Wayne Reynolds is a British artist renowned for his dynamic and detailed illustrations. He has contributed extensively to Pathfinder 2nd Edition, providing cover art and interior illustrations that capture the game's vibrant fantasy elements.

Wayne Reynolds

Venatus Maps specializes in creating clean, modular battle maps for virtual tabletops. Their work covers a wide range of environments, from haunted forests to ancient ruins, with meticulous attention to detail. Venatus Maps also offers map packs designed for specific adventures, making it easier to plug them into existing campaigns.

Venatus Maps

Tom Cartos is a renowned creator of highly detailed, multi-level battlemaps for tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) like Dungeons & Dragons. His work enhances gameplay by providing immersive environments that captivate players. Tom offers a diverse range of maps, including fantasy and modern settings, available through his website and Patreon. Patreon supporters gain access to weekly map sets, asset packs, and monthly adventures, with higher tiers offering additional benefits such as DungeonDraft integration and limited commercial licensing.

Tom Cartos

Steve Prescott is an American artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games. He has produced interior illustrations for many Pathfinder 2nd Edition books, adding depth and detail to the game's visual storytelling.

Steve Prescott

Heroic Maps delivers high-quality, printable battlemaps that cater to both fantasy and sci-fi settings. Known for their versatility, Heroic Maps provide a mix of atmospheric dungeons, vivid landscapes, and detailed interiors. Their offerings include modular designs that can be pieced together for expansive settings, perfect for GMs looking for flexibility in map design.

Heroic Maps

Eric Deschamps is an American freelance and concept artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games, science fiction, and fantasy books. He has contributed to Pathfinder 2nd Edition with illustrations that enhance the game's immersive world.

Eric Deschamps

Cze and Peku are well-known in the TTRPG community for their vibrant and highly detailed battle maps. They specialize in fantasy, sci-fi, and modern settings, offering maps for everything from dungeons to sprawling cities. Their Patreon provides a variety of map styles, along with grid and gridless options, making them perfect for both virtual tabletops and print. With frequent updates, they’re a go-to for immersive game experiences.

Cze and Peku

Crystal Frasier is an American artist, author, and game designer known for her work on the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. She has contributed to Pathfinder 2nd Edition with illustrations that reflect her unique artistic style.

Crystal Frasier

Typically a one-shot will consist of a self-contained adventure that will take place all in one session, which will usually take a few hours to complete. They are meant to be completed in one sitting, and will usually have a very focused plot or objective. A campaign on the other hand, is a longer adventure that takes place over multiple sessions. Short campaigns may be only 2-3 sessions, while longer ones may be played over months, or even years!

What is the difference between a one-shot and a campaign?

Obviously this will vary from table to table, but here are some good places to start! If your game is played in person, most likely you will want to get a set of dice, something to write with, and paper to take notes. If your game is hosted online instead, you will probably need to make accounts on a few sites for things like character sheets, access to the Virtual Tabletop for maps and tokens, and sites like Discord or Zoom for video/voice calls during the session. You won't always need to have the rulebooks to start, but if you want to read through them to make sure you know all the rules, this might also be a good option.

What supplies do I need to play Pathfinder 1e?

While Pathfinder 1e will involve some level of basic math, particularly if you are totaling up dice rolls or skill modifiers on your character sheet, you don’t need to be a mathematician to enjoy the game. The books provide tables and simple tools to make the math as simple as possible, and if you are playing online, many Virtual Table Tops will take care of all the math for you, right on your character sheet, so you can focus on playing!

Do I need to be good at math to play Pathfinder 1e?

Pathfinder 1e can cover an impressive range of topics and styles, including violence, horror, romance, and many many more! However, if there are specific themes or content that you’re uncomfortable with, let your group and GM know before the game, and have an open conversation about these topics. 
Any group worth playing with should be respectful and understanding of your concerns and the game can be adjusted so everyone is having fun. Many tables also use “Safety Tools” which help ensure that these conversations are handled easily, and everyone has a voice at the table.

What if I'm not comfortable with certain themes or content in a game of Pathfinder 1e?

Knowing every rule of the game may be helpful to some, but many players will learn the game as they play! If you want to read the rules ahead of time you absolutely can, but if you are a hands-on learner you can also just start playing, and if there is something you don’t understand never be afraid to ask questions, because everyone starts somewhere!

Do I need to know all the rules before I can play Pathfinder 1e?

Pathfinder’s core mechanic is rolling a 20-sided die, adding any bonuses or modifiers from a character’s skills, and comparing the result to a target number to determine if a given action succeeds or fails. A character’s abilities come from a combination of their ancestry, class, attributes, and training, all of which players can fully customize from a sprawling selection of options accrued over the game’s 15-year lifespan. Pathfinder also contains robust rules for fighting monsters and other adversaries, delving into dungeons, and exploring trackless wilderness.


How to play Pathfinder 1e

Based on the 3.5 edition of D&D, pathfinder 1e is a system with immense amounts of support & content over the last 20 years. If you enjoy crunchy systems, with rules for just about every situation you can think of then pathfinder 1e can supply it. The options for character choices are the most detailed & its my go to fantasy system because of that fact. Additionally, because its based on the 3.5, its very easy to convert material from those books to the system with minimal effort, thus giving you content that stretches literally hundreds of books.

Dean 

Based on the extremely popular 3.5 OGL, Paizo has created a massive world of lore, storytelling, and character options. Hands down, I own more Pathfinder 1e books than any other system. Whether campaign setting books, adventures, or rules accessories, my VTT digital shelf may have a larger collection than most of my other games combined. And with the rules text being published for free, players can access everything!

DM Greg

I am a GM that fully commits to the idea that mechanics should support roleplaying, and in my opinion, the best way to do so, is to have support for anything a player or their character might want to do. Pathfinder is a game that commits to this philosophy too. It is a sprawling simulationist dream. 
It can feel intimidating, and I wouldn't recommend it to first-timers. But I would say that with the right attitude, there's a relatively low barrier of entry. Just look up what's relevant to you, don't worry about everything else. The game does not strongarm you into knowing everything about itself to just get started. In being so big, it gives up on the idea of how you are "meant" to play it, and just lets you do you.

Alex Lawler

Crunchy and Delicious! Pathfinder 1e is not the best system for new players, as the depth of rules can be intimidating,but for an experienced player of ttrpgs looking to play a system for detailed rulesets for everything you can imagine, so you can feel like you are having a real impact on the world, Pathfinder 1e is the system for you. Golarion is also one of the most well flushed out world settings in the world of TTRPGs, and rather in Pathfinder 1e or 2e, it is a world worth exploring!

Lost Lion Gaming

Pathfinder 1st Edition is a tabletop roleplaying game, or TTRPG, in which players create heroic characters to embark on fantasy adventures. You might play as a noble elven wizard, a roguish halfling scoundrel, or a stout dwarven warrior, just to name a few. But Pathfinder is famous for the incredible variety of options players can choose from; there are two dozen character classes alone, so intrepid players might just as well choose the sword-and-sorcery wielding magus, the inspiring skald, or the gritty gunslinger! One player, the Game Master (GM), acts as the rest of the world those heroes explore. 

The GM presents encounters with memorable characters, mystical places, terrible monsters, and myriad other challenges to overcome. The players decide on a course of action using their characters’ skills, magic spells, or equipment—the only limit on what they can attempt is their imagination! Often, they’ll need to roll dice to find out whether they succeed or fail. But no matter what, the players’ choices result in a unique story of which they are both author and audience. For this reason, TTRPGs are often considered games of collaborative storytelling.

Pathfinder’s publisher Paizo has since released a second edition, but the first edition (or 1E) remains one of the most popular roleplaying games in the world!
