Category Archives: Game Design
Revised Path Design Goals
A revised PF1. Something you could still use to run PF1 adventure paths, for example, but that had significant quality-of-life upgrades and improved organization,clarity, and all-levels play.
I’ve been thinking about these things for years, and even worked on it briefly before other projects came along (and then became years late). But, for whatever reason, this has been coming to the fore a ton in the past couple of days, so…
Just as the original game system went from 3.5 to a very different 4.0, and PF1 was a branch off 3.5 (without being exactly the same), the idea here is that with a second edition of PF2 being very different from PF1, this would be a branch off PF1 (without being exactly the same).

(Art by warmtail)
What would the design goals be? Well, to start:
1. Make the game more stable at all levels of play.
2. Make combat run faster.
3. Reduce the total amount of math, without reducing granularity or customizationability.
4. Faster, easier rules for making monsters.
5. Support archetypes in the core books, Make them a set of simple, easily understood rules allowing a wide range of classes to take the same archetypes (so, for example, if you make a Swordmaster archetype, most combatant classes can take it).
6. Nonspellcaster classes gain a wider range of built-in options that allow them to impact combat and noncombat encounters beyond doing damage.
7. A formalized set of rules for designing and running skill-based encounters.
8. Rename and reconceive “races” to eliminate ability score bioessentialism and delink cultural and biological benefits.
9. Establish three modes of spellcasting — prepared, spontaneous, and “blended” (like the arcanist), and allow any spellcasting class to be able to select any of them. Ensure the distinctiveness of spellcasters is not dependent entirely on their spells — if a sorcerer and a wizard both select spontaneous spellcasting, they should still feel distinct and different.
10. Both reduce the total number of classes (which sits at 39 even if only counting base, core, and hybrid classes from official PF1), and add new classes that fill missing niches (such as a good warlock).
11. Revised rules for crafting and magic item creation, with guidance explaining where some decisions come from (such as the sidebar notes I added in the Loot 4 Less product line).
12. Establish some “common” rule variants, including spell points and automatic bonus progression, which are kept in mind for all relevant sections of the game and expansions.
13. A thorough spell-by-spell review of the core spells to tweak for game balance.
14. A thorough item-by-item review of magic items, so those that do interesting things rather than just give bonuses can be gained at low enough levels for them to still feel like attractive choices.
15. Revise combat maneuvers to be simpler, faster, and worth attempting as PCs, without always being the best choice to shut down a foe.
16. Reorganize rules and review that all needed rules exist (such as burrow), are easily found, and simply explained.
17. Review and as appropriate add PF1 errata.
18. Rethink Prestige Classes.
19. Where lack of keywords or clear definitions have caused issues or clunky language (what is a “weapon?,” how many hands is a creature assumed to have?, can a horse use a magic glove?), clean up and streamline language and add late-game solutions to the core.
20. Review and revise favored class bonuses and traits, with an eye toward balance and not having some ability core to popular class builds being locked behind a single trait.
21. Review and revise subsystems introduced outside the core (such as downtime, building organization businesses and buildings, ruling countries, and so on), with an eye toward balance and having as few such systems as possible, integrated into core rules, while still supporting all the elements they allow for.
22. Design the simplest possible introductory version of the game at the same time as the core. Such an introductory game should introduce the most important rules in a way that is 100% how those are handled in the core game, while still radically reducing the cognitive load to learn the game or teach it to others.
23. Find ways to reduce the work required for a GM to run the game, including both simplifying the math a GM is required to deal with when designing things and the effort needed to build encounters.
24. Radically simplify AoO rules without removing the tactical element they represent.
25. Radically simplify the planning needed to make specific character builds. This includes reducing feat taxes and feat chains, while still protecting spotlight time and level-locking some abilities to higher levels of play.
26. Review and revise conditions, to have as few conditions as possible without reducing granularity or breadth of the system.
26. Review and revise monster/NPC stat blocks, to make them easier for GMs to use and (if possible, but as long as I am listing all the things I’d *like) shorter and easier to read.
27. Review and revise how alignment is presented, and how rules interact with it.
Now, that’s a LOT. I’m not tackling all that all at once, and for the most part aren’t tackling it at all until I am in better shape, and have caught up on other massively-overdue projects. But I *have* taken a first, tiny stab at some of these ideas on social media.
I’ll show those off later this week, in a Draft 1.1 form.
Support
Right now, the main ways to offer your support are to join (or increase your pledge level to) my Patreon or, if you prefer, donate directly through my Ko-Fi account – https://ko-fi.com/owenkcstephens
The “Trippin’ Balls” Monster Template
Let’s say, for no particular reason, that you wanted a way to represent a monster that had ingested a vast amount of narcotic stimulants. The poor thing is almost certainly going to die, but until then it is high as the Abyss and in a drug-induced frenzy that makes it dangerous and unpredictable.
In short, it’s Trippin’ Balls.
So, here’s a template to add to any monster you like to represent one that is Trippin’ Balls. It should work in 5e, Level Up, Pathfinder 1e, Pathfinder 2e, and Starfinder.

(Art by Mosaic)
Trippin’ Balls
Confused in Combat: While it can decide what to do out of combat (though as GM, feel free to have it decide to do some dumb stuff), in combat or similar stressful situations, it’s confused. Like, the Confused condition confused. This condition is permanent in combat as long as the monster is Trippin’ Balls.
Eight-Ball: Whenever the Trippin’ Balls creature rolls an 8 or 18 on a d20 roll, it immediately gets an extra action (even if it’s not its turn), which is dictated by the Confused condition.
Fearless and Furious: The creature is immune to emotion, fear, and demoralize effects. Anytime it has to make a Strength-, Constitution-, Wisdom, or Charisma-based ability check, skill check, or saving throw, it rolls twice and takes the better result. Any time it has to make a Dexterity- or Intelligence-based ability check, skill check, or saving throw, it rolls twice and takes the worse result.
Also, when dealing damage, it adds 1d6, +1d6 per full 5 levels or challenge rating it has
That’s Not Good For You: The creature has half its normal Hit Points (half its Stamina Points too, for Starfinder). However, it has temporary Hit Points equal to double the number of points lost due to this ability. It begins each combat with a full set of temp HP, but each time it’s encountered reduce the number of temp HP it gets by 10% of its original total.
If it takes additional narcotics, the creature’s temporary HP are reset to full, and it’s true Hit Points are reduced by 10% of its maximum. If it’s HP are reduced to 0, it gets 1d4 more rounds of actions, then its heart explodes and it dies.
Patreon
I have a Patreon. It helps me carve out the time needed to create these blog posts, and is a great way to let me know what kind of content you enjoy. If you’d like to see more more rules inspired by movies, or system-agnostic worldbuilding, game industry essays, fiction, game design articles, worldbuilding tips, or whatever!, try joining for just a few bucks and month and letting me know!
Now On Patreon: Wyverns & Warrens Preview — Heroic Moments
Wyverns & Warrens (or “WyvWar”) is my current ongoing attempt to design a short, easy, fantasy ttRPG that still had a depth of options. I’m doing previews of concepts for my Patrons, and open to your feedback.
In today’s Patreon-exclusive WyvWar preview, I discuss Heroic Moments — a gamified version of the adventure fiction trope when someone does something amazing and awesome. The priest calls upon her goddess to unleash the sea itself. The berserker grabs the titan’s greave and begins climbing the towering foe, refusing to be shaken free while slashing at any exposed joint.
Done right, they’re awesome. Done wrong, they’re cringe. Done in a ttRPG, they’re tricky. And today, my Patrons get a peak of how I’ll try to do them in WyvWar.

(“I summon the Strength of the Tides,” Art by иколай Акатов)
Right now that rules preview (and all Thursday blog posts) are Patreon-exclusive, because I need to grow my Patreon to keep spending time writing blog posts and other public content. However, once my Patreon funding level hits $1,000/month, I’ll go back to posting my Thursday posts free for all to see here, AND I’ll create and maintain an index page of all my PF2 articles for Patrons, so they can easily access all my online PF2 content!
Now On Patreon: Wyverns & Warrens Preview — Paths & Edges
Wyverns & Warrens (or “WyvWar”) is my current ongoing attempt to design a short, easy, fantasy ttRPG that still had a depth of options. I’m doing previews of concepts for my Patrons, and open to your feedback.
On today’s Patreon-exclusive WyvWar preview, I discuss Paths and Edges, the primary customization/role definition tools for characters in the game. I’ve mentioned the concepts of Paths & Edges in WyvWar articles before, and people who follow some of my previous projects (such as the “Talented” line of Genius Guides) are going to have some inkling on how these things work, but I want to go into specifics on how I see these things working, and how the game distinguishes between (for example) a Dwarf Stone-Touched Summoner and a Noble Summoner Envoy

(Art © Brett Neufeld)
Right now that rules preview (and all Thursday blog posts) are Patreon-exclusive, because I need to grow my Patreon to keep spending time writing blog posts and other public content. However, once my Patreon funding level hits $1,000/month, I’ll go back to posting my Thursday posts free for all to see here, AND I’ll create and maintain an index page of all my PF2 articles for Patrons, so they can easily access all my online PF2 content!
Now On Patreon: Wyverns & Warrens Preview — When Are Hit Points Not Hit Points?
This article is not covered under the OGL 1.0a.)
Wyverns & Warrens (or “WyvWar”) is my current ongoing attempt to design a short, easy, fantasy ttRPG that still had a depth of options. I’m doing previews of concepts for my Patrons, which are open to their feedback, and today I posted another rules preview discussing how Hit Points will work in WyvWar.

(Art by Nyothep)
Hit Points. Sort Of.
WyvWar has a mechanism currently called “Hit Points,” but I am very likely to change that name, because they don’t act like Hit Points in any other system I’m aware of that uses that term. In other words, they are not primarily a measure of how much damage you can take — if someone deals 7 points of damage, those don’t come off a character’s “Hit Points.” Instead, Hit Points are primarily points a character expends to hit, and avoid being hit. So, as much as I love having my game mechanic about being hit or hitting others (separate from damage) being called ‘Hit Points,’ it’s bad game design to take a term you KNOW most players of your game are familiar with and have it work totally differently than they’re used to.
But in a draft, I can call them what I like to entertain myself, and it’s an easy fix when I move to a playtest manuscript. But that’s the name I’m using for the rules preview discussing HIt Points in Wyverns & Warrens, over on my Patreon.
Right now that rules preview (and all Tuesday blog posts) are Patreon-exclusive, because I need to grow my Patreon to keep spending time writing blog posts and other public content. However, once my Patreon funding level hits $1,500/month, I’ll both go back to posting Tuesday posts for free here on my blog as well as on my Patreon, and I’ll create and maintain Starfinder and 5e article Index Pages for my Patrons, with links to all my 5e and Starfinder blog and Patreon content (as the carrot to encourage Patrons to see if their friends want to join).
Now on Patreon: First Look at the Wyverns & Warrens Fantasy RPG (Concept and Core Mechanic)
(This article is not covered by the OGL)
As I mentioned with the announcement of having a first look at my Warbrand RPG over on my Patreon, I have lots of ideas and files for from-scratch ttRPGs. Warbrand has the most work done on it… but I’m actually closest to having a playable game with a different project, Wyverns & Warrens (or, WyvWar).

(Cover art by Eric Pommer. Cover graphics by Lj Stephens)
This is specifically a *different* project than Warbrand, for a lot of reasons. Not the least of those is I hope to keep the core rules of WyvWar to 64 pages or less. But most importantly, WyvWar is my nostalgia-driven fantasy heartbreaker ttRPG design. Every choice I make for WyvWar is driven by the effort to recapture how it felt when I played Tunnels & Trolls solo adventures, or D&D games that use the original booklets, Basic, a Boxed set, Dragon articles, and stuff we graphed on from Boot Hill, Gamma World, Gangbusters, and anything else that seemed to use a d20 or percentile.
So, the goal here is not specifically to go for any given target audience, or to be amazingly innovative, or even necessary to create a commercially viable ttRPG (though I’m proceeding on the assumption I’ll make it a commercial product). Instead, I just want a game that suits exactly the mix of fast, easy, flexible, and able to surprise that I crave when I am in a nostalgic mood.
I have a short, quick preview of the concept of the game and my reasoning behind the core mechanic I have selected, over at my Patreon. It’s a very basic design document, a behind-the-scenes teaser of a thing I may or may not ever finish.
But I’d like to.
Right now that rules preview (and all Thursday blog posts) are Patreon-exclusive, because I need to grow my Patreon to keep spending time writing blog posts and other public content. However, once my Patreon funding level hits $1,000/month, I’ll go back to posting my Thursday posts free for all to see here, AND I’ll create and maintain an index page of all my PF2 articles for Patrons, so they can easily access all my online PF2 content!
Now on Patreon: Conceptualizing Quirky Magic Items, Part 1 – Unusual Forms
My Day 23 entry of my #Dungeon23 Project has a list of ideas for quirky magic items to put in a creature’s loot pile for PCs to pick up and enjoy. I like making objects for PCs to use that aren’t just the standard options, and in my experience players enjoy them as well, as long as “quirky” doesn’t become an excuse for less effective, embarrassing, or too strongly themed in a way that doesn’t match the characters.
Over on my Patreon I go into my favorite trick for conceptualizing quirky items, and I’ll expand that series of articles with more tips and tricks as time goes on. My Tuesday posts are currently Patreon-exclusive as an intentional carrot to get more people to join my Patreon. Once its income levelhas risen to $1,500/month, I’ll both go back to posting Tuesday posts for free here on my blog as well as on my Patreon, and I’ll make and maintain some article index for my Patreons (the carrot to encourage Patrons to see if their friends want to join).
Now on Patreon: First Look at The Warbrand RPG
(This article is not covered by the OGL)
I suspect it shocks no one to know I have been working on my own core RPG… for decades. Several of them, actually.
Many turned into supplements for other games. Some are currently at design dead ends. A lot are cold, dusty files at the very back of my hard drive that haven’t seen the light of day for years. But some I have kept tinkering on, and keep getting closer and closer to being something I could announce and publish.
One of the closest at the moment is Warbrand, which I am desperately trying to make exactly my preferred magical mix of fast, flexible, simple, elegant, and customizable. You know… a unicorn. With miniatures.
It’s still not ready for its big reveal. But, for reasons that may seem obvious, given it’s not a direct descendent of anyone RPG (or such an RPG’s system resource document, for example), I’ve been thinking about it a LOT, recently.
So, I have a short, quick preview of just a few of the rule elements I’m working on in the game up at my Patreon. It isn’t a design document, but instead a preview of some elements of a game I’m working on, a behind-the-scenes teaser of a thing I may or may not ever finish.
But I’d like to.
Right now that rules preview (and all Thursday blog posts) are Patreon-exclusive, because I need to grow my Patreon to keep spending time writing blog posts and other public content. However, once my Patreon funding level hits $1,000/month, I’ll go back to posting my Thursday posts free for all to see here, AND I’ll create and maintain an index page of all my PF2 articles for Patrons, so they can easily access all my online PF2 content!

(Working cover. Cover art by lobard)