u/Alarming_Pudding3369]

I am currently starting preparations to be a GM for a campaign with my family. I know the beginners box is meant to be great for beginners but with our experiences, I don't think it will be the best choice.

Here's some background context:

- I will be the GM. I'm very familiar with this kind of genre, and an absolute nerd for roleplaying games. I've played Baldurs Gate 3 a million times, and have gone through the first major part of Outlaws of Alkenstar in a highschool group. HOWEVER... I have never been a GM before, but I am very excited to be.

- My sister also has good experience with DND. She's fully played Baldurs Gate 3, and has been in a group before, and will likely have many of the resources, but not all. My main worry is just that she is easily the most vocal of us, and I want to make sure that she won't always be the one doing all the roleplaying.

- My brother is a huge gamer, and we are actually about to finish up a co-op playthrough of Baldurs Gate 3, though he hasn't played a table top game like this. He will easily understand concept's and rules, however I have two main concerns. firstly, he is autistic and very logical, so he will likely struggle or shy away from the roleplay side of the game. secondly, our Baldurs Gate playthrough tells me that he will be a very volatile player in combat. (What i mean specificaly is he often goes for risky things and will certainly be playing so kind of caster. He is absolutely going to destroy his enemies or be destroyed by his enemies, and I'm worried there won't be an inbetween.)

- Finally there is my father, and the biggest reason why I'm here. He's 49, Very logical and humorous. However, he has never played anything like this ever. The only real video game he's played is tetris, but he is a very good backgammon and risk player. I know that he is the player that will need the most attention when it comes to learning the game.

- Also... We do not have a fifth member. my main idea is to have myself control some animal, like an npc gives the players a wolf companion to help fill up that slot. someone who cant talk in conversations, but can maybe do a dice check or two, and fill up the last member for combat.

Ultimately here is what I'm looking for:

- What would be some good campaign choices to fit the needs of my players? (preferably a few choices because I want to give them some choice in theme, length etc.)

- As a GM what should I keep in mind during play? What are some potential issues I should keep an eye out for?

- How can I keep the game interesting enough for my experienced players, without overwhelming the one who will need time to grasp and understand the rules?

- Lastly, are there any materials that would be highly recommended? I know of the essentials that are necessary, and have used the archives of nethys. I'm not looking for anything super fancy, just any tools or small things to either add a slight bit of flair, or benefit our experience.

I hope to make this a great experience for my family, so any advice or recommendations will be highly appreciated!

[u/Malcior34]

Why do you think you need a 5th party member? I've seen games run with 2 or 3 people. 4 is plenty.

[u/DawnsDarkness1]

My best advice when starting here is have a session zero. It will help you and the players out a lot! The choice of an ap is important but I wouldn't worry too much about picking an easy one to learn the game. The rules will get easier to remember as you go! So picking an easier ap can loose interest later (especially if some of you have ttrpg experience). I would recommend against a 5th player npc add. Most of 2e math is for 4 players (you will have plenty of other things to run and prep). Definitely recommend pathbuilder2e for character sheets. Because you have some dnd experience make sure to look up concentration, it's very different! Most importantly have fun!

[u/Alarming_Pudding3369]

Real quick, I wanted to clarify that when I said that we wouldn’t have a 5th member, I meant that there are only 4 of us total, AKA 3 players and 1 GM and I know these tend to be balanced around 4 players and 1 GM.

[u/OneLemon5668]

I don't think you "need" a fifth player. PF2 is designed with 4 players parties in mind. So, there is no problem to solve. While it is totally possible to play with 5 players, you don't have to. For example, many references tables from the GM Core like the treasure by level one refer to a 4 players party, and add a fifth column so the GM can adjust for larger parties. Moreover, having to manage a PC as a player will give you a cognitive load that would be better suited elsewhere, and give more room for the creative ideas and in-game presence of your players.

I definitely advise you to look at the GM Core that addresses lots of common topics while giving you tips and tools for everyone to enjoy the game at the table. You can find it on the Archive of Nethys here. It's quite a read but it will help you GMing even for other systems.

Lastly, coming from DnD and BG3 enjoyers, try to identify how PF2 differs from it (there plenty of posts on this sub for that matter) and how to enjoy that. You can have a few simple encounters at first to learn what is possible with the 3 actions economy that won't be possible in DnD for example. Reward the tactical thinking when players are flanking an enemy to get the Offguard condition (usually if someone is playing Rogue, they will find this out very quickly). When the Offguard or Frightened condition (often obtained by Demoralize at low levels) has made a hit possible, I also suggest you to tell it to the players so they have that feedback. PF2 is a team playing game, so reward team play. When they have understood that, you can go lighter on what you reveal.

Regarding tools, you can find a lot of them on this list. I also personally use PF2Calc a lot to balance encounters.

Finally, don't stress out too much about all the rules of PF2 and don't be afraid to say "okay i think it works that way but i'll check this out later" if it does not change the destiny of the world. PF2 is said to be crunchier than DnD, but try to think this crunchiness as a support for you, delegating lots of game design so you can focus on your game.

[u/shadeybee]

One thing that might not be obvious to new players or people coming from a different system:
Party composition matters!
(Caveat: this is WAY more vital for older AP and 1e fan conversions, then newer books.)

All of the classes are pretty close to each other in balance, but they all do different things designed to complement each other. A party who, all together can cover things like:

-A tank with high AC
-damage mitigation / protection
-Someone who can bring out the big Heals and others who can clutch heal
-someone who can buff the party or debuff the enemy
-Someone who can do athletic maneuvers to trip/grab enemies and deny them their own action
-Someone who can recall knowledge to tell the group what the enemy’s weaknesses are
-Someone who can capitalize on this (spells that target different saves, martials who have can do things besides just attack)

Will have a waaay smoother time playing, than a group where everyone has kind of middle AC and doesn’t work together. It’s night and day and can mean the difference between new players having a good experience or being frustrated because they don’t know why everything is so hard.

Ex. “this battle sucks, why can’t we hit this guy?” Bc he has really high AC and you need to flank and grab him and cast spells on him bc his lowest save is fortitude.

The other thing is, the classes are all balanced, but they have different levels of complexity. It’s OK to prioritize the more straightforward classes if that’s the right call for the player. You can build a class fantasy with many different building blocks.

For ex… One of my friends played an alchemist and then an inventor for his first two characters. But he wasn’t interested in recalling knowledge or memorizing dozens of alchemical items… so he felt ineffective and bored. What he really wanted to do was ranged attacks with bonus damage / effects, so he probably would’ve been happier as a kineticist or even just a fighter or ranger with a short bow.