In November 2022, I started a D&D campaign as a complete TTRPG noobie. I had never played anything like Dungeons and Dragons before, and one of my friends who had played a lot wanted to run their own campaign for the first time. So myself, 3 other friends, and the DM grouped up, and we loved it right away! Our DM ran a combo adventure of the Dragon of Icespire Peak and the Lost Mines of Phandelver, which was definitely ambitious on his part, but it more or less went pretty smoothly. We had a blast. After playing in this campaign for a year, and putting hundreds of hours in Baldur's Gate 3, I decided I wanted to run my own campaign as well.

I'm sure many of you are familiar with the common gripes typically associated with D&D5E, I wont really elaborate on that here, but I too had my own frustrations with the system. After doing some research, watching tons of videos, and eventually acquiring of few of the core Pathfinder rulebook PDFs and the Fall of Plaguestone module; in November 2023 an opportunity arose and it was my turn to run a shorter adventure for the same group of players I had been playing with.

Party Composition

Human Fighter: the previous DM with lots of experience in D&D, wanted to go simple to learn the system and uses a Katana/Spear/Shield combo, chose the Knight of Lastwall background specific to this module.

Elf Divination Wizard: familiar with lots of different TTRPGs and wanted to try something more complex, choose the Astrologer background and themed his character around astronomy and time manipulation and we've flavoured some of his spells to reflect this.

Human Chirurgeon Alchemist: chose the Herbalist background and went into the adventure as a nature loving hippy who would rather heal than harm, this player is like the total opposite of a minmax-er so I helped them out with which formulas to pick and made sure they were aware of some critical choices to make, so they would feel like they are actually making an impact.

Goblin Bomber Alchemist: this player wanted to try out a class not found in D&D (died 2 times in our previous campaign), and went with the Alchemist since it sounded very cool to them, also took the Rogue dedication feat at 2nd level to give themself a little more versatility on their damage output.

I was hesitant at first to go into this module with two Alchemists, but I thought it would be super interesting to give it a shot since so much of the module has to do with alchemy and I think that would make it a lot of fun for them. I was also a little concerned at their combat effectiveness, with two Alchemists, a Divination Wizard, and just a single Fighter, I was concerned this notoriously difficult module would overwhelm them quickly and they'd get frustrated, especially learning a brand new system. But I decided to just go with it, and I would try to adjust the balance of things if it proved too deadly for them.

Optional Rules

Free Archetype: I wanted to give them more power to make up for the difficulty often touted for the Fall of Plaguestone module, and while this doesn't really add much, I thought it (along with the other rules) would help to increase their versatility to be able to handle different situations.

Ancestry Paragon: Again another rule to increase their power slightly, and also allow them to get a better feel thematically of what their ancestry had to offer.

Gradual Ability Boosts: A third rule to increase their power slightly, the module runs from level 1 to 3 so they would never have had an opportunity to increase any of their abilities, so this allowed them to increase it a couple times and improve in areas they might be lacking.

The Pathfinder System

What I Liked

The 3 Action Economy: It took awhile for my players to get used to it, there were some complaints about what cost an full action (standing up, changing grip, opening doors, etc). But once everyone accepted it for what it was, things went super smoothly. Turns go super quickly since the amount of actions each player can do it always 3, no more asking, "are you done yet?", "would you like to move"?, etc. It also adds a lot of strategy! There is always more things my players want to do than they have action to, so they have to make strategic decisions on which actions will be most effective on their turn.

Encounter Balancing: With the abandonment of CR in favor of Levels for creatures, it make building and balancing encounters really easy and adjustable. I decide how difficult the encounter should be, take the XP budget for that difficulty, and then draft a collections of enemies that fits the budget. It's that simple!

Free Rules: My players don't need to have purchased tons of books to be able to play the game, I share my copy of the Core Rulebook with them, and then using Archives of Nethys they are able find everything that need. We can all look up any rules really quickly if needed, and don't need to scramble looking for the right source in the middle of a session. Plus this allows really seamless integration with FoundryVTT and presents all of these things in-game!

Archetypes: I think this is my favorite aspect of the entire game! I love the interactivity and flexibility that archetypes offer. You can mix and match different ideas, there are archetypes for every class and also for general ideas such as Beastmaster, Shadowdancer, or Pirate. You can use these to theme a campaign a give everyone a shared background and skillset. It also avoids the issues found in other systems where taking a single level in a certain class is an auto-pick, or can create serious imbalance between character that care more about flavor over power.

What My Players Disliked

Overall they all really enjoyed the campaign and none of things things prevented them from having a good time playing 'fantasy-roleplaying-simulator' online with friends. Everyone was open to another campaign in the future and I am excited to approach the next one differently will all my new-found experience. Below are a few short excerpts from their feedback that I received after completing the module.

Wizard: I don't think I would have been able to play the game without a VTT, the crunch is a little more than I think my brain would have been able to wrestle with. I also feel like the game really rewards system mastery and knowing lots of rule interactions, which I find a little overwhelming because I approach most problems from a fiction first perspective (aka what are logical outcomes of an action here) and it felt like this way of looking at situations was inherently disincentivized when so much is codified and the expectation is to use the plethora of mechanics that exist (that I think we didn't even scratch the surface of).

Alchemist: On the other hand, the sheer number of action options felt tedious on my end in combat - especially where actions have particular conditions that need to be met. For example, if I want to use Leap, I have to count the squares and how I'd have to use Stride to gain the max jumping distance. Then I need to work those two actions into my plan for a turn. Maybe a more prevalent example of how I found planning actions slowed me down is drawing items (bombs, potions, weapons) and subsequently using them. I think this is a downside of having every action codified and the three action economy (in my opinion), but I think having access to three actions is an interesting change from 5e that I'd want to get better at using effectively now that I'm more familiar with Pathfinder.

Fighter: I had a bit of bias going in to Pathfinder as I had read some fairly negative things about it compared to DND before, but I wanted to keep an open mind. That being said I had a hard time adjusting to a new ruleset. The pace of the game and what is expected/allowed within a turn is different to what I’ve done in the past and it was difficult to adjust. I wasn’t a fan of the 3 action system to start, and though I can appreciate the design now, I still find it too limiting. It feels like a lot of what Pathfinder promotes is precision, specificity, and realism. I find the 3 action rule helps and hinders this.
It makes sense that pulling something from your bag, loading it into your weapon, and firing it are three separate movements, but this turn and other variations slowed the game down, and I felt it took away from the enjoyment of combat. There were a few times where [the alchemist] had to essentially pass his turn because he had to spend all his actions pulling out and preparing his crossbow. I would not have used that weapon had it been me, which is a shame because the idea of the weapon was super cool.
The other side is the numbers, which are completely different from DND. Having an AC of 20 with a +12 to hit and a constantly shifting critical window at level 3 was so backwards it kept me from understanding mechanically what was happening and why. I think [the wizard] said it well, the game requires a certain level of rules mastery to execute well. Foundry helped overcome this, but without it I think it would have taken twice the amount of time to play.

The Fall of Plaguestone Adventure

There will be spoilers for this module, you have been warned!

The Hook

Personally I think the introduction and setup for this module could be very challenging to run for a first time GM. The players start out as caravan guards travelling from Isger to Andoran. About 1/3rd of the way into the journey the caravan stops at the small town of Etran's Folly for the night. During the night, the head of the caravan drops dead during the middle of dinner right in front the players mid conversation. During this entire sequence there is probably 12-15 significant characters to juggle; who was there before the death, who was there after. There is a big bar fight combat with a dozen generic NPCs to keep track of. Initially the players are suspected of killing the caravan leader, but depending on the actions they take, it's likely they can clear their name fairly quickly. There is an interrogation scene. Only once all this is complete and the next day arrives do the players really get to take control and try and figure out what is going on.

As well, the players may question why they should even bother getting involved with the investigation. One of my players did so at least a few times, but my group was experienced enough to ignore their comments and continue to push the adventure forwards. Other groups may not be so successful.

The Investigation

Once the players start investigating the murder of their caravan leader, the module really branches out and allows them to approach things in whatever order they want to. Talking to different townsfolk, doing some side quests, having fun roleplay, etc. Probably my favorite part of the module and the most interesting.

The Middle and End

After the investigation and dealing with the first major combat against Hallod, the rest of the module really just becomes an extremely linear progression from one combat to the next, all of which themselves are very linear in design as well. You also need to continually rely upon the fact that the PCs will do these things mostly out of the goodness of their own hearts. There is not really any compelling reason for them to be continuing along with the ever greater demands of the NPCs.

The Difficulty

The is a very deadly module and even with my anticipation of these, inclusion of optional rules, and doling out magical gear in buckets, there was at least half a dozen different encounters where 2 or more of the PCs would get knocked out and be out of the combat. Some of this had to do with learning the system, some the party composition, and some the deadliness of the module, but it supposed to be a 'beginners' module and it is far from that. Although I am sure most people know that by now.

Conclusion

Overall I liked the module and so did my players. If I were to run it again in the future, I would definitely approach things differently now that I have some experience actually GMing. The initial hook is compelling and open ended, but then it slowly trickles downhill for the rest of the module. The finale was actually quite a high point for my players, so it does finish off well.

I would not recommend this module to most other GMs honestly. The difficulty and the overall linearity to the the final acts are pretty major downside it for me. I would recommended it to experienced DMs looking to challenge their players and who plan on using it as a jumping off point for a larger homebrew campaign.

My House Rules

These are some house rules I adopted at my table which worked really well for us, feel free to take some inspiration from them if you please, but I don't expect them to work at all tables.

When a creature critically fails on an attack role, they are Off-Guard until they take their next action. This served as a great way to try and disincentive the players from spamming 3 attacks each turn, and also allowed them to take advantage of this against enemies who weren't intelligent enough to avoid making the same mistake.

The DC of any Aid check is the same DC as the check they are trying to Aid in. Optionally you can apply the Easy (-2) or Very Easy (-5) adjustment to the Aid check if you feel like it's appropriate for the situation. This lowers the threshold for Aid being worth attempting at low levels, while also prevents it from being an auto success or even auto critical success at higher levels.

Any creature may attempt a Basic Reflex Save to mitigate fall damage and avoid gaining the Prone condition for taking damage. They must be in control of their movement, (i.e. jumping down purposefully) and must have 10+ feet of space available to roll into. The DC is equal to the fall height in feet. If successful, they take half damage, don't fall prone, and must roll forwards 5ft from their landing spot. My players kept wanting to jump down from places, especially having some battles with a decent amount of elevation. So jumping down from 10-15ft and having this rule in place made things much more enjoyable and added extra excitement.

Hero points are permanent, but given out less frequently. Our sessions typically only last for 2.5-3h and I am terrible at giving them out as frequently as suggested RAW. My players only get a Hero Point when then do something actually heroic or inspiring. They can use them in the same ways, but if used to reroll then they always take the higher result, they also only need to spend a single Hero Point when avoiding death. Typically I need to remind my players when then should probably use a Hero Point, they almost never think of it on their own, although they are getting better at it. This rule works great for my group, but is not something I would suggest for all groups.

After getting knocked unconscious, any creature can Stand and pickup a single thing with one hand: If they want to Stand and pickup something with each hand, then it costs two actions. This was a big point of frustration with my players, and personally I think it is a very reasonable compromise. More often than not, they would want to pickup their shit and fallback and this makes that more reasonable. Picking up someone in the middle of combat is still very risky, but it gives them a few more options on what they can do in that situation. Think about how often you standup and bring something with you; your phone, or wallet, water bottle, etc.