Pathfinder 2E Exploration, Encounter, Downtime modes
Tony Vargas
Legend
Considering 5e has exploration, encounters, and downtime, and they don't map to the three pillars, that's odd.
Downtime's not the worst newish idea in 5e, though, so good on PF2 for lifting it...
Downtime's not the worst newish idea in 5e, though, so good on PF2 for lifting it...
Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
Honestly, I don't see the connection to 5e's three pillars. Like, I guess "exploration" is the name of one of 5e's pillars, and people often use "combat" and "encounter" interchangeably; but really, you can have exploration encounters and social encounters as well as combat encounters. These three modes absolutely do remind me of 5e, but not because it resembles the three pillars. Rather, because it resembles the modes of play in 5e. Combat, measured in 6-second rounds, exploration, measured in hours and days, and downtime, measured in days and weeks.
Downtime existed long before 5E. It goes back to 1E.
Michael Silverbane
Adventurer
I suspect that the Pathfinder 2 downtime rules will look pretty similar to the downtime rules found in Ultimate Campaign... Updated to be made transparent with the rest of the P2 stuff, of course.
Jefe Bergenstein
Legend
Curious how they'll hope to balance caster vs non-caster contribution on downtime. Casters get to rearrange their superpowers each day to dominate social, recon, information gathering, magic item fabrication, etc without fear of a bunch of encounters being dumped on them. The other chumps get to make a skill check (which the caster also can do).
Aldarc
Legend
Nope. 5E invented everything. Here are other things that Paizo is ripping off from 5e:
* classes
* d20 rolls
* saving throws
* races, such as elves!
* rolling initiative
* the Light spell
* a gold currency
* combat rounds
VisanidethDM
First Post
I like 5E well enough, but I'd be honestly hard pressed to claim it invented anything.
Tony Vargas
Legend
It is very backwards-looking, for the most part, but it does take a new spin, or a slightly more formal/different approach to a few things here and there. The well-liked Advantage/Disadvantage mechanics were present in 4e, as was the consolidation of 3.x's myriad bonuses & loss-of-DEX-bonus mechanics down to 'Combat Advantage.' Nothing new in that sense, but 5e further consolidated those mechanics & bonuses into Advantage, and did the same for penalties with Disadvantage. Similarly, PCs have been doing things when not adventuring, presumably, from the very beginning, and plenty of games have formalized that, or parts of that - 3e did for a few specific things like crafting or spell research, just as 1e had (crafting magic items, anyway) - but 5e's formalization of it as a named resource was "newish" to D&D, even as it happily evoked the feel of the classic game.
PF & 5e are both very backwards-looking projects, they cleave closely to a prior edition of D&D (3.5 and AD&D, respectively) in many ways, and are committed to evoking them. PF cleaves closer in mechanics and player-side experience, 5e closer in softer measures like 'feel' and in DM 'empowerment,' but they're very much kindred spirits in that respect.
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
My only concern is that "encounter" seems intended to encompass both combat and social situations; implying that social interaction rules are going to become somewhat blended in with combat and thus even more mechanics-heavy. This is not a good idea. 
I really like the idea of a "downtime" mode, but I think I'd rather see it as a fourth mode/pillar along with combat, exploration, and [social interaction] - can't think of a good term for the last one - roleplaying?
I really like the idea of a "downtime" mode, but I think I'd rather see it as a fourth mode/pillar along with combat, exploration, and [social interaction] - can't think of a good term for the last one - roleplaying?
