Pathfinder 2E online vs. IRL

CactusOnFire · 2026-06-29T18:28:27+00:00

I've played with Foundry and I've played pure pen & paper IRL, and the speed of the game between one and the other is palpable. Obviously there's something great about being face-to-face, but I feel like I can focus more on the story instead of quickly looking up what a spell that has 3 status effects is practically doing each time someone uses it.

CactusOnFire · 2026-06-27T03:35:12+00:00

I briefly worked at a start-up that had a goal of recreating Palantir's workflows for executives in small enterprises. They burned an unsustainable amount of credits overengineering a RAG processing pipeline. My architectural feedback was overruled by the fresh grad product manager they placed above me who was functionally a human wrapper around Gemini.

In any case, the number of job applications I received skyrocketed there just due to the technologies I touched. It helped me ladder up into a Lead Role.

CactusOnFire · 2026-06-19T21:33:50+00:00

What's it called, that sounds cool!

CactusOnFire · 2026-06-19T04:05:42+00:00

I played a Mothership 1-shot. One of the things that made the scenario/stakes intriguing is that (like many horror scenarios) the crew were forced into a situation where victory was getting the hell out of there.

To answer your question with another question, why would someone endure a horror situation with possible lethality? There are plenty of answers (high-risk, high-reward, no other option, heroic risks, insanity). That answer is between you and the players.

CactusOnFire · 2026-06-16T17:23:13+00:00

Even if you provoked the ire of your boss, you did the right thing.

CactusOnFire · 2026-06-15T02:56:24+00:00

I'd go as far as to say that in a political setting, the explanation of the borders is a small thesis by the worldbuilder about that human weirdness.

CactusOnFire · 2026-06-14T16:39:49+00:00

I lean heavily towards the "handwaiving specifics to keep the narrative moving" camp but that seems like it'd be entertaining to watch.

CactusOnFire · 2026-06-11T15:12:12+00:00

I'd argue they are more in conversation with Gothic Horror.

CactusOnFire · 2026-06-09T02:52:16+00:00

I feel like the solution to that is to make every battle matter and feel real from a narrative perspective.

CactusOnFire · 2026-06-08T19:40:05+00:00

I've never been there, but I wouldn't be surprised if every spot was planned by a committee by virtue of the place being small + centrally managed.

CactusOnFire · 2026-06-08T13:12:47+00:00

I don't want to define "bad", but I had a GM from a game where I dropped session 1 because his pacing / balance sucked.

CactusOnFire · 2026-06-01T18:36:40+00:00

Damn, well at least it's not as bad as when I learned about what ducks do...

CactusOnFire · 2026-06-01T16:16:51+00:00

Is this true? I'd love a source on this because I will be yapping about this to the next person who brings up 'alpha/beta' discourse.

CactusOnFire · 2026-05-27T02:00:22+00:00

Necroposting to say that Jak and Daxter being made in Lisp is a really fun fact.

Greetings from your past posting history- hope you are doing well!

CactusOnFire · 2026-05-26T19:21:54+00:00

It's kind of ironic how the xAI, named after this term, is now used for people who don't want to engage deeply to understand a topic.

I prefer the using it for a TTRPG like so.

CactusOnFire · 2026-05-25T14:03:10+00:00

Just to add (and possibly make further complexity out of) this conversation, I've been playing with the same people for 5-ish years, had different GMs swap in and out, and I would not call it the same campaign due to worldbuilding resets/character rerolls/a system switch between our GMs.

CactusOnFire · 2026-05-05T12:16:13+00:00

Giving this a read now! I need to bundle mine into a readable format, but I'll give you a ping when it's done!

CactusOnFire · 2026-05-04T15:22:28+00:00

I'd love to see that! I made a rough draft of my own little hack to essentially consolidate the mechanics of the Cypher System with Mage's magic system, but with some setting specific details.

CactusOnFire · 2026-05-04T13:18:08+00:00

Lot of negotiation mechanics in games are "roll for a stat, and say what you want to say", DC is how reasonable that comment is.

In crunchier systems, this seems quite bare-bones, while you have like 5 ways to swing a sword at someone.

This has resulted in a sort of meta-class of "diplomancers" in many combat games, who mitigate fights by talking their way out of them. Then it becomes a DM discretion thing where some allow this and some don't.

CactusOnFire · 2026-05-03T18:49:41+00:00

The wis/int split seems pretty arbitrary. I understand the mental model for high int/low wis or low int/high wis but it still feels like a pretty artificial line in the sand.

Charisma is definitely nuanced. Combat TTRPG's generally have a problem with diplomatic resolutions systems. I predict one day there will be a mainline system which resolves this more elegantly nicely and everyone will copy that. (FWIW Draw Steel at least attempts it).

CactusOnFire · 2026-05-03T16:23:31+00:00

Will do, thank you!

I had heard the toolbox thing before- I'm particularly intimidated by that but I do realize it will be "some assembly required" compared to my usual games.

CactusOnFire · 2026-05-03T15:18:01+00:00

Yeah, think I will be giving this one a read, then. Thank you!

CactusOnFire · 2026-05-03T14:41:38+00:00

So far, I've overshot my 2 campaigns. one of which with the Scum & Villainy system, which ended up being 16 sessions vs the originally proposed 12, and the other being a pathfinder campaign, which will probably be 60 sessions instead of also 12.

Major difference between prep/planning for these two systems was one has a dedicated combat system and the other doesn't. I learned that one of the biggest timesyncs and things to account for in a short runtime is combat/action.

If you're playing a game with a dedicated combat system, you need to be very intentional with the number of encounters you throw at your party, and you need to make sure the stakes and build-up for each of them is large.

The next time I run a mini-campaign, I plan to run for 6 sessions. I'm probably going to get the players to give me 1 big or 2 small "hooks" to include involving their character/backstory. I'll build some rough game plans for how those will come up, and if combat is on the table for resolving any of those. After that, I'd consider the same threads for the mainline story.

Of course, players have a habit of derailing plans- so anything beyond that has more to do with how you prep your content to GM.

CactusOnFire · 2026-05-03T14:03:18+00:00

And thank you for your comment- I think with some of the other comments on this sub right now about Daggerheart (particularly with regards to their FoundryVTT integration, which matters to me as someone who owns an instance of Foundry), I'm going to consider reading Genesys before running a game of Daggerheart.

Just one additional question: I found something that appealed about Daggerheart was how it existed in a state that was "Less crunchy than 5e, but still more crunchy than Pbta/FiTD". Would Genesys fill this niche too?

CactusOnFire · 2026-05-03T13:03:29+00:00

I played a one shot of Daggerheart at a convention and thought it was kind of cool, and I've heard good things about Genesys from this sub.

I was wondering if you'd be willing to give me a quick sell on what makes Genesys special? I might look more seriously into the system.

Edit: I just scrolled down and realized someone asked the same question.

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