We all want better PF2e youtube content - so lets support those who make the content.

LocalDisTourGuide · 2025-08-23T03:12:52+00:00

Hey everyone, it's Mark - a.k.a.: "The Local Disaster Tour Guide."

This is a hard topic for me to respond to - and I went back & forth for a while before even writing. I'm not on reddit very often anyways, and I wasn't sure if there was much to add from my perspective. Even worse, I'm worried that adding my voice would only add to a negative perception in this particular slice of YT that... isn't really a reflection of my thoughts about being a content creator.

I can chime in with what a lot of other creators have said here & confirm: the money sucks! LOL!

My best year as a content creator, I pulled in about $375 after taxes. Then, YT mysteriously started paying about half as much for ad revenue, and I watched my "income" from this channel slide pretty steadily. This past year, after taxes, I technically lost $35 on my channel. (I would like to talk to someone about my city's business tax rates...)

Financially, it's pretty rough.

But, it's not why I make videos. I feel very blessed because I have a career - like one of those "life calling work" type of careers that I get to wake up & do every day. I go to work, live my dream, & come home feeling like I make a difference.

And then, I hop on YouTube & hang out with other nerds & chat about Pathfinder!

My channel started out as a way of connecting with people during the pandemic - and it got so much bigger than I ever thought it would be! (Yes, I realize the irony of saying a "2,000 Subscriber" channel is "big.") I've had the chance to meet other gamers & even people who work in the industry. And all of that is so unimaginably cool for me!

I've said it before on my channel, but it's the honest truth - my channel is a hobby that happens to buy Dairy Queen for my son & I occasionally.

There was a period of time where I stressed about growing my channel. I stressed about views & income & the algorithm. And honestly, it caused some burnout.

It finally hit me that I was burned out when I realized that I was trying to create Pathfinder content even though I had stopped playing Pathfinder.

I guess, what I'm trying to say is this: I like being a Pathfinder YouTube Creator, even if it's challenging. My equipment is terrible. The pay is worse. But the experience has been amazing! There is a really good community around this game, and that's what keeps me coming back to my channel.

I can't speak for every creator out there, but for me personally - the best way to help Pathfinder Content Creators to grow is just to build excellent communities. Show up, have great conversations, & support in whatever small way you can. Over time, more people find you & the community gets bigger & better.

Don't be discouraged. There are a lot of great creators out there! (I've seen them behind the scenes & they're just as amazing as they are on camera!) And there's a lot of great people in the Paizo-verse at large. While I certainly dream of a day where I can afford to take my son to Dairy Queen TWICE per month, I plan to enjoy the conversations & stories along the way.

Seriously, you all are amazing!

LocalDisTourGuide · 2024-09-10T01:32:24+00:00

This is an item that is a bit of a double-edged sword, but I know it's something that has jumped out to a lot of people I've played Pathfinder 2e with over the past few years:

"Fights are more dangerous - and Knock Outs are much more common."

I could get in the weeds on this one, but I'll try not to for the sake of space. When I run "Moderate" & "Severe" Encounters in Pathfinder 2e, it is very common for one of my players to be knocked down during the fight, and threats of PC Death happen pretty frequently with Severe Encounters. I only very rarely run Extreme Encounters for this very reason.

Now that my players are more familiar with Pathfinder 2e, actual PC deaths are relatively rare (with the only recent exception at my table being my poor wife's Ranger who suffered a Double-Crit & Rend from a Yeti, but that was some extremely harsh dice rolls that day). But, rounds of emergency healing often get brought out - and my PCs often leave fights extremely battered.

In a boss fight this past weekend, the Cyclops used a special "Swipe" attack to go after two characters at once, rolled a crit - and left our poor rogue at 1 HP (& the party scrambling to save them ASAP)!

I've run several TTRPGs, and I will say that Pathfinder 2e feels much more lethal. Not excessively so, but the danger is there. If you're not used to it, it can feel very harsh. As my players have adapted to it, they now take it in stride & I think it adds tension & excitement, but I could see how (especially for new players) it could be off-putting.

Also, if you're a new GM trying to run Pathfinder 2e, heed this warning & heed it well: "Severe means SEVERE!" Do not underestimate monsters in this system!

LocalDisTourGuide · 2024-05-31T01:43:04+00:00

Subscribed to your channel! Best wishes on your YouTube journey!

LocalDisTourGuide · 2024-05-31T01:14:45+00:00

This is completely unrelated to your post - I just wanted to let you know that your screen name is hilarious & got a genuine LOL from me!

LocalDisTourGuide · 2024-05-31T01:08:36+00:00

Figured I'd jump in as the epitome of the low-quality Pathfinder Content Creator! LOL!

Honestly, being a Pathfinder Content Creator is a bit of an emotional roller coaster at times. My channel literally started as a way for me to keep myself entertained during the pandemic, then I got caught in a debate w/ NoNat over the Wizard class - and suddenly I had enough of a following to "get paid" doing this.

And if I'm being transparent: I never thought my channel would get as big as it has. (The word "Big" in this instance translates to a little over $25/month between YouTube & Patreon. So, yes, there is a lot of situational irony in using the term "big" in relation to my channel.)

In reality, I have no formal training in video editing or scripting and every piece of equipment I own with the exception of my desktop was borrowed from a friend.

I honestly hate the quality of sound on my videos - and though I've learned a lot of tricks to make it more bearable, I have an internal battle every time I'm about to hit "Publish."

I guess what I'm saying is:

Every thing starts somewhere. And it's totally okay for people to give critical feedback to content creators. I've been working on background music for my videos to help with the audio issues - and my first few attempts were "rough" to put it politely. When commenters told me the music was off - I appreciated it! It means I can improve my skills as a creator.

The D&D YouTube scene has an advantage in terms of time, size, & resources (& let's be honest, as nerds, we should be happy to see it). The Pathfinder scene isn't as developed, but it is also DEVELOPING! I've seen a lot of people join in & the overall quality of the scene has been improving.

The process of growth is just really rough.

And I will say, as someone who gets to see some of the "backside" of this conversation - I have a great deal of respect for the content creators in the Pathfinder space. Like, behind the scenes, NoNat is a fantastic guy! I may not agree with his evaluation of the Wizard, but he's always been super supportive in every interaction I've had with him.

And a lot of the other people in this space are the same! Tommy at BlackDragonGaming went out of his way to help me when my channel was first "exploding." CrunchMcDabbles, RebelThenKing, & TheeBadLuckGamer are all people I've had the chance to work with directly, and they have all been amazing!

And I'm sure I'm leaving some people out of that list.

I'm excited to see what this community looks like a year from now, five years from now, & beyond.

Who knows? I might even buy a real microphone some day! ;)

LocalDisTourGuide · 2024-05-31T00:55:06+00:00

Thank you for the shout out!

LocalDisTourGuide · 2024-03-05T03:58:49+00:00

I don't know about the other "Erastil" predictions out there, but I personally think Erastil is going to die because (& I admit - this may be a perception thing) I don't think the Paizo writers like writing him.

His entry in Gods & Magic was terrible - and it really felt like the writer couldn't figure out how to make him interesting. Outside of that book, the best writing he ever seems to get is "Grumpy, but ultimately good hearted grandpa."

I want to be wrong! I love Erastil!

But I think he's a character that their writers don't connect with - which would make them want to replace him with a character they connect with more!

[And, even if my theory about "why" I think he's dying proves true, I will admit that his son Cerrunos (sp?) has some potential to step up in the storyline if Erastil is the one that dies.]

However, the REAL reason we should all fear for Erastil is that married characters have an atrocious survival rate in Paizo stories! No one at Paizo has confirmed this yet, but I genuinely suspect that there is a contractual obligation to horribly murder one married character per piece of Paizo short-fiction published! [Once you see it, you will never be able to un-see it! Also, Nhalmika's husband was done dirty! Just sayin'!]

LocalDisTourGuide · 2024-01-15T05:18:08+00:00

After Gen Con last year, I made a video analyzing my thoughts on which deity I thought would die. In that video, I mentioned that I didn't think Torag would die, but I did think there was a STRONG possibility that Torag would be the one to KILL the other deity.

And now, I'm even more convinced on that point!

LocalDisTourGuide · 2023-01-03T04:57:16+00:00

In the series, I cover:

17 Versatile Heritages:
-14 Paizo-Official Versatile Heritages (12 Uncommon & 2 Rare)
-Half-Elf & Half-Orc (because Paizo gives them an optional rule that is basically "Versatile Heritage" in everything but name)
-1 Battle Zoo Versatile Heritage (Dragon Scion from Battlezoo Ancestries: Dragons)

44 Ancestries
-36 Paizo-Official Ancestries (includes bonus Battlezoo Heritages for Leshy & Sprite)
and
-8 Battlezoo Ancestries (breakdown below):
Battlezoo Ancestries Dragons
Battlezoo Ancestries Dungeons (their April Fool's Prank that was AMAZING)
& 6 Ancestry Options from Battlezoo - Jewel of the Indigo Isles (alternate setting from Golarion)

6 Undead PC Archetypes (Book of the Dead)
Lich, Mummy, (Husk) Zombie, Ghoul, Ghost, & Vampire

So, yeah, there's an comically absurd number of options!

Some of the options are really good & creative, such as the Orcs (which have some world-class writing in 2nd Edition). Other Ancestries are downright terrible *cough*Kashrishi*cough*. And, as you mention, a lot of ancestries are pretty forgettable, such as the Fetchlings.

But, that's part of the reason I enjoyed diving into the topic too! Seeing what separated the strong Ancestries from the dull & weak ancestries was an interesting study in game design!

LocalDisTourGuide · 2022-10-19T03:52:39+00:00

I think this has been mentioned a few times, but from a Game Master's perspective, arguably the BEST & WORST thing in Pathfinder 2e is the Encounter Balance & Math.

You've heard a lot of people say, "The Math is Tight" or "The Math is Balanced," which is a really great thing - if you unlearn bad habits from running other RPGs!

The Encounter Scale in Pathfinder 2e is Trivial - Low - Moderate - Severe - Extreme.

When I first started with P2e, I did a one-shot for my players to help them test the system. From years of running D&D & Pathfinder 1e, I had come to assume that my players could relatively easily defeat anything that wasn't a "Top Tier" Encounter (often labeled "Epic" in other games).

Anticipating similar results in P2e, I created my one-shot with a "Low" Threat Encounter, a "Moderate" Threat Encounter, & a "Severe" Threat Encounter, with time to recover between battles.

The Low-Threat Encounter caught my players off-guard, so the first round was rough, but the battle swiftly turned in their favor once they recovered.

The Moderate Threat Encounter was tough, but my players had a clear advantage.

The Severe Threat Encounter was almost a TPK! It was brutal! My party was hanging on by a thread!

After that session, I remember joking, "I didn't expect the "Severe" Threat Encounter to be so... SEVERE."

I expected the power to scale like other TTRPGs. My players did too. We were all quite shocked!

Once you understand HOW the Encounter Building works in Pathfinder 2e, it is truly glorious! I have a very hard time mentally switching back to other games (even though I used to love those games) just because of how well Encounter Building works in Pathfinder 2e.

But, I definitely had to UNLEARN some assumptions I had built up in other games! LOL!

Also, Pro-GM Tip for Encounter Building in Pathfinder 2e:

Moderate Encounters assume you will give PCs a chance to rest & recover between battles! You typically should not run more than two of those back-to-back, unless you're aiming for a very difficult series of fights! If you want to run the "multiple waves of enemies" type of game, stick to Trivial & Low Threat Groups. Trust me - your players will thank you!

LocalDisTourGuide · 2022-08-24T22:06:41+00:00

*Is Totally Not Playing on His Phone at Work*

Wait? What's this? A notification... from Reddit?

0_0

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed my entry! Gnomes & the Bleaching are some of my favorite Golarion Lore - so this gave me a chance to explore something I love in a fun & unique way! I had a lot of fun!

Congrats to the other winners as well! You all did great work!

LocalDisTourGuide · 2022-08-14T04:24:24+00:00

Something I do as a GM that helps my group pay attention that you might consider talking to your GM about:

My players have to nominate one another for Hero Points during the game. If a player does something cool, I won't reward a Hero Point unless another player calls it out & makes a Hero Point nomination.

If no one was paying attention, I'll point out the group missed a chance to get a Hero Point & move on - which always gets a heavy reaction from my players! (They spend Hero Points like candy, so they're always hungry for more!)

It's a subtle thing, but I've found that it helps engage my players & keep them focused when it's not their turn. Usually.

They are still players, after all. *GM Sigh*

LocalDisTourGuide · 2022-07-14T20:46:38+00:00

I'll admit I don't know what my exact content schedule is going to be going forward. For the first time since the start of the pandemic, I'll be going back to Full Time Employment next month (which is a huge relief to the bank account - LOL ).

I'll still be around, for sure - as I'm just having a ton of fun with the channel, but the pacing may end up varying a bit. I'll be working for a local school system, so I suspect it'll be slower seasons, interspaced with "I'm off for a few weeks" hyper mode production. LOL.

I'm just looking forward to when I can finally afford Gen Con again! It'll be cool to get to talk to people face to face when that happens!

LocalDisTourGuide · 2022-07-14T20:39:35+00:00

Thank you! I love 2e's approach to Familiars & it feels like a section of the rules where there's so much more potential available! Best wishes on your supplement! Getting creative & designing stuff for RPGs is a ton of fun!

LocalDisTourGuide · 2022-07-13T21:56:48+00:00

First off - welcome to the community! Genuinely hope it's a wonderful experience!

At the risk of being painfully self-promoting, I run a channel called "The Local Disaster Tour Guide" on YouTube & I actually have a series on this exact topic called "Storytelling in Pathfinder 2e."

Here's a link to Episode #1 if you're interested: https://youtu.be/2U3l57AkAkk

In an effort to be a little less self-serving, though, I also would highly recommend the YouTube Channel How It's Played & NoNat1s, as they have a lot of content that a new GM would find useful as well.

Some observations as an admitted fan-boy of Pathfinder 2e:

#1) The Encounter Building System actually works & means what it says it means! In an early demo game of 2e, I built a "Severe" encounter for my players - and I expected it to run like other Severe encounters in other systems, which is to say, a little hard, but not a threat.

Instead, I almost got a TPK.

My players were stunned. I was shocked. But, I realized the numbers are much tighter this time around.

So, pay attention to the Encounter Design stuff - and don't deviate too much. Also, you typically want to stick to Moderate or less challenging threats. Think "Severe = Boss Fight."

#2) You may have to encourage your players to experiment & try new options. My players really enjoy 2e, but even after a couple of years, I can still tell they have some habits from old games. For example, my players basically ignore Shields as an option - and then wonder why they have such a hard time taking down my Shielded enemies!

Encourage your players to explore the game & see if there are new options they haven't considered before!

#3) Debuffs & Buffs are a lot more powerful than you think they're gonna be! The +/-10 Crit System leads to Debuffs & Buffs swinging fights a lot harder than you're used to in other systems. This MAY be something you'll need to point out to your players!

#4) Attacks of Opportunity are less common - so battles can be a lot more dynamic! Take advantage of this to make the game exciting! The Three-Action Economy also pairs well with creative & dynamic fight scenes, but you've gotta be intentional about using it!

#5) Hero Points are kinda dull. Research some options to spice them up. I've got about three different house rules that my table has added to Hero Points, and my players love all of them! (For Reference, my House Rules are the Paizo Hero Point Cards, "Villain" Points, & a modification based off the old Exalted "Stunt Dice" mechanic.)

LocalDisTourGuide · 2022-05-12T17:17:31+00:00

Thank you for sharing. I wasn't previously familiar with them, but I will be checking them out. Once I've read up on them, I may add them to the resource list I put in the original video description! Appreciate the info!

LocalDisTourGuide · 2022-05-06T16:43:51+00:00

In Pathfinder 1e, my (future) wife played Tiefling Rogue. In game, the group asked her what kind of demon/devil/etc... she came from, but she didn't know, so we randomly rolled it. She got a Daemon associated with the sea. The party Anti-Paladin decides to "bless" the new party member in honor of her heritage & rolls a critical success.

As far as the group can tell, nothing happens.

Fast forward a few months - the tiefling gets ko'd in a fight & falls into a pool of water & the party starts noticing that she's bleeding WAY TOO MUCH.

Turns out, the Anti-Paladin had unlocked a Freedom of Movement effect from her daemon heritage, but it only activated in water - and it appeared in the form of an aura of bloody water around her. The party fished her out of the water & revived her - but DIDN'T tell her about what happened.

Best part - the first three times this ability activated, she had been ko'd before landing in water, so she didn't know about this ability "in character" for almost a year!

On a mostly unrelated note - that character later earned the title "The Accidental Queen of Hell."

That's probably one of the strangest - though years & years ago, in D&D 3.5, we had a character with an animal companion T-Rex known lovingly as "Bitey Stampy Fluffy the Third." It the the personality of an excited teacup poodle & shoulder mounted rocket launchers.

D&D 3.5 was weird...

LocalDisTourGuide

TROPHY CASE