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One suggestion -- have a session for people just to learn the VTT interface. Run a fake combat, explain the default character sheet, but make it just a computer-only session. Much less frustrating than interrupting the elven queen's romantic poetry with "how do I drag my pet's token on top of...

Going to a number of PF2 conventions and for them, about 30-40 minutes a combat for 5-6 players plus a GM is about normal. Some players are much faster and some are much slower, but it averages it. Some notes: Using the Roll20 character sheets speeds things up by about x2. I used not to use...

Yes, it's a quite nice FATE based system; it adds some crunch to cover superheroic levels of ability that work well, and allow you to build the characters you see in the books. FATE's a good choice because the book series has a significant amount of interpersonal stuff happening, and the FATE...

We have played through Ages of Ashes and are in the middle of Extinction Curse, and playing online we typically get through about three combats a session with an equal amount of non-combat time in 3-4 hours. So about 30 minutes an encounter. Some much faster, some slower, but that's probably the...

From my Dracula Dossier campaign: Session 1 — introduce players to mechanics and have them fight and kill a half-vampire and a Romanian sorceress Session 2 — run short scene where player goes on a date with non-killed Romanian sorceress Session 20-22 — players rescue Romanian sorceress from...

Some systems are not too crunchy, but can easily become so. For example, I played in a sci-fi campaign using FATE, with the fairly minimal BULLDOGS settings. If I wanted to buy and use use a piece of tech, all I had to do was roll the relevant two skills against a standard difficultly Now I’m...

That's my current character; his best skill is Mercantile Lore; he works as a circus "butcher" -- working the stalls and selling trinkets and foodstuffs. It's quite a fun race, even if there seem to be a few too many feats about exactly what you can stuff into your cheek pouches. My wife is...

One way to help clarify definitions is to look at examples. Let's take the game Arkham Horror, and have one player run the rules, bring out the decks and monsters and so on. Let's also say that player also decides that when they draw cards, they'll draw two and choose whichever card is more fun...

#1 Avatars I agree that an RPG has as a core concept the idea of a role -- "avatar" is a more clear testament of this. Adding the word "pure" in front of that seems overly restrictive, given the link explaining what the OP means by "pure" and the statement "if it dies/is destroyed, the player...

"Be Excellent to One Another" is the reference quote. Although I'm a Christian, I prefer it to the golden rule "do to others as you would have them due to you" as it asks you to go beyond equality. But yes, I'm lucky enough to play with people who are willing to compromise for the fun of all...

A somewhat tangential note here: Politically, I think that for small groups (maybe up to about 12 people) anarchy is the best organization; things are decided by consensus and hard rules should be very rare. If one person is against something, it does depend on how strong their feelings are...

Uhh .. no, not saying that at all. I think you might be confusing characters and players here. Sorry if this seems a bit pedantic or basic, but here goes: What I said was "no-one -- GM or player -- gets to run a character that the players would prefer not to have around". This is a statement...

Here are some quotes from this thread (if you cannot access) "My rule of thumb is that a DMPC is there because the DM wants them there. An NPC is there because the players do." "DMPC is a pejorative for an NPC with the party who the DM is trying to get a heroic player experience out of." "DMPCs...

I've played so many years that it's not impossible I have -- but I honestly can't think of one. In general if there's a player decision to be made, I float it at the end of a session, so I have time to prep based on what the players decide. So in the above cases, I'd tell the players that if...

"The party has no choice but to incorporate the GMPC, just like it does any other PC" I think you run a very different game than I then, which may explain my confusion. In my games, no-one -- GM or player -- gets to run a character that the players would prefer not to have around. Our goal is to...

I guess it seems odd to me to work out how you DON'T have GMPCs. Do the players just never make relationships, or is there some kind of artificial game-thing they do? If they need a skill and someone joins them to help, do they then just forget they needed the skill and ditch the guy? I mean...

Not with you on this one. In fact, it's really only D&D v2-3 for which this seems the case. D&D4E was hugely complex, but that wasn't what caused a new edition to come out. 5E doesn't seem -- to me -- to be getting a lot more complexity. Outside of D&D we see long-running lines like Call of...

Yes, absolutely. I agree with @overgeeked that 3-5 works best, but if you have 6 and need to play with that many, I'd just go with it and expect things to be a littler easier. Also agree with the ease of converting older scenarios. I don't even keep mine sorted by edition -- there's too little...

I know the classic view of CoC is that everyone dies in the end as the world is destroyed, but that's because it's fun to do that at one-shots in conventions! Actual campaigns aren't like that at all. I've run several, and they overwhelming are about the heroes facing barely understandable...

Because in PF2 only some enemies/classes get OAs, it means that characters that can get information about the enemy effectively are more useful in combat — once you know an opponent doesn’t have an AO, your movement is free. PF2‘s three action economy also encourages movement; I play a pretty...