Congrats to OP on surviving getting thrown off a cliff.

Are you are suggesting Blades in the Dark is some kind of derivative of D&D? If so, that is a very hot take. And even if you like 5e, imo, Pathfinder 2e is right there doing the same thing but better.

Personally, I loved the random NPC affinity results in the first game. Then again, I always wind up with the Queen as my beloved and not like… a child, or the blacksmith.

Some people would have laughed you out of the room. A lot of people, myself included, warned that this was the kind of shit we’d spiral into with these microtransactions. It was basically confirmed within a year or two with the absolutely insane amount of money mobile gaming was seeing where the base product was just addictive crap with as many microtransactions shoveled in as possible. These games just completely blew the revenue of actual AAA titles would out of the water. It was basically inevitable and we’re now in a situation where we’ve got a generation of consumers raised on this trash.

It is truly a blessing for the times I torture my players with a 4 hour boss fight which was, of course, preceded by 1.5 hours of them being indecisive at the magic shop.

Having run and participated in a few multi-year games with busy adults with children, my absolutely unsolicited advice for anyone wondering how to do the same is the following:

1. Run the game online. I still like in-person better but you cannot underestimate how much logistical burden is removed by allowing folks to log in and jump on mic/video. I recommend FoundrtVTT - no subscription and it has support for a ton of different systems, particular shout out for the masterpiece that is it’s PF2e support.

2. Get more players. This seems counter-intuitive since that is more points of scheduling conflict. However, what you do if you want to run a 4-person game is get like 6 players. If at least 3 or 4 can make it, have the game. The PCs whose players can’t make it just fade into the background and can reappear next session. Sounds weird but it keeps things moving. You’ll get a feel for balancing encounters based on who shows up the most and will get better at that.

3. Run shorter sessions. I feel like I see a lot of posts about people running 4+ hour sessions and when we do get in person, we do that. But for week-to-week games, that is a significant commitment. I know for our group we keep them 7:30pm-10pm with some understanding that the first 15 minutes is usually time spent letting delayed people show up and going over what happened last time (good opportunity to give out inspiration/hero points). A rushed hour-and-half session is still better than a canceled session.

4. Talk to your players. I think this supercedes the above but just chat with people to see what can work. I mentioned our start time of 7:30 but if people are not able to start that early, we’ll postpone to 8 or even 8:30 that night. That comes from communication. Check in with each other periodically to see if there should be other times considered. Essentially, focus on what works for your table. Be flexible, allow folks to miss a bunch of games consecutively if needed. Make sure it’s a fun thing and not an obligation.

All that being said, if people aren’t engaged in the game or that interested in playing, there’s not really anything you can or should do about that aside from find other players.

This was my thought as well. Pretty sure I already have all of that turned off but I would have done that as part of the install and brief customizing of the UI. Can’t say I ever used a guide or anything, or even considered it unusual for modern software.

Ah, that likely explains it. I know when installing I hit “no” on anything that sounds remotely marketing related and I turned off search and weather because they just don’t add any value and I like a clean screen. So I think the only ads I get are the small, unobtrusive ones on the lock screen, which I can’t say I’m bothered by in the slightest. I barely even notice them since it isn’t like I stare at the lock screen.

I’m so confused by the ads thing. I don’t think I’ve noticed any since upgrading to Win 11. Are they only on certain editions or something?

This feels like apples to oranges. I think the only time I’ve seen people comparing number of classes between the systems has been 5e and PF2e. I’m fairly certain PF1 has more classes than 3.5e, though it’s been too long since I’ve played either.

And to each their own but I much prefer PF2e over 3.5, and much preferred 3.5 over 5e. Didn’t play white enough PF1 to slot it in but it was pretty consistent with 3.5.

I totally agree. That’s why I put “rules light” in quotes. Any any given moment there aren’t a ton of rules to know but there are a lot of rules to cover a lot of those different moments, if that makes sense.

I recently picked up Midnight Suns which, to be very clear is not FFT. However, I will say despite the kind of bad story and corny aspects of it, the actual turn based combat is excellent. I thought I would hate it being card-based but it really grew on me a lot. Definitely scratched the FFT itch.

Blades is great! Switched to Blades/FitD from 5e for a change of pace. We really enjoyed it but eventually switched again to PF2e for some crunchier combat and character building.

But I do think Blades is my favorite “rules light” system I’ve tried. Works really well for TotM but still has enough crunch to feel like a game.

Old games? Let me throw Final Fantasy Tactics in the mix. Easily my favorite game of all time and one of the only ones I consistently come back to, despite releasing in 1997.

If you’re not familiar, FFT is a turn-based tactics game which is very different from other mainline FF games in a lot of ways. The story is one of the best, if not the best, in the FF series. For gameplay, you recruit and manage soldiers which progress using a fairly in-depth job system which is also pretty easy to pick up.

I’m sure you could find a PSX emulator of the original but, honestly, I really recommend the updated War of the Lions edition they did for the PSP. It’s been ported to mobile and is actually a great port. My one tip for anyone who tries it is to make multiple save slots in case you find yourself overwhelmed in a story dungeon/encounter.

I don’t believe so. Climbing a rope in PF2E is typically DC15. As for flying up a rope at 10th level, I think the only characters doing that will be those who have heavily invested in both strength and the athletics skill.

Though if they’ve done both of those things and are 10th level, they probably should be flying up a rope. In this case that means spending 3 actions (their whole turn) to climb 30 feet of rope, assuming they started their turn in a position to climb the rope and don’t need to use actions for anything else like stowing gear to have free hands. Seems pretty fine for incredibly strong and athletic seasoned adventurers.

I hate bounded accuracy so much. Although the crux of this issue is a DM asking for checks when the aren’t really necessary. This is probably fine in combat but isn’t really needed outside of that context.

Alternative PF2 Text:

Panel 1 - You roll a nat 20!

Panel 2 - it’s only a success

This would be my absolute dream. I loved BG3 but the weakest part of me was being based on D&D 5e. PF2 is just a better system in pretty much every way imo.

If they could make a PF2 CRPG, that would be incredible.

FitD is my favorite non-crunchy system. I don’t want to call it “rules light” because it isn’t that light. But it is great.

Gotta be Into Free which was the original main title music from Dragon’s Dogma.

It was removed for Dark Arisen for reasons I am unsure of, so it isn’t even something you can experience without mods.

It is wildly different from the rest of the game’s music but still connected in a way, and sets a very different vibe. Great game, great music.