Pathfinder Beginner Box

Last Christmas (2011, not 2012), I got for each of my daughters the Pathfinder RPG beginner box. For those who do not know, Pathfinder is a roleplaying game, successor to the popular Dungeons & Dragons game.  I like Pathfinder better, but it's a matter of taste.

The next day, we had our inaugural game with myself as GM.  To say the girls liked it would be an understatement of monumental proportions.  Since then, working around my sailing schedule of course, we’ve managed a few more games.  They finished the adventure that comes with the box  and I wrote an interlude adventure to move them to the next adventure locale.  They’ve had a blast playing, and I’ve finally been able to give them something that’s been a part of my life since I was 12 years old.

It is gratifying that I can share this thing called roleplaying games with them.  Good, old-fashioned players-around-the-table gaming.  Firing up the imagination and letting it take you to worlds unknown, where everyone gets to take part in telling the story.  I love it.  They love it.  It’s the passing of the torch, so they can have the same fun I’ve had for over 28 years now.  I also like playing games with them, they’re fun and aren’t yet experienced enough to have seen a lot.  When I describe the dragon, or the castle, or the dank crypt they’ve entered there’s that sense of wonder.  The same sense that I had when I started playing. 

I also am glad they like it so much.  Hopefully my oldest will start a campaign of her own.  Right now I GM for her and a few of her friends, which has been a big hit.  I think she would enjoy gamemastering, but she just has to get off her butt and do it.  She will, I think, and hopefully it will lead to years of adventuring, all in their own minds.

I laugh some days, as when others are telling tales of their youths, a host of my tales take place in fictional environments.  Talking of the grand schemes, the nail-biting escapes and crazy rolls when you toss the dice calling ‘twenty!’ and it actually comes up.  It certainly kept us out of trouble in our teen years (though I’d say we weren’t really prone to trouble anyway) and exercised our minds enormously.  It also taught teamwork, social interaction (i.e. you have to be civil at the gaming table) and as a gaming group we bonded to the point where we’re all ‘uncles/aunts’ to each others kids.

Since then both kids want to start/have started Warhammer 40000 armies, and we all have had a few good games of FFG’s X-Wing miniatures game.  I am raising two geeky, gamer girls and we all couldn’t be happier about it.  It also means I get to play with my kids more often, which is never bad.