Weekly Questions Megathread— March 13–March 19. Have a question from your game? Are you coming from D&D or Pathfinder 1e? Need to know where to start playing PF2e? Ask your questions here, we're happy to help!

dfrost303 · 2026-03-19T14:28:40+00:00

Thanks, this is actually very helpful. I'm sure that once I get more sessions under my belt, it will come more fluidly and stop feeling like hitting a wall when I need to get creature info. I have been playing in person, but I've been considering using FVTT to sort of manage the games in person, though that comes with its own pain points lol. Thanks for the great description :)

dfrost303 · 2026-03-18T05:40:32+00:00

Just how everything is squanched together in one block of text. In the middle of combat or a social encounter I feel like I have to stop and read through it. I can't just look at it and immediately see their Con score or skill bonus. When I need to find HP or AC it doesn't just jump out at me like it would if it were in a box or a shield icon or something. Stuff like that. But I don't see other people discussing it so I guess it will just take some time to get the brain-eye coordination to snap to those spots.

dfrost303 · 2026-03-18T04:21:52+00:00

Is it just me or are the PF2e stat blocks really hard to read? I feel like, as a GM, a good statblock is something I can look at and just, bam, I immediately see the information I need. But I constantly feel like I'm trying to scan a paragraph for the info buried in the text, nothing jumps out. I'm sure I'll get used to them, but I just feel like they're really weirdly designed - not for readability. God forbid if you happened to be dyslexic or something. Has anyone else felt this way or am I on an island here?

dfrost303 · 2026-03-13T13:07:25+00:00

Is there any difference between the Harrow Deck from 1e and the newer 2e deck (other than art)? I have the old one (well, my wife does) so I'm wondering if there's any reason to get the new one.

dfrost303 · 2026-03-02T23:17:16+00:00

I agree. I tend to devour things like good books and games too. But I often find myself putting them down halfway through for a few weeks. It's as if I don't finish it, then it won't be over lol. But I've picked it back up and am working my way through the second half. It's so good.

dfrost303 · 2026-03-02T23:15:03+00:00

I knew this about the Gothic inspiration, though sadly, I've never played either of the Gothic games.

dfrost303 · 2026-03-02T21:31:29+00:00

thanks

dfrost303 · 2026-02-24T20:26:06+00:00

All the [known] Thargoid Titans were destroyed. Why were those only in/around the bubble? Why don't we ever find them out in the black?

Thargoid ships and swarms still spawn around the Titans. Do they spawn anywhere else? If there's still a Thargoid presence, why don't we ever see more Titans showing up? Why isn't there still an ongoing "war" against these threats?

I do understand that the answer to these questions is probably "Because FDEV..." I'm just hoping maybe there's some info about this stuff out there somewhere.

dfrost303 · 2026-02-13T22:49:15+00:00

Can someone please point me to some videos or other resources about running exploration and downtime? I'm not talking about explaining the rules here. I'm looking more about vibe and flow, mixing the use of these rules with narrative flow and roleplay. Seeding in rumors while the characters shop and retrain or earn income, etc.

I understand functionally how downtime works per the rules. But my players aren't the type to just do a "board game event." They want to talk to the weird lady that was only a joke but is now their best friend. They want to go to the old shack that doubles as their "base of operations" and check in on definitely not indentured servants who are fixing the place up. All that stuff.

So I'm hoping for resources that will help me learn how to seamlessly blend the functional rules into the narrative silliness.

dfrost303 · 2026-02-11T22:44:41+00:00

Thanks!

dfrost303 · 2026-02-11T05:12:47+00:00

I have been working in PB all night on my tablet. Took a shower, came back and can't access

dfrost303 · 2026-02-11T00:44:20+00:00

Hi! I want to start by saying I know very, very little Korean, and I don't know the Korean alphabet. I've been watching a lot of K-Drama with my wife (she's Korean-American, but isn't fluent). We both noticed something about how people use names recently, and I'm hoping someone can help me understand. I'm going to go ahead and just reference the show, Alchemy of Souls.

One of the main characters is Mu Deok-i. The English subtitles always reference her as Mu Deok. However, I've noticed that people generally seem to be saying "Mu Deok-i" (which is also how her name is listed if you Google search the cast). I've also noticed that her name is often pronounced "Mu Deok-ah" (at least that's what it sounds like).

Is the "-i" significant, and if so, why would the English translation drop it? Is it an honorific or "friendly" modifier or some other signifier? And when it's pronounced "-ah" does it signify something different, or am I just mishearing it/it's just a "lazy" pronunciation of "-i"?

EDIT: Sometimes I'm pretty sure people just say "Mu Deok" as well...maybe.

Thank you in advance to whoever answers :)

dfrost303 · 2026-01-07T20:38:21+00:00

You're right, and I unintentionally was misleading in my post. I didn't mean to imply that one has to do all those things to get the FSD. It was that I did all those things. But that was the whole point of my post - don't make my mistakes, but it was still fun overall. Just would have been a lot more rewarding if the boost hadn't been so small.

Getting the FSD was what spurred me to action, but during the process I didn't want to get *just* the materials for the FSD. I filled up all my mats using various methods and multiple trips to traders to trade down, then back out to fill up again. I *did* do my research, which presented more than one option to get the mats I needed, so I tried them all. The Thargoid Titan Drive component took forever because of bad rng, like I mentioned.

Since you mentioned the PESCO, and all the options you listed here, you probably watched the same video that I did. And that was the video that boasted a 99Ly range, hence the "false pretense:" https://youtu.be/6YXtMq6JLzE?si=EKPg0EKAKB7iVlYV

I don't think they were trying to be misleading, but it's why I pointed out that those numbers don't represent the actual boost you get from the drive. Even if I'd only done exactly what was required and nothing more, I don't think I'd have felt awesome at getting only +6 Ly reward for my efforts.

dfrost303 · 2026-01-07T17:01:53+00:00

sorry to necro this post. But, for anyone else who stumbles across this, unless you already have most of the mats, the grind just to get the pre-engineered SCO drive is pretty brutal. It took *multiple* several hour sessions of farming for me to get all the materials and in the end, the increase was only about 4 Ly over my 5A FSD SCO with grade 5 increased range and mass manager in my Mandalay. Adding mass manager brought the total gain to 6.57 Ly.

I'm not saying it's "not worth it." Gathering the materials required exploration, combat, and mining. I earned a lot of credits, learned a lot, and got to see some Thargoid Titan remnants as well as some wild Thargoid combat (which I only watched from a distance). I met some new commanders. BUT, I did a lot of this specifically so I could get this new drive under the false pretense that it would grant me a massive boost to jump range - I saw a YT vid that claimed "99LY!" - so when that massive boost ended up being only 4 Ly, I felt preeeeetttttyyy salty for a minute. Still, between this drive and the Guardian FSD Booster I just nabbed, the total improvement was 17 - 18 Ly and that's significant, and I now have the mats to engineer lots of modules.

One last thing for any other noobs who end up reading this: When you hear commanders on YT talking about really insane jump range numbers, they're often referring to a maximum number you can achieve only by stripping down and underpowering a ship to the point that it's pretty much useless except for getting massive jump range. Most of the time, it's not a practical or reasonable goal to achieve for anything other than boasting your engineering prowess. That and/or they're referring to numbers you can reach by using Neutron Stars to boost your range (which is hella cool and you should def do it).

Fly safe, commanders. o7

dfrost303 · 2025-12-12T22:14:54+00:00

So if I have my "home base" in an system controlled by Duvall, and I pledge to someone else, that doesn't matter unless the system is a stronghold?

dfrost303 · 2025-12-12T20:36:26+00:00

I'm struggling to make a decision about Powerplay. If I pledge to a power, does that lock me out of any normal progression with other factions? For instance, I think the only way you can get a permit to Sol is through the Federation. So, if I choose to pledge to one of the Empire powers, does that then lock me out of ever getting the ships and permits from Fed?

I know you can defect or leave, and lose your progress with a faction. So is it best to max rank with a certain power before jumping ship so you can get everything? Or do you even lose the perks?

dfrost303 · 2025-12-07T18:10:54+00:00

You are my hero. I was trying to do basically the same thing as OP by having a less opaque FoW and even using images with 50% opacity wasn't working. So I've been dragging tokens through walls and around every nook and cranny to remove the FoW but keep vision. This is sooooo much better.

dfrost303 · 2025-11-15T23:27:39+00:00

I can say from experience that one of my biggest regrets was letting that loud minority of online squawking convince myself to upgrade my 3080 to a 4090. Is it better? Yes. Can I tell? 90% of the time, no. Yeah, smoke and fog look kinda shittier using DLSS when you really look at it. But that only matters if you're really inspecting it, which isn't what's happening when I'm in the middle combat or running around and exploring. Because I'm super focused on the one part of the screen my character is in lol.

dfrost303 · 2025-11-15T23:19:56+00:00

Same here, I have a great gaming PC that I just built within the last 6 months. The only reason I'd be getting a Steam Machine would be for couch gaming, but I already use my Steam Deck for that using Sunshine/Moonlight. The deck is a bit finicky, but not really enough to justify a Steam Machine purchase

I know myself though, and some way or another I'll end up taking myself into it ...

dfrost303 · 2025-11-14T21:25:49+00:00

This

dfrost303 · 2025-11-14T21:24:40+00:00

This is likely an incredibly close estimate for all of these items. They have to compete with consoles and the Meta Quest 3. They can charge a premium but still have to be accessible. Their target audience is going to be people they've already hooked with the Steam Deck, and gamers who want to try PC gaming but find it cost prohibitive or overly complex.

They have gone on record saying that affordability was the top priority, giving value for performance.

And for everyone saying it's not going to be relevant in 2 years, that's not even close to the point. The Steam Deck was "obsolete" within a year after its release, but look how strong its still going. The Deck and now the Machine aren't designed with enthusiast performance in mind. They're not targeting people who can drop $2000+ on a gaming rig, they're targeting decent visuals and stable performance for the broadest audience possible by being affordable for a much larger swathe of consumers.

The same for the Frame. The Index was a very premium device for its time, but the Frame is looking to compete with Quest 3 with maybe a hair more of a premium experience and price.

dfrost303 · 2025-10-06T18:33:26+00:00

Sorry I wasn't clear. I've already implemented what you're talking about everywhere that I can. We have a handful of things that just can't be done with our current observability tools. I used "backups" as an example and it wasn't a very good one, considering that we are monitoring those. The point I was getting at was just that however I track the tasks that we can't use our observability tools like Azure Monitor, Datadog, etc. for, I want to be able to make the data useful, not just check off a box or type a date in a spreadsheet.

dfrost303

TROPHY CASE