I learned that my players will break any kind of logic puzzle in ten second flat, but can't decipher a simple investigative clue to save their own life.
I was baffled at how much guidance I have to give them towards unraveling the mystery. I don't know if I'm not that good at engaging their interests, if my clues are too obscure, of if they are simply not that perspective. They sure are creative with how they tackle problems tho, their shenanigans are hilarious
I have a pet project I periodically come back at with a EU-funded counterpart to Delta Green, where operatives are agents of various national organizations (e.g. local police forces, intelligence, militaries etc) or super-national orgs (e.g. Europol, Interpol, although these usually do not have actual jurisdiction nor power of arrest). It's true that different countries have no actual power over each others territories, but they also often collaborate on cross-borders operations. It would not be weird for a Spanish detective to be working a case in Paris together with an Italian carabiniere, under the badge of a French gendarme.
Access to weapons is actually an interesting push towards being creative in finding unofficial ways of arming themselves, but I wouldn't stress it too much. We might not have handguns for sale near the pasta isle at the supermarket, but it's not like we don't have gunshops.
I always give everyone who participates in the initial recap an extra Hero Point. Never seen players being so eager to remember last week's shenanigans.
Sure but Pathfinder 2E is explicitly about teamwork and positioning. One archer will not be able to hit the death knight unless it's very lucky (which IMHO makes sense), but an archer supported by some melee fighters flanking the knight and giving them some off-guard malus has way better odds. "Every +1 matters" is true for both the party and the NPCs
I understand heroic fantasy not being your cup of tea, that's the beauty of having lots of RPGs to choose from. But beware of thinking that bounded accuracy makes things more gritty. In my experience it just makes things more heroic for the party (which can now take down a dragon at level 2) and just breaks down after the first dozen levels
Either you send mega-goblins, or you send MORE goblins.
A lower level party might fight 3 goblins fair and square, so 4 levels later they confront 6 goblins and 2 lieutenants.
The idea that the same enemy stays a challenge despite the level increase is actually what I despise in D&D. My character has grown in power, why is the rat from the beginning still able to down me?
In terms of wargames (tabletop games where you control armies of miniatures against your opponent to score objectives and points), Warhammer is the most mainstream, 40K for the sci-fantasy version and Age of Sigmar for the more Tolkienian fantasy one. But I recently got into Star Wars Legion and boy is it a fun game. If you like the setting, Legion is highly recommended.
In terms of pure boardgames, my favourite ones miniature-wise are Bloodborne and Mansions of Madness.