Let’s start with a bit of background. My group has (more or less) played Pathfinder since 2010. We started with (and finished) Kingmaker then moved on to other APs and adventures. We did take a break for a while to try out Fate, and after one last PF1 campaign, we did Open Legend and 5e. I’ve been running a sandbox hexcrawl Pathfinder 2e game for the last year or so (since release). Those who frequent the Pathfinder forum here and have seen my posts know I’m burnt out on it. My style is already heavily informed by e.g., the Alexandria and Grognardia, so I wanted to pitch my group on switching over to OSE. We’d done a conversion of Winter’s Daughter to PF2, and this week we finally gave OSE proper a try.
I wasn’t sure how my group would react to it. Most of them have played AD&D, though only a few seem to really recall it. Those who do still remembered getting ganked due to not having many HP or rolling bad at HP, or just didn’t have a positive impression of the pre-3e D&D. I wasn’t sure how people would feel about the customization or tactics (or lack thereof). I’m pretty pleased to say that the response was very positive. Character creation took a while, but that’s because we’re using a VTT (Foundry), and that just slows people down (especially when only a few had downloaded the basic rules, and only I had the advanced fantasy genre rules).
I wanted to keep things mostly by the book, so we could see how OSE worked for us. The only house rules I used were max HP at 1st level, and rolling 3d6 seven times in order (dropping the lowest). If we go forward with switching, I think we’ll use the card method (334455677899) in order instead of rolling. No one got really great characters, but there were a few rerolls due to “sub-par” characters. The card method is already popular with the group, and it gives characters with rough parity. Other than that, the only other changes I made was to incorporate some stuff from the advanced fantasy genre book: advanced classes, separate rates, and some of the advanced rules. Of the advanced rules, I avoided anything that added more work or limitations just to be more like AD&D (so no limits on turning undead, learning spells from scrolls, or weapon proficiency). Edit: And we used AAC.
Overall, I think it went pretty well. As a GM, I was very happy with it. I was already pulling things from OSE into my PF2 game, but not having the system get in my way was a welcome change. For example, when I was working on the adventure, I could add a trap and not have to worry about needing a bunch of stats for it. Converting the otyugh over was trivial. I loved it. There were a few things I wasn’t sure about or missed at first, but when I wasn’t sure, having players roll a d6 with a 1-in-6 chance usually seemed like the right thing. As we went along, it got even smoother. (I had hoped to put together a cheat sheet, but I ran out of time before the session.) My players said they had fun, and one of the skeptics said his impression was positive (which I felt was notable).
One of my favorite parts was the players were actually worried about being careful. When I converted Winter’s Daughter to PF2, I similarly didn’t tune it to the PCs. The cultists in the beginning were level 5 while all the PCs were level 1. Even though we were using the Proficiency Without Level variant in PF2, that’s still a rough fight (particularly for my group, which is bad at tactics). My players immediately expected they would be starting a fight as soon as they encountered the situation. Fortunately, the bard was able to trick the cultists into leaving, so we avoided a probable death (or even TPK). In OSE, they were always careful because they were so afraid of dying (even starting with max HP). I’d said things up so that it wasn’t too difficult for them to sneak around (I figured the ghouls were used to people with torches due to some of the guests they had), and the one encounter we did have ended in parley rather than fighting.
Before concluding, I will say there was one complaint about not having much to do at 1st level. My response is that seemed like it wouldn’t matter as much if the adventures weren’t just about fighting all the time. I got some agreement, but I’m not sure it was agreement. I think this is something we’ll need to discuss further. I’m really hesitant to consider adding anything that provides more options just for the sake of having more options. We’re switching away from a system that has tons of options, and my players don’t take advantage of them. There is very little tactical play, and no one is the group is really a character builder. One of my reasons for switching is that I don’t want to put up with more complexity when it’s more of an aesthetic thing than something that contributes something to the game.
Due to the nature of time and how one-shots never stay confined to a single session, we’re going to be finishing up the adventure next session. After that, we’ll have a post mortem and talk about what our plans are next. I’ve already indicated that PF2 isn’t on the table, so if it’s not OSE, then it’s likely with a heavy OSE influence or something else. I hope it’s OSE though. The system is lovely to interact with and run. Even without my cheat sheets, I was able to run with the OSE book open to the right pages, and everything was laid out nicely for me. Even if that’s good enough for running, I may still make a cheat sheet just as a way to further familiarize with the system.
I wasn’t sure how my group would react to it. Most of them have played AD&D, though only a few seem to really recall it. Those who do still remembered getting ganked due to not having many HP or rolling bad at HP, or just didn’t have a positive impression of the pre-3e D&D. I wasn’t sure how people would feel about the customization or tactics (or lack thereof). I’m pretty pleased to say that the response was very positive. Character creation took a while, but that’s because we’re using a VTT (Foundry), and that just slows people down (especially when only a few had downloaded the basic rules, and only I had the advanced fantasy genre rules).
I wanted to keep things mostly by the book, so we could see how OSE worked for us. The only house rules I used were max HP at 1st level, and rolling 3d6 seven times in order (dropping the lowest). If we go forward with switching, I think we’ll use the card method (334455677899) in order instead of rolling. No one got really great characters, but there were a few rerolls due to “sub-par” characters. The card method is already popular with the group, and it gives characters with rough parity. Other than that, the only other changes I made was to incorporate some stuff from the advanced fantasy genre book: advanced classes, separate rates, and some of the advanced rules. Of the advanced rules, I avoided anything that added more work or limitations just to be more like AD&D (so no limits on turning undead, learning spells from scrolls, or weapon proficiency). Edit: And we used AAC.
Overall, I think it went pretty well. As a GM, I was very happy with it. I was already pulling things from OSE into my PF2 game, but not having the system get in my way was a welcome change. For example, when I was working on the adventure, I could add a trap and not have to worry about needing a bunch of stats for it. Converting the otyugh over was trivial. I loved it. There were a few things I wasn’t sure about or missed at first, but when I wasn’t sure, having players roll a d6 with a 1-in-6 chance usually seemed like the right thing. As we went along, it got even smoother. (I had hoped to put together a cheat sheet, but I ran out of time before the session.) My players said they had fun, and one of the skeptics said his impression was positive (which I felt was notable).
One of my favorite parts was the players were actually worried about being careful. When I converted Winter’s Daughter to PF2, I similarly didn’t tune it to the PCs. The cultists in the beginning were level 5 while all the PCs were level 1. Even though we were using the Proficiency Without Level variant in PF2, that’s still a rough fight (particularly for my group, which is bad at tactics). My players immediately expected they would be starting a fight as soon as they encountered the situation. Fortunately, the bard was able to trick the cultists into leaving, so we avoided a probable death (or even TPK). In OSE, they were always careful because they were so afraid of dying (even starting with max HP). I’d said things up so that it wasn’t too difficult for them to sneak around (I figured the ghouls were used to people with torches due to some of the guests they had), and the one encounter we did have ended in parley rather than fighting.
Before concluding, I will say there was one complaint about not having much to do at 1st level. My response is that seemed like it wouldn’t matter as much if the adventures weren’t just about fighting all the time. I got some agreement, but I’m not sure it was agreement. I think this is something we’ll need to discuss further. I’m really hesitant to consider adding anything that provides more options just for the sake of having more options. We’re switching away from a system that has tons of options, and my players don’t take advantage of them. There is very little tactical play, and no one is the group is really a character builder. One of my reasons for switching is that I don’t want to put up with more complexity when it’s more of an aesthetic thing than something that contributes something to the game.
Due to the nature of time and how one-shots never stay confined to a single session, we’re going to be finishing up the adventure next session. After that, we’ll have a post mortem and talk about what our plans are next. I’ve already indicated that PF2 isn’t on the table, so if it’s not OSE, then it’s likely with a heavy OSE influence or something else. I hope it’s OSE though. The system is lovely to interact with and run. Even without my cheat sheets, I was able to run with the OSE book open to the right pages, and everything was laid out nicely for me. Even if that’s good enough for running, I may still make a cheat sheet just as a way to further familiarize with the system.
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