Role-Playing Game: Pathfinder or D&D?

[bigmama67]

My son is almost 12 and wants to get a "role-playing" game. He was looking at Pathfinder (13+) and Dungeons & Dragons (12+). Anyone have experience with either of these for this age group? I never heard of Pathfinder so I thought he may have trouble finding kids to play with. Also it seems like it could be a bit more violent. Input welcome...thanks.

 

[Disneefun]

I've played both and here's a site that explains the differences better than I can. The differences are mostly shades of gray type things that only matter or make sense to those deeply involved in the hobby. Violence for both is about equal, I'd say.

http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/16504/what-are-the-major-differences-between-pathfinder-and-dd-4e

My advice would be for your son to go to a game store and spend some time with the materials for each. Flip through some books and manuals and see which world appeals to him most. Look at the characters and monsters and get a sense for what it will be like to "be" in that world. He'll likely feel a stronger attraction to one or the other and that's the one he should get. No sense getting one that you don't want to spend a lot of time with.

As for finding people to play with... D&D is the one everybody's heard of, but does he know for sure that other kids in his area are playing it or want to play it? Role playing isn't like regular board or video games in that you can just pop into someone's house and say, "Wanna play?" and play for an hour, put it away and be done with it. There's a time investment required to create your characters and worlds and keep up with the ongoing story. If other kids aren't into that kind of thing, finding players might be tough.

If not, he might want to check around some of the local game stores. Most have gaming groups for both systems. They may or may not be segregated by age, so he might find himself playing with older kids or adults. But almost every group I've even been involved with has been welcoming to all ages. It tends to be a good community.

That said, if he wants to "try out" both/either system in board game form (these are in no way the full experience of an RPG, but they are a decent introduction to the worlds of each, without the time investment required of a true RPG), there are a couple of options. These are ganes you can play through in a hour or so and then put away, so they might be more appealing if his friends aren't up for the full RPG experience.

Pathfinder has this:

http://www.amazon.com/Pathfinder-Adventure-Card-Game-Runelords/dp/1601255500/ref=pd_sim_t_13?ie=UTF8&refRID=1RNJ8CKEXWR7QADE0MSN

And D&D offers these:

http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Castle-Ravenloft-Board/dp/0786955570/ref=pd_bxgy_t_text_y

http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Legend-Drizzt-Board/dp/0786958731/ref=pd_bxgy_t_text_y

http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Wrath-Ashardalon-Board/dp/0786955708/ref=pd_bxgy_t_text_z

(I'd go with Wrath of Ashardalon because it offers some of the experience of playing a campaign that you get in a true RPG, but in a more limited way.)

Hope this helps!

 

[Richard M Nixon]

Dungeons and dragons has far more content available and is by far the more widely played game. There's a new version in the works that is coming out in the next week, so there's going to be a bit of churn as people move over from version 4 to 5 (there's a lot of argument about what's the best version, and many still use 3.5).

Definitely find a store locally that specializes in nerdy games. They're usually referred to as LGS (local game stores) and the good ones will be hosting weekly or monthly games of D&D, Warhammer, Magic, and more. It's easier to find if you're in a metro area, but I'm sure there's at least one. Use the store tracker at http://locator.wizards.com/#brand=dnd (Wizards is the D&D license holder) and you'll be able to see stores near you. Click a store to see a calendar of events. The events themselves may be small or large, ranging from just enough to fill a table (3-6 players) to a room of several hundred. The crowd will be all ages, but expect a fair amount of stereotyped nerds.