Pf2e is a different system mechanically and setting wise than dnd 3.x, and this unfortunately got even worse with hasbro tried to flip the table on the OGL. That caused paizo to create their own irrevocable license and strip all ogl content from their future books now called pf2e remastered. I’m not sure your 3.x stuff would be of much use there without needing to convert things yourself.

But 3.x as i understand it was more closely aligned with pf1e. There might be some compatibility there but i never played 3.x or pf1 so I’m not sure

But… BUT… hear me out… all of the pf2e game rules, character options, and monster statblocks are available for free on archives of nethys, an official site so no high seas sailing.

Game setting info beyond some basic blurbs in those rulebooks are not published online for free, but those aren’t needed if you want to homebrew your own setting. Prewritten adventures also aren’t typically available for free, but a few are released from free rpgday . And they also have their version of adventuerers league (called pathfinder society) which you can get those adventures to run for free if you go through a participating game store (or convince a game store to participate).

All that is to say its pretty low risk to try it out.

And if you’re open to spending some money the beginner box is exceptional-- uses real rules and introduces rules to the GM and player when necessary. Available physical box, digital download, or in virtual tabletops

Two big things I love:

• Three action system: every “activity” (strike, stride, cast a spell, etc) has an action cost. On a standard turn, your character gets 3 actions to spend on those various activities. This obviates the need for DnD’s rules about spending a whole turn running since you can just spend multiple actions striding.

• Keyword system: PF2e leans more onto standardized keywords and uses them appropriately. Everything (all actions, weapons, items, even statuses) has a set of traits that (usually) briefly explains how the thing acts. It allows for standardized templates for interactions between different elements of the game. This takes a HUGE burden off the GM during game play, esp for modules that weren’t written to think about each other. All the examples I can think of would take several pages to explain, but you can look up some things on Easy Tools and see their traits.

Bonus thing I love: all the rules are openly published, leading to TONS of extra tools that just make the game easier to run. (That said you should buy a set of books to help the publishers after you’ve been converted).

Meanwhile, non D&D players are like: they’re the same picture.

Not really, PF2E is its own system that is in the D20 family but no longer directly compatible with 3.X. However, since encounter balancing is easy, if you want to convert 3.X adventures to PF2E the work is pretty simple.

No, but it is much improved and streamlined

I wish GURPS had taken off more.

As a GM i love the balance. Martial-caster balance is overall pretty good. Player options across the board seem fairly well balanced. And as a GM i love that the creatures/hazards are all balanced as well. They have this whole set of easy to use guidelines on how to build an encounter based on the party level and how challenging you want it to be. I don’t have to keep throwing monsters at the party to see what sticks, i can instead craft an encounter in a minute and know pretty darn well how tough it will be for the party. I cannot express to you how amazing that feels to take the guess work out of things. It makes my party going off the rails easier to manage because i can create fun and challenging encounters on the fly

I don’t know if I agree that all classes are good.

Oracle and Gunslinger have always (at least in my mind) seemed to be overly weak. Like, Gunslinger seems like if should be a high damage output class, but lack of Dex to Damage really seems to hinder him from being a hard hitter. Lol, not to mention, guns just feel really weak.

For Oracle, her curse seems a major downside without a compensating upside (at least until late levels; haven’t built one above lv 5).

I’d love to hear counterpoints of anyone has any.

To be clear, 95% agree with your takes though.

I was curious about this some years back.

Are there any published materials on how to run a game in a GURPS system?

but lack of Dex to Damage really seems to hinder him from being a hard hitter.

This is offset by nearly every firearm having the lethal trait, where on a crit their damage dice increase in size and they get an addition damage die.

The class is built around crit-fishing, and it works well. Granted, it gets hard to reliably crit higher-level enemies, but that’s easily offset by the party working together

Wait, your party works together??

Wish mine did that.

So much

GURPS Worldbook Index

(www.sjgames.com)

Hey everyone has their preferences but these posts gatekeeping what’s called an ttrpg always confuse me. And I’m even more confused by choosing to call it a video game. But you do you. Pf1 wasn’t a fun system to me ‍️

I’m a gunslinger in one of the games I play in, and yeah, I don’t do barbarian numbers, but I hold my own, and it is a FUN class to play. I built a dual-wielder with the hopes that it would play like Han Solo running down the hallway shooting back at stormtroopers, and it delivers.

Plus, being 60 feet away means that I can help everyone do damage at once. It makes the party happy, too.

Is it still compatible with all the money I wasted on 3.x Hasbro D&D?

While technically the answer is “no”, people who emphasize the difference don’t apply the “Rule of Cool” as liberally as I did.

I re-used all kinds of D&D 3rd Edition resources while switching to Pathfinder.

Sure, we absolutely shouldn’t just dogmatically use the numbers given in a 3E book with Pathfinder.

But I didn’t find it terribly hard to whip up Pathfinder monster and NPC number adjustments based on my 3E source books, more or less on the fly.

Many numbers given are close enough. Most abilities are easy enough to convert in a way that is fun. The Challenge Rating isn’t tuned as carefully, but i find the usual GM toolkit can address that. For example, throwing in a few extras baddies from over the hilldside can scale an encounter up, and awarding the players various story advantages “for good role playing” can scale an encounter’s challenge down.

If my napkin translation went too badly, I threw “Rule of Cool” at it, and just made sure the players were still having fun.

I will say, I relegated 3E stuff to filler encounters, just as I do with anything else I homebrew.

I don’t mind being on my GM toes for a quick encounter, or a short story arc. But I don’t like having something poorly balanced have a recurring role in my campaigns.

All to say I have used 3E source books liberally in my Pathfinder campaigns, and I’m not sure any of my players have ever noticed.

3.x was not some perfect, untouchable version of the game rules. PF2e isn’t either, but acting like 3.x is this finely-tuned specimen of the game is ludicrous. That game was janky.

If you like the game (and I did!), that’s fine! If you like the jank (and I did not), that’s also fine. But don’t act like 2e isn’t worth your consideration just because it’s a different game. It sounds just as ridiculous as refusing to consider a SNES because you poured “all this money” into an NES. Just say “eh, I like what I’ve got, it’s enough for me” and move on.

Re: oracle

Being a divine spontaneous caster fucks; your entire spell list is Heal if you need it, and literally anything else if you don’t. And trading a spell/day and slightly smaller repertoire for some extra durability is generally worth it in my experience.

Also Divine Access means you can pretty much pick whatever spells you want, and more as more gods come out or you and your GM make some more.

I liked the focus spells more back when battle oracles weren’t hit with the nerf bat and could literally just be the juggernaut whenever they got cursed

That does seem like a big upside!

GURPS Lite is available for free, and includes the basic rules on how to do things, combat, etc. It doesn’t include the introductory “What is a GM?” stuff to save space; though that does show up in the Basic Set. You can extrapolate quite a lot from just what’s in Lite - a lot of the stuff in even the Basic Set that’s not in Lite is corner cases (how far can I jump? What can I shift or drag, instead of lifting?), clarifications (how long does it take me to dig a hole?)… and lots more skills and abilities!

Mook has some very basic combat examples worked through here

In a little different vein, Feral Sword Wielding Wizard has some fight scenes from movies he’s gone through and labeled with GURPS combat maneuvers, so you can see how they work! (Just keep in mind this is with a bunch of optional rules!)

Game setting info beyond some basic blurbs in those rulebooks are not published online for free, but those aren’t needed if you want to homebrew your own setting.

There’s a caveat: there’s some extra character options in the APs, and not all of them are covered in Archives of Nethys. I had a new player join in on the Gatewalkers campaign I’m running and spent feats to pick up Verdant Core deviant abilities, which aren’t on the site.

Granted, the root cause was Pathbuilder not having any filter for which deviant feats a player can take, but not having it on Archives of Nethys or my physical copies of Dark Archive and Gatewalkers made it so much harder to unfuck