| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It's not possible. The cake is simply too large to eat at one table.
That's how I run. Every book I own, which is most of the hardback non-setting stuff, several of the small softcovers, and two third party (PoW and SoP), and they're all available for use whenever I run.
I find it works pretty well, although my approach is to ask what kind of character they want to make, and suggest where they might start looking.
My group allows every first-party option on the SRD. We don't generally use the optional rules, but the scenarios they'd be useful generally just don't come up.
i run with the whole SRD, give or take some 3pp options
I basically allow everything on the PFSRD, and aditional material pending gm approval. I'm fairly liberal, because if someones to play the "let's break the game" game, core hasost of what they're looking for anyway.
I don't use Downtime and I hate Ult Intrigue and Ult Horror so I drop their various subsystems entirely. They're not worth the paper they're printed on.
The only subsystems I use with any frequency are Background Skills and updated poisons and diseases from Unchained.
I think most of the systems you mention are themed and require a specific set-up for them to work. For example, it'd be difficult to operate a business using the Downtime rules if a character is hoping all over the continent.
Ultimate Campaign has largely been a waste of time for me. I don't like the drawbacks mechanics, and I just cannot get my head around how the buildings/business thing is supposed to work. If my players have a downtime opportunity I prefer to let them tell me what they want to do and I'll either decide what happens or maybe make it into a short scenario.
Ultimate Intrigue and Ultimate Horror are on my shelves waiting to be read but from what I gather flicking through there are elements that might see use in my games once I have time to examine them more deeply.
Background Skills from Unchained are probably the most used change to the standard rules in my games.
It's not possible. The cake is simply too large to eat at one table.
I think as long as you scrape off some of the icing, it's fine. I ban one or two archetypes, and ignore most of the optional rules. Otherwise, all books open.
Although next game I run I want to ban the CRB (the classes) and see how it goes.
With regard to classes, feats, and spells I pretty much allow all of the hardcover books with certain exceptions from those books. Anything else is on a case by case basis.
As for as optional rules I allow traits, and retraining, and some thing from untrained. I don't do armor as DR or called shots.
As for how it shapes my games, it gives myself and the players more options.
I also have the advantage of having been GM'ing for since around 2004 or 2005, but even when I started 3.5 there were a ton of splat books out, and I caught on quickly.
Some people enjoy the game, but the options overwhelm them. My advice is to do what you think you can handle. There is no shame in saying "I don't want to allow ____", or "I would prefer if any one character only uses ___ amount of books".
While I own all of the "Ultimate" and "X Adventures" books, it's usually just me that uses them. My players will buy a book if they have a class they play in it, but that's about it. I also own several 3pp things that my players have utilized a little (DSP Psionics, for example and Path of War) but several of the Kobold Press things see action, though again it's mostly from my (the GM's point). My players are welcome to use any of it, but they usually just choose to stay with Core.
We use whatever with DM approval, and I personally let anything into my games. I don't think there is anything I would ban save that it isn't game-ruining cheese I've shown my fellow players how to do and for some reason they try and use that.
I don't use Downtime and I hate Ult Intrigue and Ult Horror so I drop their various subsystems entirely.They're very specific rules only fitted for very specific campaigns. The Sanity/Madness/Fear rules in Horror Adventure are great for horror games. I really can't see Strange Aeons being played without it (it just wouldn't be the same adventure).
But I'd never bother with those extra rules in any other kind of game where they're not one of the center pieces, take Rise of the Runelords, for example. There is no point in tracking sanity or apply madness when you're up against goblins.
Call me crazy but stapling sanity on to Pathfinder does not a horror game make.
Call me crazy but stapling sanity on to Pathfinder does not a horror game make.
I see what you did there.
Erm... pF Goblins are VERY good at making players lose their sanity
Sanity systems track the characters' sanity, not the players' sanity.
Thanks to all for the response
Yet let me clarify
I was hoping for info about how the different rules/books shape your campaign
Esp interested in Ultimate campaign and downtime rules
How do you use this in your campaign? How does it shape your story/adventureAnd with using the other books
How does using rules/classes shape and affect your story
For example Ultimate Intrigue, how have you added social encounters into the story/campaign?Ultimate horror? how have you added/used rules and guidelines to shape your story/adventures
And putting them all together
How do you use ALL the books/rules and let that shape/affect your story adventure of your campaignBut thanks to all for the response
I own only half the hardcover rulebooks, but I allow all the material available in the PRD and d20pfsrd. However, the only uses of Occult Adventures and Ultimate Intrigue so far have been me creating NPCs with the Medium and Vigilante character classes. None of us have even looked at Ultimate Horror.
My current Iron Gods campaign took an unusual twist that made Ultimate Campaign relevant. My players chose the Iron Gods adventure path so that they could play with the advanced alien technology. A few player characters were created with a gadgeteer inclination. Unfortunately, the technology was out of their reach at low levels, so they ended up active in mundane crafting instead.
I introduced the downtime rules from Ultimate Campaign so that an NPC party member could buy the gambling hall in their hometown for a base of operations. (My ulterior motive was that he was the second NPC adopted into the party, and I wanted to leave him behind in charge of their headquarters.) I needed to calculate the purchase price of Silverdisk Hall, and Ultimate Campaign gave me the numbers. But once I opened that can of worms, the party also built an out-of-town warehouse to hide their secret adamantine-smelting operation and an in-town workshop for weapon smithing and enchanting.
The rules for profit from the buildings don't matter, because the campaign will be over long before the profit is more than pocket change to the wealthy 11th-level characters. And the businesses are staffed with NPC former party members, Leadership followers, and old friends from their hometown so the loyalty of their employees is never in doubt.
One other factor came up. The player of the fighter is a newbie who discovered the joy of browsing forums and class guides to optimize his character. He is pulling obscure feats and magic items from all around Golarion. The player of the magus is more old school, and gripes that the fighter would not know of these obscure items from distant continents. The player of the gunslinger thinks that extra options bogs the roleplaying down in too many details, but understands that some people think that the crunchy bits are fun.
I was inclined to let the fighter's player have his fun, but when the fighter started stocking the party's new workshop with machinery from 17th century Europe, I had to draw the line. I had set the technology limit at 16th century. The player did his research and demonstrated that the machinery had actually been invented in the 16th century before spreading throughout Europe decades later. But once again, how did the fighter know of some obscure invention that existed in only one corner of Golarion? The line that I drew is that the fighter needed a +20 bonus in Knowledge(engineering) before he could copy tools and machinery from obscure sources. (The character has Knowledge(engineering) as a class skill due to a prestige class, so he can manage it if he invests skill points and a feat.)
I ran Kingmaker, which introduced the Kingdom Building rules (which are updated in UC) and had a good time with it, but honestly, I don't know that I'd ever want to do it again. The story of underdog heroes creating their own kingdom out of thin air has been played out by my group, and now they want to tell different stories.
Recently, I've been looking into the Buildings and Organizations rules for a mafia game I plan to run; I may use them, I may not.
But I think that, unless a GM's players are really interested in campaign-world level interactions moreso than adventure gaming (or at least on equal footing), you'll find that inclusion of one such system is more than adequate per campaign, and not necessary at all for most.
As far as UI and UH, they're really geared toward running a campaign or portion of a campaign with a specific feel. No need to include them in every game (outside of some potential character options), and probably doing so would make all your campaigns take on a very similar feel to each other.
I use everything at my table. All Paizo material is allowed along with a wide swath of third party products. I can understand some GMs wanting to limit the sourcebooks as it makes adjudicating the rules much easier.