Dead Herring Designs

That is horrific, I love it.

*plays an island* "it is land"

*plays a swamp* "Swemp"

"I ping you for 1", "I have been pung".

* plays a creature with mance* "[creature] has menachaye."

As a director I can use them immediately when designing adventures, as well as immediately make them available to existing PCs. Ancestries on the other hand are only of use when making PCs.

$25 dollars seems more than reasonable for 100 pages of setting.

As a director ancestries don't actually add any value for me, new ancestries are only useful for new PCs. For director facing material: npcs, monsters, dynamic terrain, treasures, kits, challenges, and negotitions are more valuable.

Thank you.

This is gorgeous.

Ah one the true joys of October, seeing you design these vignettes. They're wonderful.

Ah a classic "the card says moops".

Yes! This, this, this. It's a really untapped design space.

Having most if not all invention upgrades have effects that key off your overdrive would be so much more interesting.

I still think that an inventor should be able to spend overdrive to succed the flat check for unstable effects.

Critically it really does put a lot of control into the players' hands. If they want to hit more and miss less they are given the tools to do that if they choose to employ them. They can't eliminate the failure chance but they can massively increase their odds on succeeding and critting.

I think it's more that PF2e is, like DnD 4e, a response to the lessons of 3.5 but PF2e got to see the reaction to 4e and learn from that.

I mean at that point it's moot, some people just aren't satisifable. If they're looking for dark clouds in their silver linings they'll find them no matter the mechanics.

That aside I do find it interesting that both PF2e and DS took on the inherent issues of D20s but went in opposite directions.

I've heard they are oddly competent at calculus.

With tons of casting classes, surely most NPCs have familiarity with spell ranks as a concept if not by name?

Surely most classes are common enough that most NPCs are at least familiar with their concept, likely having met a few that overlap their field? A soldier recognises a Commander or Fighter.

Not mages, spell ranks, the mechanic.

Unless the concept is beyond the monster's comprehension, they could figure the banner out, like they could any other player ability. There are indicators of its importance which are represented mechanically that a decent number of NPCs would understand.

That's mechanically true but surely the concept of a commander and their connection to their banner is as understood in the setting as spell ranks.

There are, after all, NPCs who are effectively a given class just a reduced or streamlined version of one to fit an NPC statblock.

Surely it's going to bowl down to how martial the enemy is?

Do the NPCs not know how a commander's banner works, sure they don't have a rulebook but unless they've never met a Commander or can't comprehend one they'll know the inherent importance of the flag right?

Very much so.

Plus your imagination has no budget.

Are those obviously fantastical? Yes.

But cities exists, people know them, they notice the obviously fantastical elements in them because they are fantastical but don't notice the mundane things that are missing or incorrect because they aren't looking for it, or have no point of reference.

That's very likely.
There does seem to be a genuine blind spot in movies/tv for things like farmland around towns/cities/castles, especailly in common in matte painters.
Also kinda feels self sustaining, since they are often using previous media as reference. LotR missed it so, so did GoT.

I've noticed is that written works e.g. Tolkien/Martin, it's deliberatly fantastical and there are fewer real errors.
In film/tv e.g. LotR/GoT it is a mistake, focus is on spectical simple things are missed e.g. like an armies supplies, or a nations farmlands.

No army in the LotR movies could possible function save the ents or eagles.
There's no logistics to speak of anywhere and, from what we see, only the hobits have discovered agriculture.
I personally find it fascinating what gets missed by designers, especially considering the detail in other places.

It's fantasy isn't the issue but rather what parts are fantastical.
People see dragons and understand to some degree those are fantastical creatures (hello square-cube law) but they don't notice that the castles, armies, and battles etc are too, those appear authentic.

Holy shit!

There's so many of them.

That's so cool.

What paints are those, they're so vivid?

Ugh it's like WotC go out of their way to make things harder for new DMs.

Also looks like some AI art slipped into the title card of the Vladam Affair, might want to check where you sourced it.

Oh 100%

But those aren't the kind of simulation I'm missing, they're fun flavor. From Rome 2 onwards they stripped most of the simulation from both the management and battle systems. IMO really fundamental stuff.

I have issues with Total War's move away from simulation (I think that's the right term). It's not unqiue to Warhammer, Rome 2 and beyond all suffer the same underlying issues IMO.

Visually the game is stunning, the art team knocked it out of the park.

Just a shame the game is so deeply flawed mechanically.

If at first you don't succeed, give up and start shooting till nothing's left.