u/mv8att

So I've been trying a new style for the new campaign, where the PCs stay in one isolated and relatively small area (1 large city, 3 small cities, and various rural adventure locations scattered in between) but they regularly receive word of going-ons in the wider world, like wars and other political events, and large construction/economic projects. The way I do this is by having my archmage DMPC appear in the PCs' tavern and tell them about all the massive and awesome things he's witnessed lately. He listens to their own adventure stories and emphasizes how small such an episode would be in the gigantic battles and wondrous cities beyond this backwater zone. Then he tips a few gold and teleports away. He does this for entertainment, it's like reality TV for him, Deadliest Catch or something. Though I guess with Deadliest Catch you still admire the guys, maybe it's more like Family Feud. Anyways the players seem really annoyed at this, but I think it's a good way to balance a focused adventure with a living, complex world. Certainly I can't just let them go to the places the archmage keeps talking about, it would never live up to the hype. And I'm sure they all feel hyped.

So this is something that recently happened at a Discord session 0. I was really excited to finally get into a PF2e game after spending 8 months waiting for one on Roll20 and Reddit, but that all evaporated when I heard the GM’s crazy rule.

GM: “As for player options, I’ll ask you stick to Player Core and Player Core 2.”

Me: “[friendly chuckle] Dude, let me tell you something. I know you’re new to the system, you came from 5e where you have to police everything for balance, but it’s not like that here. Everything in Pathfinder is balanced, you can let it all be used.”

GM: “Well, I’d still like to have looked it over first, and also it’s for simplicity’s sake since this is my first game.”

Me: “Well, simplicity is what the Uncommon and Rare tags are for. If something’s Common, you have to let it in, that’s what common means. It’s common all across Golarion.”

GM: “Well, my campaign isn’t actually set on Golarion and-“

Me: “Yeah, that’s actually something else I wanted to talk to you about, just a bad habit from 5e’s bad settings that you’ll have to break.”

GM: “Look, the Player Core has lots of options, more than enough for one campaign at least. I don’t see why this is such a big deal.”

Me: “Let me explain then. Balance is EVERYTHING in Pathfinder 2! We’ve sacrificed EVERYTHING for it! We lost blaster casters, ancestry-class synergy, good archetypes! All to have perfect balance across the books! So when you take that away from me and restrict my options, it’s a slap in the face to me AND the designers!”

GM: “Dude, you need to calm down. Also, I support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and hunt baby pandas for sport, and you won’t be getting Free Archetype either.”

After that he kicked me from the server and blocked me when I tried to send a further explanatory message. It’s really sad to see that we have such misguided and incompetent authority figures in the PF2 community. Players deserve better.

She had black hair, and a very round face, and she bit into a strawberry using two hands in a way that seemed like she wanted people to pick her. This was around 1900 and I’d really like to watch that video again. Sorry I don’t remember any more

Kick-off time: 19:00 ET

Status: Done

Score: 2-0 for Ottawa

Weather: 9 feels like 5, on-and-off light rain

Notable events:

6’ I heard a staff member say that 529 spectators are here and they had 356 last time

34’ OTTAWA GOAL by #11 Sadie Waite, did a bit of dodging to get herself fairly wide open near the goal and sent it along the ground into a corner

45’ Multiple medicals called on for Ottawa #22 DB Pridham who went down during a corner kick scrum near Ottawa goal, she stays on the field

Half time score: Ottawa 1, Halifax 0

Half time entertainment: Heated Rivalry trivia contest from some website that demands me to sign up with my email and phone number, no thanks

63’ Yellow card to Halifax #3 Sheyenne Allen, I didn’t actually see what caused this

74’ Yellow card to Halifax #44 Julianne Vallerand… also didn’t see what caused it… sorry about that

76’ OTTAWA GOAL by #19 Choo Hyo Joo, charges the goalie as she’s making a save, gets the ball after it bounces out of goalie’s hands and chips it right in

81’ The rain’s coming down pretty hard now

84’ Yellow card to Ottawa #15 Nicola Golen for a hard tackle

86’ Yellow card to Halifax #28 Éva Frémaux for shoving

Full time score: Ottawa 2, Halifax 0

So basically there is an area where the flow of magic is at its strongest, and mighty archmages engage in epic feats of spellwork while the citizens build unique magitek wonders. My story will never visit this area or describe it in detail, only allude to how awesome it is.

And then there is an area where technology has been innovated to decades beyond the rest of the world, and they jealously guard their secrets while seeking to push ever further. My story will never visit this area or describe it in detail, only allude to how awesome it is.

And then there is an area home to the largest and richest empire humanity has ever known, vaguely Chinese of course, and the court officials scheme against each other in halls of gemstone while the brave border soldiers fight strange monsters from the wastelands beyond. My story will never visit this area or describe it in detail, only allude to how awesome it is.

And then there is an area filled with ceaseless war, where the land is scarred by centuries of marching armies and magical siege attacks, and every citizen has strength like steel and a heart like iron. My story will never visit this area or describe it in detail, only allude to how... er... tragic and senseless it is.

And then there are the space aliens secretly monitoring the entire place from the moon, with instructions to attack any faction that looks like it could achieve space travel, and also conducting random experiments on people or socities for science or fun. My story will never visit this area or describe it in detail, only allude to how gleepa glorp it is.

Finally we get to the area my story is set in, which is kind of a backwater where magic, technology, wealth and average personal strength are all just at slightly-below-average levels, and the protagonist has to kill a necromancer or something.

Does this sound like an awesome world you'd be willing to read about?

Presidents trophy winner gets the #1 pick

Runner up gets the #2 pick

And so on

This is the ultimate fairness. Do better = better pick. The end

Think about it, what does everyone remember 20 years later: the awesome long-lasting dynasty, or the team that sucked, squandered a high pick and then continued to suck?

Of course the low ranking teams will complain but they would already be complaining about being low ranked in the first place so I don’t see the problem.

I’m looking to get into Spearhead and a nearby store has a good discount on that set. But if I can’t use it for Spearhead, I won’t buy it

This is the second faction I’m trying after Dwarfs and so far it seems like my Greatswords and Halberdiers both fold easily, the Great Cannons are extremely slow, the Crossbowmen are constantly obstructed (can they even do arc shots? If not, are they just inferior to Handgunners?), and any sort of cavalry, even Demigryph Knights, gets hacked apart if not constantly charging and retreating. The Outriders are about all that I’ve been impressed with so far, unless they get hunted down and obliterated by enemy melee cavalry of course. I’m not sure if I’m failing to grasp the basic strategy of this faction or if it’s intended to be so feeble.

This means that while mind readers and mind controllers are incredibly common, the ability to shrink your height or turn into a frog is found only among the elitest mages. Any tips on how to balance this?