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The Latest Pathfinder 2e Humble Bundle is up

Paizo seems to do these every few months so it's hardly new, but there are always "new to the Bundle" products that can make these worth picking up even if you bought earlier offerings. This Bundle focuses on Absalom, biggest city in the official setting.

Per usual this bundle includes everything you need to get started. The "Beginner Box" which is basically a tutorial for the system as well as the Core Rulebooks (The latest, Remastered versions) which contain everything you need to play as well as several Lost Omens books to get you up to speed with the official setting.

If you have bought any Pathfinder 2e Bundles previously, There is a lot of content we haven't seen in previous Bundles in the form of Map Folios/Flip Maps and Pathfinder Society Mini Adventures. The big draws are at the $30 level which includes the Agents of Edgewatch Adventure Path, which runs from lvl 1-20 and assumes the PCs are all members of the Absalom City Watch/Police. To support the AP we also get the LO: Absalom book in a bundle for the first time, basically a giant guide (400 pages!) to the giant city. I really can't emphasize enough how enormous the setting book for the city is. It spends 120 pages on prominent local NPCs, with each getting 2-4 paragraphs & that is less than a third of the page count.

If the Adventure Path & City book don't appeal to you the final big draw in this Bundle is the NPC Core. Basically a "monster book" for humanoid intelligent enemies & NPCs. City Guards, Hunters, Bandits, Generals, Court Jesters, Cult Leaders, that sort of thing.

Finally the $45 level includes all the digital content and a Physical hardcover copy of "NPC Core" which is normally $70 all by itself. (But you will need to pay shipping!)

Sadly, no Foundry Modules this time out. The included Adventure Path came out before those were regular products & "Agents" never got one.

Lets break this down:

$5 Level - These are all PDFs!

• Beginner Box
• Player Core
• GM Core
• Core GM Screen
• Map Folio: City of Lost Omens * First time in a Humble Bundle
• Ebook - Lord Penance * First time in a Humble Bundle
• Ebook - Gears of Faith * First time in a Humble Bundle
• Adventure - Little Trouble in Big Absalom (normally free anyway)
• Players Guide - Agents of Edgewatch (normally free anyway) *First time in a Humble Bundle

$15 Level - These are all PDFs!
Everything in the $5 level plus:

• Pathfinder Society mini Adventure - The Broken Scales *First time in a Humble Bundle
• Pathfinder Society mini Adventure - Year of Shattered Sanctuaries *First time in a Humble Bundle
• Pathfinder Society mini Adventure - Struck by Shadows *First time in a Humble Bundle
• Pathfinder Society mini Adventure - Dreams of a Dustbound Isle *First time in a Humble Bundle
• Pathfinder Society mini Adventure - Dacilane Academy's Delightful Disaster *First time in a Humble Bundle
• Pathfinder Society mini Adventure - Mean Streets of Shadow Absalom *First time in a Humble Bundle
• Pathfinder Society mini Adventure - Dacilane Academy's First Great Prank War *First time in a Humble Bundle
• Pathfinder Society mini Adventure - Sewer Dragon Crisis *First time in a Humble Bundle
• Flip Mat: City Sites Multi-Pack *First time in a Humble Bundle
• Flip Mat: Tavern Multi-Pack *First time in a Humble Bundle
• Flip Mat Tiles: Dungeon Starter Set
• Flip Mat: Haunted Dungeons Multi-Pack
• Flip Mat: Bigger Island *First time in a Humble Bundle
• Flip Mat: Pathfinder Lodge *First time in a Humble Bundle
• Flip Mat: Theater *First time in a Humble Bundle
• Flip Mat: Haunted Dungeon *First time in a Humble Bundle

$30 Level - These are all PDFs!
Everything in the $5 and $15 levels plus:

• Monster Core
• NPC Core *First time in a Humble Bundle
• Player Core 2
• Lost Omens Grand Bazaar *First time in a Humble Bundle
• Lost Omens Pathfinder Society Guide
• Lost Omens Absalom: City of Lost Omens *First time in a Humble Bundle
• Adventure Path Agents of Edgewatch Part 1 of 6 *First time in a Humble Bundle
• Adventure Path Agents of Edgewatch Part 2 of 6 *First time in a Humble Bundle
• Adventure Path Agents of Edgewatch Part 3 of 6 *First time in a Humble Bundle
• Adventure Path Agents of Edgewatch Part 4 of 6 *First time in a Humble Bundle
• Adventure Path Agents of Edgewatch Part 5 of 6 *First time in a Humble Bundle
• Adventure Path Agents of Edgewatch Part 6 of 6 *First time in a Humble Bundle
• Pathfinder Society mini Adventure - A Most Wonderous Exchange *First time in a Humble Bundle

$45 Level - This includes a Physical Item
Everything in the $5, $20, and $30 levels plus:

• Pathfinder NPC Core - 240 page Hardcover book, *First time in a Humble Bundle. (But see the shipping warning below!)

FAQ:

• When you purchase the Bundle you will get a code that you enter at https://store.paizo.com/redemption. This will fill your Paizo.com cart with the digital purchases but set the price to $0. You purchase it for $0 and then everything is added to your digital library where you can download it normally.
• WARNING: The $45 price tag doesn't include shipping! Within the US it will only be a few dollars but costs get murderous internationally so be careful if you don't live in North America. If you don't want to deal with that, you will need to stick to the Digital Only levels. The PDF version of the Hardcover book is included at the $30 level.
• Paizo is also running a general sale out of their storefront at the moment. If you add these sale items to the Humble Bundle before checking out you can combine physical products to minimize shipping costs.
• These are all DRM-Free PDFs that will be downloaded direct from Paizo.com. No subscriptions or special viewers needed (you do need a Paizo.com account). Paizo has dropped their earlier practice of watermarking the PDFs with your name & email. These are *completely* DRM free.
• For folks worrying about the remaster, the included "Core Books" all all the currently released remastered core rules. The Adventure Path & many of the mini-adventures are Pre-Remaster 2nd edition content. They are 95% compatible with the Remaster, the main differences are spells & terms that were renamed during the Remaster. It takes very little adjustment to use them with the current rules.
• The various Map books are digital only, consisting of a mix of PDFs and JPG copies of the physical maps Paizo Publishes. You can print them out on your own but most people seem to use them in various VTTs.
• To be completely straightforward, Agents of Edgewatch is not considered one of the better Adventure Paths for 2e. It has some balance and plot issues, but it's main issue is political. It has a plot that more or less requires you to play Police that sometimes work in grey areas of the law. For example, you are expected to confiscate magic items from suspects & then keep them. This got dicey as it dropped *during* the Minneapolis George Floyd riots over Police brutality a few years back. If that isn't a big issue for your group a decent GM can tighten up most of the issues with a bit of homework (many GMs have the department issue level appropriate gear rather than have the PCs effectively loot it from the people they arrest). The basic structure is decent and it's packed with NPCs and encounters that can be lifted for home games. Many consider a below average Paizo adventure to be better than lots of adventures from other companies.

Here is a thread over on r/Pathfinder2e discussing it.

I really wanna run campaigns set in modern day but I can only find narrative systems that do so.

I want a tactical combat system (not super rules heavy ideally) that can plausibly used for a modern day setting. Reskins of existing systems are fine too.

Right now im probably going with savage worlds but ive heard bad things about its combat. I've heard its too swingy and that imo goes against the tactical part of tactical combat

I'm looking for a system that would allow me to emulate the feeling of "Spaghetti Westerns".

Now I feel the need to explain what this actually means, because I see this term being thrown around a lot as if it was synonymous with just "Western" altogether when It's clearly not, because if you saw any Spaghetti Western you can clearly see that they have many stylistic differences with their american counterpart, so much so that one can not (and should not) be mistaken for the other. Despite the name, "Spaghetti Westerns" don't have to be italian because it's definitly a vibe more than anything else, the very american movies "The Quick and the Dead" and "Django Unchained" are clearly hommages to the italian films, I mean the second movie is named fucking DJANGO you can't be more obvious than that.

I don't want to make a whole lecture on cinema history, but I will try to be brief (I will fail at that). "Spaghetti Western" is originally a derogatory term coinned by American Critics, aimed at the movie "For a fistful of Dollars" that was slandered for its lack of realism. Thing that critics missed at the time, is that Sergio Leone wasn't interested in making a realistic movie, for him the American Frontier ought to be depicted in the same way as was Greece in the Illiad or the Oddyssey. A legendarium that is anacrhonistic and mainly a mythical landscape to depict the exploits of larger than life heroes. You can clearly see the influence of Peplums in Sergio Leone's Work, at the end of "For a Few Dollars More", "The Good the bad and the Ugly" and "Once Upon a time in the west" the final battle always takes place within a structure of circular shape, a direct callback to the roman arenas. American Westerns were calmer, more realistic, more grounded ; but then came the Italian Western that decided that the legend would definitly be printed on film and not reality. I think it's the Italian Western more than anything that signals the death of the Old West, because in the public consciouness the historical reality of the American Frontier would be completly overwritten by the Italian Legend.

Now that the context presentation is over, I will present a list of "tropes" that a "Spaghetti Western" would need to respect :

• Weapons are not treated realistically. On the internet it is written that a Colt Single action army has an effective range of 50 meters, which I think is a very charitable measure, in the context of a life or death situation during the 1860s I think it would be half that (Even less if your weapon was in poor condition), but in Spaghetti Westerns it matters very little because a Spaghetti Shootist can potentially hit pretty much anything the eye can see, range doesn't seem to be much of an issue. Also, despite using black powder, guns in Spaghetti Westerns never seem to fail, or explode, and they can even wistand water which is clearly neat! I think the ammo count still matters in these movies, for revolvers at least, but I could be wrong with that.

• Protagonists are badasses and very competent. And don't reckon this needs too much explaining.

• Just like in Pulps, there are mooks that will show up just to provide recreational combat, they aren't really a threat to the protagonists and are here just because we need a fights every so often.

• Contrary to Pulp, getting hit by a single bullet, even in a Spaghetti Western, even when you're the hero, is a pretty big deal (unless you brought a bulletproof vest), at best it will be a debilitating injury that will drag you down for the rest of the movie, and at worst it means death plain and simple. Spaghetti Western protagonists don't get hit often, but it matters when they do, so it should matter for us as well. This will probably be the most diddicult point, because RPG systems where PCs are powerful tend to be also very lenient about the wounds.

That concludes my post, now that you have a pretty good idea of what we need to emulate Spaghetti Western, do you have any suggestions?

I’m about to start a new campaign and I’m stuck choosing between a few PbtA-style fantasy systems:

• Chasing Adventure
• Fellowship 2e
• Fantasy World
• Legend in the Mist

My group is 5 players. 3 of them are completely new to TTRPGs, the other 2 have some experience.

We had a sort of session zero to figure out what people want, and a couple things stood out:

• The newer players like the idea of contributing to the world/story, but they also kinda need me to give them direction
• If things get too open-ended, they get a bit lost
• They’re still figuring out how to roleplay and improvise
• Too many options/abilities/mechanics is a big no

On my end:

• I prefer low-prep and improvising at the table
• I don’t mind taking the lead narratively
• I’d like to slowly get them more comfortable with contributing creatively, but not throw them in the deep end immediately

What I’m trying to figure out is which of these systems hits that balance best. Something that gives enough structure so new players don’t feel lost, but still has that PbtA flexibility.

If you’ve run or played any of these, how do they compare in terms of:

• structure vs shared narrative control
• beginner-friendliness
• how easy they are to run with little prep

Would really appreciate any thoughts or experiences!

Just read this thread. Got me thinking. I am currently spending more time helping a small bunch of teens get into roleplaying than I am actually roleplaying myself, and there seems to be timid interest in the youth of today to dive into TTRPGs, but not a lot of the RPG-curious end up finding stable groups, in my experience. How are things going in the bigger pivture with welcoming fresh blood into the hobby? Do people see a lot of fresh-faced youths being inspired by Stranger Things to try it, and are they sticking around? Are games even tuned into the modern youth, or are we coasting on us old geezers (I just turned 50 and am having serial existential crises)? What are your experiences on the matter, and are there publically available numbers to let us know more??

I love the Wildsea's setting, the playable races, how flexible the "tracks" mechanic is, the salvage and crafting, and even the way health is tracked. Basically everything about the system is fantastic... except that when it comes time to actually set sail on the awesome chainsaw ships on your way to the giant mutated badger, the sailing mechanics weirdly are kind of...boring? A few players roll some dice to see what might be around, but with no way to influence the roll or anything it feels like the GM might as well have just rolled themselves. It seems like the only player that has any decisions to make during the travel is how fast the ship goes and even then that didn't seem to influence much in the session I ran. I feel like I've got to be missing something because in a game about sailing on ships made of chainsaws it seems strange that we all just wanted to skip past the chainsaw ship sailing, especially when everything else seems so full of fun and flavor and interesting, open-ended decision making. Any advice on what I might be doing wrong/how to make this aspect more engaging?

I find myself semi decent at world building but where I struggle, is using the world I have in my head to create a narrative for my players, especially with individual adventures or even story chapters/story arcs/acts.

I guess I'm more of a top-down kind of person and I'd love some advice on campaign/narrative structure

should I be looking to model the overarching campaign using narrative tools like the hero's journey? and what about designing adventures and story arcs within an overarching campaign?

The streams are crossing, I think it's neat how the game has found its target audience.

idk if you are interested, but it might be a different perspective on ttrpg actual plays

https://youtu.be/7-Wu7bO-JQY?si=6emfklkifUv60-9r

What methods do you employ to achieve exciting, fast-paced combats? What games do you consider best at achieving that? If you’re modding an existing system, what changes are you making? Our 5e & Pathfinder group has started experimenting with auto-hit mechanics. I’m still not sold on it. While it does speed up combat, I feel like it reduces some strategic elements. Sometimes a miss can be exciting, depending on when it occurs.

This is specifically about how exploring works. Hexcrawl, random encounter, etc. Do you like how the roll works, how much the player is involved, etc.

Bonus points if it does not involve Hexes, but totally okay if that’s your favorite, I’ve just seen that more.

I haven’t gotten a ton of experience yet but I like how Wildsea combines the random topic, a separate random amount of threat, and the opportunity for the player to spend some resources to skip the randomness.

I've eyed Barbarians of Lemuria for a while. It was recommended again yesterday in the Conan thread.

I think last time I didn't buy it because a new edition by Ludospherik was about to come out. It seems like it is now.

So, from my understanding, the two biggest contenders right now are the Mythic edition, and the newer Mythic+ edition.

I'd like some insight from experienced BoL players/GMs:

• What do you think of the new Mythic+ edition?
• How different are the two editions? And in what way do they differ the most?
• Which one is your choice to play?