The idea was to have some kind of urgency but only once the players were far enough to understand the basics of what was going on. To that end, the date was supposed to be vague so that the GM was free to say "you figured out that the ritual will happen right after summer ends – which is in less than a week".

Then he forgot that the timeframe was vague when I wrote the letter and told me to pick a date.

Unfortunately, this cut out a side plot where our party would've hired another party to hunt down some artifact. That artifact retroactively got downgraded to a red herring for time reasons.

On the other hand, we got an absolutely precious scene where the one party member who wasn't magic-affine and didn't want to be involved with any supernatural stuff had to ride an unnaturally fast six-legged half-demon horse in order to catch up with the bad guys.

Also, it cut down on all the "three wizards and a vintner have breakfast and discuss the state of the investigation" episodes. We had a lot of those.

What metal is the crown made of?

The spell only works on iron and iron-heavy alloys. An advanced version of the spell exists but the players don't have it yet.

the real crown was the XP we collected along the way

I hate this take a lot, I'm gonna be honest. I don't care if his game is so on rails that it's set on the fucking orient express. As long as the players are having fun with the game, and the GM is having fun with the game.. that's a good GM.

Yes, exactly. Consistency is important, because it builds and reinforces trust. The GM just saying "nah" is the other side of the player showing up with a homebrew bullshit build.

I get a lot of pushback from the Pathfinder 2e subreddit for promoting the idea that the system is really great for character-driven, fiction-first tables, because everyone just looks at the number of rules and goes "it's so obviously a gameist system, why would you ever try to run it as anything else?", and the answer is it's a fantastic physics system. The rules provide clarity and consistency where it's really useful or important, and are easily ignorable where it doesn't matter.

So a player that told you from beginning what he wants to do, which doesnt fit into your story, should they be forbiden to participate?

We once skipped an entire chapter of "Out of the abyss" by saying "nope!" and running out of the city!

The DM introduced all the factions in the city, we realized they were all conspiring against each other, and they all asked of us to collaborate with them (against the others)... Instead, we stole a ship in the night and sailed away!

Only afterwards the DM told us it means we skipped a full chapter he had worked hard to prepare!

I haven't played Pathfinder. Next time I pick up epic fantasy, I think I'd like to give it a shot.

Technically, rust can only occur on iron-heavy metals and alloys. Otherwise it's just called oxidation.

The difference with "rust" is that rust will eat into the metal and change its shape, while oxydation only changes the surface color and texture.

Edit: yeah... Rust is a specific type of oxydation, it wasn't really clear from my comment. What I wanted to say is that rust implies the material is iron-based!

DM: Scribbles a note "Without the rust it seems like a serviceable crown, but not too fancy."

Note to lost heir: "You see the crown and you think as it... looks at you. This should be your crown. You wants it. They shouldn't keep it from you. Steals it, hides it, it came here for you".

DM: "Probably worth some gold."

....

A) this makes no sense to describe as railroading, apparently finding anything plot or backstory related is railroading?

B & C) Players not doing what a dm expects isn't railroading. If the dm then turned around and said "no you don't do that" or decides to make it impervious to prestidigitation, that might fit the definition.

Railroading is removing player agency and not giving players choices. Players just doing something unexpected that throws you for a loop? That's called DMing.

You've triggered my trap card. I'm going to do the special interest info-dump now. Apologies in advance.

It's good. It's written a little weird -- it uses inheritance, like computer programming, which can be a little more difficult to wrap you head around than it needs to be if you're not at least a little familiar with coding, and it's written as if it's doing everything possible to shut down rules lawyers, so whatever doesn't read like API documentation reads a bit like legalese -- but the actual system is nice.

It's highly balanced, which is an awful word that its fanbase doesn't seem to understand, but it means that it totally shuts down winning in character creation, and shifts the power game to one of tactics rather than build. The result is that much of the discussion about the game treats it as if it's exclusively a tactical combat game (because most discussing the game are crypto-power-gamers), rather than a fantasy RPG, and the most enthusiastic players push back hard against any kind of reframing. But it has a ton of support fo roleplay focused tables, and it pares down easily for casual tables.

Plus, you know, it's free! And it's fairly easy to convert from 3.x/PF1, meaning that there's a whole generation of content out there for it beyond first party offerings, for just a little more effort than standard prep.

I'm extremely naive when it comes to tabletop RPGs

Is there any kind of "plot says no" response to magic? Something like the doors in oblivion where you need a key to unlock

You've triggered my trap card. I'm going to do the special interest info-dump now. Apologies in advance.

It's good. It's written a little weird -- it uses inheritance, like computer programming, which can be a little more difficult to wrap you head around than it needs to be if you're not at least a little familiar with coding, and it's written as if it's doing everything possible to shut down rules lawyers, so whatever doesn't read like API documentation reads a bit like legalese -- but the actual system is nice.

It's highly balanced, which is an awful word that its fanbase doesn't seem to understand, but it means that it totally shuts down winning in character creation, and shifts the power game to one of tactics rather than build. The result is that much of the discussion about the game treats it as if it's exclusively a tactical combat game (because most discussing the game are crypto-power-gamers), rather than a fantasy RPG, and the most enthusiastic players push back hard against any kind of reframing. But it has a ton of support fo roleplay focused tables, and it pares down easily for casual tables.

Plus, you know, it's free! And it's fairly easy to convert from 3.x/PF1, meaning that there's a whole generation of content out there for it beyond first party offerings, for just a little more effort than standard prep.

Technically, rust can only occur on iron-heavy metals and alloys. Otherwise it's just called oxidation.

The difference with "rust" is that rust will eat into the metal and change its shape, while oxydation only changes the surface color and texture.

Edit: yeah... Rust is a specific type of oxydation, it wasn't really clear from my comment. What I wanted to say is that rust implies the material is iron-based!

You forgot the most important part: it isn't owned by Hasbro! Even if it didn't have any of the advantages it does over 5e, this alone would be huge.

This is not true. Oxidation is a broad type of chemical reaction involving the loss of electrons. Rust is a type of oxidation, much as a square is a type of rectangle. Oxidation can occur on the surface level (tarnishing of some metals, passivation of aluminum) or throughout (combustion). Rust actually only occurs on the surface as well, but the iron oxide is less dense than the metal and it increases the available area of the surface exposed to oxygen.

Well, not quite. Rust eats into iron because oxidised iron is larger and much more brittle than unoxidised iron, physically ripping itself out of place.

Many oxides arent that much larger than their base metals and form a nice patina protecting the metal underneath, like in aluminium.

Other oxides destroy the structural integrity of the metal and eat into it, forming corrosion. Rust is just corrosion specific to iron.

Yeah... Reading back my comment, it was badly written... I know rust is a type of oxydation, but that's not what I wrote!