Kichae

For those that don't know, Narrative Declaration is a comedy actual play troupe that deals deals primarily in Pathfinder 2e. Fronted by Zoran the Bear, a VTuber who formerly worked as Paizo's social media manager, and Thursdon Hillman, the creative director of Starfinder 2e, they've produced several actual play series in recent years, most notably Rotgrind.

A couple of years ago, they expanded, and started a couple of other shows: Rotgoons, which is set in the same world as Rotgrind (a homebrew setting called Tyne), which recently went on hiatus, and Abomination Vaults, which attempted to do the Beginner's Box -> Abomination Vaults arc.

Abomination Vaults only lasted 16 or 17 episodes, but it was my personal entry point into the NarDec world. I came across it while preparing to run the Beginner's Box for my family back in 2023, and got hooked on the series juuuuuust as it was coming to an end. As disappointing as that was, at least there was the finale to look forward to, right?

Well, part 1 of that finale finally dropped this week, and I'm super excited about it. It only took, like, a year and a half, but it's up, and the series will finally be publicly available in full. And since Friday is the day where I, apparently, just publicly shill for things I find interesting, like a the good consumer that I am, I thought I'd share it here.

The episode starts with an explanation from Zoran as to why the series ended -- financial pressures around the cost to produce the series, and it's lagging performance, as well as Zoran feeling like he wasn't GMing well enough -- and a question: Now that Narrative Declaration is on more financially stable footing, would people want to see the series rebooted, or the original cast come back.

Check it out, and see if you'd like to see them try again. Also, check out their more recent Kingmaker campaign to see how the show quality has evolved over time, and to get an idea of what a new AP-based campaign might look like. They've paywalled Kingmaker behind Patreon, but the first episode is currently available for free on YouTube, and they're supposed to be releasing episodes 2 - 5 there over the month of December.

Or check out their Warhammer 40k Wrath and Glory mini-campaign, where they're playing the Grim Harvest scenario from Litanies of the Lost, which is what they're currently doing between Rotgrind seasons.

In a 20 minute Twitch stream (linked in the title), Paizo announced two new classes being play tested starting next week:

The Runesmith

A slotless support caster/"melee magician" that invokes both passive and active "spell" effects by drawing runes on everything.

The Necromancer

A prepared Occult caster that summons undead "thralls" to do their bidding. Thralls sound like they are cheap, disposable summons intended to be utilized as an encounter resource.

We should get our hands on the playtest resources on 9 December. As someone who's gone from playing a Champion to a Guardian, I'm pretty pumped to have another melee support class. There's been an embarrassment of riches this year for support players who don't want to use spells! It's kind of giving me WoW Shaman vibes (which, of course, was my WoW class).

So, I'm running the original 3e version of Forge of Fury, and my players are about to meet Idalla, the succubus. In the 3e version of the dungeon, Idalla is bound to the room, and just wants to leave. If she's attacked by a Good aligned character, she is free to leave... for some reason. Or, if she's granted permission from a Good aligned character, she's also free to leave.

I'm not at all sure how to run this. I foresee her explaining to the party that she's been magically bound to the room, and that the spell is broken just by giving permission, and then the party just... does. And she teleports away.

That seems totally pointless.

I really like the idea of there being a powerful being trapped in this room, though. It serves my purpose to have some sort of unexpected guardian in this space, and a filter that allows Good aligned characters through is really convenient in its own right.

Clearly, the solution is how I play the character, then, but I just cannot get myself inside her head. How do I make this interesting, and last longer than a single back-and-forth verbal exchange? The module gives her only real goal as being to leave, and I don't have a reasonable, interesting alternative.

Have you run this module before? How have you handled Idalla?

u/AAABattery03's tackling the oft-repeated claim that Pathfinder 2e casters are just cheerleaders for martials. This is something's argued about rather strongly over the past few months on Reddit, and it's a particular pet peeve of mine. While there are perception issues with casting in the game -- which I, personally, believe are a combination of poorly thought out wording around how spells are written, and an abundant sense of entitlement from your average enthusiast -- it's been shown repeatedly that, when played, right, they out perform casters.

This video is basically a distillation of his comments on the subject from the past year or so on Reddit.

The start of December is bringing a small flurry of Kickstarter campaign finales, as writers/publishers rush to get PDFs and Print-on-Demand titles into peoples hands before the 24th.

Fall of Rivenhelm seems interesting just for who the publisher is: Cawood Publishing, the team behind fairly high profile bestiaries like the Monsters of Feyland, Monsters of the Dungeon, and the Monsters of the Underworld. Most of their books are D&D 5e specific, but their adventures include conversion tables.

Not a whole lot new, though, this past week, and the 'coming soon' selection's mighty thin. Everyone who could get their campaign running before the holidays has done so. I imagine those who wouldn't are waiting until the new year.

New This Week

Plug & Play Dungeons Vol. 4

• Inspired by the Shadowdark Lost Citadel of the Scarlet Minotaur dungeon, this book contains 5+ dungeons with a focus on lived-in spaces inhabited by multiple factions. Each faction is intended to have its own motives, wants, and goals.

  Systems: D&D 5e, Pathfinder, Shadowdark, OSR, and more

  Launched: 22 November

  Closes: 22 December

Ending This Week

GM's Toolbox 2

• Adventure seeds, hazard ideas, name generators, NPCs, factions, and a bevy of other system-agnostic GM tools

  Systems: System Neutral

  Launched: 1 November

  Closes: 1 December

  Funded: Yes

The Practical Guide to Becoming a Great Player

• A guide to character creation, system interpretation, and roleplaying by YouTuber Guy Sclanders.

  Systems: System Neutral

  Launched: 4 November

  Closes: 4 December

  Funded: Yes

A Lifetime of Adventure: 66 Adventures for Fantasy RPGs

• Mix and match from Frog God and Necromancer Games' past adventures. Includes 5e, OSR, C&C, DCC, OSE, and system neutral modules.

  Systems: A mix of D&D 5e, DCC, OSE, OSR, C&C, System Neutral

  Launched: 1 November

  Closes: 5 December

  Funded: Yes

Tapestry of Towns: A Game Master's Compendium

• 20+ richly detailed fantasy settlements with maps, NPCs, and plot seeds

  Systems: System Neutral

  Launched: 31 October

  Closes: 6 December

  Funded: Yes

The Fall of Rivenhelm

• An adventure module set in the world of Myrr featuring low, mid, and high level scaling, new monsters, new magic items, and more.

  Systems: D&D 5e, Pathfinder 1e, Pathfinder 2e, DCC, and OSE

  Launched: 7 November

  Closes: 6 December

  Funded: No (but almost!)

Legendary Bestiaries: SWARMS!

• A monster book from Legendary Games that focuses on Swarm-type monsters. The Kickstarter also offers backers the option to 'catch up' on some of their previously released bestiaries.

  Systems: Pathfinder 1e, Pathfinder 2e, Black Flag RPG, and D&D 5e

  Launched: 13 November

  Closes: 6 December

  Funded: Yes

Hello! I'm new to Linux, and using Plasma 6.2, and I'm finding the Application Launcher incredibly finicky to work with. The primary issue is that the category changes on cursor pass-over, and so ends up requiring some surprisingly precise mouse or touch-pad movements to avoid changing the selected category.

Is there a way to change this behaviour? Digging through various settings panels hasn't unearthed an obvious toggle or set of options, and Google hasn't unearthed the secret either. I'm starting to lose hope on this front.

Am I missing something obvious? Is there a way to make it so the category only changes after a hover of some appreciable amount of time? Or even a click?

I spent some time this week throwing together a more formalized list of Kickstarters I'm watching. There are several interesting system-neutral ones in flight, but in terms of what's new or outgoing, it's an uneventful week, with only one campaign to highlight.

Next week should be more interesting, as there's a handful of campaigns ending during the first week of December. -- K

Coming to an End

Coming up in the next week, we have one Kickstarter closing:

The Tome of Umbral Lore

• A book focused on the biology, sociology, and lore of the undead to aide GMs with world building.

  Systems: System Neutral

  Launched: 29 October

  Closes: 28 November

Other Campaigns

There was also one system-neutral campaign that's in flight, and that I didn't notice last week:

Tapestry of Towns: A Game Master's Compendium

• 20+ richly detailed fantasy settlements with maps, NPCs, and plot seeds

  Systems: System Neutral

  Launched: 31 October

  Closes: 6 December

I spend more time browsing Kickstarter than I probably should -- I apparently have an addiction to monster books -- I've found myself throwing up more random KS related posts than I'm comfortable with. But, I like supporting writers and developers who are supporting the game (and giving me my fix), so I thought I'd start doing this as more of a weekly digest.

New This Week

Legendary Bestiaries: SWARMS!

• A monster book from Legendary Games that focuses on Swarm-type monsters. The Kickstarter also offers backers the option to 'catch up' on some of their previously released bestiaries.

  Systems: Pathfinder 1e, Pathfinder 2e, Black Flag RPG, and D&D 5e

  Closes: 6 December

BattleZoo Ancestries: Year of Titans

• A book focused on providing players with new character options, focused on large (and larger?) ancestries.

  Systems: Pathfinder 2e, D&D 5e

  Closes: 13 December

Coming to an End

Figgy Pudding Steals Christmas

• A Christmas themed adventure module where players have to investigate a very Grinch-like set of circumstances.

  Systems: Pathfinder 2e, Shadowdark, and D&D 5e

  Closes: 19 November

Others

GM's Toolbox 2

• Adventure seeds, hazard ideas, name generators, NPCs, factions, and a bevy of other system-agnostic GM tools

  Systems: System Neutral

  Closes: 1 December

The Tome of Umbral Lore

• A book focused on the biology, sociology, and lore of the undead to aide GMs with world building.

  Systems: System Neutral

  Closes: 28 November

Since I'm shilling for people anyway, I thought I'd give a shout out to one of my favourite PF2e actual plays, Mortals & Portals. They dropped S02E19 this morning, and I'll be listening to it tonight on my long drive down to my folks house.

M&P is a podcast style actual play with high production values and (relatively) short episode lengths (clocking in around 45 - 60 minutes), set in a homebrew world. They're not super uptight about the rules or anything, and just do what they need to to keep the game flowing. It's a lot of fun.

Huge trove of 2e content up on Humble Bundle now, including Player Core and GM Core. Here's a rundown of what's included, cobbled together from some work done by people on Reddit, and some additional legwork of my own:

New to Humble Bundle

• Pathfinder 2e GM Core
• Pathfinder 2e Player Core
• Community Use Package: Pathfinder 2e Remaster Iconics Pregenerated Characters
• Pathfinder 2e Adventure Path #175: Broken Tusk Moon (Quest for the Frozen Flame 1 of 3)
• Pathfinder 2e Adventure Path #176: Lost Mammoth Valley (Quest for the Frozen Flame 2 of 3)
• Pathfinder 2e Adventure Path #177: Burning Tundra (Quest for the Frozen Flame 3 of 3)
• Pathfinder 2e Adventure Path #190: The Choosing (Stolen Fate 1 of 3)
• Pathfinder 2e Adventure Path #191: The Destiny War (Stolen Fate 2 of 3)
• Pathfinder 2e Adventure Path #192: Worst of All Possible Worlds (Stolen Fate 3 of 3)
• Pathfinder 2e Adventure Path: Quest for the Frozen Flame Player's Guide
• Pathfinder 2e Adventure Path: Stolen Fate Player's Guide
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: Darklands
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: Deep Forest
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: Dungeon
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: Pathfinder Lodge
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: Prison
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: Red Light District
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: Tavern Multi-Pack
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: Twisted Caverns
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Bigger Pirate Ship
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Elemental Planes Multi-Pack
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Haunted Dungeons Multi-Pack
• Pathfinder Flip-Tiles: Darklands Starter Set
• Pathfinder Flip-Tiles: Dungeon Perils Expansion
• Pathfinder Flip-Tiles: Urban Perils Expansion
• Pathfinder Flip-Tiles: Urban Starter Set
• Pathfinder 2e Harrow Deck
• Pathfinder 2e Lost Omens: Pathfinder Society Guide
• Pathfinder 2e Quest (Series 2) #14: The Swordlord’s Challenge
• Pathfinder 2e Quest (Series 2) #15: In the Footsteps of Horror
• Pathfinder 2e Quest (Series 2) #16: The Winter Queen's Dollhouse
• Pathfinder Society Intro: Year of Shattered Sanctuaries
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-02: The East Hill Haunting
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-04: The Devil-Wrought Disappearance
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-05: Inheritor's Rite
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-06: Struck by Shadows
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-07: The Locked Lodge
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-08: Foundation's Price
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-09: The Secluded Siege
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-10: Delve the Pallid Depths
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-11: No Time for Treason
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-12: Fury's Toll
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-13: Guardian's Covenant
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-14: The Tomb Between Worlds
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-15: Cavern of the Sundered Song
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-16: Escape from Oppara
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-17: Dreams of a Dustbound Isle
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-18: Dacilane Academy's Delightful Disaster
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-19: Mean Streets of Shadow Absalom

Available in Previous Humble Bundles

• Pathfinder Core GM Screen
• Pathfinder 2e Beginner Box (Remastered Edition)
• Pathfinder 2e Bestiary
• Pathfinder 2e Bestiary 2
• Pathfinder 2e Bestiary 3
• Pathfinder 2e Character Sheet Pack
• Pathfinder 2e Lost Omens: Monsters of Myth
• Pathfinder 2e Lost Omens: World Guide
• Pathfinder 2e Lost Omens: Character Guide
• Pathfinder 2e Lost Omens: Ancestry Guide
• Pathfinder Flip-Tiles: Dungeon Starter Set
• Pathfinder Flip-Tiles: Dungeon Vaults Expansion
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Dungeon Multi-Pack
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Bigger Island
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat: City Sites Multi-Pack
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Ambush Sites Multi-Pack
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Haunted House
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Forest Multi-Pack
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Shipwrecks
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: Village Square
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: Arcane Library
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: Museum

Mathfinder -- a math and statistics focused Pathfinder 2e Youtube channel from Redditor u/AAABattery03 -- celebrates 1000 subscribers by giving us some tools to identify poorly thought out or overly general character optimization advice. It's a good watch! Highly recommend Triple A's posts and videos!

u/SillyKenu over on Reddit posted a straw poll this morning asking what everyone's favourite class was. Just in case Lemmy wanted to weigh in, I thought I'd pass it along.

Personally, I'm playing a Guardian (and am really happy with it), but since test classes weren't listed, I chose Oracle. My SO is playing an Oracle, and rework from PC2 has made her so much happier with it, I can't help but love it.

Reddit doesn't allow enough options so found here: https://strawpoll.com/NPgxe850rZ2

Over the past half a year a ton of classes have changed with the remaster, and new classes/options have been added by the truck load. So why not? lets do the Classic discussion thread:what's your fav!