Sunderstone's page

But, I'm now looking elsewhere. Despite liking the themes, setting, and meta-story this AP seems just too broken. None-the-less, this discussion was still valuable for evaluating problems in other paths but, no path is 100% perfect.

I would disagree slightly. I love the theme as well. With some effort, this is now one of my top 5. Even if I leave the middle two books in, I'm pretty sure my table would love it with some minor modifications. Ditch any conquest points btw.

Apparently, the Dark Elves are not an option anymore.

As GMs, we can make anything options. I still play 1e anyway because of the flavor of 2e as well as the setting itself. 2e seems to be altered by RL situations too much for me. I could do a major rework of 2e Golarion but I like where the setting is at in 1e.

I started with the legendary D&D "Pink Box" (Moldvay 1981 or so). Played some B and X series modules, then jumped to AD&D beginning with the Slaver series A1-4, S4 the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, then S1 Tomb of Horrors.
From there it was 2E, 3E/3.5, skipped 4E, and tried 5E.

I consider 3rd edition to be a renaissance for the hobby, especially with the 3rd party boom. Quality products from Goodman, Necromancer and Green Ronin off the top of my head. From there I fell for the Dungeon Mag APs which later transitioned into Pathfinder.
 
Throughout the years we also dabbled into other games like Star Frontiers (Alpha Dawn, Knight Hawks, Zebulon's. We started a mercenary corp called the Dramune Connection in a long running campaign), Gamma World, TMNT (I somehow remember playing a Weasel), Ghostbusters, and a little Star Wars.

Most of my longest running campaigns were AD&D into 2E. Like ToEE/GDQ in AD&D, Ravenloft, Planescape, and the 1991 Forgotten Realms grey box kept us busy for years. We tpk'ed halfway through the Shackled City in 3E, but it was a long running campaign regardless.

Book 1:

Best Adventure- Souls for Smuggler's Shiv (Serpent Skull): First off, this fits in any campaign as a starting point (fantastic prelude to Skulls and Shackles btw, imagine getting rescued by the Wormwood). Great low-level monsters, some cool NPCs, and a starter dungeon all in one.

Second Best Adventure- Edge of Anarchy (Curse of the Crimson Throne): The start of this has been controversial semi-recently in the forums but it's easy to change for those offended GMs. Fantastic urban adventuring with very memorable NPCs like Burnt Offerings below.

Noteworthy Adventure- Burnt Offerings (Rise of the Runelords): This one needs no comment. Many consider this the gold standard; I agree somewhat but also disagree. From a sourcebook/adventure perspective, omg yes! That said, in both of my playthroughs of this volume, we barely met a third of the town beyond the Rusty Dragon and supply runs at Vinder's and Savah's. Everyone important knows where to find us LOL. One of my current players is an apprentice of Quink and even he comes to see us at the Inn most of the time. No fault of the adventure mind you as the party dictates the pace, but it seems overkill to me so far. Besides for the Shayliss entanglement, there's not much reason to visit other parts of the town. My players love Sandpoint but it's because of Ameiko, Hemlock (a pc is a fellow Shoanti and town guard), Quink (a player's mentor), and Shalelu (who is not even a resident).

Book 2:

Best Adventure- Seven Days to the Grave (Curse of the Crimson Throne): CoCT is by far the best of the urban campaigns (when comparing to Legacy of Thieves, Hells Rebels/Vengeance, Shattered Star, etc.) IMHO. This one has great NPCs and enemies reminiscent of Burnt Offerings among other great set pieces.

Second Best Adventure- The Skinsaw Murders (Rise of the Runerlords): The haunted Foxglove Manor is worth the price of admission alone.

Noteworthy Adventure- Curse of the Lady's Light (Shattered Star): The first low-level killer dungeon by Mike Shel IMHO, if you're like me and thinking along the lines of ToH and Mud Sorcerer.

Book 3:

Best Adventure- The Varnhold Vanishing (Kingmaker): I don't think we need an explanation here. Great mystery, awesome lore to discover, etc. They tried to repeat this in Ruins of Azlant but threw a junk ball there.

Second Best Adventure- The Hook Mountain Massacre (Rise of the Runelords): A very complete adventure. Raid an Ogre homestead, liberate an occupied Fort, save the region from an intentional disaster, etc. Solid from beginning to end.

Noteworthy Adventure- Assault on Longshadow (Ironfang Invasion): Think new and improved Book 1 of Ironfang but with options this time! Instead of a tickets for the "Fleeing Railroad", you can now prep for the invasion and win or lose the town all in your own "What If?" comic book.

Book 4:

Best Adventure- Ice Tomb of the Giant Queen (Giantslayer): Frost Giants! Undead Frost Giants! This one made me feel some vibes from "Ancient Blood" by Grant Boucher in Dungeon Magazine #20 (1989). Adding most of this into my ROTR home campaign.

Second Best Adventure- Endless Night (Second Darkness): The closest we got to D1-2: Descent into the Depths of the Earth, and D3: Vault of the Drow. A great Darklands/Underdark romp. I miss Schneider's stuff.

Noteworthy Adventure- Valley of the Brain Collectors (Iron Gods): Mike Shel is an old favorite of mine since Mud Sorcerer's Tomb (spiritual successor to Tomb of Horrors) back in Dungeon magazine. All of his work is gold IMHO. That said, in my campaigns all Mi-Gos are replaced with Illithids which fits this particular campaign well considering the old Spelljammer stuff.

Book 5:

Best Adventure- Into the Nightmare Rift (Shattered Star): Great mix of enemies, powerful dragon, and some Leng on top. Great high level adventuring and it works great in almost any campaign. I'm using most of this in place of Runelords #5 in my regular Runelords game.

Second Best Adventure- Skeletons of Scarwall (Curse of the Crimson Throne): I agree that it's Paizo's best mega-dungeon volume of any AP while still remaining relatively self-contained (You could end other campaigns with just this book with a little modification). Also, I could do without the Orcs in the beginning. Books 2 (Shel) and 4 (Leati) of Shattered Star are awesomesauce too in their own right but they feel more like the chapters they are.

Noteworthy Adventure- Rasputin Must Die (Reign of Winter): Normally, I'm against mixing my fantasy with our earth type of stuff but this AP grew on me after reading it. Plus, it's Brandon Hodge who has become a personal favorite of mine.
Honorable Mention- Prisoners of the Blight (Ironfang Invasion): Had to add this. Book 5 of any AP is usually the weakest volume for me, but this one has a solid mix of stuff that I may cannibalize into Kingmaker book 5.

Book 6:

Best Adventure- Sound of a Thousand Screams (Kingmaker): Awesome Planar adventure and a fitting endcap to the campaign.
Second Best Adventure- Shadows over Gallowspire (Carrion Crown): If Tomb of Horrors had a baby with Skeletons of Scarwall, you would get something like this. Great high-level adventuring and yeah... Hodge again.
Noteworthy Adventure- Sanctum of the Serpent God w/The Thousand Fangs Below (Serpent Skull): Both volumes are on big chapter to me. A great endcap culminating in a lost city. I hate Urdefhan, so I replaced them with Drow which scratches the old school itch.

*** I want to mention all of Tim Hitchcock's stuff is gold too. But I didn't want to go too far into honorable mentions. Kingmaker 1, Reign of Winter 3, and Iron Gods 5 off the top of my head atm.

It's an interesting choice for this AP, but it does drop sharply after the first book and picks up again somewhat at the end during book 6, to answer your first question. That said, having the Medium's haunt channeling ability is a boon to survival in book 1.

I'm not too familiar with the occult book classes beyond skimming through when I got the PDF, but I think it's a cool concept overall with an archetype that can give you some of two Occult classes.
Unfortunately, it's also a diminishing investment, compared to the much more effective Medium (able to act during the haunt's surprise round is amazing), Psychic (Will of the Dead makes this class king of the Occult classes in this AP), or to a lesser extent, Spiritualist (needs the right DM and planning but could be huge).

In a similar situation, I have a player in the CC game I'm running with a Witch. It's thematically super cool when thinking about the supernatural aspects of CC. The problem is that it's been nearly useless when fighting undead.
With the exception of a single hex that works, all the remaining hexes and most of the spell list of the class don't do much vs. Undead. While the AP isn't entirely comprised of undead, a large part of it is. There are also other creatures immune to the mind affecting abilities of the Witch without getting specific and entering spoiler terrain.
He wants to switch to Cleric this week before we begin book 2 in two weeks.

PF1.
As stated above, there are almost limitless options for just about any character concept.
The crunch of the ruleset is another plus, this might not resonate with others but it's fine for my groups. It streamlined/fixed some flaws with 3e/3.5 like skills, energy drain (iirc), etc. Grappling is still clunky though.
Additionally, it's easier to adapt other mechanics from other rules like 5e like adding a single short rest per day which has had an impact.
The setting is what you want it to be. Anything can be added or dismantled without being a huge modification.

What I don't like.
The emphasis on the tactical but that's been an issue since 3e. Feats and rules built around needing to stop and break immersion to draw a map for every room to figure out AoOs, flanking, etc.
As we get older our gaming times get a little shorter. We don't religiously play every week like we used to. Thankfully, both of my current groups are ok with skipping average encounters being mapped out. We do use maps for important encounters, boss encounters, or other encounters that might rely on a more tactical view. The rest happens in theater of the mind although I do show them room shapes/size on maps during combat to help with mental imagery.
A dungeon heavy AP (like Shattered Star for example) would take years to complete mapping every single room.

That said, I see alot of people griping about min-maxxers/optimizer. That's more of a group dynamic thing. Thankfully my groups are more about concepts. After 47 years of on and off gaming I've had one or two optimizers, some even troublesome enough to try imposing limits before the group ejected them. In my experience, these optimizing players seem to pop up more with younger players though some of my former players from the old days never outgrew it. I just tell them I don't play anymore when they ask about getting a game together.

I bought a few PF2 PDFs when it started but there's a few things I don't care for. The setting also seems to be based on a Tar Baphon blew up the world beginning (at least to me in a nutshell). Anything could be edited to suit my taste but the setting feels irrevocably changed and I prefer Golarion of old. It reminds me of the RSEs of the Forgotten Realms when every Tom, Dick, and Harry wrote a novel changing canon that was reflected in future sourcebooks that turned older books into paperweights.
Setting growth is cool, but I'd rather it be penned by our groups deeds or any creative GM tinkering. The term "in my Golarion" is key.
Smaller issues like Goblins as a starting race (don't mind the occasional player picking one, that's what the ARG is for), and some other things round it all out.
Between 5e and PF2, I'd pick 5e as better at bringing in new folks. Aside from the atrocious CR system from a DM standpoint, players have an "I win" button reducing difficulty at lower levels which makes newbies taking so much time and effort creating a character worth it. They did a great job making this hobby mainstream and approachable. The advantage/disadvantage system ends some bad luck rolling streaks which is an impressive feat, but doubling the d20 rolls is meh to me. Also the stat progression ends any thoughts I might have had on maintaining a decent enough balance to the game. 5e feels too high powered to me.

My main game is a small group of four (myself included) that recently reconnected. Two were veterans from my old days playing AD&D/2nd edition, the third is a longtime friend that joined us in the waning days of 2E D&D. We meet twice a month at one player's house.
We are a session or two from wrapping up book 1 of a heavily expanded Runelords using parts of Giantslayer weaved in, and replacing most of book 5 with "Into the Nightmare Rift" (Shattered Star 5). Book 6 will be merged with book 6 of Giantslayer as well. I'm aiming for an old school GDQ feel, maybe minus the Q.

Book 1 started with a mashup of "We be Goblins" and part 1 of the "Brinewall Legacy" (Jade Regent 1) as a Prelude insteasd of directly from the festival. In short Zantus was overdue from Magnimar bringing back butterflies for the festival, and Ameiko's pal Aldern Foxglove was supposed to hitch a ride with Zantus on his way back, so there were technically two to rescue, etc.

My 2nd group is Carrion Crown with 6 of us meeting for an extended weekend B&B meetup we do every January (we are old guildmates from World of Warcraft that have been together since launch). One of us is my player from the regular game, the others are all from different states, except one who drives in from Canada.
We tried 5e and Pathfinder. They chose Pathfinder. This is our 5th meetup.
We started CC last year and are about to begin book 2.

Some Spoilers (players beware)

This AP has moved to my top 5 from being near the bottom for years, but needs some heavy lifting on the part of the GM, IMHO.
Part of this might depends on your age. I'm a fan of the old pulp books and Tarzan movies. I also like all kinds of Jungle adventure movies, probably due to the exotic locales. The colonialism while a part of this era can be written out if you want it to be. You can turn this into an earlier "Wakanda" (as an example) with any of it's peoples trying to unify all of the Mwangi Expanse, some people like the Bekyar by force in service to their demon queen or whatnot. Replace the colonials with the most powerful faction of Mwangi people.
Or...
Discuss some things with your players before hand and tell them what the campaign focus is supposed to be despite some of the potential pitfalls. You can allow and plan for them to help free slaves, seed revoulution from time to time etc. as potential side treks, but explain that it's not the focus of the campaign and there's a deeper story here.

I wasn't a fan of this AP when it was released for more "mechanical" (for lack of a better term) reasons, despite the 1st book being so good. I originally planned for Shiv to be run as a "zero level" prelude to Skull and Shackles instead using an updated version of Goodman Games zero level rules in 3.5.

My issues with the AP were...
1) Too many factions, as well as castaways. I was looking to keep 2 or 3 castaways only as well as maybe 2 factions.
2) The City of Seven Spears discovery is kind of an ending in itself and then it's a "fooled you" kind of thing leading to another hidden city below ground. After finding one hidden city, finding another one below ground is a little bit anticlimactic,IMHO.
3) Book 4, Vaults of Madness feels like an add-on pack for Book 3 which is ok, but I'd use maybe 3 Vaults only and definitely use maybe one insanity check every few hours and only for prolonged exposure.
4) Books 5 and 6 are technically one long book cut in half by page count limits, which is perfectly fine. However, I really hate the Urdefhan. Maybe it's the semi-Hellraiser look and feel, I don't know. I just don't care for them.
In a nutshell (and slight tangent), I have a long text file replacing every Urdefhan with Drow from a fallen and exiled house (IMC, House Rasivrein) using the super useful Monster Codex. Rasivrein needs the city for a new home/base of operations and wants to try and control the serpent god and direct it to Zirkaynan later as a vengeance plot.

Overall, jungle exploration, hidden cities, cannibal savages, dangerous environments, etc. ticks a lot of boxes for high adventure. The colonialism virtually vanishes after the second book anyway. It all becomes about the exploration of hidden cities and preventing a major catastrophic event.

It's pretty generous giving 5 out of 5 for a "skeleton of an adventure".

Some of us prefer to add some personal touches, but I can see that some might not want to do the extra work.

@Dudemeister... Thanks for the response.

https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2n1gf?Adventure-Paths-End-The-part-6s-that-do- not#21

Well worth the thread Necro

Spoilers here.....

You can use Book 5 of the Shattered Star AP " Into the Nightmare Rift".
1) it has a band of Fire Giants in it. I'd replace the other Hill giants with more Fire Giants though of appropriate CRs.
2) Change Guiltspur to a long forgotten Dwarven sky citadel lost to the ages. Maybe back then a rogue Dwarven mage was experimenting with foul magic that led to opening a gate to leng? Who's to say the Demi-Lich wasn't the same Dwarven mage?
Your Dwarven players would likely be famous for finding/cleansing it and returning it to their people.
They could also defend it from Fire Giant reinforcements until a Janderhoff contingent of soldiers arrives to fortify it if you want to play out such a battle.

Dramatis Personae
1) Cole the Seer, Human Kellid Oracle of Life. Sixth son of a Sixth son believed to be cursed, dumped on the doorstep of the Pharasmin temple at Clover's Crossing before the fated night destroying the village and it's only survivor. He's haunted by that and sees "dead people". ;) Taken in by the professor for a time while they tried unsuccessfully to unravel his "mystery" and why he alone survived.
2 and 3) Halifax and Ash, Dhampir brothers. Haslifax is an Inquisitor (Kinslayer) of Pharasma that despises his nature. Ash is a (Hungry Ghost) Monk that embraces his nature and superiority. Both feared and reluctantly trained at Garvecharge, at the professor's request as well as Loren's (see PC #3) advocacy. Both exiled from Gravecharge as Ash's abilities started to manifest resulting in injuries to other students.
Halifax headed back to the professor not wanting to see his brother ever gain. It's been 20 years or so since they have seen eachother.
4) Loren, Middle-aged, semi retired Paladin of Pharasma, and former basic combat instructor at Gravecharge in Lepidstadt. A native of Clover's Crossing that trained acolytes at Gravecharge for three months or so a year. The destruction of his home town occured while he was serving at Gravecharge. Guilt follows him as well for the loss of his family. A good friend of the professor.
5) Razula, (an escaped) female elven witch of a forced coven in Irrisen. Marked and Hunted by one of the seven (See Irrisen for details). She abandoned the other two captives as well. Taken in by Niska Mvashti (RotR) for awhile until a greater Shadow was dispatched to kill her from Irrisen. Niska fought it off and decided to send her into hiding with her old friend Professor Lorrimor in Ustalav.
5) Corbina de'Stejar, female (sort of Human) Wizard (Universalist). No memories prior to teenage years when she was found in the woods near Hyannis (after escaping a certain asylum in Carrion Hill) by a traveling circus (The Crooked Kin). Placed into care with Horace Croon for awhile before "Uncle Horry" thought the professor could teach her more at Lepidstadt.

What I did...
1) Threw trust points out the window. I went with a more "Ravenlofty" approach to earn the townsfolk trust by the PCs actions instead. This earned our Monk a hefty discount when he had to repair one half of a broken Butterfly Sword (Gray Oozes are bastards to equipment) at Jorfa's Forge. She was grateful that the party minimized the damage to the town square where her forge was located.
I also changed the name of the town to Ravenhome. Ravengro was a terrible name IMHO.

2) Planned to run the Fiddler's Lament plug-in from Legendary Games (Necromancer staff) but decided against it at the last minute because it seemed too "busy".
This add-on is supposed to take place in a single night, and kind of felt like any average night encounters afterwards would be calmer. My players already noticed an escalation of encounters with Haunts, Undead, Stirges, Possessions, etc.
The add-on seemed more like a culmination with the Rebec Malevolante player as a BBEG. I did "Steal" Rufio as a Pharasmin acolyte/assistant to Father Grimburrow. My player's sort of adopted him.

3) Skipped the Burning Town Hall encounter, this would have either been too complicated tactically and taken too long, or way too quickly as beheaded are just too weak in general.

4) Omitted Father Charlatan completely (as well as his two lines in the skipping song) and ran with 4 main haunts/undead instead of 5. I put an Allip in his room instead as a party favor.
a) He didn't really fit with the other ultra-violent main antagonists.
b) His mechanics were overly complex and I didn't want to have one of my player's lose control of his character this early in the game, even temporarily.

5) Replaced any ectoplasmic encounters with Lesser Shadows from the Tome of Horrors/Fiddler's Lament plug-in.

6) Major: adjusted most of the encounters (if not all) to better challenge a six-character party.

7) Adjusted the Lopper in a cinematic sense. Gave him the creepy, high-speed tic-like gait instead of his floating/flying move.

What surprised me...
1) Kendra felt more like a footnote than a major NPC. After the will, the party was too busy with the investigations and planned encounters to have much interaction which went well regardless.
2) The party brought back some masterwork weapons and masterwork suits of studded leather as gifts for Rufio, the Sherrif, and his surviving deputies. One was killed by Gibs when two sat on watch detail as blood trails were tracked back to his house. One of the two posted deputies raced back to the town square to help with an off-camera "Restless dead" encounter distraction while the party was in Harrowstone. My players seemed to really like the NPCs.
3) Gurtis Vortch was a fantastically balanced encounter, possibly deadly to a 4 man-group.
4) The Mosswater Marauder was a fantastically weak encounter, a Let-down in it's purest form. He needed more HP as written and d4 damage per skull defeated instead of a d6.

What I would change...
1) In a melee heavy, non caster group, or a group like mine which was 50/50 Ranged/Caster to Melee/not alot of access to useful spells ratio. I'd drop a magical weapon or two earlier, BEFORE they enter Harrowstone.
Incorporeal creatures and Haunts = BAD to low level characters.
The Souls subdomain (Of Repose) was key here which our Inquisitor took. Without it my players would have likely crossed over into frustration mode as the magic weapons don't really roll in until well into entering the prison.

2) Reduce the amount of lesser restoration available so early. Between the wand and potions found, I would probably halve the number of charges in the wand. It's a tad overkill.

3) More Haunt Siphons (see #1 above). Haunts are mostly only susceptible to Positive energy.
a) Only our Paladin and Oracle could channel/LoH (yay!), Luckily we had them in our group. Other groups would be SOL. If your group is light on Positive Energy... add more Siphons!..... or die?
b) The same Paladin destroyed all the main antagonists items in the property room before they knew what they could do as they met Vesorianna after discovering them.
Alternatively, I'd have Vesorianna roam the main level instead of being anchored to doing permanent laundry, and have her meet the PCs before they find the property room.

4) Lock the west balcony entrance with a higher DC. My group rolled high enough to get in and that was their first foray into Harrowstone. Luckily, I removed the extra stirges from the mess hall during their encounter with the Piper of Illmarsh.

5) Have the Giant Stirge patrol the outside of the prison instead of tied to his location. My group had 6 characters, I added the fiendish template and buffed his HP. The group bypassed him completely.

6) The Splatter Man was a PITA encounter because all of the above and then some. On top of that I had to play him stupid because of his OP corruption touch (I'd have 3 dead melee folks if I played him right.
Additionally, having him attack and drop through a floor/wall/ceiling (even with the group getting AoOs), combined with him being incorporeal, the group being out of siphons, low on Touch of the Spirit World domain power, made this a super long, frustrating, cat and mouse game of epic proportions. I was actuually running out of spells for him.
Oh, his Summons were pathetic. Fiendish Dire Rats and a Fiendish Giant Spider later lasted less than a round. I recommend giving him back all his spells at least and reducing his touch to 3d4. Monks have d6 unarmed at this level, Splatty is no monk regardless of his level.

7) The Poltergeist encounter was creepy but weak AF. As they failed fear saves they ran straight for the exit. the slamming door haunt turned this into an "open door" nothing following them to the next time they opened the door to it being right there, oh s~~*e moment (I was also playing up the dark/unlit prison thing)

Overall great weekend for all, and they loved the campaign. So I guess I did my job. :)
Hope this summary helps anyone planning to run it.

A little thread necro...

My take on the Seugathi issue is why not turn the aura of Madness into a gaze attack instead of a continuous aura.

Good luck Ron!
I loved your entries in Ironfang Invasion and Ruins of Azlant the most. Looking forward to seeing what you do elsewhere.

Keiftu is no troll, and trying to project that on them is not cool. They asked a very valid question, and got an answer. Saying it is derailing the thread is what is going to wind up derailing the thread. Could have just not commented, and now there is a back and forth.

OR...

and Congrats to Jim. Always good to see folks from the TSR days.

There are a lot of usernames I don't see anymore, that bring about a pang of sadness when I'm reminded of them.

Do I make you sad?

I just lurk here.... in the dark....

@Dancing Wind
This law firm is in Garden City. It may be located in Nassau county but we Long Islanders consider Nassau a natural extension to Queens and NYC instead. ;)

So in the spirit of this thread and keeping with the OP...

Maybe we should petition Paizo to NOT shut down the forums, but instead petition for a new moderation team and a new Director of Community without any past experiences with former employees/subordinates.
This might have prevented some of this to begin with, and also would be cool to have more impartiality as to what's considered a debate with difference of opinions, as opposed to the current state of moderation.

On the state of problems Rysky and others might have and how to discuss them would have been a better title then.

Technically, your thread title is misrepresenting of your intentions, like click-bait with a metric crap ton of fine print apparently.

So... Apologies to you as I was mislead by the title. I will vacate the thread and run along.

It's not a personal squabble. It's my opinion of the Director of Community's heavy handedness. I'm perfectly on topic with the title of this thread.

I am on topic KC. "The state of moderation". I can't have an opinion?

To clarify, Tonya lobbied for and was given the Director of Customer Service and Community position. This was in effect a demotion for Sara. A few weeks later Sara was fired by Tonya. I quit when she was fired.

That's actually pretty damn crappy. Cheers for standing up despite the consequences of losing work. Hope you both land safely somewhere more employee friendly.

Sarcasm is easy to convey online , as is Snark. It's only hard to understand or see if it's someone that disagrees with certain points you may have.
At least that's par for these forums.

Shivok, that's how things work here apparently. I'm not one of the consensus btw.

Kudos Paizo. A good beginning!

Skeld wrote:

Tonya Woldridge wrote:

Removed a baiting post regarding posting policies, posts equating like behaviour to stalking, personally harassing posts, and a few other posts that were spam.

You say "baiting," I say "snarky humor." Then again, I'm not the one with banning powers.

-Skeld

You are absolutely right, and in a different thread, I could definitely go with snarky humor. In a thread about moderation, asking for better protections for the community, especially our trans members, it came across as combative and adding to the fire, hence the removal for baiting.

Maybe that should be an actual addendum in the community guidelines then.

"Snark or sarcasm is only allowed up to a certain point in any specific thread until Paizo (reserving the right) deems it excessive and becomes free to drop a banhammer on your collective heads".

@Twilight
People getting offended at the drop of a hat? check.
Trump establishes a cult or two (or at least has some pretty psychotic followers)? check.
This god awful pandemic crippling the economy and destroying some folks livelyhood as well as actual lives? check

These are some bad times for a lot of people across the board. I get out of bed just fine and go to work, but I'm a worry wart for friends and family.

I removed a large number of posts, starting with a baiting post about Paizo response and included quotes/replies and posting style messages. It is highly possible that fixing the issues raised over the past few months will mean products cost more. That isn't a reason not to fix the issues. As for not changing posting styles after a period of moderation. That will lead to more/final moderation, if the content continues to break community guidelines.

So sarcasm breaks community guidelines now?

Seems like hoarding gaming books you don't need is something you did in the past so I believe you can stomach a small price hike by not buying APs you'll never run or map folios.

I don't mind price hikes, Thankfully, I have a decent amount of disposable income for my hobbies. I don't know why you felt the need to link the stuff I sold off a while ago.

I consider that diversity not a problem, but a strength.

Agree on diversity, I never saw it as a problem anywhere else. I'm just voiced my opinion on the topic of the original post.

Thanks for the respectful response. :)

To the OP's thread title.

It isn't possible.
1) It's an internet TTRPG forum. The audience is way too varied personality-wise.
2) It's an internet TTRPG forum. Too easy to hide behind your keyboard. I imagine that some fans/developers have had experiences that might be considered "not so stellar" when meeting some folks here in RL at a Convention or similar venue.

You do bring up some great ideas with your toolboxes and in a perfect world it would be viable. I commend the effort to promote via positivity.

Apologies if I seem jaded, IRL I'm a little different.