Dungeons & Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, Chronicles of Darkness, Other TTRPGs

[Totenkindly]

Claw and Order would be funnier.

 

[Totenkindly]

 

[The Cat]

Claw and Order would be funnier.

I knew you would come through for me. ^_^

 

[Totenkindly]

We started our new PF2 campaign last night. We have not used the PF2 system before (just PF1).

• Mercy Blackwell (elf witch) [me]
• Elsin (sprite summoner)
• Belicosa (changeling barbarian)
• Azrok the Wavedancer (hobgoblin swashbuckler)
• Ignaceous (human cleric)

We all woke up on a ship and told we were part of the new crew -- they must have grabbed us all at port. We had been stripped of any gear and basically forced to serve on this ship as either riggers, scrubs, or cook. We were also told the rules (don't talk to the captain and don't kill anyone), whereupon Mercy immediately raised her hand (in her pretty finery) and finally blurted out that she did not belong there and there must have been a mistake... whereupon she was whipped twice until she shut up, for breaking the first rule.

Basically the opening session was getting used to the ship and its daily schedule and knowing who all the NPCs were (officers or mateys), and being whipped when we didn't fulfill the obligations of the tasks we were given. Belicosa and Mercy (hilariously both of the female characters) immediately set to work on determining all the weak points of the crew and planning for the eventual rebellion and edging things along where possible. Mercy is the assistant cook (since she has apothecary experience), and you don't need to worry, she is already considering how to spike the nightly food source with something nasty if she can get her hands on it.

Eventually we got sent to the bilge for our first combat -- 5-6 rats the size of medium dogs. We actually destroyed them handily, since Mercy gets her spells from a familiar and the combat-ready characters were devastating (one has talons, the other had a dagger). When we lowered the water, we discovered some coin and gear as well that could be used for the rebellion. We have also determined which officers should be dealt with first / are dangerous, versus not. One wild card is that there is a sorcerer aboard, Mercy will need to examine her more closely.

This is our "evil" campaign, so probably on par with the last CoD campaign in terms of morality. The sprite seems good. Mercy is probably NE. Belicosa, you don't want to mess with, and the swashbuckler was nasty too. The sprite seems too nice, he won't last long. Ignaceous just seems ineffectual so far, lol.

Running an easy combat was really helpful to learn action economy, etc.

 

[The Cat]

Well snitch. >_<​

 

[Totenkindly]

Lame.

 

[The Cat]

Lame.

View attachment 30941

yeah, the new rules are a lot of this and just extra work and longer combat rounds.

 

[Totenkindly]

yeah, the new rules are a lot of this and just extra work and longer combat rounds.

I think Blizzard and WOTC are buddies, they both strive very hard to introduce something fun and then crush it under a mountain of restrictions / nerfbats.

 

[The Cat]

I think Blizzard and WOTC are buddies, they both strive very hard to introduce something fun and then crush it under a mountain of restrictions / nerfbats.

They probably shop at the same golden parachute supply store so they've got a special bond.

 

[Totenkindly]

So in case poor Mercy dies young (ah, the travails of young witchlings!) in our PF2 campaign, I have started building a monk (human with some Djinn blood) who I am modeling after Tyrian Callows from RWBY. [This is an "evil" campaign, after all.]

Let's call her Tyria Callus.

Kind of the quintessential Chaotic Neutral veering into evil, as Tyrian was based on the Scorpion from "The Scorpion and the Frog."

Tyria is a monk in service to one of the gods of destruction and revels in creating chaos wherever she goes. She is basically like a proselytizer but for a destructive god, not a good one (but otherwise will sound like a zealot witnessing).

Chill, laid-back, no fear of death (as it would be a glorious fulfillment), making whatever affiliations are convenient but you can't quite trust her if she has an opportunity to contribute to mayhem. She often will seem to devolve a bit into madness and laughter.

I wish builds were as obvious though in PF2. There's so much crap to assemble from and I can't figure out the synergies well. Maybe Tiger Claws? Movement feats, Athletics prowess, etc. She needs to be very agile but strong, and with a few deadly abilities.

 

[The Cat]

So in case poor Mercy dies young (ah, the travails of young witchlings!) in our PF2 campaign, I have started building a monk (human with some Djinn blood) who I am modeling after Tyrian Callows from RWBY. [This is an "evil" campaign, after all.]

Let's call her Tyria Callus.

Kind of the quintessential Chaotic Neutral veering into evil, as Tyrian was based on the Scorpion from "The Scorpion and the Frog."

Tyria is a monk in service to one of the gods of destruction and revels in creating chaos wherever she goes. She is basically like a proselytizer but for a destructive god, not a good one (but otherwise will sound like a zealot witnessing).

Chill, laid-back, no fear of death (as it would be a glorious fulfillment), making whatever affiliations are convenient but you can't quite trust her if she has an opportunity to contribute to mayhem. She often will seem to devolve a bit into madness and laughter.

I wish builds were as obvious though in PF2. There's so much crap to assemble from and I can't figure out the synergies well. Maybe Tiger Claws? Movement feats, Athletics prowess, etc. She needs to be very agile but strong, and with a few deadly abilities.

Is it still like third edition with all the feats? I dont have much experience with Pathfinder.

 

[Totenkindly]

Is it still like third edition with all the feats? I dont have much experience with Pathfinder.

YOu're kinda way behind now, so here is the run-down.

Pathfinder 1e was like AD&D 3.0 / 3.5, to the degree it was jokingly called AD&D 3.75.

It kept building in that direction, while D&D went to 4.0 (which was controversial and more MMO like), and then to its recraft in 5.0 which was a decent alternate system that broke away from the Pathfinder 1e / AD&D 3.5 roots and became its own thing, one of its innovations being the elegant "advantage/disadvantage."

So yeah, PF1 had all the feats and various builds and synergies and essentially was a huge sandbox in which you could mix and match and pretty much build any kind of character you wanted due to all the specs and races and classes to assemble form. It still did operate under a "move + combat" structure in terms of combat sequence -- essentially a two-stage turn for your character.

PF2 moved towards a new economy: You now have a three-stage turn (3 undefined parts). Movement can be one of those parts, and attacks can be other parts of that, but you can also layer other kinds of activity as well. Some spells take 2 actions (out of the 3) to cast, and you can get extra damage (like if you're doing Force Barrage which is the current Magic Missile) but spending all three actions on a dart each. It's not that PF1 didn't allow this mixing and matching but it was all more out of exceptions and special rules, and now it is more cleanly built into the three-action turn. There are some restrictions on how many similar actions you can do during a turn as well (like, a monk's stance has a particular tag that defines it as only being able to happen once in a turn -- so you can't do a stance, an action, then switch to another stance in the same turn). If you do more than one attack in a turn, you can -- but each additional attack is at -4 or -5... .but that is just like the old way for BABs in PF1 when you got an additional attack by level, it was typically 4-5 less than your previous attack roll. It's just organized differently, reduced to a rule that cuts across all classes and specs ... hence more elegant.

And then in the last year the Remaster came out (and probably more remastering might occur?) which was a response to the WOTC license that pissed everyone off last year where Paizo basically renamed a lot of their things (spells, feats, races, etc) away from the WOTC names to their own names. There's no longer "races," they are called ancestries and heritages -- and you can build things like changelings because they are a heritage that you layer into a broader ancestry (e.g., human) -- this is how you build "half races." Sylphs for example no longer have to be half-human (nor aasimar or tiefling have to be, etc.), you use the base ancestry for races and then the heritage gives you a few additional bonuses/negatives + the ability to dip into new feat pools.

Yes, feats are still important in Paizo and maybe even moreso. You have Skill Feats, Ancestry Feats, and Class Feats -- which are determined by your skills, your ancestry/heritage, and your class. So some feats are available to many and some are very specific to your character setup. You are getting some kind of bonus ups every level (one or more feats, proficiency boost, possible attribute increase, spells, etc.)

There are basically four qualities of each skill too (Trained, Expert, Master, Legendary -- you saw this in the Monk/Barb/Rogue unchained books), and your saves also follow a similar principle, and each class/spec has different levels of each increased at certain points and can open up more options. You still get a number added to your roll, obviously.

ROll results are Crit Success, Success, Fail, Crit Fail. Crits now are just +10 or -10 compared to the number needed, and every stage has a defined effect for spells and whatever else. There are some spells that still cause problems for the target even if they Succeed, and they need a Crit Success to totally evade the impact.

 

[The Cat]

YOu're kinda way behind now, so here is the run-down.

Pathfinder 1e was like AD&D 3.0 / 3.5, to the degree it was jokingly called AD&D 3.75.

It kept building in that direction, while D&D went to 4.0 (which was controversial and more MMO like), and then to its recraft in 5.0 which was a decent alternate system that broke away from the Pathfinder 1e / AD&D 3.5 roots and became its own thing, one of its innovations being the elegant "advantage/disadvantage."

So yeah, PF1 had all the feats and various builds and synergies and essentially was a huge sandbox in which you could mix and match and pretty much build any kind of character you wanted due to all the specs and races and classes to assemble form. It still did operate under a "move + combat" structure in terms of combat sequence -- essentially a two-stage turn for your character.

PF2 moved towards a new economy: You now have a three-stage turn (3 undefined parts). Movement can be one of those parts, and attacks can be other parts of that, but you can also layer other kinds of activity as well. Some spells take 2 actions (out of the 3) to cast, and you can get extra damage (like if you're doing Force Barrage which is the current Magic Missile) but spending all three actions on a dart each. It's not that PF1 didn't allow this mixing and matching but it was all more out of exceptions and special rules, and now it is more cleanly built into the three-action turn. There are some restrictions on how many similar actions you can do during a turn as well (like, a monk's stance has a particular tag that defines it as only being able to happen once in a turn -- so you can't do a stance, an action, then switch to another stance in the same turn). If you do more than one attack in a turn, you can -- but each additional attack is at -4 or -5... .but that is just like the old way for BABs in PF1 when you got an additional attack by level, it was typically 4-5 less than your previous attack roll. It's just organized differently, reduced to a rule that cuts across all classes and specs ... hence more elegant.

And then in the last year the Remaster came out (and probably more remastering might occur?) which was a response to the WOTC license that pissed everyone off last year where Paizo basically renamed a lot of their things (spells, feats, races, etc) away from the WOTC names to their own names. There's no longer "races," they are called ancestries and heritages -- and you can build things like changelings because they are a heritage that you layer into a broader ancestry (e.g., human) -- this is how you build "half races." Sylphs for example no longer have to be half-human (nor aasimar or tiefling have to be, etc.), you use the base ancestry for races and then the heritage gives you a few additional bonuses/negatives + the ability to dip into new feat pools.

Yes, feats are still important in Paizo and maybe even moreso. You have Skill Feats, Ancestry Feats, and Class Feats -- which are determined by your skills, your ancestry/heritage, and your class. So some feats are available to many and some are very specific to your character setup. You are getting some kind of bonus ups every level (one or more feats, proficiency boost, possible attribute increase, spells, etc.)

There are basically four qualities of each skill too (Trained, Expert, Master, Legendary -- you saw this in the Monk/Barb/Rogue unchained books), and your saves also follow a similar principle, and each class/spec has different levels of each increased at certain points and can open up more options. You still get a number added to your roll, obviously.

ROll results are Crit Success, Success, Fail, Crit Fail. Crits now are just +10 or -10 compared to the number needed, and every stage has a defined effect for spells and whatever else. There are some spells that still cause problems for the target even if they Succeed, and they need a Crit Success to totally evade the impact.

Thank you so much for the in depth breakdown. This is very helpful to me.
I'll bet that lends to a lot lot of character customization. Have you ever played scion, or exalted?

 

[Totenkindly]

Thank you so much for the in depth breakdown. This is very helpful to me.
I'll bet that lends to a lot lot of character customization. Have you ever played scion, or exalted?

I played Exalted but really didn't like it much at the time. It was hard for me to understand going into it, and I felt like if I built my character wrong, I would screw it up badly. It just seemed like so many dice.

I did much better with CoD and Aberrant later.

 

[The Cat]

I played Exalted but really didn't like it much at the time. It was hard for me to understand going into it, and I felt like if I built my character wrong, I would screw it up badly. It just seemed like so many dice.

I did much better with CoD and Aberrant later.

Ive not played it either. But WoD and NWoD/CoD are some of my favorite to actually build chronicles for and run. They look like a lot of fun to play in but Ive yet to find a group in my area currently playing. As much as I adored the solid lore of WoD I really enjoy the no solid answer, but plausible theories put out in CoD. Fun fact I learned because of the ambiguity leading to my own research: Mirrors used to be made with silver, which is a sacred spiritual metal, which is why vampires did not reflect in them. Modern mirrors are not made with silver for the most part, so a Vampire would reflect in most modern mirrors. Which I think is gonna be a fun little tidbit to include in home games. I like the new CoD media blurring effect that the supernatural entities sometimes put up that foul their reflections and appearance on surveillance footage. I thought it was neat when The Ring and Frailty did it and it was nice to see someone else(a TTRPG) do it too.

I'm really curious how your Storyteller for your CoD has your supernaturals interact with modern technology, when I was super active in Old WoD technology was not everywhere like it is now.

 

[Totenkindly]

I'm really curious how your Storyteller for your CoD has your supernaturals interact with modern technology, when I was super active in Old WoD technology was not everywhere like it is now.

Having trouble remembering now. THe vampires were NPCs and I think some things carried through for them (we typically did not see them outside during the day and met in areas without daylight), but I'm not sure the mirror and silver thing held. You can't really get werewolves away from the moon, even if they can shapechange whenever -- because so much of the lore and religion of it involves Luna and phases. Moon phases actually were important in the setting in terms of what things were more likely to happen or when other dimensions were accessible. I think the vampires appeared just fine on video footage, unless they did not want to.

 

[Totenkindly]

I think Tyria shall worship Azathoth, the Primal Chaos. The world is full of pain and misery and everything is only temporary, yet we constantly try to pretend as if forever is an actual thing; the pulling back of our own delusions of reality and the destruction of all that exists as it returns to liberating chaos is the salvation of the world. Mua ha ha.

 

[Totenkindly]

So last night was Session 2, and one player already got themselves killed off -- the OTHER guy who normally GMs for us (and does all the CoD stuff, etc). There's a running joke about how high his character body count will be in each campaign when he actually is a PC, because he is notorious for dying often. In the last campaign run by the current GM, I think he had at least four characters, in a campaign where I think only one other player had one death, and the rest of us lived.

He was playing a barbarian and kind of brought it on himself because he didn't like a few NPCs. Our pirate crew (that we were kidnapped and roped into without consent) grappled and boarded a victim ship, and when his character purposefully knocked one of our crew into the shark-infested waters and then attacked a gnome NPC we didn't like also on our crew, both the gnome and the original victim (who climbed back up the side of the boarded ship) basically took down the PC and she ultimately failed too many death saves.

The rest of us made sure we didn't FAAFO any of our other "crew mates" and just focused on the enemy sailors, to avoid more deaths. I think the encounter would have gone without any deaths if the barbarian hadn't tried to attack allies. But this is what the player does, he likes to make new builds and try things, and also test the limits of the system.

 

[The Cat]

So last night was Session 2, and one player already got themselves killed off -- the OTHER guy who normally GMs for us (and does all the CoD stuff, etc). There's a running joke about how high his character body count will be in each campaign when he actually is a PC, because he is notorious for dying often. In the last campaign run by the current GM, I think he had at least four characters, in a campaign where I think only one other player had one death, and the rest of us lived.

He was playing a barbarian and kind of brought it on himself because he didn't like a few NPCs. Our pirate crew (that we were kidnapped and roped into without consent) grappled and boarded a victim ship, and when his character purposefully knocked one of our crew into the shark-infested waters and then attacked a gnome NPC we didn't like also on our crew, both the gnome and the original victim (who climbed back up the side of the boarded ship) basically took down the PC and she ultimately failed too many death saves.

The rest of us made sure we didn't FAAFI any of our other "crew mates" and just focused on the enemy sailors, to avoid more deaths. I think the encounter would have gone without any deaths if the barbarian hadn't tried to attack allies. But this is what the player does, he likes to make new builds and try things, and also test the limits of the system.

You can always tell when a forever gm finally gets to play. lol.

 

[Totenkindly]

You can always tell when a forever gm finally gets to play. lol.

Jeremy's a riot. I love that he is fearless, I just actually get attached to my characters.

You can tell that pretty much all of us work in Systems, except for the anal retentive guy (who works in legal policy for fedgov) and the least rules maven guy who works in telecommunications maintenance.