Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

[Fakenamemagoo]

So what do people think about Pathfinder 2nd edition? I played ot of first Ed Pathfinder because I hate DnD 4th edition.

I've enjoyed what I've played. And it has definite potential.

However it's overly complicated. I think it would work best on a VTT. And the starter set I played was toothless and easy. No one got knocked out until the last 2 encounters.

Also as stated above Paizo enjoys shooting themselves in the foot to virtue signal.

Still overall a good system with potential.

 

[TigerGoblin]

So what do people think about Pathfinder 2nd edition? I played ot of first Ed Pathfinder because I hate DnD 4th edition.

I DM in it for 18 months now. Its great. While I think the complexity has a bit higher entrence bar (but lower than PF 1e), after few sessions it is all streamlined so well its actually very easy system. I really enjoy its tactical aspect more than any RPG I have ever played. And as a DM its easy to write and prepare adventures (I never play written modules)

 

[Ghostse]

So what do people think about Pathfinder 2nd edition? I played ot of first Ed Pathfinder

tl;dr what PF was to 3.5, it feels like PF2 is to "D&D Next"; its like 5e RTM. There's some fun ideas to loot from it, like ancestry & racial progression. But by default includes tons of wokeshit like the X card, disabled PCs, and forbidding PCs from using things in their own settings like slaves.

Spoiler: Overly long ramble as I look through the ToC

I got a bunch of PF2 stuff from a humble bundle and have leafed through it briefly, so I might be misremembering somethings but:

PHB is laid out poorly from a standpoint of character creation or ongoing reference. The racial bloodlines are neat, but I wish they'd stick to one for each race and have an "Advanced" section or book for people to get more options with. The racial feats were also kind of neat, but its seems silly to have these racial blood lines but racial feats being accessible to all of them. Backgrounds are neat, but some are very clearly better than others while also being very samesy - all the ones I skimmed were 'Stat Boost to [Pick one of two], Stat Boost to Any, Feat, Skill Training'. Maybe the DMG covers custom backgrounds, but it seems like you could really whittle that one down. Mainly its just another 10 pages where you either read through and hope you didn't make a choice that fucks you later, or you just google 'best PF2 background' and pick what reddit says.
(On a personal note, I dislike Paizo's goblin fetish and putting them in the PHB is just inviting someone to be a shitty "choatic neutral" snowflake. Made worse by the fact gnomes are there too.)
It'd be nice if there were "suggested backgrounds for races/classes".

Regarding skill selection, they also suffer from the "800 million types of lore, hope you picked the relevant kind!" from 3.5. Lore feels overly broad and not very useful and wish they'd have dropped it or streamlined it.

Speaking of unneeded shit in the PHB, they spend a whole chapter on the default Paizo campaign setting. Not at the very end, in the middle. That's a big no bueno for me, unless its something like The Dark Eye where the setting & the game are meant to be inextricably intertwined. Your setting should be in the modules and maybe in the DMG if you don't have anything better to say. Maybe as the final chapter, not in the middle.

There is also a lot of "You can do [this thing that will probably make the game shitty], but the DM has the final stay on if you can"; Mother fucker then why did you even suggest it? Why are you even making me say no? I'm supposed to be "yes and"ing.

They include a GM section in the PHB (sorry, "Core Rules"; which it is nice to have a single omnibus for the system, but I really believe the DMG & PHB should be separate so players aren't needlessly hauling around 50+ pages of instructions on how they should be murdered.)

Dropping out of the autism containment area because I think this needs to be said:
But they really go out of their way to tell the GM what they should be doing. Like they say GMs shouldn't let players have slaves, profit from the slave trade, or abuse mind control magic. Also they can't kill younglings and bunch of other horseshit.
Now, I want to say up front: In the real world, especially in historical context, slavery in all the places it has appeared is often not as cut-and-dry as the wokeset wants you to feel it is. That said, in my settings slavery is not a grey area - its universally a bad thing done by the most evil beings & cultures. I also don't run 'evil' campaigns - they have their place, people can have fun with them, and that's cool. Its just not my bag. LMOA I'm kidding. All players are evil. Every campaign is an evil campaign.

But fuck you Paizo and your fucking moral soapbox. If you don't want people making money from the slave trade in your setting, don't have a slave trade. Don't want players to own slaves? Don't have slavery exist or have it be illegal. If I want to run an evil campaign, my players should be able to be as evil. If that means selling the entire population of a village to work in the mines till they die for a few gold, motherfucker they should be able to and I'm going to let them (and then let experience the consequences). If you don't want players to use Command Person to make merchants hand over their fortunes, or use charm person to seduce their way into the royal family, then write the fucking spell rules so they can't. Its not my job or anyone else's to enforce your values and please kindly fuck right off with trying to tell people it is.

Rant done, Honestly the system seems better for looting ideas from than actually running. In addition to Racial Ancestry & Progression, I like from the system is items/feats/etc being listed as "Uncommon" or "Rare" being explicitly off the table as player selections without GM approval. Again, I'd generally prefer those be slid out of the PHB, but not a bad idea to have them in the player rules and let players ask "what do I have to do to get X?"

But what truly kills the system for me is Paizo just them going over woke; The PHB has suggestions for creating disabled characters. They're the same or worse than WotC.

just a note:
I never was overly found of PF1 as the system just seemed to take 3.5's broken mechanics and just crank them to the max to try to ride that along the curvature of the universe and make a system so broken that it comes back around to be balanced again - and were actually sort of successful at it. Now granted it might be the people I playing with (but if so it was two wholly separate groups) - but regarding previous "either the encounter is a cakewalk or a slaughterhouse" issues with 3.5, PF seemed to lean to heavy to powergaming and having the players build their min-maxed murder machines and the DM throwing unbalanced encounters at them until they found the thing that would kill 1-3 of the party so the players could roll up new mix-maxed characters precision tuned to deal with the immediate threat, and for those characters to get killed or retired as soon as the next module started and threats shifted.

because I hate DnD 4th edition.

Its ok have bad opinions. I respect your honesty.
This is a shit post I will murder any mother fucker who starts a serious edition war

 

[Jet Fuel Johnny]

So what do people think about Pathfinder 2nd edition? I played ot of first Ed Pathfinder because I hate DnD 4th edition.

I hated it.

A lot is dumbed down and just annoyed me.

My two long time players HATED it.

And I waited till the fourth book came out to judge the whole system, realized it was going to be nothing but wokester garbage with half-assed mechanics, gave my books to a friend, and unboxed my PF1 stuff.

 

[ZMOT]

I really enjoyed Pathfinder 1E for what it was worth. I don't remember the specifics but they were changing some rules in an attempt to make PF it's own ruleset and not a 3.5 clone. But the whole reason I played PF 1E in the first place was to play a version of 3.5 that was easily to google.

Then I see shit like this and I'm glad I never really even bothered:

Pathfinder Drops Phylactery From In-Game Terminology

Paizo has discontinued the use of the word 'phylactery' in its Pathfinder publications due to the [...]

comicbook.com

pf1 had worse shit than that, just saying.

However it's overly complicated. I think it would work best on a VTT. And the starter set I played was toothless and easy. No one got knocked out until the last 2 encounters.

reason for that were lot of complaints when it came out and the first adventure and AP kinda being on the tougher side, which apparently scared quite a few people off.
new edition, hardly any official material and even if you wanted to convert stuff there wasn't lot of inspiration to draw from unless putting in even more work figuring it out yourself.

So what do people think about Pathfinder 2nd edition? I played ot of first Ed Pathfinder because I hate DnD 4th edition.

never played them, but I see shadow of the demon lord and 13th age getting some mention as an inbetween, might wanna take a look at those (13th age was in a humblebundle recently, so might show up again at some point).
there's also some kickstarter pdfs floating around of "level up advanced dnd5" people seem to talk about recently, but couldn't say if it really does what it promises.

I got a bunch of PF2 stuff from a humble bundle and have leafed through it briefly, so I might be misremembering somethings but:

the "proper" DMG came out a few months later, I assume it was either delay the launch to have them both at the same time or some overlap, so I don't mind that much (it also curbs complaints like "fuck you having me to buy 2 books").
agreed on the goblins, but I fear that's down to their retarded playerbase, the same kind that see's no problem with pandaria in WoW or playing kender...
as for setting, I suspect most people playing pathfinder (especially 2e) stick to golarion, and so we got another DMG issue just with "fuck you making me buy more sourcebooks, what I'm supposed to play this with?". there's probably not a solution that'd work for everybody (however rules are also officially available on nethys, so there's that too).

regarding the wokeshit, considering how they try to sell to a "broad" audience and newbies (and get players to switch players from 5e) it's hard to say what is based on conviction and what's just performative due to the believe they "have to" (which tbf applies to some degree to WOTC as well).
or look at it this way, you're an up and coming GM who wants to run it and (or just play it) unless you have the luxury of a big enough circle with the time and willingness that leaves you with.... roll20 and it's retarded audience. I see it less as a high horse but simply preparation of what kind of people you gonna have to deal with.

 

[Lithos]

I've already mentioned it before, but roll20 is both disturbing and hilarious. Like the people that try to join your games just don't read your entries and often will come with their precious premades with their super special backgrounds. And if you don't mention how great the background is at the first session? They blow up. It sucks because living over in Asia, where there's few table top groups (unless you play wargames like 40K or MTG), I'm kind of stuck with roll20. And having to wake up at 5 am if I want to play a game, since those in my time zone and in the southern hemisphere don't really avail them of the service. But I've met some Australian players who were just as bad.

I've been half-tempted to just make a few throwaway account and put bait listings to start collecting some of the more insane submissions. Like the kinds I used to get from when I ran Star Trek Adventures. They were mostly Romulan rape fantasies, or Tal Shiar defectors, Betazoid bimbos, and they'd all have supermodels photoshopped onto Starfleet uniforms. Apparently they got them from the same website.

Spoiler: And yes, they were always submitted by dudes. Not even dudes in dresses

As someone suggested, if you put up a posting, it's a decent idea to put in a line halfway through the recruitment message that says: "If you've read this far, please include the phrase, "The prophets have seen the future, and say you should settle outstanding debts." in your application. It's nice to know they took the time to read and understand what you want to run as a game.

But then there are still those so absolutely desperate to play that they will still apply.

 

[Memento Malum]

So what do people think about Pathfinder 2nd edition? I played ot of first Ed Pathfinder because I hate DnD 4th edition.

Having played and run it for a year+ at this point, I'll give it a cautious recommendation. My group has enjoyed it, but we never played pf1 or 3.5 so have no basis for comparison there. We also never play with the written settings, so I have no clue what the fluff is like for it (its probably shit).

Paizo is infected with wokeshit, but so is wotc and like 95% of TTRPG companies at this point, so I dont really count that against them. I just ignore that stuff like I ignore the fluff.

 

[Ghostse]

the "proper" DMG came out a few months later, I assume it was either delay the launch to have them both at the same time or some overlap, so I don't mind that much (it also curbs complaints like "fuck you having me to buy 2 books").
agreed on the goblins, but I fear that's down to their exceptional playerbase, the same kind that see's no problem with pandaria in WoW or playing kender...
as for setting, I suspect most people playing pathfinder (especially 2e) stick to golarion, and so we got another DMG issue just with "fuck you making me buy more sourcebooks, what I'm supposed to play this with?". there's probably not a solution that'd work for everybody (however rules are also officially available on nethys, so there's that too).

regarding the wokeshit, considering how they try to sell to a "broad" audience and newbies (and get players to switch players from 5e) it's hard to say what is based on conviction and what's just performative due to the believe they "have to" (which tbf applies to some degree to WOTC as well).
or look at it this way, you're an up and coming GM who wants to run it and (or just play it) unless you have the luxury of a big enough circle with the time and willingness that leaves you with.... roll20 and it's exceptional audience. I see it less as a high horse but simply preparation of what kind of people you gonna have to deal with.

I got the "Dungeon Mastery Guide" as well, but never cracked it. I guess in my view, you should have a book that has everything players need to build and run a character, a book that has everything the DM needs to run the game, and for people who do both a combo book.

Anyway, the woke in the Core Rules goes beyond mere performative. A lot of the "woke shit" in the 5e PHB is skirting the line of performative. The PF2 Core rules go far beyond "dudes can play girls, girls can play guys". They practically encourage players going full woketard, and by including X card faggotry in the same book, players who read cover to cover (or are told page numbers by their woke reddits) can say "But but but Rules say I get to remove anything I don't like right here!"

Again, its like the people who say "Well ok sure the rule books say white men at the table should wear dresses, highheels, and suck any black dick in a 30-block radius before sitting down to play, but my group just doesn't use those rules", which ignores that at some point you need to get a new group, and you are going to have woke hugbox players rolling up, saying they identify as a black woman and dropping their pants, and asking when the blowjobs start.

 

[Memento Malum]

Again, its like the people who say "Well ok sure the rule books say white men at the table should wear dresses, highheels, and suck any black dick in a 30-block radius before sitting down to play, but my group just doesn't use those rules", which ignores that at some point you need to get a new group, and you are going to have woke hugbox players rolling up, saying they identify as a black woman and dropping their pants, and asking when the blowjobs start.

I fail to see how this is my problem? I can choose not to play with these people. Or is your point that by playing PF2 I am no longer allowed to not play with these people? Honest question; I'm missing how my choice of RPG system affects the players in a hypothetical new game I would start.

I guess I really don't see how "play the game your table wants" is a bad concept. If PF2 works for you, do that. If the politics of the authors fundamentally undermines your ability to enjoy the game, then play something else. [To clarify, that last sentence is not snark, it's my legit opinion]

 

[DeagleNationRefugee]

I think for me the line is trying to enforce rules on the PLAYERS versus enforcing rules on the CHARACTERS. I mean to the point of trying to influence any actions of the players outside of the game. It reminds me of the Wendy's RPG giving buffs to player's characters if they ate Wendy's IRL for lunch that day and debuffs if they ate pizza or like a sandwich. I get that it's a joke written in an RPG that costs 0 dollars, but go fuck yourself Wendy's, you corporate slimeballs.

 

[Ghostse]

Honest question; I'm missing how my choice of RPG system affects the players in a hypothetical new game I would start.

It doesn't affect anything with your current group, true. But at some point, you're going to need new players (or a new group), or a player will move out and need a new group. It affects the players you are going attract when you need a new group or a replacement player.

Sure you can kick out the snowflakes, but look at the recent posts by people going group hunting on roll20 - you can't really screen for stupid and you end up wasting time when one of them turns out to be a massive snowflake.

I mean, say you want to remove all traces of faggotry from D&D, so you ban elves and D12s. You've not only got people expecting elves, you've got rework the pantheon - and disrupt player expectations of how the pantheon works. You have to redo weapons. You've got to do heavily lifting and deal with players who have expectations from other games.

 

[Dr. Pasquale]

They practically encourage players going full woketard, and by including X card faggotry in the same book, players who read cover to cover (or are told page numbers by their woke reddits) can say "But but but Rules say I get to remove anything I don't like right here!"

I cant fucking imagine running a game where at any moment in time a player can simply pull out a triggered card and change the course of events cuz he feels offended.

I kinda saw it happen once when I was a player at this table and the DM made a big fuss about another player's character being a jokey mysoginist. Game literally stopped dead on its tracks while the two argued for a bit and the DM conjured up some new rules about offensive behavior and how he would ignore it in roleplay and yadda yadda...

That ended up being the last session we played at that table. Everyone grew pretty uncomfortable with the notion of idea policing and all interactions just felt so awkward after that.

 

[TigerGoblin]

I got waaaaaay more of the trigerred players disrupting tables from the DnD Critical Role crowd than I have ever got from the PF crowd (both editions). My guess is that for all the woke rules in the book, the math just scares those types off.

 

[Fictional Character]

I cant fucking imagine running a game where at any moment in time a player can simply pull out a triggered card and change the course of events cuz he feels offended.

I kinda saw it happen once when I was a player at this table and the DM made a big fuss about another player's character being a jokey mysoginist. Game literally stopped dead on its tracks while the two argued for a bit and the DM conjured up some new rules about offensive behavior and how he would ignore it in roleplay and yadda yadda...

That ended up being the last session we played at that table. Everyone grew pretty uncomfortable with the notion of idea policing and all interactions just felt so awkward after that.

The X Card is shit because it doesn't make the person using it explain what is the issue. When the one specific thing I can't handle even in games came up, I told the player and asked him to not do it. He agreed and the game went on fine. When I wanted to play a character backstory and concept that was meant to be creepy, I cleared it with everyone else in the group first. And when it turned out during play that one player was uncomfortable even though he thought he wouldn't be, he told me and I changed things because I'm not going to argue about my right to play a statutory rapist high school teacher even if it's a World of Darkness game and therefore edgy as fuck. You don't need an X card if you have minimal social skills and basic respect for others. And if you have traumas hat you can't talk about and instead need to immediately stop play without explanation when they come up, you should get therapy before doing social activities like ttrpgs.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

I think for me the line is trying to enforce rules on the PLAYERS versus enforcing rules on the CHARACTERS. I mean to the point of trying to influence any actions of the players outside of the game. It reminds me of the Wendy's RPG giving buffs to player's characters if they ate Wendy's IRL for lunch that day and debuffs if they ate pizza or like a sandwich. I get that it's a joke written in an RPG that costs 0 dollars, but go fuck yourself Wendy's, you corporate slimeballs.

Yeah, but who took the Wendy's RPG seriously as opposed to PF?

 

[BiggerChungus]

I think for me the line is trying to enforce rules on the PLAYERS versus enforcing rules on the CHARACTERS. I mean to the point of trying to influence any actions of the players outside of the game. It reminds me of the Wendy's RPG giving buffs to player's characters if they ate Wendy's IRL for lunch that day and debuffs if they ate pizza or like a sandwich. I get that it's a joke written in an RPG that costs 0 dollars, but go fuck yourself Wendy's, you corporate slimeballs.

It's to me the main problem of wokeshit rules and guidelines, aside from them being wrong and counterproductive. If Wizards put something on their site as an optional download, a PDF of what to do if you and your group willingly choose to be "progressive" with your game, that'd be one thing. I could easily ignore it, and if someone wants x-cards and no races in their games or whatever, fine, that's their choice and it's not one I have to make for my own game. But they don't do that, they put the shit directly in the main books and tell you directly you're intended to use them, and if you don't go with the "progressive" things they want then you're doing something wrong. Saw a snip of pic related on 4chan from a Call of Cthulhu splat called Harlem Unbound. Checked it out myself and it's a prime example of the insanity getting into so many RPGs now.

They put their ideological talking points in the book and insist you and your players must fall in line. In Call of Cthulhu's case they're not even going with generic common sense stuff like be polite with each other or racism is bad, it's getting significantly more extreme.

 

[Fagnacious D]

It doesn't affect anything with your current group, true. But at some point, you're going to need new players (or a new group), or a player will move out and need a new group. It affects the players you are going attract when you need a new group or a replacement player.

Sure you can kick out the snowflakes, but look at the recent posts by people going group hunting on roll20 - you can't really screen for stupid and you end up wasting time when one of them turns out to be a massive snowflake.

I mean, say you want to remove all traces of faggotry from D&D, so you ban elves and D12s. You've not only got people expecting elves, you've got rework the pantheon - and disrupt player expectations of how the pantheon works. You have to redo weapons. You've got to do heavily lifting and deal with players who have expectations from other games.

I wonder, would it be possible by screening snow flakes out by simply declaring humans as the only playable race then making the campaign about a war with another races (Orcs/Kobolds/Elves)?
I mean they seem to hate playing humans and would despise racial wars.

 

[Adamska]

It's to me the main problem of wokeshit rules and guidelines, aside from them being wrong and counterproductive. If Wizards put something on their site as an optional download, a PDF of what to do if you and your group willingly choose to be "progressive" with your game, that'd be one thing. I could easily ignore it, and if someone wants x-cards and no races in their games or whatever, fine, that's their choice and it's not one I have to make for my own game. But they don't do that, they put the shit directly in the main books and tell you directly you're intended to use them, and if you don't go with the "progressive" things they want then you're doing something wrong. Saw a snip of pic related on 4chan from a Call of Cthulhu splat called Harlem Unbound. Checked it out myself and it's a prime example of the insanity getting into so many RPGs now.

They put their ideological talking points in the book and insist you and your players must fall in line. In Call of Cthulhu's case they're not even going with generic common sense stuff like be polite with each other or racism is bad, it's getting significantly more extreme.
View attachment 2709410

There's culling the weird racist rambles of Howard, then there's being the black equivalent of him. Buck status of this hideously retarded nonentity: Broken.

I wonder, would it be possible by screening snow flakes out by simply declaring humans as the only playable race then making the campaign about a war with another races (Orcs/Kobolds/Elves)?
I mean they seem to hate playing humans and would despise racial wars.

The morons on Roll20 don't read the notes and details half the time, so not really. Good screening approach was already mentioned in those cases. Basically, you to put in the middle of your lore and splat stuff "Type out 'Never give up, never surrrender' in line 3 of your extras page of your character sheet", since that can and will boot out the dummies that send in pre-mades.

 

[LTO Data Cartridge]

I have a tragic story for you, tabletop thread. Awhile back I posted about the political fantasy game I'm in (post is here, long but it's a good story). It has continued since then, and a hell of a lot has happened. After the destruction of Arwan's doom army, everyone went back to the usual feuding. The southern Caliphate expanded into the now unoccupied desert region, the humans and elves continued to skirmish, and the glorious Syrabrian horde went back to pillaging. The problem was that we were now without a leader, Antronen having died gloriously saving the land from total destruction. After a period of deliberation the high shaman, Utar, chose one of Antronen's many sons, a certain Moskill, then only 12 years old, to be his successor. Utar acted as regent and tutor of Moskill as the horde moved on, doing the usual raping and pillaging in the process.

Several years passed, moving aimlessly and leaving a trail of destruction. The only particularly notable thing that happened in this period was the rapidly expanding Caliphate being crushed by an Artorian/Freyyonic led coalition and being shattered into warlords, destroying any chance that the truth (diet islam) would become the dominant religion of the continent. Almost everyone was happy about that since our last setting had been dominated by actual Islam and nobody wanted a repeat. So Moskill continues his teaching; he's not nearly as brave or physically imposing as his father but he has a knack for politics and manipulation. Not very traditionally Syrabrian talents, but still useful.

Finally of age to lead, Moskill takes control of the horde. Although projecting an outward appearance of confidence, he's very worried about being overshadowed by the legendary figure that is his father. He decides that if he's to make a name for himself, he must complete a great quest. He decides that this quest will be reconquering the Syrabrian homeland from which they originally wandered out of, now controlled by the decadent Tsardom of Konavsk. The journey to Konavsk is fraught with diversions ranging from assisting in the founding of a small nation to trying to communicate with savage lizard people, but describing those in detail could be several entire posts. Arriving in Konavsk, Moskill proceeds to engage in what can only be described as the Jewiest series of events in the entire roleplay. He secretly organizes rebellious Konavskite vassals, frustrated local tribes, and nearby countries in an anti-Konavk coalition and springs all of it at once, take the Tsardom by surprise and decimating their armies, despite one battle going disastrously wrong.

What followed was a period of frantic state building and stabilization. We renovated the legal code, slashed taxes to placate the peasants, ousted local leaders who wouldn't submit, and generally reshaped what was Konavsk into a totally new nation, the Immortal Horde, essentially the Syrabrian promised land as foretold in prophecy (but with less milk and honey and more barren tundra). After the initial chaos things were actually going quite well. We modernized and massively developed the once stagnant cities of Konavsk and even made progress in clearing the nearby abandoned dwarf holds of the goblin infestation. The Syrabrians seemed to have succeeded wildly in transitioning from nomadic conquerors to minority ruling class.
But then the dreams started.

Ghostly voices narrating over images of forgotten caverns and sealed temples. A cup, a chalice of golden mastercraft inlaid with finest jewels. And that voice, saying come, listener, taste of the chalice's waters, claim its power, seek it out... I immediately consulted the head shaman, Nesk (Utar had unfortunately died in the war against Konavsk), asking him to interpret the dreams. After deliberating he told me the spirits demanded that I seek the power of the chalice, and that their favor of our nation was at stake. Without hesitation I gathered my greatest warriors and Nesk and set off. Strangely, despite the dreams never telling us the location of the chalice, we all knew where to go. After a few weeks of journeying through dangerous territory (we dispatched thieves and goblins with ease, these warriors were some of the finest in the world) we discover a large campsite; somehow, deep inland, the entire drakian army (the drakians being savage dragon-men from the southern islands) had gathered at what appeared to be a dig site. They'd exposed an ancient temple buried in a hill and was frantically searching for something. Obviously they were trying to steal the power which was rightfully mine.

Avoiding detection, we make a small camp nearby. I ask Nesk a critical question: do the spirits wish to see boldness or caution? He slaughters a pig we'd brought (named Weſl, meaning lucky in the Syrabrian language (yes, I made up a language for my country because I'm a turbo-faggot)) and gives the answer: the spirits want boldness, and will reward it greatly.

If you read my previous post, you'd understand that I take the wishes of the spirits very seriously; that's what brought me such great victory before, after all. So that night I grab my 4 warriors and infiltrate the camp. This is the part where shit gets wild. We reach the center of the camp, dodging groggy lizards on night patrol. Then some commotion gets our attention. Xergath iron-scales, king of the foul drakians, is standing on top of a pile of junk addressing some of his troops. He lets of some disgusting guttural sounds which we can't understand, and lifts up his clawed hand, holding... the chalice. For a brief second I panic and think that I've lost. But then, instead of swigging down the magic water and gaining ultimate power, he... puts a seal over it and wraps it into a package. Before I can process this there's a roar from the west and over the trees flies a full grown dragon, a mythical beast not known to live anywhere on the continent, ridden by Idrahael, king of the elven Aesir empire, decked out in shining enchanted armor. Not only were dragons thought to be extinct, there not a single story of one being ridden. The camp devolves into anarchy. Stealth no longer matters. Xergath flees north, and I follow with my cadre.

It is at this exact moment that I make the critical mistake, defying the will of the spirits and dooming my quest. In a moment of excessive caution, I feared missing something important still lying in the exposed temple, and sent two of my warriors to check it out while the rest of us pursued the Drakian with the chalice. It will soon become apparent why this was such a mistake.

Due to the Drakians' heavy armor, we are significantly faster than them. We give chase while the dragon tears up the camp. Xergath goes down an ancient set of stone steps which are the only quick way off the hill; knowing that Idrahael is likely to be coming behind us, I use the ace up my sleeve: finely crafted portable bombs made of a recently discovered substance called "gunpowder". We blow the stairs on the way down, delaying anyone following us. We catch up with Xergath and a skirmish begins, myself and my two companions versus him and his thuggish guards. This is where my mistake becomes apparent; without those two warriors, we are outnumbered. We are far more skilled than they are, but there's not enough time. The guards are felled and I begin to wrestle with Xergath over the chalice, but it's too late, Idrahael, the vile elf, catches up, stabbing me in the back. Already wounded from the fight, I begin bleeding out. I see the hated elf seize the chalice. This is impossible... I make a decision. If I can't have the chalice, nobody can. I grab another bomb and light it. Everyone around me panics and scatters. I am annihilated in a fiery inferno, along with everyone still nearby. My final act of defiance and my punishment for not following the will of the spirits enacted simultaneously.

Unfortunately, Idrahael escaped the blast and drank from the chalice. He's acquired terrible arcane might and threatens to conquer the planet. A coalition is being assembled against him, but that's a story for later.

Some notes: I have no idea if the spirits are an actual game mechanic that my gm is using behind the scenes or this is just random chance. I don't really care though because however he's doing it it's working out fantastically. Not truly knowing is part of the fun. Anther thing, after my last post someone asked me if I could post our homebrew system. After asking my GM, unfortunately I must report that there's nothing to really post because it turns out that the "system" is 90% GM fiat behind the scenes. But hey, the game is working fantastically so I can't complain about it being a mess under the hood. Finally, here's an up to date game map:

The Aesir empire is ruled by the now super-powered elf emperor. As you can see, he's already attempting to conquer a nearby land. Stopping him will be difficult. Wish us luck. And once again, thanks for reading my extremely long and rambly posts. This game is such a great story generator that I can't help but share them somewhere.

 

[Ghostse]

It's to me the main problem of wokeshit rules and guidelines, aside from them being wrong and counterproductive. If Wizards put something on their site as an optional download, a PDF of what to do if you and your group willingly choose to be "progressive" with your game, that'd be one thing. I could easily ignore it, and if someone wants x-cards and no races in their games or whatever, fine, that's their choice and it's not one I have to make for my own game. But they don't do that, they put the shit directly in the main books and tell you directly you're intended to use them, and if you don't go with the "progressive" things they want then you're doing something wrong. Saw a snip of pic related on 4chan from a Call of Cthulhu splat called Harlem Unbound. Checked it out myself and it's a prime example of the insanity getting into so many RPGs now.

They put their ideological talking points in the book and insist you and your players must fall in line. In Call of Cthulhu's case they're not even going with generic common sense stuff like be polite with each other or racism is bad, it's getting significantly more extreme.
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There's culling the weird racist rambles of Howard, then there's being the black equivalent of him. Buck status of this hideously exceptional nonentity: Broken.

Fully agree.
A Company wants to publish a free "Here's how you can pump your game world full of faggots. Chapter 1, men can get pregnant" pdf supplement, that's mostly fine. I 'm going to give their output a little heavier of a glance before picking it up, but if the stuff they put out is otherwise good and fun I'll buy what I want and not buy/ban what I don't like. (As long they dont' go full Evil Hat)
I can just say "We don't use the Orcs Lives Matter supplement rules. All orcs are unintelligent murdeous monsters, speak in ebonics, and shoot their crossbows sideways." Much harder to do when you are needing to trim out or alter specific Chapters/Sections/Pages/Paragraphs and provide your own autistic erratta.

To circle back on the PF2 Core Rules chat, its Its sort of like saying I'm banning (@Adamska, earmuffs) freakshit. If I don't want chaotic snowflake goblins or gnomes in PF2, I can't just ban a add-on book, I have to say precisely what parts of the PHB/Core Rules I'm excising. I shouldn't need to go into that level of detail, and I should need to remove sections of the core rules.

Specifically on the Harlem book, I love the complete cultural superiority assumptions. "I'm from China, gweilo. What's the "n word"?". Has anyone talked about how uninclusive they are assuming American/Euro cultural superiority?
Like they can't even talk about the word they are banning. Its some 1984 shit.

side note, it really sucks that book is coming out in the Woke Era. A CoC Harlem setting not done by the performatively woke could be dope as hell. Even if you want to make it a racism morality play, you could have literal racists working with otherworldly powers to enslave the minds of the blacks, or focus on how in the eyes of the old ones all of humanity is equally insignificant.
But naw, it'll be 100% woke where they can't even type out the word Nigger.
Bet Negro is banned too.

I wonder, would it be possible by screening snow flakes out by simply declaring humans as the only playable race then making the campaign about a war with another races (Orcs/Kobolds/Elves)?
I mean they seem to hate playing humans and would despise racial wars.

As mentioned by @Adamska no one reads. They just submit their furry tranny gender special everywhere and hope eventually some DM will let them play ruin a game.

Also, despite what my post history would suggest, I generally avoid racial wars unless its a one-shot and you just need to quickly set a stage. If the humans are in a race war with the Orcs, it means talking your way past combat is not a realistic option. And I guess if you just want straight combat that's fine, but I like giving my players the option of solving most encounters with soft skills even if they never take it.
even when they never take it. They never take it.