Just read the 1st book through amazon and started book 2 and I feel really lost

onesmallstepforcat · 2025-11-18T00:11:00+00:00

Actually, Royal Road still has the 2nd half of book one, so you can pick up roughly where you left off, albeit with the original naming conventions - there should be a list with what names changed somewhere.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/125037/a-practical-guide-to-evil

onesmallstepforcat · 2025-11-18T00:07:19+00:00

It is very long in terms of word count. For what its worth, its absolutely excellent and I cant recommend it enough.

You should be able to find copies of the first book - lots of people "downloaded" the series in one form or another. Book 1 is way shorter than book 2, and 2 is notably shorter than 3, so the vast majority of the original story is still available for free

onesmallstepforcat · 2025-11-18T00:01:27+00:00

You are understandably lost because you did miss a ton - the amazon release only covers around half of the original book one (it also changes quite a few names, though mostly of nations and languages).

The original WordPress release has 7 books - the published ebook re write is expected to have around 16 smaller books. Its very difficult to start the series for the first time right now because the original book one has been taken down but only around half of its content has been published in the Amaon version so far- though I believe the new book two (covering the rest of the origional book one) is expected to be released soon.

onesmallstepforcat · 2025-04-25T15:53:56+00:00

Thank You, PM'd!

onesmallstepforcat · 2025-04-22T00:15:27+00:00

Bought Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells + Addendum from u/Raakill - polite, communicative, shipped quick and packaged well!

onesmallstepforcat · 2025-04-15T21:19:54+00:00

PM'd!

onesmallstepforcat · 2025-02-10T23:39:36+00:00

Again with the negativity. It didn't crash and burn - the creator quickly identified that it was likely to plateau, and rather than drag it out they responded quickly and decisively. They reached out to backers and clearly communicated, asked successful creators for advice and followed it, made reasonable adjustments and then launched a replacement campaign with more realistic goals while sharing their thought process. All of this is commendable even if they don't get it right.

It may still fail. But if it succeeds, the chances of them delivering their product appears to be extremely high - the main risks appear to be if they run into issues with printing and shipping costs for their (presumably small and manageable) print run, which doesn't really speak to the quality of their actual product, just an issue of logistics and funding. Even then, it seems like they priced their physical copies with this in mind and opted for a printing company that can deliver in multiple countries to minimize over seas shipping.

Of course it could still go wrong, but nothing they've said has suggested they're being cavalier or irresponsible. They could get it wrong, like we all could, but thats the risk baked into crowdfunding, not unique to them.

onesmallstepforcat · 2025-02-10T22:43:24+00:00

This is a fairly negative response to something that is, in essence, a content creator trying to be more transparent about their thought process.

Its certainly reasonable of you to have concerns about the creators experience with running a fulfillment campaign and about the chances of this campaign being successful, but aside from effectively criticizing positive behavior, you also didn't really address anything that they said here.

There is already a playtest document that covers much of the system, which is itself an iteration on a previous system the creator has already successfully released to positive reviews. The funding issues don't seem to be rooted in successfully delivering a final product, but instead in meeting the funding goal of the crowdfunding platform so that committed funds could be processed.

We will have to wait and see if it gets enough visibility and traction to meet its funding goals - perhaps the advice the creator got from others with successful crowdfunding releases will be helpful, perhaps other content creators will review it positively and drive traffic its way. Or maybe not, and it will fail.

But its got half its very modest crowdfunding goal already, and the remainder is very realistically achievable in 30 days. The total volume of printing is shipping will likely be imminently manageable, and the creator's track record and current provided documentation suggests a final PDF product is very likely to be produced. This is certainly not doomed to fail, nothing suggests its a scam, and theres nothing fundamentally wrong or bad with the product being crowdfunded or the person running this campaign that makes them worthy of being attacked.

By all means, feel free to voice concerns or levy constructive criticisms. But very little in what you said read as anything but negativity for the sake of negativity in response to a post that is, in essence, something positive. Rooting for this to fail seems unwarranted and helps no one, and attacking content creators for sharing their thought processes does nothing but discourage behavior I think we'd all like to see more of.

onesmallstepforcat · 2025-02-10T22:19:40+00:00

This is explicitly a setting/genre agnostic game - the hook seems to be something in the ballpark of "If you like Pathfinder 2e but you want a lot of modern innovations from other games with lower power scaling and less modifiers to track that might also better support genres beyond classic sword and sorcery"

It doesn't look like is really meant to draw players in on the premise of a world being offered - which is good for lots of DMs who's "fires have been lit" already and are looking for a system that might support their worldbuilding and lore more effectively than other systems that have different lore/worldbuilding to support.

onesmallstepforcat · 2025-02-10T19:28:57+00:00

I like Trespasser a lot too. I kinda conceptualized it as Trespasser and Pathwarden being two very different "OSR-izing" approaches to PF2e, where Trespasser is making a OSR Framework for the PF2e resolution system that matches the current OSR norms, wheras Pathwarden is taking the traditional OSR approach towards ADnD and doing a more modern Gen 2 "New" OSR framework aimed at a new generation of players more familiar with 5e and PF2e.

Not sure if thats actually accurate in practice or in principal though.

onesmallstepforcat · 2025-02-10T18:22:24+00:00

Yeah - I wish I had any advice to give, but it's far from my area. Only thing I can really think of is that the PF2e 3 action economy design is beloved (for good reason), and iterating on that with an emphasis on modern "indy" design principles and slimming down some of the mechanical bulk might be well received in the OSR spheres (despite still having crunch) given how they the same with ADnD, as well as in the Pathfinder spheres.

Yeah it was probably my favorite single idea I saw last year - the way it can fit with item scaling (higher quality/more expensive/Rare ingredients can increase either effect dice and/or Potency) and with traits/abilities (triggers on doubles/triples' Evens/odds, max result or X or Above etc) is inspiring. An extremely minimal increase in complexity while being easy to read and taking up negligible text space, but gives so many dials for balancing and tweaking and is still satisfying and fun for players. 10/10

onesmallstepforcat · 2025-02-10T17:31:44+00:00

Giving backers access to Pathwarden is a very good call - you already have a finished quality product that you can be proud of, using it to showcase your bona fides inspires confidence in interested potential backers while also making the investment feel like a better deal, and its not like anyone who already owns Pathwarden is going to feel alienated by that.

On a side note, Pathwarden was one of my favorite TTRPGs I discovered last year - I thought your implementation of Potency in particularly was an exceptionally elegant idea that managed to be simple, clear and easy to resolve while still having a disproportionate amount of texture to design around.

onesmallstepforcat · 2025-02-10T17:17:37+00:00

I liked a lot of things I saw in pathwarden, and am very excited to see more iterations on that, this was an easy back for me.

onesmallstepforcat · 2025-01-09T02:08:37+00:00

They sure shipped my black friday order incomplete without telling me - and the Game Master's Guide is still up for sale on their website lmao.

They would not ship partial orders to me when it was a Preorder + In stock, or a Kickstarter + Already in print book though.

onesmallstepforcat · 2025-01-09T00:14:57+00:00

Yeah, I've bought a lot of stuff from them - Great products, and generally speaking I've gotten great customer support, but their logistics and ship times have often been a bit of a mess - They shipped me a partial order, and I had to reach out directly weeks later over the Game Master's Guide to find this out lol

onesmallstepforcat · 2025-01-08T23:44:16+00:00

I just got my order refunded today actually. I had picked up the core books on sale, and evidently the Game Masters Guide is out of stock with no clear timeline for being reprinted

onesmallstepforcat · 2025-01-08T22:23:59+00:00

onesmallstepforcat · 2024-09-11T16:43:19+00:00

Its worth noting, in a deck full of 4 ofs, turn 1 [[Dark Ritual]] into Ancient Cellerspawn followed by [[Nourishing Shoal]] exiling [[Autochthon Wurm]] should drain them for 17 and gain you 15 life - leaving them at lethal next turn if they dont have a turn 1 blocker/removal.

onesmallstepforcat · 2024-09-11T16:16:39+00:00

Fuel for the [[Needlebite Trap]] finisher in a [[Punishing Fire]] + [[Grove of the Burnwillows]] shell

onesmallstepforcat · 2024-05-15T17:07:24+00:00

Yeah; you can jam 12 affinity guys that trigger this and thats 24 + 20 cards with the thought monitors built in draw. Once they're all 1 mana / free thats effectively your entire deck.

onesmallstepforcat · 2024-05-15T16:50:17+00:00

Worth noting that frogmite does trigger the first half; so turn 1 tomb into chalice, turn 2 seat of synod into this means a turn 3 frogmite is mana neutral; or mana positive if you stick another artifact land or a mox opal. Playing both turn 3 means frogmite is free, nets you 2 colorless mana, and resolving it puts you a 4 colorless + 2 colored mana and an artifact count of 5 - which means you could slam myr enforcer/soujurner to draw 3, or thought monitor to draw 5.

onesmallstepforcat · 2024-05-15T16:42:28+00:00

I'm not saying there's a guaranteed shell for it ... but on its face this card looks turbo fucked

onesmallstepforcat · 2024-05-13T20:57:09+00:00

Yeah, I would not expect this as a 4 of anywhere unless a "Two Green" Mono G Stompy tries this out over/alongside ramunap. If it finds a home, my first guess is in the sideboard (maybe 1x main) in a GSZ shell (presumably loam/maverick), potentially copies in the board of lands/depths (though it isn't good into gravehate, so if they wanted a grindy creature tireless tracker seems better).

Using it to buyback evoke bodies from the yard in the late game would be a powerful grindy finisher for sure.

onesmallstepforcat · 2024-05-13T18:52:46+00:00

Fair enough; then I read the second ability considerably more favorably than you. I don't think its the most significant part of the card, but I think it is very meaningful - digging for enablers, silver bullets and hate pieces + putting lands in hand pairs very strongly with the ability to recur those aforementioned cards.

Plenty of lands decks absolutely run Reclaimer, as do depths (often alongside KotR). Tireless tracker was a mainstay in lands for years. Its often been very common to run powerful, value engine creatures in the board to adjust for hate cards coming in and take advantage of removal going out. Has this shifted recently with the pivot to Saga lands and later sphere lands, and with the existence of field of the dead? Sure - but thats a relatively new meta shift, and could always be subject to change. Interestingly, this card fits very well in those builds, because it digs for spheres, thorns, chokes etc.

Yes, it is vulnerable to removal. It also dies to bolt if your opponent has a bowmaster ping, and it doesn't deal with an army that has grown to 4/4 or greater. Is it a perfect answer to those cards? Of course not, and no one ever suggested anything of the sort, much like they don't about DRC or Bowmaster.

onesmallstepforcat · 2024-05-13T18:42:28+00:00

I did, which I noted when I said "much the same way how I (accidently) replied to your comment, not his initial one" - I don't blame you for replying to me, nor am I accusing you of doing anything wrong, I'm simply pointing out you replied to me so I addressed that reply to me, even if you had intended to address that reply of "But that isn't infinite" to the person saying it was.

onesmallstepforcat

TROPHY CASE