this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2024
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I am obssessed with PF2e and feel compelled to jump to it's defence against your incredibly minor criticism: The higher cognitive load for players is there, but I would say that there are 2 mitigating factors. Firstly, the rules have an underlying mechanical unity that makes new rules easy to understand once you've gotten used to the basics, and secondly, the lower cognitive load for the gamemaster actually makes it a lot easier for them to support the players in learning the rules through play.
I think the real issue for PF2e is that in being the best D&D it does actually require tactical combat, so can be very frustrating for more casual players who just want do a lot of damage rather than thinking about debuffs and positioning. Shadow of the Demon Lord/Weird Wizard nicely fits the niche between PF2e and DW that 5e should occupy, with a balance of narrative and crunch to its combat.
There's plenty to critique about the game in its own right, such as spells being balanced around mostly failing, which doesn't feel great, and the weirdly large number of plant person species to choose from instead of enhancing existing species with more options, but those are all internal criticisms that don't really apply when making an external comparison to 5e. If comparing to 5e all you really need to do is describe how it'll play differently for the players, and in my experience players aren't usually 100% open to learning a new system if there's any friction in doing so.
There's only 2! Even "living soul sealed in a constructed body" gets 3. There's like 10 "humans but short/shorter/skinny/underwater/etc" ancestries. Mammals and Lizards get like 5 each. Plant ancestries (Plantcestries) and Mineral ancestries are grossly underrepresented in general.
Also, I've found the easy way to convert players is start playing the different game and if they question anything tell them it's homebrew.