Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Pathfinder 2e: Actual Play Experience
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="JmanTheDM" data-source="post: 7987391" data-attributes="member: 6791902"><p>hey all. long time lurker. just a quick report of my experiences with PF2e. I've now GM'd 3, 4-hour sessions of The Fall of Plaguestone through Roll20 with 5 players. This is the first time I've ever played or GM'd any Pathfinder. I have hundreds of sessions of 5e and other editions of D&D under my belt. we play bi-weekly.</p><p></p><p>of the 5 players, 2 are enthusiastic (notably, character creation options and tactical choices during combat). 2 are meh - neither wowed nor adverse to the game, and 1 is dropping out due to rules confusion (this player and myself are also in an online 5e game, and its his first time playing both PF2 and 5e, and he's spending way to much time just trying to recall and remember rules and differences between the both).</p><p></p><p>I expected a worse reaction TBH. all of my players are (save 1) 5e players, none have any Pathfinder experience and a couple were actively anti-3.5e. I had to sell it pretty hard by highlighting some of the 2e improvements (3 actions, feat pools, char gen options, critical's, etc.). Losing only a single player is IMO, a win. I honestly thought most would be "well, Jman, good game, but this is too reminiscent of 3.5, and I have better things to do with my life than re-live that period of time <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> )</p><p></p><p>myself, I love it. if I could, I'd switch all my Face 2 face games over to Pf2e. I'm still lost as hell to all the rules, conditions, edge cases, and if/then clauses - but for me it feels tight, it feels internally consistent, and for the most part there is a lexicon throughout that once things start permeating through my thick head, I feel will lead to a bunch of AH HA! moments. (though, as an aside, Conditions! My god, how does anyone track this in-game?) Unlike 5e, where I've really only read the PHB once, and glanced at specific rules over the years, PF2e feels more like effort in = effort out, and (at least for the gm) will require work, multiple reads, lots of page flipping and, like, taking notes <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />. so far, this work has not bothered me but I can certainly empathize with GM's who might not want to put in the work. bottom line, PF2e feels like a niche game to me - really attractive to those players and GM's who want their D&D to be crunchier, with a large heaping of player choice. Those who want a fast, quick to enter, quick to play game, or those who are teaching RPG's, not an ideal first choice. But dare I even say it, those who want to graduate to a more "Advanced" version of D&D, wow! </p><p></p><p>the adventure (Plaguestone) has been universally derided as being boring. I agree. The combats have been tough and fun, and the players especially LOVE the fact that they are zooming around the battlefield and getting to do a bunch of fun things, and make tough choices. while combats are slower than 5e, by a long shot, I feel it is more than made up for with how dynamic it all feels.</p><p></p><p>we've gotten to play with some downtime activities (which was mostly earning income, some RP, and a few dice rolls), and Exploration mode. nothing notable, but I do like that there are choices outside of combat that utilize the skills PC's have to assist with dungeon delving and travel. </p><p></p><p>For my little corner of gaming, PF2e has been a great Virtual Tabletop game to play - almost perfectly suited for VTT's (roll20). the only regret I now have is not simply doing my own thing rather than running plaguestone, but that was simply due to not expecting to make it past session 1 and faced with learning the system AND building an adventure or just learning a system and buying a module - I picked Lazy <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>I got interested in wanting to try PF2 as a player as I wanted a bit more choice. I didn't really ever want to run the game because it felt too crunchy for me. I was and still am intimidated as hell with Society play and with the quarantine I figured what the hell. PF has gone from a game where I only wanted to ever play to one that I'm actively trying to figure out how to run more and convert in-progress games over to.</p><p></p><p>Cheers,</p><p></p><p>J.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="JmanTheDM, post: 7987391, member: 6791902"] hey all. long time lurker. just a quick report of my experiences with PF2e. I've now GM'd 3, 4-hour sessions of The Fall of Plaguestone through Roll20 with 5 players. This is the first time I've ever played or GM'd any Pathfinder. I have hundreds of sessions of 5e and other editions of D&D under my belt. we play bi-weekly. of the 5 players, 2 are enthusiastic (notably, character creation options and tactical choices during combat). 2 are meh - neither wowed nor adverse to the game, and 1 is dropping out due to rules confusion (this player and myself are also in an online 5e game, and its his first time playing both PF2 and 5e, and he's spending way to much time just trying to recall and remember rules and differences between the both). I expected a worse reaction TBH. all of my players are (save 1) 5e players, none have any Pathfinder experience and a couple were actively anti-3.5e. I had to sell it pretty hard by highlighting some of the 2e improvements (3 actions, feat pools, char gen options, critical's, etc.). Losing only a single player is IMO, a win. I honestly thought most would be "well, Jman, good game, but this is too reminiscent of 3.5, and I have better things to do with my life than re-live that period of time :) ) myself, I love it. if I could, I'd switch all my Face 2 face games over to Pf2e. I'm still lost as hell to all the rules, conditions, edge cases, and if/then clauses - but for me it feels tight, it feels internally consistent, and for the most part there is a lexicon throughout that once things start permeating through my thick head, I feel will lead to a bunch of AH HA! moments. (though, as an aside, Conditions! My god, how does anyone track this in-game?) Unlike 5e, where I've really only read the PHB once, and glanced at specific rules over the years, PF2e feels more like effort in = effort out, and (at least for the gm) will require work, multiple reads, lots of page flipping and, like, taking notes :). so far, this work has not bothered me but I can certainly empathize with GM's who might not want to put in the work. bottom line, PF2e feels like a niche game to me - really attractive to those players and GM's who want their D&D to be crunchier, with a large heaping of player choice. Those who want a fast, quick to enter, quick to play game, or those who are teaching RPG's, not an ideal first choice. But dare I even say it, those who want to graduate to a more "Advanced" version of D&D, wow! the adventure (Plaguestone) has been universally derided as being boring. I agree. The combats have been tough and fun, and the players especially LOVE the fact that they are zooming around the battlefield and getting to do a bunch of fun things, and make tough choices. while combats are slower than 5e, by a long shot, I feel it is more than made up for with how dynamic it all feels. we've gotten to play with some downtime activities (which was mostly earning income, some RP, and a few dice rolls), and Exploration mode. nothing notable, but I do like that there are choices outside of combat that utilize the skills PC's have to assist with dungeon delving and travel. For my little corner of gaming, PF2e has been a great Virtual Tabletop game to play - almost perfectly suited for VTT's (roll20). the only regret I now have is not simply doing my own thing rather than running plaguestone, but that was simply due to not expecting to make it past session 1 and faced with learning the system AND building an adventure or just learning a system and buying a module - I picked Lazy :) I got interested in wanting to try PF2 as a player as I wanted a bit more choice. I didn't really ever want to run the game because it felt too crunchy for me. I was and still am intimidated as hell with Society play and with the quarantine I figured what the hell. PF has gone from a game where I only wanted to ever play to one that I'm actively trying to figure out how to run more and convert in-progress games over to. Cheers, J. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Pathfinder 2e: Actual Play Experience
Top