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So, one of the first things a lot of people turn too is having minis. It adds the physical to the combat a lot of people want. As the DM you may want minis for your "baddies". There are tons of kits out there but something I have come to love is these things.
Pathfinder Bestiary Pawn Box https://www.amazon.com/dp/1640782117/ref=cm_sw_r_sm_apa_glt_fabc_EWT2MNRH2Q7KRAZZWAJR
They are "from" pathfinder but there is tons of crossover. The artwork on them is fantastic and you're getting hundreds of "minis" for cheaper than just about any other method.
Edit: forgot to mention my favorite part. They have a numbering system which helps keep track of which mobs have what health count in combat.
If you’re interested in going deep on this sort of thing, a couple friends wrote a book that is basically a whole lot of this: Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design: An Encyclopedia of Mechanisms
Solving for mate and studying pawn/rook endgames should be studied from day one. Both of them help immensely with visualization, and will make your entire game stronger. The Polgar book with 5334 problems is a classic, and I strongly recommend it, because it goes from easy mate in ones to harder mate in threes and so on:
https://www.amazon.com/Chess-5334-Problems-Combinations-Games/dp/1579125549
It's a monster volume at 1,100+ pages, and will put some strain on your bookshelf, but it's only $21 at Amazon. You're not going to find better value as a beginner.
If you and her together go through the book "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" just $8 on Amazon there'll be less of a chance of her getting crushed, and you too will come up to speed
I don't use miniatures, because these were exactly what I was looking for. Pathfinder Pawns
It was originally for board games, but the textbook Rules of Play is so foundational to the creation of the language used to talk about games I can't justify not having it on a designer's shelf
Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess. https://www.amazon.com/Bobby-Fischer-Teaches-Chess/dp/0553263153/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2NPVUO1Q4SY3&dchild=1&keywords=bobby+fischer+teaches+chess+book&qid=1614032799&sprefix=bobby+fischer+%2Caps%2C316&sr=8-2
It gives you the basic thoughts behind it, after that, it just takes lots of practice.
Personally I find that Pathfinder Pawns are a much easier route to go both for storage/transport convenience and variety. For instance this box has 375 different monsters in it. Couple that with a box of the bases and you're pretty set.
Agreed. I had a friend who was a regional chess champion. I only beat him once (out of literally hundreds of times) and it was thanks to a little paperback called "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess". Its like 90 pages but has very carefully crafted scenarios and all the available options and most importantly why the options are ranked the way they are. Highly reccomend for anyone looking to get into/back into chess.
On Amazon (meh...but w.e.) for $8 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0553263153/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_495aGbA6YQZYG
It is available for pre-order on amazon right now. https://www.amazon.com/Building-Blocks-Tabletop-Game-Design/dp/1138365491/ref=sr_1_1?crid=377LW4Y59O3ZG
It's £29 for the monster box, which has ~300 pawns in it, so you're paying a really small amount per pawn.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pathfinder-Pawns-Monster-Codex-Box/dp/1601257171/
This particular box has:
- Boggard
- Bugbears
- Drow
- Duergar
- Fire giants
- Frost Giants
- Ghouls
- Gnolls
- Goblins
- Hobgoblins
- Kobolds
- Lizardfolk
- Ogres
- Orcs
- Ratfolk
- Sahuagin
- Serpentfolk
- Troglodytes
- Trolls
- Vampires
I'm not entirely sure where £36 is coming from, but I have a feeling you might have looked at the actual bestiary- the pathfinder monster manual- rather than the pawns.
Bestiary 1 is more expensive, but that's due to it being out of print atm if I remember.
If you're looking for a book, you might check out Rules of Play, although it's a bit more centered around general game design theory, it's a pretty good read.
> I wish there was a way to only give you easy tactical puzzles.
Pathfinder beastiary boxes are my go to although there isn't any DIY involved.
https://www.amazon.com/Pathfinder-Bestiary-Pawn-Box-P2/dp/1640782117
Yup. This one:
https://www.amazon.com/Play-Winning-Chess-Yasser-Seirawan/dp/1857443314
Brilliant book. (The cover does it no favours.)
Seirawan knows chess, obviously, but so do any number of other chess authors for the purposes of a novice player. The difference is Seirawan can teach.
This book makes learning the basics (force, tempo, space, and pawn structure) a thrilling revelation.
And the rigour is punctuated by tales of whacky chess personalities and historical anecdotes. Kids would love it.
Only problem is it spoiled me for the next ten books I tried. Good chess books are the rare exception, it turns out.
Accept no substitutes, u/FUNKYDISCO.
If you want a little bit of flavor to your minifigs but don't want to go through the trouble of buying new ones for each adventure, I recommend Pathfinder Pawns. I made two purchases: https://www.amazon.com/Pathfinder-Bestiary-Pawn-Box-P2/dp/1640782117/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=pathfinder+pawns&qid=1671141645&sr=8-3 and a second I'm not currently seeing on Amazon (a hero pack for players to pick tokens from). All in all it cost me about $70 and I have literally hundreds of options to choose from now.
What I do before sessions is find some things that are rough approximations of what the group will be fighting ... I've used shadows for formless smoke creatures, dragons for sea monsters, a giant rat for a malformed dog monster. There is plenty in the box and it is very hard to pick a monster that can't be easily represented by something provided in there.
Usually I'll only pick out pawns for the noteworthy monsters and NPCs. If the party comes across bandits or goblins or other minion-type baddies, I just use Carcassone meeples, but really anything that be subbed in for those, up to and including candy or coins.
For those, I'll default to Amazon. 375 minis for $40ish.
I posted the problem after reading in the Polgar book Chess https://www.amazon.com/Chess-5334-Problems-Combinations-Games/dp/1579125549 I'm working on improving my board vision and this problem had me quite stumped. I thought reddit chess might enjoy it.
https://boardgamegeek.com/browse/boardgamemechanic
Which is taken from and missing a lot of detail from: https://www.amazon.com/Building-Blocks-Tabletop-Game-Design/dp/1138365491
That expensive book occasionally goes on sale, which is how I got mine.
This was a tricky one! I think I finally found it.
>!Nxd7+!<
From here, Black has a few possible moves, all of which resolve to checkmate:
- >!Nxd2 Nf6# (This only works because the king is in double check.)!<
- >!Ne6 Nf6# (Same deal)!<
- >!Ne4 Nf6# (The black night on e4 is pinned and can't take the knight on f6.)!<
- >!Qe7 Qxe7# (If you try the same trick as the previous answers, the king can escape to d8.)!<
If you like this kind of tough puzzle, I've been working my way through the Polgar mate-in-twos, which has been very challenging but really helpful.
The book I found to be the most helpful when I was beginning to really learn chess was Winning Chess Tactics by Yasser Seirawan. It helped give me a grasp on what tactics actually are.
https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Chess-Tactics-Everyman/dp/1857443861
Pathfinder 2e has a box of cardboard cutouts for monsters. DND may have a similar thing or you could just repurpose the Pathfinder monsters
https://www.amazon.com/Pathfinder-Bestiary-Pawn-Box-P2/dp/1640782117
375 cardboard cutout minis and stands for $50: https://smile.amazon.com/Pathfinder-Bestiary-Pawn-Box-P2/dp/1640782117
200 player character cardboard cutout minis featuring most class/race combos for $25: https://smile.amazon.com/Pathfinder-Player-Character-Pawn-Collection/dp/1640782931
Do they need to be minis? Pathfinder has some standee boxes that come with a huge amount of content, you'll get a lot more by much cheaper.
When i taught myself to play over a decade ago, i used this book series by Janice Kim.
https://www.amazon.com/Learn-Play-Go-Masters-Ultimate/dp/1453632891
Im sure there are plenty of free online options now, but im sadly not familiar with them.
Whatever you end up going with, come join us over at /r/baduk afterwards. If you have questions about end game state, scoring, etc. Feel free to post there, we usually get a fair number of these types of beginner questions and we are (usually) nice and helpful.
Another solid gift idea going forward if you use a play mat and miniatures are the Pathfinder Pawn boxes. They are good quality illustrated cardboard punchouts that come with a variety of monsters in each box. While you won't be able to get any of the IP monsters like the Beholder all of the generic orcs, goblins, trolls, giants, etc are there. Couple it with a set of bases and you can have multiple campaigns worth of monsters without needing the big box space of pewter or plastic miniatures.
You;re far better sreved by getting a book that covers something like tactics, or general principles instead. Logical Chess will teach you various basic principles. Something like [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Play-Winning-Chess/dp/1857443314](Play Winning Chess) will be far better suited to your level than a 700 page book on chess strategy. Chess strategy is something that is more suitable for intermediate players looking to move up to the next level, it is very much not entry-level study.
One has read and absorbed the few and simple concepts in Yasser Seirawan’s book, Play Winning Chess:
https://www.amazon.com/Play-Winning-Chess-Yasser-Seirawan/dp/1857443314
If you’re rated 1100 you need to learn the strategic basics of chess, not waste time practicing tactics or whatever as others have suggested. You’ll make faster progress by learning general principles.
That’s what this book teaches. It gives you simple methods to decide which piece to move and why. For example, it explains this method as a way to evaluate who is winning:
Count the number of squares in your half of the board that your opponent can attack on the next move.
Count the number of squares in your opponent’s half that you can attach on the next move.
Whoever can attack more squares is winning.
Consequently, on your next move, move whichever piece would attack more opponent squares. Congrats, you just played a strategically sound move.
(There are other considerations, obviously.)
I’ve read some other books since with laborious lists of moves, cringeworthy attempted cleverness in the prose, specific examples that you’ll encounter twice a lifetime, etc. They all feel like they’re written by a chess master for a studious pupil. Fine if that’s what you want, but I learn better and faster by basic understanding.
I wish there was another fundamentals book like Play Winning Chess for my current strength but haven’t found it.
I think anything by Days of Wonder (five tribes, small world) for how well their rulebooks are laid out.
And Scythe for it's board/art design that helps you remember the rules with it's very layout.
Tigris and Euphrates, for how it flips your preconditions of strategy on its head.
And I would recommend Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design: An Encyclopedia of Mechanisms https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1138365491/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apan_glt_i_AGR7XHFH4Q3S01KD8AAE
You can find a bunch of his stuff on BGG, and even just the iconography is helpful for thinking about mechanics and how to describe them in a rulebook.
pickup a paperback book called 'bobby fischer teaches chess'. its by the chessmaster, each page has one or two move puzzles, with explanations and they get more involved and harder as you progress in the book. I typically go through it and do all the exercises at least once a year.