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<blockquote data-quote="kenada" data-source="post: 8869666" data-attributes="member: 70468">Forgot to touch on this. I agree. This is another area where PF2 is afraid to have a play loop because traditionally there was not one. Other games do this pretty well, though. In Blades in the Dark, there is a downtime phase after every score (i.e., adventure). You can make some decisions, and those can be potentially very impactful for future adventures. Torchbearer has town phase where you can do some stuff to develop your character (and feel forever impoverished as your treasure is all spent on a few more pints of oil for your lantern). My homebrew system splits the difference by defining a “town activity” duration of 1 week, which allows you to recover stress and hp (depending on accommodations) and engage in various activities like crafting, gaining a level, or changing your prepared spells.In Pathfinder 2e’s defense, structured downtime doesn’t work (or is perceived as not working) with APs. There is inevitably a sense of urgency, so how can you spend a few weeks in town doing something? Paizo would really need to commit to writing APs in support of that structure — more location-based than plot driven; but I can’t see their doing that. The plot-driven format is rather popular. I think instead you should get some prescribed downtime after each book to engage downtime activities. For example, finish book 1 and get three cycles of downtime for crafting, etc. Make it explicit what the limit is going to be, and allow the PCs spend resources to get extra activities if they want to do more.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="kenada, post: 8869666, member: 70468"] Forgot to touch on this. I agree. This is another area where PF2 is afraid to have a play loop because traditionally there was not one. Other games do this pretty well, though. In Blades in the Dark, there is a downtime phase after every score (i.e., adventure). You can make some decisions, and those can be potentially very impactful for future adventures. Torchbearer has town phase where you can do some stuff to develop your character (and feel forever impoverished as your treasure is all spent on a few more pints of oil for your lantern). My homebrew system splits the difference by defining a “town activity” duration of 1 week, which allows you to recover stress and hp (depending on accommodations) and engage in various activities like crafting, gaining a level, or changing your prepared spells. In Pathfinder 2e’s defense, structured downtime doesn’t work (or is perceived as not working) with APs. There is inevitably a sense of urgency, so how can you spend a few weeks in town doing something? Paizo would really need to commit to writing APs in support of that structure — more location-based than plot driven; but I can’t see their doing that. The plot-driven format is rather popular. I think instead you should get some prescribed downtime after each book to engage downtime activities. For example, finish book 1 and get three cycles of downtime for crafting, etc. Make it explicit what the limit is going to be, and allow the PCs spend resources to get extra activities if they want to do more. [/QUOTE]

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