So I'm finally restarting my RPG group after almost a year's hiatus due to reasons.

With a partially new group, I figured I'd run them through the Beginner's Game first, perhaps In the Palace of the Emerald Champion, too, and then switch to the full game for further adventures.
I was planning on letting them create new characters after the switch or keeping the pre-gens, in order to be able to start playing immediately and not overwhelm them, since some players are new to RPGs in general. However, keeping the pregens doesn't really seem viable, as they are lacking compared to full characters.
So now I'm thinking that they will have to generate full characters either way - but if they wish to recreate a pregen, obviously that would be fine.

Has anybody done this transition? Any tips?

11 minutes ago, Myrion said:

So I'm finally restarting my RPG group after almost a year's hiatus due to reasons.

With a partially new group, I figured I'd run them through the Beginner's Game first, perhaps In the Palace of the Emerald Champion, too, and then switch to the full game for further adventures.
I was planning on letting them create new characters after the switch or keeping the pre-gens, in order to be able to start playing immediately and not overwhelm them, since some players are new to RPGs in general. However, keeping the pregens doesn't really seem viable, as they are lacking compared to full characters.
So now I'm thinking that they will have to generate full characters either way - but if they wish to recreate a pregen, obviously that would be fine.

Has anybody done this transition? Any tips?

Forget the beginner's game.
Use the full system, but include the rules one by one (especially all the super bloated stuff like opportunities, the leveraging of advantages with void points, out of curriculum technique, etc)

Most importantly, try to keep your group small, 3 players at maximum is best. Make sure to create a LOT of NPCs. And make the one they latch on more recurent. You need to build your "drama" for this game to be efficient.

For opportunities, just print them a very simple list of a few options per ring that works in most situations (I recommend the one I did). Also, print them a sheet with the description of their advantages/disadvantages.

And go from there. Nothing will break if you screw up a few rules, and as a new GM to this game you WILL screw up a lot of rules (because it is that bloated and difficult to manage).

focus on this: story, drama, npc and CHOICES.
see it as an RPG game with dialogue choice, at some point you have to present to each player in due time situations in which they need to choose outcome A or B. Raw like that. This game is all about impactful decisions.

I should perhaps note that I have run this game before, with the full rules, with my old group. I'm also not worried about screwing up rules, having successfully run a several-years-long GURPS campaign
Actually, before I get too detailed. I know mostly what I'm doing and how I play with my group. I know why I'm starting with the beginner's game and my question is simply:

Does anyone have particular tips for moving from the beginner's game to the full game? A good way to convert the pregens, for example.

Anything else doesn't really address what I'm asking, though thank you for your effort.

29 minutes ago, Myrion said:

I should perhaps note that I have run this game before, with the full rules, with my old group. I'm also not worried about screwing up rules, having successfully run a several-years-long GURPS campaign
Actually, before I get too detailed. I know mostly what I'm doing and how I play with my group. I know why I'm starting with the beginner's game and my question is simply:

Does anyone have particular tips for moving from the beginner's game to the full game? A good way to convert the pregens, for example.

Anything else doesn't really address what I'm asking, though thank you for your effort.

redo the character while making the players take the same stats as the pregen (if they want, they can always change stuff probably) ?
I mean... is it suppose to be difficult lol ? why even ask ?

" So now I'm thinking that they will have to generate full characters either way - but if they wish to recreate a pregen, obviously that would be fine."
you answered yourself... facepalm.

And remember, a session creating (or recreating) characters is also "playing". It is maybe one of the most enjoyable "playing" you will do in this game too!

As much as creating characters is fun, I know I will have plenty more fun with this game with my group. Again, I know my group (although I haven't played with all of them equally much) and am confident in my general ability to GM this and other games.

What I'm looking for is more stuff like "oh, X is subtly different in the beginner's game, make sure to explain that." or "It's easy to overlook that not only do weapons now have damage and deadliness and crits work differently, but Y is also different now." or "Oh, just add a Passion and a Disadvantage to the pregens, and they'll be fine."

Besides, your group, playstyle and general attitude to this and likely all RPGs seems radically different to mine and my group's, so I'm not sure you're well-equipped to answer any of my questions.

43 minutes ago, Myrion said:

As much as creating characters is fun, I know I will have plenty more fun with this game with my group. Again, I know my group (although I haven't played with all of them equally much) and am confident in my general ability to GM this and other games.

What I'm looking for is more stuff like "oh, X is subtly different in the beginner's game, make sure to explain that." or "It's easy to overlook that not only do weapons now have damage and deadliness and crits work differently, but Y is also different now." or "Oh, just add a Passion and a Disadvantage to the pregens, and they'll be fine."

Besides, your group, playstyle and general attitude to this and likely all RPGs seems radically different to mine and my group's, so I'm not sure you're well-equipped to answer any of my questions.

Oh, ok. I misunderstood your question.

If you played the game you know the difference between the beginner's game and core book as much as anyone here. You'll be fine! Be confident! I am sure you can figure out how to make the transition by yourself.

I'd be curious to see what "tips" you get though.

Do not forget to explain your players how critical strikes work! It is very different from the beginner's game. And have a discussion about how your group will rule the advantages/disadvantages.

I don't know what to tell you about characters already in progress, but I did create full character sheets for the beginner characters using the Core Rule set. Nominally the characters at the end of the Topaz Championship should be on par with a newly created character but having compared it, the beginner characters are slightly weaker. I would suggest experiment yourself as it will make you more familiar with character creation.

On 10/11/2019 at 11:15 PM, Myrion said:

Has anybody done this transition? Any tips?

Run the extra adventure on the site, it cements the party as investigators and sets them on a first mission.

From there you can have leads that were left open from the investigation, or use other adventures as the next missions.

My group I GM to is still in the investigation, we're taking it slow and getting to know everything about the theater of NPCs.

Strife recovery is handled different in the main game than in the beginner set.

Beginner set doesn't have any 'real' consequence of unmasking, as they are kids and thus have some leway.
Beginner set doesn't have anxieties.

There are a lot more opportunity options in main game.

These are the ones that stood out most to my group when we did the transition.

Second, we also did a chargen, building that beginner characters with the main game rules, and then adding the bonus(xp, glory honor) gain from the beginner set adventure.
This was to make sure that we had tried the main game chargen, and also because we have tried other beginner set games where the chars didn't align with standard char gen.

I'm less than taken with the beginner set, personally.

I understand the usefulness of a simplified version on the game rules. But in this case, it appears to cause more confusion than good.

I’m going to necro this thread a little. I too want run the game for regular RPG group. So are by no means beginners. We have played the Star Wars game, so funny dice aren’t too different. I have run a two night session of fourth Ed L5R years ago. And have some other familiarity with the world in the past.

So I’m trying to figure out if I go right for the core rules or run them through the beginner game first? I’d like to make this a regular ongoing game for them. Or series of one shots at the least. But I’ve bought both the Beginner Game and Core Book. And not sure which to focus attention on. Any help would be great.

1 hour ago, The0Gekko0State said:

I’m going to necro this thread a little. I too want run the game for regular RPG group. So are by no means beginners. We have played the Star Wars game, so funny dice aren’t too different. I have run a two night session of fourth Ed L5R years ago. And have some other familiarity with the world in the past.

So I’m trying to figure out if I go right for the core rules or run them through the beginner game first? I’d like to make this a regular ongoing game for them. Or series of one shots at the least. But I’ve bought both the Beginner Game and Core Book. And not sure which to focus attention on. Any help would be great.

I hope they don't lock out a necro threat for I believe there is value to context.

To your point, it is a judgement call. I would certainly recommend using Core Rules to build characters from scratch. The Four character folios (and the three downloadable characters) can be used for helping to plan said character creation. Now, the Core Rules built characters WILL be more powerful than the folio versions. Knowing that, it might be wise to add in some of the other features earlier in the game. The initial with the cart in the mud scene could easily use strife right out of the gate, as can the scene when the go to check into their rooms. This early strife accumulation can easily make the nighttime scene even more of a challenge. And knowing that not getting proper rest after that night encounter can easily drive up the difficulty of the Topaz Championship if the characters are carrying over strife from the previous day.

Another option is to add more scenes to the game using the suggestions at the end of the adventure such as a fire in town or during one of the tests. My father and I had an additional scene after the characters checked into their room by having them go to the Maki Neko Sake Brewery and interact with the staff and patrons. Breaking up or starting a brawl there could have unforeseen consequences later on in the adventure. My suggestion is to ask your players if they want to play it as written (easy and rather bland), or if they want you to embellish it so as to ramp up the difficulty. Even if they start out preferring as written, if they ask you to up the challenge or otherwise indicate that it is not entertaining, that could allow your creative juices to kick into gear and up the challenges in response to your players.

There is merit in starting light on mechanics as the system can be overwhelming. It paces the players through making a check, and especially it helps with understanding the setting.

I have sinned in running stuff as I think is appropriate, many times, and always figured out too late that I was wrong... and not just on technicalities.