|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
One of the many things that I felt that the first core rule book of Pathfinder failed to do was to make the all the downtime and rules outside of killing monsters in the dungeon all that interesting or even have any. So here are some ideas of things I would like to see in the core book if we could.
First I would like to see rules for settlements, kingdom building and mass combat. If they are baked in the game from the beginning I think they can open up a lot of gameplay that we have grown used to, like the Kingmaker AP.
Secondly I would like to see the Boon/Woe for NPCs to be there in the beginning. I think this is a great tool for world building and making the connections with NPCs mean something. This would bring some of the fame and infamy rules from ultimate intrigue in addition, to make the actions that the PCs have are going to affect them in the world they are in.
Finally I would like to see some more different trials for the overland travel that are not encounters. From simple things like armour straps breaking and getting wet, to potentially more dangerous things like the group being afflicted by a disease or curse
Anyway those are some ideas, what do you guys think?
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I am leery about their defining aspects of the game like "downtime." Some times it is best just to talk without rolling dice or consulting the rulebook. I think kingdom building and mass combat could be nice additions, but that they would be better served with a separate book than in a small section of the crb.
The problem with downtime as rules is that a list of options can curb player creativity. It is the same problem with the combat system. Players have a list of choices: attack, move, cast spell, so they pick one instead of coming up with their own interesting ideas.
I really hope all classes get abilities which give them things to do in the Downtime phase better than other classes.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm not much of a fan of piling on mechanics onto "downtime". Downtime, almost by definition, involves the PCs doing nothing of interest or weight or consequence.
Consequently, my games tend to have little to no downtime. Downtime being relegated to the "time skip" function when there's literally nothing for the PCs to do than loiter around and wait for X amount of time.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm not much of a fan of piling on mechanics onto "downtime". Downtime, almost by definition, involves the PCs doing nothing of interest or weight or consequence.
Consequently, my games tend to have little to no downtime. Downtime being relegated to the "time skip" function when there's literally nothing for the PCs to do than loiter around and wait for X amount of time.
Then you can ignore it. I myself have had whole sessions which were effectively downtime.
I don't know if the PF2 CRB is going to be the right place for Downtime rules, I think we'd need a separate book to do it justice. Ultimate Campaign was great in that regard, but I think it can be expanded on it even more.
That said, I absolutely hope there will be a revamped Downtime, Kingdom Building, Mass Combat rules that come out early on. I have been using all 3 extensively in my Kingmaker campaign with a great amount success and engagement.
I don't know if the PF2 CRB is going to be the right place for Downtime rules, I think we'd need a separate book to do it justice. Ultimate Campaign was great in that regard, but I think it can be expanded on it even more.
That said, I absolutely hope there will be a revamped Downtime, Kingdom Building, Mass Combat rules that come out early on. I have been using all 3 extensively in my Kingmaker campaign with a great amount success and engagement.
"First up, we have broken play up into three distinct components. Encounter mode is what happens when you are in a fight, measuring time in seconds, each one of which can mean life or death. Exploration mode is measured in minutes and hours, representing travel and investigation, finding traps, decoding ancient runes, or even mingling at the queen's coronation ball. Of all the modes of play, exploration is the most flexible, allowing for easy storytelling and a quick moving narrative. Finally, the downtime mode happens when your characters are back in town, or relative safety, allowing them to retrain abilities, practice a trade, lead an organization, craft items, or recuperate from wounds. Downtime is measured in days, generally allowing time to flow by in an instant."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Please tell me that isn't a direct quote.
Then you can ignore it. I myself have had whole sessions which were effectively downtime.
The downtime systems in Ultimate Campaign could be ignored for those that didn't need or want them, and that was fine. Having what I can only assume will be a decent portion of the core book be relegated to something that I would then ignore is not an enticing prospect.
And if PF2nd's downtime mode is integral to the workings of the game, ignoring it may not be an option.
I'm also suspecting that our definitions on what constitutes as "downtime" differs.
|
I'm a huge, HUGE fan of downtime mechanics. From romancing NPCs to developing buildings and organizations to spell research to item construction to kingdom building to retraining and everything. I love it when PCs do things on their free time too and everything isn't just about the party in a dungeon. It just makes the characters come alive for me much much more.
Having said that, I think many of those rules would be best covered in Ultimate Campaign 2e. The CRB is gonna be pretty full as it is and I don't want downtime mechanics to be covered in a "we have to squeeze them into five pages" manner.
Downtime for Retraining is nice. Rolling revamped Multi-classing into DT would be cool, too (if they address multi-classing).
I know that I'm a lot more likely to use downtime mechanics than anything at high levels - if it was up to me everything above level twelve would get exiled to an epic level handbook or something. But I'm likely in a minority with that latter bit.
Of course, I do understand that there are space requirements and you have to triage. Healing, crafting, camping & wilderness logistics, learning and copying down spells, cultivating institutional relationships, and likely a few other things are on the essential end. All of the fiddly aspects of Ultimate Campaign could probably stand to be somewhere else, although it would be neat if the basics (if not the buildings, etc) of the kingdom sheet (or equivalent) make it in as part of the baseline expectations of what you might expect to interact with.
(FWIW, there was/is recently a huge Kickstarter for a downtime-focused 3PP 5e supplement, which - alongside the among-the-top-slots status Kingmaker always scores in AP popularity contests - indicates that there is demand for this sort of thing. And it was core in some versions of OD&D!)