Search Posts
With respect to deafness, I'm sure some deaf players are upset about Sign Language being classified as a feat and not a language, or that a single sign language seems to span all ancestries and heritages. Is it so bad that Paizo tried to be inclusive and missed the mark? My friend Daniel (Deaf and an ASL instructor) loved the Sign Language feat, though he found it hilarious: "Wait. With this feat I would know ALL the sign languages associated with the spoken English language? Automatically? What a super power!" It was a given in his game that all characters would receive that feat for free.
This is a popular question, and it was answered in the Starfinder Wednesday thread by Jason Keeley and Owen KC Stephens! I will say that Starfinder APs do not feel shorter or less rich and complex. Generally speaking, each of the early AP volumes takes 3 4-5 hour sessions for my group. By the time we reach volumes 5 and 6, this tends to stretch out to 4 sessions per volume, as fights and story get a bit more complex by this point in the adventure. I think that you will not find the adventure length lacking! Hmm
Speaking as a GM whose current schedule did not leave me the bandwidth to read the Playtest, I was happy to run Lions of Katapesh for Playtest characters. Their players excitedly explained every aspect of their builds to me as we went, and I had great fun learning from them. The players got to playtest the gunslinger and inventor, and I got to experience their vicarious excitement and STILL learn about these Playtest characters while having a fun romp with lions and yummy goblin appetizers. Win, win!
Who are all of the members of Org Play Leadership, now? ORG PLAY WRANGLING Tonya Woldridge -- Venture Mommy
ADVENTURES Linda Zayas-Palmer -- Uber Leshy
TRANSFERS Michael Sayre and Alex Case have moved to the Pathfinder Design Team. ★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★ Congratulations once again to the amazing Mike Kimmel on joining the Organized Play Team. I am ever so proud of you! Hmm
Me too! Me too! Having Jenny as Datch join us in the special was awesome. I am also hoping to cross the 5 Nova mark in 2021. It's going to be a slow and wonderful climb! Hmm
What we really need is an adventure where Nigel takes a vacation, and we've been asked to curate the Museum full time in his place. Hmm PS There was one other November PF adventure released this month by Organized Play, Bounty #4: Cat's Cradle. It's short but sweet!
I'll echo Big Norse Wolf on Cornered Rat. Prepping that scenario was INSANE. I stressed out more on that one than I did on prepping Last Bite! Also... Whoa. Am I at my specials now? I may just need to do scenarios to complete the hat trick at this point. Note to Europe: I will be happy to do a Perplexity VTT for my European friends come December, once I am past some writing deadlines. (So long as you are willing to put up with a Google Slides table!) I am over the moon at this change! WOOOT! Hmm
I'm happy to say that Organized Play has been a huge part of my life for the past 4 years. I've made friendships, and my games have been a doorway to sanity during this pandemic. It was through OrgPlay that I became a Venture Officer, and then started slowly freelancing in the game writing world. Thank you for the stories, the good times, the occasional silliness and the joy! Hmm
I try to address the content as well, most of the time. (Sometimes even I hit a wall and just tell people to stop sniping. As TOZ notes though, It's remarkably ineffective to do that. But we all make mistakes.) :) Much more effective is doing a summary of the views expressed in the thread -- but with the insults and angst mostly snipped out. That allows everyone to know that they have been heard while taking out the grar, and let's the conversation continue in a calmer matter. But that takes a lot of time. So let's address the current question. Is it polite to tell people where to get the thing? I believe that in the old days of 1E chronicle boons, it was important to keep the secret and the surprise of the story. Now that most chronicle boons are showing up as an ACP option, I think the matter is moot. If someone asks us where to get that katana, I think we should tell them. Hmm
Hmm pauses for a moment, wondering if she is the tone police. I don't like the term 'tone police' because it imparts the concept that requesting a civil discussion is somehow silencing the opposition. I believe that maintaining civility is the exact opposite: 1) Being willing to assume the best of people, even when they're slightly grumpy. Maybe they had a bad day. Maybe this rule change has really hit them hard, emotionally. 2) Keeping the discussion pleasant, so that ideas are heard instead of insults. 3) Making these forums a welcoming place where newcomers decide that they can take the risk of posting and making their opinions heard. Civility is the best way to get your ideas across. When we snipe at each other, the discussion is no longer about the original topic -- it becomes about our own insecurities and personality clashes. So yes, I want us to be civil and awesome and understanding with one another. Even when there is nothing that we agree upon. Tone matters. It always has. Hmm
I don't understand why common options from non-core books have an extra hoop to leap through. I guess this will simplify my spell choices going forward. I'll just concentrate on core rulebook options for now.* It does bug me that the rarity system has become more complicated. Hmm *Yeah, I know I could spend some time doing the feats and spending the money to Learn the Spell, but it's one more thing that I really don't want to spend my limited bandwidth tracking. The extra complication bugs me, so I'll likely just treat those spells as if they don't exist for the moment.
Yep, there are lot of name changes. I suspect that some is because of copyright, because Pathfinder is no longer D&D 3.5, and should not use D&D's proprietary names. Some may be because the devs have rethought a name. Changing Polyglot to Mwangi made the language's name more specific and also more respectful -- suggesting that is not mashed-up mix of languages, but its own language in its own right. I have no idea why they switched Giant to Jotun when Dwarves still speak Dwarven and Elves Elvish, but hey... Jotun is an interesting sounding word. I'll adapt. Hmm
Are we reading the same forums? I see far more complaints than fannish exultations. I think we could do with a little more fannish exultation, personally. As an occasional Paizo freelancer, I know that it's really nice to receive positive feedback from time to time on my creations. I have my complaints about PF2, certainly. I miss simple wand healing. Heck, I miss simple wands. And I was certainly grumpy about regional languages being uncommon. But... I have to say the adventures are challenging and the stories fun. I am enjoying PF2, far more than I ever expected. Hmm
You don't have a profile for Kaenesuko, but I can tell that he's half-elf (thus human) and a rogue. The emissary background grants multilingual, and rogues get more skill feats than others. Also, humans get access to any languages of their region. Granted, for someone from Tian Xia, that list is currently... Tien. :/ But I'm hoping he can be salvaged long-term, regaining some of his losses. I really wish that we all didn't have to do this. Language choices may be an afterthought for some players, but for mine they've been story decisions based on my character's travels and history. Hmm
I don't like the idea of dismissing Lost Omens World Guide as a source, since I generally turn there first for inspiration when trying to give a regional spin to my character back stories. Even if you do dismiss it, the CRB stated that most regional languages can be found in Absalom. I am bummed that the language of the guide changed from regional languages being common choices to uncommon choices. It's affecting all of my character's language choices, since all four of my characters selected regional languages at creation that made sense to their back stories. I will now have to change those languages to the ones to which their ancestries provided access. I did notice that the CRB put regional languages as uncommon options, but with the guide listing them as common, I assumed that it was an uncommon option made available to Pathfinders (like Wayfinders or Kobold ancestry) because of our extensive travel. I am holding back on shuffling around Pip's languages for the moment because she is from Absalom, and there is some uncertainty on whether being from Absalom allows access to all the regional languages, as suggested on p. 12 of Lost Omens World Guide and p. 432 of the Core Rule Book. She's a Gnome polyglot linguist, which makes the process of disentangling her various languages more daunting then normal. My other three characters are going to have to have to adapt and shift out the regional tongues that I thought would be fitting to their backstories with ancestral ones, which in my mind is ripping out part of their personal backstories. I plea that the campaign reconsider the idea of granting common access to regional languages for Pathfinder Society agents. It fits the story of our world-spanning organization, and I don't think it breaks any game balance. Yours,
Cross-References Needed I'd like to see more cross-references in the guide with regards to Pathfinder Training to make the details easier to find. I had trouble finding where the information was, and I knew what I was looking for! If I was just reading the new Player Basics page, I would think that the only impact of choosing a school was the free consumable. To my mind, the more important impact of Pathfinder training is the actual training with lore and the free fifth level skill feat. I have to go to Character Creation to find out about those. On Field Agents I do like that field agents also get a free lore and skill feat now, which reflects that real world learning can offer different benefits from Pathfinder specific training. I do like that all four of the feats offered allow Field Agents a variety of ways to make the most of their downtime, or to focus more on their jobs. Those are four very appropriate feats to choose from! Hmm
The treasure bundle system doesn't punish people for playing up -- it's the entire PF2 rule system that does that because the math is so tight. Higher CR creatures are more deadly, and higher CR skill checks are so much harder to make. What the treasure bundle system does instead is take away the reward for playing up, which is a different beast altogether. I also like the schools system, and think that the simplified model will work better now that it is here. Hmm
|
