I think you meant de-stressors, but in real life being in both taverns and churches make me feel distressed.Ewwww, people.
Well, obviously. But specifically those two places are ooky. One stinks and makes people stupid, while the other sells alcohol.
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Well, obviously. But specifically those two places are ooky. One stinks and makes people stupid, while the other sells alcohol.I think you meant de-stressors, but in real life being in both taverns and churches make me feel distressed.Ewwww, people.
Sorry, which is which?
I'm interested in dungeon delving/mega dungeons and prefer pf1, haven't played pf2 yet.
I like PF2E a lot, and the idea of fun delves that don't require huge commitment is a plus for me!
I'll throw out a wild card and say that having a rotating cast of characters works better for a system with a progression curve with less vertical, more horizontal growth.
In Pathfinder (especially at low levels), CR matters a lot. Given when/how unlucky a player is they could be stuck with characters that are pretty much completely useless for multiple delves, if those characters even survive the inevitable AoEs that kill them even if they save.
Playing a system like Savage Worlds (which does conveniently have a Pathfinder add-on) might work a lot better for having a rotating cast. It also has built-in rules for sanity and permanent injuries, so you get the "grim and gritty" feel with less homebrew. It makes it easier to justify a character sitting out a mission if they get their arm broken (or lopped off) on a mission.
Well... I'm already running with PF2e, building out the encounter tables for four separate delving sites with bosses for four tiers of difficulty so far.
I'm thinking about after I develop a random dungeon populating system as well, I might take a few interested players on a test drive.
Just jotting down some notes here, the process might look like:
-Generate the dungeon map, number the rooms and hallways
-For each room, randomly determine if: battle, treasure, curio, or empty
-For each hall, randomly determine if: battle, curio, hazard, or empty
-Generate monsters for each battle
-Generate each treasure
-Generate curios
-Generate hazards
Also spitballing some ideas for sanity/stress/madness system:
-You have a pool of Stress Points equal to 10+Wis+Int+Cha
-Certain experiences deduct SP: encountering an undead, aberration, or fiend, suffering critical hits and critical failures
-Certain experiences refill SP: Receiving healing, inflicting critical hits and critical failures
-If your SP reaches zero, you must make a Will save or go mad:
Crit Success: You refill your Stress Pool and gain some sort of positive boon
Success: You gain back half your Stress Pool and are flat footed
Failure: You fall into madness and roll on a condition table, ie stunned, stupified, confused, etc.
Crit Fail: Roll a Fort Save, on success you become unconscious and are Dying 1, on a failure you suffer a fatal heart attack.
I’m still interested. Ready to go….mad.
Also still interested. The Sanity rules from the Adventure Path were generally unworkable. I'd be willing to try yours.
Hey djdust, as you know I'm very new to PF2. I'm concerned that trying to add another layer of rules will make it more difficult to understand. I'm going to sit this one out, but I will be reading along trying to get a better grasp of the system. Good luck and good gaming everyone.
I am intrigued, but I do think that the stress/sanity system will fell your fighters and barbarians and favor your magic users.
Alternatively, morale boni to will saves count double against insanity effects.
I am intrigued, but I do think that the stress/sanity system will fell your fighters and barbarians and favor your magic users.
Only if you build with low wis (and a lesser extent cha and int). Knowing the rules you just don't dump every mental stat if you want to survive madness.
But part of the experience will also be not surviving. That's why we'd have multiple characters.
If you wanted to even it out casting spells also might trigger sanity loss.
Still interested!
Welp, as the old saying I just completely coined goes: “Rather be insane than a Wizard”. I mean, have you seen those pointy hats?
With further fiddling, I think your Stress Pool will equal your Class DC, which should create more balance and help to grow with experience.
Well, that was fun...
Rooms and hallways?
correct. I might take a few of y'all on a test drive soon!
Just an update for those still watching. I haven't been able to work on this much over the last month because of having to move suddenly and unexpectedly, but I really just need to finalize the stress and madness rules before taking a test drive. I'm hoping for within the next month.
You had me at madness.....
Yep, still here…
I'll throw out a wild card and say that having a rotating cast of characters works better for a system with a progression curve with less vertical, more horizontal growth.
In Pathfinder (especially at low levels), CR matters a lot. Given when/how unlucky a player is they could be stuck with characters that are pretty much completely useless for multiple delves, if those characters even survive the inevitable AoEs that kill them even if they save.
Playing a system like Savage Worlds (which does conveniently have a Pathfinder add-on) might work a lot better for having a rotating cast. It also has built-in rules for sanity and permanent injuries, so you get the "grim and gritty" feel with less homebrew. It makes it easier to justify a character sitting out a mission if they get their arm broken (or lopped off) on a mission.
FWIW, Dark Sun had a system for managing a bench of back-up characters and leveling them. Essentially you could level up a backup every time the main did.
A similar approach would be XP earned would apply to the active character and the same amount would go into a reserve pool. The reserve pool could be used by the bench.
Still watching... :)
Hi all,
Here's the first draft of the Stress and Madness Rules!
Notes and feedback are welcome. Raise your hand if you're interested in a trial run!
Given the amount of critical hits enemies dish out, we’ll all be crazy by nightfall. That’s the first thing that stood out to me. Merely as a result of *every* foe getting 2-3 attacks/per round.
I'm interested in a trial run.
The 'rules' appear not overwhelming and ramping up well.
FWIW, Dark Sun had a system for managing a bench of back-up characters and leveling them. Essentially you could level up a backup every time the main did.A similar approach would be XP earned would apply to the active character and the same amount would go into a reserve pool. The reserve pool could be used by the bench.
My intention is to promote the switching out of characters. PCs will need the downtime to heal stress and perform other tasks. And you will want to switch out to keep your full roster leveled. The last thing you want is to bring along underleveled PCs into a dangerous dungeon!
I'm going to make a slight adjustment to the madness rules. Anytime you are rolling against your own Class DC, you will instead roll against a DC by Level. It shouldn't be too much a difference, maybe 1 or 2, but that'll make it that much easier to roll a Crit Success.
The Stress system is definitely intriguing. Color me interested.