As one of my initial posts, and a way of introducing myself, I thought I would explain how and why I am now using Pathfinder for my roleplaying needs.
Over the past 25 years I have played and read many a RPG system. My preferred campaign genre has now become urban fantasy and I have been trying out various systems with that in mind. I had settled with GURPS for a few years but found out that I ended up with more of a simulation than the roleplaying game I was after. After a while it had become more of a chore than a game. A sure indicator that it was time for a new system. I bounced around a bit looking at various systems and put in a fair bit of time into a few such as Shadowrun, The Dresden Files and the HERO System. None of them did it for me. The HERO System came close but I just didn’t want to spend the time and effort required to get it to the stage I require. I need a RPG that is consistent and with just the right amount of abstraction.
When D&D 4e came out I tried it out and ran a few games. Soon I discovered it just didn't have what I need. To me a RPG system needs to let me tell the story and for that its mechanics need to somewhat approach reality so that they help in the suspension of belief and thus envelop the players in that story.
A few months ago I picked up Spycraft 2.0 and Fantasy Craft. I was going to use Spycraft for my core rules and add fantasy elements from Fantasy Craft. I decided I wanted some ideas for the fantasy part and I stumbled upon Pathfinder, mainly focused on Golarion as an alternative planet the players could visit. The amount of campaign material available for Golarion is amazing!
As time went on curiosity got the better of me and I browsed through the Pathfinder Core Rules PDF that I picked up when purchasing the campaign setting. That's where my problems started. Spycraft gave me my modern roleplaying aspect I needed but then there was Pathfinder that, to me, gave me a more consistent and solid rule set. Damn, Pathfinder had spoiled Spycraft for me. Even though Spycraft had excited me and made roleplaying fun for me again after many a year, Pathfinder exceeded even that. Yeah, I am one happy GM that has found his holy grail of roleplaying.
I realise that Pathfinder isn't much different from D&D 3.5 but I think it is those little things that make it a great rule set plus I have all that d20 material I can utilize.
My choice in Pathfinder doesn't come without a price. As I mentioned above my preferred campaign genre is urban fantasy. My primary campaign setting, you could say, is a bit twisted. One part Dresden Files, one part The Lords of the Ring, a shake of Harry Potter and a dash of conspiracy. So initially I am going to run a pure fantasy campaign to learn all the Pathfinder rules. Then after that in my spare time I plan to add my own house rules, borrowed heavily from Spycraft, to allow me to play the urban fantasy game I want. A bit of a chore, but I must be honest, it's something that I am looking forward to. As much as I look forward to many years with Pathfinder.
So a big thankyou to all involved with the Pathfinder RPG. You have done a great job!
Paizo did us a big favor. Pathfinder is a tweaked version of 3.5, but it allows for better character customization and more powerful characters overall. As a player, I can make the character I envision, enjoy roleplay and still be strong enough to get the job done.
And, yes, my giant stack of 3.5 books can still be used. A big plus.
Welcome aboard!
My journey has been remarkably similar to yours. 20+ years with a wide variety of systems, including GURPS, HERO, many versions of D&D, many versions of Shaodwrun, etc.
Although GURPS or World of Darkness would be my first choice for urban fantasy, depending on the story I'm trying to tell, I can definitely understand using Pathfinder. It's the best version of D&D yet, has very low barriers to start-up, and minimal bookkeeping compared to many other systems.
I'm curious, what alterations are you considering to adapt Pathfinder for a modern setting?
Although GURPS or World of Darkness would be my first choice for urban fantasy, depending on the story I'm trying to tell, I can definitely understand using Pathfinder. It's the best version of D&D yet, has very low barriers to start-up, and minimal bookkeeping compared to many other systems.
My urban fantasy campaign vision has high fantasy elements (ie, tons of magic) that Pathfinder does extremely well. Other systems have usually let me down with inconsistant or illogical rules or require too much work to get going. I suppose it's a personal preference but I feel Pathfinder gives the right amount of abstraction and still allows me to tell the story in an immersive way.
I'm curious, what alterations are you considering to adapt Pathfinder for a modern setting?
Main addition would be wounds. Here are some notes that I am keeping with thoughts on how I will be doing it:
------------------------------------------------------------
A ‘Wild’ d20 is thrown at the same time as the normal attack roll d20. This wild dice, a different color, is used to confirm critical hits and also to confirm a wounding hit.
Wounds happen if:
- On an attack roll both d20s (the attack roll d20 and the wild d20) hit.
- If a hit is automatic but the target receives a saving throw, a wound happens if both d20s fail the save. An example is a Fireball attack.
- If a hit is automatic and the target gets no saving throw then wounding is automatic. This happens for falls and magic missile.
When wounded make a stun check, modified by the current wound level.
The Wounding Divider (WD) is equal to the target’s (CON/4) + size modifier. Round down, minimum of 1. The size modifiers are: Fine –8, Diminutive –4, Tiny –2, Small –1, Medium +0, Large +1, Huge +2, Gargantuan +4, Colossal +8.
Divide the total damage by WD dropping all fractions. This is the number of wounds the target takes.
At the end of turn where you have a wound and you were active roll a d20. If the roll is equal to or less than current wound level then take 1hp damage. If you were not active, roll once per hour.
If you are wounded take a penalty equal to your total wounds to any action or saving throw you perform.
All wounds remain until all hit point damage is healed.
------------------------------------------------------------
At the moment this wounding system is a concept. I expect it will need a bit of tweeking to get it right.
In my campaign, the vast majority of people on Earth are muggles and do not know or believe magic exists. The players have characters that are awakened and use magic to battle the monsters others do not see. For these muggles I need to bring in rules for guns and explosives and will use Spycraft (1st Edition) for inspiration. Electronic/electrical equipment will be susceptible to the effects of magic and will, in some cases, be replaced by MagTech devices.
So from this I will have to add a few skills and feats. Haven't really thought of the details yet but am thinking that for feats I will allow an extra feat at every 4th level that deals with MagTech.
With money I was thinking of converting real money, something on the lines of $1=1cp, $10=1sp, $100=1gp.
It's been quiet a few years since I have dabbled with d20 (D&D 4e doesn't count) so it will take me a while to get intimate with the rules. I am looking forward to playing a standard fantasy campaign with Pathfinder over the next few months. After that I am hoping to dive in and flesh out all the rule details I need for my urban fantasy campaign.
|
I had the same experience, I was playing 4E, and gave up after playing pathfinder once--the books are beautiful, apparently the changes from 3.5 to PF are small but substantial (never played 3.5), I think where Pathfinder really stepped up and made the product shine is in the organization of the information. Reading 3.5 rules on character creation made me give up, with Pathfinder, I had a working character in 30 minutes. Good stuff, and I hope they keep it up for years to come!
Me and my friends have been playing since the late 80s. We like pathfinder not because of the rules (though they are good if you like the crunch), but because we like the adventure paths. We like the direction you have gone with making prestige classes less desirable for min/maxing purposes. We use a very tiny subset of the rules of pathfinder to keep a more B/X feel for the game and simplify the critters alot. So keep up the good work on making adventures. Though a rules light basic game would be greatly appreciated.
I would like to add that I think the adventure paths and modules may be the best written ever in RPG history. Though we tone the magic items down alot and still use 1E/2E magic item creation rules. Amulet of Natural Armor... never!
I too have too many years of experience :) I started with the Red Box when I was in the 3rd grade.
After trying many different systems (some good, some great, some bad, some bad enough to turn your stomach!) I settled down with D&D3.0 when it first came out. Then into 3.5 for it was an improvement. When Patfinder came out, during Beta, I was hooked. It was all of the good things about 3.x *plus* it is so much cleaner (CMB/CMD is the biggest single point of clarity the system brought :) )
Enjoy!
GNOME
I too have too many years of experience :) I started with the Red Box when I was in the 3rd grade.
After trying many different systems (some good, some great, some bad, some bad enough to turn your stomach!) I settled down with D&D3.0 when it first came out. Then into 3.5 for it was an improvement. When Patfinder came out, during Beta, I was hooked. It was all of the good things about 3.x *plus* it is so much cleaner (CMB/CMD is the biggest single point of clarity the system brought :) )
Enjoy!
GNOME
I tellya Fisherdgnome (as another old timer), I really like pathfinder in concept, but I wonder why so many people feel they have to play the official way. There is alot of great stuff in all editions of the game. Take what you want, leave the rest. There is no wrong way to play (almost). That's really one thing I liked about earlier editions. There was really small core rules then tons of optional rules to allow players to customize the complexity/crunchiness of their game. I'm not really into tactical combat strategy or die rolls for NPC interaction. Our group nerfs it and play with alot of NPC interaction as we have done for decades. But their is still so much creative work done in pathfinder that I would I hate to ignore it. There is a fantastic crew of people who still understand plot development and interesting NPCs that can be placed in any setting or game. Kingmaker truly impresses me, my brother is DMing it now. Gives me the feel of Isle of Dread and building kingdoms in the Known World. Great job guys. I am rambling. But I think that the creation of memorable adventures is what makes an RP, not crunch. I don't think 20 years from now people are gonna talk about how they rolled a natural 20 or passed an acrobatics check to avoid an attack of oppurtunity, they will talk about how cool slaying the dragon was with their buddies. Just my rant.
Well I started playing back in the late '70's with original D&D and then AD&D, and burned out on it to go over to more free-form systems. After many different RPGs I tried 2e ... nah, still original with a little gloss on it. A few years later after a long sojourn with White Wolf, I tried 3rd ed ... and it clicked. Here was the edition I had been waiting for with a full skills system, feats, logical multi-classing ... I loved it and didn't look back.
Then 4e came out, and it cut back heavily on skills, feats, and multi-classing, the things I loved about 3e. It put in a universal system that made it feel (to me) that fighters were now casters and casters were now fighters! No thank you!
A friend put me onto Pathfinder just as the Beta test came out, and I ran with it because I could see my 3.5 stuff (and I had a LOT of it) would still be useful. Well, that's gathering dust now. All that 3.5 stuff has been largely superseded by the APG (I mean, the best bits of about a dozen WotC books in one Paizo book? seriously awesome), so I hardly need to touch it any more. When the Pathfinder main rules came out I didn't look back, and have started running APs as well (I previously ran Eberron, which is awesome but the APs are just to convenient and too good for time-pressed DMs to ignore).
My one stumbling point with Pathfinder was the lack of an updated psionics system, but Dreamscarred have solved that problem for me.
Welcome, Wzrd! I hope your sojourn into Pathfinder is enjoyable for you, and that you're able to carve out your genre-niche with the system!
As with Dabbler, I wasn't thrilled with the 4E skill/feat/multiclass changes; Pathfinder was a godsend for me. The APs are well-written and a breeze to run--I'm currently running Kingmaker, and really digging it.
Have fun! :)
D20 Modern by wizards of the coast has a nice bit of Modern Fantasy and Modern Spies and what not ;) You can still find it kickig around on EBay and on Amazon still has some :) That should help with making modern fantasy. But I am very happy with Pathfinder and would be happier if they were alreay converted to Pathfinder if I was going to do Modern :)
It's nice to see that others share the same appreciation to Pathfinder as I do. Initially I just browsed through the rules, focusing on areas that were important to me. Now I am in the read every page phase and have to say the more I get into the details the more I appreciate the clarity and consistency that the designers have put into the system.
I am looking forward to many years with the Pathfinder RPG and I expect many out there feel the same.