Pathfinder 2E PF2e House Rules:

[Mycroft]

Not all Medium creatures are the same size so we like the variability. I would let players choose a a number within the range based on a concept, but generally we roll the size and when coupled with the Str score it tells us something about the Character. For example: If I rolled a 6 (above average) for size but only 10 for Strength (average), I know my character is a little portly

Ah, that's very interesting, more randomness in character creation.

 

[zztong]

Wow, I had no idea that was where it started (Starfinder also uses Stamina), thanks for that.

DragonQuest (1980) was the first system I encountered that had two health indicators. (I don't know that it was the first ever.) Champions followed it a year later (1981). I still have a special place in my heart for DragonQuest in that I liked its melee combat, weapons, and armor systems and that it was a class-less system. Sadly, its magic system blew chunks. Nobody would ever run it today because of the magic system, though I've thought of using it for historical games.

Its skill system was insightful at the time, mostly because it was one of the first games to have a skill system. You could maybe claim to see a glimmer of it in PF2's goal of making higher proficiency levels act as a gate-keeper for certain abilities. PF2 is more modern. DQ I think had better gates.

 

[Mycroft]

DragonQuest (1980) was the first system I encountered that had two health indicators. (I don't know that it was the first ever.) Champions followed it a year later (1981). I still have a special place in my heart for DragonQuest in that I liked its melee combat, weapons, and armor systems and that it was a class-less system. Sadly, its magic system blew chunks. Nobody would ever run it today because of the magic system, though I've thought of using it for historical games.

Its skill system was insightful at the time, mostly because it was one of the first games to have a skill system. You could maybe claim to see a glimmer of it in PF2's goal of making higher proficiency levels act as a gate-keeper for certain abilities. PF2 is more modern. DQ I think had better gates.

Okay, I am going to have to get a hold of this, sounds very cool and interesting, also sounds important for my collection.

 

[zztong]

Okay, I am going to have to get a hold of this, sounds very cool and interesting, also sounds important for my collection.

Its essentially a collector's item these days, but you might find a PDF somewhere illegal. Honestly, I'm sure the original developer would just love that somebody was even just looking at the rules. Hmm, could it be old enough to be in the public domain? No idea.

There are 3 versions, IIRC.

1st edition was a boxed set by SPI.
2nd edition was a white hard-cover book by SPI.
3rd edition was a bluish soft-cover book by TSR.

The difference between 1st and 2nd was they simplified the action system and ditched a system where you spent action points.

The difference between 2nd and 3rd was that TSR couldn't bear to have a College of Black Magic and a College of Greater Summoning in a game they produced. Devil worship? TSR? Uh, no. They replaced them with two other colleges of magic.

 

[Mycroft]

Its essentially a collector's item these days, but you might find a PDF somewhere illegal.

I will look for an original, to add to my gems!

 

[zztong]

I will look for an original, to add to my gems!

As long as you don't end up cursing me because you spent $80 on a 40-year old game that I fondly remember. Browsing a PDF might eliminate the "that guy is nuts" result.

 

[Mycroft]

As long as you don't end up cursing me because you spent $80 on a 40-year old game that I fondly remember. Browsing a PDF might eliminate the "that guy is nuts" result.

Ha, not a chance, I have always wanted a copy, check it out, just never have.

 

[zztong]

We played PF2 last night with stock rules. The GM was just back from GenCon where he played a mix of PF2 and 5e. (We've not played a lot of 5e, and he was checking out organized play for both games.)

One thing he's considering doing is dropping the iterative attack penalties. He views that as slowing down the game.

He also enjoyed a PF2 game (organized play) where Hero Points were handed out rather liberally. I think he said "once an hour" plus any time somebody did something moderately notable. I gather players in that game went through 6-8 Hero Points in a 4-hour session. Apparently they were even able to spend their Hero Points on behalf of other players and NPCs. We'll see how that goes. I don't personally care for Hero Point systems.

 

[dave2008]

One thing he's considering doing is dropping the iterative attack penalties. He views that as slowing down the game.

I've thought about doing that as well, or at least doing it for fighters.

 

[kenada]

Other than completely replacing all of the core races for my homebrew setting, I’ll be tweaking how XP is rewarded. In my 5e game, we pick from a set of goals to complete each session and also write down individual goals. At the end, the players decide by consensus whether and which goals they completed, gaining XP accordingly. In PF2, I’ll be making all group goals always available, and the group will use them to decide their accomplishments (including size) for the session. The except is the goal for “Defeat a notorious monster”, which I will handle as the average of all combat XP from the session because I don’t want combat to reward more than accomplishments.

Really, the big change is how XP is determined. As a GM, I don’t like deciding whether someone should get XP for an accomplishment. I’ve played in my share of games where I thought I completed my goal or obsession, but the GM/ST did not, and that sucks a lot of fun out of things.