I'm in a point in my life where a lot of good and bad things are happening simultaneously. I have been a GM for life, and until recently, had the chance to be a plater in the PbP section of the forums. My players and I are eager to jump back into action, but everything going on with me right now keeps pushing this back.
My strongest problems as of now are three:
-Lack of energy and time to prepare stuff (I know Adventure Paths are a thing, but right now, being a south american citizen and having other priorities in mind, I can't make the investment on them.)
-We are only three: my two friends and me, and I don't know how to make companion NPCs without making them completely useless or too powerful.
-We live in different countries, we play using Discord and Roll20.
I really want to jump back. I have many old PF1e Adventure Path Modules, some stuff like Hotspring Islands, and mostly OSR GM-less stuff like Mad Monks of Kwantoom. I just sit down, look at my stuff, and feel misserable, because I want to play but when I get home I just want to rest and do else...
Any ideas or tips?
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PF2 is a lot easier to just wing things with than PF1 was. Doing a 'wandering adventurers' game where you throw together a few encounters of appropriate level for the PCs to deal with (and a plot to string them together, obviously) is vastly easier than it used to be, and seems like it might well work fine if that's a style of game that appeals to you.
I'd be surprised if you couldn't do it with fairly pretty minimal prep time.
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I've been toying around with the idea of expanding out the more narrative-driving mechanics (fail forward, degrees of success, hero points) to help facilitate a more low-prep/theater of the mind game.
Disclaimer: This is a bit of a rules drift that incorporates design principals from some narrative storytelling games.
Rough Ideas:
* Story-Based Leveling[1]
* Play-To-Find-Out[2]
* Hero-Points-As-Fate-Points[3]
* Fail Forward[4]/Degrees of Success[5]: Apply to all kinds of activities (except maybe combat, depending on how much D&D-esque feel you care about retaining).
That stuff combined with Deadmanwalking's point about PF2 encounters being overall easier to execute on the fly should be doable with pretty low-prep.
I'm more than happy to do a deeper dive on any of this, if you like. =)
[1] PF2 Core Rules: Experience (Sidebar)
[2] Couldn't find a good reference, but the idea is that you plan a hook but not an end state. The decisions of the players and the way the world reacts to those decisions inform the narrative.
[3] Fate RPG: Declaring A Story Detail, Compels sections
[4] PF2 Core Rules: Adjudicating The Rules (Last bullet)
[5] PF2 Core Rules: Determine The Degree of Success