Tarcion

It is truly a blessing for the times I torture my players with a 4 hour boss fight which was, of course, preceded by 1.5 hours of them being indecisive at the magic shop.

Having run and participated in a few multi-year games with busy adults with children, my absolutely unsolicited advice for anyone wondering how to do the same is the following:

1. Run the game online. I still like in-person better but you cannot underestimate how much logistical burden is removed by allowing folks to log in and jump on mic/video. I recommend FoundrtVTT - no subscription and it has support for a ton of different systems, particular shout out for the masterpiece that is it's PF2e support.

2. Get more players. This seems counter-intuitive since that is more points of scheduling conflict. However, what you do if you want to run a 4-person game is get like 6 players. If at least 3 or 4 can make it, have the game. The PCs whose players can't make it just fade into the background and can reappear next session. Sounds weird but it keeps things moving. You'll get a feel for balancing encounters based on who shows up the most and will get better at that.

3. Run shorter sessions. I feel like I see a lot of posts about people running 4+ hour sessions and when we do get in person, we do that. But for week-to-week games, that is a significant commitment. I know for our group we keep them 7:30pm-10pm with some understanding that the first 15 minutes is usually time spent letting delayed people show up and going over what happened last time (good opportunity to give out inspiration/hero points). A rushed hour-and-half session is still better than a canceled session.

4. Talk to your players. I think this supercedes the above but just chat with people to see what can work. I mentioned our start time of 7:30 but if people are not able to start that early, we'll postpone to 8 or even 8:30 that night. That comes from communication. Check in with each other periodically to see if there should be other times considered. Essentially, focus on what works for your table. Be flexible, allow folks to miss a bunch of games consecutively if needed. Make sure it's a fun thing and not an obligation.

All that being said, if people aren't engaged in the game or that interested in playing, there's not really anything you can or should do about that aside from find other players.

This was my thought as well. Pretty sure I already have all of that turned off but I would have done that as part of the install and brief customizing of the UI. Can't say I ever used a guide or anything, or even considered it unusual for modern software.

Ah, that likely explains it. I know when installing I hit "no" on anything that sounds remotely marketing related and I turned off search and weather because they just don't add any value and I like a clean screen. So I think the only ads I get are the small, unobtrusive ones on the lock screen, which I can't say I'm bothered by in the slightest. I barely even notice them since it isn't like I stare at the lock screen.

I'm so confused by the ads thing. I don't think I've noticed any since upgrading to Win 11. Are they only on certain editions or something?

Yeah. Unpopular opinion, I know, but I really like alignment. It's pretty easy to say "puts self above others" = evil and "puts others before self" = good.

My quick version of law v chaos is "puts societal structure above individual freedom" = law and "puts individual freedom above societal structure".

Feels like a framework closer to how people actually behave and doesn't invite in-party conflict.

This feels like apples to oranges. I think the only time I've seen people comparing number of classes between the systems has been 5e and PF2e. I'm fairly certain PF1 has more classes than 3.5e, though it's been too long since I've played either.

And to each their own but I much prefer PF2e over 3.5, and much preferred 3.5 over 5e. Didn't play white enough PF1 to slot it in but it was pretty consistent with 3.5.

Agreed. I would feel terrible about it if I didn't just grab all my art from google/pinterest before AI.

I totally agree. That's why I put "rules light" in quotes. Any any given moment there aren't a ton of rules to know but there are a lot of rules to cover a lot of those different moments, if that makes sense.

I recently picked up Midnight Suns which, to be very clear is not FFT. However, I will say despite the kind of bad story and corny aspects of it, the actual turn based combat is excellent. I thought I would hate it being card-based but it really grew on me a lot. Definitely scratched the FFT itch.

It can be a huge problem. Thankfully, I've been using midjourney for character art for a little over a year now. It's nice. No porn or porn-adjacent art needed. Not that I have a problem with it, I just don't need it in my tabletop game.

Blades is great! Switched to Blades/FitD from 5e for a change of pace. We really enjoyed it but eventually switched again to PF2e for some crunchier combat and character building.

But I do think Blades is my favorite "rules light" system I've tried. Works really well for TotM but still has enough crunch to feel like a game.