I pretty much hang around the Heroic Fantasy genre, and my thoughts on running it are very different from my thought’s on playing it or otherwise. But Pathfinder 2e is definitely my go-to for running. Shit just works. I cannot express how much I appreciate the encounter budget actually being accurate instead of just a vague shoulder shrug like earlier systems.

As far as other genres go… I’ve run Scum and Villainy for sci-fantasy crime dramas, and it wins by doing absolutely nothing! I’m just not enough of a Sci-fi Greg to run more in the genre, heh.

The players won’t care about how pretty you make your maps. Make them functional and ugly, and you’ll save up so much time for other prep.

Whatever you do, don’t mix up who the killer is behind the scenes just because the player guessed it correctly before you wanted them to.

Grizzly McSnarl, this huge, lumbering guy with a bad case of RBF. He never takes a hand off the big-ass knife on his hip. If the players dig a little deeper, they’ll learn he’s an anxious kind of guy who worries too much about every little thing, and coasts on his intimidating looks to deter trouble.

I always maintain that the best oneshot is the one you cobbled together last night. Get a little weird, slap some stuff together, and let the players fly off the rails.

I use Gimp and just hand-draw everything. I’ve learned that players don’t really care too much about maps, so going above and beyond with high quality, ultra detailed stuff is wasted effort unless you derive joy from the creation process.

Resist the urge to run Pathfinder or Dungeons and Dragons. Those systems empower the PCs to fight evil, and win. That power undermines the horror so completely, it may as well just be a coat of paint. You might think “hey, what if I just make the monster too strong to actually fight?” That’s going to lead to a TPK 80% of the time. The other 20% of the time, the spellcaster will pull a wild move you didn’t anticipate and come out on top anyway.

huh. i’ve always solved that problem by polluting the dungeon with glyphs of warding to raise a middle finger to future generations of adventurers hoping to find treasures

smuggled in under the bell ofc

-a nuclear winter!

(i am shook that nobody else swept in to finish the line)

Savage Worlds. They call their fortunate hero inspiration point analogue ‘bennies,’ hehehe.

I imagine Benny from F:NV spinning around and saying “what in the goddamn” every time it comes up

Our group made a little detour back to 3.5 for a short adventure and wow this isn’t even an exaggeration. Wizards start with like, 4 hp

Finished up the last session of my 3-shot intro of Scum and Villainy to my group that usually floats more dungeons and dragons.

Although by the end, the players ultimately weren’t as in love with the system as I am, a good time was had by all. The crew snagged a storm drive for a squeaky-voiced intern at HNN, committed war crimes against a bunch of suits who want to detonate stars for capitalism, and saved the crystalline princess of a galactic empire that was usurped by the current hegemon. It ended with two marriages, a simmering bromance, and a poor mystic jaded by the knowledge of what a projector is.

imagine how different fantasy would be if bilbo was the top variety of burglar.

It’s probably my biggest pain point with the system. I have a buddy who only likes to play magicians. She’s miserable playing 2e because the cool evocative spells she gravitates towards just aren’t the narrow list of reliable, evergreen, and efficient spells that thrive in 2e’s ecosystem.

Ahem. FEAR 3

Me too, my son’s name is Heroism 9!

of course not, I have mirror image up lmao

You can still play it, you know. Those rules didn’t go anywhere.

See, this is why I love my strength build clerics.

I’m outta spell slots, but I’m not outta options.