I have been playing Pathfinder 2e for the last few years. We just finished a Starfinder campaign, and are starting up a Lancer game in it's place. I've wanted to try Lancer for years, so I'm pretty excited for it! :D
Lancer is on my list to try. I read the rulebook and I appreciate how they pull from a lot of different Mecha sources so it can feel however you like mech stuff best.
Are you playing APs for 2e or something homebrew? I'm a long time 1e veteran who's tables have moved to 2e and we're loving the system so far. I will be GMing Quest for the Frozen Flame for one table but my other hasn't decided on what they want.
Oh man... PLEASE go for Frozen Flame. I ran the first half of book 2 of that campaign while my group was in between games. It's perhaps one of the most coveted experiences I've had yet. I absolutely adore what we did in book 2, and from what I've read, book 1 is just as great. The AP is dripping with flavor, and really embraces its setting. I look forward to the day that I get to experience the whole thing!
I've done a whole bunch of 2e stuff. I've run a couple one shots, I've been running Age of Ashes for 2 groups for about 3 years, I've done some off-the-rails homebrew as a result of player choices in those games, and I'm playing in a 2e conversion of Strange Aeons at the moment.
If you're looking to start a new 2e game, I very much recommend getting all of your players at the table together for session 0 to discuss group buy in and rough character themes. Once you have character themes, only THEN dive into mechanics. Unlike 1e, it's much more difficult to build an objectively garbage character in 2e, which means the system is FAR MORE welcoming to building out an idea. 1e (in all of its glory) was so wrought with pitfalls, that if you tried to build from an idea, you had about a 80% chance you'd end that journey with a garbage character. 2e doesn't do that. It's lovely!
Ive been running 2e since around new year's and playing it since 2020. I mostly have run society scenarios and a conversion of a 5e module. I've got two tables, my PFS table has already chosen quest for the frozen flame. My other table is undecided on what they want to do (they are the furthest from finishing current campaign, so there's time). I have two players that are at both tables, so I don't want to run the same thing for both since they will start the new stuff at different times.
I'm doing ABP and free archetype for Quest of the frozen flame so they can get more flavorful with their characters. We always do a session zero, more so to make sure all the ability/skills are covered and to allow people to have shared back stories if they want it.
I'm getting ready to play 5e with some friends. We were supposed to start last week, but the DM had a migraine and it got postponed. I've only done a one shot before, so this will be my first proper ongoing campaign with progression.
Currently running Age of Ashes for PF2e. It's been great so far. PF2e is my preferred system to GM in as it has rules for everything you can think of, which from a GM's pov is great as I can consistently rule the same in each session or in each campaign we play.
Also play DnD5e pbp on a community discord server and I live play Delta Green (Call of Cthulhu).
There are plenty of systems out there to try and I would suggest trying a few of them. DnD is obviously the most popular, but may not fit the type of world / game you prefer.
2e has quickly become my favorite system to GM. Soooo much easier. I'm running some PFS scenarios and converted curse of Stradh. Will be starting quest for the frozen flame soon.
I GMed a game in 5e from level 1 to 7, fully homebrew. It burnt me out. I never knew if an encounter was going to be easy or deadly, things swing so much if you're not willing to do the math and think ten steps ahead.
I did some GMing for Pathfinder 1e. That's a system I prefer to play in, not GM. Ran curse of the Crimson Throne and the player power creep was making it super easy for my players. I had to modify a bunch to not make it a cakewalk for my little power gamers. Ended up essentially re-writing the last book. So pleased at how much easier 2e is.
How far along are you with AoA? I'm just about to finish book 4 with my crew. I really haven't been drinking the kool-aid with this AP. Book 5 looks decent, and 6 looks fantastic, but MAN it feels like they just forgot to tell the PCs what the actual plot is, throughout like... the entire story.
We're still in book 2. I know what you mean though, Ive added some stuff and changed a few things to make it a little more interesting. I don't think I'd run it again tbh, but I want to see it through even if it kills me lol
I'm going to be running Pathfinder for the first time next weekend, for my step-son's birthday. Got the Beginner's Box and have bee slowly flipping through it in preparation.
Good luck! It's a lot of fun for a simple introduction. It'll only take you a few sessions to complete and get you to level 2. Do you have plans for after that?
I had been building custom setting in 5e for the fam, so if this goes well I'll probably just continue on to Troubles in Otari and graft the entire Otari region onto my setting.
That's a good plan. I think Abomination Vaults is the only other one set in Otari, but that might be too much depending on your step-son's age/maturity level.
Paizo has so much lore out there already, especially for Absalom, the mega-NYC next door to Otari. Plenty to incorporate into your world should you choose to do so.
Yeah, I'll probably be stealing stuff no matter what happens next. I tried to do an entirely custom campaign, but I haven't been able to design towns and dungeons quickly enough to keep up with play. So...
I'm huge into Pathfinder, both because I have a podcast playing it and because they have amazing pre-written adventures. Those are great for me since I don't have any time to homebrew.
Their prewritten adventures (and the amount of work they've put into making it work seamlessly with Foundry) helped me make the switch from 5e. I also didn't have the time to fill in all the gaps that WotC left.
All the D&D drama recently got me looking into new systems for my upcoming homebrew campaign, and now I've aimed full tilt into GURPS. It's a fascinating system, accommodating to any level of crunch you want. You could reasonably run GURPS Ultra -Lite from character sheets the size of index cards, if you want to leave most of the mechanics up to GM improv. Or, you could use the full system with all the rulebooks and sourcebooks to run extremely realistic crunch-heavy play, if you want consistent, modular, play-tested mechanics. Or anything in between, for literally any setting and style you can imagine.
I can't imagine bothering with any other system now.
Dungeons & Dragons 5e. D&D Beyond just make it really easy to do. Previously played Pathfinder and Shadowrun using tools like Hero Lab.
As I've gotten older I really value tools that do a lot of the crunchy rules for us as opposed to having to have a strong knowledge of the books mechanics.
I'm mainly running my own system, Brighter Worlds, which is based on Cairn, Electric Bastionland, and Macchiato Monsters (with plenty of other stuff thrown in). My primary campaign is a big hex crawl in which I have scattered all of the various RPG modules I've purchased and want to run, and my players wander around causing problems and knocking down wizard towers (they have a strange vendetta against wizards).
Because I'm still playtesting the system we often pause the campaign for little 1-3 session games to test out new stuff, or to test my other game Meteor my "I want to play Mothership modules but would rather be using ITO/Cairn mechanics" hack.
My other group is much more scattered and we do one shots of various stuff constantly, most recently I ran a CBR+PNK one shot that was a ton of fun.
Since there's just the two of us right now, my wife and I are playing a co-op Ironsworn. It's been pretty fun but a bit tough at times since you have to think up your own story. The oracles help, but sometimes we get stuck.
We're pretty new to it all so we just chalk it up to inexperience. I'm sure it'll get better.
I assume you mean conversion lol. I joined a Discord server set up for converting old PF1E APs to 2E, and one of their members have published conversions for all of the books
I'm currently playing in a DnD 5e Rime of the frostmaiden campaign, but for the next one we want to switch to Pathfinder 2e. At the moment i'm writing a campaign that could become that PF2 game but i'm not sure if there is a better system for what i have in mind (a single large scale siege in a late medival pseudo-european/HRE setting). Also i kind of want to run the mountain witch and maybe someday i will finish my own cyberpunk/post-cyberpunk system, because I still have not found a cyberpunk game that I actually like.
I have historically played a lot of 5E, but I've been looking to try out Pathfinder for quite a while now. I'm interested to see what happens with the remaster in November.
DMing the Kingmaker adventure path for Pathfinder 1st Edition. Its been great fun, and I thankfully have the kind of players that like the Kingdom Building rules (with Legendary Game's Ultimate Rulership addition) and the overall vibe of ruling a kingdom. In a few more sessions, the party will enter the War of the River Kings and im planning to really kick them in the balls with it. The past few quests have been pretty solid victories for the party, so now im going to start the war with them on their back foot.
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