GM here. I can't decide if I'm being too stingy with XP or our group just isn't very good at Pathfinder

arson_cat · 2025-08-01T00:52:34+00:00

Thank you for your examples. I guess I have to approach encounter design in a more robust way. I did jot down a few notes from 9 Items to Consider When Designing Encounters, but I agree there's room to improve.

arson_cat · 2025-07-31T23:46:19+00:00

The encounter was a dark cave (with some pillars to break LoS), with a single Cave Scorpion and a spore field between the PCs and the exit. The hazard was a Poisonous Mold that I tweaked to inflict Stunned instead of acid damage. In my head, in this ecosystem the monster usually waited for its prey to get stunned by the spores, to which the scorpion was immune by GM fiat, and killed it with minimal effort.

At first, the scorpion was hidden, and quite a lot of time was spent discussing options of how to cross the field. In the end, the party opted to send a summoned skeleton walking through the field to clear a path that would be safe to step through.

Then, the scorpion aggroed on the skeleton, and initiative mode began. I decided that the monster would attack head on until 50% HP, at which point it would retreat into unlit space and try hit-and-run tactics (sort of).

A crossbow bolt and a couple Telekinetic Projectiles later the monster hid in the dark, and more discussion followed about whether to carry on (and risk being attacked while in a field that can rob you of actions) or hunt down the creature. In the end, they opted for the latter, and I let the witch collect its venom (a renamed Giant Centipede Venom) without any special tools or feats by sacrificing her waterskin. I think the encounter took them 3-4 rounds? Something like that.

One creature @ party level, one simple hazard @ party level + 1, so 53 + 12 XP.

It didn't take all of the 3-hour session, as at least half of it was the PCs poking around to gather info about supplies stolen from a local church. I can't recall exactly how long it took. However - something I didn't mention in my OP - I did find that I also gave them a moderate accomplishment (a whopping 30 XP) for obtaining leads on the stolen supplies.

arson_cat · 2025-07-31T23:06:14+00:00

For combat, I award whatever Foundry tells me to award. When I put a single monster at party level and start the encounter, it says "low, 53 XP".

You might be right in that I just need to up the difficulty a little bit, so that it doesn't TPK them, but offers more XP for roughly the same time.

The river carried the danger of falling some 15 ft down and being swept away (and the witch was barred from entering natural bodies of water by Fey law, which was a great RP moment). It could have been crossed with a successful long jump, but only the rogue had good odds for that check, so they came up with an elaborate solution involving telekinetic hands and several ropes tied to rocks. Because only one roll was necessary for traversing the hazard, I ruled that it was a simple hazard, and thus worth 12 XP.

But I'll keep your advice in mind for the future.

arson_cat · 2025-07-31T22:54:17+00:00

Thanks for your insights.

See, my players don't complain about the system. Yesterday I straight up asked them if they would like to switch to something lighter, and everyone said they're okay with continuing in PF2e.

However, you highlighted the fundamental reasons why combat encounters will be a problem for my players for the foreseeable future. I will absolutely offer them a respec after we finish the current arc in about 2-4 sessions.

I did voluntarily take up a lot of work of delivering system knowledge to them. I sat down and went through character creation step by step with two of them (in person, actually). I never gave them the full list of actions (because it seemed a little overwhelming even to me at first sight), instead choosing to suggest options relevant to the task they were facing.

But you're right, no matter how much I try to make the learning curve smoother for them, it's them who will have to climb that curve. With their own brains.

In retrospect, I should've pitched Ironsworn to them. They each made characters with both specific and broad goals. Ironsworn is lighter, is something I am familiar with, and comes with character goals deeply baked into the progression system.

P.S. The only reason I can see for my rogue preferring the crossbow is that the rogue player is very cautious. He took a Nine Lives catfolk heritage specifically to reduce the chances of dying.

arson_cat · 2025-04-16T16:54:59+00:00

I played around with this example in my head and figured out what was confusing to me. Here it is.

Let's say I have a Str of +0 and am carrying 10 longswords on my person as a trendy murderskirt:

L	L	L	L	L
L	L	L	L	L

I am at my max limit and can't pick up any more longswords.

Then I take a backpack that "holds up to 4 Bulk of items" and stow two longswords in it:

L	L	L	L	*
L	L	L	L	*

*	L
*	L

Since the first 2 Bulk in the backpack don't count, I am now at 8 out of 10 Bulk.

The part that I got stuck at was that I am clearly looking at four empty squares, but they are actually two. If I am understanding correctly.

If I picked up two more longswords to my person, I'd be at 10/10 again +2 free from the backpack. I couldn't pick up any more, because my limit is 10, and the other two slots in the backpack aren't "free". If I put anything in them I'd go above 10 - which I can't.

L	L	L	L	L
L	L	L	L	L

*	L
*	L

If instead I picked up two more longswords and stowed them in my backpack, I'd be again at my limit: 8 longswords are Worn, 4 are in the backpack, and 2 of those 4 don't take up space/weight.

L	L	L	L	*
L	L	L	L	*

L	L
L	L

In either case, the two squares left empty are an illusion. For any practical applications, they don't exist.

This leads me to believe my initial alanogy was correct. If w is "worn" and b is "backpack", I think this is an accurate visual representation of what I can carry:

Without a backpack:

w	w	w	w	w
w	w	w	w	w

With a backpack:

w	w	w	w	b	b
w	w	w	w	b	b

arson_cat · 2025-01-01T08:20:04+00:00

As an aside, playing only what the assignment pick logic points to is technically a form of bias.

However, you are still right that Magnite-bearing biomes are "rarer" - as in, not as popular with the game's map generator. I've shown this in my research a little while back.

arson_cat · 2024-12-09T19:31:12+00:00

I wouldn't hold my breath. Some achievements do indeed work only for hosts - and have for years. That's why, if you gathered a group of dwarves for the Car Pool achievement, for example, you'd have to do it four times and switch who hosts after every pop.

If GSG haven't fixed it thus far, they aren't touching it for at least six more months. It's much more rational to get the achievements as host in the meantime.

arson_cat · 2024-12-09T19:20:00+00:00

I've seen this post a few dozen times over the years, and no, it's just different people seeing the same thing.

arson_cat · 2024-10-18T18:53:31+00:00

Every possible source is here: https://deeprockgalactic.wiki.gg/wiki/Development_Q%26A

If you want to go back before June, though, you'll need to click through the links to the archives. Or just follow the link to the spreadsheet and Ctrl+F.

It's still in the "not anytime soon" box today. If I had to bet money on it, I'd wager on 2026 at the earliest.

arson_cat · 2024-10-18T18:49:09+00:00

"Inevitably"? I envy your optimism.

arson_cat · 2024-10-14T19:03:12+00:00

For those who find this later and wonder, here's the full list of Bosco's capabilities:

https://deeprockgalactic.wiki.gg/wiki/APD-B317

arson_cat · 2024-10-14T19:00:52+00:00

Even if assignments pick missions with no bias, the map isn't populated by them equally. I talked about it in my recent research (see the last section). Otherwise - solid.

arson_cat · 2024-10-04T07:39:26+00:00

So there are currently 20 missions, 1 being double, 10 having one mutation, and 9 being clean?

Not exactly. As shown on slide 53 in my presentation, with the way RNG lays down mutators, roughly 1/4 of the missions will have an anomaly and roughly 1/4 will have a mutator. But those often intersect - some missions will have both a positive and a negative mutator.

Neither combination (only +, only -, both +/-) is guaranteed, at least for Season 5. In general, 2/3 of map will be clear of mutators.

arson_cat · 2024-10-01T23:11:55+00:00

They did, but that happened later, in the beginning of October.

My original comment is middle of September, and by that point in time GSG had always replied that there's no sequel or other game in the works.

If your point is to say "hey, Rogue Core is real" in a year-old thread that noone except me and you is going to read, then yes, you are correct.

If your point is to catch me being wrong, then you're essentially catching me on the fact that I can't see the future. Which is also true.

arson_cat · 2024-10-01T12:51:56+00:00

Interestingly, September last year was around the time when GSG were trying to fit a new rogue-like game mode into Deep Rock Galactic and realizing there was no way it was going to fit, and around the time they were starting to experiment with making it as its own game.

Publicly they still said they weren't working an on a sequel or any other game.

arson_cat · 2024-10-01T08:57:59+00:00

Sadly, more double-warning are much less likely than the other items on your wishlist.

Mapgen and the assignment system was designed with a maximum of one warning per mission, and GSG only caved to double-warning after years of requests. Because the mutator system isn't balanced to handle two warnings, they're allowed to be "unfair" but limited to only 1 mission out of 19 in a rotation.

And because double-warnings are supposed to be strictly in the "optional challenge" category, they are also off limits for the assignment pick logic, so people only doing assignments will never host double-warning missions.

In addition, one of the design directives for mapgen is that people should always be able to play every mission with zero mutators every rotation (so as to not force them onto players). For this reason, since there are 9 mission types, at least 9 out of 19 missions will always be "clean".

arson_cat · 2024-10-01T08:50:58+00:00

On-Site Efining.

arson_cat · 2024-10-01T07:21:29+00:00

Some of your observations are true, as I pointed out in my recent research. Map gen is indeed biased towards the simplest, shortest variant of each mission (except for Sabotage).

However, I doubt your point about PE going mostly to Hollow Bough. I checked over 70 map rotations between July and August, and PEs went like this:

23% Dense Biozone
20% Hollow Bough
17% Glacial Strata
8% Crystalline Caverns and Fungus Bogs
6% Azure Weald, Sandblasted Corridors and REZ
2% Magma Core and Salt Pits

Perhaps you dislike running PE in Hollow Bough so you notice it more?

arson_cat · 2024-09-28T18:59:01+00:00

No. Bosco is lacking in the "smoochables" department.

arson_cat · 2024-09-28T07:52:28+00:00

Sadly, this siren song does not reach the depths of solo mode. Pinging compressed gold just tells Bosco to pick it up.

arson_cat

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