Charles Markley's page

SHNIKES!

** spoiler omitted **...

The pain in my lawful brain!

I started back in the BECMI days (I am 53 now), and 3.0 (core only) is my preferred version of D&D post-2000, as it retains enough legacy elements of 2e+Player's Option stuff (we loved the concept, hated the implementation) to have that old-school "feel".

If I want something more modern and epic, I have 13th Age. I like 4e, and I would love it if it were less tied to the battlemap, something which I in general dislike in pretty much all games.
Ran some PF1e and PF2e, but there's just too much going on. In general I like opinionated games to exercises in regression to mediocrity like 5e (and the abomination that is 5.5e.)

But if I want a simple old-school experience, nothing beats B/X D&D; or even AD&D 1e if I want something more (but not so much more that 2e+PO, hence 3.0, would be a viable option.)

In the end, it really depends if the game concept "juice" I have in mind is "worth the squeeze" in terms of rules complexity (and player base.)

Great year, GenX! I level up to 53 in the fall. I had a box set when I was 11, and that really turned into improved play-acting on the playground rather than roleplaying/rolling dice. I didn't really start playing until 2e, and I just felt 3.0 improved on some of the issues enough that I stuck with it. 3.5x and PF1 made some improvements, and I am interested in what Corefinder will turn out. I didn't like 4e, nor 2e, and am learning 5.5 (man, does it give a lowest-common denominator vibe!) for business reasons...

We had our fourth session of WotR on Saturday June 07th, game time the afternoon of 17 Arodus 4713 so only one full day since Black Armasse, with so many challenges happening to them in the past 28 hours! This is a modified WotR: a few ideas from the video game, as well as allowing 3.5 flaws and deity aspects (lesser versions than avatars), and fast progression. The group had five active PCs, two not in attendance PCs (still in play), and the three NPCs (Anevia, Aravashnial, and Horgus).

Barcoor - dwarf barbarian (raised by a human cleric of Torag who had adventured with his parents)
Eran - Aasimar paladin of Iomedae from Kenabres but via Absolam
Erlan "Dragoneye"- human (dragon-blooded) slayer from Kenabres
Jethro - human bard archaeologist, ward of Beltran Ravenkin of Kenabres.
Trin - gnome cleric of Pulura, rescued two years ago in a mission to the Worldwound led by Terendelev), suffering from traumatic amnesia.

Lynx - tiefling druid trained in Kenabres by Crocris.
Nils - Umli / half-beard dwarf originally from Kenabres but last 18 years in Dongun Hold.

They defeated but did not destroy the quasit cleric that had been invisibly tormenting Millorn (the dwarven wizard they defeated the previous session). In the journey upwards, they defeated a cloaker (despite the human archaeologist bard Jethro, the dwarven spellslinger Nils, and the gnome cleric Trin fleeing in terror for 2 rounds). At the ruined tower, they met Lann and Dyra and helped save Crel from the crushing rubble. On the way to Neatholm, they survived the chasm climb (used Terendelev scales to levitate the divided party in shifts) and the gnome cleric Trin used her speak with animals ability to prevent a bat swarm attack.

They then met Chief Sull in Neathholm and agreed to bring word topside about an alliance between the Descendants below and the survivors of Kenabres, and rested up in preparation to take on the Mongrelman traitors and cultists.

The two young'uns in the group most likely will be leaving the group...

June 21st Saturday session was our first session with a quorum-only majority of players there (3/5 of our “regulars” and Lynx as as recurring guest-star character, stating he would not return to the city above with them, but would help out the Neathholm descendants after helping the group to the surface. As one of our regulars was late due to getting home from a church camp (he was adult admin), we had only two of the "random" encounters on the way from Neathhold to the traitor's lair. The two "regulars" not there had their character's played as NPCs.

The group fought a couple of cave fishers that ended up doing less damage to the group, than the group did to each other trying to “rescue” the cave fisher’s hunting targets. I used the spiral (back) of the Pathfinder Flip-Mat "Twisted Caverns" for the first fight, with the cave fishers hunting and trying to pull up two targets with their filament pull attacks.

The second fight was also in the caverns, using the front of the said Flip-Mat: there was a narrow choke point, so the group decided to have a bit of a GM-modified Aravashnial send in a summoned celestial dog to communicate what was on the other side. Aravashnial was willing to burn the spell slot, as he had been one of the targets from the cave fishers, and didn't want any part of that happening again. He sent in the dog, which was immediately cut down by the two gricks 10 attacks. Trin got a skill check of 30 as to the nature of a grick, so against two gricks that had damage reduction 10/magic, those without magic weapons reacted accordingly (Trin handed Erlan the magic morningstar from Chief Sull). The two Mongrelman guides were not able to help in this fight. As a recurring theme, Barcoor ended up finishing up both fights with his raging damage and magical ancestral greataxe.

We play next again this upcoming Independence Day weekend (Saturday).

I think d20's problem was treating PCs like something other than NPCs with no in game justification, unlike the way that Scion and other games do.

Like sure, have your heroes able to fend off armies, but because they're demigods, not just because the players have been playing awhile.

Good point, at least with Mythic there is some kind of story explanation. Even a non-mythic lvl 10-15 PC character has some super-heroic abilities compared to a level 1-2 NPC, partially owed to the plethora of magical items that a PC accumulates and/or creates.

That being said, the economy in PF1/3.5 is broken, with high value magic items in the tens, fifties, and hundreds of thousands of gold pieces: "Good merchant, let me just check my wallet here for coins, let just count them out in piles here". Every high-level merchant transaction is like a modern day cinematic equivalent of briefcases full of cash.

From what I have seen, I do like think that monetary value revision in PF2e seems to be better.

glass wrote:

Beyond that, there are a bunch of PF1 APs that I would love to play/run/both one day: Carrion Crown, Reign of Winter, Wrath of the Righteous, Mummy's Mask, Iron Gods, and Ruins of Azlant.

If you weren't considering Tyrant's Grasp, definitely do that one. Just make sure you play Carrion Crown first.

If you do play Wrath of the Righteous, take your time with it and if you do use the Mythic Rules, definitely consider using Mythic Solutions to tone down the Mythic stuff a bit.

I agree with Arkat that this post about the Mythic Solutions being needed to tone down the Mythic stuff! I am running WotR for my third time. 1st time we moved to a different state right before end of book 2, second time COVID killed the group at the end of book 2. But each time I read ahead and while prepping and reading here on the forums, knew some changes would be needed.

Not all of PF1 adventures appeal to me, but more do than PF2. PF1 can be a problem with nonsensical character stories that min-max for a character to be uber-powerful, but there are so many options and each character can be distinguishable from the next. I don't see that in PF2, each character's abilities appear to be balanced, and now with the new licensing and big divorce from WotR, even the historic names and "races" and alignments are changing? Not appealing to me. I get why Paizo had to do this recently, but Paizo went with PF2 and cut new material and Adventure Paths way too soon for my already applied time and investment; not quite as condescending as Hasbro with the 4e 'screw you established gamers, we want to make a video game!' version, but close enough.

I understand from a business standpoint that it is difficult to support two lines, but it seems as if Paizo didn't even try. I still buy 1e stuff from Paizo and 3pp, and would love to throw more money at 1e. Sigh. The 'explanation' of we (Paizo) want to make a balanced game from the ground up, to me at least, put out an easy to run/manage game that is restrained/constrained/vanilla, where the PCs seem...just...like...NPCs.

Dang, this was never answered.