This should be the last stream in the Beginner’s Box, and I am pleased to say that we saved the fun parts till last! In this review, we get to cover the accessories! I’ll be more or less doing an unboxing here, and reacting as we go!
On the top of the box is a page simply labelled ‘Read This First.’ It simply states what each component in the box is, so we don’t need to go over it. That’s my job, after all!
The first thing that caught my eye in here was the dice. Of course it did! What sort of person would not be excited about dice? The ones here are fairly basic. There is a yellow d4, a purple d6, an orange d8, a green d10, a blue d12, and a red d20. It is a fairly simple set, no sparkles or anything, just opaque dice with white numbers on them. I can’t say they’re the flashiest, and in all honesty, I find them boring, but the colours of the dice correspond to much of the instructional material, so I guess we do owe them some credit there.
The next thing out of the box is, frankly, something I was pleasantly surprised to see. There is a stack of 6 of what they call Player Reference Cards, but I see them as handy little cheat sheets. They are each the size of a large cue card and contain the most commonly used terms and concepts in the game. As someone who is bad with terminology sometimes, I am so happy these are here! They also contain some of the simplest math, which is a bonus!
After that, we have six blank character sheets, in colour. Even though there are only six in here, it is handy that one does not need to go through the process of printing off the sheets before a session. Considering that most parties are made up of 4 players, the added 2 extras feel like it was made by someone who knows that there is always at least ONE unprepared member of the party!
Under the blank character sheets are four pre-made characters, some basics of some of the more common classes. Included are: Fighter, wizard, cleric, and rogue. Honestly, I feel like these were well chosen classes. They seem to cover the four angles that I’ve seen people tend to take, whether it be in tabletop RPG or other MMO, RPG, the like formats. You have the damage person who wants to hit stuff and tank, your magic person/healer, your wise one who likes the story, and your sneaky one that just wants to get into mischief. These premade characters also have their own backstories, which while being basic and simple, can inspire players to make something bigger, something more of it.
The next thing I pulled out of the box, well, it did not fit on my desk when I tried to write about it! This is a map, laid out like a grid, for the adventure included in the Game Master’s guide from the last review. Not only is this map wonderfully well made, but it also shows how a map should be laid out for future adventures.
The last thing in the box got a little stuck when I tried to pull it out. What I found were four pages worth of cardboard cut-out tokens, just waiting to be popped out of the frame and to be used. Each one has an image of the creature, as well as the name of the creature on both sides of the piece. There is also a baggie of stands for said tokens. These look like they would be to scale for the map provided, and I am willing to bet that these creatures are versatile to be used time and time again for whatever adventure you and your group make up!
This was fun! Happy adventuring out there!
You can find Pathfinder Second Edition, and all things Paizo, online at paizo.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/paizo.
Bailey is a vintage- loving author who likes to joke that she has an 80 000 year old soul, as her Twitch followers can attest. She spent much of her preteen and teenage years playing Descent, Shadowrun, Pathfinder, or whatever other tabletop RPG the GM found that week. She later turned that creative energy into writing, and now has multiple books published. Despite focusing on her novels, she can never quite resist the call of a new character or plot idea. You can find her on Facebook, Twitch, Patreon, and buy her books on Amazon.ca.