PF2 Structure Part 5.0 - Towards Better Scenario Structures

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Hey folks! Sorry for the delay on this, real life got in the way (see my previous post for brief details).

In this series so far, we talked about what Scenario Structures are, Pathfinder's Non-Scenario Subsystems, its Infiltration Subsystem (which is IMO the system's best example of Scenario Structure), and the Other Scenario Structures that Pathfinder 2e has.

Today's post will start relatively short, but it will be a living post, and I may come back and update it with other structures or resources. We'll talk about what Scenario Structures need and what things to consider when running them, briefly discuss Scenario Structures from other games that can be stolen without too much work, and we'll keep a running list of PF2 Scenario Structures as well as resources that might help folks design their own.

Lets jump in!

PF2 Structure Part 4 - Other Scenario Structures

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The Ring Goes South to Mordor

Hey folks!

In our last article, we talked about what I consider to be the best example of Scenario Structure in PF2 - the Infiltration Subsystem. We talked about its strengths, how it's used in adventures, and what changes or variations might be worth making.

Today, unfortunately, we're going to be a bit more negative. We're going to be talking about Pathfinder 2e's other Scenario Structures, or, in many cases, the lack thereof. We'll start by talking about the other "official" Scenario Structure - Hexploration (yes, this is the only other "official" one) - before going into the less defined structures. This includes Investigations (essentially several Research libraries stapled together in Gatewalkers), Dungeon Crawls (which do not have explicit rules in PF2), Linear Sequences (where things just happen in a given order), and various less detailed structures in APs. We generally won't be going into quite as much detail for each of them, but there's a solid chance I'll remake some or all of them in Part 5.

We've got a lot to get through, so let's jump on in!

PF2 Structure Part 3 - The Infiltration Subsystem

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Source

Hey folks!

Today, we'll be talking about the Infiltration Subsystem, which is in my opinion Pathfinder 2e's best example of a Scenario Structure.

Let's jump right in!

PF2 Structure Part 2 - Non-Scenario Subsystems

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Hey folks!

by Satibalzane on Deviant Art

Today, we're going to be going through the non-Scenario Structure Subsystems in PF2 to ground our analysis going forwards. We'll be doing some amount of analysis of these systems, but will mostly be setting up for future articles.

Part 1 hogged all the intro space, so we're gonna keep this intro short. Let's jump in!

PF2 Structure Part 1 - Whither the Scenario Structure?

Somethings been rattling around in my head for a long time.

The core structure of the Alexandrian
Dragon Heist Remix

I've been running RPGs for about a decade now. I started with 5e when it was pretty new, had a good time, and slowly became disenfranchised with its myriad problems. Along the way I found a lot of great advice, especially from Matt Colville and The Alexandrian, but for a long time I mostly ran either published modules or homebrew adventures that were in a similar style.

When I switched to Pathfinder 2e in 2020, I didn't really have problems with the rules themselves. There are still things that don't quite match my preferences, and certain things that I'd probably have done differently, but for the most part the system just works. If I'm too tired to make a call, the game has me covered. I don't have to worry about PCs accidentally becoming overpowered or trivializing an encounters due to a broken rules interaction. And if I do have the energy to make a call that's outside-the-box, or the players come up with an idea clever enough that I want to let them trivialize an encounter, I always have the freedom to do so.

With less work to do hammering the rules into place, however, I could focus more on the adventures themselves. My first real project on this blog was Remixing Strength of Thousands Book 2 in the style of the Dragon Heist Remix, where I deconstructed the grab bag of random quests and put them back together into a more cohesive whole. To date, it's my second most popular series after my Red Hand of Doom Conversion. Ever since, most of my blog has been doing the same - tinkering with adventures to make them more fun to run and play - but the series that finally crystalized my main point today was the one about Negotiations in Mzali.

Now, you might say, "Why do you need to tinker with Pathfinder 2e Adventure Paths? They are so much better than 5e adventures!" And that's true! Genuinely! I love APs, but they still often have problems of their own. Probably the most common complaint about them is about how over-complicated a lot of subsystems are, and I think that is often true! If you've been following this blog for a while, however, you might guess that to me those are just symptoms of a larger issue: structure.

This series is about Scenario Structures: what they are, why they're important, and why Pathfinder 2e would benefit from more of a focus on them. That's right, I said series - as you might be able to tell from the length of that intro, this is a topic I've thought a lot about, and it's gotten a bit away from me. Here's my plan for this series (I'll update it as things develop):

1. Introduction & Defining Terms (this post)
2. Pathfinder 2e Subsystem Analysis (focusing on Encounter Structures)
3. Pathfinder 2e's Infiltration Subsystem
4. Pathfinder 2e's other Scenario Structures
5. Towards Better Scenario Structures
1. Dungeon Crawling
2. (I plan to add several other articles on different Scenario Structures, but that's likely a ways off unless I feel unexpectedly inspired)

Let's jump into Part 1!

PF2 Structure Part 5.1 - Dungeon Structure

Go to Part 1

Hey folks!

From Shadowdark RPG

This is a weird one, because it's part 5a of a series for which I have not yet published part 1 - the overall series is about what I see as a need for more thoroughly fleshed out Scenario Structures in Pathfinder 2e. I have part 1 about 90% done, and the other parts are well under way as well, but I decided to go ahead and publish this one first because I think folks might find it useful! (Note: I have now finished it! See link above.)

Today, we'll be outlining a core dungeon procedure for PF2 that aims to fit as neatly into PF2 as possible without changing any rules. Ideally, it should work even if you implement it in an existing AP without doing a whole bunch of extra work. I'll also include some extra credit for if you do want to put in the work, or you want to change more about how you run dungeons.

Let's jump in!

SF Book 3: Worst of All Possible Worlds

Hey folks!

It's been a minute since I worked on Stolen Fate, as real life has gotten in the way. Me any my partner are playing this campaign one-on-one in a continuation from Abomination Vaults, and we're not really planning sessions so much as playing whenever we both have the energy.

We just finished Chapter 1 of Book 3 - a fairly chill search for all the remaining cards (bar one) - and now it's time to prep the rest of the book!

I was going to keep this relatively contained, but it being me, I ended up prepping the rest of Book 3 in one go. Sorry it's a little sprawling, hopefully it's helpful!

Here there be spoilers. You have been warned!

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!

Is Pathfinder Too Complicated?

Hey folks!

I love Pathfinder 2e - it is cohesively designed, tactically deep, and rich with options. It basically fixed everything that frustrated me about 5e: lack of GM support, overpowered character options, unbalanced stacking bonuses, incomplete rules*, goofy restrictions, lack of specialization/customization, weird action economy, and so much more.

*To be clear, rule-lite games can be rad! But 5e is not that. There's nothing wrong with the core of the game being "the GM and players have a conversation about the world and determine the best option to fit that specific scenario," but it is a problem when some things (esp. spells) are as (or more) complicated as PF2, and others basically don't have rules, because the GM still has to check whether there *are* rules before giving their own ruling. Plus, some of the existing rules are just bad!

However, I know a lot of my players have more trouble with PF2! Part of this is that a lot of them have played 5e, and that transition requires a lot of unlearning bad habits. Players who are newer to RPGs in general always have an easier time, but even they can struggle with some aspects, and I have seen many stories of folks online who struggle even more than my own players.

So, in this post, I'm going to explore some ways that I think that GMs can approach PF2 to help make this transition easier, as well as a few possible house-rules if you want to go further. Let's dive in!

How Not To Kill Your Players In The Fall Of Plaguestone

The Fall of Plaguestone cover art

Hey folks!

I freakin love The Fall of Plaguestone! It's a beautiful adventure with complex themes about loss, betrayal, and societal guilt, and I wish more people got to experience that! Unfortunately, it is plagued (heh) by overly tough encounters that have lead to many TPKs. One person I talked to said their three groups had all TPKd, once to the wolves, once to the chapter 1 boss, and once to the chapter 2 boss! While I never had a TPK in the two times I ran it, I did lose 2 players the first time through, and there were definitely a few other close calls.

Today, we'll be going through my advice for toning down some of the rougher aspects of the module and bringing out what's really beautiful!

Game Rant: Module Layouts

 Hey folks!

This is a less formal post, and is basically just me venting a bit about the way the Pathfinder adventures tend to be written. I've been running Pathfinder 2e for years now. In that time, I've run a conversion of 1e's Quest for the Everflame, The Fall of Plaguestone, the Beginner Box, Abomination Vaults, the first three and a half books of Strength of Thousands, and the first book and a half of Stolen Fate.

I'll be using Strength of Thousands Book 4: Secrets of the Temple City as my example here (spoilers!), because that's the module I'm running right now, but all the adventures above (and several others that I've just idly flipped through) share several pretty frustrating tendencies. No shade to the individual writers/designers (see my praise of chapter 2 here), it's clearly a style guide problem (or a knock on effect of being paid by the word), not an individual writer problem, and their release schedule adds its own challenges.

It's also an industry-wide problem - I'm not aware of a publisher as large as Paizo that doesn't have similar problems! WotC is definitely worse, as showcased by one of the most scathing reviews I've ever read - after years of running 5e, I've just given up hope in making it worth playing, whereas I believe strongly in PF2 as a game and want its modules to be better!

Ultimately, the problem boils down to modules being designed to be read rather than used, which can lead to some frustrating moments as a GM. So, today we'll be walking through some of that and contrasting Paizo's approach with that of smaller RPGs.

Pathfinder 2e Overland Travel

Hey Folks! Today I'm going to be going through my homebrew Overland Travel rules, including both the rules themselves and advice on how to use them. I've been working on them on and off for several years, and have used them across multiple campaigns, most recently for Chapter 2 of Strength of Thousands Book 3: Hurricane's Howl. In the next article, I'll use that campaign as a case study to see these rules in action!

This system is not for every game, table, or situation! It works best when resource management is important, when time is a major factor, and when you want to create the feeling of a living, dangerous, wonderful world. In other words, when travel is part of the adventure. What those things are not true, feel free to either do some sort of travel montage or skip through travel entirely!

Travel Rules

The Hobbit (1977)

I am only going to go through the basics of the rules in this post so as to keep it relatively contained - here are the full rules! It includes everything in this post (other than some of the explanations), plus lots of charts and further detail to flesh things out. It also has example rules for Red Hand of Doom, since that's what I'll be using this for.

SoT Book 4 Chapter 1 - Part 2: Towards Better Negotiation

Part 1: Review / Recap 

In part 1, we discussed how Words for the Dead (chapter 1 of Strength of Thousands book 4, Secrets of the Temple City) has an interesting premise, but ultimately falls short of delivering on it. The structure as written leads to a boring, repetitive play loop. There's no fail state and therefore no tension, there's a distinct lack of things happening (events), and the negotiation process consists primarily of making rolls rather than arguments.

I did improve on this somewhat by adding active opposition in the form of the Aspis Consortium, but I should have gone further by better highlighting their progress over time and giving them ways to fuck with the PCs. I also should have turned this into more of a tug of war, with the PCs and Aspis actively racing to win over council members, rather than keeping things vague like I did. Full details on the delegation in part 1, and my epic finale in part 3.

Ultimately, scenarios are the most fun when they are situations with tons of active elements for the players to push on (and that will push back!), rather than as a linear series of dice rolls. Let's see what we can do!

by Todd Harris

Pathfinder Remaster: Expanded Spell Schools

The Pathfinder Remaster is here! It's got a lot of exciting changes, but one thing that I've seen a lot of folks be less excited about is that, as a consequence of Paizo removing the 8 traditional spell schools (evocation, conjuration, etc.) to move away from the OGL, the extra school spell slots are a lot more limited. While the book does say "Your GM might allow you to swap or add other spells to your curriculum if they strongly fit the theme" (PC 198), a lot of GMs might want more guidance. Plus, there are so many cool spells from SoM, DA, and RoE that deserve a chance to shine!

So, that's what we're doing today! We'll be going through each of the new Curriculums and giving suggestions for what spells (both from the remaster and previously existing material) GMs might want to add to each, with a focus on low-rank spells that will stay useful at higher levels (spell-blending wizards don't mind this, but everyone else does). Each list should end with 5 cantrips, 6 rank 1 spells, 2 rank 9 spells, and 4 of each other rank.

Note: there's also this semi-official Pathfinder Society version if you want another take!

Lost Omens: Mwangi Expanse Cover

Pathfinder Remaster: Revised Cantrips

Hey folks!

Today we're doing something a little bit different. Instead of converting or remixing an adventure, we'll be going through my proposed revisions to the Remastered cantrips. Here are my initial reddit post, my math spreadsheet, and my full conversion doc with all the new changes (both to remaster cantrips and the older ones).

Stolen Fate Chapter 1: Luck of the Draw

Harrow Master by
WillOBrien on DeviantArt

I am now running three campaigns, one of which is Stolen Fate! It's a fun adventure so far (we just finished chapter 2, which was full of lovely little vignette adventures), but I was struck by how off the structure of Chapter 1 felt. So, let's fix it! Spoilers from here on out.

The Trouble with Chapter 1

The adventure starts off with a Bang! The players make their way to Three Moves Ahead, where they find the shopkeeper dead and devils ransacking the place! As it turns out, they were looking for harrow cards from the same deck as the ones the players just found, and that guided them to this very shop. In the shop are clues to one more card somewhere in the city, owned by Dieral Myrnese, owner of the Harrow barrow, a neat steampunk wheelbarrow occult shop. There are three people who might know something: an antique collector, a tattoo artist, and a scrapyard mechanic, and the players must convince them to help!

This is where the trouble starts. The chapter uses the Influence subsystem, which I overall think is pretty neat! But that honestly does not fit this scenario at all.

How to Run Haunts in Pathfinder 2e

Howdy folks!

I've seen a couple of folks, both online and in a game of Outlaws of Alkenstar that I am playing in, struggle with how to run Haunts! And honestly, that makes perfect sense - Pathfinder 2e has incredible rules for Combat that even a new GM can just take and run with! Other aspects of the game require a bit more work from the GM, however, which can be harder for folks who aren't used to using the skills required.

In this post, I'll be going through the 3 most essential skills for running haunts in Pathfinder 2e, with further reading to help you master each one (in descending order of relevance, so if you only read the first article in each section you'll still get a lot of value!). Then, I'll be going through 3 example haunts - one from Abomination Vaults, which I ran earlier this year, the one from Outlaws of Alkenstar that my GM struggled with, and one higher level haunt from the GMG.

by GrandFailure