I’m thinking about having the penalties start at level 2 instead of level 4. So Grazed would start at hp 75% or lower with -2 penalties. The second penalty, Wounded at 50% would kick in at level 4 (-4 penalty), and the third, Critical, would kick in at level six (with -6 penalty).

This is harder on spellcasters though, because a -2 penalty to attack at level 2 is going to reduce their BAB to -1, and their effective caster level to 0, so they can only cast cantrips once their health drops below 75%. Of course a spellcaster is likely to die in two to three hits anyway at level 2, so they’re going to be trying to stay out of combat already.

At that rate, I may as well just have the first penalty start at level 1, since level 2 with less than 75% health is arguably worse than level 1 with no chance of penalty. So maybe I should just say the penalties kick in at 1, 3, and 5. This would also mean that full BAB characters could have a -1 BAB at level 1, level 3, and level 5 if they have the maximum penalty I grant at that level.

Still, better than just starting at with all penalties at level 1, since one hit can put a character under 25% health pretty easy at level 1.

I guess it’s time for me to start compiling my Starfinder 1e shopping list. I have the Core Rulebook, but that’s it.

Making them wait until level 4 to start seeing penalties seems a long time to go without. I’d like to introduce it earlier, but I don’t want to do so in a way that seems too punishing at the low levels when every +1 is very significant. I’ll have to think about it some more.

Instead of gaining +1 ability point, could just gain +0.5 modifier, with fractions rounding down on rolls. That would require that people spend two of them in the same ability to see a mechanical benefit though.

I ran my (P1e) game in a game store for years so I recruited there. I actually had a huge turn-over of players because people wanted to try it then didn’t stick with it. One session had 11 players because everyone that was interested was interested THAT DAY for some reason. Next session was down to eight, then we settled on seven basically until the store went under.

I occasionally get someone referred to me, but it’s rare. I scout anyone and everyone that even hints at playing TTRPG, though I don’t necessarily recruit them if it’s obvious we don’t want to play the same game or same style of game. (I’ll certainly invite people who play mechanically adjacent games though as long as they’re interested in the same style of game.)

I just had a player inform me today that he’s not going to be available to rejoin the campaign for at least a year, if at all, so I’m probably going to be visiting the local game store to try recruitment there. I may need to run some one-shots at the store or something to get people interested in my game since it’s presently a home game and I don’t want to move back to a game store (too much stuff to move as I use a lot of materials). I have one guy I might try to recruit as a player as well, as I was introduced to him as someone who could help him with exposure to the system a few years ago. His schedule doesn’t seem open enough to join a regular game though.

When I first started playing, I played my first D&D3.5e game with people I met through meetup. This was back in 2004. Meetup might still be an option though.

I would not be above online recruiting but I only run face-to-face games, and I’m in Charleston, WV so it’s rare that I’m in online groups with anyone within a two hour drive outside of Facebook. Facebook is an option, of course.

I also am not above trying to convert friends and family, though my immediate family has made it abundantly clear that they’re not interested. I had an old friend in my previous campaign for awhile but I’m pretty sure he would have rather gone out to dinner, watched a movie, or played some video games, so he didn’t stick around.

Really, I’d recruit just about anywhere. I’d not be above recruiting strangers that I just heard mention TTRPGs, though I might be more discerning with a home game than when I was running the game at a game store.

Thanks. I’ll post some of my P1e stuff in the next few days and see how it goes.

I’ve never been a Reddit user, but I’m interested in giving Lemmy a shot and I was excited to see a dedicated Pathfinder instance, so thanks for that! I’m active on Mastodon (dice.camp) so I love that I can follow “communities” and users of Lemmy and have them show in my Mastodon feed. Then I don’t have to check as many sites directly.

I look forward to the success of pathfinder.social.