I’ve been trying to remember the first time I played D&D. Definitely the 80’s, so, probably – 1986 or 1987. My friend Tom brought the Red Box over along with these little black and white booklets he had and said, “I want to play this game. I can’t figure it out. You’re smart. Figure it out so we can play.”
So, I did, and we did. For years until our little group of friends went in different directions.
Fast forward to around 2014/2015 and I hadn’t played a tabletop RPG in well over a decade. My friend JT asked me if I’d be interested in joining a group he was getting started. I said yes and that was my first introduction to the Pathfinder First Edition ruleset.
Through the Functional Nerds podcast, I also met one of the people working at Paizo who sent me their version of the Red Box (Beginner’s Box) and I was blown away by how well it was put together and took you through learning the game from both Player and GM perspectives.
In short, I was hooked.
I played Pathfinder for a little while before that group morphed into something else and playing other games, usually board and card games. Then I wanted to run some games myself, and did for my girlfriend and her friend at the time. Even went so far as to setup my basement as a gaming space and buying a fancy gaming table when it popped up on Kickstarter.
Which is right about the time my life blew up. My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, that girlfriend and I split up, my time and money slowly slid into taking care of mom and before I knew it, my fancy kickstarter gaming table was gathering dust in the basement.
Let’s fast forward again to just a couple of years ago as of this writing. My friend Giles reached out and asked if I would be interested in being a player in a new D&D 5E campaign he was about to start.
Hells. Yes.
My frustration with D&D was immediate. My eyesight is not what it used to be. I remembered having PDF’s of all my Pathfinder, Dresden Files and Savage Worlds rule books on my iPad. Figured I’d go grab the 5E rule books. Found out they didn’t exist. Instead, you had to subscribe to something called D&D Beyond and buy the books there and use that site to view or access the books. Blergh.
I didn’t want to do that. I just wanted them as PDF’s on my iPad. I thought I was missing something and kept looking around. Nope. No legal way to have the PDF versions of the books. (I mention this because people pirate those books, which I refuse to do.)
So, I bought the hardcover Player’s Handbook and used my iPhone to pinch and zoom the things I wanted to read. Seriously – I’m that guy now. Dimly lit restaurants are my fresh hell. I’m totally using the flashlight on my iPhone to see the menu…
You may say, “Just get the D&D Beyond thing!” Nope. Have I mentioned how stubborn I am? I don’t want another freaking subscription. I have more of them than I want now because corporations force them on me and, to quote Picard, “THE LINE MUST BE DRAWN HERE!”
Plus, whenever I am not at home, I use my iPad in offline mode. The PDFs I have on there are actually on there, not in the cloud. I don’t like using wifi that isn’t mine and secured by me – it’s an IT Nerd thing.
Then came the OGL shit. Oy. Then the layoffs at Wizards of the Coast (WoTC) ordered by Hasbro. Then the AI shit, (“We won’t use it!” “Ooops, we used it but we won’t use it again!” “Ooops, you noticed we used it again? Well, this time we PWOMISE we won’t use it.” “What’s that? You saw our ad for AI specialists? Ummm.”) Then more layoffs at WoTC ordered by Hasbro. On and on.
Sigh. My feelings on all of that is another post. Maybe I’ll even write it.
The only good things they’ve (Hasbro/WoTC) done lately are the D&D movie and Baldur’s Gate 3.
So when WoTC launched the new D&D rules last year, I went out and bought Pathfinder 2E Core stuff.
A lot had changed at Paizo since I last looked at their system. The OGL bullshit had them doing a remastered Second Edition, which felt like a great place for me to jump back in. And I was right.
I started listening to Pathfinder actual play podcasts, grabbing up books (they offer PDFs right on their website), and getting their Second Edition Beginner’s Box. Just like the First Edition version, it’s an amazing resource for teaching people Pathfinder 2E. I was blown away.
And I invited some friends to learn and play. We’ve been meeting every other Saturday since, working our way through the Beginner’s Box adventure.
Meanwhile, I have been reading tons of Pathfinder content from Paizo – and there is a LOT of it. I am seriously impressed with the sheer volume they put out. One shot adventures, full campaigns, and something called the Pathfinder Society.
Learning about the Society Organized Play led me to attend my first ever gaming convention – GenghisCon. It was a blast.
To tie it all back to the title of this post, Pathfinder’s got my creative juices flowing again. I’m working on my continuing campaign and what to do when my player’s get out of the Beginner’s Box adventure (they’re almost there). I’m jotting down notes and ideas and writing what comes next, and that’s exciting.
I’m even sharing little bits of Lore and Rules tidbits with my players on a group text I created.
For a long time, I haven’t been able to do much in the creative space of my brain. It’s difficult to explain why. It has to do with grief and loss and pain. Doesn’t help when the world is on fire, either.
But, at least for Pathfinder stuff, it seems to be (finally!) easing up.
And for that, I am quite happy.
