The Importance of Choice in RPGs

Hey folks!

Today's post is a mix of theory and an actual play anecdote from my ongoing Red Hand of Doom game. It's not breaking particularly new ground - there are a ton of other bloggers that have tackled this topic (I'll list several of those posts at the end, for further reading). However, it's advice that I think a lot of Pathfinder players in particular would really benefit from hearing (and also 5e players, I guess - really anyone who tends to play more linear modules/APs).

It can be really easy when running a more linear adventure to focus on just keeping things moving, on getting from one plot point or location to the next. Some adventures take this to the extreme and do not function as a result, but even adventures that are on the spectrum of decent to good (like most Pathfinder APs) can fall into some of the same traps. In addition, while I agree that Pathfinder is great for improvising a lot of things, there's also so much going on, so many rules, that a lot of newer GMs in particular often feel overwhelmed and struggle to do so.

So, today we're going to talk about Chrono Trigger, Red Hand of Doom, APs, and the importance of choice. To be clear, I will NOT be arguing that you not run APs - instead, I'll be giving advice for capturing the best part of roleplaying games even when you do.

Let's jump in!

SoT Book 6 Chapter 1 - The Heroes Return

We're moving into the final book of Strength of Thousands! Exciting stuff. That means we probably have about 8 months of play yet, give or take (we play fairly slowly haha) - bittersweet! But I'm really looking forward to this book, it looked really freaking cool on a first readthrough, and I'm excited to see what this group does next!

I'm not sure how much of this book I'll want to change - my guess is most of the changes will be small tweaks to make it easier to skip combats that don't matter and were just inserted for XP - but I know that there is a bit that I want to tweak about the first part of Chapter 1, and a decent amount that I want to flesh out.

Let's jump in!

SoT Book 5 Chapter 3 - Recap!

Hey folks!

I didn't end up changing anything as written surrounding the Mandibles of Fate, but I still think it's worth doing a quick writeup, because I think it ended up being a really great example of the power of thinking narratively and rewarding cool player ideas!

So, today we'll be going through three things: 1. The race through the desert. 2. Navigating/assaulting the Mandibles of Fate. 3. The fight with the King of Biting Ants and the aftermath.

Let's jump in!

Homebrew Musings: Minion Numbers & Defenses

Original Minion rules

Short post today!

I've been running Book 3 Chapter 2 of Stolen Fate - full post on book 3 coming soon! - and in part to test Mooks and in part because I wanted more enemies, I converted Svarýr Soldiers into Svarýr Soldier Minions! It's been getting me thinking a bit more about Mook design, and in particular how they might need to scale as we get higher in levels.

State of the Blog (2024 Retrospective and 2025 Resolutions)

It's been a fun year here on weplayinasociety! 

Last year, my resolutions for this blog were:

1. Finish my Red Hand of Doom conversion
2. Finish my Necromancer Class
3. Try to notice structural problems ahead of time
4. Continue my Sandbox PF2 project

How'd I do? Honestly, pretty damn well!

Homebrew: 4e Minions in PF2

Hey folks!

Several years ago, before the Troop rules existed in PF2, I ported the rules for minions from 4e into PF2. It didn't feel perfect, and when Troops came out I figured that I should try the official version and see what all the hype was about. 

While there's a lot to like about Troops, however, I also had a lot of complaints! Chief among these:

• Troops feels more like fighting a normal enemy with weird resistances and abilities, rather than like fighting a large number of foes.
• Troops targeting reflex rather than AC feels odd, and leads to a situation where Rogues were better at leading their allies into battle than Champions, which feels ever worse!
• AoE damage isn't better enough against Troops when compared to single-target attacks. While that gets better when there are 3-4 Troops, it doesn't feel significantly difference than targeting 3-4 normal creatures.
• Troops are hard to physically maneuver on the table! In person, it's a ton of minis to manage, and if you have  multiple identical troops you need them to be different enough that you can tell the different units apart. Tracking is easier on VTTs, but it's almost impossible to get the level of movement flexibility that Troop Movement is supposed to allow. Same deal with using movement trays for IRL minis.
• Troop Defenses are hard to track! I don't know that I've ever remembered to check if a Troop was passing through 2 HP thresholds, and the stuff about single-target vs. area effects are consistently hard for us to remember.

These are all ultimately problems of fantasy - the rules for Troops work, but not in ways that feel right to me at the table. If you like the overall fantasy of fighting a Squadron rather than its individual members, however, feel free to take a look at "Fixing Troops" at the end of this article!

I'd previously used Minions quite a lot in 5e, and I know that I love the way that they feel when used correctly. Plus, in the interim, MCDM came up with incredible innovations that I couldn't wait to try out in PF2. So, over the past few years, I spent a long time crunching math and trying things out, and I am pretty happy with where we ended up.

Here's the full document. Let's jump in!

Expanding Duels in PF2

Hey folks!

While the Pathfinder 2e dueling rules work well for some situations, they really don't capture the highly regimented rulesets of a lot of real-life Dueling traditions. This idea has been kicking around in my head for a while, so today I am pulling the trigger (pun intended)!

SoT Book 5 Chapter 2 - The Red Planet

Today we'll be doing a few things. First, we'll be slightly revamping how Akiton's weather works (and indeed, severe temperatures in general!) to make it matter more on the scale of hours and days. In the main bulk of the post, however, we'll be fleshing out some aspects of Akiton - writing actual descriptions to help GMs introduce the PCs to different areas, figuring out how difficult finding information on various topics would be, and making the Scenario Structure surrounding Skartitch and Tan-Takneh a little more robust!

I'll be organizing it by section. First, general mechanics surrounding Akiton. Then, the Hall of Reason - better descriptions and doing research. Finally, Seldo and the surrounding conflict. I actually also updated one of my previous posts on Chapter 1 to outline how players can research Akiton and find the spells they need to survive it!

Let's jump in!

RHoD Sidequest - The Mad Mage's Manor

RHoD Masterpost

There's a throwaway line on page 52 that says "The razorfiend has done quite well for itself, having plundered a ruined wizard's manor not far off." That's a fine justification, but what's up with that manor? That sounds interesting! The first time I ran RHoD, this line inspired me to create a mini-dungeon, fleshing out that line, and since my players are about to head into the Blackfens I figured I would type it up and streamline it!

This is the first full homebrew mini-adventure I'll be posting on this blog, though not the first I've published - I hope y'all like it!

New Class: The Necromancer

Hey folks!

Cover of Harrow IX

I'm so excited to announce my first complete Pathfinder 2e class: the Necromancer! You can find the full document here. And oh boy, did I pick a tough one!

A year ago, Paizo released the Kineticist, and in many ways it revolutionized PF2 class design. It presented a version of spellcasters without attrition, with action-flexibility, and with fewer, reliable abilities rather than an exhaustive spell list. While I certainly don't think every spellcaster must follow this format, there was a big conversation on reddit about creating more thematic spellcasters that are tailored to a specific fantasy, rather than generalists. I started work on this class within the week!

Play a Necromancer if you want to bend hordes of undead to your will, unleash devastating theorems to wither your foes, or become the master of death itself!