Pathfinder 2e - First Session

Game Date: 9/29/2019

Earlier this year I played a couple of the playtests for Pathfinder 2nd Edition.  This was my first time playing the actual game.  There were eight of us in the group, mostly using pregens.  Because of the large group (a couple of whom were really great at hamming it up), there was a lot of time between turns and I really didn't end up doing much.  But we all had a great time and we learned a bit about the new edition.

The session started with a town meeting.  We were told that the town sage had been kidnapped by an Ogre, who was taking him to speak to Hannar, a former town citizen.  We accepted the plot hook and headed toward the Ogre's cave.  On the winding trail up the mountain, we fought the Ogre and his companions.

After the battle, the party Rogue was suffering from centipede poison, and we spent many turns trying to heal him.  We located the sage and untied him.  Investigating the area, we found a ritualistic circle of rocks, and played around until Hannar teleported in.  He ordered the sage to tell him the truth about his birth.

The sage revealed that Hannar was a real Son of a Witch (well, Hag), and Hannar threatened to destroy the town.  Our bard tried using diplomacy, and it was super effective!  The bard convinced Hannar to see the error of his ways.  It was a nice change of pace to avoid a boss combat this way.

It was a short session, so there wasn't much there to judge the game on.  However, I have read through the Player's Handbook.  I'll go over my thoughts in a future blog, but overall I think it has some great ideas.  Some of the rules are a bit too complicated for my tastes, and so far I prefer the simplicity of D&D 5e.

But it was nice getting to throw down some dice again; I don't get to play nearly enough these days.

My Fantasy D&D Group

I hear this question asked a lot: “What is your dream D&D group?  If you could play a campaign with any six people, who would you choose?”  Now, most people go over the list of known celebrities who play D&D, which includes such notables as Vin Diesel, Wil Wheaton, Felicia Day, Joe Manganiello, Judy Dench (seriously), and so on.

Other people would pick genre-specific celebrities, as in, people who are only famous in D&D circles, and/or famous specifically for playing D&D.  For example, Matt Mercer, the DM of the Critical Role web series.  Or any of the current D&D designers, like Chris Perkins or Jeremy Crawford.  If it’s a “living or dead” type of question, then they might go with D&D’s original creators, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.

Still other people might pick celebrities who have nothing to do with D&D, but who have skills that would bring something to the table.  How cool would it be to have your favorite cartoon voice actor as the DM, so they could do different voices for each character?  Or how about one of history’s greatest military generals, known for their unconventional battle tactics?  And how scary would it be to play a horror themed game run by a great storyteller like Stephen King or Clive Barker?

But for myself?  My dream D&D game would be all my closest friends.  My best friend from college, who lives too far away now.  My best friend from high school, who is so busy with family now that he can’t commit to a regular game schedule.  My best friend from junior high, who thinks D&D is boring.  My best friend from elementary school, who always thought D&D was a tool of the devil.  My best online friends, who prefer video games to pencil-and-paper.  And of course my best DM friend, who lives close by and runs games regularly, but who unfortunately doesn’t tend to like the same RPGs that I do.

They all have their own lives, and I’m happy for them.  I wouldn’t want to change them for the world, or do anything that takes away from their own interests and pursuits.  But if, in a parallel world, I could put all these people in a D&D group together, that would be the perfect game.

Background Challenge

Just saw this on Twitter:

D&D challenge: Give your characters a pleasant backstory. Give them a good relationship with their parents. Make their childhood idyllic. Make their need for adventure about them just trying to live their life. 

The funny thing is, some of my characters are like this.  Okay, most of them do have some sort of tragedy in their backgrounds, but who really goes twenty years to without some bad moments?  My characters are still far from the edgelords some people design.  Am I wrong?  Let me revisit some of my characters:

Dervish - Human Weapon Master, NeverWinter Nights
Raised by a single father and six brothers, she was a tomboy.  When her father tried to get her to be more ladylike, she left home.  Okay, the tweet has me there.  Guilty.

Sillia Aylomein - Human Bard, NeverWinter Nights.
Was expelled from music college, ran away from home so she wouldn't have to tell her parents.  Fine.  Guilty.

Brynwyn Elswyth - Elf Arcane Archer, NeverWinter Nights.
Left home because she blamed herself for not saving her brother from being killed by orcs.  Guilty.

Nara Cavell - Human Cleric, Tantris Campaign.
I never really wrote out a backstory for her or mentioned her parents, but it was implied that she was an orphan that was raised by the church.  So Guilty, I guess.

Voranna Elun - Eladrin Ranger, Living Forgotten Realms.
I never wrote out a background.  She had spent years living in the forest, because that's what makes her happy.  I have no reason to believe her home life was unhappy, I'm going to plead Not Guilty on this one.

Aria Thatcher - Half-Elf Bard, Scarred Lands campaign.
Okay, she never really grew close to her stepfather, because she was the product of an affair, but overall she had a happy home life.  She left home because she didn't want to end up being a farmer.  I think this is pretty close to the Background Challenge itself.  Not Guilty.

Talindra Seryth - Razorclaw Shifter Avenger, Artifact Hunters campaign.
Her birth tribe abandoned her because they saw her unusual fur color as a bad omen.  Guilty.

Kryla Bloodfang - Dragonborn Sorceror, ToEE campaign.
Left home because her parents feared magic.  Guilty.

Calla Noble - Human Knight, ToEE campaign.
The daughter of a prostitute and a con artist... you know what?  I'm just going to stop right there and plead Guilty.

Vex Corman - Half-Elf Monk, Unlikely Heroes campaign.
Raised by a monastery, with no memory of her real parents.  Guilty.

Dalia Lockwood - Human Ardent, Unlikely Heroes campaign.
Had a wonderful childhood, thanks to her latent psychic powers making everyone like her.  Not Guilty.

Flora Oakwillow - Hamadryad Seeker, Unlikely Heroes campaign.
Presumably had a wonderful childhood as one of the Fey protectors of Darkmoon Vale.  Not Guilty.

Malta Klonk - Human Engineer, Traveller campaign.
She was clumsy, causing her parents to steer her away from physical activities, but it seems like they were supportive and she didn't have any tragedies until she was an adult.  Not Guilty.

Terri Bolton - Human Mechanic, Rifts 2112 campaign.
She was closer to her father than her mother, then her dad died while she was in high school.  Guilty.

Danica Branford - Human Inventor, Gurps campaign.
No childhood mentioned in her background, which means Not Guilty.

Raz - Human Sorcerer, Dragon's Demand campaign.
I rolled her background randomly, so this one's exempt from the challenge.

Bjertha Brawlbaker - Dwarf Fighter, Shattered Star campaign.
Also rolled randomly, exempt.

Val Ravensword - Half-Orc Paladin, OAWYM campaign.
Rolled randomly, exempt.

Welp, I'm a lot guiltier than I thought.

I dunno, though.  I think some sort of tragedy is a good way to get people out of the house, rather than complacently trying to follow in their parents' footsteps.  But the tweet has a point; it's weird that so many people have similar backgrounds.

On the other hand, "adventurer" isn't supposed to be a common profession.  It takes a very specific type of person to accept such a dangerous and unpredictable career, and that sort of decision may require a specific background.  For example, someone who feels they have nothing to lose, because they already lost their family or hometown.

The first movie I ever really remember seeing as a kid was Star Wars.  The Star Wars universe shaped a large part of my childhood.  Luke Skywalker's arc is probably a huge influence on my backstories.  He was raised by farmers, but always wanted something more.  He wanted to leave to become an adventurer (actually to "join the academy", but really he was looking for any excuse to get away), but his family wouldn't let him go.  Then there was the tragedy - his surrogate parents getting killed - and he barely even mourns them in his haste to get off planet.

My favorite DM seems to dislike it when people write out long backstories.  As far as I can tell, he prefers randomly generated backgrounds and/or level 1 characters being blank slates with no predefined personality.  I'll have to actually ask him about that sometime.  Maybe he's just seen so many similar backstories at this point that he prefers the variety of randomly generated ones.

Honestly, I think a backstory should be interesting.  It gives the player a chance to write, and writing is a wonderful hobby.  As long as the player doesn’t try to shoehorn in any crazy out-of-character abilities, or claim the character has already done big things (if they’ve already slayed dragons, how come they start with 0 xp?), I think a detailed backstory is great.  It gives the character life and dimension, so they’re more than just numbers on a page.  And a good backstory will contain some degree of tragedy.

I can see why it’s tedious, though.  When a new movie or TV show comes about, a lot of players get inspired to create similar characters.  Everyone who reads R.A. Salvatore goes through a Drizzt phase, and wants to build a Drow Ranger.  When the Lord of the Rings trilogy hit theaters, a ton of people rolled up Aragorn clones.  So it makes sense that even when they aren’t trying to emulate existing characters, they still use similar tropes to make their backstories.  It can be annoying for players/DMs who’ve already passed that phase to see a bunch of newbies bring the same tired archetypes to the table. 

But get over it.  Frankly, I think this is another case where players should be allowed to play what they want to play.  If you want them to get through that phase, you have to let them play it out.

And there’s always the risk that your backstory will be the most interesting thing that happens to your character.  It’s like when you watch a movie that has some sort of introductory flashback in the beginning, and you realize, “Wow, that would make a better movie than this one.  I wish they’d filmed that story instead.”  So that’s another good reason to concentrate on family issues.  If these characters haven’t gone on any epic adventures yet, then of course the most significant events are going to be more personal and related to their friends and family.

As for myself, I’m going to make an effort to make my next character with this challenge in mind.  Loving family, great upbringing, no tragedies, I just wanna slay dragons.  Seems a little boring, but I suppose the backstory isn’t supposed to be the most exciting part of your character’s life.  It’s whatever happens next that matters.

The Importance of Agency

As far as I'm concerned, D&D is a game about living out your fantasies.  It gives you the opportunity to control a character in a fairy tale, and allows you to tune out real life problems in favor of fictional problems for a few hours a week.  Considering how difficult it is to arrange a time each week that all the players can make it to the game, it's important that each player is having fun and is playing a character they really want to play.

I've already mentioned this subject in past blogs, most notably my rant about rolling stats.  TL;DR version:  If that's how everyone at your table wants to generate characters, great, but I personally prefer allowing players to have more creative control in building their characters.

But today I want to talk about campaign ideas that remove agency.  For the record, I'm using the following definition of agency:

"In social science, agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices." - Wikipedia

Every DM lies awake at night trying to come up with brand new, creative ideas for campaigns.  Unfortunately, a lot of them come up with the exact same "brand new, creative ideas".  One that I see tossed around a lot is amnesia-themed campaigns.

In a typical amnesia scenario, the DM builds characters for all their players, who don't even know what race or class they will be playing at the beginning of the campaign.  The PCs typically wake up with no memories, knowing only what they see in front of them.  They fill out their own character sheets one discovery at a time.

I look like a human?  Write that down.  I'm good with a lockpick?  I must be a Rogue, write it down.  By the end of the first session, you'll probably have most of your character sheet filled out, and can start working on the campaign's true plot - finding out why you lost your memories and getting your life back.

Yes, it’s an interesting idea, and it would make a pretty fun one-shot.  But after the initial session, you’re left playing a character you didn’t design.  Now, a good DM might know their players well enough to build characters they’ll enjoy.  If you’re reading this and considering running such a campaign, ask your players in advance which races and classes they like most.  Then build characters with that in mind.  Once they’ve assembled their entire character sheet, allow them to make minor changes if they don’t like your choices.  I’m not much of a powergamer myself, but min/maxers deserve to have fun just as much as the rest of us, and should be given a little leeway.

One DM I know is bothered by players who always play the same characters.  He says he wants to run a campaign where, once everyone has created their character, they pass their character sheet to their left so that everyone plays a character they didn’t design.  Now, I want to stress that this DM is a good friend and I love him.  But if he pulled this crap on me at the start of a campaign, I would walk the fuck right out, and he knows it.  Not only would I be playing a character I didn’t create, but in such a scenario, it would feel like I was playing someone else’s character.  I’d have trouble making decisions as that character, because I wouldn’t know if I was playing the character the way the original author intended.  Basically, I want my character to feel like an extension of myself, and this scenario makes me feel further detached from my character.

Although, switching character sheets around could be fun for a “body swap” story, where the PCs get their minds switched by an evil wizard.  The story could have them searching for the wizard to get themselves switched back.  But this story works best in an existing campaign, where the characters’ personalities are well established, so that the switching has more impact.  If you do it to brand new characters, when they’re still just numbers on a page, there’s nothing really to “switch”, it’s just making the players play different classes.  I also think this side story should only last two or three sessions before they go back to normal, so the players can get back to controlling the characters they designed.

Honestly, I don’t get why some DMs care so much what their players play.  The PC is the one part of the story the player controls.  Everything else in the world is DM’s choice – setting, NPCs, technology level, whether magic is common, all the way down to whether the local butcher is left handed.  I just don’t understand DMs who also want to control the one part of the game that’s supposed to be up to the players.  It seems greedy.  Might as well roll their dice for them too, and make all their decisions.  Heck, might as well not even bother meeting up, and just write a book instead.

I know a guy who almost always plays the same character.  Not just the same race/class, but even the same name, personality traits, and facial disfigurement.  I’ve seen him play this character in several campaigns, taking place in different universes.  And you know what?  It’s never caused us any problems.  It’s never pulled me out of the game.  Is my friend missing out by not experiencing what other classes might offer?  I doubt it; he’s been playing D&D a lot longer than I have.  He probably tried all the classes and races long before I ever met him, and now he has his favorite.  I can’t fault him for that, any more than I can fault someone for always ordering their favorite flavor at Baskin Robbins.  If a DM forbade him from playing that character, he’d probably go find a different group.

Maybe you think it’s good for your players to get out of their comfort zones.  But you know what?  That’s not your job.  You’re not their psychiatrist, you’re their dungeon master.  Your job is to create interesting worlds for them to explore, design powerful villains for them to fight, and craft intricate plot hooks for them to ignore.  Unless a player wants to play a character that doesn’t fit the theme of your campaign, then it’s none of your business what kind of PC they play.  Actually, even if a player wanted to play a race that doesn’t exist in my universe, I’d probably work with them to make it happen.   Maybe they fell through a wormhole or something.  An out-of-place character generates some cool roleplay scenarios.

I believe in player agency.  It’s part of what makes RPGs appealing, as opposed to more restrictive board games.  And it’s a large part of the reason I play. 

Dungeon of the Mad Mage

There are two kinds of Dungeons.

Type A: Dungeons that make sense.  These dungeons take into account the function of the structure, as well as the ecology of the denizens.  There will be a theme to your foes: If it’s a goblin cave, you will mostly fight goblins, their pet wolves, and their hobgoblin bosses.  The layout will be functional: You’ll find sleeping areas, kitchens, storage rooms, and so on.  Traps will be minimal and will only protect valuable areas, such as the room where bandits store their loot.  If you’re exploring a Type A dungeon, you may not even have to clear out the entire thing.  A sensible hideout is easy to navigate, so you might break in at a point closest to your goal, clear out a few rooms, grab your MacGuffin, and head back out.  Type A dungeons are efficient and realistic, but potentially boring.

Type B: Kitchen Sink dungeons.  You never know what to expect in a Type B dungeon.  You could clear out a room full of manticores, then open the next door, and find yourself facing a room full of orcs.  Then you turn a corner and come face-to-face with a bugbear, a vampire, and a harpy.  You may find yourself wondering how these monsters get along, what keeps certain ones in their rooms, and who feeds them.  You’ll encounter traps that are designed to kill explorers, rather than to protect treasure.  You’ll complete complicated puzzles just to open doors to what look like high-traffic pathways.  Do the orcs that live here have to solve this “pour the right amount of water into the basin” puzzle every time they visit the kitchen?  Type B dungeons are less believable, but also less predictable, which makes them exciting.

Some Type B dungeons actually do have an explanation.  (Note, this paragraph contains possible spoilers for classic modules.)  The Tomb of Horrors is full of crazy traps, because the demilich Acererak likes collecting the souls of dead adventurers.  White Plume Mountain houses an unlikely menagerie of monsters, but the entire dungeon turns out to be a test of heroism, designed by an evil mage who requires a true hero for a blood sacrifice.   Dead in Thay has the Doomvault, a bizarre dungeon designed for magical experiments... or something; that module has never made sense to me.

Many dungeons are a mix of A and B.  The Temple of Elemental Evil is a pretty good balance of the two.  Each of the elemental-themed areas has their own reasonable ecology, but having it all so close together makes the dungeon as a whole seem pretty random.  I would have to say that the best dungeons are the ones that can straddle that line, by giving you a unexpected encounters while maintaining a consistent theme.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage is a bit of both.  The Undermountain’s dungeons were obviously designed by a lunatic (hence the title), but there is some logic to the denizens.  Different areas of the dungeon have been taken over by certain organizations or monsters, so there’s a lot of variety, but it’s not like each room has a completely random monster.  Given the popularity of this dungeon, the party will find a lot of the early areas have already been picked clean by previous adventurers, which is a realistic touch.

The ecology of each level usually makes perfect sense, but moving from one level to the next can feel like an entirely different module.  Why do the monsters and factions respect the concept of "dungeon level"?  All that divides this level from the one before it is a slanted tunnel, why do the kobolds suddenly get replaced with kuo-toa?  

A few levels down, you start finding unusual environments for a cave: cities, enchanted forests, floating castles, and so on.  A couple of levels are actually 5e conversions of older modules.  Sometimes you will often find keys on one level that unlock doors on another, so there is some connection between levels.  Occasionally someone will give you a side quest, and you’ll find the MacGuffin three levels later. 

This dungeon is big.  Probably the largest single dungeon published for 5e, at least by WOTC.  It goes down 23 levels, and even has a few hallways that lead nowhere, in case you want to add your own expansions.  The 320-page book devotes 289 pages to the dungeon, making it one of the largest dungeon-to-lore ratios I’ve seen.  

I honestly can’t imagine taking a party through the entire thing.  I think they would develop “dungeon fatigue” after a while (and a vitamin D deficiency).   The good news is that it’s designed so you can leave and come back, with lots of teleportation portals for quicker travel.  So some parties might keep returning to the Undermountain between other adventures.

While the book does contain a few plot hooks, it doesn’t need them.  This is the infamous dungeon beneath the Yawning Portal, and adventurers need no other reason to delve it than “because it’s there.”  But once the party starts exploring the passages, they will find other small quests to keep them busy.  So it’s not just “let’s kill all the monsters and find all the treasure”, though it certainly can be if that’s all the party wants.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage is a great companion to Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, but you don’t need either one to enjoy the other.  There is no strong plot connection between the two.  Grab Waterdeep: Dragon Heist if you want the lore of the area, and grab Dungeon of the Mad Mage if you just want a big ol’ dungeon.

Ferret-Legging

You step through the tavern door, and are immediately overcome with the smell of cheap ale and the sound of raucous laughter.  Some sort of competition is going on in the back, near the fireplace.  You see two men standing on a table, with pained expressions on their faces.  They seem to be dancing around uncomfortably, and you see squirming movements in their burlap trousers.  The crowd around the table cheers them on, while passing around money and betting slips.  Finally, one of the competitors shouts, “I give!  I give!”  Half the patrons let out victory cheers while the rest curse.  As the competitors climb down from the table, they loosen their pants, and each of them pulls out a pair of ferrets.  The ferrets are taken by handlers and put into cages. 

Seeing you newcomers, one of the ferret handlers shouts, “Hey, new blood!  Want to give it a try?”

I like keeping some quick tavern games at the ready, preferably ones that are heavy on the flavor and light on the rules.  Thanks to this cartoon, I have recently learned of a real-life activity called “Ferret-Legging”.  I don’t know about the ethics of this “sport” in real life (as far as I know, the ferrets are unharmed, though I haven’t done much research).  But it sounds like a fun bit of flavor to liven up your D&D tavern. 

The rules:

Each contestant sticks two ferrets in their pants. 

The pants are tied tight at the ankles and around the waist, to keep the ferrets from escaping.

Whoever can stand it the longest, wins.  

Contestants are allowed to give up at any time.  

The pants must be loose enough to allow the ferrets to move from one leg to the other.  (In game, the PCs might be supplied with a special pair of burlap trousers.)

You may not wear underwear or any other clothing underneath your pants.

For each participant, the DM rolls a d20 to represent the ferrets’ movements.

1-9: The ferrets tickle a lot this turn, but the contestant toughs it out.

10-19: The ferrets bite, and the contestant must make a CON save vs the number the DM rolled.

20: The ferrets bite hard, and the contestant makes the CON save with disadvantage.

After each contestant gets a turn, the next round starts.  If a contestant fails three CON saves, they can't take it any more, and are out of the competition.  The player who lasts the longest wins.

Optional Rule: If the player rolls a nat 20 on a CON save, they have advantage on their next CON save.

Notes:

The contestants can be PCs or NPCs.  The fewer contestants the better, but it requires at least two so they can try to outlast each other.

It doesn’t matter what order the contestants go in, as everything that happens in a round is happening at the same time.  If the final two contestants lose the game in the same round, it’s a tie.

The odds on the CON saves are in the contestants' favor, since they get to add their CON bonus versus the DM’s unmodified roll.  This is intentional, because it’s an endurance test, and because the players are competing with each other more than they’re competing with the DM.

Why exclude numbers 1 through 9 from the CON saves?  This is just to speed things up a little, since the players would most likely make those saves anyway.  Plus I wanted to add some flavor, by having rounds where the ferrets tickle but don’t bite.

As in battle, a round represents 6 seconds.  This means the minimum a match can last is 18 seconds.  According to Wikipedia, in 1972 the world record was 40 seconds.  However, the current world record is over five hours, so clearly this is a sport where a lot of variation is possible.  If you want to change the length of a round, that’s up to you.

Usually, the last contestant standing is immediately declared the winner and can let their ferrets out.  However, a PC might want to keep going just to see how many rounds they can last.  A tavern might have its own record of longest times that the PCs can try to beat, and possibly even a reward for those who break the record.  I suggest the standing record being about 3 minutes (30 rounds). 

This sport is mostly played by men, and winning is considered a macho thing.  There is a female version, called "ferret-busting", that involves blouses instead of pants.  But it isn't nearly as popular.

Flavor:

Describe the tickling (roll 1-9) or biting (10-20) in detail.  Some sample descriptions:

1 “The ferrets don’t move much this turn.”

2 “The ferrets move around a little, but it doesn’t bother you.”

3 “The ferrets run up and down your legs, which tickles a lot, but you manage to keep a straight face.”

4 “A ferret licks the back of your knee, making you giggle uncontrollably.”

5 “A ferret runs up and down your leg, tickling like mad.”

6 “The back of your legs feel like you’re being attacked by feather dusters.”

7 “You can’t help but laugh as both ferrets circles around your legs.”

8 “A ferret squiggles past a particularly sensitive area, tickling you in a way that you find disturbingly pleasurable."

9 “The ferrets nibble on your ankles, but it doesn’t hurt.”

10 “One ferret bits you lightly on the kneecap.”

11 “A ferret bites you.  It feels like getting jabbed with a knitting needle.”

12 “You feel a ferret clawing at your ankles, trying to find a way out.”

13 “A ferret bites you.  It hurts like the dickens.”

14 “A ferret bites you in the hindquarters."

15 “A ferret bites your right thigh.  It hurts a lot.”

16 “You feel a stabbing pain in your left calf.”

17 “Both ferrets bite you at once.  It’s not a pleasant feeling.”

18 “A ferret bites you hard…” (If save) “…but you can take it.” (If fail) “…causing you to shriek like a child.”

19 “A ferret bites you extremely hard…” (if save) “…but you wince and persevere.” (If fail) “….causing you see spots for a few seconds.”

20 "A ferret bites you in the worst possible area, causing you to double over in pain."

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist

One thing I find interesting about fifth edition is that a lot of the books seem sort of unfocused.  Volo’s Guide to Monsters is about 45% lore, 10% player options, and 45% Monster Manual 2.  Mordenwhatever’s Tome of Foes is half lore and half Monster Manual 3, with a tiny sprinkling of player options.  Xanathar’s Guide to Everything is basically whatever extra notes they had lying around at the D&D offices.  Which is not to put down any of the above.  I love all three of the aforementioned books, especially Xanathar’s.  Yeah, it can be a bit of a rip-off for non-DMs who only want character options (I admit that the Tabaxi race is like 50% of the reason I bought Volo’s), but they are solid books.

Still, those are all lore/options splatbooks, not adventure modules.  Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is about 50% lore, 50% adventure, which I find unusual for a module.  Sure, Curse of Strahd gives you all sorts of details about Barovia, but it does so by taking you there, over the course of the adventure.  W:DH is divided into three sections: lore, adventure, and more lore.  The adventure itself is arranged so that it can be played four times and deliver a different experience each time.  The four options – based on which season it is when you start the adventure – determine the identity of the villain as well as the order of events.

I haven’t run or played it yet, but it looks like it’s not a very long adventure.   Not only is the adventure section only about 77 pages, but since the adventure can be run four ways, a lot of the events are described four times.  So while replayability isn’t a problem, longevity is.  Still, the right kind of DM and/or group can probably draw it out for months, simply because there are so many things to see and do in the City of Splendors.

It also doesn't look like the adventure is heavy on combat, though that probably depends on how your party tends to handle things.  Personally I love that, but it won't be everyone's cup of tea.  There's a lot for rogues to do in this adventure, but some fighters might get bored.

One thing I love is the diversity.  Before the book even hit the shelves, bigoted neckbeards were already complaining about how PC it is.  "Oh my goodness, there's a non-binary elf!" they exclaimed, clutching their pearls, while somehow simultaneously accusing SJWs of being too easily offended.  That's not the only example of inclusiveness in the book, but it's the one that stands out the most.

Obviously a city as cosmopolitan as Waterdeep is going to be diverse.  Anyone who says it ruins D&D for them is playing D&D for the wrong reasons. The whole idea is new universes filled with fantastic locales and exotic creatures means leaving human preconceptions behind.  If all you want to play is "Archie Bunker: The RPG", that's fine, you be you. But please stay off the message boards.

Anyway, I also really like the maps.  They are incredibly detailed, and they make me want to abandon the cities I've been designing in my head and just use Waterdeep for my next campaign.
 
Overall, I feel like the book is less an adventure module, and more of a "Waterdeep Campaign Setting" with a sample adventure thrown in.  But that's not a bad thing, and all things considered I think it's worth the money.

Dragon Con 2018

So we went to the 2018 Dragon Con.  Fun times!  It was extremely hot and crowded, and we spent a lot of the time thinking, "Why do we do this again?"  But now that we're back home I'm feeling  extreme euphoria when I think back over the weekend.

This is the longest we've stayed at Dragon Con.  Usually we only go down for Saturday, but this time we splurged and bought memberships to the entire con.  We still didn't get to stay in one of the host hotels, though; we'll save that dream for another year.  Commuting in each day from Alpharetta was much cheaper.  We used a website that lets you book parking spots in advance, so that was one less headache. 

The parade was fun, but it's getting harder and harder to find a good place to sit. You have to get there earlier every year.  This year we got there nearly two hours before the parade, and Peachtree Street was already full.  This meant we had to go further down the parade route, on an East-West street instead of a North-South street.  This is significant because it means instead of the sun being blocked by all the skyscrapers, the sun now shines directly upon you.

So we sat in the hot sun for about two hours before the parade even started.  We misjudged how much water to pack, so by the time the parade was over, we both had a bit of heatstroke.  We were so worn out that it affected our energy levels for the rest of the day.

But the parade?  Worth it.  There were so many people in creative costumes, some 100% movie authentic, others clever mashups or puns, and some so obscure or meta that they only make sense at Dragon Con.   There were a couple of celebrities - John de Lancie, Joel Hodgson, maybe more.  The crowd went crazy for them.

We didn't go to any symposiums this time.  We rarely do.  For us, Dragon Con is mostly about seeing all the geeks and taking lots of pictures.  In the artists hall, I got to meet comic book writer Gail Simone.  To be honest, I know her more because of her politics than for her actual writing, but she's still one of my favorite people.

At first I was too nervous to approach her.  It wasn't just that I was intimidated, but I also just didn't know what I wanted to say.  When I told my wife about my embarrassment, she pulled me over and introduced us.  "Hi, are you Gail Simone?  This is my husband, Matt.  He's a huge fan, but he's really shy."  That didn't exactly make me less embarrassed, but at least it broke the ice.

She was signing things for free, and I wanted to buy a comic for her to sign, but she didn't take plastic and we rarely carry cash.  A stranger behind us was so sympathetic that he bought me a comic book.  I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't hear of it.  Again, embarrassing, but really nice.  I swear they must think I'm mentally challenged or something.

On Sunday I had a photo op with Felicia Day.  This is the third celebrity photo op I've done (the others being Matt Smith/Karen Gillan, and John Barrowman).  I'd really like to start a collection, but it's an expensive hobby.

You don't get to talk much at the photo ops (if you want a longer conversation, go to the autograph halls), but Felicia was extremely friendly and made a point of saying something to everyone.  When it was my turn, she told me she loved my MST3K shirt, and I tried to say "thank you" but I don't think any actual sound came out.  After the photo, she said to make sure I watch the new season, and I think I replied something like "larfleglimph." 

They had a deal where if you give blood, you get a free T-shirt.  There were people all over the con holding up signs for the blood drive, usually announcing "No waiting", but I didn't want to risk not having enough energy for the rest of the day.  So once we were nearly done on Sunday, since I knew my wife would be driving home, I decided to go for it. 

And everyone else had the same idea.  There was a pretty long line to give blood, but I got to listen to a lot of interesting people.  It was strange to see all these costumed people giving blood, especially when some are dressed like creatures you wouldn't want to receive blood from.  Even the Flying Spaghetti Monster was sitting in line.

The actual process was relatively painless, no different from having blood drawn at the doctor, it just took a little longer.  I strongly encourage others to give blood if they can.

When I got home, I posted my Felicia Day pic on Twitter, and Felicia Day herself liked it.  Okay, she probably "likes" every post she's tagged in (and she might even hire somebody to manage her Twitter account), but it still gave me a little thrill.

All in all, it was a great trip.  I don't think we're going to go to Dragon Con very often any more; it's just getting too crowded.  Attendance has nearly tripled since the first time we attended, and between the heat and the people, we just don't have the energy.  The only way I will go there from now on is if we can actually stay in one of the host hotels, which requires a lot of money and fore planning.  My dream vacation would be to stay at the Marriott from Thursday all the way until Monday, so I can just go back to my room to rest whenever I want.

Maybe some day!

Pathfinder Playtest: Doomsday Dawn (Redux)

Game Date: 8/12/2018
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: PF Playtest, Part 1
Module: Doomsday Dawn

System: Pathfinder 2nd Edition (Playtest)
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Alchemite (Nick) - Goblin Alchemist
Corbis (Gary) - Elf Ranged Fighter
Dane (Daniel) - Elf Wizard
Eldal (Jonathan) - Human Cleric
Furi (Matt) - Human Barbarian

The Session:
Same plot as last week - Lady Kendra Questgiver III, mayor of Plothook, sent us to the Sewers of Horrendous Peril to find the MacGuffin of Desna.  This week seemed a little bit easier, probably because we had a Cleric in the party.  The final boss was still brutal, though.

The first encounter (sewer ooze) went by pretty quickly.  Our party's goblin, Alchemite ("Al"), attempted to talk his way out of the second encounter, but the enemy goblins wouldn't have it.  That fight wasn't too difficult either, but Dane did go down to zero at one point.

In the room with the pool, we tried drinking the stone face's tears before they hit the pool, and found they had healing properties.  I don't think we tried that last time.  Nobody found the submerged statue this time, which kept us from having to fight the imps.

We never tried the locked exit, instead going through the door that set off the hanging armor alarm.  Knowing our enemies were alerted, Furi rushed down the stairs to fight the goblins around the campfire.  Dane managed to hit a few of them with burning hands, which was nice - we didn't see enough area spells last time.  Corbin rolled a lucky crit that killed the Goblin Commando.

Dane went down to zero again in this battle, but we healed him later.  Corbin killed the Pyro Goblin, Furi massively slaughtered another goblin with a crit, and Corbin killed the final goblin.  Bow fighters seem to be pretty good in this game.

Leaving this room the way we came, we checked out the room full of skeletons (which we bypassed last week).  Furi was in front, and got surrounded by skeletons.  They didn't do much damage, but Furi still almost went down just because there were so many, and they were attacking three times each.  It was like by 1,000 paper cuts.

Al tried alchemist's fire, only to find the skeletons were immune.  Eventually we finished them off, but Furi was down to 3 hit points.  Healing her a little, we went up the next hallway.  When we passed the hall statue, those of us who had swallowed the tears from the fountain room were able to pass it freely.  But the first time someone who hadn't partaken passed it, a sandstorm trap went off.  And I will rewrite a sentence all kinds of ways to avoid trying to figure out which form of "drank" to use.

To avoid the sandstorm, Furi pushed through the door at the end of the hallway, and found herself face-to-face with the hobgoblin boss.  He was accompanied by a dire rat, unlike last week.  Furi squared off against the hobgoblin, who changed into his Faceless Stalker form right away.  Corbin followed Furi into the room, and targeted the rat.

As the rest of the party gradually entered the boss room, Furi went down hard.  She spent a few rounds unconscious while the boss chased everyone around the room.  Our Wizard, of all people, finished off the rat with a dagger.  Then he tried using Color Spray on the boss, but our foe made his save.  Then Dane went down to zero again.

Corbin managed to do some decent damage to the boss, while Furi kept making rolls to wake up.  The boss started to use a Drain Blood attack on Dane.  Furi finally woke up, stood up, and finished off the boss.  Everyone survived, though it did take a few more rounds to rouse the Wizard.  We did a bit more exploring until we found the quest item.

Afterthoughts:
Last time I tried this module, I played a pregen.  While I did look through all the steps of character creation to see how the pregen got its stats, it wasn't the same as making a character from scratch.  This time I built a character from the ground up, so I could see what that was like.  It wasn't too bad. 

There were times when I was annoyed at having to hop around the PDF so much.  For example, one of the barbarian feats is called "Raging Intimidation" (page 57).  It give Demoralize actions the Rage Trait, and gives you the feats "Intimidating Glare" and "Scare to Death" once you meet the prerequisites.  (This is a system built on feats, and some of the feats don’t do anything but grant you additional feats.)  So now I have to look up those two feats. 

"Scare to Death" has a prerequisite of level 15, so let's ignore that one for now.  "Intimidating Glare" (page 167) allows you to use the Demoralize action by staring at people instead of speaking, which would make sense if you new what the Demoralize action was.  So after checking the index, we jump to Demoralize (page 150) and learn it lets you use an action to cause a single enemy to become Frightened 1.  (On a crit success they get Frightened 2 and flee.)

Okay, I have a pretty good idea what Frightened is, but it's a new system so I have to look it up anyway.  Another jump to the index, then on to page 322 where we learn that Frightened causes the enemy to have a penalty to checks and saving throws, which usually goes away after one round.

Okay, so after flipping around to all these different pages, we learn that this first level feat allows you (if you are raging) to cause a single enemy to take -1 to their checks and saving throws, for a round.  I honestly can't think of a lot of good uses for this.  Maybe if you coordinate with the party wizard, to give a boss a saving throw penalty before the wizard casts a spell.  But how often do raging barbarians cooperate tactically with wizards?

It gets a bit better when you get "Scare to Death" at level 15 (target now gets Frightened 2 and flees, and might even die if you crit), but it's kind of weird to grab a first level feat and then sit on it for 15 levels.  So to me, it seems like a bad feat.  And that's okay, different people play different ways.  My point isn't that it's a lackluster feat, it's that I had to jump to 15 completely different pages in the PDF to find that out.

Instead of having me look all over the place for the definitions of "Scare to Death", "Intimidating Glare", "Demoralize", "Frightened 1", etc, what if the original feat "Raging Intimidation" simply said something like this: "While raging, you can glare at one enemy with 30 feat.  If they fail their save, they get -1 to all checks and saving throws for one round.  At level 15, increase this number changes to -2, and the enemy flees."  It seems like that would be easier.

Perhaps instead of a physical book or PDF, the new edition should just be an app.  Then you could just highlight the keywords you don't understand, and the definition would pop up in a smaller box.  It might be easier than all the page jumping.

But overall, character creation was easier than I thought it was going to be.  I did have a problem where I kept thinking my character was done, and then I remembered something and had to get everything back out.  All told, I think I spent about an hour making my character, but the process should get faster once I get used to it.  I don't think it will ever get as fast as making a character in D&D 5e, though.

I can't wait to play some of the higher level playtests, but at the same time, I'm not looking forward to the time it will take to build and level up these characters.

By the way, "Your Innate Spells" sounds a lot like "Urinate Spells."  I can't unhear that now.

Pathfinder Playtest: Doomsday Dawn

Game Date: 8/11/2018
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: PF Playtest, Part 1
Module: Doomsday Dawn

System: Pathfinder 2nd Edition (Playtest)
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Delman (Gary) - Gnome Sorceror
Ezren (Henry) - Human Wizard
Lavena (Matt) - Human Fighter
Marcius (Martin) - Human Rogue
Merisiel (Brian) - Elf Rogue
Sig (Mikhail) - Dwarf Monk

The Session:
An aristocrat in Magnimar sent us on a mission to retrieve a family heirloom, the Star of Desna.  Her vault had been robbed by goblins, and our investigation led us to an old lair called the Ashen Ossuary.

The first room of the dungeon was round, with a few puddles and a grate in the middle.  As Lavena went to examine the grate, she was attacked by a sewer ooze.  This fight lasted approximately one round, with Lavena landing the final hit.  The grate didn't seem to lead anywhere important, so decided to go through the tunnel on the far side of the room.  Sig used his stealth to scout ahead.  The DM rolled Sig's stealth checks so he wouldn't know how well he did.

The tunnel went around a short bend, and ended in a long room with lots of alcoves.  Eight goblins inhabited the room.  Ezren cast Light on Lavena, who led the charge into the room to start the fight.  We quickly found ourselves surrounded, but the goblins weren't too difficult.  Delman cast Bless on all of us to give us a bit of an edge.

Once all the goblins were defeated, we investigated the three side rooms.  One room had a collapsed wall, covered in giant centipedes.  We avoided them.  Another room had some dead goblins hung on the wall, and the third room contained a large fungus.  We ignored that as well, and took another hallway.

The next chamber we explored contained a pool of oily black liquid.  Sig was brave enough to investigate the pool, where he found a small statue of an evil goddess.  The statue cracked open, and two quasits burst out.  This was a difficult fight only because the dice gods cursed us.  The players kept rolling badly, while the DM was on a roll.  Once the quasits were hit a few times, they turned invisible.  We kept rolling flat checks to attack their last location, and finally finished them off.

There were two exits from this room, though technically they led to the same hallway.  One of the doors was locked, and it took three successful thievery checks to get it open.  One of our rogues broke his thieve's tools in the process. At the end of one hallway was a large statue of the Goddess of Death, who happened to be same goddess Sig worshiped.   Lavena didn't want to go near that statue, so she exited the pool room through the other door, which turned out to be rigged to make a lot of noise.

At the end of one hallway, a short tunnel led down into a lair containing seven goblin warriors, one goblin commando, and a goblin pyro.  At first it was a standoff - we tried to get them to come to us, and they stayed where they were with readied actions.  Merisiel attempted to shoot them from a distance, but got taken down instead.

One of the goblins ran forward and started to drag Merisiel's unconscious form deeper into the room.  Lavena couldn't let this stand, and rushed into the room.  We lost a lot of hit points in this fight, but eventually we prevailed.  On the far side of the room was a 15-foot high cliff.  It took a lot of attempts, but eventually a couple of us made it up the wall and let down some ropes for the rest of us.

Down another hallway, we found a room with a couple of treasure chests.  One was unlocked, but the other gave us a lot of trouble.  We couldn't pick the lock, and so we made a lot of noise trying to smash it.  The racket drew the attention of the chest's owner, a hobgoblin.  Lavena was first in line to fight this boss, and while she managed to get one good hit in, the hobgoblin took her down.  Sig went down soon after.

The battle kept going for a few rounds, and the hobgoblin transformed into a Faceless Stalker.  Those of us who were 0 hit points used our Hero Points to save ourselves, but we kept failing the checks to become conscious again.  Apparently the DC for waking up is tied to the level of the creature that downed you.

Finally we defeated the hobgoblin.  Three of us were unconscious at the end of the fight, but nobody died.  The hobgoblin held the key to the chest, which contained some decent loot along with our quest item, the Star of Desna.

Afterthoughts:

After nearly a year without gaming, I finally got to play again.   “Doomsday Dawn” is the first sample adventure for the Pathfinder 2e Playtest.  Full details of this adventure are available on Pathfinder's website.  Earlier this week I posted my first impressions of the Playtest materials, but today I actually got to see it in action.

I do think it plays better than it reads.  I'm not sold on some things, but it was a fun session.  I still like D&D 5e better, but I'm going to give PF2e a few more sessions before I really judge it.  The two games are on such opposite ends of the spectrum that it barely feels like the same genre, and I think there's room in the world for both.  The playtest materials are so robust, I can't help but wonder how much will change in the final product.

Pathfinder 2e Playtest: First Impressions

This Saturday I’m going to join a playtest campaign for Pathfinder 2^nd Edition.  I’m trying to read over the rulebook, but it’s already giving me a headache.   At first glance it’s less complicated than Starfinder, but I still prefer the simplicity of D&D 5e.  I promise I will keep an open mind, though.  A lot of games play better than they read.

Here’s some things that jump out at me so far.  Disclamer: I might be wrong a lot.  So far I’ve only skimmed the PDF, so I may have missed a few things.  I also might mention some things that haven’t changed from Pathfinder 1e, because I’m used to playing D&D.

Action Economy – You get three actions per round (plus 1 reaction and unlimited free actions).  These actions can be movement, attacks, or all kinds of things.  To discourage people using all three actions to attack, the second and third attacks have a cumulative attack penalty.  Many spells cost multiple actions to cast, so you can only get one out per round.  I find this elegant, and a lot easier to remember than “Standard/Move/Minor” or whatever.

Attacks of Opportunity – I’ve gotten used to D&D 5e, in which you provoke when you leave an enemy’s threat range.  PF2e has you provoke when you make any movement while inside a monster’s threat range, which is going to get me in trouble.  One the bright side, it’s easier to Step (aka shift, 5-foot-step, withdraw, etc) in PF2e than in D&D 5e.   Just use one of your actions to Step one square, without provoking.

Diagonal Movement – Uses the 1, 2, 1, 2 method again.  I’ve always hated that.  I know it’s not strictly realistic having diagonal movement equal horizontal/vertical movement, but it’s not as exploitable as people seem to think.  Simpler is better.

Feats – The biggest part of character customization appears to revolve around feat selection.  It looks like you get at least one feat at every level.  Some feats come from for your ancestry, others from your class, and some are related to your skills .  So even if you have multiple Elven Fighters in the party, they’re still going to play very differently.  However, one downside is that each class’s section in the rulebook looks very similar to D&D 4e.  Yeah, feats aren’t quite the same as powers, but the aesthetic still brings back bad memories.

Stats – The method for generating your stats is a lot different than what I’m used to, but I really like it.  You start with all 10s, then you get bonuses from your Ancestry, Class, and Background.

Races – They’re now called “ancestries”, which is more accurate than “race”, and has the advantage of pissing off the neckbeards.   The Half-Orc and Half-Elf ancestries are now first-level feats that can be taken by Humans, which is pretty cool, but it makes me wish they’d taken the opportunity to add a few more half-ancestries in.  And why only for Humans?  Hopefully the final product will have more.

Goblins and Alchemists – Pathfinder’s most signature race and class are finally in the core rulebook.  I’m personally not interested, but I know a certain player who is probably thrilled.

Proficiency Bonus – I’ve never been fond of the “Base Attack Bonus” some RPGs use, and found D&D 5e’s proficiency bonus much easier.  Glad to see it here as well.  However, as I understand it, your level is part of your Proficiency bonus, which seems like will translate into absurdly bonuses at high levels.  I hope I’m reading that wrong.  I’m so used to D&D 5e’s tight math, that I don’t want to see another system where you roll a d20 and add something astronomical.

TEML – This is another thing that gets added to most die rolls.  You get another bonus to the roll depending on whether you’re Untrained (-2), Trained (+0), Expert (+1), Master (+2), or Legen... wait for it... dary (+3).  It seems as good a method as any.

Touch AC – Seriously, I hate systems with two types of AC.  If you know most characters’ TAC is going to be a little lower than their regular AC, why not just have one AC and raise the attack bonus to touch attacks?

Encumbrance – I’m not a fan of strict encumbrance rules, but this one’s at least kind of interesting.  Instead of keeping track of the exact weight in pounds, it uses a "Bulk" system that categorizes items in terms of size and shape.  It reminds me of how certain video games have you fitting different-sized items into your inventory pages.  It's neat, but it's yet another system-within-a-system I have to learn when all I want to do is pick up some dice and play.

Healing – Don’t get me started.  There’s no such thing a short rest, and long rests don't heal much (your CON mod times your level).  If you don’t have a healer in the party, you’re going to have a really slow campaign.  Most people reading this already know my feelings on hit points (Hint: I mostly consider it Stamina), and it’s hard for me to get excited about a campaign where I’m going to spend so much time recovering in bed. 

Resonance – This seems like a complicated addition, but it’s kind of interesting.  Basically it’s a score (CHA mod + level) that affects how many magic items you can carry and/or use at a time.   Charisma is my favorite stat, and I’m all for finding more uses for it.  Plus it’s kind of cool that you can build your character with the intention of specializing in magic items.

Hero Points – These days every system has to have some version of Action Points or Bennies or Inspiration or whatever.   I don’t have a problem with it, but it’s one more thing to keep track of in a game overloaded with different kinds of points.

Spellcasting – At first glance, it’s not too different from D&D 5e, but it shares some of the same problems.  Certain characters will end up having to juggle Vancian “spell slots per level per day” spells, as well as dealing with spell points, and some specific spells that have their own “per day” limit.  It seems like a lot of different systems to keep track of.

Character Sheet – The default character sheet appears to be in Landscape mode, which is awesome because I usually make myself some landscape sheets anyway. 

Overall, I like some of the changes, dislike others, and hate some of the things they kept the same.  I’ll have to wait until Saturday to know what I think for sure.  But even if it turns out to be excellent, I keep wondering, is a new edition a good idea?  Is this ultimately going to be a good thing or a bad thing for Paizo as a company? 

Here’s the thing:  D&D 3.5 was the most prolific version of D&D ever released.  When WOTC went on to 4^th edition, many people felt this was a bad idea, because it abandoned so much existing content.  I still say what I’ve always said: 4^th edition is a pretty fun game, but it should have been a spin-off product, not a replacement for 3.5.  I’m having similar thoughts about PF2e.

Today, Pathfinder has a very niche market.  It caters to the people who didn’t want to move on from D&D 3.5.  I wouldn’t be so skeptical if the new edition was a spin-off product, but by calling it “Pathfinder 2^nd Edition”, it replaces their masthead product.  Many gamers play Pathfinder for one reason: 3.5 nostalgia.  Throw out that reason, and suddenly there are hundreds of RPG systems out there to try.  Without that 3.5 connection, Pathfinder 2e is going to have a lot more competition.  I honestly think they are going to lose business over this.

I hope I'm wrong.

Starfinder: First Impressions

Well, I had high hopes, but so far I have to give Starfinder a thumbs down.  Now before I get into things, some caveat:

1. I actually haven’t played it yet.  So far I’ve just skimmed the book.  I do still plan to try it.

2. I’m more of a casual gamer, so I’m more impressed by rule efficiency than tactical realism.

3. I’ve been spoiled by the simplicity of D&D 5e.

4. Pathfinder players will probably love it.

I’ve always wanted to try Spelljammer, but I don’t like older RPGs so much.  It took decades to streamline D&D’s rules to create the elegant system we have today, and it's hard for me to go backwards.  I keep wanting to try modern sci-fi RPGs, but the few I’ve tried haven’t really done it for me.   Starfinder is Paizo’s newest attempt to create a sci-fi RPG, and I was really looking forward to it. 

They obviously wanted to make it as cross-compatible with Pathfinder as possible, and those who are used to Pathfinder will be right at home. Unfortunately for my tastes, that's where things went wrong.

Where do I begin?  Pathfinder was already pretty complicated compared to D&D 5e.  Being based on 3.5, the most prolific version of D&D, it had to compile years of content and errata into a coherent system.  I’ve always respected Pathfinder so doing it so thoroughly.  But now that I play D&D 5e, I was glad to be rid of things like flat-footed AC, diagonal squares taking more movement, ability damage, negative levels, and so on.  Now Starfinder comes along and adds two kinds of AC, separate stamina and hit points, resolve points, and so on. 

This would all be okay if any of the new stuff impressed me, but it doesn’t.  I’m disappointed there aren’t more races, and the ones it does have don't wow me.  Sure, it has rules for using existing Pathfinder races, but I never really wanted to see any of those in space.  The classes are mildly interesting, but none of them really jumped out at me.  Usually when I read a new RPG book, my biggest problem is narrowing down all the cool new stuff I want to try, but for some reason none of the Starfinder classes really sparked my imagination.

I do like that it has separate classes and themes.  The themes remind me of the backgrounds in D&D 5e.  But there's only ten of them in the PHB (including "Themeless").  And some of the ones they have are more specific than others.  I can understand Mercenary or Spacefarer - those are fairly generic and are likely to describe a lot of adventurers.  But "Icon" (i.e. celebrity) seems a bit specific when you only have ten themes.  I much prefer 5e's spread of backgrounds.

Of course, by the time I get my next haircut they'll have released a dozen splatbooks full of new races, themes, and classes, and eventually I'll see something I want to play.  And that's great and all, but I'm still not sure I like Pathfinder rules in space.  Every three pages I'll run into a paragraph I have to read three times to really "get", because it's phrased like a calculus problem.

But that's my fault.  I knew Starfinder was going to be kinda/sorta Pathfinder compatible, so I should have expected that from the beginning.  And to be fair, I don't dislike Pathfinder.  I've played it before and the rules don't feel nearly as complicated in context - they just don't read well.  Again, 5e spoiled me.

From my point of view, it feels like a wasted opportunity.  They had the chance to create an RPG from scratch, but instead they built on top of Pathfinder's tried-and-true rules.  It was actually a very smart decision, and it will probably sell a lot more copies than the hypothetical RPG I would have preferred they made.  In other words, Starfinder, "It's not you, it's me."

TL;DR: I think Starfinder is a high-quality RPG... I'm just not sure it's for me.  My new hope is that WOTC releases a 5e version of Spelljammer or Gamma World.  But I won't hold my breath.

Painting Miniatures - Part 2

Just posting a few more pictures of miniatures I've painted (see previous blog here).  I'm still not happy with my skills, but I'm having a blast (and killing my back).  For the most part I've given up painting the eyes - I just can't get them even and they always end up looking cartoony.  I think I've been putting more creativity into the bases than the actual miniatures so far.
 

Bard

Weeping Angel - Pretty much just painted it gray.

Fairy

Same Fairy, but invisible

Bookshelf

Maybe my future Starfinder character?

Innkeepers

Mimic

Paladin of Sune

Pirates

Young Displacer Beast - I added tentacles to a cat familiar.

I didn't paint the following sharks.  They're just some toys you can buy in a tube at craft stores.  But I did paint the bases and added some extra flair.  I even glued real sand and seashells to some of them.

The ants below are from a bag of plastic ants.  I gave the bases a dirt-like texture and glued the ants to them to make ant swarms. I'm working on a spider one right now as well.

This is something I made to track flying height:

And lastly, here's some AOE effects I made for tracking the range of certain spells: