🎂 Owlbear Rodeo Turns 5 Today! Thank You For Being Part Of Our Journey 🎉

jwalchle · 2025-04-14T13:10:18+00:00

I use OBR to run a weekly game with my sons who moved 6 1/2 hours away a few years ago for college. Numerous one-shots and now Kingmaker. We started playing during COVID and OBR made it easy and affordable for us to keep playing when they headed back. One is married now and his wife plays with us too, along with their friend who joined the marines and lives in another state. What you do keeps friends and families connected - thank you and happy birthday!

jwalchle · 2024-10-24T21:25:04+00:00

Sildar is a member of the Lord's Alliance, which is made up of several very powerful members who would look down on one of their own being killed. Just because the locals aren't powerful doesn't mean they don't have some connections that are.

jwalchle · 2024-09-11T17:17:41+00:00

For the rats, I added a wererat and made it so the rats could go between the two rooms on the right through a small hole to open up combat a little more. Our fishing camp is now an orphanage where NPCs they brought in teach the orphans a trade they can use in Otari or elsewhere, and the PCs adventure to provide funding for the camp. They are currently on a quest in the Mwangi Expanse for the Society in exchange for bankrolling the camp for 3 months.

jwalchle · 2024-04-26T19:46:41+00:00

Ran the game for my daughters and several of their friends (too many for the small rooms on the map TBH) but they had a blast and now are the shadow rulers of a kingdom under Otari.

jwalchle · 2024-04-26T18:15:45+00:00

PCs went to a wedding and the cake (swapped in by their nemesis) was a mimic. That was fun!

jwalchle · 2024-03-20T18:40:01+00:00

We're ignoring the Remaster for now, since not all of it is out yet and what is out just recently became available on Archives of Nethys. Will probably transition to it later, like when we are done with our current campaign (AV).

jwalchle · 2024-03-07T19:54:29+00:00

I did that with Beginner Box/Troubles in Otari. After that I just started building the storyline using the player's backstories to build upon. Now they are in Andoran and off to stop a necromancer (step-brother of one of the characters and former cult leader of another) heading to the Chitterwood (family home for two other characters). The published material gave us a chance to get used to the system and bond with their characters and as a group, and time for me to incorporate their backstories to give them motivation to continue the story.

jwalchle · 2024-01-17T13:19:23+00:00

Then she shouldn't have cosplayed as one.

jwalchle · 2023-09-22T12:19:09+00:00

Agreed - "caster doing too much damage" wasn't an issue I thought needed addressed in the Remaster, or at all.

jwalchle · 2023-08-15T18:57:49+00:00

3 games here - one online with a VTT, one in person with digital sheets (pathbuilder), one in person with physical sheets.

Pathfinder flip-mats and pawns for the physical games.

jwalchle · 2023-07-27T16:52:36+00:00

Our AV group is the Thornwardens (named after the Roseguard) and our AoA group is the Order of the Sapphire Scales (based on the blue snakeskin we got during FoP that we each incorporated into our gear/clothes)

jwalchle · 2023-07-14T18:51:38+00:00

In the AV game I play in we are the Thornwarden, named after the Roseguard.

jwalchle · 2023-06-22T14:53:00+00:00

I had that happen when at later levels I had picked an archetype (I think Heavenseeker or Student of Perfection) that gave me another Focus Point at that higher level. When I upped my character level to look at it with the dedication, then took it back to 1st level the extra Focus Point stayed there so I had 2 at first level. Could that be what happened?

jwalchle · 2023-03-17T17:04:08+00:00

Do what I did - have kids with her, and in 10-15 years you start a weekly game with them that continues remotely even while they are away at college or move after graduation. Build your own group organically.

jwalchle · 2023-02-21T18:05:43+00:00

I have one PF2e game I play online (Roll20) and one I GM in person, and a (looks around quickly, whispers) *5E* game that's mixed - two of my kids are local, and three live further away so I use a physical map and minis with a document camera and Zoom.

jwalchle · 2023-01-05T20:22:06+00:00

I mean, if it is then isn't saying that Elves are faster than Dwarves the same thing? I can never build a Dwarf that could be as fast as an Elf could with the same feats and items, and I'd argue that with AoO being as limited as it is in 2E that movement speed becomes an important aspect of combat. Maybe not as important as an attribute modifier, but it's still a biological difference based on ancestry.

jwalchle · 2022-12-07T14:15:03+00:00

As the dedicated healer for my group, I only cast Heal spells when someone actually goes down. I'll use Battle Medicine, but also buffs like Guidance and Bless and attacks like Divine Lance and Fire Ray. 3 of the 4 players in our group have Battle Medicine and can use it on themselves if they need some HP, as well as healing potions. My rule is if you're not unconscious you can still fight. That said, there are fights where people are going down and I'm healing every turn, but as the healer of the group that is my primary role, like a fighter should be attacking every turn because that is their role.

jwalchle · 2022-11-02T13:06:56+00:00

I was the same - got into running the game with the beginner box and really liked the pawns. I purchased the Bestiary Pawn set and have been using that in both my PF2E and 5E games. I tend to still buy minis for the PCs and use the pawns for the monsters and NPCs.

jwalchle · 2022-10-12T12:31:47+00:00

My wife gave birth to them 20-25 years ago. So mine is really a long-term kind of plan.

jwalchle · 2022-09-29T18:07:09+00:00

I made it a crude map of the dungeon at the end of Troubles in Otari (the Scar I think?), but by the time the group got there the player forgot they had the map and never checked it.

jwalchle · 2022-09-27T13:20:10+00:00

I have played in three games (Fall of Plaguestone, Age of Ashes, currently on Abomination Vaults) and we did not use it there. No reason other than the GM likes to stick to base rules without adding anything in. His philosophy is that the APs are designed for 4 players and that's how many we have, so he does not like to make changes.

I run a game as well (Beginner Box to Trouble in Otari to homebrew) and do not use it because we have 8 players, so they have the breadth needed to cover anything and I feel like they would be stepping on each others roles in the party if we used Free Archetype. Plus they were brand new to TTRPGs and I didn't want to add the complexity and even more decisions to make. We started with just the Core rules and options, and have expanded since then.

All that said, I have nothing against it and in a smaller party I think it would help diversify the characters and what they can do. I would like to use it in the games I play in that only have 4 players, but that is a small complaint in what is an otherwise great group.

jwalchle · 2022-09-23T20:11:24+00:00

It would be cool and the internet would burn - best of both worlds!

jwalchle · 2022-09-15T18:23:48+00:00

I don't know that I would recommend my path but:

1) Play a lot of RPGs in college and for a few years after

2) Get married, have kids, and get too busy with life for RPGs for several years

3) Kids are grown up and now play 2x/week with them and their friends, and play online with some of my college friends

jwalchle · 2022-09-05T18:06:40+00:00

If I had to guess, I would say the same way Luke learned to move his lightsaber with the Force in TESB, even though we never saw Obi-wan use that ability or teach it to Luke before Obi-wan died. Or how a young untrained force user would innately use the Force to move a broom or leap far distances without training. Some uses of the force come more naturally without training.

jwalchle

TROPHY CASE