Pathfinder 2nd Edition Custom Playtest: Zman's Arena

[Zman0]

Welcome ladies and gentleman, children of all ages, to Zman's Arena. When 5e came out I found it a great exercise to learn the basics of the game and put them into play. Well, I decided to bring the tradition back with a brand new P2 dungeon I just made for the occasion.

What do you have to do? Survive the dungeon. And do it as quickly as you can.

One character, or a party? Two 4th level characters.

Is this just combat? No, the challenges spread the gambit with number skills, physical challenges, a complex trap, multiple combats, and even a social challenge. So don't neglect anything. Ideally, your characters are somewhat representative of a character you'd run in a game.

You mentioned it was timed? Yes, the whole thing is being run on the encounter scale. So, round by round. No rests. We will know down to the second how long it takes you to complete the dungeon or perish.

Any houserules or other important information? Yes, I will be offering two modes, Bound and Unbound. Unbound is Pathfinder 2nd Edition as it is written in the playtest material, it will feel similar to 3.P. Bound is a variant that doesn't include level scaling and will feel similar to 5e. The dungeon is set up for both variants, and I welcome people to take their characters through it both ways to gather data on how Bound effects gameplay.

How do we get started? Follow the character creation guidelines below and create your party. I will likely be taking people on a first come first serve basis, and if there is sufficient interest I will be giving priority to those who commit to trying out both Bound and Unbound.

How will we do this? Play By Post. Over at giantitp. For each run through the arena I'll create an IC thread. We will spoiler the nitty gritty of the rolling. In the body of the posts we can try to make it cinematic. Have no fear, this is not theater of the mind, I will be using a nice spreadsheet map that will update a new tab for every round or two depending if its just a movement turn. I look for semi rapid posting, ie a couple of posts a day. There may be a day or two, like this weekend, that I won't be able to post. But, I expect to be able to get through an Arena in a week or so if we each post a handful of times a day.

If you are interested, stop on over for some fun! Sorry about being on a different forum, that is where I've made my home over the years.

[Bardarok]

I've talked a lot about the benefits of scaling so I'll put my money where my mouth is and see if it makes the difference I expect it to.

[Zman0]

Bardarok wrote:

I've talked a lot about the benefits of scaling so I'll put my money where my mouth is and see if it makes the difference I expect it to.

Fantastic!

The Arena is set up with a decent amount of static skill checks, which the unbound one are only 1-2 higher as the static DC list for unbound would be a bit higher(Look at High jump for example). It has some leveled checks ie Hazards.

It consists of a Level +/- 0 Encounter, a Level -4 Encounter, a Level +2 Encounter, a Level -2 Encounter, and a Level +4 Encounter.

The whole thing uses combat, physical, some other skills, and some social. I'm pretty happy with it and hope it gives people a run for their money and brings fun and the ability to learn more about the system for everyone involved.

What is in the dungeon? It starts with the Hall of Arrows, followed by the Grand Chamber, followed by the Stubborn Door, followed by the Pitted Hallway, followed by the Ice Cave, followed by the Hallway of Statues, followed by the Hall of Sand. Lastly there is the Wall of Many Faces.

[Zman0]

Shameless self bump looking for folks who want to play a little P2.

Once nice thing about how this is done, the whole encounter can be recreated, you’ll see every action and die roll in the thread. Well have a record of every round’s update to the map. It’s a great way to take a look at decisions and if mechanics were handled correctly. Think of it like a battle report.