Dan Talks Games

Auspex "The wind tells me that you came here seeking wisdom for a problem of your own making, and you will find no answers here. The stones tell me that you're a little bitch who's fallen upon them many a time." ~ Halem Far-Eye, augur of the mountains

If nothing else, my biggest win from the cryptic playtest will be breaking @eldritchdream.bsky.social with the flavour text I wrote for the auspex folklore origin.

#pathfinder2e #ttrpg

hmm I followed the instructions I’m not sure why he looks so different

myth: using linux makes you superior to windows users

facts: you have to be transgender and autistic too or else the superiority doesn't kick in

My favourites are still Springy Mushroom, the Ben Drowned statue, and the fungus zombie reanimation 😁

The Cryptic Class Playtest | Tabletop Obscura Get more from Tabletop Obscura on Patreon

Check it out in our cryptic class playtest! As well as the class we have a tonne of new spells we're playtesting, such as the above Fairy Ring!

#Fairy Ring (two actions) - Spell 4 Trait - concentrate, fungus, incapacitation, manipulate Traditions occult, primal Range 30 feet; Area one 5 foot square Duration 1 minute Defense Will You summon a ring of mushrooms enchanted by magic of the fey. When you create a fairy ring, you choose one of the effects listed below. When a creature of medium or smaller size enters or starts their turn in the square, they must make a Will save against the chosen effect. On a success, they are immune to this spell for the rest of their turn, while on a failure their current action or activity is interrupted and they are subjected to the chosen effect. The effect ends if the creature leaves the ring in any way, even while under its effects. Another creature may try to help another exit the ring with a Shove action or another form of forced movement, but any checks required targets this spell’s DC instead of the action’s usual DC (such as Fortitude for Shove). The ring persists for the duration, meaning another creature can later enter it and be subjected to its effects. Compelled Dancing (mental) The ring compels those who enter to dance indefinitely on the spot. The creature is forced to dance within the fairy ring, making them immobilized, off-guard, and unable to use free actions or reactions, and must spend each action on its turn (or their remaining actions if it is still their turn) dancing, which has the manipulate trait. At the end of their turn, they may make their choice of a Will saving throw or Performance check against your spellcasting DC. On a success, the effect ends, and they are immune to its effects until the end of their next turn. Vanish (illusion) The ring causes those who enter to disappear from the sight of others, and makes their cries fall on deaf ears. On a failure, the creature becomes immobilized and invisible. While invisible, sounds they make cannot be heard by other creatures, and any effects and interactions with other creatures do not work o…

Did I make a Fairy Ring spell purely because of the Bluey episode?

Yes, yes I did.

Also a bit of inspiration from 73 Yards in Doctor Who.

#pathfinder2e

Taco Night Carl is going to be a boss in my next modern setting game.

For the record, this guy called me 'obnoxious'.

Why is it always the Fruitful Void types who not only come off sounding like snobby English Lit professors who know the Right Way to do the hobby, but always seem to have the gall to accuse others of being pretentious? #ttrpg

Optical illusion of a woman bent over some papers. Her sunglasses are pushed up and she is wearing a hair band so the top of her head looks exactly like a Muppet face

Sorry I know the world is in a terrible fix but I've been laughing at this for ten minutes now

I think there's this often well-intended but ultimately misguided idea that you assume everything done in-character is a true expression of 'IWMCWD.'

Part of the issue is that the problem players themselves legitimately think that and just fail to realise their asshole behaviours are bleeding over.

if i had to pick The Most Star Wars scene in all of Star Wars, it's the imperial officers meeting in the death star in a new hope

a bunch of military guys are talking about politics, and also a wizard is there

that's it that's the franchise

I remember back during the playtest, brutal was once of the traits Weapon Infusion could grant back when blasts were still strikes.

That was the first time I ever noticed that trait and went, what the fuck this is a thing that already exists?!

I do think Brutal is kept carefully locked for a reason, but I also think it's overkill how *little* it's used.

Like sure, a 50-100 foot strength-based throw as a baseline strike is probably too strong. But it's not like reach and extending don't already exist to give strength characters coverage.

Third to that: I get it, I'm neurospicy too. Gonna work with awareness of that. It's a root cause of the aforementioned problems. But in the end it's a social hobby. There's a line where your behaviours impact others and you don't get to use it as an excuse. Use it as a chance to improve, not fester

Second to that: most issues with the RPG scene - at the individual, group, and sometimes even design level - come down to the fact it often requires the effort of a moderately invested group assignment to make work efficiently, but too many people treat it with the flippancy of a casual taco night.

Too much of the RPG scene glorifies a scrappy grassroots aesthetic to the point it sabotages good design.

Not every game has to be crunchy and meticulously detailed, but it's glorification of vibegaming and repulsion to any inkling of polish has lead to a hobby full of products with no integrity.

Most arguments about realism are actually arguments about abstraction.

The Cryptic Class Playtest | Tabletop Obscura Get more from Tabletop Obscura on Patreon

Playtest up to level 10 is out now on Obscura's Patreon! Pathbuilder module is included, and Foundry module will be available soon.

All in all, this not only solidified the subclass's niche, but gave it an *extremely* cool aesthetic, leaning heavily into that design of a rapidly shape-shifting monster that can turn into a t-rex but has the jaws of a snake and can also spit acid at you. A true mutant crossed with a nightmare.

So in addition to making morph spells usable in battle forms, I decided to flesh out the concept of these partial morph spells and grant a variety of options. Not only would this help the manifold rumour, but it would also give other spellcasters more beefier attack options with solid utility.

At the same time, @tabletopobscura.bsky.social was working on a group of spells he called 'Partial Animal Shifts'; basically one-and-done morph spells not unlike Hippocampus Retreat or Camel Spit from HotW. I thought, wouldn't it be cool if MR leaned into those a bit more, even in battle form?

The idea for allowing morph spells and actions in battle forms came from a combination of two things. The first was after initial playtesting, I knew I needed something to make them pop more than just relying on Emerge actions and their Cryptic Secret to pop off attacks.

...we have to lean into that somehow and make it pop. Battle forms are a bit of a sore spot in PF2e, so I knew I had to do something to make them appealing. At the same time, the goal wasn't to stealth patch-fix them. We want this to exist alongside untamed druids and have them retain their niche.

Mechanically, the idea here wasn't to go for a pure shapeshifter option. That sort of thing I think will be better for the inevitable shifter I'm sure we'll get one day (won't we, PAIZO?!). In the end they're a full spellcaster. Moreso than that, if we're using the existing polymorph mechanics...

(note that I'm probably going to adjust that spell in future releases - the general theme will remain, but as is now it's DEFINITELY too loaded and has way too much going on, it was just one of those early feedback flags we couldn't work on before release)

FOLK TULPA - Focus 3 Traits - Cryptic, Fear, Focus, Mental, Morph, Weird Target: 1 creature; Range: 30 feet You open yourself to interpretation, gleaning a creature's mind and shaping yourself to match its fears of you. The target must make a Will save. Critical Success - The target is unaffected. Success - The target creature becomes frightened 1, and it cannot go lower than frightened 1 while you are not obscured to it. Failure - As a failure, except the target is frightened 2. Critical Failure - As a failure, except the target is frightened 3. Weird Magic - As long as the target is frightened from this spell, you gain one of the following effects, which the target chooses. The GM should choose based on what the target believes based on folk stories about you or what they immediately perceive you as, rather than what is most beneficial to them. Gangly: You take a -2 penalty to your DC against reposition, grapple, shove, and trip checks. Your reach increases by 5 feet and gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Balance, Escape, and Squeeze checks. Hulking: You are clumsy 1. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Athletics checks and damage from melee Strikes, and are treated as one size larger than you are when determining effects. Skittering: You make chittering and shaking noises, making you automatically fail Stealth checks to hide against creatures that can hear you. You can crawl at full speed and are not offguard while you do, and you gain a climb speed equal to your land speed. You may use your climb speed to move across and hang from upside down horizontal surfaces. Uncanny: You lose attacks gained from Cryptic Attacks if you have any, and morph (but not polymorph) effects apart from those granted by this spell are suppressed. The target is off-guard against you.

While I didn't go so far as to codify the influence others' thoughts had on your form at any given moment, there are traces of that in some features, such as the Folk Tulpa weird spell. You gain bonuses and penalties based on how your target perceives you or how stories about you influence them.

Eventually I settled on the idea of tulpas; effectively thoughtform beings that are manifested from ideas and can even change their form based on what people believe about them.

This also matched the design and themes of the rumoured cryptid from Dark Archive, hence the name.

Originally the subclass was very much a pure cryptid fantasy catch-all, but as design went on I realized a shapeshifter did not necessarily embody every cryptid concept. There are plenty of existing class and even ancestries that do, so we had to find something unique for the cryptic to represent.

Manifold Rumour Your mere existence is malleable. Perhaps you walked too close to the Boundary and something profoundly changed in your physical form. You may not even have had a natural birth, manifesting through belief or stories. You could appear as a typical member of your ancestry but with unusual proportions, or be more bestial yet mutated in ways that betray your unnatural predisposition. Skill Trained: Intimidation Spells Added: You gain spells with the morph or polymorph traits. You also add confusing cry (Howl of the Wild), gecko grip, and primal chorus (Howl of the Wild). Boundary Influence: You may cast weird spells and spells with the morph trait while polymorphed into another form, even if you would not usually be able to cast the spell or gain its benefits with your current form. This includes the morph trait conflicting with the polymorph trait, battle forms being unable to cast spells, or not having the correct physiology to gain the benefits of a morph effect. Morph spells must either affect only yourself, or target a creature with an attack roll. You may also use spells and effects with the above requirements from items that have merged with your form while polymorphed and you would be able to use normally, such as scrolls, staves, wands, and worn items with activations. If you have an unarmed attack gained from a spell or a cryptic feat or class feature, you keep that attack in your polymorphed form. If it is a battle form, use that form’s attack statistics and number of damage dice instead of your own attack modifiers and fundamental runes. If you are in a polymorph form that allows you to choose different forms (such as a selection of battle forms), you may use a single action with the Concentrate trait once per turn to change to a different form available to you with that spell. Boundary Environment: Any Cryptic Secret: Fight or Flight Weird Spells: Initial - rapid shift assault; Advanced - folk tulpa

When I started designing the cryptic, one of its main inspirations were cryptids. The manifold rumour embodies this best. It was one of the first folklore origins created, and our iconic - The Gnarlg - is one of them. #pathfinder2e #ttrpg