I was playing D&D 5e up until January. Then, with the OGL fiasco I decided to try learning Pathfinder 2e. I have been playing through the Beginner Box for that and I like it a lot more than D&D already!
Somewhat similar to you. I’ve mostly played 5e, and am playing in two active campaigns currently. However I purchased foundryVTT recently and am teaching myself Pathfinder 2e so that I can GM my first campaign down the road.
I really like the 3-action economy Pathfinder has, and the way bonuses and penalties work compared to the 5e system. Though there’s so many choices in character creation it can feel a little overwhelming.
It definitely can feel overwhelming, instead of looking at all options I usually just create an idea in my head then do my best to find an archetype that aligns with that option. I also just enjoy browsing archetypes in my free time thinking about potential characters I could build!
making characters is also one of my favourite parts in RPGs lol. I imagine that it will be much more manageable after I’m a few characters in.
Absolutely, I think even opting for rebuilt characters for your first few sessions is good, because sometimes it helps to get into it and actually see what you do and do not like about a particular character. All of which can ultimately lead you to having a better idea of what you really want!
Agreed on it feeling a bit overwhelming at first. I played an intro session during Foundry Con and it was ok with the automation and pre-gen characters but no way I could GM it yet. I somehow missed the Pathfinder Humble Bundle but hope to grab it the next time they do it (seems to happen a few times a year.)
I’m definitely looking into automation and tools in Foundry to make things easier. Luckily there seems to be a good amount of community plugins available for both 5e and Pathfinder. I might do a 5e one-shot first to get some experience using the tool before I move to a new system. I also missed the humble bundle, but good to know it comes around a few times a year!
I’m playing 5e; it’s my first RPG. I’ve wanted to play D&D for most of my life and got a first group together about 6 months ago. Loving it. But I’m very interested in other systems in the future.
PF2e seems great for being similar in style, but having a deep tactical system for combat.
Star Trek Adventurers excites me for giving me a system to be a part of my favourite universe. I’ve always wanted to be in Starfleet!
And on a very different side of the spectrum, Fate seems to be a game that takes all the tactical RPG elements and throws them out, leaving just the juicy roleplay, characters, and world building. I wonder if the absence of any solid system will leave it a little… “vague”… but I think it would appeal to some players.
The other nice thing about PF2e is that Paizo is a much better company than WOTC. I have trouble supporting WOTC after all the awful stuff they’ve done, especially in the last year. Paizo makes the entire system free and open, so you don’t need to pay for or pirate material in order to play like you do with 5e.
Of course, it does help that PF2e feels like a more fun system to me (as a DM). My players seem to like it more too.
I’ve been falling down the indie rabbit hole for the last few years. PbtA has been my poison lately. It’s a massive ecosystem of vastly different, and beautifully unique narritave-first games, all individually designed to evoke strong genre themes, and specific kinds of stories.
I went down the PbtA rabbit hole for a long while as well. So much happens every session!
I do appreciate some of the changes in Blades in the Dark, leading to all the “Forged in the Dark” games though.
Currently playing Pathfinder 2e. I like the system and the lore. Played Scum and Villainy a while back and loved it. My understanding is it’s largely the same as Blades in the Dark. There’s so much freedom to create some really memorable experiences. Our GM for Pathfinder also mentioned Dungeon Crawl Classics. That looks like it could be interesting.
I’ve heard good things about DCC. There’s a YouTuber I like called Bob World Builder who likes it.
Playing in a long running campaign of Savage Worlds, and just this week played a session of Broken Compass.
Most recent game I’ve run was Swords and Wizardry, a 0e D&D retro-clone, for my middle daughter and a friend. So old school, it’s technically older than me (my first games were the “Red Box” (Eril Otus cover) and Pacesetter Chill).
The game I have failed to run the longest is Mutant City Blues from Pelgrane Press. I like the Gumshoe system for being exactly what it is, and the few one shot’s I’ve managed to get out are exactly what it says on the cover.
I’ve played with the same people for more than a decade and in that time we’ve played a TON of stuff. Most recently we’ve played Shield Maidens (which I loved) revisited Midnight for 5th Edition and played classic Werewolf and Vampire 5th.
Flipping between White Box FMAG (an OD&D clone) and Star Trek Adventures. One of my players has asked for a Kids on Brooms campaign, so we flip around a lot. Somewhere in there we’re going to play a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game using the old wonky Palladium system from the 1990s.
Got started with D&D, found Traveller a few years ago and have been obsessed ever since.
Since the OGL stuff I’ve switched my D&D game to Pathfinder and everybody’s loved the switch.
The events of January changed my plans to go back to 5E after playing Fate for a campaign (Star Trek). After ignoring it completely I decided to look at 13th Age, and I liked it. My group are all enjoying it more the 5E as well. It isnt perfect, but it tends to not focus on the things that we all wanted to not focus on, while still staying true to the “D&D” feel. Pathfinder 2E is the other obvious option but most of my group prefer less ‘crunch’ not more. Monster of the Week or Dungeon World are next on our list to try.
Up until recently I had a Hackmaster campaign that lasted 2 years. It was great. What a masterpiece of a game.
I’m playing 5e recently after not playing for many years. I DM a campaign for my kids and another family met online using Foundry VTT and I play on Roll20 with another group met online. I’m really enjoying learning Foundry and expect at some point to move to PF2E but it’s too much new to learn at this point.
The Pathfinder automation in Foundry is bonkers. It does so much work for you, my greatest fear is that I’m not going to know the rules of the system well enough as a GM because I will be relying too much on the automation from Foundry. But IMO that is a good problem to have!
That’s exactly my fear as well. 😅
I play 5e in two campaigns right now, and pathfinder 1e in the third one! My preference is definitely pathfinder, I have yet to try out 2e. I think one of my campaigns is interested in me running the next campaign in pathfinder 1e which is exciting! I have never DMed before so I’ll be using one of the prebuild campaigns on roll20 but I hope it will show them the beauty of pathfinder over 5e!
I’d definitely recommend you check out 2e. I only know Pathfinder 1e by reputation (and by playing the Pathfinder Kingmaker) video game, but it definitely seems like 2e makes a number of big improvements. Good luck with your first time DMing!
Currently, Beyond the Wall and Dungeon World.
I’ll post to hopefully add a little activity to this community.
I’ve played a lot up until recently, life ah finds a way, between a 5 year and a new born and work, I had to step away. Before that though I was running two different play by posts and an active player in another.
My original PBP was using the SW5E system, it was a complete homebrew campaign original called Short Stories as I wanted it to quick campaign. Well 2 and a half years later it turned into the long campaign. Sadly we weren’t able to finish as I had to take an extended break, and I don’t know if I can jump back in. We had 6 active players and over the years I had a total of 11, 5 that came and went.
The second PBP was short lived, I tried running Icewind Dale Rime of the Frostmaiden, but found it more difficult as I didn’t know all the ins and outs of the campaign. Even with the book and several guides I couldn’t keep up with my players. We made it to the second town and then I closed the game. I don’t know if I’ll pick this one back up again.
The game I was a player in, used Armour Astir Advent and it was a blast, there was the DM and one other player and we killed it, there’s so much free form to the RP it made playing by post so much more enjoyable. If I ever start DMing again, this is what I’ll be picking to run.
So there it is, that’s what I’ve been playing, or had been. We stopped around April 18th and part of me misses it, and other part is glad to have less stress in my life as of right now. Once the youngest gets a bit more independent I’ll start a new campaign.
I’m kind of new to TTRPGs, but I’m loving Troika!
Not having friends who already play I need to be the GM, and a system so simple is great
