Pathfinder 2E Oblivion Oath, Pathfinder 2nd Edition Actual Play game

Hey there all,

Just wanted to make sure that folks on the boards here had seen that the Oblivion Oath, the first ever Pathfinder Second Edition actual play game is available now on the Paizo Twitch and YouTube channels.

We stream live every Thursday at noon (pacific) for one hour on the the Paizo twitch channel (/officialpaizo). Episodes stay in video on demand until they are uploaded to the Paizo YouTube channel the following Tuesday.

We are focused on telling a good story with engaging characters and drops of world lore, but you can also use the stream as a way to see the Pathfinder Second Edition rules in action!

As of this post, we had our 3rd session yesterday and it was a blast. I hope you will check it out.

Jason Bulmahn
Director of Game Design at Paizo
GM of Oblivion Oath

Just pre-ordered everything from Amazon. I can't watch as I find all twitch streaming of games unbearable, even critical role. How anyone can watch other people game amazes me. Pound out content for P2 like you did P1 as I bought all that

I've watched the first two on YouTube, [MENTION=2465]Jason Bulmhan[/MENTION] . I'm enjoying the OO sessions, though I'm not normally a fan of most "live-plays", either.

OO sessions are piquing my PF2E interest far more than the playtest books did (which pretty much turned me off)

Our goal with the show is to tell a good story using the P2 rules, which was never the focus of the Playtest. TBH, that really was a turn off for some, as we were far more focused on hard testing and pushing boundaries. With this stream, we can really show off what the playtest helped us make.. and I am excited to show off more of it in the weeks and months to come.

As for more P2 content... well, I think you can be assured of that.

Tried the show. It felt a little awkward.

I think part of the issue is the absence of any party dynamics.
We're introduced to the characters in little separate episodes, but that's funky being very tell not show. We don't see the character introduced in the story but by someone saying their backstory. It's also someone talking about how they plan to play their character. Character concepts seldom match 1:1 with how they end up being presented at the table.

Plus, everyone is kinda running around separately for the first episode. They don't really talk or interact with each other, spending more time with NPCs than each other.

There's also an absence of background. People are fleeing... but there's no reason given. Because spoilers. But that makes for a poor story: if you don't want to explain what's going on for fear of spoiling an AP or world event then mayhaps the story should have been set elsewhere. (I'm not even sure where to look for the answers. The last AP? The current? The launch AP this August?)
My Golarion is also rusty A.F. There was a lot of name dropping and use of locations, almost with the expectation that people know what is where. We really needed a graphic of the region on the screen and a little more exposition of what is where.

The combat was a little chunky as well. I don't think we needed the countdown of actions from enemies.

So, I get why that might have been a bit awkward. I made the call early on to start the game when the PCs first meet each other, allowing their backstories and reasons for being there to be filled in over time, as the story unfolds. The same goes for the world as well, and it is something we will be exploring more as the game goes on.

The hope here is that these things will feel organic and less like a forced info dump. Where needed, the information will be forthcoming, but doing so before getting to the action felt a bit ponderous to me in my pre-show planning.

So.. why are they on a boat, what are they fleeing from, what is going on in Lastwall? All these questions will be explored as we go along.

We hope you will stay along for the ride.

I am curious enough to keep watching. But after the set-up and combat, the third episode really needs to focus on the cast getting to know each other: names being exchanged and intraparty dynamics established.

With the mystery of the keys being introduced it feels the hook and plot has started and prologue ended. Now we viewers need a reason to care about these characters.

Jason Bulmahn said:

Our goal with the show is to tell a good story using the P2 rules, which was never the focus of the Playtest. TBH, that really was a turn off for some, as we were far more focused on hard testing and pushing boundaries. With this stream, we can really show off what the playtest helped us make.. and I am excited to show off more of it in the weeks and months to come.

As for more P2 content... well, I think you can be assured of that.

Click to expand...

Yeah. That killed the playtest for my group. My players just couldn't get past the "we're just number crunching and bean-counting" mindset. I hope Paizo puts out some free content around release time so I can "re-sell" my group on giving it another chance.

Yeah, I feel like we could have made it more clear that this was more of a hard-core playtest and less of a light, "give the system a try" sort of process. Folks that came to it expecting just a fun experience were left confused by a very crunchy series of tests.

But.. for all that pain, I can honestly say we got a much better game out of the process. We were able to more clearly calibrate where the "sweet" spot was for our math. While that may not sound fun, it means we have a very good foundation to build from and to create a lasting game into the future.

As for giving out more insight into what the game is like, you will see more and more of that as we get closer to release. We are keeping it light with Oblivion Oath and similar upcoming appearances to show the fun of the game, but we will drill down further and further into the mechanics in the coming months.