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Don't insult the statues in Padstow!
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Folklore read live!
Can a priest use the devil's magic and still be a Christian?
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Tonight on #PF2E! The Ghostlight Crew beat the snot out of Blorgorph, the Evil Octopus of Ultimate Evil, and his loathsome Baby Octopuses of Ultimate Evil, driving them all off in billow sprays of ink. They then travel up into the mountain to find Apyolloh, the dragon who can theoretically fly them to the moon... only to find an emormous, temple-like cavern with a giant, glowing, insect-like cocoon!? 1/?
Hellfinder Crowdsourcing Campaign is Live
Pathfinder lead designer Jason Bulmahn has launched his crowdfunding campaign for Hellfinder, a modern post-apocalyptic horror hack of Pathfinder 2e:
From the Backerkit Campaign Description: Welcome to Hellfinder, a Modern Horror Hack of Pathfinder Second Edition. This game takes the basic rules of Pathfinder, replacing specific mechanics to transform the experience from a high fantasy adventure game into one filled with mysteries, dread, and terror, a game where your agents might see things that can’t be unseen and face a fate far worse than death.
In Hellfinder, you will take on the role of an Agent, sent to work in the basement of the Bureau. After months of drudgery, you finally get your first field assignment, to close an abandoned Field Office in a sleepy town in the middle of the north woods of Wisconsin. But things are very much not what they seem and this tiny town might hold secrets darker than any found in the farthest reaches of the unending forest.
Hellfinder starts by focusing on one central story, created to introduce you to the world and the horrors it contains. That story is broken down into three chapters, each of which contains new rules and the next part of the story. At the start of play, you only open the first packet, containing character creation rules and the opening chapter of the tale. The other packets will only be opened when you reach a specific moment in the story… for better or for worse.
Hellfinder replaces the traditional class system with a more free-form Agent specialization and training system. Most of this is done through spending allotted points based on your choices and some free points to reflect your hobbies and interests. As you level up, you’ll get more of these free points to build out your Agent as you see fit. All options are open to you, if you are willing to pay the price.
Finally, Hellfinder adds a system for Stress, to measure how much your Agent can handle mentally before succumbing to the pressure and horror they are witnessing. It also includes a system for both Physical and Mental Trauma, which add lasting injuries and challenges to Agents who have pushed beyond the breaking point. Taken together, these systems will measure how much punishment your agent can take before succumbing to the darkness.
The game’s designed to live in a binder, so there’s little difference between a printed-off PDF and what would arrive in the mail if you bought the physical product. The campaign’s already reached its funding goals. It wraps up on 19 August.
BackerKitHellfinder - A Modern Horror Hack of Pathfinder 2nd EditionHellfinder is a modern horror RPG based on the rules of Pathfinder 2E by Jason Bulmahn!
Folklore read live!
Did you know the Church waged a war against Cornish crows?
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Pathfinder 2e: Not For Everyone?
Over on Reddit the other day, u/MeanMeanFun asked the PF2 subreddit what they can do about a player at their table who isn’t as engaged with the game as the rest of the players. This player is newer to the game than the rest of the table, but has been playing for a year now and still struggles to remember things like what all of their items do, and isn’t engaging in optimal tactical play.
Some form of this discussion comes up somewhat frequently, and the responses people get are often jarring to me. Consider these replies:
If they cannot grasp the basics after 12+ months it is possible that pf2e isn’t their game.
Responses like this are common on any post where someone is either struggling to internalize all of the rules of the game, or doesn’t want to engaged deeply and directly with the game’s engine. There’s a chauvinism on display here which often goes unacknowledged and unchallenged, and not only is it deeply unhelpful to people who are specifically looking for help, but it also creates a sense that the game itself, and the community that surrounds it, is actually openly hostile to them and their play.
And my experience with the largest online spaces focused on the game is that they are hostile to players who aren’t looking to engage with the game in a narrow range of ways. There is constant background chatter around what “the game expects” or “the game demands”, and that chatter ultimately always paints a picture of a very rigid game with a very narrow focus on tactical combat with a narrow range of parameters.
Meanwhile, the game includes rules that supports almost everything under the sun, including a significant list of feats, spells, and other player options that people regularly complain are too niche to even look at, many of which are explicitly focused on exploration, survival, or social engagement – you know, all of the things you’d want to include in your game if you were trying to release a general purpose fantasy roleplaying game.
So, it all raises the question: Just who is this game actually for?
While there doesn’t seem to be a consensus among the game’s audience – or, at least the part of it that is active on Reddit and the Paizo forums – about who Pathfinder 2e is for, there does seem to be relatively strong agreement about who it is not for: Everyone.
And I’m not really sure I get it.
I mean, ok, sure, nothing is truly for everybody all of the time. Even water isn’t going to do much for someone who’s not thirsty. PF2’s not going to be a great fit if you’re looking for early 20th century psychological horror, say, or if you’re in the mood to play a cozy game about contemporary hobby farming. But the line is not “this game isn’t necessarily the best fit for the type of thing the player wants to do right now”, it’s “this game isn’t for them”. And I know someone’s going to tell me I’m reading too much into that wording, but I don’t believe that I am.
I think there’s a vocal group of people who like very particular things that PF2 enables, and who simultaneously do not care about other things that PF2 also enables, and who want to totally discount the latter while enshrining the former as the default – if not only – legitimate way to play the game.
And that’s unfortunate, because Pathfinder 2e is an incredibly flexible and robust fantasy RPG with so many bits and pieces that you can lean into or remove as your table sees fit. Is it a one pager? No, of course not – there are a lot of rules to skim over and decide what you like and want to keep, and what you maybe can trim away – but you can pare it down very far and have something that supports your play (just look at Pathwarden, and its genre-neutral follow-up Warden, both of which are based off of the PF2 engine). Or consider Hellfinder, another pared down ‘hack’ of PF2 focused on modern horror, developed by Jason Bulmahn, lead designer of both Pathfinder 1e and 2e.
The game is designed to be modular. It can be extended or stripped down almost as much as you want. This was the designers intent for the system.
And I say with much confidence, the game feels really good played loosely. It’s a great engine for wacky nonsense, and light play. It’s great for a roleplay focused table, just as it is for a hardcore tactical combat focused group. It supports fiction-foreward play so much better than it’s given credit for.
A response to the original post by u/SleepylaReef really hit something home for me. I don’t know that it’s fair to the OP, but it definitely holds a bit of a mirror up to this toxic vein:
For some people, the others sitting around the table are just tools to enable their own particular type of fun. For some people, there being others in the player pool who aren’t good tools for them is a waste of their time. This has become abundantly clear over time.
TONIGHT ON #PF2E! Searching for Apyolloh, the mighty dragon who will (hopefully) carry them to the moon, the heroes traverse the jungles of the Nagaji, serpent folk who worship both Ganogami (think Mothra) and Sethnaga (an evil headless snake god of the underworld), which is a combination sure to cause conflict. (1/?)
Pathfinder: The Ghouls Hunger Characters by Ilina Naydenova
Replied to Laren
TTRPG grumbling:
While I'm not generally a fan of D&D beyond's app, one thing I rather appreciate about it is the fact that I can just... Download all the books I own for totally offline access. There is a storage price to be paid for this, naturally, but I can accept that.
Compare this to Demiplane which uses a web interface exclusively. No native app, and definitely no offline access.
I would say "I expected better of them", but apparently they were bought out around this time last year by Roll20 (fun fact: so was drivethrurpg) and Roll20 has a history of either having awful apps or no apps at all, so I suppose I really shouldn't be surprised, but it's a little frustrating.
Please don't make me say "Wizards does this better" eternally?
XueLie, the Yaoguai Kineticist
Another Ko-Fi Broomstick tier reward for Kin, this one of his brand new yaoguai water/wind kineticist for Age of Ashes. Had a blast with this, and got to try out some new brushes too!
Folklore read live!
When you're done screaming, the giant monk in this dark mine would like to give you lamp oil.
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Tonight on #PF2E! As the Ghostlight Crew debate their next steps before the eikon of Aphagis reforms, they are visited by Antonin Develliers, who proposes that they might actually be able to literally steal Eolas Inspyr's soul from Reshamalak's vaults in hell, an idea which appeals to them on many levels. He suggests doing a "trial run" of stealing Gastogi/Marcos's soul from its place of safekeeping with the Queen of the Moon--but that requires figuring out a way to get to the Moon. 1/2
My party shooting down the pigeon carrying sensitive information to the enemy #ttrpg #pathfinder #pf2e
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Would you give your baby away to a strange lady?
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I wonder how the #MarvelMultiverseRPG would fare with a #PF2E-style 3-action turn, with the attack penalty being “Trouble on the second attack and Double Trouble on the third and subsequent attacks.”
Just a reminder, but if you're writing a campaign and worried you have a shitty NPC, consider:
Tom. Fucking. Bombadil, from LOTR.
Tom Bombadil, who showed up, sang a few songs, put on the One Ring, basically said "Huh, that's neat", before giving The Ring back and moving on.
Tom Bombadil, who, later, was briefly considered as ringbearer, before Gandalf essentially said the asshole would take the ring, put it up on his hearth, and *completely forget about it.*
If Tolkein can get away with Bombadil, you can get away with your NPC.
(If you haven't guessed, I really hate Bombadil.)
Okay DMs:
The game is done, all the prep was worthwhile, your players had fun. Now they've gone home, and all that energy you built up before that has just been spent.
How do you relax? Recuperate?
Folklore read live!
Did a snake crawl in your mouth while you slept?
Does it now rest in your swollen belly?
Well, you're not the first...
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