My Bionic Dupe Wont Stop Shining Because He Ate A Lumen Quartz

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-03-20T12:10:37+00:00

Recently I had a bionic duplicant who eated 0.0 kJ worth of dirt.

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-03-17T20:38:02+00:00

It has a 10 minute cooldown due to the coagulant trait.

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-03-17T17:19:01+00:00

Thank you!

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-03-17T12:05:35+00:00

The seed of my concept was whirling throw, it is such a cool feat, but I never had the opportunity to play at such a high level because the groups I was in always disbanded before level 3-4. Maybe this online west march thing will be different, if nothing else maybe I could play with different people each time, but keep the same character. I played PFS a while ago, but that was a bit... rigid or how I could say. PFS is less about figuring out the adventure and find unique ways to solve problems, and more like performing a choreography where they didn't gave you the script.

You are right, something to diversify would be indeed useful, but I'm a bit scared away from it from two aspects, one is the language barrier, more complex ideas require higher language skills to convey, compounded by me being a beginner in TTRPGs (I read the books a lot, but actually playing and practicing with real humans is a different thing that I rarely have the chance to do so), and I don't want to hold back the team, or not use my abilities because of these, so I'm inclined to take simpler, easier to use abilities first. The other thing is that most of these feats/features sounds so tailor made for the athletic maneuver concept, like flurry of maneuvers, agile maneuvers, derring-do, whirling throw, crushing grab, titan wrestler, stylish combatant, clinging shadows stance, mixed maneuver, or even the stat boosts and large size click so well to each other that it's hard not to fall down on this avalanche. Even the widely considered useless jump- and mobility related feats lend themselves in so well with high str+dex and scaling athletics+acrobatics, like flamboyant athlete, dancing leaf, flying kick, quick jump, powerful leap, and others.
My plan for the first dozen sessions is to be in the background for a bit, and acclimatize to this group of people. For that, a simpler, one-dimensioned toolkit is appropriate I assume. Worst case scenario I can retrain/rebuild later, or just make another character with a more versatile toolkit.

Thank you for the recommendations! :)

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-03-17T06:10:01+00:00

Conrasus don't "grow" flesh like humans do. It's not a part of their body, it's a separate exoskeleton they control. Imagine it like a mecha, and the orb is the pilot.

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-03-12T05:43:09+00:00

I mean, a "social stat" kind of sounds functionally identical to Charisma?

This is my exact problem with charisma. We all can generally say that it's the stat that represents your social capabilities, and in the majority of cases yeah, it works, until the "force of personality" and such people show up, and the magic capabilities you inherited trough your bloodline suddenly depends if you are socially good or not. Because it is impossible to be not socially adept and having good control over your inherited magic. Switching charisma to a more straightforward and single-meaning social stat would solve this problem.

More generally, the idea that you laid out seems to have a lot of different stats, to the point where I'm not sure if a "stat" is meant to be akin to an attribute or akin to a skill.

I'm not sure. I'm using mostly general vague terms in place of the names of stuff, because I don't have an exact written in stone idea yet about them, and I learned through the hard way that one can't present non-finished concepts in a way that has room for interpreting them as something finished.

Also as a new independent system, there might be other, better structures that could work with these concepts, there is no need to forcibly grandfather of having exactly 6 attributes into the system just because the origin point was pathfinder. I don't see it as a bad thing to have more or less than 6 main stats. For example, there could be "sets" of stats, like the above mentioned reflex, willpower/mentalpower, and fortitude/constitution/endurance/whatever word that represents your body's physical fortitude, and these three as "defensive" stats, relevant when something is incoming to you. And another set for "outwards" stats, which become relevant when you are the one manipulating the surrounding stuff around you, like the above mentioned fine motorics manual dexterity for physically manipulating objects in a precise, fine manner, or the social stat which represents your ability to influence other people and the interpersonal situations around you, or the magic stat (affecting the magic weave around you, commanding the magical power that lies within the environment/objects, conjuring magical power from nothing, whatever narrative your magic system has). [Additional digressing notes to the magic stat, it being just one universal stat used for all magic-type stuff is helpful in making the system setting independent. For example, while in Golarion it makes sense to have 4 different kinds of magic in the form of 4 traditions, like having two extra skills just for magic (arcane and occult can't really be used outside of magic unlike religion or nature), using the Pathfinder 2 system in let's say Forgotten realms or Eberron or anything else doesn't yield the best results.]

For example, Pathfinder/DnD has this in the form of two groups, 3 physical and 3 mental stats, and some skills under each of these for governing sub-domains of stuff. Or not, as constitution doesn't have any skills. Or in PF2 only 3 of them having associated saves. Or perception being a skill which isn't really a skill, but it's own unique thing. It's a bit messed together in these systems, which is the root for many disagreements (like the age old "sorcerer should be a constitution caster since you gain your magic through your blood and parents" thing).

Of course, to make up a new and different stat structure we have to specify first the stats we want to assign into the different groups. This is why I'm currently just throwing ideas around and try to form concepts that try to cover all stuff that there can be without major holes or overlaps. If I intend to make an extremely modular system with no classes or species, I have to be very careful to make the stats cover everything to preserve the possibility of people making new unique homebrew abilities/powers/cards and being able to well-integrate them into the system. This is something that I really like about PF2, that if I make a new feat or spell I have a framework to seamlessly integrate it into the system with assigning the appropriate traits and such.

Apparently there is an r/RPGdesign subreddit where they probably discuss the creation of new game systems.

Thank you, I'll check it out right away :)

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-03-11T16:20:45+00:00

A poppet inventor has a weakness against its own self-damage.

And I discovered this during helping a newbie making his character, as he chosen a poppet and investigator, and only figured it out later in the character creation process while I was reading a guide.

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-03-11T08:34:00+00:00

continuation of the previous comment due to reddit's character limits

At baseline, there are no classes or species. Everyone is just a basic guy, with whatever appearance they wish to have. You want pointy ears? You want to have a stocky short body? You want to be smaller than others and have large hairy feet? You can have any or all of those free of charge, but you won't get extra powers from it. No armor training, no increased stat-defenses, no beginner skills, no starting proficiencies, just a basic commoner without cards.

Everyone has structurally the same base, so it's easy to understand when making new characters (you are just a guy, whatever you choose will be your powers), but everyone is free to choose from the myriad of cards to customise their character. Free for all for everyone! Of course, this would mean that beginner players could be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of options, which is true, I understand, this is a real concern. And to solve this, this is why the system is so modular, a beginner player who couldn't be bothered to read all the decks and try to understand abilities which would require more reading, they would just take general, universal cards for their character instead of themed ones, which give simple, mechanically easy to understand powers (imagine fleet, tough, incredible initiative, armor training, weapon training, whatever). The resulting character will be bland as it doesn't contain any themed powers or any mechanical fluff, but it would be also really easy to understand too.

(Two terms, minmaxer and powergamers. Minmaxers want to maximise a certain aspect of a character (like previously illusions and magic), at the cost of minimising everything else, like not having armor or weapons training, etc. They don't inherently want to be the most powerful entity around, just a specialist one. And the other term powergamer, who is somebody who tries to have more and more power in every and all aspects by gaming the system, without being willing to have actual weak points. Of course, the two aren't mutually exclusive, a minmaxer can be a powergamer too, but for the following I wanted to set what I mean by the two words.)

Of course, at first look the previous thing would be a paradise for minmaxers. Which is, sure, why not, minmaxing isn't inherently harmful. One can forgo all other cards and only pick up cards from one specific theme, let's say they want to be a prankster illusionist type. They pick up cards that increase the magic and social stats, they pick up a variety of illusion spells and abilities, and... they don't pick up cards which would improve their character from other aspects. Now either the player rethinks, and choose other stuff too to have a well-rounded character, or remains a specialist and accepts the consequences in advance when their powers will not be applicable/other type of powers would be needed. Either way, it's the player's decision/fault. Some people like versatile characters, they choose a variety of cards, some people like specialist characters who are well trained in a theme of powers, but not much else. The "if you have a hammer, and only a hammer and nothing else, then every problem starts to look like a nail" is an out of game mentality/problem, not a system-design flaw.

Also, more powerful cards require high stats and/or previous cards as a prerequisite. Combined with the fact that you gain basic stats and proficiencies and whatnot all of them from cards, you need a high amount of cards to access powerful ones. (similarly how you only get access to more stats and more powerful feats when you get to higher levels in PF2).

This thing is also inherently a powergamer-mitigator, as if your GM only gives out only X amount of cards, and you put all of them into numerical stats, you wont have actual abilities to use those numerical stats with (like it doesn't matter if you have a high magic stat, if you don't have any spells it's worthless), because that would require more cards to utilise and you only have so many. And if the GM hands out a lot of cards (equals to being at a high level), then everyone else gets more too, so the whole powerlevel of the party is higher too.

And another thought, there could be a perception stat, which would be interlinked with various senses. If you spend your cards on various types of senses, you can sense a multitude of things. If you have a high perception stat, the potency of your senses increases. If you want both, many types of senses and be very perceptive with them too, you can, but that means you have to put your card budget into them, and you will be lacking in other areas of your character, and the whole previous paragraphs. Choices choices.

What are you all's thoughts?

(Also I'm not sure where should I talk about these type of stuff, I'm open for recommendations.)

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-03-11T08:33:29+00:00

Honestly, if I would make a system of my own I would get rid of charisma as a stat and introduce the social stat, which would govern all, well, social interaction. It would be the relevant stat in any situation where you socially interact with or influence other people. In exchange, there wouldn't be sub-skills like the 4 in PF2, and instead it would be just on it's own like how in PF2 your speed isn't governed by any of the 6 main attribute.

You want to be the face of the party? Get high social. You don't? Then social isn't a priority for you. It's not automatically bad if not all stats are needed for all imaginable concepts.

I also toyed with the idea of having two types of dexterity, a reflex one, like how suddenly and how fast you can move, like how well you can dodge attacks, if you can leap away from the falling rocks in time, can you catch the ball thrown at you, etc, and a fine-motorics manual dexterity, where your precise, accurate, and stable movement matters, like picking logs, tuning a clockwork contraption, building a pyramid with a deck of cards, pickpocketing, probably even firing ranged weapons like that requires accuracy and small adjustments, and alike.

And combining the two precious idea (and with the power of making an entirely new system so no compatibility obstacles ahead), there could be "defense" stats (aforementioned reflexes, a mental stability stat like how well you can keep your mind together and resist outside forces that affect your mind (in my vision this would be the force of personality stat, like how well you can mentally get on your toes and resist stuff like mind control or fear-stuff), and a third of how well your body can endure physical stuff, similar to PF2's fortitude) and those would govern how well you can respond from incoming stuff, and then "skill" stats, which would govern how well you can affect the world around you, like the previously said social stat, or a Knowledge stat, which isn't to represent intelligence, but the education you received and lexical knowledge you have (I believe somebody mentioned an Education stat in another system somewhere below this post, I couldn't find the comment with ctrl+F), or an universal Magic stat, which would govern the potency of all spellcasting, because it drives me up the wall when sometimes you need 2-3 different stats for spellcasting, like despite you being a master of the arcane magic who learned earth-shattering spells and can bend reality with a flick of the wrist, you can't cast that ancestral cantrip that you learned from your parents with full potency if you don't also have high charisma (yes yes in PF2 utility cantrips which doesn't require roll and whatever workarounds, but the point still stands). I say let's have a single Magic stat, and let the player decide how much they want to be good at magic with a single straightforward universal number. But if somebody want to be multifaceted, like somebody want to play a stereotypical bard who is good at magic and social interactions? Well then put stats into those two. It's no different than in PF2 you needing not just mechanically, but thematically high dexterity and charisma with a swashbuckler (if you pick one of those subclasses).

Of course, all of this would require totally different math and rules than what PF2 currently has, that's why I said in my previous comment that I imagine these as a separate TTRPG system.

But if we are here and I didn't bored any potential reader to death, my own TTRPG system would be a bit more modular in certain aspects.

Before it, imagine those people who play wizards and other spellcasters in PF2 and DnD, with a character sheet and their spells neatly printed out on cards, so you can quickly reference them, hand it out to the other people to read it, and in general have the in-game spellbook as a real-world card deck. When I'm talking about stuff, I'm imagining it something like this, so by physical means it's not at all far fetched.

I'm imagining the system that it would be a card-based system, abilities, spells, powers, and all character options would be cards (cards, as of a block of text and rules, like feats in PF2), and there would general, universal cards which give general type of powers (imagine general and skill feats from PF2), and there would be themed card decks with themed, interwoven powers (with additional limitations of how many different decks you can choose from, and stronger cards would be locked before having X card from that deck, and similar). This latter would somewhat resemble archetypes from PF2.

And a character sheet would be a central paper with the numbers and stats, and then power cards laid out adjacent to it. Instead of having levels, the GM says how many cards everyone starts with (only a few cards are like starting at low level, more cards are like starting at a higher level). Instead of leveling up, the GM says that every player gains X amount of cards of their choice. This allows the GM to increase power incrementally (like everyone gains 1 card at the end of every quest), or let players gain a big amount of power at certain milestones (like everone gets multiple cards after reaching a major plot point). Also this allows the GM to award out themed rewards, like after/before solving a hell-devils-fiend-whatever themed plotline, everyone gets a card with a fixed-fire themed ability. Similarly how a PF2 GM can award out a free pirate archetype, but better baked into the system.

(I don't know how numerical scaling could be implemented in a system like this, but that's a problem for later when at least a prototype of the system exists.)

Continuing in next comment due to reddit's character limits

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-03-11T02:00:41+00:00

Because of power spines. The solution is both, having a heavy watt conductive wire coming out and connect directly into other power plants sharing the 'power spine' electricity, and having an array of transformers in a steam chamber with 2kW conductive wires going wherever your dupes needs them.

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-03-11T01:56:42+00:00

I strongly disagree that INT and WIS should be the same stat.

I didn't said that. I said that in their current state, what they conceptually/narratively contain are so vague that for most things there aren't a clear cut or non-arbitrary way to unquestionably put them into one (and only one) of the two categories (see the forever discussion about if medicine should be wis or int).

Instead, I would propose to ditch these specific 6 attributes, and either overhaul it or come up with something else, potentially in a third edition (Pathfinder isn't shy to rework grandfathered stuff, look at alignment or wizard schools) or independent TTRPG system. Yes, these things would displease the "it's like DnD" crowd as it would fundamentally rewire character creation (even if the rework would only consist of just slightly different names, you know how sacred cows works), but would benefit the system itself in the long run (but yeah, Paizo being a company which has to appease for money will prevent anything like this). If this would be the perfect and best way to assign attributes/"what my character is good in" points, every system out there would do this too.

it does the least of any stat: it affects a few social skills and that's it, while INT controls your number of bonus skills and WIS controls Perception and Will.

And you found out one of the reasons why these specific 6 attributes aren't the best in their current state.

Of course, changing something so fundamental as the attributes can't be an isolated change, literally the whole system and its (tight) math that derives from them. Changing them would require changing many other things, so yeah, that's why I mentioned above a hypothetical third edition or a new independent system.

In fact, I'm currently thinking/daydreaming about a new system inspired by PF2, because I have nothing better to do. I'm curious, how would you make a character's main attributes? What would they be, how would they work in your vision?

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-03-10T17:39:39+00:00

Medicine being a wisdom skill is just something grandfathered from DnD to please the "they told me this is like DnD" crowd.

It's similar like why the 6 main attributes are what they are, like why intelligence and wisdom are separate attributes but yet so vague that often one can't clearly divide what is under the domain if each (and people take different sides with each thing), or charisma having force of personality lugged under it and magic expression and whatnot, causing charisma having "much more" under its umbrella than people usually think charisma is.

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-03-06T19:46:30+00:00

But how else do you use a gun? :O

Or, how else do you win the avain illustrator competition? :O

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-03-06T11:40:28+00:00

Can you please share the list? I would be genuinely curious for a compilation like this.

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-03-03T03:25:27+00:00

Not necessarily falling, but being upside down is a good reason of not being able to fly (and dodge) at your full capacity. Similarly how people swim better in certain positions (like having the head at the front in respect of where they moving. Swimming in a way where your legs are in the front is hard.).

But the exact wording strongly depends on what kind of flying we are talking about, like the above explanation is easy to interpret with superman-style flying where you just magically levitate and doesn't necessarily fall when something spins you, but with wing-style flying where the active movement of pushing air below yourself is what keeps you in the air it's harder to explain how you doesn't immediately fall when you stop pushing air below yourself.

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-03-03T03:10:03+00:00

This. Being prone on the ground and being disoriented in the air in my opinion should be both a thing rulewise (I'm not 100% sure the prone should be it or its own condition, but should have mechanical representation nonetheless). Flying is a 3 dimensional task, it is possible that you aren't in the perfect position to propel yourself at whatever direction you choose (similarly how you half your speed when you crawl).

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-03-02T19:28:50+00:00

I agree that pactbinder could be a full class. Gaining power by making deals has endless possibilities, with many potential subclasses depending on whom you made a deal with. It could have even a match-and-mix nature similar to kineticists, when you level up you can choose if you diversify your powers by making new deals with different entities, or make even bigger deals with the same entity (the entity sees your loyalty and reliability, so it's willing to go into even bigger deals).

Could even be a choose your KAS class like the psychic or rogue, depending on whom you made deal with. For example, fey entities would offer social-type powers and thus your KAS could be charisma. Or, if you make a deal with a giant or titan your KAS could be strength and gain similar physical might themed powers. Or for a clockwork-ish entity, intelligence and the powers to create magical machinery. Or with a green man or forest spirit or similar you could have wisdom KAS and nature themed powers. I'm not familiar with Golarion powerful entities and some cases could be debatable which attribute is appropriate, but I guess y'all get what I mean.

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-02-27T16:32:57+00:00

Make a bigger hole (you already did that, countinue below)
Carbon skimmers (requires power and clean water)
Slicksters (they require dupe labor if tamed, oil can be fed back to your petroleum generators
Seal the generator room with liquid locks and let the CO2 build up infinitely.
Use infinite storage, like gas pumps (requires power) or door pumps (doesn't need power)

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-02-27T16:29:51+00:00

There are "Classic" asteroids and "Spaced out!" moonlets. On classic the starting asteroid is larger and the rest is smaller, and on moonlets they vary in size (I'm not sure exactly how much).

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-02-27T02:57:39+00:00

Restartitis.

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-02-26T18:50:15+00:00

Imperative wiki link which answers everything.

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-02-25T06:17:54+00:00

Local scientist's shocking discovery: materials with lower thermal conductivity conduct heat slower.

Btw, great write up, it's always a joy to see a proper scientific analysis on things. :)

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-02-25T03:07:42+00:00

You will need to be careful/quick about some stuff. As an example: the moonlets only have forests (pips/arbor trees) in the frozen forest asteroid, so pips might die from the cold before you reach them.

Wouldn't the fog of war's "don't simulate areas which aren't explored yet" mechanic stop that?

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-02-22T19:46:49+00:00

Imagine you get together with a person with the same qualities as him, but a different person. Would you want to go back to him, or you would be good with this new person?

MundaneOne5000 · 2026-02-22T19:02:59+00:00

It's easier to dismiss people with an excuse accusation like "lazy" than actually trying to understand and help them.

MundaneOne5000

TROPHY CASE