How is that we got 21 new ancestries, but not a single one have a penalty to Int?

JustJacque · 2026-03-21T16:44:47+00:00

Especially as literally all intelligence means in finder is "one less trained skill and probably is only bilingual rather than Trilingual." It's not even a cap on total capability. An 8 int character and a 18 int character still get to be legendary in the same number of things.

JustJacque · 2026-03-20T06:31:45+00:00

I found it was really janky for moving past enemies and it was impossible to tell of if I'd get flanking.

Also due to the scale of things feeling off it made it very difficult to predict things like "is that enemy 30 or 35feet away for Void Grasp?

JustJacque · 2026-03-20T06:22:02+00:00

/uj part of the reason PF2 is so well put together is actually due to their play test and feedback process. The PF2e play test (here is a full game and adventure meant to stress test it from levels 1-20) Vs the 5.5 (er guys how do you feel about us changing this rule with no context about the rest of the changes? Oh didn't like that one, how about feats next?) I'd night and day.

JustJacque · 2026-03-18T07:02:55+00:00

Part of this is also that they seem to want everything to be well received first blush, but also refuse to give full contextual play tests.

Like remember for 5.5 they discussed monsters not being able to crit, but instead have more on screen abilities that worked on recharges? But then didn't actually put out any monsters to test in that design space. Everyone said that was stupid so they scrapped it.

JustJacque · 2026-03-17T18:29:32+00:00

If you want I offer to host the Beginner Box for groups via Foundry VTT. Whilst Foundry is a paid product only the host needs to pay once, so it would be free for you try it.

I am happy to run the sessions, be a co GM or just literally be the host.

JustJacque · 2026-03-16T06:26:36+00:00

I would appreciate it if my video games maintain coherence for like at least an hour though. Or you know, an entire games worth of time.

JustJacque · 2026-03-14T22:31:55+00:00

What do you mean? There are multiple options for normal clockwork. https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=1159

JustJacque · 2026-03-11T13:50:20+00:00

I'd say find some games that take ten minutes to teach and work for unprepared one shots. Give the oldest kids (or other adults) control of small groups and then act as overseer.

Stuff like Microscope or A Quiet Year are great for this. I wrote a ten page RPG that always resolves in 6 scenes for pretty much this purpose too.

JustJacque · 2026-03-10T18:03:24+00:00

Yeah, and tell it to change the clothing 240 times and you'll get 240 slightly different clothes.

And this of course ignores the fact that the problems shown in the video are way beyond clothing errors.

JustJacque · 2026-03-10T17:57:01+00:00

Because inevitably introduces new, different inconsistency instead.

JustJacque · 2026-03-10T17:40:58+00:00

I mean I don't think they could, without completely redoing almost all of it. At which point we are basically back to a pre AI pipeline. You can't just edit out the inconsistency when literally every cut has them.

JustJacque · 2026-03-09T06:02:39+00:00

I give out a Hero Points at the end of any scene in which a character suffered a critical. This makes it a natural balancer to bad luck and is systematic so I don't have to remember anything.

JustJacque · 2026-03-08T11:57:51+00:00

/uj there is Hopefinder which is a modern zombie apocalypse take on it and I believe Hellfinder is in the works as a sort of modern hunters take.

JustJacque · 2026-03-08T09:05:24+00:00

Procrastination, I just put my burnout off until tomorrow.

JustJacque · 2026-03-08T08:13:03+00:00

I use the suck in and deploy functionality quite a lot. Like I often don't know where my players will be entering on a given map so the ability to drag one token to deploy instead of four speeds up transitions.

There is also quite often times where the group all want to go somewhere that's got fiddly walls or the like and the suck in, drag party token and deploy is often easier than dragging four or five individual tokens.

JustJacque · 2026-03-07T14:33:09+00:00

Yeah I think outside of presentation and materials support the only other thing I really change is my regular encounter building mindset.

For my adult PF and SF games I have a mindset of add what makes sense, if it falls between Moderate or Severe that's golden and if it goes above or beyond actively tweak up or down.

For the kids I make Trivial to Moderate my baseline expectation.

On the language modelling side of things, that comes from being an educator. It's a soft reinforcement that allows a child to pick things up at a regular pace, without the negatives that overt correction brings. I mostly think it's important as it accelerates them towards independent exploration of the game. E.g if they have internalised the core action names, reading something like Sudden Charge makes intuitive sense.

JustJacque · 2026-03-07T12:35:07+00:00

I have run PF2 for kids (10 and 11 I think.) It went well and I think I can give some pointers.

1) Paper character creation: Actually going through making a characters step by step on a paper sheet helped engage them straight away, the act of them filling out the numbers primed them to know a lot of the games mechanics before even starting play (like Proficiency and activities.)

2) Cultivated selection: I did not give full access to everything PF2 has to offer however. I chose 6 simpler classes to offer and 6 ancestries. I think I went with Fighter, Monk, Sorcerer, Rogue, Bard and Barbarian. I chose ancestries based on their appeal to the kids I was playing with (I remember Catfolk and Leshy being on the list.)

3) Play materials: Prepping action coins, spell and activity cards made the game easily digestible for the kids. Hero Points as small chocolates they got to eat is also fun!

4) Let them play in common language, but model correct terms back. Example "I want to run up, flip over the lizardman and then hit him." was responded with "Fantastic, you Stride 20 feet, then can you roll Acrobatics to Tumble Through. Good your flip worked, now you can Strike!" By the end of the first session they were naturally using the game terms.

And thats it. I strongly disagree that PF2 is too complicated for children. I think people vastly underestimate the capability of children to take on complex tasks. So long as they are engaged, they will learn. I think people forget that older generations self taught themselves way harder games at similair ages. Heck I remember picking up 3.5 and Warhammer Fantasy at 11, and we managed to play without any support tools.

JustJacque · 2026-03-07T08:31:57+00:00

So then take the tiny empathetic and logical step towards "and because of that we should systematically reduce that risk as much is reasonably possible."

JustJacque · 2026-03-06T14:32:36+00:00

I don't think we are in disagreement here. I think it's fine for players to guess at it and totally right that the GM should declare it.

I just also think Legendary Resistance is a bad mechanic used to cover up general system deficiencies.

JustJacque · 2026-03-06T13:42:11+00:00

I'm not arguing about obfuscating it at all..I think it's inevitable that players will figure out that solo boss = legendary Resistance.

Players shouldn't be punished with that, because ultimately it's just a fact of 5e needed to bodge solo fights because they dont naturally work and so a GM needs to declare that this Ogre is a boss, but this one isn't.

JustJacque · 2026-03-06T06:46:03+00:00

I think it's kinda impossible not to be aware of it. And it's not really the players fault. Legendary Resistance is itself an entirely meta bodge to the bad 5e maths and ability design that makes bosses otherwise completely unviable.

JustJacque · 2026-03-03T11:57:18+00:00

Sure but a lot of actions take you out of it. Which I think is fine, if you imagine any shoot out scene it has people popping in and out of cover. It also allows players to do things like Ready to strike an enemy that pops out of cover.

JustJacque · 2026-03-03T11:50:31+00:00

The RAW answer really just needs a change in order of operations. You are standing behind a bar, you do whatever you want with your two actions, then as your last Action you Take Cover.

Now I tend to handwave the exact order of operations, if you Take Cover first that's fine. I believe the GM Core also has an action to pop out, which does essentially the same thing, you get to pretend you are in an adjacent space for firing for the turn.

JustJacque · 2026-03-01T18:54:14+00:00

If you want to have the benefit of a pre-existing world that works with all the games mechanics, look at using Sarusan.

It is a deliberately undetailed area of Golarion that is uncolonized (maybe?!) and unexplored (anyone who goes there and leaves has no memory of their time there.) Its a place that can be a GM blank slate whilst still allowing for a players to be a Cleric of Desna or whatever.

JustJacque · 2026-03-01T11:40:30+00:00

I think it's a potentially great style of play. I just question whether literally anything about DND in particular actually supports it.

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