Grafz's page

I'm sure people are doing it.
My kids love things like Atomic Robo and Order of the Stick so I'm tempted to do teams that are references to that.

A numeria-style team with starmetal weapons and tech priests*
A team of pirates
The all wizard team who specialize in summoning creatures
A team with negative energy healing (https://2e.aonprd.com/Ancestries.aspx?ID=23)**
A team of Hobgoblins from who are here for research from Oppark
A team of dopplegangers and changelings who are here to try to rob from people
A gunfighters/inventors from Arcadia or the Mana wastes

Probably shouldn't have too many from outside Tien?

**This is OP, so maybe the Lightkeepers, "accidentally" kill them early on. "We were just trying to help them... no idea healing was fatal to them... real tragety..."

I touched on this in the other thread (about optimal strategies (https://paizo.com/threads/rzs43fkh?Optimal-Strategy-to-explore-Danger-Isla nd-and#1) for approaching the Danger Island book)

But I wonder a bit about the timeline. My group just made it through the 1st dungeon, which is set up to take ~1 day (and certainly feels like a full days worth of activity and grants 3 / 10 feathers).

That leaves you with 2 days and ~2 fights. (The optimization thread explains my thinking). I suppose that that's why the adventure length is 3 days? You probably want to have 2 fights, a few cool other scenes (watching other fights, friendly sparring with Tino's Toughest, introduce Lightkeepers) and then on to the next book.

And the big picture structure (where you could be challenged at any time) pushes groups to stay healthy and avoid conflict.

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Given length of the book available and the overall flow of the optimal play group that's probably right? Most groups kinda rush through, DM handwaves xp and you're on to the next book. It's a martial arts movie and you're just setting up the "serious contenders" for the "real tournament".

The whole place has a (fairly deliberate?) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Isle_of_Dread vibe (the name, hexploration, etc). Also, really big monsters romping around and causing chaos is a sub-theme (which is expressed fully at the end of book 2).

There's also a shonen battlemanga thing where you have a lot of colorful antagonists to introduce. The ideal (though tricky) thing to do would be to feature most of the enemy teams at least once on the island.
They could seeing the enemy team
-in a match or other challenge
-on the first scene on the beach
-in passing as they move around the island
-challenging the enforcers?

I tend toward more simulationist/completest vibes, I like option-ful sandboxes for PCs to explore and I'd like to see the PCs get a chance to explore the island.

Also it would be nice to have some ups and downs. Maybe the PCs don't win every battle? If the Lightkeepers get their last feather off the PCs and they have to catch up to advance it's probably set them up nicely as rivals?
(I'm not usually particularly heavy handed, but that kind of thing seems like it would increase tension).

I'm thinking about making the tournament time longer? Maybe a week?
(In my game I'd probably actually handwave it a bit but I realize some groups probably don't go for that style of play).

I'm generally quite happy with Book 1 (I haven't really gotten into Book 2).

I think a "typical DnD group" is pretty into (or has some members who are strategic enough to focus on) optimization. I feel like it breaks out

Over the next 2 days they need ~7 feathers a day; so...
day 1
- Challenge someone, bet 3 feathers (presumably win)
- avoid getting challenged after that
day 2
- Challenge someone, bet 3 feathers (presumably win)
- get another feather*
- turn in immediately

*The DM "gives" them another feather; most likely
- using the Lightkeepers event to set them up as "very powerful"
- rewarding a PC who goes off an explores with a feather
- saving another team or else getting a feather from them
- R2 - falsifying feathers, etc

They're done. (probably 1-2 levels behind and they've missed most or all of the cool stuff on the island).

You can see more optimization.
--It'd better to scout out other teams during the day somehow, and challenge them in the evening after their bouts.
--Its better not to say in your base where people can find you, etc
--There is a lot of free treasure sitting around the island but that's not signposted anywhere in the setting (still if people find an item while wandering around they'll probably be encouraged to do more of that)
--Others?

Some of the optimizations push people to get out of their base and explore (and let DMs offer them encounters that let them be heroic, and get xp).

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What do other folks think?

When I go to the Ruby Phoenix section of the digital downloads it has AV downloads instead.

I have a screenshot, not sure how to attach.

In order to run PFS in meat space I think you need to be registered with the VC in your area.

My kids are prevailing upon me to run a game. There was an old list (https://paizo.com/organizedplay/coordinators) on the forum but the website just crashes when I try to load it.

If it matters we are located in the Bronx and could play in either Manhattan or the Bronx. I've run and reported a few sessions online.

The monster is a stealth creature so I don't want to ruin it. To be clear I've avoided reading about it (since I'm a player in these games) so the creature stats I'm quoting below might be slightly off.

Name

APs that I've run into it

The problem

The (understandable appeal) to the writer (supposition on my part)

Alternative suggestions

There may not be a perfect replacement (it's pretty iconic) but...

If I have a wizard with the Magaambyan Attendant dedication, are they considered to have access to the Primal Tradition for the purposes of using a Wand/Scroll of a spell on the primal list? (e.g. heal)

Sorry first time DM. I asked in the discord channel but didn't get any answers. I also skimmed the GM section of the wiki page (http://www.organizedplayfoundation.org/encyclopedia/pathfinder-2-0-gm-basi cs/) but it's not clear to me.

When you fill out your "gm" credit sheet, for your character do you need to put anything "on" it? (you do get GM forms for one of your characters right?)

Is that character included in the Event Reporting Form? (assume no but)

A fair number of dedications, feats, etc have regional access limits (you need to be from absalom to be a pathfinder agent, etc).

I recalled hearing (on stream?) that these were "for flavor". For example people who were homebrewing could just use them without worrying about the regional restrictions reflecting that some higher level of power than options that didn't have regional requirements.

I've recently run into an alternative viewpoint (i.e. Pathfinder Agent or Magaambyan Attendant are "incredibly powerful" dedications that paizo is balancing using "harsh requirements" for roleplay).

Does anyone recall anything from paizo going one way or another?

It's the new shiny. There are some people who say that starfinder development was a "lab" for 2e development. (I'm sure it influenced it).

Obviously pieces of the system interact but assuming you can handwave away the boring 2nd order effects (e.g. if you make crits more common crit effect needs to be weaker / monster hit points need to go up) what would you like to see.

Personally
Choice based attribute creation (e.g. lifepaths)
Simplified action economy
Critting on high rolls and failing on low rolls (Starfinder spends time developing crit effects for weapons and fusions that don't come up (relative to the amount of ink they get in the book) )
Being able to invest actions into spells (there is a nod in this direction with magic missile in SF RAW but it would be nice to see more)

What are yours?

Just skimmed the pathfinder rpg alpha. I do realize it's an alpha.

Am very favorably impressed with the wizard item option. Even if I didn't want the extra spell (huh? OK. Pretending that was true) I'd like the item bond because of the flavor from using it (and losing it making you lose your spells).

Very cool.

The specialization options, where you -can- cast anything but you can't use your extra powers to the max if you're prepping opposition spells, is also cool.

I -do- think that the extra spells per level need some work. Enchant get's power word kill? I just don't see it.
I know making up new/better versions of things like charm is more work, but it supports the flavor better.
(i.e. I don't mean better like more powerful)

Also, the conjurer power that gives a significant free bonus to AC seems vastly more "bang'n" than the other abilities (+ a few points to a few skills? X resistance 10?).

Love the cleric's option to do a "healing bomb" with turning. I would do more work on Clerics though trying to make healing less cumbersome for them.