Every week, Recall Knowledge recaps the Know Direction content of the past week, a preview of the Know Direction content of the week to come, and the director of operations, Ryan Costello, thoughts on the state of the network.
I don’t talk about our YouTube channel much, but most content we record on Twitch ends up there for fans of our faces. Recently, someone in the comments of the video for Know Direction 251 – News & Announcements from PaizoCon 2021 with Nonat let it be known he wasn’t a fan of mine (although his feelings about my face, specifically, didn’t come up).
User quark12000 said “I’m a big fan of NoNat. Disappointing to see him on a channel with a guy who hates Pathfinder 2e.” Through replies to that comment, he quickly made it clear that he meant me. He said my “bashing and saying you’d never play 2e kinda turned me off your channel.”
To his credit, when I challenged him to find proof that I said I would never play 2e, he actually looked, found out he’d misremembered when I said I’d never play the 2e fighter (which I did say, and I still haven’t), and even apologized. Asking for proof was more for the benefit of readers who might assume there was anything legitimate to his claims. Especially since this was on YouTube, Nonat’s domain, and a lot of his audience might be seeing these comments without knowing much about KD.
Shortly after, it was pointed out to me that Paizo.com user Thomas Keller often called out Know Direction or me specifically for hating 2e. Even though responses to Keller’s posts tend to counter with, y’know, facts (with this post from Paizo’s Aaron Shanks being particularly appreciated), and Thomas Keller and quark12000 are only two people (or could even be the same person) taking these public stands against me, seeing my opinions misconstrued online upsets me. It did when people joked that I hated Starfinder, and it especially does when people sincerely think I hate Pathfinder 2e.
Just to say it again, I don’t hate Pathfinder 2e. I enjoy it quite a bit. Yes, a lot of the design goals go directly against a lot of what I love about 1e. So the fact that I’ve had fun playing it is a testament to how well it achieved those goals. Also, most of my issues are with the character creation rules. Since the majority of our review of the 2e CRB focused on character creation, I may have come off more negative than I felt about the game as a whole.
What I like about 2e: The action economy, obviously, but it really needs to be considered how good that is. There’s a reason 2e works better than 1e with three actions house ruled in. This is the foundation on which a great game was built. It makes thinking about your turn much easier, because you aren’t juggling as much between the concept of what you want to do and the mechanics of making it happen. You know that your plan can have up to three parts, and (assuming none of those parts are spells) each will take an action.
Confining characters to three actions at all levels also helps with higher level play. As a fan of martial characters, 1e made any turn that I couldn’t stand still and full attack feel like a punishment. The higher the level, the more you lost not squatting. Being able to move and still attack twice, or more twice as far and still get an attack, adds dynamism and complexity to a martial’s turn.
Moreover, I like 2e spellcasters. The oracle specifically is a class I’ve played in both editions, and while I struggled with the experience in 1e, I love it in 2e. Similarly, the 1e paladin was never a class I paid much attention to, but as you’ll see in the new KD Adventure Series – Trouble In Otari Part 1 (Episode 1 available now!), the champion’s focus spells give the class a lot of flavourful flexibility. There’s no combat in episode 1, but in later episodes you’ll see me mix up casting and fighting in such a satisfying way.
In fact, the best counterarguments to the notion that I hate 2e are the many 2e actual plays I’ve participated on the Know Direction network.
Speaking of KD content, here’s a recap of what you might have missed last week from the Know Direction Network:
Recap of June 14th to June 18th
What happened last week on knowdirectionpodcast.com and twitch.tv/knowdirection?
Monday, June 14th
Article
Recall Knowledge – Audience Expectations
By Ryan Costello
Do YOU know what Mythic even is?
PaizoCon Online 2021 Seminars
· PaizoCon Online 2021 – Mwangi Expanse
· PaizoCon Online 2021 – Eleanor Ferron
· PaizoCon Online 2021 – Starfinder Q&A
Tuesday, June 15th
Podcast
Digital Divination 032 – Loot!
How do John and Ron deal with loot in Starfinder, especially with the stingy 10% secondary market value of used Starfinder equipment?
Article
Burst of Insight—Clever and Often Inspiring Rules, Part Three
By Andrew Marlowe
In what I found the most insightful entry in this series so far, Andrew spotlights house rules and optional rules that he found particularly clever.
PaizoCon Online 2021 Seminars
· PaizoCon Online 2021 – Pathfinder Q&A
· PaizoCon Online 2021 – Wrap Up
Wednesday, June 16th
Twitch
Know Direction 252 Live – A Crash Course on Pathfinder History
Podcast
Game Design Unboxed 17: Sagrada
Danielle uploads Game Design Unboxed early. When I saw that the newest episode featured Daryl Andrews, I listened to it early. He’s a great guy, and this is my favourite GDU episode yet.
Article
Dev Pit — Pathfinder Silos Reforged
By Alexander Augunas
I confess, the title Alex went with threw me. I expected an article on how Pathfinder silos options. Instead, it’s about the different ways Starfinder and Pathfinder 2e handled options related to species/ancestry. Still, a good read.
Thursday, June 17th
Podcast
Know Direction 252 – A Crash Course on Pathfinder History
What started out as “what 2e players new to Pathfinder need to know about 1e” turned into “You know what’s really interesting? How Paizo came to publish Pathfinder”. Hopefully as interesting to new players as to those of us who were there.
Article
Something Creates – A Corruption: Finding the Corruption
By Andrew Sturtevant
Before Andrew can create a corruption, he weighs the pros and cons of using Starfinder’s existing, retrofitting Pathfinder 1e’s corruption system, or adapting Everybody Games alternate corruption system.
Friday, June 18th
Podcast
Intrepid Heroes 062 – Dinosaur Time!
A tense and dangerous battle with alien dinosaurs is only a little undermined by the string Barney references inspired by the main dinosaur being purple.
Article
Bend the Knee Heightened – MNmaxed
By Loren Sieg
The MNmaxed crew has a lot of fun with their topic, playing your least favourite class.
Preview of June 21st to June 25th
This is back to Block 1 of our 2-block schedule.
Monday, June 21st
Article
Recall Knowledge – Y’All Know I Don’t Hate 2e, Right?
Like, y’all know this, right?
Tuesday, June 22nd
Podcast
Legend Lore 027 — The Eye of Dread
Luis and Loren dive into some actual lore! They’ll be checking out the Eye of Dread region of the Inner Sea, including the Lastwall Sentry archetype.
Article
Fox’s Cunning by Dustin Knight
Dustin offers expert insight and helpful tools to enhance your game.
Wednesday, June 23rd
Podcast
Presenting – Gamers Making Games: Kendra Leigh Speedling
John talks with Pathfinder and Starfinder freelancer Kendra Leigh Speedling.
Article
Behind The Screen by Ryan Costello
I offer insight to my fellow GMs about running games that are inclusive and fun, because different people play the game for different reasons.
Thursday, June 24th
Podcast
Valiant episode 19
Luis mentioned that for a few episodes starting with this one, he improvises everything as the Valiant heroes zagged when all his notes said “Zig”.
Article
Investing In by Rob Pontious
Rob shares what he loves about the RPGs he’s been playing lately, and why you should check them out.
Friday, June 25th
Article
Monstrous Physique Presents: Summoned Monsters by Luis Loza
Luis, who usually makes the monsters, invites freelances to turn interesting art into unique stat blocks.
Now you know,
Ryan Costello
