I do hope someone updates the Iron Gods Adventure Path for the 2E rules at some point.

Good point - there have been similar types of metafiction, although I don’t know any where the focus was on folk tales.

The situation in the AI industry being what it is, I would not rule it out!

I feel I ought to buy a bunch of Pathfinder/Starfinder stuff in order to support them.

Hmmm… I bought that, but I didn’t read it more closely. Maybe it might help me for the GURPS Shadowrun conversion I’ve been fantasizing about since forever.

I particularly like the “Black Schools” of GURPS Cabal.

“Like Hogwarts, but we cheerfully acknowledge that we are evil, privileged bastards!”

Only two, alas.

And now you have introduced a new generation of #ttrpg players to the existence of this game.

You fiend!

The idea would be a custom fantasy world, starting with continental outlines and working my way inwards to focus regions.

And I would use QGIS.

Yeah, if I were to do this, I would use QGIS.

Pathfinder 2E has a very similar power curve as D&D 5E. In fact, it might even be worse for Brancalonia as characters basically get their level as a flat bonus on everything.

Sounds like a fun game!

I am personally not overly enarmored of OSR rule systems, but I’m a sucker for good worldbuilding and worldbuilding tools - I buy Sine Nomine Publishing stuff unseen, for instance. Maybe I should give this a closer look.

Ouch! That sounded rough. But I’m glad you learned some valuable lessons from it.

My work straddles the dividing line between fiction and nonfiction - I translate old German folk tales into English.

The “creative writing” aspect is in the commentary - these tales were told in a context that is very different from what a modern audience is used to, and thus I need to explain the cultural, geographical, and historical nuances to my readers.

Darauf antworte ich mit Art. 14 (2) des Grundgesetzes:

“Eigentum verpflichtet. Sein Gebrauch soll zugleich dem Wohle der Allgemeinheit dienen.”

Also, wie halten wir es denn mit der Vermögenssteuer?

They were fascinated by the fork.

Or possibly disgusted. Either way is good. 😁

There were some naturally-occurring caves, but also the following:

• Some eldritch horrors sleeping in the deepest caverns beneath the city who act as a “lodestone” for evil creatures, compelling them to come here.
• An ancient cleric once attempted to build a massive vault here as a safe depository for evil artifacts. He became corrupted by them, and turned into the first Evil Overlord.
• Much later on, a second Evil Overlord appeared who wanted the secrets of the first Evil Overlord. He expanded the caves and turned them into his military headquarters for his conquering horde of monsters.
• There was also a major dwarf hold here at some point before they abandoned it.
• There is an entire drow city deep beneath the surface.
• Assorted other groups of monsters keep showing up and making themselves at home.
• Oh, and the current incarnation of the city has been built on top of this, which includes a massive sewer system that is gradually breaking down from lack of maintenance.

The whole dungeon system has developed over the course of more than 8,000 years. The general inclination of the citizens above is to wall off any entrances they find, and otherwise let adventurers deal with it. (This is another unique aspect about this city - it’s the only one on the continent which has a professional class of adventurers.)

As for the Thieves’ Guild, they tend to grease a lot of palms in the city watch, so they don’t have to worry much from law enforcement unless they do something too blatant. However, there is a new criminal organization which is giving them a lot of trouble, and there are a lot of adventurers around, so they do have reasons to take their security seriously.

The guild have mages in their employ who could help with magical security, but none of them is present in this safe house.

The main headquarters are elsewhere, but the guild maintains lesser safehouses in most districts of the city.

But you are right, I haven’t put much thought into whether this is a hub for activities or a place to lay low. I’d say it’s primarily the former.

The city of Ptolus has a long and convoluted backstory, and is known across much of the continent as “that weird city with all the dungeons and adventurers”. Suffice to say, there are reasons why the region attracts all kinds of supernatural creatures, and there were many, many different groups of people and creatures who expanded these dungeons.

If you like the whole concept of “dungeon delving mixed with city adventures”, I can highly recommend Ptolus. Few do it better, or more exhaustively.

The closest I can think of is the “Earn Income” downtime activity, but that’s not exactly the same as what you pay NPCs.