Glenn Magus Harvey's page

Some high school friends had some D&D 3e sourcebooks and I started making a character. Never played it.

Then in college one day I started chatting with a new friend who turned out to be into D&D and we got together a group that he GM'd. I actually made and played my first character at his table. We played D&D 3.5e.

I later heard about a thing called Pathfinder, which was basically D&D 3.5e, but better. I checked it out, and indeed, it was 3.5e but better. I started playing that, with some other groups of friends, as I'd graduated by then.

I heard about D&D 4e but basically ignored it, partly because I heard it was quite different from D&D 3.5e and was more combat-focused rather than simulation-focused. But probably a bigger reason is that I gradually learned about how Pathfinder and D&D differ in their licensing -- Pathfinder rule materials are legally freely out there for anyone to use, so the information was easily accessible on the web (in addition to, and perhaps more conveniently than, the PF1e books I picked up), whereas all that stuff from D&D splatbooks was not legally accessible. This commitment to open gaming practices made me like Pathfinder more.

Later I'd also heard about Pathfinder 2e. Started reading up on all the neat changes, and got interested in playing it. Eventually GM'd the Beginner Box adventure for some friends online.

I also heard about D&D 5e. I'd heard some good things about it, and was poking into it a bit. I never really got into D&D 5e yet -- I should mention that I'm primarily a videogamer rather than a tabletop gamer (and primarily a retro videogamer with tastes for older console games), so TTRPGs aren't the biggest thing in my life.

But then the OGL update fiasco happened, and I was like, yeah, PF2e seems like a much better bet than D&D 5e (or whatever they're doing now, D&D 5.5e?). Paizo has maintained its commitment to open gaming as before. I watched the PF2e Remaster unfold and it was really neat.

I decided to jump into Pathfinder Society (2nd edition). Trying to use Remaster stuff when possible, to get a more proper feel for it. Recently made a character and I've played two scenarios so far.

Ironically, the Remaster means that the big pre-Remaster PF2e Humble Bundle (as well as the PF1e Humble Bundle) that I bought a while back is somewhat useless. But whatever, lol. (I can still make an Eldritch Trickster!)

Another irony is that, despite Pathfinder's open gaming stuff being all free and accessible, I've actually bought Pathfinder stuff, while I've just never bought anything from D&D (my GM had all the books we needed and I haven't played it since). And I'm happier with supporting Paizo, too.

The only trouble I'm having is when my memories of D&D 3.5e and PF1e confuse me about PF2e mechanics, lol. I'm used to intuiting things like "what about touch AC?" or expecting a bunch of attacks of opportunity, haha.

Sidenote: That friend in college who GM'd my first TTRPG experience -- he went on to work at Paizo and do some really neat stuff.