2021 in Review: Articles
It’s hard for me to talk about my accomplishments (or even admit that my work are accomplishments), but I know how important it is for me to take some time to just sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labors. Last year I wrote a review on 2020, feeling like I’ve progressed my career by leaps and bounds; And yet this year I feel like I’ve outdone myself, which only makes 2022 feel all the more daunting. I’m going to separate my accomplishments into multiple posts (which will also help give time for certain products to be announced/released wink-wink), starting with Articles!
I’m not going to list every KD article I wrote in 2020. You can find them here. Instead, I’m going to write those that had special meaning and impact for me, excluding those that fall better in another category.
In my three part “Fight Like a Fox” series I showed off some cards to help remind people of how combat maneuvers work in Pathfinder 2e, and discussed some feats focused around these maneuvers and imparting these conditions, and posted my “fluffy tail” build from this very blog, adapted for Pathfinder 2e! The fluffy tail build was one of those articles I just had to write!
We all love free archetypes. I’m proud to have been one of the early champions of the system, and now I struggle to play Pathfinder Second Edition without free archetypes! I also included some variant rules of my own: Campaign Specific Archetypes, Campaign Specific Base Classes, and Odd-Level Archetype feats.
Rating familiars was fun. I had no idea the Pipefox was going to be in Grand Bazaar when I posted this!
Making a chart that showed the energy resistances/weaknesses of Bestiary 1, 2, & 3 really helped give me some insights into how the different types of damages are commonly handled, and helps me think about future monster design niches!
If I could get everyone to read one of my articles, this would be it. I spent so long making this article, and it felt like a bucket-list accomplishment when I was done, but it kind of fell flat. I do understand that theory crafting game mastery styles is hyper-niche…so I don’t think the article was poorly written. Just not the kind of thing people want.
The bubble alchemist was really fun to write; I love player-facing abilities like this that don’t seem to serve any practical purpose but scream “build around me” or even “break me”! They tend to lead to very memorable play experiences!
This series of articles was a huge success. The first was about how much damage Level >+3 monsters deal to PCs and how to adjust the encounters to make them more fun, but still a challenge and the second was about how hard it is to damage higher level threats. I would love to do a third on using hazards, mooks, and adjustment saves for spell casters, but there’s been very little demand and so much other stuff to talk about.
This article marks the time where I started focusing on third party products to help support creatives during the work stoppage, and I’m grateful such an incredible product as the Zoomer was around to motivate me to become an advocate for 3pp works. Given this article inspired a friend to buy the book and use the class in two different adventure paths, I consider this article a success!
I had a couple more updates to the Summon-Dex this year, which were as popular as ever. I thought I was done when I finished Bestiary 3; I didn’t expect Paizo to publish new Summon Spells, at least now this soon!
This was another bucket list rant, describing the best way to incorporate traps in dungeons. I love using traps as a designer, but I hate seeing them used poorly as a GM and player.
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